Time to Catch Up

I've read three books and a new distro, I just reloaded Manjaro XFCE, that I need to post here, but with working in the warehouse, where the temperature is 100 degrees in the afternoon and the only air movement is from swamp coolers adding humidity to an already 30% humidity.  It doesn't sound like much but when the outside temperature is 110 degrees it starts getting a little soupy.  This is the forecast for today;

Without getting into the specifics, which nothing has really changed, here's a view of my new desktop.

Either way, enjoy your labor day!

ArcoLinux Awesome is an Awesome Window Manager

While ArcoLinux is awesome, I've installed the Awesome WM (window manager) using ArcoLinuxD.  ArcoLinux is based on Arch Linux, the AUR (Arch Users Repository) and ArcoLinux customizations of the Arch Linux.  Since I'm not a programmer, I followed the YouTube Channel of Erik Dubois and his instructions for installing Awesome. 

ArcoLinux has everything for almost everybody if you are looking for an easy alternative to Arch Linux without the command line installation.  If you do the ArcoLinux "D" installer you just go to Erik's YouTube page and search for Awesome, or whatever flavor you want and follow the video instructions.  For me, since I've been watching a lot of Erik.s videos I knew the first Awesome video is # 295, but you need to start at # 294 to get the instructions to install ArchLinuxD using Calamari, which installs the base, or basics of what you need to install any of the flavors that I listed below.  Just looking at the numbers, most people do not install the "D" but install the vanilla ArcoLinux.  I chose the "D" after watching DistoTube's YouTube video of his install of ArcoLinuxD Awesome it look plain and easy enough for me.  DT's distro-hopping this summer and his videos are every educating if you want to learn about Linux, or Gnu-Linux as the purist will call it.  After watching these videos this is what I came up with.

It's getting BAMA football season and I just had to theme it to BAMA colors.

Just so you get an idea of what you can install in ArcoLinux here's a list from the ArcoLinuxD GitHub page.

1. Arco-Plasma (a desktop environment using KDE)
2. Arco-LXQT (a desktop environment of the new LXDE done in QT, pronounce cutie)
3. Arco-Xmonad (a tiling window manager)
4. Arco-XFCE (a desktop environment XFCE is one of the most bullet-proof desktops out there)
5. Arco-Qtile (a tiling window manager)
6. Arco-Openbox (a tiling window manager based on LXDE (maybe now LXQT?))
7. Arco-Mate (a desktop environment based on the old Gnome 2)
8. Arco-i3 (a tiling window manager)
9. Arco-Gnome (a desktop environment based on the newer Gnome 3)
10. Arco-Deepin (a desktop environment done in QT)
11. Arco-Cinnamon (a desktop environment created after Gnome left Gnome 2 to go to Gnome 3)
12. Arco-Budgie (a desktop environment based on Gnome)
13. Arco BSPWM (a tiling window manager)
14. Arco-Awesome (a tiling manager with some use of LUA programming language)
15. Arco-JWM (a tiling manager (Joe's) that is very minimalistic and lightweight with floating windows)
16. Arco-Herbstluftwm (a tiling window manager designed for multiple windows)
17. Arco-Enlightenment (a desktop-environment that is very minimalistic and changes from whichever Linux you download, ie Debian, Arch, RHL, Solaris, etc)

You see two different types of operating systems and they are all based on Arch.  A desktop environment is what most people use.  It has the GUI that anybody using Windows or Apple could switch over and use and feel sort of comfortable with.  The tiling window managers are for using keyboards and not a mouse.  If you have used a laptop as long as I have you might like the idea of a windows manager.  The tiling part and tags, or switching between desktops takes a little getting used to.  You just can't cover-up a window and alt-tab back and forth.  Every time you open a window it will tile side by side.  Awesome is a dynamic tiling manager and handles tiling differently than i3.

Most of these are on here because ArcoLinux is based on Arch Linux and Arch has all these desktop environments and window managers available.  When I look at the ArcoLinux website they do not list many developers, so keeping up with 17 different flavors has got to be hard work, but I'm sure they have a strong community behind them.  Their website is very user-friendly and like I said earlier, Erik has put out lots of videos on most if not all the different environments and lots of reported issues even have videos to help you solve most problems you might encounter.  ArcoLinux will fix issues and some of these videos won't have to be viewed, but if you do have a problem, check out their website and their forum.  

My experience is mostly positive, I do have a problem with Variety, a program that manages your wallpaper and I can't get it to stop changing my wallpaper, after telling it in the autostart.sh and also in the GUI.  Any other problems that I had were self-inflicted so I cannot blame the ArcoLinux team for these.  I will still keep my Mangaro i3 on one of my discs (I don't use Virtual Machine boxes, I change out discs in my laptop and the if I want to use a different distro that I have not erased I just plug my SATA adapter into the disc and then my USB and boot from USB).  Right now I have Awesome in my old Aspire 5750 laptop and I want it to use it day-to-day.  I love Manjaro and I will keep it as a fallback, but with the video support that ArcoLinux has, I want to support them and their time they put into their work.  I can easily update both, Manjaro has Pamac and ArcoLinux has an alias to use in terminal to update Pacman, the AUR, and the ArcoLinux GitHub.

I do want to add that I did get a straight vanilla installation of Arch XFCE and Arch i3 working and enjoying both of them. The i3 I didn't quite finish because I'm not up to the knowledge I need to configure I3 to my liking, and the XFCE wouldn't allow a couple of key programs that I use to work.  That's when I saw Distrotube's video on Awesome and never turned back.

As for Awesome and ArcoLinux, I love the status bar they use, using the LUA language.  The biggest difference between Awesome and i3 is that I don't feel guilty when I use my mouse trackpad.  I've used desktop environments since Windows 95 and just switched to a window manager last month and it's just habit.  I think I've spent more time configuring Awesome than i3 but I blame that on the all the Awesome related videos.  With the exception of the right-clickable desktop and the LUA configuration files, everything else has been close to the same, having to add widevine to Chromium to watch Netflix.  My next little learning project is learning mpd & ncmpcpp music players and visualizations and assigning applications to tags.

If you want to learn more about window managers then check out Distrotube's series on Obscure Window Managers Projects.  This probably has been my longest post I've ever made but the review is well worth it.

Manjaro I3 Update

I think I'm going to like this desktop manager.  The resources used by my computer is minimal and even though I'm still fumbling through it, I'm not in a hurry to rush into all the customizations I want to do.  The next thing I want to tackle is the workspace bar at the bottom, but I'm not sure if I want to install Polybar or something else, but right now I will probably stick with configuring what I have and removing the things I don't want and maybe change the font and font size.  Also, I want a BAMA Football wallpaper but I want to customize that to go with the dark themes I like to use so It's not as bright on my old eyes.

Here's what I have right now.  It's not a thing of beauty but it works for me.

Why I'm glad I Use Linux . . .

Microsoft Issues Warning For 50M Windows 10 Users
by Gordon Kelly Senior Contributor at Forbes.com

Between this and other problems like not backing up its registry, along with a host of other problems, see Chris Titus thank Microsoft for all the fish here.

Now that gaming is happening with Steam on Linux for most of you gamers, I don't play games so I don't use it, and a lot of programs are cloud-based, like Microsoft office, probably the only reason not to use Windows is the Adobe suites and yes, some games won't work on Linux.

Watch the Chris Titus video, he suggests using Linux or going to Apple.  Linux is not as hard as you think.  There are a handful of Linux distros out there for people switching from Windows to Linux.  Linux Mint, Zorin Linux, Pop!OS, even what I use, Manjaro XFCE can be used by newbies.  In the time that it takes you to update your Windows system you can watch youtube video's that show you how to customize your Linux of choice. 

Am I Window's free?  No, my wife wants us to buy the disk when it comes to tax programs, so I have to maintain Windows.  Also, the drive that has Windows on it has a protected partition so the build partition won't get erased.  I don't have the drive in my laptop that has Windows, but I have it and will put it back in when I don't want to use my computer because it will take all day to update my computer.

But whatever you do, switch, stay or buy an Apple, just do it on an OS that fits your needs, not an OS that doesn't match your needs.

I Finally Got It (I Hope) My latest XFCE Build

Tonight I reloaded XFCE on my larger drive, not that it matters because I doubt if I will get over 50GB loaded on my 250GB SSD.  Over the week I played around with Conky so much I had a lot of Conky, Conky Manager and Lua files on my drive and I didn't want my clone of my Manjaro XFCE with all these extra files that will never be used.  I've done this so many times that I got everything I wanted and ran Clonezilla within a couple of hours.  Now I have a proper backup and now all I have to do is add my Dropbox to my drive.  That's just how easy Manjaro XFCE is.

For years I've always had pictures as wallpapers on my desktop, but now I've just got a graphic, so it wouldn't make my Conky look too busy.  It looks like Manjaro is my main distro of choice, mainly because it's got a rolling release and the other reason is that it's not an Ubuntu-based OS.  Ubuntu is good but every time I did a new release upgrade, I would end up reloading it anyway.  I'm hoping that this won't be the case with a rolling distro.  With Manjaro I even get to pick the kernel I want.  You can do that with Ubuntu but Manjaro's GUI makes changing your kernel very easy, either going forward or rolling it back.  You can even get the experimental kernel if you choose.

One thing I've done on all my XFCE desktops is to configure them the way Linux Quest has in his tutorial on youtube.  He's using Antegros, which is now defunct since April this year but everything still works for about any XFCE, especially any XFCE based on Arch.

Manjaro is great.  Just like Arch, well maybe not quite like Arch, you can get as cutting edge as you want or you can go with a stable version.  Probably next week I will foray into Manjaro's I3 window manager.  I can go the I3 route or load it on top of XFCE, I just have to read up on it. I look at the Reddit r/unixporn too much.

Now if I could just get Conky Weather to work I would be a real happy camper.  Now to finish my Dropbox install and finish my book, Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch.

Manjaro XFCE, Reloaded

When I say Manjaro reloaded, Manjaro hasn't changed their XFCE, with the exception of a few updates.  I mean I've erased my old XFCE and reloaded it with a fresh copy.  I want to get my computer just right so I can clone it for future use.  I might still do some distro-hopping but I think I'll stick with XFCE, and stick with the Arch-based Manjaro.

I really wanted to have Budgie as my main OS, not that I like it better than XFCE but I tinker too much with XFCE.  Budgie is simpler and doesn't have all the options that XFCE has but Budgie seems to use more resources and with my old Acer laptop, I can't afford that.  KDE is still my favorite, but KDE has too many settings that I can play with and I would always be changing them, and that would take too much time away from reading.  I can't have that.

Here's what I have so far;

My biggest change is that I've got a shell running at startup with Conky loading 2 different scripts, and I've changed the colors to the 'chill blue' in the scripts.  I went with a stock Manjaro wallpaper that has a hint of blue in the middle, and I'll probably try to find a theme that has that blue color instead of the Manjaro green.  I might even do the Manjaro Menu button in the blue color.  Either way, I'm going to try to get another Conky script for the weather to add to my shell script.  If I do that then I might have to change the clock to something smaller to keep from having my desktop looking too cluttered.

When I get it the way I want it, then I will clone it with Clonezilla.  Then I'll add Dropbox and download my Dropbox files. Now this time I'm going to finish my book.  Okay, after I change my External IP address back to show what that address really is.  Wish you were here.

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.

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!

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.

Finally, I've Installed Arch Linux. Nope Manjaro

Well, if you ask an Arch Linux user they would say not even close but I did install Manjaro XFCE.  There is a big difference and now I think I could do it.  Actually, I installed Arch Gnome last week and it worked, but couldn't, or didn't take the time to try to search out the programs I used on Ubuntu that was not readily available on Arch.  

There are probably big differences in Manjaro and Arch, but Manjaro was built as a lazy man's Arch, with a GUI to install instead of the command line of Arch.

So over a week, I messed with Arch, Manjaro, MX Linus, back and forth to Ubuntu, then to Xubuntu and then this weekend I installed Manjaro twice.  I screwed something up and couldn't find out how to get the screen back to its normal size (I doubled he desktop size but no scrollbars).  One thing I loved is the Conky Manager works.

I used Ubuntu because it was easier to use, at least I thought. Getting some programs really had a huge learning curve but once I figured out the Add/Remove Software and watched a couple of videos I think it'll be easier.

Unless I break something I'll never have to re-install my distro again.  Ubuntu does two releases a year, and when I update it eventually bogs down.  Manjaro is rolling releases where once something updates, it is released.  Plus Ubuntu seems to have spyware, as per Richard Stallman's video and I agree with his opinion.

One thing I liked about Ubuntu was that the online support and fan pages like OMG! Ubuntu is plentiful. Manjaro has a HUGE following lots of online help sites, and then there's Arch with even a larger fan base site and the Arch Wiki page, which is almost too technical for a user like me.  If there's ever been a question about Manjaro or Arch, then it's been answered.  You just have to find the dumbest downed explanation to understand.  Manjaro and Arch are created for two different types of people.  People that are smart enough with programming to do it themselves, and people like me that want to learn.

So with a week of learning, anxiety, frustration, and humbling I feel great.  But that's this week.