Estimated release date for a supported Linux Scrivener?

Scrivener Scrivener on Linux (Unofficial)
1

I love Scrivener and I work on Linux Mint. I’m not a “computer person” so I’ve struggled with the beta version. I’ve had it working on Mint 16, but when I upgraded to Mint 17 last week I hosed everything. I ended up having to re-install everything - without Scrivener - because I came to the conclusion I don’t want to be wasting time dinking with my computer, at the expense of my time that should be devoted to writing.

I’m DEFINITELY wanting to come back to using Scrivener someday because I love the software. It has been perfect for me on Windows, but I’m not using Windows now. I’ll be back to Scrivener when they have a supported version that a dummy like me can use.

Is there a rough estimate of when a supported Linux version may be available? Is this something that is even going to happen someday? If so, is there a general timeline (a year, a couple years)?

2

This morning I began putting my most recent manuscript into LibreOffice to edit :frowning:
It’s a bummer for sure, but it works, albeit it’s a pain compared to working in Scrivener. But it works.

I’ve Googled to find a Linux equivalent of Scrivener and got a number of options, but didn’t know if there was a recommendation from you folks here who have used Scrivener, and like it - for a supported Linux book writing software. I understand it won’t be as good as Scrivener. But is there anything that is better than doing the LibreOffice option? If not, then that’s okay. I’ll just keep doing the LibreOffice thing until Scrivener releases a supported Linux version.

3

My experiences (a wasteland littered with breakage and loss):

Major distro upgrades (ie, version 16 to 17) requires reinstallation of everything. Major headache. And if you don’t have a separate “home” partition, you also have to backup and reinstall ALL of your personal files. Linux geeks seem to grow tall and robust on this process of endless rebuilding.

Hence, the concept of the “LTS” distro, or “long term support” version which basically means, install it and forget it for a few years, and update it only with security/bug patches. This means the installed apps grow old and stale, but at least they don’t get borked and broken with updates. You’ll be running version 3.5.x of LibreOffice while the brave and fearless forge ahead with version 4.x.x.

The best compromise is a “rolling” release which makes incremental updates to your installation, but since (in the case of Debian linux) means there is also a chance of something not well tested borking your install. It happens.

A few distros (in particular, a forked version of Linux Mint Debian Edition, called SolydXK) pre-test their update packages prior to release which greatly reduces the borkage factor. I think this is a major advance in distro/package handling.

That said, as soon as Scrivener 1.7.1 is released as a .deb package, grab it. Maybe switch over to a “rolling release” Debian-based distro for long-term stability. Time will be freed up for writing.

As for a Linux equivalent of Scrivener? No … I’ve searched everywhere, and tried many alternatives. There is nothing even remotely close. My alternate solution is based on text files with editors such as Gedit or Geany, and markdown format/conversion with ReText (a fantastically useful editing/preview app.) A folder-based file system in the side-pane of Gedit or Geany allows “project” manipulation and handling & assembly into scenes and chapters, but this is not even a scratch on the surface of Scrivener.

Scrivener 1.7.1 is a major advance and the linux version will be hugely useful.

I hope this note is a candle in the darkness.
Gray

4

I deeply appreciate your information regarding both Linux and Scrivener 1.7.1 being worth another shot. You convinced me to give Scrivener on Linux another try when 1.7.1 is released. Thank you VERY much for the information.

5

I just wanted to add my thoughts to those of Graybyrd. I tried Mint Debian edition when it was first released and loved the idea of a “rolling release”. In reality it was a total nightmare for me. Twice when there was a major update my system ended up being trashed and I had to rebuild from scratch. I decided it was worth the effort to install an LTS version and look after it.
I don’t know of anything that could replace Scrivener; it’s fantastic, isn’t it?
Saying that, you might find some useful stuff on my site here:http://thewritingmaven.weebly.com. In particular, have a look at Focuswriter. It’s a word processor without the clutter and it uses ODT file formats (I think) so you can alternate with LibreOffice Writer if you want to.

I hope some of that helps.

Mark B

6

Mint 17 is a LTS release.

I’ve got Scrivener running on Mint 17, although i haven’t really used it much there as my main machine is a Hackintosh with the Mac version.

For some reason the graphical package manager crashes when trying to install Scrivener, so you’ll need to do it via command line (pretty simple).

Step 1:
Download the .deb from here.

For the 32bit version of Mint 17

Step 2:
Open the Terminal and copy & paste the following:

sudo dpkg -i Downloads/scrivener-1.6.1.1-beta.deb
sudo apt-get install libaspell-dev

This will install both Scrivener and libaspell-dev (required for a working spelling checker).

If you’re running the 64bit version of Mint 17

Step 2:
Open the Terminal and copy & paste the following:

sudo dpkg -i Downloads/scrivener-1.6.1.1-beta.deb
sudo apt-get install libgstreamer-plugins-base0.10-0:i386 libstdc++6:i386
sudo apt-get install libfontconfig1:i386 libXext6:i386 libXrender1:i386

This will get Scrivener up and running but without spelling checking or support for multimedia files.

Hopefully a 64bit version of Scrivener for Linux will eventually be released, solving this problem.

Hope that helps.

7

This worked!
Thank you very much. I now have 1.6.1.1-beta.deb running on Mint 17 64-bit Cinnamon version. Your post instructions were easy to follow, and it was comforting to have information on my specific Linux OS. I’ve been struggling for a couple weeks trying to get Scrivener to work (and had to reinstall Linux countless times when I got everything totally screwed up on my computer). Thanks for helping me. I appeciate it.

8

Middling, you are my hero. This morning when I got up to do my morning work on my manuscript, I was able to use Scrivener again. This was the only program I truly needed to work, to be free of Windows. Now I have it working and I can’t thank you enough.

Ha. I just finished my morning manuscript work with my beloved Scrivener…I’m vacationing on a small Caribbean island (Barbados) sitting on my porch overlooking the ocean…sipping my morning coffee, enjoying the ocean breeze. Life is good again :slight_smile: