Buzzbird is an open-source desktop twitter application available on all major platforms – yes, including Linux!
Features
The feature-set covers pretty much everything one would want to do on twitter – bar twitpic integration (which apps like Qwit have if that’s essential) – but it is stable and earnest in its effort.
The main feature run-down (and i’m bound to miss someting out) looks a little like this: –
- Multiple Account Support
- Selective filter views (can choose Timeline, @mentions, direct mentions)
- Toggle compose field
- Retweet button on tweets
- Reply button on tweets
- Ability to unfollow contacts from within the application itself (button on tweets)
- Button to ‘love’ tweet
- button to ‘direct message’ on tweet
- URL Shortening via is.gd
- Menu to insert smiley characters in tweets (No, seriously!)
- Mark all tweets read / refresh tweets
- Read/Unread count in status bar
- Uses xulrunner to 1.9.1.4
- Click on a users avatar to see more information about them (see screenshot below)
UI
The developer describes Buzzbird as “a little rough around the edges” on the Linux platform and that is no overly-modest statement. Some of the menu’s fall out of line and the icons tend to look like they’ve been pulled from BeOS. I don’t the Linux version will be winning any awards for beauty – especially when up against other Linux Twitter applications such as the elegant Pino.
However, in a rather awesome stroke the developer does provide .psd’s for various icons and logos within the Buzzbird .tarball allowing any budding designer to step up to the plate and beautify this impressively promising application.
Future Features
I had a good old nose around the BuzzBird roadmap and the ‘to-do’ list pretty much made me drool onto my hi-tops.
Coming soon: –
- Themes
- Extensions
- Tabs
- Buttons along status bar for switching filter view
Download
BuzzBird is supplied in a measly old archive which it also runs from (once extracted).
- Download Buzzbird for Linux (right click here, save as)
- Extract the archive
- Inside the folder double-click on the diamond shaped file named ‘buzzbird’ to run it
Create a menu entry for BuzzBird
Let’s also create a menu entry for buzzbird and give it a pretty little icon.
- Right-click on the main menu and choose ‘Edit Menus’
- In the left-hand pane select ‘internet’
- Click on ‘new item’
- In the pop-up window type ‘Buzzbird’ in the name field
- For the command click ‘browse’ and navigate to the buzzbird folder.
- Choose ‘buzzbird’
- If you wish to use an icon in the menu click the square next to the entry fields in the pop-up
- Navigate to the buzzbird folder then chrome > content > images. Click open
- Choose an image from those presented
- When finished click OK and the menu entry will be present
Try it out and either tell us what you think via twitter (@omgubuntu) or via the comments below!
If you’re looking for native Linux twitter applications we reviewed 6 of them (Yes 6!) a few months back. You can find that review by clicking here.