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WeatherBug finally shows some penguin love
Posted by BostonPeng on 9 May 2008
When I was a Windows user one of the apps that I loved was the WeatherBug. There are some Linux tools for getting weather information, but none of them rise to the level of information provided by WeatherBug. but now I find out that WeatherBug is adding a Linux version to their Mac and Windows offerings.
On the Linux side I of course found the GNOME Weather Forecast panel applet, but while I can bet Boston weather information I can’t get Malden information, which is where I want weather info for. Plus it has some of the ugliest data presentation I’ve seen in Linux. I also use the Weather Applet for Avant Windows Navigator, but while it has readings for Malden I can’t get all of the info I want like the RealFeel. Plus there are multiple weather Screenlets and gDesklets and who knows how many others. But it’s still not the WeatherBug.
Cue DesktopLinux.com, which published a story about the Click ‘N Run (CNR) service now supporting Linux Mint and adding the WeatherBug to it’s repos. WeatherBug? For Linux? [Blink] Sure enough my eyes weren’t deceiving me. WeatherBug has finally smartened up and has a Linux version in beta. Of course I really don’t want to install CNR just to be able to install the Bug, but after Googling it I found the official page for the beta of WeatherBug for Linux. There are packages all ready for installation for Debian and Red Hat users, so all I had to do was to download the Debian .deb file and install it, then run Applications > Accessories > WeatherBug and after changing a few settings and adding a radar Buglet I was able to take this screenshot (with the help of GnomeDo, which was a lot easier than the old way).
If you loved WeatherBug for Windows or Mac, or simply want to find a desktop weather tool that may work better for you than any other you’ve used, you should definitely check out WeatherBug for Linux. The best part? I’m not seeing any ads! Windows users can’t say that. :p*
* Sorry, I just couldn’t resist that.
Matt Hartley said
Thrilled you like it, the developers worked their butts off on it and I am still promoting everything. Thanks, this blog post really rocks!
Peng said
Thanks for the comment. Nanci and I have worked pretty hard to try to make the blog worth visiting.
I am noticing what seems to be a memory leak with WB/Linux, but I’m going to post about that on the Bug’s forums today. (Actually it may have been from Amarok Nightly, but I’ll do some more checking today and post if I find something.)
Matt Hartley said
Peng: Which distro and version of Java are you running? I run this full time on Ubuntu 8.04 without issue? Firefox beta 3 on the other hand….wow, I hope they get that cleaned up! Yikes, if the crashing does not get ya the freezing certainly will.
Peng said
Matt, I’m running sun-java6 (version 6-06-0ubuntu1) without IcedTea (Java 7) installed. I haven’t had a lick of trouble with Java, even in Firefox 3 nightlies. Granted, I don’t use the Firefox 3 code found in the Ubuntu repos, I downloaded the tarball straight from Mozilla so there may be a bug that I’m simply not seeing.