The Linux Setup – Jose Arenado, Software Engineer

January 23, 2019

Jose gives a wonderfully thorough tour of his setup, even explaining all of his choices. It’s a great read. Like I thought I dislike using the mouse to do anything, but Jose’s taken things to another level with his complete rejection of it. I also appreciated everything he said about wanting to control his machine. It’s such a weird thing that so many of us spend so much time at work using a computer, yet we can’t customize it in ways that make our work easier. Unless you’re lucky enough to work in a Linux shop, that is.

You can find more of The Linux Setup here.

You can follow Linux Rig on Google+ here and follow me on Twitter here.

  1. Who are you, and what do you do?

    My name is Jose. I’m software engineer living in Brooklyn, NY. I consult on web apps and websites for a variety of different industries. I’ve been using Linux for about 17 years.

  2. Why do you use Linux?

    In the nineties, I wanted to learn C/C++. Visual Studio and a decent compiler cost like $600. A programmer friend of mine told me I could just use Vim and gcc and handed me a stack of floppies with Linux on it. I immediately decimated my parent’s Windows 95 machine, and after about 10 tries, I had my first working Linux box. Sort of. I mean, sound, ethernet, or X didn’t work, but I was running Linux, right? I spent the next couple of months figuring out how to get that stuff to work. I never learned C very well, but I’ve been hooked on Linux ever since.

    These days, Linux just works for me. On my desktop and on the servers I work with.

    As someone who is on the computer anywhere from 8-12 hours any given day, I want complete control over my machine. I use Linux because it’s the only environment that allows me to configure it to look and behave precisely as I want. Windows or OS X don’t even come close.

    A small but important example: I have a certain directory of images that become my desktop wallpaper every five minutes, except on the eighth workspace where it’s always the same minimal wallpaper and also prints a ton of system statistics (but only on that workspace). I type Mod+8 (“Mod” is the Windows or command key) to get to that workspace. My hands never leave home row. That’s basically impossible to achieve on any other OS. I achieve this with roughly 10 lines of script.

    At work, I’m forced to use a Mac a lot. I’m not a Mac hater but it’s hard to describe what I love about Linux without mentioning what I find frustrating about other systems. There’s so much about the default OS X environment that just gets in my way. It usually takes me most of an entire workday (if I have admin access) to shut off all the default settings one is supposed to love MacOS for.

    A few:

  • I don’t want a dock. Spotlight works just fine.
  • Ignore that. I don’t want spotlight. I prefer an app called Alfred.
  • I don’t want icons on my desktop. I want my desktop clean.

  • I don’t want to tap to click. Or any other trackpad gestures to open up mission control or space command or anything else! I want that off by default!

    These are all choices that Apple makes for you and they drive me nuts. And you can’t actually remove the damn dock, I basically have to hack it so it takes ten minutes to show on hover.

    On Linux, I just start with a window manager that has the default configuration that I want and I have dozens if not hundreds to choose from. If I don’t like the way they are set up, I just fix it myself, because I have clear, documented access to the actual code. Better yet, I can just use one of the thousands of scripts written by the community. Changing some of these things on other OSes is often nearly impossible.

  1. What distribution do you run on your main desktop/laptop?

    My first distro was Caldera OpenLinux in 2001, much to my parent’s chagrin. I distro-hopped for several years (Slackware, Mandrake, Debian, Ubuntu for about five years). I settled on ArchLinux about six years ago. I love Arch because it’s simple and clean and gets out of my way so that I can have the exact experience that I want. The community is tremendous and the distro is just hard enough to use that, in my humble opinion, it removes some of the noise from the community forums.

  2. What desktop environment do you use and why do you use it?

    I’ve used GNOME, Enlightenment, Xfce and half dozen others over the years. Then I discovered tiling window managers about the same time I switched to Arch. I used AwesomeWM for about a year before I found i3. I’ve been using that ever since.

  3. What one piece of Linux software do you depend upon? Why is it so important?

    The software I use the most is available on other operating systems: Vim/Emacs (I use them both, don’t ask), Chrome/Firefox, RoxTerm, Git, Tmux, and VirtualBox.

    As I mentioned, I’m forced to use a Mac at work more often than not. i3 is the one piece of software I miss the most.

    You’ve probably guessed by now that I really don’t like using the mouse. I use i3 with dmenu/rofi as a launcher, Emacs with Vim bindings for my editor, and even Vimium when I’m browsing the web.

    In fact, I’ve accidentally disabled the trackpad on some laptops and didn’t even realize it for an hour. I’ve tried very hard to replicate that experience on either Mac or Windows over the last 17 years and it’s nearly impossible.

  4. What kind of hardware do you run this setup on?

    I use a Dell XPS 13 from a couple of years back that I bought refurbished. It has an Intel Core i5-6200U ‘Skylake’ chip with two cores, I think (I don’t really do a whole lot of heavy lifting): 8GB RAM and a 256GB SSD. It’s not crazy powerful but my setup is so minimal and light, it boots up in like eight seconds and absolutely flies. I don’t do any gaming or heavy graphical editing or anything. I think it weighs less than the original iPad. And I carry a handful of dongles so I can connect it to the variety of monitors that are available to me in all the different offices where I find myself consulting. It’s perfect for me.

    The one piece of hardware I love the most is my Das Keyboard 4 Ultimate mechanical keyboard with Cherry MX Brown switches. The fact that the keys are all blank is great. Learning Vim years ago is the primary reason I learned to touch type, but this keyboard has really forced me to improve. I’ve attached a screenshot of the workstation at my last gig. That’s Xscreensaver running on some crappy monitor they gave me.

  5. Will you share a screenshot of your desktop?

    At any given time, I have 3-6 workspaces running different apps:

  • Workspace 1. Shells (1-5 terminals) I do all my file management from a terminal. Occasionally, I need to open Nautilus to quickly browse images or wireframes. I type the letter “O” and Nautilus fires up in the current directory.
  • Workspace 2. Web (Chrome/Firefox)
  • Workspace 3. Emacs with every Vim binding I can install.
  • Workspace 8. Chat (Slack, Skype, irssi, etc.)
  • Workspace 9. Media.

  • Workspace 0. VMs (VirtualBox running whatever I need here)

    Notice they each correspond to numbers on the keyboard. Three that my left hand can easily grab and three that my right hand can grab. This is all done with eight lines in my config file. Each one is a keyboard stroke away, no annoying click-click-click of Alt-tab.




Interview conducted May 13, 2018

The Linux Setup is a feature where I interview people about their Linux setups. The concept is borrowed, if not outright stolen, from this site. If you’d like to participate, drop me a line.

You can follow Linux Rig on Google+ here, follow me on Twitter here, and subscribe to the feed here.

Xfce & Xubuntu 2018 Year In Review

January 22, 2019

This is a great round-up post but I’m super bummed to see “Lubuntu and Xubuntu announced that they will no longer ship 32-bit ISOs for Ubuntu 19.04 and onwards. Ubuntu 18.04 will continue to be supported for the 3-year LTS support window.”

Lubuntu and Xubuntu are perfect for older, 32-bit machines. But 32-bit is rarer and rarer, so I can see why it might make sense to cut it.

Xfce & Xubuntu 2018 Year In Review | Sean M. Davis

The Linux Setup – Mariana Balla, Ura

January 16, 2019

Mariana works for Ura, the design studio featured here. I agree with Mariana that GNOME is a huge time-saver. I use Cinnamon on Linux Mint, and it’s mostly a great desktop, but I really wish I could search files through the application launcher. In GNOME, you search everything at one time, which works very well for me. Also, please remember I’m super behind in posting interviews, so I’m sure Mariana has made it to Fedora 28, if not past it.

You can find more of The Linux Setup here.

You can follow Linux Rig on Google+ here and follow me on Twitter here.

  1. Who are you, and what do you do?

    My name is Mariana Balla and I am an Information & Communication Technology student coming from Tirana. For the past two years I am a member of Open labs Hackerspace, a FLOSS community in my city that, since 2012, fosters events and meetups for open source projects. I work as Communications Manager for Ura, an open source design studio which also develops Identihub, a free software for hosting visual assets yourself. Additionally, I contribute to the Fedora Project as a Fedora Ambassador, to Wikimedia and CityZen. CityZen is an open source Android app that helps you navigate and explore points of interest with OpenStreetMap.

  2. Why do you use Linux?

    I had heard about Linux systems quite a lot in my early college years but I first “met” Linux at the hackerspace. Linux not only as a software, but also the ideology behind it. The values, the principals and the ethics. Also, I loved the fact that many Linux distros have communities of people that maintain the project. Later on I realized that the stability, security and freedom Linux systems offer cannot be compared to other proprietary operating systems. Also, the plethora of free apps and updates that you have at your disposal convinced me we should always choose open source solutions in tech.

  3. What distribution do you run on your main desktop/laptop?

    As a Fedora advocate it would have been weird if I was not using the Fedora distro. So, I’m a Fedora 27 user. Although, I am a little bit behind because Fedora 28 was just released on May 1st and I need to find time to upgrade.

  4. What desktop environment do you use and why do you use it?

    Currently I’m using GNOME 3.26.2. Fedora provides a pure GNOME experience. When I first started with Linux, I used Cinnamon. As a former Windows user Cinnamon helped me get familiar with Linux quickly. Now I just love GNOME’s features, as it helps me do everything faster and saves valuable time.

  5. What one piece of Linux software do you depend upon? Why is it so important?

    I’d say that I spend a lot of time using Mozilla Firefox and Mozilla Thunderbird. Firefox is Fedora’s default browser and I am a huge fan of its extensions and add-ons. On the other hand, Thunderbird helps me quickly organize all my email accounts and keep track of all my conversations. I also use a lot of the LibreOffice suite, especially for work.

  6. What kind of hardware do you run this setup on?

    I own a Lenovo Thinkpad X220 with an Intel Core i5-2520M CPU, a 8GB RAM and a 250GB SSD.

  7. Will you share a screenshot of your desktop?

Interview conducted May 2, 2018

The Linux Setup is a feature where I interview people about their Linux setups. The concept is borrowed, if not outright stolen, from this site. If you’d like to participate, drop me a line.

You can follow Linux Rig on Google+ here, follow me on Twitter here, and subscribe to the feed here.

7 Things Desktop Linux Needs in 2019

January 15, 2019

I disagree with a few of these!

One Distro to Rule them All: Why? I know people complain about Linux fragmentation, but I think fragmentation is also what allows Linux to improve so steadily. All of these distros and desktop environments can “fail” quicker, allowing the community to learn faster. I don’t see multiple distributions as a problem. I’d be sad to see consolidation.

Culling the App Herd: Similar to above. Software moves in and out of development. It’s annoying if something you love disappears, but it happens across operating systems. It’s the nature of software. Very few programs last forever.

Real-Time Antivirus and Anti-Malware: The nature of Linux is different from Windows, which is what makes it more secure. I’m for anything that adds to the security of Linux, but I don’t see this as something needed urgently this year.

Prosumer-Grade Apps: “For those that don’t know, a prosumer is an amateur who purchases tools that are of professional-grade quality.” I think Linux serves pros, amateurs, and “prosumers” quite well. Not to brag, but I kind of have documented this pretty well. However, I would like to see more projects offer themselves a path to financial viability. Very few software projects make any money and depend upon donations. I wish we could figure out payment models that allow projects to see their work supported, while also letting anyone use their software, that also doesn’t bog projects down in accounting, rather than software development.

In fact, if I had to pick one thing Linux needs in 2019, I think the creation of inclusive-yet-realistic financial support models would be at the top of my list.

7 Things Desktop Linux Needs in 2019 | Linux.com

The Linux Setup – Nate Graham, Kubuntu

January 9, 2019

I agree with everything Nate says here. In fact, I feel like I could have said all of it, although not as eloquently and not as much from a KDE perspective. Linux is a fantastic resource for people who do work on their computers. The technical world is more and more oriented to people who are passively consuming content on mobile devices. That’s a fine thing, but it doesn’t work for everyone. I’m guessing it doesn’t work for most people reading this site.

You can find more of The Linux Setup here.

You can follow Linux Rig on Google+ here and follow me on Twitter here.

  1. Who are you, and what do you do?

    I’m Nate Graham, the Kubuntu Product Manager and organizer of KDE’s Usability & Productivity initiative. I blog about that and related topics at http://pointieststick.wordpress.com.

  2. Why do you use Linux?

    I use Linux because I believe it represents the last bastion of user-friendly and user-centric computing on this Earth, and I want to be a part of improving it and helping it to grow. As the major commercial players fall for the lure of mobile devices and let their desktop platforms stagnate or become spyware, it’s more important than ever that Linux be a credible alternative for busy people who actually have real work to get done.

  3. What distribution do you run on your main desktop/laptop?

    Kubuntu 17.10 with the Kubuntu backports PPA.

  4. What desktop environment do you use and why do you use it?

    I use KDE Plasma 5 because I believe it represents an ideal intersection of features and user-friendliness. Being built upon Qt—a high-quality industry-standard toolkit—it’s also got a very solid and maintainable foundation, which is important for the long-term health of the platform.

  5. What one piece of Linux software do you depend upon? Why is it so important?

    I’d have to say KDE KRunner, which is an instant search/app launcher/utility tool like MacOS spotlight. It also does unit conversion, calculation, runs searches on specific web pages using your web browser…it’s pretty incredible. KRunner is an example of the kind of magical software that lets you enter a state of flow, where your thoughts seem to effortlessly transform into actions. It’s a mind-blowing productivity booster.

  6. What kind of hardware do you run this setup on?

    An HP Spectre x360 laptop with a 13″ screen. I don’t use any additional displays or a mouse.

  7. Will you share a screenshot of your desktop?

Interview conducted March 8, 2018

The Linux Setup is a feature where I interview people about their Linux setups. The concept is borrowed, if not outright stolen, from this site. If you’d like to participate, drop me a line.

You can follow Linux Rig on Google+ here, follow me on Twitter here, and subscribe to the feed here.

Lessons in Vendor Lock-in: Shaving

January 8, 2019

Kyle Rankin uses razors as a very effective metaphor for open standards. I wish more people thought like this about everything:

When my son gets old enough to shave, I can pass down one of my all-metal, decades-old antique razors to him, and it will still work. While everyone else in a decade will have to shave with some $20-per-blade disposable razor with three aloe strips, seven blades, and some weird vibrating and rotating motor, he will be able to pick any razor from my collection and find affordable replacement blades.

This is also why I don’t use streaming music services!

FULL DISCLOSURE: I use an electric razor.

Lessons in Vendor Lock-in: Shaving | Linux Journal

Is Tech Too Easy to Use?

January 3, 2019

Of all the buzzwords in tech, perhaps none has been deployed with as much philosophical conviction as “frictionless.” Over the past decade or so, eliminating “friction” — the name given to any quality that makes a product more difficult or time-consuming to use — has become an obsession of the tech industry, accepted as gospel by many of the world’s largest companies.

Friction is OK. Friction means you’re making choices. It means you’re thinking. Tech companies couch the elimination of friction as “helping users,” but really they’re saying “let us make your choices for you.” Friction doesn’t hurt users; it hurts companies.

Tech (and that’s a huge, huge word—let’s say the Google/Facebook/social media world) isn’t too easy. It’s too devoid of choice.

Is Tech Too Easy to Use? | The New York Times