Linux on the Desktop: It's Not Me. It's You.

by Dietrich Schmitz

Have you grown tired of Linux on the Desktop?

Does 'familiarity breed contempt'?

At times, I feel I have a 'relationship' and when it reaches the point of saturation, or, I don't see anything in the way of innovation going on, I feel the urge to say in parting, "Linux, It's not Me.  It's You."

Yes.  You.  I'm flipping that famous line, "It's not you, it's me intentionally to make a point.

What is my point?

I am a human from planet Earth.  I am really smart and Linux, you are doing a terrible job of keeping up with things.

So much so, I am just about to break up with you if you don't start shaping up.  I know you've been busy with Android and other embedded devices, but you really need to pay attention to me.  Over here, that's me sitting at a conventional keyboard, monitor, desktop unit (or Laptop).

And I keep hoping you'll begin paying attention to me.

But it seems like things are, well, boring, unchanging.  You've made a few attempts to sweeten things up.

Like Gnome Shell, for example.  Okay you worked hard on that, but, it's just that it is easy to use, but too simple.  Why is it so hard to innovate?

Unity?  You've really gone out of your way to be 'different' but again, the gui is not usable and limiting.

I've stuck with you this long only because of LXDE.  Now, after all of the upstream struggles to get Gnome 3.x to a point of 'usability', I have resorted to using lightweight LXDE.  Why?

Because, it doesn't reinvent the wheel.  Don't fix what isn't broken.

Panels, Desktop, Desktop folders, icons, menus, terminal windows, they all work in a classic intuitive way which is why I have always liked you Linux.

I think the problem is, you are trying to be different but no matter how hard you try, the technology just comes up short, deficient.

Maybe you should just be yourself again?  You know like when Ubuntu first came out?  Gnome 2.x worked so darned well.

Why did you change?  I don't like you as much anymore.

Please change.  I mean, innovate, in the truest sense of the word.
Let's not make new widgets that replicate existing functionality.  We already have in my estimation too much of that.

And please.  STOP cloning yourself.  You could go blind doing that.

How many of you do we really need?  I think you should just work on making one Distro better.  No, perfect.  That's right, perfect.

Make yourself sexy with a purpose, but let's stick to just the Linux Standard Base (LSB), one Filesystem Hiearchy Standard (FHS), one graphical API (like Windows GUI).  Yes?  Come to think of it, isn't that what makes Windows so successful?

Please.  Don't put on pretenses for me.  I know you.  I just want what's best for you and think you should really strive to simplify.  And, never mind what the other clones are doing.  They are just copy cats trying to emulate.  You are better than that.

Linux on the Desktop:  Be the best that you can be and I won't leave you.  Promise.

-- Dietrich

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On Good Design, Standards, and Divisiveness

by Dietrich Schmitz

I am shaking my head and letting out a chuckle.  Because today, I read how Ubuntu, or, Canonical Ltd., in their own infinite wisdom have decided to reinstate 'Menus' in select applications, including Nautilus.

Good grief.  So, throwing the baby out with the bath water wasn't a good idea after all?

I should say not.

I've been dead set against Unity from the beginning and have taken the position that it represents in its great desire to be 'different' a net software regression.

Removing menus was a mistake and flies in the face of common sense and good sound design principles.

That with a host of other changes which have essentially given Canonical Ltd firm control of their software development, including Mir, have placed them in total isolation from the community at large and distinguish Ubuntu as the only Distro that uses the novel Unity graphical user interface.

Arguably, they have made some technology advancements, but to many, they have created a rift and wholesale development shift in avoidance of Unity and its attendant technical issues entirely.

Wayland fortunately continues to progress and paves the way for Distros which plan to migrate away from the aged and complicated X.org Display driver semantics.  This is a bridge that will be crossed soon and Mir will be the singular X.org replacement going forward for Ubuntu, unless they reverese their position and current thinking.  It would really be in their best interests to support Wayland so as to be uniform with all upstream development but then Canonical Ltd., would yield control away from sole ownership of Mir and have to 'cow-tow' to the community or at least make an attempt to 'cooperate' and contribute to Wayland.

But, that is the way it is.  Live by the sword, die by the sword.  Canonical Ltd. has made their own strategic business decisions and must live with them.  It's not too late for them to come to their senses and drop Mir and support Wayland.  It would be a good move.

+Mark Shuttleworth you've done the right thing by standardizing on systemd.  Don't be divisive.  Adopt Wayland and dump the Mir project.  Do the right thing.

-- Dietrich

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Manjaro Linux: No Assembly Required

by Dietrich Schmitz

So, okay, I've known about Manjaro for quite some time.  I put it on a pen drive and took a look at it and at the time last year it was using a Ncurses installer.  There were niggling issues with it so I aborted the installation.

Yet, it still intrigued me mainly because it uses Arch and AUR and given all of the talk about how fast and light Arch Linux is, it was interesting to see someone attempting to take advantage and fill what I feel is an unmet need.

Many would like to try Arch, but the technical expertise required is a barrier.  Arch isn't user-friendly and one cannot simply press a button to start an install GUI and have all the 'black magic' taken care of for them.

The Arch purists do love that aspect and I understand that need to get under the hood and get grease under one's fingernails.  Only, it's not for me and I've mentioned this many times to my Arch Friends -- it will never gain broad adoption because major assembly and technical expertise is required to put Arch on your Desktop.

So, today, I gave Manjaro 0.8.7 a try.

The install process now includes options for either CLI or GUI.  Naturally, I chose GUI.

The install could not have been easier and routine, I thought.  This will work for the majority of newcomers to Linux for sure.

The notorious Broadcom wireless on my Acer Aspire One D260 was detected and worked straight up from the live installer.  It wasn't more than 20 minutes before the process completed and asked me to reboot.  That I did and noted that reaching the login screen took no more than 15 seconds.

I chose the OpenBox version (verses Xfce) simply because it would use the least ram in my experience.

The desktop sports conky and the setup includes compton compositor effects which are used judiciously and the muted gray with light green is pleasant to the eye with a design that approaches minimalism.

The appearance immediately reminded me of CrunchBang.  Only I would estimate Crunch still is speed king and ram sipping extraordinaire.  The Desktop in Manjaro despite being OpenBox shows 200mb ram used.  I would have expected lower but okay, it's still lightweight as far as I am concerned.

The terminal is LXTerminal and the file manager is Thunar.

In the systray was an octopi update reminder which when run shows the updates to be installed in a graphical window (see below) yet when I commit to doing the update, octopi simply opens a terminal window and launches a pacman script -- I guess that is 'doable' but I'd have expected the gui to do all of the presentation.

Running Octopi software updates on Manjaro 0.8.7

So this is Manjaro.  I am reserving judgment and will see how far I get using it.  Out of the box it comes with Firefox and Adobe Flash 11.2.x preinstalled, which is a plus.  The kernel is 3.10.x which means it 'should' support seccomp-bpf applications like Chrome and ssh.

Regretfully, I was unsuccessful in installing Chrome stable using Manjaro Forum supplied directions -- makepkg returned a dependency error.  Good Friend +Cirrus McMinor has offered to dial up and get it working, but, it would be nice if one could download Chrome directly and install from the Google website but that appears not to be the case for Arch and derivatives like Manjaro.  That would place pacman-based Distros (Arch) on equal footing with DEB and RPM Distro Google supplied versions.  So, I'll settle for Firefox and see how far I can get with it.


If you have used OpenBox, it's pretty basic and there isn't much to say other than Manjaro at least updates OB's menu to reflect the addition of an application, unlike other Distros using OpenBox.

So, if you yearn for Arch but don't have the intestinal fortitude to deal with the technicalities, then I would strongly suggest you have a look at Manjaro Linux.  It's biggest plus: No Assemby Required.  Good Luck.

-- Dietrich

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Privacy Activists Get Involved: Looking for Able-Bodied RetroShare Testers

by Dietrich Schmitz

[Update: I've put up my F2F key on cryptobin.org -- here: https://cryptobin.org/g247b695 -- reach me by email: dietrich shift 2 linuxadvocates dot com to obtain the password. ]

Have you heard of the expression 'talk is cheap'?

With all of the controversy generated by the disclosure of NSA's PRISM surveillance program, you'd think there'd be a groundswell of interest in taking action to mount new privacy legislation.

Not so far.  But legislation isn't good enough.  What the public needs is an effective countermeasure to ensure that Privacy is maintained.

RetroShare is a true prototypical software application which immediately offers the following benefits:

• Serverless, completely decentralised
• Multiple simultaneous downloads / uploads
• Search Friends
• Messages
• Forums
• Channels
• Voice over IP
• Instant messaging
• Groupchat
• GnuPG Authentication
• OpenSSL Encryption
• adding downloads via website links
• Plugins support
• UPnP / NAT-PMP port forwarding support
• Graphical User Interface written with Qt4 toolkit
• System tray integration

fyi, I wrote a RetroShare installation how-to yesterday.  Help me test usability cases and establish feedback with the RetroShare developers.

If there are any issues which make its use difficult, they need to know.

For RetroShare to become mainstream, it needs to become 'drop-dead' easy to use.

It's not quite there yet, but it has come a long way.

Help with the testing.  Let me know if you'd like to participate.  Get involved.

-- Dietrich

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Fedora 19 Desktop Edition: Pleasantly Surprised by Gnome 3.8.3

by Dietrich Schmitz

No, this isn't an act of contrition.  It is a confession.  How so?  Let me explain.

Life is experiential as they say.  And with experience comes wisdom--hopefully, gradually, learning accretes.

Gradually, what was important yesterday is no longer important today as we reach new plateaus and learn what is truely meaningful and cast aside things which do not accrue to our general well-being and happiness.

Some days, you discover things you never imagined would happen.

Take for example Gnome's GUI.

In the past, I have been quite clear on how I have felt about this project's decision making along with my displeasure with Canonical's Unity GUI.  Neither was my cup of tea.  And, fortunately, alternatives have been around which have made possible avoiding their use entirely.  I am not unique on that count.

So, without apology, I will confess that today I decided to do:

$sudo yum groupinstall "Gnome Desktop"

into my already tweaked Fedora 19 Xfce Spin, which as you might have guessed I am quite happy with, given its meager system requirements and given that I am writing this story on an Acer Aspire One D260 Netbook sporting 2GB ram.  I've also installed OpenBox and found it makes the machine perform with near CrunchBang 11 Waldorf-like speed.  All well and good.

So, the groupinstall finished in minutes and I then dispatched to doing a logout, select GNOME from the session manager, and logged back in.

Now, mind you, there are still issues in my mind concerning Gnome, but this time around, I will tell you that Gnome 3.8.3 is what I call 'minimally functional' in its 'out of the box' default form.

Prior to Fedora 19 Desktop Edition, I could not recommend Gnome.

Today, I can say:

I like Gnome 3.8.3.

But, it took some tweaks coming from the Gnome Extensions Website to make it provide equivalence to what I have set up in the Xfce spin.  I will live with Gnome for the time being and share information with you in updates when and where I can as warranted.

Here are the extensions which I have installed thus far:

Installed Extensions

ONOFF

 Drop Down Terminal

 by zzrough

Drop down terminal toggled by a keystroke (the key above tab by default) for advanced users.

ONOFF

 Gno-Menu

 by Panacier

Gno-Menu is a traditional styled full featured Gnome-Shell apps menu, that aims to offer all the essentials in a simple uncluttered intuitive interface.

ONOFF

 Impatience

 by gfxmonk

Speed up the gnome-shell animation speed

ONOFF

 Notifications Alert

 by hackedbellini

Whenever there is an unread notification (e.g. chat messages), blinks the message in the user's menu with a color chosen by the user.

ONOFF

 Pidgin Persistent Notification

 by nemo

Adds a persistent notification if a new message in Pidgin arrives. The notification is reset if the conversation window is focussed. Works best with the pidgin status integration extension.

ONOFF

 Show Desktop Button

 by l300lvl

Places a button to the left of the Window List to hide all windows, and the overview when active, and show the current desktop(credit: MGSE, erguille, madkristoff, mbokil).

ONOFF

 Status Area Horizontal Spacing

 by mathematical.coffee

Reduce the horizontal spacing between icons in the top-right status area

ONOFF

 TopIcons

 by ag

Shows legacy tray icons on top

With these tweaks, this puts Gnome on a footing where I can honestly say, that everything is working satisfactorily.

Your preferences will be different, naturally, but I tend to be minimalist by nature, so that means 'nothing more, nothing less' style of configuration.

I especially like pressing the backtick/tilde key to get a drop-down terminal, Quake-like style.

I added GnoMenu, but decided to toggle it 'off' for now and see if I can live without using it as a 'crutch'.  My concern is and will be as time goes by, usability of Gnome in its default form.

As for ram use, this wouldn't be an issue if I had a Desktop system with 4GB so I discount its importance using this Netbook, in terms of any perceived latency or swapping.  My swappiness is set to 10, which means swapping will be 'aggressive' and do as much as it can with existing free ram.

Chrome, my preferred browser, is notorious for gobbling up ram, and I don't fault it for that, but it does at times put a strain on this Netbook.  It's a non-issue as I said with most of today's machines, so enough on ram.

Well, there you have it.  I am liking Gnome 3.8.3, Fedora 19 Desktop Edition's default GUI.

People can change.  I have and do, every day.  So can you.  Grow. :)

-- Dietrich

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Stop the Linux Desktop Madness: You Have Options

by Dietrich Schmitz

With all of the insane decision making that has taken place at Canonical with Unity and The Gnome Project with Gnome 3.8 just out, it can make a grown Man cry in despair.

But fear not.  Hope is on the horizon.  You do fortunately have Desktop alternatives to avoid the madness and chaos that looms.

I'll cover a few of them here so at least you are apprised of your options.

Xfce

I currently enjoy the serenity of this nimble Desktop.  It's truly a great option for those suffering refugees coming away from a bad experience with the terror of Unity and Gnome 3.x.  The beauty of Xfce is that it uses GTk2 libaries and will take you back to a Gnome 2.x experience albeit with a slice of Xf playing into the mix.  It really does the job of giving you what you want and a large degree of flexibility in configuration options.  Best of all, its memory footprint is meager and you'll discover that it breathes life back into your rig as screens snap up crisply with no delay.  Add a few nice themes and fonts and enable the built-in compositor and, presto change-o, you have the essential ingredients for a truly efficient but pleasant Desktop Environment.  Having dependencies on GTk2 means that there is no reliance upon Gnome whatsoever, which should be in your best interests and incorporated into your strategy for avoiding pain.

LXDE

Even leaner than Xfce, LXDE brings a somewhat spartan GUI experience but really gets the job done.  It isn't sexy by any means but for the minimalists, having the DE sip ram reigns supreme.  LXDE does that exceedingly well.

MATE

It was over a year ago that Clem Lefevre of Linux Mint fame chose to fork Gnome 2.3x to MATE.  During that same period, he also chose to fork Gnome 3.x to Cinnamon.  It was truly ambitious for an outfit with limited resources such as Mint to have undertaken at the time, but Clem prevailed and succeeded in doing so.  The key issue to be mindful of with MATE and Cinnamon is that both suffer from falling behind on code maintenance, especially MATE.   Still, if you long for the good old days and miss Gnome 2.3x, then, by all means, jump on MATE and feel immediate relief as the nostalgia sets in. [Edit: MATE released version 1.6 on 4/3/2013, so that's a plus; also I have been advised that Clem forked Cinnamon, not MATE see the comments directly below from +Maik Adamietz who clarified the issue on my private LA G+ community site. ]

Maik Adamietz6:52 PM (edited)

ShareReply

+Dietrich Schmitz i just noticed something in the MATE part. It wasn't Clement Lefebvre (Clem) at all who chose to fork Gnome 2.3x to MATE. Clem just jumped in on the MATE project as project management, he manages the releases, does the communication and provides the hosting.

Perberos (a guy from Arch) was the one who decided to fork Gnome 2.3X into MATE. He's the one that is the projects founder, developer and packaging MATE for Arch Linux:

http://mate-desktop.org/team/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MATE_(desktop_environment)

True is that Clem forked Gnome 3 into Cinnamon.

Collapse this comment

KDE Plasma Workspaces

What can I say about KDE?  +Aaron Seigo, I take my hat off to you and the KDE Team.  This is the true benchmark for all other Linux Desktop Environments to be measured by.  I won't equivocate  and will simply say that if your PC has 4GB ram, go straight to KDE and enjoy the luxury and prestige of running a DE replete with eye candy and an unparalleled feature set.  KDE truly is the champion Desktop Environment, bar none.

KLyDE

Well, +Aaron Seigo and Team are at it again.  They've got a new lightweight KDE desktop in the works.  It's not soup yet, but it will be only a matter of time before we can sink our teeth into this DE.  I for one am looking forward to giving it a spin.  Aaron give me a heads up when you have something, yes?

Razor-Qt

Well, this is ambitious and quite clever and I am happy to see that it was done by someone. Razor-Qt gives the immediate feeling of KDE yet gets you all of the basics with no fanfare.  Of course, it uses the Qt framework which gives it that tell tale look of quality and style that I enjoy and you will too.  The memory footprint is lean and this will be an obvious choice for those with older PCs configured with less ram as well as Netbook users like myself.

[Edit: 4/28/2013 19:33 GMT-5 Someone gave me a heads up in the comments section, I forgot Enlightenment E17.  Eeeek. Major blunder and effusive apologies.]

Other Desktop Window Managers (WMs)

I would be remiss and catch major flack from the readers if I failed to mention a few of the Window Managers that have gained popularity among the technophiles.  WMs tend to be exceedingly lightweight in memory consumption and awesomely fast, yet, they might also be less user-friendly.  They do in truth have a performance edge, no question, but reaching proficiency and configuration can both be a challenge.

I'll just give a mention on each because, really, I am an ignoramous extraordinaire when it comes to WMs, I readily admit.  A few of my friends' DEs look like they work for the NASA Space Center and it scares me. ;)

Tiling Window Managers

• Awesome
• i3
• dwm
• Matchbox
• Tritium
• wmii
• xmonad

Stacking Window Managers

• Awesome
• FluxBox
• OpenBox
• IceWM
• Sawfish
• Window Maker

I see it coming--I've left someone's favorite WM out of the list.  Hanging my head in shame--I am not worthy. ;)  Seriously, there are so many and I can only say go and look on Wikipedia and sample from their lists and decide if  WMs are for you.

Well, as you can plainly see, you are not a caged animal and do have a recourse.  There are so many good GUI options from which to choose that one can be quite happy and maintain one's sanity in the presence of such disasters the likes of Unity and Gnome 3.8.

Get out there and give them a try.  There is hope and You have options.

-- Dietrich

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