* Posts by ludditus

19 publicly visible posts • joined 12 Dec 2023

Linux Mint 22.1 Xia arrives fashionably late

ludditus

> Ultimately it's all Linux under the hood and if you have the knowledge you can customize it to your hearts content.

You missed the part about Mint’s customizations breaking mate-tweak and xfce4-panel-profiles, which can be used to EASILY change the layout of MATE and Xfce in Ubuntu and Fedora and openSUSE, but not in Mint. Not all the layouts work in Mint. I wonder why... Any clue? Is it because Mint is so great that it doesn't break anything?

ludditus

This has nothing to do with disagreeing, which is a matter of OPINION.

This is about FACTS.

FACT 1: Ubuntu Pro covers all the desktop environments from Universe for 10 years.

FACT 2: Liam doesn't know anything about Ubuntu Pro. Neither do you.

FACT 3: Neither Liam nor you could be bothered to GET INFORMED about Ubuntu Pro.

I know that Linux Mint is mostly used by people who have absolutely no idea about anything, but to this point?

ludditus

> Why don't you go do yours?

Liam, if all you can do is to read the release notes of a distro, then you are the most mentally challenged expert I have ever seen! There are tests able to detect early dementia, you know.

You have absolutely NO idea about what Ubuntu Pro is and does.

You couldn't have been bothered to get informed.

Here, in my Ubuntu MATE 24.04 LTS, the Ubuntu Pro screen reads:

- ESM Infra provides security updates for over 2,300 Ubuntu Main packages until 2034.

- ESM Apps provides security updates for over 23,000 Ubuntu Universe packages until 2034.

https://ludditus.com/storage/UbuntuPro.png

The official documentation states:

- Security patching for Ubuntu Main repository for 10 years (ESM-infra)

- Security patching for Ubuntu Universe repository for 10 years (ESM-apps) (Ubuntu 16.04 LTS onwards)

- Kernel Livepatch to avoid unscheduled reboots

- Real-time kernel (Ubuntu 22.04 LTS onwards)

https://documentation.ubuntu.com/pro/services-overview/

If I run:

`pro security-status --esm-apps | grep caja`

or

`pro security-status --esm-apps | grep kate`

I get the confirmation that the respective packages (which need to be installed to be checked) are covered by ESM-apps until 2034.

You are the acme of incompetence. I cannot understand how people can still trust what you preach on The Reg.

I thought you to be the most competent person from The Reg gang. Now I have absolutely no reason to ever visit this site again.

ludditus

> Only the flagship GNOME Ubuntu has true LTS releases. All the remixes have shorter lifespans. This is not highlighted much but it matters. You don't get 5Y of support on anything except GNOME.

You know so much, and yet you fail miserably at times. Ubuntu Pro is free for up to 5 PCs, and it extends the support to 10 years for all Desktop Environments, and even for those codecs from Universe, should they have security issues. DO YOUR HOMEWORK of have the decency to admit you need to perform seppuku.

Generally, I consider people who opt for Mint to be close to mental deficiency. In my experience, Mint only adds bugs to Ubuntu.

Ubuntu MATE is the most versatile choice, should people have the minimum IQ to use MATE Tweak (mate-tweak), which allows for a quick change of the layout to any layout that can be mimicked.

Mint trying to offer a consistent layout across desktops (Cinnamon, Xfce, MATE) is commendable, but its replacing of some MATE and Xfce tools and apps with its own, including those XApps, is abusive and dumb. If anything, Xfce is “incomplete” when compared to MATE, and this is why in other distros it's supplemented with MATE apps, such as Atril. But pushing Cinnamon or Mint crap in Xfce and MATE is abject.

Also, from a visual design standpoint, Manjaro manages to create a better-looking desktop (it has abandoned MATE, but it has KDE). If I were to use Mint's own theming, I'd have to commit suicide within 90 days.

Once again: Ubuntu Pro offers 10 years support to EVERYTHING, including KDE5! And, I repeat, even to codecs. Does Mint do that? NO, and one CANNOT USE UBUNTU PRO WITH MINT. It might be made to work, but it's not supposed to.

People are too lazy to find out that Ubuntu MATE can be made to look like anything, including Windows or macOS, and they lack the necessary common sense and good taste to recognize the fact that Cinnamon has such a horrendous design guidelines and UX! Almost as stupid as GNOME's.

BTW, Mint's customization break MATE Tweak and Xfce's similar tool, xfce4-panel-profiles. As I said, Mint is junk.

FFS, a computing expert writing BS. That's you, Liam.

Python dethrones JavaScript as the most-used language on GitHub

ludditus

It's completely bollocks

TypeScript is JavaScript with syntax for types. It's a superset of JavaScript. So yeah, you count JS and TS separately, as you do with C and C++, but in the end, you shouldn't. It's C/C++ and JS/TS. And, even if I can see no numbers, only a ranking, I'm pretty sure that JavaScript + TypeScript > Python.

And they don't count the line numbers, but the distinct users.

Linux Mint 22 'Wilma' still the Bedrock choice for moving off Windows

ludditus

Re: No Bedrock choice without KDE!

> Alt+space, X should maximise a window.

That's a valid complaint. I did have this reflex since Win 3.1. Not anymore.

> Ctrl+Shift+Esc, task manager or replacement thereof.

Oh, because Ctrl+Esc is so very different, eh?

> Ctrl+Esc open the start menu

Isn't the Windows key simpler? It does have this function in Windows too! Since Windows 95 and since your keyboard started featuring this Meta/Super_L/Mod4 key. Ctrl+Esc is so Windows 3.1. We're almost 30 years past that.

> Windows+D, desktop.

This one works as intended in KDE (Meta+D = Peek at Desktop).

> Windows+R, run.

Windows and you just start writing, then press Enter, ignoring the search results. Windows+R is redundant in Windows too. It's a relic of the past.

> Win+(1-9) open the _n_th app pinned to the panel.

Very few people do that.

What you didn't consider criticizing, because it would have meant to find faults even in XFCE, is another memory muscle thing from the times of Win 3.1: CTRL+F4. In Windows, it would close the current tab in the tabbed interfaces or the current window within an MDI application. But in most Linux DEs, CTRL+F4 is used to switch to the fourth virtual workspace or desktop, unless you explicitly disable that key binding. To me, this is the most “memory muscle-breaking” issue in Linux, or in Unices as a rule. But if you disable it in KWin, Firefox will honor it, which is important to me.

> Your benefits are of no interest or importance to me, but the things I list, that you’ve never noticed, are paramount for me.

Let me list things that “you’ve never noticed” and that are most likely “of no interest or importance” to you, but they should matter.

Neither you nor the other readers (who instead bothered to vote “thumbs down”) seemed to care about a number of issues I mentioned.

1. Nobody asked about that exFAT bug in the Linux kernel for which only Dolphin has a fix (inherited from Qt; I repeat, PCManFM-Qt only uses Qt for the UI, but file operations are using GTK, as inherited from PCManFM). I could have given them a quick explanation.

2. Nobody cared that Thunar doesn’t necessarily get security patches during the lifetime of a Xubuntu/Ubuntu release; except when this is about a LTS one that gets a backport from the next non-LTS release, should this happen to include that patch. (Mint is Ubuntu LTS.)

3. Nobody realized how outrageous it is to have all file managers except for Dolphin leave you with partial, broken files, upon canceling a file copy or move. Cancel or Escape should do what it has always done in Windows, i.e., to cancel the operation and delete the partial file. Only if you kill a program or if you press CTRL+C in MS-DOS or in any shell is the outcome of a partial copy acceptable. Again, Dolphin is the only file manager to do what Windows has been doing since 1991 or 1992 (I cannot vouch for Windows 3.0).

But I was already too aggressive for today's snowflakes. “There is a large hole in the wall, this ship is going to sink!” “There is a large hole, Sir! Or else I won't listen.”

ludditus

Re: No Bedrock choice without KDE!

> there are a number of themes which include program titles with the icons in the taskbar

This has absolutely nothing to do with any theme, and you're absolutely not knowing what you're talking about. You didn't understand the issue at hand. Go away.

ludditus

Re: Migration update

> No, seriously, I would love to see some concrete information about this issue.

It destroyed my data repeatedly. And I'm not dumb. I never EVER encountered such a thing in 40 years of using computers and 30 years of using Linux. Because I was using the FUSE driver since I needed NTFS write access in Linux, and common sense otherwise.

I posted about it in this chapter on my blog:

https://ludditus.com/2024/05/27/epic-linux-saga/#12

The other references, as anecdotal as they are, they're ... for reference only. I KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO ME.

Again, I have used dozens and dozens of distros in the last 30 years. You don't know me, and you shouldn't know me. You don't trust me, but you should. I'm anything but dumb. I have never lost data in 40 years, not even from failing floppy disks, not from malware, but I lost data because of the Paragon NTFS driver. To trust the ntfs3 driver in Linux is like trusting Satan (which, of course, doesn't exist).

It claimed to have copied an entire folder structure, and it took some time (SSD, but still...), but the files were gone, and unrecoverable after unmounting. No tool on Earth could find them.

ludditus

Re: Migration update

> Linux is actually faster accessing NTFS volumes with the kernel-mode driver than Windows.

The Paragon ntfs3 driver destroys data. The Linux kernel team has not acknowledged that, but you'll find a few reports. I have lost data myself because of this stupid driver that shouldn't have tainted the kernel!

Since then, I'm back to ntfs-3g. Slower, but safer.

People assume that, if something is in the kernel, it works well. It doesn't. I wish they stopped screwing the kernel with random code.

ludditus

Re: No Bedrock choice without KDE!

With all due respect, your thinking is wrong. As the number of windows increases and GROUPING IS DISABLED, guess what? In all those desktop environments, they'll get NARROWER. And, since they'll get narrower anyway, why not start with them a little bit wider?

Think again. You literally didn't think it through.

KDE DOES NOT start with those labels 1/5 of the screen's width. But they're wider, so that what you read is meaningful. Cinnamon starts with a window at 1/12 width. I repeat, as they'll get more numerous, they'll stretch ANYWAY, so it's impossible to use your muscle memory and say "I'll hit window number 4 with my eyes closed".

You have a pathological hatred of KDE. I disliked KDE for many years, then I used REASON.

Now I hate GNOME with a passion.

ludditus

Re: No Bedrock choice without KDE!

> Choice is good, sure, but the Unix philosophy is "do one thing and do it well".

Nope. It's "Make each program do one thing well." Except that KDE is not a program; it's an environment.

Look, I was a fan of XFCE. I had my reasons to prefer Dolphin, and KRename, and Okular, and so on, so in the end I said: why not use KDE? I'm using a mixture of Qt and GTK software anyway! And XFCE is severely incomplete (with apps that have not reach version 1.0), and with CSD and non-CSD apps, some taken from MATE, so it's too much like 20 years ago, but broken by CSD!

Do you know that Qt fixes an exFAT bug in the Linux kernel, and thus only Dolphin has that bug fixed, of all the UI file managers? (PCManFM-Qt uses file operations from Gtk, inherited from PCManFM, only the UI is Qt.)

Do you know in how many file managers, when you copy a huge file and hit Cancel, so a gracious cancellation, instead of having the copied portion deleted (say, fclose() followed by remove()), you end up with a truncated file, and you don't even know it's a truncated one unless you compare the sizes? Nautilus/Files, Nemo, Caja, Thunar, PCManFM, PCManFM-Qt , they all leave the broken incomplete file. Dolphin is the only one that doesn't! Now, tell me WHEN did the file manager in Windows leave you with incomplete files? Again, not forced closing, just Cancel or ESC or whatever.

You know a lot of things I don't know. I know a lot of things you don't know. I could tell you about a certain vulnerability in Thunar that Sean Davis didn't notice, despite being the Xubuntu Technical Lead and an Xfce Core Developer. That vulnerability (unimportant by me, but I'm not the judge of CVEs) still exists in PCManFM-Qt and PCManFM, and you know why? Because nobody checked those file managers to see how they behave.

There are literally tons of crap in everything people use. They're too superficial to care. I could tell you about many things, but nobody is interested in what I have to say. They don't read my blog, which is fine per se, as it's cheaply hosted and it would crash.

But I'm stunned how people with a long experience in Linux can be so superficial. Oh, I could list how often a Linux kernel update broke something for me. For an old laptop from 2016 it broke for eternity the audio jacks (because they're two). I know the patch, I know what models it was supposed to fix, but it did so by breaking another model.

I only report bugs when there's a decent chance of getting fixed. I had in the past simple bugs closed after 8 or 12 years because they were obsolete, but not fixed (one was in gedit, and it was terribly stupid). Today, if I can't find the reason of the bug in the sources, I don't even bother, because I know that nobody will.

Linux is in shambles, but I can't use FreeBSD for a number of practical reasons. Oh, but people get ecstatic about Linux Mint! Liam, you know as well as I do that the romantic age of Linux is gone. About 500 distros have died. We only have a bunch of reasonably working distros nowadays, and their quality is pathetic.

So if I'm using AlmaLinux 9 with KDE on my home computers, this is for me the lesser evil. The crap that stinks less than Windows. But it's not much improved in the last 25 years (I only know Linux since 1994, and in the first years with it, it seemed to be improving). The BSDs are really almost as they were in 1996-1998. What a pathetic world.

ludditus

Re: No Bedrock choice without KDE!

> you do get some desktop furniture with Fluxbox (task bar, system tray, menus, multiple workspaces, dock area, date/time app, etc.)

Equinox Desktop Environment (EDE) was nice, even if nobody liked FLTK. I did.

ludditus

Re: No Bedrock choice without KDE!

> And as you say, you can (and I do) get that with Xfce, and I suspect probably Cinnamon and Mate as well.

You definitely can, but it works better in KDE. It's better implemented, I'd say.

> You get that with the Fluxbox WM, which is my go-to set-up.

Fluxbox, Openbox, etc., are not DEs. At some point, I needed fixes for some tearing that appeared in specific generations of Intel graphics, and I could apply those fixes with KWin. So Lubuntu was out of the question, because it used Openbox, which couldn't care less about that specific hack.

ludditus

Re: No Bedrock choice without KDE!

> the deal breaker is that it does not honour Windows keystrokes. That, like it or not, is the standard.

You are probably about 4 years older than I am. You have worked with EVERYTHING. Can't your memory muscle adapt to 2-3 sets of standards? How can that be? Your brain could accommodate Czech and other foreign languages, but not some keystrokes? C'mon.

> I want to see _one_ start menu, with config options, not 3. I want to see _one_ file manager, not a choice of 2 or more. _One_ text editor, etc. etc.

Speak for yourself. I want FeatherPad as a Notepad replacement, then I'm happy to have installed, simultaneously, Kate, Geany, Sublime Text, VSCodium, PyCharm, ReText, and more. Just in case. Sometimes, a specific task can be performed easier or better in a specific app, so I want to have CHOICE.

https://ludditus.com/2024/07/25/what-you-need-to-know-when-using-my-custom-almalinux-kde-iso/#8

ludditus

Re: No Bedrock choice without KDE!

> If I as a software guy and veteran nerd feel overwhelmed and disoriented with a DE

I learned Pascal under CP/M, and I've used various Unices, so I'm not that young either. I don't feel overwhelmed with a DE. Maybe with systemd.

> I'm not sure it would be a good suggestion for an average Windows user looking for an alternative.

Considering the average Windows user a bit dumb is not nice, you know.

> Cinnamon, even more than Xfce or MATE, is a much easier and more logical transition from Windows

No, it's not.

> for someone who just wants a classic desktop metaphor

Not classic enough. MATE, with a single panel, as it's preconfigured in Mint, is "more classic" (so to speak).

Cinnamon, in my view, has configuration dialogs that make a terrible waste of lateral space. Yes, screens are wider than 20 years ago, but Cinnamon is so poorly designed that it gives me cramps.

> that looks decent and is easy to operate and walk through.

Try walking through Windows' Control Panel, and then say again that KDE is disorienting. I cannot find anything in Windows, and even the search results are confusing.

ludditus

No Bedrock choice without KDE!

Everyone who wants to replicate the Windows paradigm (NOT WINDOWS ELEVEN, and no macOS contamination, but the UI metaphor of Win95/98/2k and eventually of Win7) should look for KDE, as I did. (Although MATE and XFCE can also be configured with a single, bottom panel.)

And Mint is the only mainstream distro to refuse KDE to its users. So this article is complete BS. Sorry, Liam, I appreciate you so much, just not this time.

And no, the "fix" for the increasingly wider screen is NOT a vertical panel. Also, the icons-only taskbar in Win10 and Win11 has contaminated KDE too, but I always switch from Icons-only task manager to the classic one. Why are people becoming so dumb all of a sudden? The best invention Microsoft has ever made is the Win95 metaphor, in which you see, without moving a finger, the titles of the windows of all active UI programs. Why would people prefer the macOS-style of plain icons with colored dots or underlines, which give you ZERO information?!

I'd also notice that KDE displays the captions on the taskbar much smarter than Cinnamon, MATE and XFCE: when there are only 3-4-5 windows, they're wider. In C/M/X, they're too narrow, regardless of how much unused space is available!

The only reason one would want to use the Icons-only task manager: when a vertical panel is used. Otherwise, it's just brain damage propagated from macOS to Win10 to KDE.

Linux Mint 21.3 and Zorin 17 are beta buddies

ludditus

Re: Zorin

To me, any KDE distro is close enough to Windows. If anything, GNOME is the most dissimilar, because Nautilus/Files is the only file manager in the known universe that lacks a Compact List View, something that even Windows 3.0 had. Sure thing, Cinnamon's Nemo fixes that, but Cinnamon's GUI is so poorly thought that too many clicks are needed to see and change some settings.

OTOH, in 2007 I taught a 70-y.o. lady to use GNOME2. Don't underestimate your wife; she most certainly isn't stupid.

Kernel kerfuffle kiboshes Debian 12.3 release

ludditus

Re: Fixed, done and dusted

Indeed. Unfortunately, "Debian 12.4 is released with linux-image-6.1.0-15 (6.1.66-1)," whereas 6.1.67 is what everyone needs (I just got it as kernel-lt in ELRepo for EL9).

Surely enough, that Wi-Fi-related commit in 6.1.66 that had to be reverted in 6.1.67 caused me issues in AlmaLinux 9.3 with kernel-lt from ELRepo: NetworkManager waking up the laptop from sleep, with high CPU, and failing to shutdown. Everything fine so far with 6.1.67.

Debian still seems to be lacking 6.1.0-16 aka 6.1.67 (what's with this dumb versioning scheme in Debian and Ubuntu, why can't they use the real version?).

ludditus

You didn't get it, did you? Being too busy with your crypto stuff... THE BUG WAS UPSTREAM'S, NOT DEBIAN'S! It affected 6.1.64 and 6.1.65, and (a second bug) 6.1.66 in every distro on Earth!