Wednesday 12 June 2013

APIcalypse: The State of Twitter Clients on Linux

Sadly the native Linux version of my favourite Twitter client, Hotot, is unsupported and now not working, because Twitter have shut off API 1.0. I decided to use the Chrome app version instead which has meant that I've started running Firefox and Chrome at the same time just so I can use Hotot. On my laptop however that might be a struggle so I tried to use just Chrome on it's own, but I just can't put my finger on why I don't like using it. Perhaps it's the way some plugins feel like they are not integrated enough. When browsing I always seem to feel like I'm sort of on top of the web rather than in it. It's hard to explain, it's just a different feel.  Although Chrome is quite tidy in layout, once you install a lot of plugins there's a whole load of icons appear in the top right of the browser which clutter things up. Also I find Firefox's Awesome bar is better at suggestions and such than Chrome's URL bar. On the whole I just prefer using Firefox.

Several other Linux Twitter clients have also fallen in the APIcalypse, such as Polly and Turpial, which is a shame as they were both great clients. They apparently had plenty of time to prepare for the API 1.0 shutdown so what gives? This means I probably may not spent quite so much time on Twitter, though I do still have a good usable Twitter client on my Android devices, which is Plume. If anybody knows of a usable Linux native Twitter client that works now, please suggest one in the comments!




Update 13/06/13: I have discovered a fairly new native Twitter client called Birdie, it's a little lacking in configuration options at the moment but it mostly does what I need it to. One thing I'd like is a "reply all" option.  Also being in development, it is a little crashy!



Update 2!
I have found out to get Polly working again you need to install the latest builds from the Daily PPA. And it's stable, though I do find the default layout a little simplistic, I went into File and New Stream and added a Mentions stream. Also Search is not yet implemented either. For me, it's not as nice as Hotot was but it will have to do for now.