A few days with Debian 12...

 I'd like to say it is earth shatteringly wonderful, but it really is just another gnome spin of linux... the satisfaction lies in knowing that the heart is Debian.

I've tweaked the UI a tad, to suit it to my liking.  Otherwise I am still running the gnome desktop.  While steam works very well, I've been struggling with Wine and PlayOnLinux quite a bit.  Can't seem to get it right.

Everything else has been rock solid.

OH!  I did run into the irritating Logitech MX mouse issue.  Freezes up, dies.  Have to reboot to get your mouse back.  I executed the steps that I have always done for Linux Mint or for Ubuntu-based distros to more or less improve upon the mouse-freeze issue, so far it seems to be working.  Not sure whose fault it is:  Linux (drivers/kernel) or Logitech.  Some people think it has something to do with the innate power saving logic of the mouse, others think it is some short-fall of the bluetooth drivers in linux.

But, it has been good so far!  Working as well as Mint for sure.

Change up! Playing with Debian 12

 Mint has been serving me well, of course.  But recently I saw a number of videos singing the praises of Debian 12.  It was "the best version of Debian, ever."

So of course I had to try it.

After several false starts and re-installs, I got it down.  Yeah, the latest version of Debian has a pretty good installer and it now has opened up NON-FREE repos.  AND the even included Nvida drivers!  W00t!1!!

Unfortunately the driver install fails if you try it out of the box because those non-free repos have to be manually added.  AND, if you do not add them while disabling their FREE counterpart it won't work.

I found instructions on the internet but they were mostly wrong, so I went back to the instructions from Debian and did what THEY said, then when I got the error I went to the internet, found one person who stated it plainly what needed to be done, did it, worked.

So now I have my Nvidia drivers!  Next I installed Steam from the repos.  BZZZZT!  It did not work as expected, so I installed flatpak, and in flatpak I installed Steam.  With a little hiccup of having to add access to the non-system disk where I keep my libraries, it worked well.

Finally, I needed to risk having to re-install yet another time :D  so I installed the LTS version of the XANMOD kernel (v3 for my threadripper first gen).  I expected some sort of massive failure but lo and behold (as you can see in the screenshot) it worked!  First try!

So I am running Debian 12.  And, I have to say it is pretty darn good!  I am wondering at this point are Ubuntu-based distros even needed when you can go to the source of Ubuntu, Debian.  I am also wondering how this will change Linux Mint and Ubuntu.

One final note, I went with the GNOME version since I have heard a lot of good reviews of the latest version[s] of gnome, regarding performance and stability.  I did do the "dash to dock" tweak, but other than that it has been solid.  And I do believe it really is pretty performant.  

I have to say though, if Linux Mint LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition) is updated to Debian 12, I just might go back.

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.

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.

Why the Linux community is a pain and why Linux just can't succeed as an everyday desktop.

Please, before I begin, I LOVE Linux operating systems.  I've even petitioned our laptop team where I work to research Linux laptops, since our application servers also run Linux.  So please don't think I am anti-Linux.  I am not.  I have Pop OS running on this PC, dual booting with Windows (for gaming).

But here is the problem with open source projects, especially of the "flavor of linux" kind:  people.

Simply put people are people and since these are open source projects and little anarchist societies that pull together with a starting goal, very very soon, one year, two years, five years, some major conflict hits and the distro goes *poof*.

Yeah yeah, "well then SPIN YOUR OWN".  No.  I seriously have a full time job++, I have a family and other responsibilities and I just don't have the extra time to spend on building out my own gentoo or slackware or some other build... and I want support.  I want the apps to be updated, the OS to continue to grow and improve... and again, no time.

As an example, two very good distros recently went AWOL:  elementaryOS and SolusOS.  Both were excellent distros.  Both had interesting and "different" features from the mainstream.  But in both distros PEOPLE got in the way, resentment and anger built up and soon the lead developers abandoned the projects (more or less).

I will stick to my Windows PC for gaming and my Mac Studio for other stuff.

The hypocrisy of this is I am now following SerpentOS closely...

One can only hold out hope.

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.

Gaming on Linux and stuff

One of the reasons I have not completely moved off of Microsoft Windows is that I have a huge game library (in steam and others).

Gaming on various Linux distributions has improved immensely.  And Steam has implemented their own version of "WINE" which works very well to play many of the non-native games on Linux.  (Btw, I capitalize linux as a sort of giant mass of linux-based operating systems).  Not only that I can get two of my favorite games running on Linux using WINE, WineTricks and PlayOnLinux without breaking a sweat.

There are, however, several other games I play that require additional third party apps, mods, etc. that are difficult to get working under WINE or Steam.  And for those  hold outs, which also happen  to be games I enjoy playing, I keep Windows around.  Some of the Civilization games, Skyrim, and a few others just do not work well under WINE or Steam on Linux.

It is torture everytime I need to boot into Windows.  While Windows continues to improve, the UI is still rough.  Sounds funny I know, I mean people have often complained in the past about Linux UIs, Linux font-rendering, etc.  But honestly Windows is a terrible mix of old and new and font rendering has regressed on Windows to a point where it hurts my eyes just to look at them, all scrappy and rough.  Linux font rendering is mesmerizingly good now.  I could just stare at these words I am typing all day long.  Truthfully I think Linux has surpassed both Windows and Mac OS X in that regard.

I am a Gnome fan.  I mean, I tweak it a lot but I prefer the GTK3, Gnome-based UI over KDE.  But even QT/KDE is amazing and is also very flexible.  That is actually why I prefer Gnome, it is a little less flexible in some ways, whereas KDE you can mess with to your hearts content.  I prefer the simplicity of Gnome (he says hypocritcally while installing extensions and changing the desktop look).  The irony is also this:  when I mess with Gnome I end up creating a very Windows 10-looking task bar with no desktop so to speak, while when I use KDE I tend to make it look identical to Mac OS X in layout and functionality!

So, while I give kudos to Microsoft and Apple for their work in the desktop UI, I prefer to see them implemented on Linux.  :D  Funny.

In addition, Microsoft has seen the advantages of Linux as well and have begun embracing it.  Two of the best products Microsoft has put out run perfectly fine on Linux:  .Net and Visual Studio Code.  That is a pretty bold move by Microsoft.  Also, Microsoft is working on the next generation of Windows which will finally remove Win32 dependencies and run Win32-dependent apps in a... virtual machine.  I imagine they will clean house and CMD.EXE will be completely replaced by PowerShell or some new implementation.  In fact they are moving there now with the new "Windows Terminal" which does not concern itself with the back end... it could be the old style CMD interface, powershell, or even bash.

In all honesty, I think Windows has a brighter future, at this point, than Mac OS X.  I feel like Microsoft really is (albeit very slowly) trying to move to something better than what they have, while Apple just rejiggers and modifies UI elements.  So kudos again to Microsoft.  I will probably continue to keep Windows simply because I am an OS enthusiast, plus I am fascinated in how Windows will evolve.  HOWEVER... Microsoft has said one thing and done another several times in the past, only to let down their expectant customer base.  Vista had great promise but in the end they removed several HUGE features.  The folding notebook hardware and OS/UI for that... they came out with it over a decade ago but never delivered (although now it looks like they just might in a year or so).  So while I am excited about all the talk regarding Windows...  I am only about 40% confident that they will actually do what they are saying.  :(

Meanwhile, if you are looking for an alternative that works, look at Linux.  It has software for musicians, film editors, office work, software development, realtime-embedded, etc.  It has EVERYTHING.  Seriously.  The only argument one might have against it is that it might not have Application X from Mac OS X, or Application Y from Windows, but it WILL have an alternative.  Whether or not you can use the alternative is up to you.

Anyway.  Have a happy Easter!

Ubuntu 20.04

Dissatisfied with OpenSUSE and not super thrilled with Solus 4.1 Gnome, I started poking around as I am wont to do.  I found on Distrowatch that then next LTS version of Ubuntu was in Beta, to be released in about 2 weeks.

I cut my teeth on linux with Slackware, but the moment the very first release of Ubuntu was announced, I downloaded and installed it.

It was amazing!  I was smitten by it.  I used it for several years along side my macs, my amiga and my BeOS machines.

I don't remember what happened... but at some point changes were made to Ubuntu that I did not like and found frustrating.  I stopped using Ubuntu at that point (had to be 10 or 15 years ago now).

So I saw the new release and thought I should at least look around and see what people had to say... I bopped around from youtube linux sites to Reddit to other places and found mostly favorable takes on 20.04 (alpha/beta).  One comment that caught my eye was "this is the best version of Ubuntu that I have seen since 16.04."   That tipped me over the edge, I downloaded 20.04, and installed it.

This isn't a review, per se, as I don't really DO reviews, just a commentary.  The installation was simple (no different, really, from any of the recent distros using a similar installed (ubiquity).  It installed alongside my windows installation, so that was good.

So, first impressions... I like the theme, it was not overwhelming in any way.  I switched it from normal to dark mode immediately.  I also uninstalled Ubuntu-Dash, and then installed Dash To Panel.  On top of that I installed Arc Menu and weather (I had installed the bare bones version of Ubuntu).

Once I got the desktop looking like I wanted, I installed some apps I frequently use, like libre office, Sublime Text, Microsoft VSCode, Rhythmbox, MPV, stuff like that.  I also made the fonts a little larger so I can see them on my 1440P monitor... but otherwise I kept the default fonts.  I also installed Thunderbird for email, tweaked my terminal, stuff like that.

I have to say it has been a pretty smooth experience and memory usage was on par with what I expected from a Gnome based desktop, so no surprises there.

It is attractive, seems to be well put together except for some minor hiccups with Ubuntu dash (forcing me to uninstall it) it has been a nice experience.  I am thinking as an experiment for MYSELF, I might try to keep this LTS version running for a year.  Or at least until DEC 31 of this year.  :)

I HAVE done that before, stuck with a particular brand of linux for a long time, but it has been awhile. 

I do have one fear:  when the actual 20.04 is released, will my update be smooth and NOT break all my tweaks... or will it destroy it?  We shall see...

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!

Aaaaaaand full circle back to Solus

I'm like the energizer bunny hopping from one distro to another.  :)

I really enjoyed my time with the Fedora KDE Spin.  I would heartily recommend it, it was solid, I ran into no update issues even with Nvidia drivers (Fedora updates kernel fairly frequently), and I was able to configure it to look like I wanted it to look.

Despite the fact that KDE was more memory efficient, performed well, and gave me few headaches, I am just not a huge KDE fan.  Don't get me wrong... I *liked* it, I am just do not prefer it over gtk-based UIs.

When I started shifting back to linux a couple of years ago, I believe it was Solus that I started with.  I enjoyed it, but it felt a little restrictive in some ways back then... and it helped trigger my  distro hopping.  Since the "shake up" that occurred last year the Solus team has been working like crazy to improve Solus.  I'd say their work has paid off and this was a very smooth install, and performance has been quite good.  I immediately installed Nvidia drivers through their utility, installed Wine and related apps, installed my favorite games and so far the game performance seems even better than with Fedora.  Subjective I guess, but it could also be recent updates to the game that made IT more efficient as well.

Anywho... this is where I am at right now.

KDE adventure

Ages ago, back between 2005 and 2011, I had switched from Macs to an All-in-one IBM pc.  What I ended up installing on it was PC-BSD because the networking that came with it out of the box worked very well with my company's firewall/network security.

It came with a KDE interface.  I used it for a year until I switched back to a mac and purchased a product that I was able to log into work with...  But while I have not been a KDE fan in recent times, mostly GTK/Gnome, I did have fond memories of that year.

A week or so ago I began hunting around for a good KDE distro.  The caveat was that I did want to be able to install WINE and PLAYONLINUX so I could play a couple of my favorite games.  I tried Neon, KaOS, OpenSUSE, Kubuntu and Fedora.

KaOS is, without a doubt, the best looking KDE distro (of course that is subjective).  But it was limiting when it came to getting gaming software set up.  OpenSUSE was OK but the actual installation did not end well for me.  Neon is the KDE kitchen sink and worked alright, but I did run into one or two struggles with Ubuntu software.  Kubuntu was loaded to the hilt, and it worked well, but I felt there were some KDE performance issues.  Finally I installed the KDE spin of Fedora 31.  I always have a love/not-love-so-much relationship with Fedora as I always end up breaking something in some update.  But so far it has been very nice.  KDE performs very well, and Fedora performs well in general.

There is also a KDE version of Solus that I might try...

Anyway, just an update of my computing adventures.

Distro Hop - Back to Elementary OS...

Seems like I just can't sit still when it comes to Linux.  :)  I had thought to give KaOS or perhaps Manjaro KDE another shot... but even the lastest versions just do not seem as smooth or as polished as gtk3 based distros do, especially in the font rendering department.

So... I wanted something different and thought I would give Elementary another shot.  The latest version is decent...  looks great, of course, better than screenshots show.  Not sure why that is but it looks better right in front of you than in a screenshot.

The install went VERY smoothly, even configuring it to run BTRFS on the system drive.  When it came time to format the disk I simply selected the old Pop!_OS device and told it to format as btrfs, then let the installer take it the rest of the way.  Worked perfectly first try.  It also installed Nvidia drivers for me, and the entire system worked very well.

I then proceeded to make a few adjustments, like increasing the DPI, and installing the Liquorix kernel (https://liquorix.net/, follow the instructions for ubuntu).  The kernel installation did not fully succeed and, while I got the new kernel, my graphics drivers were broken.  So then I simply snagged the Nvidia 340.64 driver and performed a manual install.  To do that you simply turn off the graphical interface (systemctl set-default multi-user.target), reboot and as root run the Nvidia installer.  Once that completes you restore graphical mode (systemctl set-default graphical.target), reboot again and *boom*, graphics fixed.

The thing about Elementary is its controlled simplicity.  Like KaOS, the devs don't really want you messing around too much with your system.  There is a nice store to install the apps you MUST HAVE, but beyond that you have to sort of fend for yourself.  But, the one thing about it is, this is an Ubuntu-based distro.  That means you really DO have a ton of possibilities at your fingertips.  You just don't want to muck around too much with the desktop environment, but under the hood you can do a lot, and just about any application you might really need is available.  If not, you will probably be able to find a debian package for it somewhere, OR you can install and use flatpak or AppImage or whatever other application isolation subsystem floats your boat.

...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.

Zen kernel on Fedora 31 part 3

Tonight I booted back into normal kernel and immediately noticed the "lack of snappiness".  I wish I had a way of measuring this... because to the human eye it is actually very obvious that the Zen kernel I built and use is much more responsive (or at least gives you the impression it is) than the standard kernel.

It is probably because the standard kernel is geared toward more generic use, which could include server use... while the zen kernel is geared toward a desktop/single-user system.

Whatever the case may be, the difference is very obvious.

On a less favorable note, I don't know what happens whenever I update Fedora, but it seems to corrupt my grub boot process.  It happened today and I was certain I would have to rebuild, but I booted into Pop!_OS off of my thumb drive and it seemed to fix the problem, somehow.  When I then rebooted, grub did not fail and I was able to select my custom kernel and boot.  It is very strange.

Zen kernel on Fedora 31 part 2

Since building my zen/muqss kernel and running on my Fedora 31 build I have noticed a couple of interesting things.

1. Memory usage seems to be lower in general, however it no longer caches as much in RAM.

2. CPU usage seems a little higher in general and most noticeable is the NVidia queue thread.  I had read that some people were seeing that, especially with composition pipeline enabled (I have comp-pipe enabled but not full force comp-pipe).  I do not remember seeing this at all prior to building the zen kernel.  So I find it interesting.  Supposedly if I uncheck the comp pipeline switches it will come down.  Not worried about it though.  Kworker threads seem a little more active as well.

It does seem a little snappier.  But since I did not run any kind of tests before hand that is heresay.

Anyway, I will write more if I have time....

Zen Kernel on Fedora 31

OK, I know this is geeky and ridiculous but... I DID IT!  :D   :D   :D

I downloaded the zen kernel sources, snagged the fedora config, and based on some instructions from 2011 was able to build my own ZEN KERNEL!

Sorry, I am just pumped by this.  I honestly didn't expect it to build, then I didn't expect it to work and, at first, it did not because it did not automatically generate an initrd image.  Read how to do that, built my own and BOOM.  Here it is.  I am pretty sure I overbuilt it and it is large, takes longer to load.  But it DOES and it is even working with my Nvidia driver.

Seriously...  this is the best thing I have done in weeks.  Gives me a little bit of  geek pride when I thought all my geekiness had fled me.

Anyway, thanks for reading! 

Why am I a Pop!_OS advocate?

I write a lot about pop (looking back on previous posts).  Why is that?  Well honestly, since the BeOS came out almost 2 decades ago, Pop!_OS has become my favorite desktop operating system.

Pop! just works.  That's really all there is to it.  It installs and updates flawlessly.  It handles my NVidia card like a champ.  I can play many of my favorite games either through Steam/Proton or PlayOnLinux/WINE.

If have been using Linux off and on (as well as BSD) for a decade or so.  I have used Mac OS 7,8,9 and X... I have used OS/2... mostly WARP... I have used AmigaOS/Workbench... and of course I have used Windows in all its iterations.

I like Linux.  It is a decent kernel and the posix libraries and interfaces that are wrapped into it are solid.  I enjoy the WIDE range of software (most of it free) that is available.  I enjoy the modern UIs that are available.

Over the years the "year of linux" has been a running joke.  But to be straight forward, Linux is ready.  It is just a "different" OS and people need to get used to it, kind of like switching from Windows to a MAC or the other way around.  There are differences and similarities.  But in the end Linux meets all of my needs and more and it is as cheap as air.

On top of that, POP!_OS is just the distro (distribution of linux) that speaks to me personally.  I enjoy its look and feel, it's handling of proprietary drivers, its stability, etc.  It is solid.

OS Reflections

The first computer I ever used was a DEC VAX running VMS.  VMS became the operating system I knew and loved above all others.  I still love it, even though it is gone.

But because of VMS I became curious about other operating systems and have had (I think) a fine relationship with a number of them.

In the '80's I became a user of both Macintosh computers and even the first PCs running DOS and the very first version of Windows.  Personally I owned old PPC Macs running OS 7/8/9 before purchasing OS X Beta...

I also had an Amiga workstation, an OS/2 Warp workstation, and of course early versions of linux (slackware) followed soon thereafter by the very first Ubuntu distro.  It seems like aeons.

My favorite desktop operating system was the Be OS.  BeOs.  I fell in love and built out my own dual processing systems running BeOS in the late 90's early 2000's.  Still have the box with the software.

Of course I had the early versions of NT as well.

I even used FreeBSD for a year, for work.

I am still fascinated by the operating systems that I have not yet tried... and since then I have also become a hardware aficionado.

While I really enjoy OS X, and even Windows 10, my preferred OS for about 2 years now has been linux.  While I flip flop a bit from distro to distro, the ones I have narrowed down to are MX Linux and Pop_OS!  But the one I've used for the vast majority of time over the past year is Pop_OS!  I know Pop is an ubuntu derivative (which is in turn a Debian derivative) but it has been made sufficiently different that I find it not only enjoyable but superior to Ubuntu.  The System76 team has made a polished and different version of Ubuntu that is tuned to either Nvidia or AMD graphics, has simplified configuration utilities (sometimes more restrictive), a fine theme and other tweaks that differentiate it enough from Ubuntu.

In the end though, it is linux-based operating systems that have captured my curiosity and my preference.  With Steam I can even play many of my old Windows-based games.  (Yes, gaming is somewhat important).  I think that you often hear tell of "the year of linux" and it has become somewhat of a mockery; but in all honesty, linux has forged ahead of the past 3 decades and has become not only a viable, but a preferential operating system for many.

I am not out to convince anyone that they should use linux.  I want people to be happy with whatever operating system they choose.  I am just sharing my memories (albeit in very little detail) and my current preference.

Happy Memorial Day!

Pop and Fedora and Stuff

I have been running pop 90% of the time, sometimes trying out new distros.  So a week ago I saw that Pop_OS! was updated to match the latest release of Ubuntu and decided to perform a full upgrade.

The upgrade process worked but for some reason it felt more like Ubuntu than Pop... (all in my head, I am sure).  So I decided, now was a good time to try out Fedora 30 which was recently released.

So I did.  I installed Fedora 30.  I think without a doubt this was the worst release of Fedora in awhile.  Performance was sketchy.  My tracker processes were constantly failing.  Base memory usage was > 2 GB.  Right now, running multiple applications on Pop I am using 2.2 GB (multiple terminals, browsers, etc.)  I do not have tracker failures.  Everything is smooth.

Prior to this I had sung praises over how smooth and performant Fedora was, but not this time.

I did a full install of Pop (twice actually as I did not like the partitioning they default to and they do not allow you to interfere very much in that regard).  Back to what I enjoyed for 90% of the past year with linux.

I haven't had a lot of time to write lately as work has been taking between 10 and 14 hours of my day recently, consistently.  But to be honest, the work I am doing right now is fun!  So the days are flying by.

Well, that is about it for now.  God bless you an keep you and yours safe!

Pop_OS! and silence

I haven't heard much about Pop in the "news" lately.  But it has been silently updated with some of the latest and greatest versions of software.  It has been very solid for me lately, nary a freeze (knock on wood) and I feel as though somehow the font rendering is even better than it has been.

Anyway, it is a new quarter so I downloaded a bunch of Linux-based distros and stuck them on sticks and booted into them to see how they were.  Prepare yourself for my completely scientific and rigorously methodical analysis of each...

Elementary was flaky for me.  Perhaps an install to hardware would have been better but... it had a couple of minor issues.

Solus seemed pretty solid, but oddly enough I did not find myself attracted to it as I once was.  I guess I will keep an eye on it.

I downloaded a KDE spin of MX Linux.  It ran well but the version of KDE was a good bit behind.  Still, it worked well. 

I downloaded Zorin, it was... uninspiring.

Neon, I like.  It is pretty nice but... there are some restrictions.  I downloaded Bodhi 5 but did not try it yet, and I also downloaded "stretch" and "buster" to try.  Have not gotten to them yet.

That's it for now.