And another year flies by! 16 anniversary?

 

The Linux landscape has changed a lot since I started this humble blog to record my experiences with GNU/Linux and FLOSS in general.

Today, I visited Distrowatch and CachyOS is distro #1. Ubuntu, which used to be the top dog back then, is #10.

Linux Mint and MX Linux, distros that once held the top position, are now #2 and #3, respectively.

Mageia, my main distro, is #51! I am using Mageia 9, which was released in August 2023. I can see that they have been busy this year as they released Alpha 1 and Beta 1 and there will be another general extraordinary assembly this coming May 7 because the required quorum was not reached to vote the constitution changes. I hope everything goes well this time. 

OpenMandriva sits at #94. They have been releasing more frequently (both Rock and ROME are now in version 6!). Unfortunately, when my pentaboot laptop died, I had to stop using that distro along with Manjaro and Elive.

Elive, by the way, released a new version at the end of March this year. I might try it, who knows? I really liked the last version of that OS... Thanatermesis really produces art with the OS. 

But where do I put it? Can I run it smoothly from a USB drive to work with it? 

The thing is that I do not want to buy a new laptop to run new distros. The prices they are charging are ridiculous for the specs that they offer.

I do not want to deal with the TPM chip nonsense, to be honest.

And then there is the age verification debacle and the controversy with LibreOffice!

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Even so, I can say I am happy I have been working all this time with Linux: MX Linux in classrooms and Mageia in my work and home offices.

That is good!

 

 

 

Mixed thoughts

Elive 3
In a bout of insomnia, I booted my laptop with Elive and discovered that it had been updated with a feature to notify me if my HD has a problem.  Wow!  Plus, this live wallpaper is simply gorgeous! The Elive signature live wallpaper changes depending on the time of the day.  I hope I don't have to be up at 1AM to be able to see it, hehe.

 


OpenMandriva Lx
After installing OpenMandriva Lx 4 Beta (and accidentally erasing my home partition in the process), I decided to re-install OpenMandriva Lx 3.03.  The process took some time because of the updates, but it was worth it.

PCLinuxOS and iBus
I discovered yesterday that PCLinuxOS can now use iBus as the IME.  That was great because I had been using SCIM so far and it is complicated to enable.  Now I can use iBus for Japanese.  Yay!

Mageia 6
My daughter had been sad because, on her desktop, the Steam client running on WINE was not working properly.  That was a problem because one of her favorite games is a Windows-only game that could only be played with WINE... Not even Proton could run the game.
Well, I ran the Steam client in WINE and the issue was rectified.  Now my daughter can play her game after a long wait.

Fedora 30
I still do not get the reason why the root partition gets full so fast... I need t keep looking.

System Updates, Functionality and Popularity

As I have some free time, I decided to update all of the OSs on my laptop.

I started with PCLinuxOS.  The update was painless and everything is working perfectly.  Well, I noticed that my KDE History is never refreshed and that the Favorite tab displays nothing.  Aside from that, all is well.

Then I went for Fedora.  Nothing special to report there; all seems normal.

After that, I updated Mageia.  Again, no problem, either.

OpenMandriva was next.  This distro sometimes gives me problems if I try to update packages using Discover or the Control Center, so I ran urpmi --auto-update.  OpenMandriva did not show any weird behavior and the process completed flawlessly.

It was time to update Elive.  As this is a relatively old beta (Elive releases many betas), I was a bit worried.  The OS greeted me with an announcement that read something like this:  "There are new features available.  Do you want to install them?"  I agreed and then the OS played some music and performed an installation that, after a short while, was finished.  I noticed that, as the installer warned me, my wallpapers were gone, but there were applets for the clock and the wifi.  The OS looks as beautiful as ever.

Interestingly, and despite all the beauty and functionality that all of the distros I use provide, they are sliding down in popularity in Distrowatch.org:

Fedora is right now #8
PCLOS is # 21
Mageia went down to #35
OpenMandriva and Elive are not even included in the list of the 100 distros.

The list also shows that, apparently, Ubuntu never recovered its position as #1 after Mint took it.  However, Mint is now #2 and Manjaro has been #1 for some time now.  Oh, and MXLinux, the successor of the long-gone Mepis, is gaining traction: it has the 6th position.

Everything changes...

Random Musings on the New Year and Changes

Change has always been viewed as an alteration.  For those who cherish the status quo, this alteration is a great source of anxiety, a life-disrupting experience that epitomizes the full meaning of the word problem.  Those who are dissatisfied with the current state of events, however, embrace change and preach that it is an opportunity to reach new heights, an open road leading to unknown happiness and fulfillment.

I suspect that we human beings have a misconception of change.  We tend to see it as something unexpected, an unforeseeable collision in our otherwise peaceful existence that forces us to adapt or succumb.  This is wrong; change is happening constantly around us: it is the normal condition of the universe.  We cling to the illusion of permanence and choose to reduce change to something that occurs randomly or periodically, as with the end of a year.

With the dying of my reliable Epson Stylus TX-200 printer, I was slapped by a

Epson Stylus TX 200

situation long-forgotten: Linux-compatible hardware is sometimes difficult to find.  My all-in-one printer had been with me almost since I migrated to Linux in 2009 and never did I think about what kind of replacement I had to get if it happened to fail.

True, replacing a printer is not a catastrophe, much less when the loyal device malfunctioned during vacation time, exactly two weeks after the work-related pressure had already dissipated.  So, after checking the availability of Linux drivers, I bought an Epson XP 231 as the successor of the venerable TX-200. Drunk with the wine of naivety, I expected the road to configure this new printer to be a smooth path.

Epson XP 231

I stumbled at each step.  While I can print in two of the three main distros that I regularly use, I had to battle and managed to get the scanner to work in one, OpenMandriva Lx 3.1.  No success in Mageia 5 or PCLinuxOS yet.

Although the printer tossed me into a tar pit, this post is not about printers, but about change... And change is happening, placing me in a position to make decisions on matters I had either postponed or refused to consider.  For instance, Mageia will have to release its 6th iteration one day, and this new version will feature Plasma 5, which I do not particularly like because it removed a feature that I grew to love: the ability to have different wallpapers on each workspace.  No, KDE developers, "ACTIVITIES" DO NOT FULFILL THE SAME PURPOSE!

Come Mageia 6 and I will have to wave farewell to KDE 4.  OpenMandriva has been training me on the ways of Plasma 5, so I will only have to forget about the wallpapers, just like I had to forget about GRUB when GRUB 2 came along.  Who knows, maybe a new secret feature of Plasma 5 will make me love the DE, just like when I grew to love the ROSA SimpleWelcome screen in Mandriva 2011...

Mageia 6 Sta1 has been on my laptop since September (for testing).  When Mageia 6 is finally released, I will have an additional partition on my HD if I replace my current Mageia 5 install.

Maybe, with 2017 knocking on the door, it is time to get a Fedora?

Testing upcoming versions: Mageia 5 and Windows 10

Yes, I know that it is almost the end of the semester and we have the International Congress coming.  I should be working.

Well, I have worked.

In fact, I have worked so hard that I fell sick, so I figured I could indulge myself while I recover... And what better way than relaxing in the peaceful world of operating systems ;-)

So, after fixing some weird problems related to VirtualBox in Mageia 4, I could finally go back to distro testing.

The first distro that I tested was Mageia 5 beta.  As usual, as the main changes are under the hood and the artwork is that of Mageia 4, it was difficult to spot the differences.

Main screen of Mageia 5 beta. Changes are invisible for the untrained eye!

On closer inspection, however, one can see Mageia is now running KDE 4.14 and some other updated software. 

 

Anyway, that was a real quick run test off the live DVD to see if everything was in place.  I need to install Mageia 5 to see what gives.  

Remember when I wrote a letter to Windows 8.1 before it was released publicly?  My predictions back then happened to be very accurate.

To keep the tradition, I also gave a test run to Windows 10.  In brief, I have to say that this version is better than Windows 8 and 8.1. 

Windows 10 landing screen

The Windows 10 menu: merging a functional menu with the hideous metro tiles

After login, the first thing to do in Windows: Use Internet Explorer to download Firefox!

How successful will it be?  I cannot assure it right now.  For one thing, it gives users what they wanted: a menu.  Plus, ANYTHING is better than 8/8.1.  Yet, the rather stiff implementation (imitation?) of the multiple workspaces in Linux might create some confusion...and people working on technical service will remember my words.  I mean, the virtual desktops in Windows are not even labelled.  And why is it that they switch automatically?  In Linux, you know what workspace you are in at all times and you stay there until you yourself decide to go to another one.  Best of all, you can drag and drop programs!

I will keep playing with Windows 10 to see what else this OS offers. 

Windows virtual desktops: they switch if you hover them for 4 secs and you cannot drag programs

Linux virtual desktops: switching is animated, they are well-marked, and they have drag and drop capabilities... not to mention that they do not change on their own!

Some of the faces behind the distros

When I first migrated to Linux, I bought a nice set of stickers and one of them depicted many smiling penguins. As a heading, you could read "The friendly face of Linux". Today, as I saw anticaptalista's encouraging comment in Megatotoro's blog, it suddenly struck me that there is an element that I have been enjoying since the moment of my migration, something subtle, but powerful. You see, as an ex-Windows user, although I could identify Bill Gates' face (and even Ballmer's), I never received any tangible support from Microsoft. Windows was merely a business.

Linux, on the other hand, has represented an unmatched opportunity to learn and grow because of the intense human interaction of its vibrating communities. For example, as soon as I joined Mandriva's community forum, I was received as a human being, not as a number. The same happened when I posted my first question in Mageia's blog: the prompt reply giving me direction was refreshing. And I cannot describe the feeling I experienced yesterday when I opened my email to find a follow-up message from a Mageia developer taking care of the bug I reported.

There are people behind Linux who get in contact with you in a way that I never saw during my decade as a Windows user. And these people listen to you. What's more, sometimes they RELY ON YOU!
As a tribute to them, I tried to track some of the pictures of the people behind those Penguin OSs that made my work with computers a more enjoyable experience. So, here they are. These are some of the faces behind Linux:

1. Linux Mint's Clement Lefebvre & child (Thanks for your great distro!)
2. The always active Texstar (Billy Reynolds), from PCLinuxOS (noticed the cool Mandriva cap?)
3. Eugeni Dodonov, now the face of Mandriva, the distro that made me dump Windows
4. Anne Nicolas, former Mandriva representative, now Mageia's face.
5. Ozan Çağlayan, (GO, Pardus!)
6. Warren Woodford, the famous Mepis Guy. (Kudos to you for Mepis 11)
7. Sabayon's Fabio Erculiani. (Grazie!)