More on Devuan and the Old Ways

Posted on by Robin

Still a little weird on Devuan, and I suspect there are two reasons:

  • The first is the display, kind of wonky. But I installed a fully XLibre version of it which may explain that. Xorg and XLibre don’t quite agree, but Xorg is no longer developed and I refuse to go to Wayland until it’s ready. Wayland messes up everything it touches, far worse that XLibre working out a bug or two. Typing an email in Devuan’s version of Evolution became a pain in the rump because letters just run off the page and I had to use Format –> Wrap Lines maneuver on every single line. I suppose I could use an external editor, but gee whiz, why bother with Evolution or Geary at all if I have to do that? Pft.
  • The second, easily fixed, were the Refracta tools. Not as point-and-click simple as MX-Snapshot and MX-Live-USB Maker, but I was able to make a perfect, bootable copy of my existing Devuan system, then write it to a USB stick using “mintstick” and with persistence! Any changes I make running “Live” are preserved, which is nice! But then how am I supposed to install it to another HDD? No installer is present. RAWR! But, I was simply able to add the Refracta-installer to the LiveUSB and bingo, problem solved.

Again, it feels like I have to do things “the long way around” in Devuan compared to most other “one-size-fits-most” Linux OSes. But I do not fault Devuan for any of that. Devuan has to repackage everything from Debian, removing stupid bits of code that make a piece of software dependent on systemd. Almost everything in Gnome, for example, is increasingly systemd-dependent. Of course, it’s Gnome: Woke and part of the “new Linux” ecosystem that tries to make everyone use Wayland, systemd, pulseaudio, and everything else Red Hat / IBM and Big Tech wants. The “old” Linux is better, because it always worked, reliably and without stupid high demands on CPU and RAM. This crud all started when someone decided they should fix what wasn’t broken to begin with; then force “adoption” of their “solution;” and then kill off the old, unbroken, rock-stable and reliable predecessor that didn’t need any “fixing.”

Conformity is what they’re after. And that is exactly why projects like Devuan, OpenMandriva, antiX, Artix, and a host of others are emerging to preserve the “Old Ways,” if you will; the UNIX idea of “do one thing and do it well” and preserve the freedom of users to control their own equipment and software as they please. God bless the Old Ways.

Principled Action

Posted on by Robin

Dear Readers,

I found an old Gmail account I haven’t used in a while, signed in, and deleted it. Screw you, Google. I deleted Facebook and moved to Diaspora. I’m also toying with MeWe, but probably not for long since it’s centralized and even deleted a friend’s whole group because they disagreed. I also dumped Microsoft Windows®, since I have no wish to contribute to Bill Gates’ bullcrap, in favor of Linux.
Now it’s Mozilla to delete, because of this. New default setting to filter out content the new dictators don’t like. So it’s Brave browser instead of Firefox, and Evolution instead of Thunderbird. I gave Geary a shot, but when I clicked on Preferences in Geary the app would crash (at least on my current Linux distro). My Internet provider, AT&T, owns CNN Fake News. So I’m working on changing my ISP as well.
My own family thinks I’m “paranoid,” but I’d be hypocritical not to put my convictions into action. They agree that Big Tech is a big, evil problem, but they’ll go ahead and continue giving big tech control over their Internet use, social media, and privacy. No, I’m not paranoid, I’m principled and doing what principle demands.

So, those of you have read my previous post about Diaspora are probably wondering what in hell I’m doing going back there again! Well… Here’s the thing:

It’s decentralized. Meaning it’s not under the control of one single person. If one server (“pod,” in Diaspora’s lingo) goes rogue, I can jump to another or for that matter, run my own!

I’ve found ways to clean up the crap and make Diaspora what I want it to be. It takes some time to do that, but I think it’s worth the trouble. Ask me how in the comments if you’d like to try it. And,

MeWe is such a bewildering, cluttered mess by comparison. Diaspora’s user interface is intuitive and simple, in spite of the learning curve which I think is comparable to Fakebook’s. While “Groups” are a thing on MeWe, I’m able to create my own groups on Diaspora, kinda sorta, by dedicating an Aspect (category) to share exclusively with.

Call me paranoid or a conspiracy type if you want, but one thing you can’t call me is a hypocrite. I’m acting on my beliefs, not just whining about what’s wrong with the rest of the world.