How I configure Gnome and linux in general

I like the default work flow of Gnome, but honestly, I prefer even more simplicity.  So GENERALLY the first thing I do with Gnome is to tweak the main desktop work flow to meet my preferences.

If you are familiar with Gnome, it has a sort of mix (I am saying it like this because many readers are familiar with Apple and Microsoft, more than Linux) of functionality between Windows and Mac OS X, but with its own twist.

It has one bar on top, that contains a button, the date/time, and indicators/log-in/log-out section.  The other two concepts it has is a full screen menu with a favorites bar, and a full screen activities display.  The menu is as you would expect, kind of like Windows 8 or Mac OS X icon-based applications that you can scroll through and select the application you want to run.  If you select activities it shows you the alternate screens and all your running apps that you can select, or move from desktop to desktop, etc.

It may sound confusing but it is actually very usable and despite the fact that it sounds like you have to take an extra step to see things, that really is not the case, I mean... how is it different from clicking the menu icon, scrolling around to find your pinned apps or whatever...?  It isn't.  In fact it is arguably faster.

That being the case, I still like to see my preferred apps and I actually don't mind using a menu to drill down.  To achieve that (somewhat microsofty) functionality I install several Gnome extensions (Gnome extensions are a way to extend Gnome in a pre-defined and Gnome-controlled manner).

1. Install Dash to Panel.
2. Install Arc Menu.

At this point, technically, I could call it DONE.  Installing Dash to Panel creates a bottom (well, you can move it to the top or sides if you want) panel that has the application button that comes with the Gnome favorites panel... that allows you to display apps instead of the activities when in full screen mode).  But, I want instant access to my applications so I install Arc Menu, and in Dash to Panel I disable the application button.  Arc Menu is a great little extension and it can mimic up to 10 or so different menu layouts... so go crazy with it.  I stick to the default as I like its features.

Now I have a very Windows-like interface that suits ME (very subjective, many people would cringe at this).  If it was enabled, I also disable desktop icons.  I like a clean desktop.

All that is left at this point is to install my favorite applications (if they were not already pre-installed by the distribution).  In my current situation, I installed the bare-bones minimal Ubuntu which really comes with no applications, except for a few configuration utilities, so I had to install what I wanted. 

When I installed Ubuntu, I selected 3rd party installations.  What this does is save me the pain of installing non-free/non-open source software drivers.  Linux by default is open source and cannot tolerate (so to speak) proprietary software.  It goes against the philosophy.   That being said 99.9% of people who use and even develop linux realize that 3rd party drivers are SUPER DESIRABLE in many cases.  Ubuntu allows the user to have most of those drivers installed when configuring your new system.  That saves the pain of having to install Nvidia drivers, proprietary audio formats, motherboard drivers for sound or network devices, etc.

So that leaves me with the applications I like to use.  Here are some things I always install:

1. Python3
2. Visual Studio Code (microsoft)
3. .Net
4. Sublime Text 3 (syntax editor, I own a license)
5. Sometimes, but not always, BeyondCompare (I own a license for an older version)
6. LibreOffice (like microsoft office, but free, hence "libre")
7. Rhythmbox (for music)
8. MPV for videos
9. Firefox
10. Thunderbird (email)
11. Google Chrome (for sites that just don't work right with Firefox)

By the way, if the new Microsoft Edge ever comes to Linux, I will install that.  I already use it on my work Macbook Pro... it is quite nice.

12. OBS (an audio video capture tool)
13. One of several different audio/video editors like shotcut (to make my gaming videos)
14. WINE, WineTricks, PlayOnLinux, Steam and sometimes Lutris for gaming
15. Guake (a dropdown, quake-like console/terminal that is just cool)
16. Weather (adds weather to the date/time/notifications drop down)
17. Handbrake to burn DVDs
18. VLC... I think everyone installs Videolan...  will play videos that no other software can...
19. HTOP (a resource monitoring utility that is light on resources)
20. Disks (usually comes with distros but not always, allows me to configure disk mounting)
21. Gnome Tweak tool...  invaluable to change system fonts, and themes.

I also install other development languages as I feel the need.  Right now most of my work is in Python so ... that is where I spend most of my time.  I also install a database usually, like postgresql.

And that is it, that is my linux in a nutshell.  Oh, as needed I will install things like Skype or some chat utility like hexchat... stuff like that.  Odds and ends that I don't use NORMALLY but every once in awhile I find I need them... like Slack (ugh).  Anyway...  if you choose to try linux and have any questions I would be happy to help, or you can just check out stackoverflow... great site.

OpenSUSE?

I have never been a fan of openSUSE, simply because I always ran into some kind of problem during install or post install trying to configure and run my preferred applications.

But I am a hopper so I cycle around and from time to time I get back to those distros I could not previously use, and I try again.

I am also growing stir crazy from the whole corona virus mess... working at home for weeks.  So I actually took a day off for sanity and played with linux and am doing some programming as well.

First I attempted to install openSUSE using GeckoLinux, which is basically a bunch of openSuse "spins."  It failed miserably and I could be heard yelling "A HA! OPENSUSE NEVER WORKS!"  But instead I downloaded the official Tumbleweed distro and tried again.

It worked!  Flawlessly, at that.  I even got NVidia drivers installed and working first try.  It DID take a little research though.

Part of my "test" for every distro is to be able to install and play two of my favorite games:  Star Stable Online and Diablo 3.  Now, Steam is important too... but these two are "guages" to me.  If I can get them up and running in WINE on linux, I am golden.  SSO installed easily, and Diablo seems to have installed as well, just downloading all the data now.  I will try the games once Diablo load finishes.

Otherwise, I installed Thunderbird, some fonts, a couple of GTK themes, installed Dash To Panel, Arc Menu and a few other extensions.  All working.  Looking pretty good actually.

Gnome is a little behind, but I can live with that, especially since some of my preferred extensions are not working on the latest version of Gnome.  So, while performance might suffer a little, it evens out.

Performance-wise, SUSE seems to be a little memory hungry in the sense that it definitely does a lot of in memory caching.  That is not necessarily bad, just an observation that my cache bar in my memory monitor fills the graph.

So far so good!  First time I've ever been OK with openSUSE and because of that I think I will try to stick with it for at least a week or two.  It will be interesting to see how smoothly updating occurs.

Anyway, hope you are staying safe and sound!

...And on to Debian...

You know me, never satisfied standing still and to be honest, Pop!_OS has been less stable of late.  Every update was bringing me more problems, so I figured it was time to try something different.

I waffled between ElementaryOS and Debian.  I went back and forth a couple of times in one day and settled on Debian.  Debian is the base OS for many major distributions, and is more flexible in general than Elementary.

I installed the Debian "testing" version with Gnome preconfigured.  I then installed Nvidia proprietary drivers... and hacked away at odds and ends that I like to have on my systems, including fleshing out a conky.

There were a few issues and in fact two of the security repositories were broken from the start.  I had to disable them in order to do anything with my system.  Once disabled I was able to move on and get my system set up to a more or less stable configuration.

The reason I did NOT choose ElementaryOS was because I knew I would have to do a few backend hacks to get the UI where I wanted it it.  EOS is gorgeous, no doubt, but there are some things I want to have that Elementary does not provide out of the box.  I will probably hang with Debian for a week and then if the whim strikes, install Elementary.

Oh, there is ONE thing that is not Debian-specific... and that is the tracker-miners/tracker-extract processes.  I don't know what triggers it exactly but they wail the tar out of my system (probably indexing everything for the first time)... I end up with a freeze and sometimes even a deadlock/hang because they consume ALL 32 GBs of my RAM AND ALL of my Swap space.  That is absurd and should NEVER happen.  Gnome team needs to work on that.

I am not much of a mechanic but...

...I do manage to perform some maintenance on my vehicles.  Tonight I replaced the spark plugs in my R59 mini S, and boy the old plugs looked bad.  I got the old ones out easily, put some anti-seize on the new ones and they went right in.  Took the mini around the block for a test drive and, call me crazy but I think the exhaust smelled a lot cleaner.

It will be interesting to see how she performs over the next week.

I am also...  such a dork...  I am also back on Fedora.  Love Pop, but the gnome performance is terribly sketchy.  I can get Nvidia drivers and non-free audio drivers installed on Fedora, AND gnome runs like butter.  So ... here I am.

Other than that, not too much to report.  Gotta go to bed soon.  Have a 6:30 AM meeting in the office tomorrow.   :)

Fedora 29 So Far

Been pretty darn good.

I had noted previously that it is work to get the NVIDIA drivers working, which I did get done, but because of the order of installing drivers PRIOR to installing Steam I ran into issues.

I installed the Flatpak version of Steam instead and got around the issue of starting.  But then found that the Flatpak version of steam does not quite run as well as the installed version.  But it works and I can game so... I am happy enough at the moment!

One thing I will say is that Fedora holds onto a surprising amount of RAM, more than I expected.  It is not "lean and mean."  On the other hand GNOME on Fedora is even smoother than it is on Pop!_OS.  So perhaps the high memory usage is for good reason.  I don't know.

Not complaining, I have plenty of RAM.  More than I should ever need.

Although, that being said, I plan on doubling that with my next build.  :)

Still on Fedora, GNOME 3... and everything is just Ducky...

Want to give it a fair shake.  Just in case I did push Pop!_OS back onto my stick.  But so far so good.

I've run into oddities.  I had that one freeze, none since.  There have been a few updates since that freeze so, not sure if it is is pure chance or something actually fixed it, or at least affected it.

The version of Steam (you saw my steam woes) I am running through Flatpak is not the same as the one run under Ubuntu.  At least, I can say with certainty that games I could play I cannot, and games I had trouble playing I have been playing.   So not sure what is up with that.

Have GNOME looking like I want it, so that is cool.

I think I mentioned before that I once again destroyed my good, expensive keyboard.  So my new Ducky One 2 (or something like that) came today!  It is not as heavy as my choice keyboard but it actually feels solid.  More so than my other mechanicals.  I chose the silent reds.  They remind me a lot of browns, but quieter.

It has a USB C connector instead of the usual mini-USB...

Anyway, so far I like it a lot.

GNOME 3 on Fedora

One thing I found interesting on Fedora is that the window buttons (minimize/maximize) are missing, like on Pop!_OS.  On Manjaro and Ubuntu they are present.

Nothing important, I just noticed it today when I was trying to minimize Thunderbird... GNOME Tweaks allows me to enable a minimize button so I did.  I just find that convenient.

HAD A FREEZE!  BOOOOOOOO!  It was completely random and all that was running was a Chrome window, not even a video.  Although there might have been an Ad video running, so there is that.

Since then I have applied TWO Fedora kernel updates so... we shall see if it happens again.  But it is so random... it might not happen now for days.

This seems to be an issue with every version of linux I have tried.  Some are worse than others.  I've run memory tests and my memory is fine.  Disks are all healthy.  Power supply is steady (it is a platinum-badged power supply so it should be decent).

Still not sure then if it really is a kernel thing (scheduler issue of some sort) or something with my NVIDIA 1080 card... drivers... no idea.  Annoying though.

Heck, maybe it has nothing to do with graphics or kernel at all, maybe it is my network driver.  Streamed videos also hit up the network... so...

General updates and ramblings...

Still on Pop!_OS.  I recently tried (in live mode) Manjaro Openbox, Mabox, Manjaro Deepin... and I just cannot get into them.  MX Linux is still out there as one of my favorites though.  But I don't know... Pop has just been THERE and out of my way.  It isn't super special in any way.  It just has enough tweaks and conveniences that set it apart from Ubuntu.

I really like XFCE and distros that use it.  I am not a huge fan of KDE even though I did use it for a year a number of years ago.  Openbox seems usable... but I remember when GNOME 3 came out I really did not like it.  I have bounced around Mac OS, Linux and Windows for awhile now but when Windows 7 came out I moved to that and stayed on it for years, through to Windows 10 (I even own a copy of Windows 10 Pro now).  But I have always preferred unix-like, posix-standard-meeting systems over Windows or OS/2, etc.

I am rambling.  But where I was going with that previous paragraph was that perhaps getting used to Windows 8 and then Windows 10 interface along with the more recent versions of Mac OS X, GNOME is no longer a "shock" to my system.  I don't know.  But I even like it now.

I think that Fedora puts out a decent GNOME 3 workstation but it is more difficult (ie. I am lazy) to configure graphics drivers and to get Steam working the way I like it.  Manjaro GNOME is also very good.

I could hunt around for the "best G3 linux" and see what else is out there, but so far Pop!_OS has been very good.

I really want to like Deepin.  I have tried Deepin OS, I have tried Manjaro Deepin, but I just can't bring myself to stick with it.  It has some gorgeous design elements but...  it just feels a little rough to me.  Maybe I will play with a few more distros over the rest of my vacation.

Vacation is almost over and then it is back to work.  Of course I developed an ear infection (again) over the holidays.  :)  Alas.  Didn't really slow us down though.  We got to hang out with family and do some other fun things.  Sandi and I went on a short trip with some other Mini Cooper enthusiasts.

We joined a local Mini club and they did a run up to Prescott via Wickenberg and Peeples Valley.  The city center is all lit up.  There was also a gingerbread house competition at the local casino.  While we were there Sandi and I ate at a somewhat famous restaurant (we've eaten there before) and enjoyed the evening before heading back down to Phoenix.

That's all I have for now!  Shall write more soon.