Google launched its new Desktop Search software for Linux and it looks like the widget below.
It searches only a few kind of files as of now, but then, Google Desktop never was the best in searching. But it sure gives a handy application to search the web quickly.
Download as [ DEB ] or [ RPM ]
Or if you wish to add Google’s Linux Software repository to your OS, look here.
But the thing with me is, I never really needed a search in my daily OS use. Over the past five years I’ve learned how to manage your files side by side as I work. Sure it was difficult at first, but when some friend of yours dumps about 500 songs on your HDD, you realize how painful tagging is. Yeah, I tagged them all manually (Right Click – Properties, Google for info) on Windows and then after I finished the 3 day work and arranged them well, with Album Art and all, I discovered that MusicBrainz did the same. Only, automatically. Haha, I felt like deleting the entire collection after I discovered the software.
It might be that I don’t really keep a lot of files, like documents and all. And even if I do, not for a long time. The only thing I start the Search applet or software of an OS is to find a system file or something hidden deep under the User Profile folders. But otherwise, I always know where my files are and never really have hassles searching them out.
Sorting music is now much easier, thanks to both Amarok and Windows Media Player 11 coming with automatic file tagging and Album Art downloads. My music folder is arranged in the Artist – Album – Files and Art way. Like the breadcrumb view below:
And though its arranged in such a way, its still obsolete cause these modern player libraries are beautifully sorted and very easy to use if your files are well tagged.
I don’t think anyone these days actually goes through the File Explorer and selects something to play. Its way easier in a library or a manager, can be sorted in a hundred different ways and all your files are accessible from your player itself, thus making playlists from them a cake.
So what am I getting at? Nothing, just saying that once tagged and categorized, your files are way easier to navigate through. But don’t categorize like /home/name/Documents/Office/June1 and /home/name/Documents/Office/June2 and so on. That’s just stupid and makes it more difficult to browse through. Instead just stop at the Office sub category and dump all files with proper descriptive names in it.
No one really listens to all this crap but if you actually keep categorizing and spending that extra few seconds in placing the saved file in the right folder with the right name, it makes retrieval way easier, and completely reduces your need on the search module of the OS which usually gives you a hard and dumb time searching. I mean, how innovative can a search get and be helpful to you when you simply don’t know what and where you seek.
And after the long off-topic blabber, I just wanna say that this GDS tool is quite heavy, just like Beagle is.
