Mint 21.1

 I know I know I still owe a World of Warships, Favorite ships part 2.  :)

I updated Mint today.  21.1 has made a number of changes (many under the hood and not really noticed).  Apparently they are preparing (at a low level) for more integration with Wayland.  But they also made some UI tweaks!  They tweaks are not bad, in general, but the new icons, while shaped well, are just plain old manilla with the highlight color as a diagonal stripe across the icon.  I don't like it.

You can 100% still change the icons to the old ones, or anything you prefer.  Then new highlight green color is much more vibrant than the old, so I switched my icons to Tela Green.  The color is almost a perfect match.

They also changed the default desktop icons, BUT... they allow you to still configure as you like, so I quickly switched that to the way I like it, and also changed my panel sizes to match what I had before.  Finally, I had to reinstall my applets.  No big deal, took seconds, and they worked fine.

So far 21.1 seems responsive and works well, as one would expect from Linux Mint.

Give me a break...

 I am so tired of the narratives:

Daughter of mixed Mexican and Puerto Rican parents, Ortega makes it very clear to her audience that she is proud of her heritage and grateful for having the opportunity to share her culture with the world. In a 2016 Pop Sugar interview, Jenna conveys that succeeding in the American film industry as a Latina was an uphill battle, throttled by subjective casting and strict ethnic guidelines followed in the early 2000s. Despite this difficulty, Ortega did not let cultural barriers and prejudice hinder her progress as a rising star.

What uphill battle?  How many children become actresses who have acted in multiple series and movies?

Such bullshit.

SerpentOS and Ikey

 I was a fan of Solus OS years ago.

Unfortunately the main driving force behind that distro suddenly "up and left."  He disappeared for quite awhile only to reappear announcing a "new linux OS" he was working on.

Now he is pushing how wonderful this new linux distro will be (and no doubt it WILL be wonderful) but ... when will he tire of this project?  When will he decide "oh I've had enough again" and drop it like a red hot coal?

This is often what makes or breaks a linux distro.  Solus has seen little development (or interest) in at least one, maybe two years now.  But for regular people who just want an OS they can be comfortable and rely on for years to come, this is what makes linux a difficult choice.  There is no stability.  About the only distros you can "count on" are debian and Ubuntu.  Right now any linux users/developers are angrily shaking their fist at me saying "then spin your own!" or "then contribute more!", etc.  Yes that is yet another issue.  The main support you find for any linux questions are in forums run by 20+ year old programmers or children who angrily attack you if you "ask a question that is could easily be resolved if you review the source code comments" or some such nonsense.

Face it: the linux eco-system is unprofessional and toxic.  On the other hand I do love linux, being somewhat of an OS connoisseur myself.  I still have my OS/2 and BeOS disks lying around somewhere.  And an open source unix-like operating system with a wide choice of UIs and nearly infinite possible configurations is rather enticing.

Torture.  Self-torture.

My favorite ships... PART 1

 I've been playing this game for well over a year now.  Maybe 2 years?  I lose track of time.  I've gone all the way to Tier X in several lines of ships (the tiers organize ships by their strength level and limit interaction between tiers so that you are never so overpowered that you are killed the second a match starts).  I also recently was able to get my first research ship, the Paolo Emilio.  But I thought I would list out my [current] favorite ships here.

I don't really like ORDERING them so I will just list them in no special order... maybe alphabetic.

Before I do, I just want to note that over the years of playing this game my choices have varied.  When I first started I tried a destroyer.  I hated it.  I immediately went to the opposite end of the scale and picked up a battleship... and I liked that.  They are hard to kill, and can really hit hard.  They are also generally slow and easily seen (big targets).

After playing BBs (battleships) for awhile I decided to throw in with cruisers (CA - normal or heavy/CL - light).  I found that I really liked cruisers.  They were a little more stealthy, hit pretty hard, and were faster and more maneuverable.  I played cruisers for most of the time I have played the game.  But along the way I found that I preferred LIGHT cruisers (CL) because while they were not as well protected, and their armaments were generally smaller than regular cruisers, their reload was easily twice as fast.  I LIKE firing rapidly.  Who wouldn't?

The funny thing is that more or less recently I decided I need to expand my horizons a little more and started playing destroyers (DD) and even carriers (CV) and I even have one submarine.  I have gotten better at my game play, enough so that destroyers are no longer intimidating to play, nor do I perish immediately like I used to.  :D

At first I went for super-stealthy, long range torpedo destroyers.  I realized that I actually preferred to be more aggressive, and I like the "gun boat" style destroyers.  These are DDs that focus on their main batteries more than their torpedoes.  I found that there are some higher tier (8, 9, 10) destroyers that when they were built, were almost going to be considered light cruisers, or escort cruisers!  I found that these were the boats for me.  For example my two favorites are the Kitikaze and my new Paolo Emilio.  Since I am still not the best DD player, I just throw myself into them and play them like light cruisers... and I have had some good success that way!  Anyway, on to the topic at hand:

ATLANTA (light cruiser)

This has been and will likely always be one of my favorite ships.  It and all the variations of it.  It has virtually no armor, it is short ranged, has mostly useless torpedoes... but there is NOTHING like ripping off 14 shots at a time, over a hill and setting an enemy ship on fire.  It reloads quickly as well.  It is just so fun to play... although you could die at any given moment if an enemy gets a good bead on you.

DUNKERQUE (battleship)

This is a French battleship.  It is a downsized version of the Tier IX Jean Bart, but at tier VII it is a lot of fun to play.  It has virtually no goodies (no speed boost, no reload boost) but its reload time is pretty short and its smaller guns (at this tier) hit very hard.  It has a the forward (chase) design, where it has to main turrets with 4 barrels each, so you always face toward your enemy, so it is good at bow tanking, but the turrets also rotate quite a bit so you can play a more aggressive broad-side kind of battle if you want.  French ships have good HE and good AP.  So up close battles can hurt the enemy a lot, on the other hand you really don't want anyone shooting at your stern.  One well aimed shot through the aft storage door and *boom*.

KITIKAZE (destroyer)

This is such a fun destroyer to play.  It's a mainline Japanese destroyer that is almost as large as a cruiser and it has these amazing 100 MM guns, yes, TINY CANNONS, that penetrate better than most other larger guns in other destroyers, even cruisers.  On top of that its torpedoes are not bad.  They have decent range and reload fairly quickly.  I don't bother smoking it up to hide (except when I am trying to escape), I just head in and start dodging and shooting.  It burns ships down quickly.

PAOLO EMILIO (destroyer)

This Italian destroyer WAS originally designated as an escort cruiser.  It is similar to the Kitikaze in many respects except it has a much slower reload time (due to the SAP shells - which the game nerfs by slowing reload times, otherwise Italian ships would destroy everyone all the time).  It is very fast although not as maneuverable as the Kitikaze, but it is enough so that you can do some open water dodging and firing.  Its torpedoes are also not bad and hit pretty hard.  Just not a lot of them.

ROMA (battleship)

The Roma is an Italian battleship that is a special purchase.  It does not have the amazing Italian SAP shells, and is a variant of the mainline ship Vitoria Venito (which DOES have SAP).  A lot of people do not like the Roma, but I find that it can be a ton of fun to play.  People are so obsessed with Italian SAP shells that they forget the Italian AP shells are pretty darn good.  But they do not get the angle benefits of the US and British AP, so that means if you want to use them, you have to catch the enemy ship exposing their broadside.  But if you do?  And you are within 14 KM?  BOOM.  Almost always guaranteed a citadel, or even a detonation.  Good stuff, and it forces to you get down and dirty, not take pot shots from 18 KM.

WICHITA (cruiser)

The Wichita is an American cruiser (not light) that is related to the Baltimore class line of cruisers.  The strange thing about this ship is that compared to its sister/related ships its fire power has been weakened just a tiny bit.  But that hasn't been a problem for me.  This cruiser seems to be more stealthy and more maneuverable than the related ships and does really well in open waters.

Paolo Emilio! Italian Destroyer

After forever it seems, I have gotten my FIRST research ship, the Paolo Emilio!

It is an interesting ship, most players I know feel I was crazy to go for this ship because it is supposedly boxed into a specific role by World Of Warships.  But I read an in-depth review of it written by Little White Mouse and she noted that it has some surprising features.  I also did some research from other players (players who were also wrapped up in naval history) and learned that the Paolo was originally designed (or at least considered to be more like) a light cruiser, larger than a typical destroyer.

Well, my favorite ships to play are light cruisers in game.  They have next to no armor so you really need to "dance around" and hide when you can, and then appear and fire off as many rounds at a target as you can.  Another nice feature of light cruisers are torpedoes; most have them.

So it occurred to me that, hey, if I treat this over-sized destroyer as a light cruiser, and play to protect myself from being hit but hit as often as I can I should be good, right?

I learn to play ships in co-op mode (which means people vs bots) so the score is not necessarily very indicative of how a random match (player vs player) or a clan battle would go, but even so in my second battle with this ship I was the top scorer in the match and here are the results:

I am not displeased with that.  In co-op mode it is every man for him/herself.  People play co-op to earn easy points, to earn badges, to "practice" a new ship, etc.  I have no idea if I can have success in a random match, will have to try that, but I am encouraged to find that with my gun range, and reload speed build, I can play this destroyer like a "light cruiser" and survive.

Linux Mint

 So I've documented bits and pieces of my linux journey over time.  I started using linux in the early 2000's but I still consider myself a n00b and a very casual user.

That being said, I kept running into various issues with MX, Pop, and a couple other distros... I ended up switching to something more simple, Mint.

To be fair, it does NOT solve all the issues, but it does simplify how much I can muck with my system and break it.  :D

But I really like the simplicity of Cinnamon, yet it also has the ability to extend it, and the dark theme is gorgeous.  It is also easy to get Steam up and running and even add proton-GE as well as wine and lutris for gaming.  I also (because I am a dolt and cannot leave well enough alone) found it easy to install and use xanmod kernels.  AS LONG AS YOU ARE NOT USING ZFS as your root file system.  That hoses it up something fierce.

Anyway that's it.  My puppy is growing like a weed.  She's a little beast.

World of Warships... continued

 Just a general update.  

I managed to save up enough coal to get the Forrest Sherman, I've reached tier X in multiple lines, etc.

Next I plan on trying CVs and Subs.

In the meantime, maybe I imagine things but... I love my Italian ships.  I've heard people badmouth the Roma but oh MAN I love that ship.  It is quick, nimble and if you maneuver close enough and manage a broadside?  BOOM that AP hits HARD.  I've one-shot'd cruisers, DDs, even multi-citadel'd BBs with it.  Sweet.  I also started playing destroyer lines and have picked up to Tier VIII in Italian line and am having fun with that as well.

MEANWHILE.

I have a puppy.  I got her at 8 weeks but she is 14 weeks now, a standard Schnauzer.  She is crazy, stubborn, mouthy but... she is sweet and fun.  She drives me nuts at times, but once she gets past her puppy months she will be my best buddy.

And that is it!  Cheers!