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.

Xorg, XLibre, Big Tech, and Ethics

Posted on by Robin

The people who make the Wayland display server for Linux really really reeeeeeally want everyone to use it, even though it offers less capability for jobs like multiple monitor, features to enhance display for the visually impaired, and even has a habit of breaking applications that run flawlessly on the old X11 display server. In almost axiomatic fashion, Red Hat (owned by IBM) took over Xorg and freedesktop.org using the predictable and reliable embrace -> extend -> extinguish strategy. Both are run by Red Hat employees, Big Tech Bucks back it up.

But since Red Hat et al wants everyone locked into Wayland, They’ve effectively killed X11, hoping it would die and fade away by attrition. It hasn’t been properly maintained, thousands of code commits have been ignored, and Wayland shoved down everyone’s throat like systemd and PulseAudio were (both Red Hat projects). Naturally a good software project that suffers from such neglect may be forked so that it can continue. That is nothing new to the Free and Open Source Software world.

Enter XLibre:

The new fork of the Xorg X11 display server, already finding support in several Linux distributions as well as FreeBSD. Attacked, as expected, by those who hoped to kill Xorg off and replace it with Red Hat’s own Wayland display server, it has met with some still resistance from those who would “embrace -> extend, and -> extinguish” the old reliable and popular X11.

But this time the resistance is downright venomous and hateful. Those who embrace it are “Nazis” and selfish and yes, “Jew-lovers.” Waitaminute – who was it that waged a genocidal holocaust against Jews? Oh yeah, the Nazis. Strange that supporters of the new fork should be referred to as both Nazis and “Jew-lovers” in the same breath, but there it is. Along with other atrocious insults, accusations, and even death threats.

FOSS is known for freedom, including the freedom to copy, alter, fold, spindle, and mutilate free software for any purpose. Forks aren’t some rare occurence in the FOSS comminity. Gnome was forked to produce the lightweight and common-sense MATE desktop and nobody screamed “Nazis” at the MATE devs. So why this one?

MONEY. That’s all.

Big Tech is behind Wayland and vendor-lock-in to yet more of Red Hat’s (IBM, Microshit, Oracle, et al) preferred default software. Everyone is supposed to fall in line just as they did with the systemd and pulseaudio software. Those who don’t bow the knee are outsiders. But since Big Money is behind Wayland and every effort was made to kill Xorg, this time it’s not just “outsiders,” but “Nazis.”

Large portions of the FOSS world have gone batshit crazy with woke ideology and hostility to godliness, family values, “cis” males, white people, and non-communist/socialist/leftist leanings.

XLibre doesn’t care about your color, your politics, your sex life, or any of those categories. Their focus is strictly on the CODE, that’s all.

I’m a fanboy already, even though it hasn’t showed up in GhostBSD yet, GhostBSD supports it and will include in future releases. So will OpenMandriva, Devuan, and others. Freedom still matters to enough of us to make this X11 server stable, well-maintained, current, and awesome as ever.

Ideologically-Driven Tech Choices

Posted on by Robin

Most of my readers know how ideologically-driven I am, even down to my choices of software, operating systems, every. Little. Thing.

  • Mozilla – makers of the most popular web browser in the history of ever – went “woke” to the point of firing their CEO for daring to express an opinion (personally, not as a representative of the company) that wasn’t “politically correct” and conflicted with the toxic “wokeism” that has infected the country. When they did this (and a bunch of other stupid things they’ve done to Firefox since then), I dumped Firefox and switched to Brave browser.
  • Goya food brands was raked over the coals for daring to support Israel against the terrorists who have always sought to destroy them. When the media did that, I dumped a favorite (and ideologically left-leaning) food brand and switched to Goya.
  • Fox News – previously a reliable source of unbiased news – decided to compromise their own credibility and neutrality and start appealing to the far left. When Fox News did that, I switched to Newsmax.

I have a long and distinguished history of making choices based almost entirely on ideology as of first importance. I won’t settle for or do business with unethical companies like Google or Microshit. Not when there are viable alternatives! And if and when there are no viable alternatives, I’d rather do without than pay anything to an unethical business. Is that weird? Excessive? Obsessive? Maybe so, but I don’t care.

Now I’m talking about more than just some little bit of software, like a single web browser among hundreds to choose from. This time it’s an entire ecosystem which is supposed to a free, open-source, globally cooperative effort to produce and maintain the Linux kernel itself. It, too, has now sold out, gone woke, and abandoned the ideals that made it great. Right down to the very core – the Linux kernel itself – it’s ideologically unsupportable for me. Here is why:

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2024/10/russian-coders-removed-from-linux-maintainers-list-due-to-sanction-concerns/

Linux kicked out all of it’s Russian maintainers – because they’re Russians. How dare they! And since that wasn’t enough,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Sf0epTxkTE

They have changed the Code of Conduct to preclude “politically incorrect” contributors from working on the Linux kernel.

It’s official, folks: Linux has gone woke.

I’ve been a ‘nixer for years and years! Can I actually walk away from my beloved Linux family after all these years over “mere” ideology? You bet your booty I can. There are still alternatives to choose from. And I’ve already made the switch! More about that in my next post.

Systemd – again

Posted on by Robin

I got over my fear of systemd after a bit, and my “daily driver” (a Linux-user’s term for his main, personal Linux distribution of choice) has been MX-Linux for the last 3 years or so. It “has” systemd (and elogind) “as a dependency” but “doesn’t use it,” whatever that means. I didn’t care if the software was “there and unused,” until I read recently that it seems destined to replace sudo (root access) and then found this article which describes the newest update to systemd boasting “42% less UNIX philosophy.”

“It’s more efficient,” advocates say. Maybe so. One commenter on Diaspora, Aladar Mezga, described the argument this way:

One-world government is more efficient than having 196 countries, but is that really better?

The UNIX philosophy is all about efficiency but also simplicity.

Another quote:

The UNIX philosophy says to use many little tools that have a limited functionality in which they excel, but can easily cooperate with other tools. If one of those tools goes haywire (no more maintainers, project gets hijacked, whatever), it is a pretty serious issue, but chances are a similar tool exists that can at least temporarily take its place. Or people create a fork. Or at least for a while the tool won’t be used.

Systemd has occupied so much that any serious issue with it may be a death sentence for lots of Linux machines. You bought yourself that fancy 10-in-1 tool instead of 10 simple tools and suddenly you notice that a wire in the power cable must be broken: Your fancy tool is dead and you can’t do anything anymore…

The same old fear comes back reading that article and the renewed debate over systemd. I was not a little freaked out that systemd wants it’s own password, which I think is extremely weird. Systemd is trying to become “the one ring to rule them all,” and now it’s owner (IBM) has closed the source code.

Cars were simple enough to repair with silly things like bailing wire and duct tape before they got all computerized and dependent on microchips that cost a zillion and twelve dollars to replace. Sure the computer-car is more efficient in one sense, but far less efficient in another sense. It’s that other sense of the word that has renewed my old fear of systemd.

I’m still using MX-Linux 21 (Debian “Bullseye”), which is supported until 2026. But most folks have moved onto to MX-Linux 23, based on the latest Debian Stable. I’m considering antiX again, and I can always add Xfce to it for a completely systemd-free OS that is nearly identical to what I’m using and retains all the cool MX tools and wizardry that has spoiled me rotten. But I’m not sure I even need a full desktop environment anyway. Maybe Icewm isn’t so bad. I’m less scared of learning to use a window manager than I am of this new IBM-owned “Ring of Power” software on my computer vying for root access and control of every. little. thing.