Blogging with Drivel

I've been reading through the book "Ubuntu Hacks" by Jonathan Oxer, Kyle Rankin and Bill Childers where they recommend using Drivel as a blogging tool for use on Ubuntu Linux. Looking at some descriptions I found that it would work with Blogger so I decided to give it a try.

After using the Synaptic package manager to download and install Drivel it was immediately avialable under Applications->Internet->Drivel in the Gnome Application menu. Starting it brought up a configuration screen where I selected the account type, entered my username and password and it immediately downloaded my most recent blog entries. From there adding a post was just a matter of entering text and hitting "Post".

Testing Windows Live Writer

 

Microsoft recently announced the availability of a beta version of their Windows Live Writer and after a little investigation I found that it would work with Blogger, so I thought I'd give it a try.  The beta version comes in a single MSI which is easy to install. 

After installing the application you can start Windows Live Writer by selecting Start->AllPrograms->Windows Live Writer (Beta) through the Start menu on Windows.  The startup wizard offers to create a new account on MySpace or you can opt to use an existing service.  In my case I wanted to use Blogger so I selected an existing service.  After filling out a short form with the blog URL, username and password the wizard analyzed the service, editing style and setup Windows Live Writer to edit my blog.  After that it was just a matter of providing the text and pictures.