Four Things I Hate about Linux

1. Hidden files. Why? If the file merits existence, it should be seen by the user. Many hidden files, such as .htaccess, contain critical configuration settings that must be modified to get things to work. Just stop it with the hidden files. Probably fifty million man-hours around the world have been lost because some developer thought it was wise to hide files from the user. This is anti-social sadism on the part of developers.

2. This infernal pop-up which arises in every Linux program. Trying to edit a text file from within a program like Filezilla is impossible. Instead, one must drop to the command prompt, because the Linux GUI is useless. Even if one does, somehow, track down the location of the text editor using the Browse button, Linux permissions will not allow the saving of the text file. Potential time lost? 5 - 10 minutes per attempt to edit a file. In Windows, I can load a text file from any program using Notepad++, and it takes me approximately one second to do so. Why is Linux retarded?

 3. Networking in Linux. I hate networking above all other things. But Samba is a program that is confusing in the extreme. It is designed for a server, which means it is about a trillion times more complicated than necessary for a home network. What do all the settings mean? Why do I need or want to enter a password to access a directory on a networked computer at my own home? Why is everything so slow on the network? Why isn't there some kind of GUI? Over the years, I cobbled together a configuration file for Samba that I use in every Linux distro. I spent many hours sweating over that thing, trying to figure out what it all means, but I still don't understand half of  it. I don't envy the new user to Linux that has to figure out home networking for the first time.

4. Muon. I don't like the Kubuntu Software Updater or the Kubuntu Software Manager. I can't find the programs I want in them, for one thing. In keeping with the general Linux philosophy, the program I want are "hidden". I can find the programs I want in Synaptic, but not in Kubuntu's programs. As for Muon Software Updater, it's buggy. It used to be a lot buggier, but it still has strange problems. Synaptic just works all the time, on the other hand.

Chrome Faster than Firefox? Horsefeathers!

I call horsefeathers on the Internet for all the claims that Google Chrome is faster than Mozilla Firefox.

Horsefeathers, horsefeathers, h o r s e f e a t h e r s !

Maybe Chrome is faster when watching videos. But I don't watch videos and don't give a monkey's tail about YouTube.

Firefox is fast where it counts--web sites that I must use to get work done. And it uses far less memory. Chrome opens up a new instance for every page, which makes about as much sense as paying a hundred dollars for a pack of gum. So not only is Firefox faster, but the system as a whole runs faster when the user has enough sense to steer clear of Chrome. More memory equates to a more responsive user experience on any properly configured operating system.

I used Chrome for a month at work. Then I switched over to the latest version of Firefox. The difference was like night and day. Firefox was faster all the time. The only tweaks I made were installing the AdBlock add-on and expanding Firefox's cache from the rather conservative 350-odd mb to 1 GB.

I really don't understand all the buzz about Chrome, unless Google has bought a lot of positive buzz, which seems likely to me.

I write my blog purely for pleasure--to vent and call horsefeathers--and receive no payment from anyone. Even Google won't pay me for ads due to some weird technical glitch on their end, so I'm completely unremunerated.

But the mainstream media is presumably in the game to make a profit somehow or another. Whenever I read something that sounds peculiar to me, the very first thing I think about is how much money changed hands for that article to appear on a popular web site, and who is it that wants to shape public opinion, and why.

How Much Did Hamas pay for the Telegraph?

I read the Telegraph the other day, and it sounded like a propaganda organ for Hamas. I wonder how much money they are taking from Iran?

How much does a positive review cost?

How much did the tyrants in China pay for all the positive reviews that Deepin has received in the Linux press--reviews that completely miss the main point, that Deepin was developed by a fascist tyranny for a reason that has not yet been revealed.

Hint: the reason probably has to do with using the personal computers of unsuspecting nerds around the world to steal passwords, information, bandwidth, and computing power.

I watched a BBC Storyville documentary the other day called "China's Bleak House," that reveals how China treats the poor. Those poor people that dare to complain about their treatment by corrupt officials are beaten, tortured, dispossessed of whatever meager possessions they have, separated from their families, witness their families getting beaten, and have all manner of ill visited upon their heads for merely asking for justice.

It was a depressing show, and I tuned out late in the show when a peasant woman was pushed in front of a train by goons. The police did not bother investigating her murder, and they did not even bother cleaning up the body parts. Her friends walked along the tracks the next day and found parts of her jaw bone, skull, and even a large portion of her hand. This illustrates what I think about China. It may have pilfered a lot of our technology and stolen our jobs, but the country remains tyrannical and does not give a damn about its working class. It is one of the worst places in the world to work.

I think Westerners that install things like Deepin on their computers have no knowledge of world affairs or history.

However, there are a lot of Westerners that would gladly buy their food from China and absorb all manner of heavy metals and carcinogens into their bodies because they think all countries are equal. Good luck with that. For my part, I think I will buy my food from local farmers and get my software from people that live in democratic lands where people can provide feedback without worrying about the police coming a-knocking on their door.

Deepin?

I'm surprised none of the reviews I've read about Deepin, including at Distrowatch, make any bones about Deepin being developed in China. You know, the same country that has been hacking Western corporations, governments and private citizens for years. China has about a million reasons to want to push a Linux distro, and none of them are benevolent. In Distrowatch's interview with a developer, I read that Deepin has 30 developers. Actually I thought there would be more, given that the Red Army is actively engaged in computer hacking. I would not touch a Chinese distro. Lose the illusion! China is a tyranny; there is no free speech, no real justice system and the government does whatever the heck it wants to do, whenever the heck it wants to do it. No matter how many positive reviews Deepin buys for cheap in the online press, the fact remains it derives from a highly suspect source.

Hamas and Its Tunnels

Instead of building hospitals or trying to improve the economy, Hamas builds tunnels to murder and kidnap civilians. The responsibility for the current conflict is all on the side of Hamas. No country in the world would accept terrorists pouring across the border through secret underground tunnels.

Here's for Linux Mint XFCE

One thing I like in Linux Mint Xfce and that I don't see in Netrunner KDE is the ability to right-click a file, choose a program to open it, and then teach the desktop to always use that program in the future. With Netrunner, it's an ongoing battle to have it use Jedit to open up .sql, .html, .shtml. Netrunner wants to always use Kate, which is extremely limited and has a lot of problems dealing with plain text files. I cannot even open, as root, using Jedit, a text file at all in Dolphin and have given up on what should be an elementary procedure that even Windows 3.1 was capable of managing.

What I have had to do in Netrunner as a workaround is drop to the terminal in the directory with my .sql file and enter sudo jedit suchandsuch.sql each and every time I need to edit the file. That annoyance is enough to make me not want to use Netrunner in the future, and combined with KDE's propensity to freeze, then reboot the desktop for no apparent reason makes me not want to choose KDE in the future as a desktop. I think I will stick with good, old, tried-and-true XFCE, Linux Mint edition, thank you very much.

It is impossible to register for Netrunner's forum, so raising the issue there is a no-go.

The Petty Tyrants of the "Postal Service"

This is the norm @ USPS.

Vandals in Paris

The vandals in Paris that torched Jewish businesses should be prosecuted for hate crimes. Perhaps France does not understand the meaning of the rule of law. If mob violence is to rule, then what is the point of having a government at all?

The only reason that some people, especially in Europe, go on against Israel is not because of ethics, but because their hearts are cold and their minds are blank, and they're playing the game of hopping on the bandwagon with the apparently popular choice.
 
A country such as Israel has every right to defend itself against rocket attacks. There is not a country in the world that would turn a blind eye if rockets were pouring in across their border and terrorists were creeping out of underground tunnels and murdering teenagers. Nations go to war for far less. Building underground tunnels into a neighboring nation constitutes a violation of border. Hamas invaded Israel. Period. End of story.

It would be a different matter, aye, if Israel launched a war unprovoked. Some people live in an alternate universe where they pretend that is the case. Some people don't care what the facts are. There are a lot of people with tribal loyalties that will just hurrah for their team no matter what their team is doing.

What needs to happen for peace is that Hamas needs to stop pursuing violence as a means to an end. They need to disarm and engage the Israelis in sincere negotiations in good faith--and, yes, give even more than they think they should. They need to show themselves as bigger than their enemy thinks they are.

As long as they remain small-minded and intent upon perpetuating a cycle of hate and violence, then hate and violence is all they will ever get, even if it persists for ten thousand years.

The Way to Report War

I don't like hearing about numbers of Palestinians killed and numbers of Israelis killed. The way to report on war is in totals--the total number of human beings killed. They are the same and genetically not very different.

The reason that the war persists is that Iran and Hamas continue to refuse to recognize Israel's right to exist. There is no point dwelling in the 1940s and continuing a generations-old conflict over what happened before most people were even born. Israel is a civilized state that operates in a rational manner and by rules and procedures. Hamas is nothing but a gang of thugs addicted to the bribes given them by Iran.


Hamas is like a flea infection in a big woolly dog. Periodically, the dog has to be given a thorough flea bath to kill the fleas. The flea bath is very unpleasant. The dog doesn't like it and complains, but it's necessary, because otherwise the fleas sneak out and kill human beings. The dog is not intelligent enough to remove the fleas on its own and needs help to do so.

CNN has a good essay exposing Hamas and its culture of lies, stupidity and cowardice. It is not a culture worth preserving.

Putin's Russia Sucks

Putin is an idiot, and Putin's Russia sucks.

Shooting down an airliner for no reason is the capstone on Putin's life and career as a thug.

KDE Likes to Crash

One of the rude bugs of KDE is that it likes to crash when I'm browsing the Internet. Firefox will suddenly freeze for a solid minute, after which Netrunner throws up an error message saying, "The KDE desktop had to be restarted because the graphic environment was reset." That is very annoying, and it's something I never experienced in Xubuntu.

I turned off most desktop effects and will continue paring them down to zero if the bug persists.

Right at the moment, I'm busy hunting for the option that will let me set up keyboard shortcuts. KDE hides this away for an unknown reason. In Xubuntu, I found the option in about a minute. I'm still searching in KDE's wilderness that they call a Settings Manager...

Update  the answer to keyboard shortcuts in KDE is here and, compared to Xubuntu, it's ridiculously complicated. I'm beginning to think that XFCE is much more advanced than KDE. The supposed advantage to KDE is the bells and whistles, but if they cause the desktop applications to freeze at random intervals, then that is not of much use to anyone at all. Reliability is the most important factor in a desktop, bar none. I would rather go with XFCE being 99.9% reliable than with KDE being 99.89% reliable, because that .01% error rate is going to cause a lot of irritation in the long run.

Update # 2 I think I found the answer after about a half hour's Googling. Settings | Shortcuts | Custom Shortcuts actually allows entering in a simple command such as /sbin/shutdown -P now, which after doing a sudo chmod u+s /sbin/shutdown works like a charm. I suppose, in retrospect, the shortcut manager was rather obvious, but I don't find Netrunner's organization of settings obvious at all. What precisely is the difference between the categories "Hardware" and "System"? Actually, nothing. Hardware is the system, and the system is the hardware. Advanced | Other just seems strange. I rather like Windows' way of listing everything when one selects the traditional view of Control Panel. Sure, it's a long list, but it is organized alphabetically, and once one has looked it over a couple times, one can find things quickly. I really don't like the categories in Netrunner's System Settings, because they are unintuitive and not helpful. Xubuntu's settings could use some tweaking too, but they are light-years ahead of Netrunner in terms of ease-of-use. Whoever designed Xubuntu's settings understands. He just understands.

I'll continue using KDE. Perhaps it is unfair to hold it to the same reliability standard as Windows 7. Microsoft, after all, has legions of full-time programmers and testers. I really like Netrunner overall, at least when my browser isn't freezing up on me.

However, next time I'm in the market for a new desktop, I think I'll pass on buggy KDE and go with tried-and-true XFCE. I like a desktop most of all that just works.

Grobbing Around

The Grob is particularly effective against the English. Throws the Englishman for a loopity-loop-de-loop.

[Event "Live Chess"]
[White "anon"]
[Black "igor"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "1451"]
[BlackElo "1354"]
[TimeControl "12|0"]
[Termination "igor won by checkmate"]

1.c4 g5 2.Nc3 Bg7 3.d4 g4 4.e4 d6 5.Nge2 Nf6 6.Ng3 h5 7.Be2 Nbd7 8.Nf5 Rg8 9.Nxg7+ Rxg7 10.O-O c5
 11.d5 Ne5 12.Bg5 Nh7 13.Bh4 Ng5 14.f4 gxf3 15.Bxf3 Ngxf3+ 16.Rxf3 Bg4 17.Qa4+ Bd7 18.Qd1 Nxf3+ 19.Qxf3 Bg4 20.Qf2 Bh3
 21.Bg3 h4 22.gxh3 hxg3 23.hxg3 Qd7 24.g4 O-O-O 25.Kh2 Rh8 26.Rg1 Rxg4 27.Ne2 Rxe4 28.Rg3 Rxc4 29.Qxf7 Rc2 30.Rg8+ Rxg8
 31.Qxg8+ Kc7 32.Qg2 Qb5 33.Nc3 Rxg2+ 34.Kxg2 Qxb2+ 35.Kg3 Qxc3+ 36.Kg4 Qe5 37.h4 c4 38.h5 c3 39.h6 c2 40.h7 c1=Q
 41.h8=Q Qxh8 42.Kg3 Qe5+ 43.Kf3 Qce3+ 44.Kg2 Q5g3+ 45.Kf1 Qef2# 0-1

How to Complain about the USPS

As the United States Postal Service employs many thieves and lowlifes, there is no guarantee that complaining will get one anywhere. However, this site offers information on how to complain against the government-run monopoly when it does its usual bit of stealing, lying and obfuscating.

Netrunner's Closed Forum

Another thing Netrunner has in common with Kubuntu is that it does not have an accessible forum. Registering for that thing is an ordeal, if it is at all possible. I solved all of their little puzzles to prove I'm human, clicked on the email verification, logged in, and was not logged in. No error message--nothing. Their forum is broken, just like Kubuntu's was when I tried it a year ago. I tried Netrunner's forum about six times without any luck. I don't really need the forum, anyway. I was just trying to register to praise the design. Sometimes I err on the side of over-enthusiasm. Perhaps a bit of distance is a good thing.

Linux distros that have functional forums include: SolydXK, PCLinuxOS, Linux Mint, and Ubuntu.

Linux distros that have broken forums include Kubuntu and Netrunner.

If one considers a functional forum to be helpful from time to time, then that will have an impact on the choice of distro. For now, I'm willing to go without, because Netrunner is similar enough to Ubuntu that I can just use Google to answer questions I may have. If I ever run into any kind of difficulty, however, then I'm thinking that Linux Mint KDE might be a good choice for the future.

Netrunner 14.04 is a Nice Strong Cup of Awesome

I haven't the time to compose a proper review, but just a quick note that Netrunner "Frontier" 14.04, 64-bit Kubuntu edition, is out of this world. I thought I'd be tweaking for hours to get the desktop nice and comfortable, but no. Netrunner is a distro that knows what users want and delivers it to them with a nice pretty bow on top.

If you want to check out a modern operating system outside of Microsoft's realm, then be sure to torrent a copy of Netrunner.

I haven't tried the Rolling Release and have no plans to do so--Manjaro seems Greek to me--but I can definitely vouch for the Frontier edition.

KDE is looking mighty good these days on an Intel Haswell Celeron G1820.

My Current Thoughts about Linux

Ubuntu should be rocky the next few years as Canonical rolls out Mir. I think that's why Linux Mint is avoiding Canonical's non-LTS releases. I don't know what I'm going to do with my Xubuntu 14.04 rigs. Probably in a year or so, I will feel the need to switch distros.

Xubuntu 14.04 is great, but Xubuntu's destiny is dependent upon Ubuntu and the choices that Canonical makes.

I've found SolydX to be fast, lean, and reliable. I may switch over to SolydX in the future.

Xfce has always given me far fewer problems than KDE and that is the main reason I use it. It seems to me that KDE is evolving at a fast and furious pace all the time, and that the desktop never settles down into a stable state. It's radioactive. There is something to be said for conservatism, for stability and predictability. Basically, XFCE does everything I want it to do. It could be a little bit nicer here and there, but I turn on the computer to run applications, not to stare at a desktop. The desktop is a mere conveyance, a road leading to Thunderbird, Firefox, Skype and other tools. The desktop should be reliable first of all and be easy to update.

Liberation

Retirement from the dating game and everything that goes along with is pleasing to me, particularly when I observe the shenanigans that others get up to.

I kissed a lot of frogs before I found my Prince.

Time to Bury Jedit

I buried Jedit today, because the blessed text editor has not been updated in years. I cannot copy and paste text from Jedit to another application without jumping through hoops. I always forget what cryptic command is required. In every other application written in the last ten years, a simple ctrl-C and ctrl-V suffices, but not in Jedit. For that reason, I uninstalled the program and will use the far more advanced Mousepad instead. Mousepad has the capability of copying and pasting without difficulty.

I Have Fixed the Two Desktop Problem in Dungeon Crawl

Ever since I connected two monitors to my workhorse computer, which runs Xubuntu 14.04, I've had difficult playing Crawl, because it wants to span both desktops, placing the center between the screens. Playable, perhaps, but most untidy and not something I can tolerate. In my limited spare time, I have looked high and low for a workaround. Today, I found one. The solution will be found in my updated script file for Linux users.

Update: I found that wmctrl doesn't really work as well as I thought at first. While crawl will confine itself to one screen, the screen is then messed up. The player stats are missing and a lot of textual information gets truncated.

I found an even simpler solution in modifying init.txt in /usr/share/crawl/setting:

### Note: setting window, map or font sizes to '0' implies auto-sizing.
 tile_full_screen      = false
#The resolution on one of my monitors is 1680 x 1080
#Crawl likes to bleed into the next monitor if I set width to 1680
 tile_window_width     = 1670
 tile_window_height    = 1040