This Weeks Distro is...

Manjaro Budgie Desktop

I've gotten a little used to the Budgie Desktop after installing the SwagArch version of it.  I liked the SwagArch distro but (there's always a but) I find some of the updates to not be ready for install but showing up in Pamac (Add Software) and the updates not having the right credentials(?), showing errors and not updating.  Usually the next day the updates would push through but I'm too nitpicky to overlook this and want to do the updates when they show available.  Nothing against SwagArch, it is a fine Budgie desktop and the only desktop environment that SwagArch offers.  I just don't think they have the community that Manjaro has, and the person that runs SwagArch can't do everything as fast as larger, more supported distros.  After writing that last sentence it kind of makes me want to switch back.

Manjaro has basically the same desktop, an Arch-based OS with all the same features, except the Manjaro Budgie comes with a few more programs that I don't use and doesn't include programs like Gimp that I do use.  I can always remove the programs I never use and add Gimp and Inkscape with Pamac, which is probably the best modern Package Manager that I've used, which isn't based on a lot.

Budgie on its own is not very customizable through Settings and the Budgie Desktop Settings.   I can't put my finger on it but it seems when I compare the settings manager in XFCE to the settings manager in Budgie I seem to be missing some things.  Also, I installed the XFCE4 Terminal, keeping Gnome Terminal in case it creates a problem, so I could set some transparency in terminal. I did add Screenfetch to get the system info to printout when I open terminal.  As far as the desktop, the top panel lacks a lot of customization, like right-clicking on the Workspace Switcher and being able to add rows, so to keep my top bar clean, I just have 2 desktops instead of my usual 4.

I do like a lot of things with Budgie.  I say that the top panel is not that customizable but it does allow you to add applets to the center of the panel, which is a plus.  I do like the weather applet allowing you to show the weather on your desktop, sort of like Conky.  I also added Plank, the launcher at the bottom of the desktop.  It's stupidly simple, which is the description of it in Pamac because you just right-click on any open program that shows up in Plank after it has been launched and select "Keep in Dock".  There is no more customization that you can do.  I've used Docky and Cairo but for the simplicity of Budgie, I thought Plank was best suited.  Just remember to add Conky and Plank commands to your autostart in Budgie Desktop Settings.  I was able to disable the IPv6 in my Ethernet settings following the instructions in the ArchWiki on IPv6 to make my VPN support a little happier.  Manjaro has its own wiki but doesn't have the instructions that the ArchWiki has. I haven't tried adding any themes yet, I'm just using the stock themes that came with Budgie but I would like to try a different Icon theme.  Also, I did see a button theme that I want to try on Reddit, sort of a block style, but I don't know how that would look on programs that I use that don't take up much real estate on my desktop.  I've installed  Dropbox since the screenshot, which I installed using the nautilus-dropbox package in Pamac using the AUR repository.  It worked like a charm and Pamac even added Dropbox to my autostart in Budgie Desktop Settings as well as the icon in the top panel.  Now if the thunar-dropbox in XFCE works this well I will be a happy camper.  I've always used the script on the Dropbox download page.

Speaking of Conky, I'm now using it.  I used it back in the old days before Debian moved from Gnome 2 to the modern Gnome 3 style and Ubuntu switching over to its dock style.  I was watching a Solus Budgie review on YouTube and ran across a video by NeonCipher that was a Conky how-to guide and he shared his conky.conf file.  So I downloaded it and made the changes to match my old Acer laptop, like my external IP address that shows up in my screenshot for my privacy.  I've commented the real external IP line out for the screenshot then moved the '#' to the one shown in the screenshot.  I then added my "Manhattanhenge" background that I found on Bing. 

One thing that really surprised me was that late last night Conky was showing me using over 5G or my 8G memory and I didn't have any programs open, and the list of processes shown on my Conky did not show anything using over 5%.  (While I was writing this my memory usage was just under 6G.)  A restart was required for me to fix this since for me to open terminal and look at my processes that were running and killing the PID's would have taken me longer than the restart.  I haven't run Conky on my XFCE SSD yet so I don't know if that is common on my setup or the way I use my OS or if it's a Budgie thing.  Between this issue and the amount of customization allowed in Budgie are the only negatives I have when it comes to using Budgie.  Then again the lack of customization is one of the things I like about Budgie.  So far when it comes to desktop environments Budgie ranks 3rd, behind KDE and XFCE, and above Gnome and Cinnamon.  One day I'll run Mate, but that will probably be a ways off.  I liked this Budgie so much I made a backup of it for easy re-installation if I want to use it again or load it on my main SSD.  I just might use this as my 'go to' OS but I've got to try Manjaro XFCE on a fresh install and compare.

On a different note, I've started adding more links in these 'reviews' to help you and to help my failing memory.

A Quiet Life in the Country by T.E. Kinsey, Book 1 in the Lady Hardcastle Murder Mysteries Series

I've always enjoyed a lot of the BBC and our PBS show we get here in the states and really enjoy shows like Father Brown (on my TBR list), Doctor Blake, Miss Fisher Murder Mysteries and even more modern shows on murder mysteries.  I was searching through Kindle Unlimited and found the Lady Hardcastle Mystery book series and I thought I would give the first one a try.  While it is a simple read, it is also available as a listen and read, so the Audible download is free, too.  One weird thing about this series is this is the first book but it seems we've missed so much of Lady Hardcastle's life as a spy as she made her way from China, where her husband was killed to India.  At this time Kinsey has stated he's satisfied leaving that a mystery but references left in the book show the Lady to have had an exciting life before moving to Gloucestershire for the quiet life.

Lady Emily Hardcastle and her Lady Maid and best friend Florence (Flo) Lawrence move into semi-exile after their trek across southern Asia and relocating from bustling early 1900 London to Gloucestershire in the country.  Naturally, on their first-morning walk, they find a man that had committed suicide in the woods, or it appears that way until the Lady and Flo point out inconsistencies at the scene and all clues turn to murder.

As Lady Hardcastle gets introduced to the local upper society she is invited to a party and while she wants to investigate the murder, she volunteers Flo as a server at the party so she can scout around, and also hunt her down some real booze. The next morning another murder has happened, this time at the party and theft of a rare hen sized egg emerald has been stolen also.  This being a Lady Hardcastle book she naturally solves the crime along with her Lady Maid Lawrence, who just happens to be trained in martial arts.

T. E. Kinsey writes a simple turn of the century book that is easy to read but what makes is better is the narration of Elizabeth Knowelden, transforming you the reader back to 1908 and coves the charactors really good.  This first book is very relaxing and does not get boring anyplace in the book.  Well, not for me anyway.

So at this time if this sounds like your type of book and you are Kindle Unlimited member, and enjoy audiobooks then this might just be right up your alley.

I give this 8 of 10.  Very refreshing.

A Quiet Life in the Country by T.E. Kinsey

Book 1 in the Lad Hardcastle Murder Mysteries Series

 

SwagArch, Yet Another Arch Distro On My Computer

This time it's SwagArch and it was probably the easiest and quickest to install.  SwagArch uses the Calamares installer for the easy install. On the SwagArch home page it shows a location screen on the installer, and I must've blown through it or sometimes my had trembles and I double click and I could have blown through it that way.  That was my only hiccup with the install, I was on Eastern Daylight Time instead of Pacific Daylight Time.

On my first boot the night light has been set to a temperature of 4800 for easier nighttime computing, supposedly making it easier to sleep after playing on the internet before bedtime, but I don't have that problem.  Thank you Doctor!

This is the first time I've posted screenshots without any customization, unless you call correcting my location a customization.

This is a minimal install and I have no idea what flavor I have.  The about screen shows the Gnome but the main page says XFCE and Distrowatch.org shows Budgie.  That's a little confusing but no deal breaker.

Like I said before, the install is minimal.  No Favorites on the menu, so if it is XFCE I'll change that to Whiskermenu.  The desktop is running Plank for a launcher, so that is customized to what I like.  The minimal install only has Gimp and Simple Scan in Graphics, Calendar in Office, Firefox in Internet, Cheese, Gnome MPV, and Music in Sound & Video.  System Tools and Utilities do not have enough programs loaded to have a scroll bar, and when you click All, the programs are not alphabetized but listed in the categories the programs fall in.  Pamac is the software handler and AUR is already set up, all you have to do is toggle the switch.

What I haven't found yet is a way to change themes or change the top bar.  Right clicking doesn't bring up anything on the bar or the desktop, so I get to play around on Google to learn a few things about SwagArch.  In two or three days I'll either love it or move on, but my first impression is that SwagArch is a laid back kind of OS, a complete opposite of KDE.  I just hope I can customize this to the way I can love it instead of like it.  My hat goes off to Mike Krüger, the name listed on the copyleft.

Finally, I've got My XFCE the way I like it.

After a couple of weeks fiddling around with Manjaro XFCE I've got it the way I like it. Now I want to try KDE again, without blowing it up like last time.  So I'm going to load another SSD in my notebook and load it over where I had my ArchLabs XFCE.  This time I"m going to get it where I want it and make an image of it so I can always have that setup and then load Dropbox.  After that, I'll erase my XFCE and reload it, just so I can make an iso copy of that set up too.  Hopefully when Amazon has their big sale in the middle of July I'll by my third SSD and make an ISO image of my Windows recovery partition and so I can have Windows on an SSD.  There's nothing terribly wrong with Windows, except for the updates taking a very long time to download and update.  Linux has got me spoiled.

If anybody wants to follow a good (okay great) news contributor follow Jason Evangelho, who is published online at Forbes and is on Twitter as @killyourfm.  Jason kicks out some really good Linux articles that I really enjoy.  I now have to go and see if the website he killed by mentioning them in one of his articles, "How To Test Drive 200+ Linux Distributions Without Ever Downloading Or Installing Them". 

Spearhead:by Adam Makos

The real name of this book is "Spearhead: An American Tank Gunner, His Enemy, and a Collision of Lives in World War II". I don't know why I chose this book other than maybe thinking about my Uncle, who fought in Italy.  

This is a book seen through an American tanker's eyes, along with researched observations of some of the dead, and interviews with the few that lived.  Spearhead also includes interviews with a German tanker that was a gunner in one of the three German tanks left to keep Cologne from being taken by the American forces.  The common theme in this book is that both sides were not out with the main mission of killing the enemy, but to keep their "tank family" alive.

Spearhead is a book about Clarence Smoyer, a tanker that came to France three weeks after D-Day and the book picks up about two months after that Normandy invasion with the Germans exiting France.  Makos takes through this time, intertwining the lives of the people surrounding Smoyer, including the "dough's" to covering the life of a German tanker, Gustav Schaefer, and his and his tank family's interaction of their Panzer tank and their confrontation with the American Pershing tank.

Spearhead is a simple, easy to read book that is a re-written telling of stories put into history colored by Makos verbiage and some small dramatization.  The book ends with Smoyer fighting PTSD brought on by seeing a video of a car traveling down the street and being shot up by the American tanks, only to find out minutes later it was carrying civilians.  To try to find out what really happened he goes to Cologne to meet with Gustav and talk about what went happened on the streets of where they battled.

I teared up reading the last chapter, having to stop and relive the last time I talked with my Uncle.  My wife was doing all our family history and the only person that would talk about my father's service in the Pacific and my Uncle's service in Italy was another Uncle.  I guess both my father and Uncle had PTSD and neither would talk about it.  One thing my Uncle told me was that when he and the men under him were in a house in Italy it started taking artillery hits so my Uncle ordered his men into an empty swimming pool in the back yard for protection. When half his men were in the pool it took a direct hit, killing everyone inside the pool.  He cried.  We didn't ask him any more questions.

I really like this book.  It's been a long time since I've read a non-fiction book and I think I will read a couple of more this year.

I rate this an 8 of 10.

Spearhead: An American Tank Gunner, His Enemy, and a Collision of Lives in World War IL by Adam Makos

Gone Haunting in Deadwood by Ann Charles Book 9 of the Deadwood Mysteries

This has been the best of the Deadwood Mysteries that I've read yet.  Violet Parker really becomes the "Scharfrichter" in this book and takes her crew to Slagtown to take on the Hunter and is scouts, to try to become the Queen of Slagtown.  Violet starts getting comfortable with her new powers, well comfortable might be generous but she finds she can draw from her power easier than before.  This book has a lot going for it and has more action than any of the other books in this series.  Okay, maybe action as in fighting, not action as in time spent with Doc, her boyfriend, but there is that action too.

I give this a solid 8 of 10.

Gone Haunting in Deadwood by Ann Charles
Book 9 of the Deadwood Mysteries

Rattling the Heat in Deadwood By Ann Charles, Book 8 in the Deadwood Mysteries

Short review.  In keeping in the Violet Parker fashion of the paranormal, we find our Scharfrichter, trying to learn about becoming an executioner and being a Time Keeper in her own, reluctant way.  Between being a single mother of twins, her job, being chased and hounded by the local police version of Rockford, and fantasizing and actually having coitus with her boyfriend, Violet actually does chase some ghosts and demons.

This is a fun little series, it's easy to read, and Ann Charles has proven that she can be unpredictable as the story keeps stretching out to what will be the 11th book coming out around Christmas 2019.

Now it's on to book 9.  Why, because it's there.

I rate this 6 out of 10, it's a good series.

Rattling the Heat in Deadwood By Ann Charles
Book 8 in the Deadwood Mysteries

Frank Zappa & Captain Beefheart - Muffin Man 1975 Live

For some reason when I woke up and started snooping around on the internet I ran across an article that talked about Frank Zapp's "Mud Shark" song.  After that I watched 3 interviews with Zappa.  He's He was very anti-corporate and loved our countries freedoms, especially the pursuit of arts without government interference, as long as nobody was physically hurt.  He felt if you don't like it, don't listen to it, or don't watch it.  Search for his MTV interview to get his real feelings about the corporate music industry.

The reason for this post was the above and I wanted to post Zappa's guitar talent.  I love a good guitar and he can command his guitar.  In one interview he said he never played the same solo twice, that his solo's depended on his venue, his band and how they were feeling and the mood and jokes going on on stage and in the audience.

This is Zappa shredding.

Typical Weekend, Typical Monday

My typical weekend was the same as it ever was... same as it ever was... 
I fought with the Fedora distro Saturday and gave up.  The repositories and RPM's are just way over my head.  Then again I was using their KDE distro and there just wasn't the same amount of love on finding things about Fedora KDE 30 help.

It wasn't a total waste, I'm now using ArchLab's Cinnamon OS, which is a variance of Arch, and I think they got it right.  I didn't have the easy GUI like Ubuntu or Manjaro, but no coding, it just asks you a lot of questions and even lets you pick either a window interface like I3 or other Linux OS's where people use terminal more than a graphical interface like Gnome, KDE, XFCE, and few other choices.  I chose Cinnamon but I like XFCE better, but when you get down to it, it's really all about what programs you run and what distro you use is cake decorations.  You get the same job done with the same programs, Linux programs that is.  But Archlabs got it right.

My typical Monday was...
Starting out on the wrong foot.  My alarm said it was 80 degrees when I woke up.  80 degrees at 5:00 AM, but today was a dry heat.  It was over 96 degrees at my desk in the warehouse.

I did find a great article on the web, African Geographic Magazine Photographer of the Year.  Follow the link and check it out.  

I got my new mattress in and I'm so looking forward to a good nights sleep.  I hope this does it.  OK, I sleep okay but my back is killing me and I hope this does it.

EDIT...
I did find an interesting article at Forbes on another GUI to load Arch Linux.  Check it out here.  I know what I'm doing later this week.

Where's Your Operating System - BLOWN UP, SIR! (and other random distro thoughts)

A little Stripes (1980) humor in the title.  In my tinkering over the last couple of weeks, I blew up one drive trying to install an operating system on a drive plugged into a USB port and didn't realize it.  I guess the  SDD drive didn't like me working around the fdisk program in my file systems.  With my XFCE operating system on SDA and the SDD drive in my USB, I was installing KDE on being SDB. something happened and it wouldn't get into grub.  Rather than researching it out I just reinstalled my Manjaro XFCE.  If anybody reads this and knows what they are doing then I'm sure they will probably scratch their head and try to figure out what I mean.  The hazards of learning on my own.

I really like the look and feel.  I know better now.  Here's a screenshot from my new install and it is basically the same, except this time I've used 3 panels at the top of my desktop.  I'm posting 3 different screenshots, but I really like the "Manhattanhenge" picture that I found and I will be using it mostly.  I like the bee picture but it's too bright for my eyes and the turtles are a favorite.  I love my Conky Manager and having the time standing out like it does on my desktop!

 

My next attempt will be either KDE Neon or Pop!_OS with me leaning to KDE Neon.  Strike the Pop!_OS, I'm staying away from Ubuntu and distros based on Ubuntu.  I want to expand my experience and learn new commands.  In Manjaro I've learned a lot.  Manjaro KDE really took a long time to set up to where I like it, and XFCE wasn't much quicker even though I have a little more experience with XFCE than KDE.

I want to try the MY Linux distro, but it's an XFCE so I'm putting it off until I look more into the KDE Plasma experience.  My Linux is based on Debian, like Ubuntu, and I've read nothing but good reviews on My Linux and true Debian distros. Another distro I'm definitely trying will be Zorin OS 15.  Forbes ran an article about Zorin and it makes me rethink how I felt about Zorin.  A few years ago I saw the Zorin OS and saw they had a free version and a paid version and jumped to the gun that to get the full experience you would have to get the paid version but it looks like I was wrong.  Zorin offers the paid version and gives better hands-on support while keeping the free version just like all the other distros.  With Windows 7 going bye-bye systems like Zorin could benefit from that.  Maybe not as much as the Canonicals, Red Hats, and other enterprise type systems with Zorin getting business from people that don't want to pay the price of these giants.

Back to my Manjaro install.  The dark themes I like to use make sites like Bing hard to use by blacking out the search entry field when I use Firefox.  I like Firefox but can't work around that problem.  The one GREAT thing I like about Firefox when comparing Firefox to Chrome or Chromium is the website notification popup screen that wants to push notifications to your computer.  Chrome and Chromium give you a yes or no, which you have to click on every time you go to one of these sites but Firefox has a drop-down menu that offers a never choice.  Maybe I'll find a workaround on that but didn't in the 30 plus minutes of me searching and playing with themes.

Enjoy your weekend!

A Wild Fright in Deadwood by Ann Charles, Book 7 in the Deadwood Mysteries Series

I like these no-brainer mystery/horror (very light on the horror) books by Ann Charles.  After reading the first two Dune books this was a welcomed vacation from books that require extra brain powerlifting.  I think this is the best in the Deadwood Mysteries series that I have read to date. This is another Violet Parker book, full-time real estate salesperson and part-time Scharfrichter, or executioner of the dead.  I don't really think on a literary sense that it is a 4 star but this series pretty good.  It sort of goes against my judgment but I really liked the book. It's fairly predictable with the romance and spookiness but Ann Charles does come up with some good twists that make this book enjoyable. I think Ill binge read what I have in this series.  I have too many aches and pains to read anything serious right now. A Wild Fright in Deadwood by Ann CharlesBook 7 in the Deadwood Mysteries Series

Manjaro KDE

I installed Manjaro KDE on a spare 128GB SDD drive that I exchanged with the Manjaro XFCE that is on my 260GB SDD and it took some work.  The Manjaro help guides that are not on the Manjaro Wiki are all outdated and even installing dropbox took me an hour until I discovered I had to install a file called davfs2 (or I think that's the name) and then the other programs that I prefer and setup took me quite a long time.  One thing about KDE is that it is probably the desktop GUI that can be individualized more than any other GUI out there.  Here's what I have for now.

And this is the XFCE I posted last month.

They both look good! Conky Manager does not play as nicely with KDE as XFCE, and I learned in XFCE what happens when you mess too much with CM.  TTY mode to correct.

When it gets down to it, other than KDE running more resources it does the same as XFCE.  It opens the programs I want and they look the same in either one.

One of my many tinkerings was the VLC player installed.  No matter what setting I tried the controls were in a separate window from the video.  I finally figured out that Manjaro KDE was using the nightly build of VLC.  After reinstalling that and installing the stable version of VLCthat part looked fine.  

I've saved my XFCE and might put it back in my laptop or leave the KDE drive in, or venture into another foray of maybe Fedora KDE, Neon KDE, or stick with the Manjaro XFCE, which I thoroughly liked. 

While typing this I've found a bug with Grammarly, Firefox is not underlining my mistakes, which is at 4 right now.  I might try Chromium or Google Chrome.  I'm not afraid of the Google spy since I use my Chromebook more than my laptop, and it's all about Google.

I would say leave me your thoughts about your KDE experience or Linux likes but no one reads these blogs I write (Grammarly now up to 7, no time to correct.) 

I have to learn how to spell Grammarly.

I Finally Installed Arch Linux, Yep

After hours and many tries, I finally got Arch Linux XFCE working.  This time instead of wiping my main drive I used an SSD drive with a SATA USB adapter to my laptop and went to town.  The fixes I had to do were so many I can't remember many of them, like getting the Network Notification in my panel, getting Pulse Audio to work, fixing Locales, adding directories and many more.  This was definitely over my head but in the end, I learned a lot. 

My biggest problem was that when I would search the Arch wiki I would have to search more for a dumbed down explanation.  I finally got to where I could use the Arch wiki.  Another problem was that Pacem and AUR were slow, compared to using Pacman, so I went to the trusty terminal and used Pacman.

I still don't have it the way I would like it, but the font rendering is something that looks like it will take me a few hours to mess with and I just don't want to do that.  If you know what you want, you can probably ease through it with minimal problems, fixing and manipulating it with just your own knowledge and not relying on the community.

The community is great.  In what I read, you really had to research your problem and let them know what you have done.  If you don't check the wiki, then you are wasting their time.  This is not a complaint from me.  If you don't check the wiki and ask a question it's like inventing the wheel again and you're just wasting their time.  Knowledgeable questions are treated business-like with just straight answers.  Sometimes it will work and sometimes it doesn't.  Just post your backup proof of your problem and then they'll get back to it.   I thought Ubuntu had good web support but Ubuntu does not hold a candle to the Arch wiki.  Then you also have the Stack Exchange and Linux Questions, both good sources for post-install questions.  Then there is GIYF.  Always Google, but never use any of these until you check the Arch wiki.

For years I've always wanted to see if I could install Arch Linux and I did, with the XFCE desktop.  I think the only issue now I don't like the fonts, and like I said earlier I don't want to spend the time researching that.  Plus I do enjoy distro-hopping, which some people don't like to hear and others live to do it in their virtual box.  Just look at YouTube for all the tutorials in all 300 plus distros available.

I like Linus because of the community.  There are a few backed by companies, like Solaris, Red Hat, Canonical, and others including Intel starting to jump in with their cloud system.  The majority of the other 300 are mostly derived from these major players and that means a lot of unpaid volunteer work.  Imagine putting in your 8 hours just to go home and working another few hours so people like me can have a decent computer system.  Now distros like Antergos have quit with rumors of Linux Mint going under.  Both of these were/are volunteer-based distros with a handful of main players behind the scenes and it's hard and sometimes unrewarding work with people not respecting the free hours put into these distros just for our convenience.

So if anybody that is behind the scenes on any distro, thank you for your time!  For me, I'll stick with Manjaro XFCE and maybe do a Manjaro KDE test.

Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert

First I have to say this was a chore for me to read.  It was a decent enough book but most of it was plotting and politics and that became a little dry for me.  Then I let my mind start serving a couple of other masters of my downtime, watching movies over the holiday weekend and spending a couple of hours (like 20+ hours) playing with Arch Linux and getting some success, so now I'm gonna move to another distro.  It's called distro-hopping.

Back to the book. This is Herbert's followup to Dune, which was published in sections in a couple of magazines before released as a book.  It was not accepted kindly by book reviewers, and I think I would have enjoyed it better if I just had read it without interruptions.  I do have to say that the last quarter of the book was a lot better than all the plotting against Paul and the politics of both sides.  The last quarter made the book worth the read.

Now, I'm going to read something much lighter that won't boggle my mind quite as much as this Dune series.

For a rating, I give it a 5, sort of a meh.

Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert

Book 2 in the Dune Trilogy, one of the many books of Dune.