Several issues that cropped up recently see me casting about, looking for a change of Linux distribution. I think the 3rd search result on Google for “ubuntu unity horrible” best sums up my thoughts regarding the direction Ubuntu is heading (for those too lazy to click, the thread title is “Unity, the most terrible Linux experience of my life“; this discussion runs to 13 pages).
Before I waffle off into lawn-minding territory, let’s just say I wholeheartedly agree that Unity is the “Windows Vista moment” in Ubuntu’s development history. If you’re not looking to criticise my commentary and get told to “get off my lawn“, you can click here and skip the curmudgeonly reminiscing. Whatever you do, don’t mention Windows ME!
I’ve dabbled with Linux on-and-off over the years, but my main use of UNIX-ey systems was with Big Iron — Sun, d|i|g|i|t|a|l, IBM, HP and so on. To this day I would still prefer to work on VMS boxen but, am not going back to a four-foot-high monster in my office. Besides, HP/Compaq screwed the pooch on the hardware side.
Thirty years playing, and working, with computers. I cut my GUI teeth on SunOS 3.2 back in the late 1980s, also dabbling with the original Macintosh for some desktop publishing work; but, the main place work got done using computers was at the command line.
Fast-forward through 20-odd years using various systems, paralleled by the rise and rise of Microsoft Windows, I was relatively at-ease with Windows XP. I’ve heard various remarks about Microsoft making it “too good”; well, no surprise there. As Gates did to Apple with the original version of Windows, he’d done the same to VMS for the underlying system by taking all the good bits for the Windows NT core.
But, Vista? Nooooo!
Some money-grubbing moron in the bowels of Redmond City (and, I mean that as-in they need cast back into the sewers from whence they came) decided development of the next incarnation of their desktop was taking too long. Vista is the result of handing a pre-alpha piece of software to a marketing team. Lipstick on a pig, followed by extensive use of Photoshop. I suspect their sole concern technical quality-wise was avoiding a repeat of the Windows 98 keynote BSOD. Everything else was a disaster.
Myself, virtually the entire business community, and other more tech-savvy computer users stuck to Windows XP for years. You’ll still find XP in a huge number of offices, and the pressure was such that Microsoft withdrew — at least twice — planned end-of-support schedules. Enough really big companies rely on thousands of XP desktop installs to make failure to provide security fixes something that could see Microsoft in court, and crucified throughout the press.
I recall interviewing for a contract, and being asked about Vista by the hiring manager. He was unaware Windows 7 was in the works, and my advice to not allow staff Vista pending the Microsoft developers fixing marketing’s screw-up didn’t go down too well. Had I been brutally frank, I would have told him, “anyone coming into the office asking for Vista on their desktop or laptop because they, have got it at home and, like it urgently needs removed from any decision-making process beyond which colour paperclips are ordered”.
When a Vista laptop entered our house, one that was a victim of Microsoft’s pressure on vendors not to write XP device drivers for newer hardware, I stuck SUSE Linux on it. It was perfect for my Monster, and he spent an enormous amount of time playing various games on it — and doing the odd bit of homework.
By 2008, I was dual-booting my desktop machine; XP for work developing software that required Windows, and Ubuntu to dabble with. Moving back to the UK, and catching up with old friends, saw me starting to switch other people over to Ubuntu. There’s more than one friend who’s a musician, so I took a good long look at the Ubuntu Studio derivative. Immediately disliked the desktop, so started looking at selectively installing relevant packages on top of ‘base’ Ubuntu. Well, we didn’t get the band back together again but, I found a pretty impressive set of tools.
Common job(s), common needs
Now, having sworn off Ubuntu due to Unity, I’m looking at Linux Mint. If I can get the full set of audio-visual tools installed, that’s where I’m heading.
Prior to going though, I’ve learned a few tricks to Ubuntu customisation and intend to apply them. Being open-source, it’s relatively easy to make things just the way you’d like them. I’ve created bootable USB versions several times; they’re incredibly useful when it comes to quickly installing a system. Now, though, I’m going to attempt something a little more ambitious – a Live version which suits me, contains a toolset geared to general use, and a setup which is conducive to working on Wikinews.
To keep on-topic for the Editors´ blog, a brief digression into news…
Several days ago, one of my fellow Wikinewsies pointed me at this brave soul streaming his city’s bombardment live from Syria. As with all wars, it involves long periods of boredom punctuated with bouts of extreme violence.
One session of streaming, nearly four-and-a-half hours long, saw the building the camera is in hit. Another strike close-by came a few minutes later. The clip/”report” you see to the right is excerpts from the entire 4½ hrs of footage, obtained using Linux tools.
Those tools should, relatively easily, all fit on a bootable single-layer DVD. Not just those, but an extensive range of other useful programs. Graphics manipulation, sound editing, office tools, and on and on.
Not only would such a DVD be useful for getting a familiar environment at any PC you sit down in front of, security is important. An environment secure, and comprehensive, enough that “Baba Omer” in Homs could use it to get information out; that a more-comfortably situated editor can edit the footage, and prepare relevant graphics; edit, spell-check and grammar-check, the appropriate copy.
That self-same “comfortably situated” editor may have their own needs for security and privacy. Government after government is instituting poorly thought-out laws which could easily see an enthusiastic citizen journalist jailed.
Taking what I know, and the building blocks offered throughout the Linux ecosphere, let’s see how I get on making a Wikinewsie’s Live DVD.
I suspect there is enough work in this to merit its own blog for coordination and discussion,…