I was never a full-on Getting Things Done acolyte, but I’ve borrowed many of David Allen’s ideas about productivity for my own workflow. This interview is great because it’s Allen telling a fairly disappointed interviewer that apps and tools don’t matter. Which makes me like and respect Allen even more.
The proper way to update Tumbleweed
As I mentioned yesterday, I’m using OpenSUSE Tumbleweed on an old laptop. There seems to be a lot of discussion around the best way to update Tumbleweed. And the community, to its credit, is asking for clarity.
But so far, so good for me two days in (knock wood).
The GNOME Way
I’m just so impressed by GNOME. I recently installed OpenSUSE Tumbleweed on an old laptop and the GNOME experience there is great. It’s almost like an operating system in and of itself. For me, that’s a good thing. It lets me explore different distributions, and use different distributions, while maintaining a consistent user experience across my machines.
Allan Day’s post (you might remember Allan from this interview) explains how this is possible.
Pop!_OS
Apropos of last week’s Emma Marshall interview, I learned from a commenter that System76 is working on its own operating system (that seems to be based on Ubuntu).
It’ll be interesting to see if (and how) this catches on.
How Microsoft Has Become the Surprise Innovator in PCs
“I think Microsoft has recognized over the last couple years that maybe the creative community isn’t as locked into the Mac as many people think it is,” said Jan Dawson, an independent technology analyst. “There’s this window of opportunity for Surface to get in there — and even if that window closes with some of Apple’s upcoming devices, I don’t think Apple has that market locked up.”
I agree that the creative community is willing to move on from Mac, but I think/hope many will give Linux a long, hard look. It’s fast. It’s easy. And the price point is pretty sweet. And hardware becomes much less important when the operating system isn’t bogging things down.
Find your happy place: Fedora 26 has landed
I’m not a Fedora person, but I’m always rooting for the project. I’m not surprised 26 is yet another solid release.
The Linux Setup – Emma Marshall, System76
I’m behind in my interviews. I interviewed Emma back in October, which is why she references Unity so much (Ubuntu announced it was shutting Unity down back in April). I have no doubt she’ll like GNOME just as much, though. As Emma points out, the beauty of Linux is that you can change your desktop environment. Sometimes by choice, and sometimes not…
You can find more of The Linux Setup here.
You can follow Linux Rig on Google+ here and follow me on Twitter here.
- Who are you, and what do you do?
I’m Emma from System76, which is a company that builds computers born to run Ubuntu. I wear quite a few hats but my main responsibilities are customer-facing. I do individual sales, technical support and customer service at System76. I lead the Colorado Ubuntu Local Team and organize events for Ubuntu releases. You could say I’m a go-to person to help people make the switch from Windows to Linux. My main goal every day is to switch as many people to Linux as possible.
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Why do you use Linux?
I use Linux because I don’t like anything about Windows. I wanted to use the word ‘hate’ but I don’t want to bash anyone that tried to advance technology…
I like being able to change my desktop environment and love the comfort of privacy which I can’t find anywhere else but Linux. And, the word free is rampant in the Linux world…and who doesn’t like free? Whether it’s monetary or user-based, free is the only way to go when it comes to software.
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What distribution do you run on your main desktop/laptop?
I am using Ubuntu 16.04 at home and work.
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What desktop environment do you use and why do you use it?
Ubuntu Unity. I’ve tried other environments but Unity is just what I need. I don’t find myself needing more and the search-based HUD/Dash is my favorite feature. Seriously, tapping the Ubuntu key (or clicking on the Ubuntu icon if you don’t have a System76 PC) on your System76 computer is like going on Google but only pulling up your local results from your PC. It helps people who switch, to find everything easily. I couldn’t imagine using a computer without Ubuntu Unity.
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What one piece of Linux software do you depend upon? Why is it so important?
The web browser is what I use the most so I can communicate with the world. I love Firefox and Chrome.
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What kind of hardware do you run this setup on?
At home, I use a Kudu Professional with Intel Core i7-4900MQ CPU @2.80GHz with 8GB RAM @1600 Mhz and a 120GB SSD.
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Will you share a screenshot of your desktop?
Yes!
Interview conducted October 13, 2016
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.
Book review – Learn Linux in a Month of Lunches
Phil Shapiro was kind enough to post a very nice review of my book, Learn Linux in a Month of Lunches.
The review is here:
More of his greate reviews are here.
Gedit text editor is unmaintained?
It’s a question from reddit, but the answer is yes.
It’s pretty shocking. As you may recall, I’m a big fan of gedit.
Also, gedit rhymes with reddit, which gives this post a little more of a lilt than usual.
UPDATE: Jim Campbell reports that two people stepped up
Adobe is finally killing Flash
This has been a slow death. It can’t be good news for lots of browser-based games, though.
