Personal computing discussed

Search found 78 matches

by jmcknight
Tue Dec 22, 2015 5:40 pm
Forum: Linux, Unix, and Assorted Madness
Topic: How to promote Linux the right way.
Replies: 90
Views: 9456

Re: How to promote Linux the right way.

Be honest and realistic. Is it generally more secure? Sure. But it's only as secure as the user using it is. Poor practices and the like can make it no better than Windows and where most people fall short in that regard (and we're all guilty of this) is wanting convenience. Convenience tends to have...
by jmcknight
Sun Dec 06, 2015 8:48 pm
Forum: Processors
Topic: AMD FX Appreciation Thread
Replies: 163
Views: 16031

Re: AMD FX Appreciation Thread

Personally I think it would be great, to leave the x86 architecture in the past and AMD build it's own distro, I would switch in a heartbeat.

Why would AMD need to build their own distro? This tells me you don't really understand how Linux distros are developed and otherwise optimized.
by jmcknight
Mon Aug 24, 2015 11:30 am
Forum: Echo Vale
Topic: So what are you using for computer audio?
Replies: 156
Views: 41586

Re: So what are you using for computer audio?

I don't do much music listening through headphones while at my computer but I do have a nice set of Sennheiser Momentums. Other than that I keep it pretty simple. I use a LePai LP2020A+ amp driving a set of Kenwood bookshelf speakers. All in all, my speaker and amp setup cost me around $50 and it bl...
by jmcknight
Fri Jul 31, 2015 10:22 pm
Forum: Linux, Unix, and Assorted Madness
Topic: Solid alternatives to Debian
Replies: 61
Views: 12313

Re: Solid alternatives to Debian

Whenever people hate on Systemd, I always suggest one thing and if anything it celebrates the wonders of open source and the modern internet. If it's really so bad, create something better. Hell, you can even fork it or you can fork sysvinit and make it better than what you perceive Systemd to be. D...
by jmcknight
Fri Jul 31, 2015 10:18 pm
Forum: Windows
Topic: Officially pissed about stupid decisions in non-apple OS
Replies: 20
Views: 2258

Re: Officially pissed about stupid decisions in non-apple OS

Sounds like you should write an angry letter to the release team of Windows 10. I'm sure they'll get right on fixing this for you!
by jmcknight
Mon Jul 13, 2015 9:24 pm
Forum: Linux, Unix, and Assorted Madness
Topic: Solid alternatives to Debian
Replies: 61
Views: 12313

Re: Solid alternatives to Debian

PenGun wrote:
Run Slackware, man up. Sytemd is just the logical conclusion to Sys V which was always heresy.

BSD init is the one true way. You have control.

I agree. Slackware totally makes you masculine in the same way that a super hairy chest, Speedos, and the year 1998 are all entirely relevant in 2015.
by jmcknight
Fri May 22, 2015 5:42 pm
Forum: Linux, Unix, and Assorted Madness
Topic: Solid alternatives to Debian
Replies: 61
Views: 12313

Re: Solid alternatives to Debian

I'm also throwing openSUSE out there as a recommendation. While it's not technically enterprise grade like its SLED kin, it's rock solid when you're running the regular release and not Tumbleweed. I'm in the planning stages of deploying it on all development machines when my business opens our offic...
by jmcknight
Fri May 22, 2015 5:37 pm
Forum: Linux, Unix, and Assorted Madness
Topic: Solid alternatives to Debian
Replies: 61
Views: 12313

Re: Solid alternatives to Debian

Systemd makes sense for desktops and phones. It follows the style of OS X's launchd and Windows' service loop, and I was more shocked Canonicial was holding on to upstart after systemd was released. Yeah, I kind of get the impression that many (if not most) Debian developers and users are insular, ...
by jmcknight
Sat Feb 07, 2015 5:32 pm
Forum: Linux, Unix, and Assorted Madness
Topic: Is malware something we need to worry about?
Replies: 15
Views: 3091

Re: Is malware something we need to worry about?

Keeping a system secure is pretty easy when you don't think like an idiot. I tend to stick to simple things and have never had a single compromise in the years I've been administrating my own servers and in corporate environments. 1. When possible, never allow remote root access. 2. Use SSH and SCP....
by jmcknight
Wed Jan 28, 2015 9:34 pm
Forum: Linux, Unix, and Assorted Madness
Topic: I needed a new distro
Replies: 175
Views: 45804

Re: I needed a new distro

In the bit of testing I've done with Plasma 5 it seems like the transition from 4 to 5 won't be as rough as 3 to 4. Sure, it's still not done yet obviously but aside from a few bugs, I don't see anything that's really going to be a show stopper in terms of migration once it's declared stable. Plus I...
by jmcknight
Mon Jan 26, 2015 12:43 am
Forum: Linux, Unix, and Assorted Madness
Topic: I needed a new distro
Replies: 175
Views: 45804

Re: I needed a new distro

Qt5 was released too. KDE also serves as a technology demonstration platform for Qt, and the world's most visible Qt project can't lag behind. Yeah, that will inevitably result in some conflict of interest. But at the end of the day, end users want a functional and stable DE, not a tech demo! The q...
by jmcknight
Sun Jan 25, 2015 1:22 pm
Forum: Linux, Unix, and Assorted Madness
Topic: I needed a new distro
Replies: 175
Views: 45804

Re: I needed a new distro

Funny you should say that now. I'm contemplating possibly jumping ship from KDE to Cinnamon (Mint's desktop). Will probably end up sticking with KDE for at least one more upgrade cycle though! Cinnamon is a nice little desktop but more than serious technical issues, my main issues with it were UI a...
by jmcknight
Sun Jan 25, 2015 1:11 pm
Forum: Linux, Unix, and Assorted Madness
Topic: I needed a new distro
Replies: 175
Views: 45804

Re: I needed a new distro

So as strange as this is for me to say, I'm a total convert to KDE. I tried it a bunch in VirtualBox testing both openSUSE and Fedora and after some getting used to I've fallen in love with it. I have basically the same workflow as I did back when using GNOME 2 but at the same time it feels differen...
by jmcknight
Wed Feb 26, 2014 12:15 pm
Forum: Cases and Power Supplies
Topic: Suggestions for a micro ATX case
Replies: 26
Views: 9905

Re: Suggestions for a micro ATX case

I think the Define Mini is worth a look. What made you go with the Gryphon over something like the OC Formula or G1 Sniper boards? I second this. I use one myself and while it's a little big compared to some other micro ATX cases, the build quality and its features are really quite nice plus as a n...
by jmcknight
Mon Feb 24, 2014 3:15 am
Forum: Linux, Unix, and Assorted Madness
Topic: Canonical's Mir display server
Replies: 33
Views: 9592

Re: Canonical's Mir display server

I agree. I think Canonical doesn't care much about the rest of the community. But I still hope things take off for them. If things go well for Canonical maybe the rest of the community will tag along. IBM "compatible" PC's took off and IBM is no longer around in the consumer PC business, ...
by jmcknight
Thu Feb 20, 2014 3:08 pm
Forum: Linux, Unix, and Assorted Madness
Topic: Canonical's Mir display server
Replies: 33
Views: 9592

Re: Canonical's Mir display server

For all of the polotics and Mir bashing, it was the right way to go for them. Since they are running Compiz/Unity8 they might as well finish off the stack. Mir makes their life easier for Compiz and Unity 8. While it may not benefit the Linux community with code, they are currently one of the top d...
by jmcknight
Wed Feb 19, 2014 3:08 pm
Forum: Linux, Unix, and Assorted Madness
Topic: Canonical's Mir display server
Replies: 33
Views: 9592

Re: Canonical's Mir display server

Despite politics and serious licensing issues, the biggest issue I have with something like Mir is that versus Wayland, it doesn't benefit Linux or the Open Source community -- it benefits Canonical and Ubuntu only. You'd think that if it was more of a political thing as Mark Shuttleworth would love...
by jmcknight
Tue Feb 18, 2014 11:27 pm
Forum: Linux, Unix, and Assorted Madness
Topic: I needed a new distro
Replies: 175
Views: 45804

Re: I needed a new distro

I was bored and decided to give Arch another chance. That lasted about fifteen minutes once I started going down the list of how to install completely manually. Partitioning is no big deal, nor mkfs or installing the bootstrap packages, but once I got to setting up grub manually I decided I wasn't ...
by jmcknight
Tue Feb 18, 2014 2:23 am
Forum: Linux, Unix, and Assorted Madness
Topic: I needed a new distro
Replies: 175
Views: 45804

Re: I needed a new distro

Damnit -- now I want to give it another try. Any recommendations on where to start? openSUSE seems to roll a nice KDE and the last time I tried it in Debian Wheezy it was really nice and I had no problems with it. I think I'd like it a lot more if I could really force myself to use it much in the s...
by jmcknight
Mon Feb 17, 2014 11:54 pm
Forum: Linux, Unix, and Assorted Madness
Topic: I needed a new distro
Replies: 175
Views: 45804

Re: I needed a new distro

Why not XFCE? It has pretty good gnome integration, too, so you can keep the gnome utils with a nice non-tablet interface. XFCE is great but I find there to be some visual inconsistencies since most newer things these days use GTK3 where XFCE still uses GTK2 and not all newer themes provide a GTK2 ...
by jmcknight
Mon Feb 17, 2014 9:24 pm
Forum: Linux, Unix, and Assorted Madness
Topic: Canonical's Mir display server
Replies: 33
Views: 9592

Re: Canonical's Mir display server

A truly open mobile platform probably won't fly anyway, for political reasons. I'm guessing the mobile service providers won't allow it. I agree with this 100% and for a single reason -- complete openness in this market gives little space for any one carrier to really dominate the market. This is a...
by jmcknight
Mon Feb 17, 2014 9:22 pm
Forum: Linux, Unix, and Assorted Madness
Topic: Default text
Replies: 3
Views: 2879

Re: Default text

Ubuntu's default fonts are easy to read in part because they are larger. I tweak the font settings a little bit to make better use of screen real estate, at the cost of a slight decrease in readability. I've had a slightly mixed bag of font experience in CentOS. I really don't like the default subp...
by jmcknight
Mon Feb 17, 2014 9:17 pm
Forum: Linux, Unix, and Assorted Madness
Topic: I needed a new distro
Replies: 175
Views: 45804

Re: I needed a new distro

I was a very satisfied GNOME 2 user. Decided to give KDE a serious go a little over a year ago. There are still a few things I find mildly aggravating about it, but there are tweaks and workarounds for what I consider to be the egregious stuff, so I guess you could say KDE and I have made peace wit...
by jmcknight
Mon Feb 17, 2014 6:50 pm
Forum: Linux, Unix, and Assorted Madness
Topic: Default text
Replies: 3
Views: 2879

Re: Default text

Ok, partly due to my short attention span (ADHD) and the fact that I get easily bored, I just switched back to Ubuntu from Windows 7. What a sight for sore eyes. I LOOOOVVVVEEE the Ubuntu default text. It is so much easier to read and easier on the eyes. I'm not sure how it is for Windows 8, but I ...
by jmcknight
Mon Feb 17, 2014 5:26 pm
Forum: Linux, Unix, and Assorted Madness
Topic: Canonical's Mir display server
Replies: 33
Views: 9592

Re: Canonical's Mir display server

I think Intel pulling support for Mir was a telling move. Sure, Mr. Shuttleworth would love to chalk it up to politics and nothing else. The fact remains that Mir is a Canonical interest and not a Linux interest. Why should a company like Intel be forced to dance to the tune of Canonical when any wo...
by jmcknight
Mon Feb 17, 2014 5:21 pm
Forum: Linux, Unix, and Assorted Madness
Topic: I needed a new distro
Replies: 175
Views: 45804

Re: I needed a new distro

Over the many years I've been using Linux, I've given KDE a serious go and have yet to find a use for it as my day-to-day workstation DE. I love its features and love the way it's developed versus GNOME, but from a usability standpoint I just don't find myself to have good workflow with it without r...
by jmcknight
Mon Feb 17, 2014 2:20 pm
Forum: Linux, Unix, and Assorted Madness
Topic: I needed a new distro
Replies: 175
Views: 45804

Re: I needed a new distro

I'm willing to beta test stuff, but I'm not going to have my production environment be a beta test. If a company is producing a product, sure dog food your own stuff, but I'll pass on it. ...and this is why I pass on Fedora and the non-LTS Ubuntu releases these days, for any system I don't consider...
by jmcknight
Mon Feb 17, 2014 1:15 pm
Forum: Linux, Unix, and Assorted Madness
Topic: I needed a new distro
Replies: 175
Views: 45804

Re: I needed a new distro

I've heard people say that CentOS is "boring" because it's not bleeding edge. While that's a fair assessment, that sort of review tells me that these people don't use Linux for anything remotely serious like having a job that depends on it. Sure, some aspects of it are old but when you re...
by jmcknight
Mon Feb 17, 2014 1:05 pm
Forum: Linux, Unix, and Assorted Madness
Topic: Canonical's Mir display server
Replies: 33
Views: 9592

Re: Canonical's Mir display server

I still think Canonical has done more to raise awareness and adoption of Linux on the desktop than all the other distros combined; they've also managed to put together a pretty solid distro that walks the line between stable (but outdated) and new features. Yes, I find some of what they're doing an...
by jmcknight
Sun Feb 16, 2014 6:10 pm
Forum: Linux, Unix, and Assorted Madness
Topic: Canonical's Mir display server
Replies: 33
Views: 9592

Re: Canonical's Mir display server

Mir is great in theory, but it really just highlights Canonical's fracturing of the community and standards. Ubuntu and its derivatives are their own beast and then you have the rest of the Linux world. Yes, innovation is important but when it ultimately spits in the face of the people's work you've...
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