Tag: linux

The Linux Setup – Avinash Gunessee, “regular user”

May 14, 2020

Avi reached out to me via the contact form, for which I’m eternally grateful. I’m also always happy to showcase that isn’t overly technical. Avi’s using Linux for lots of, as he puts it, “regular” things. Like so many, but not nearly enough, I’ve been working from home, which has been a real test of my own Linux rig. I’m able to make my own file format/workflow choices with personal work, but work-work often has less options. But I’ve been able to record screencasts and video chat quite easily. Office365’s web interface lets me deal with weird Word formatting issues pretty easily. I’m finding myself popping into my Windows VirtualBox less and less often.

You can find more of The Linux Setup here.

You can follow me on Mastodon here and follow me on Twitter here.

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

    I am Avinash. I work for a major Human Capital Management company on the implementation side of things.

  2. Why do you use Linux?

    I am just a regular computer user: browse the web, listen to music/podcasts, play some Steam games (I am not a heavy gamer) and watch videos.

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

    I currently use Linux Mint 19.3 on my laptop. It is based on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and thus I know that I am fully supported until April 2023. If I need the latest and greatest software, I use a mix of Snaps, Appimages, and Flatpaks.

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

    I use Cinnamon, which is the flagship desktop of Linux Mint. I used GNOME in the past and I kind of miss the one-touch workflow with the meta key. Who knows? I might install it in the future.

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

    Mozilla Firefox is my main piece of software. I use it because it is a browser I trust to protect my privacy. I also make use of almost all its services, like bookmark/password sync, data breaches, and Facebook container.

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

    I have an Acer Swift 3 laptop which I bought last year. It has a core i5 processor, 8GB RAM and 1TB SSD.

  7. Will you share a screenshot of your desktop?

    Sure. Nothing fancy. Simple and uncluttered.

Interview conducted May 4, 2020

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 me on Mastodon here, follow me on Twitter here and subscribe to the feed here.

Keybase joins Zoom

May 12, 2020

I don’t know what to think of this. I use Zoom and appreciate that they maintain a Linux client, but I know their security and privacy practices are problematic.

I have a Keybase account, but to be honest, I have no idea what to do with it. But I appreciate that they too, spend a lot of time maintaining a Linux client.

So maybe this is a good thing? A win-win as some people say? Zoom will improve and the Keybase team will thrive? And, perhaps I can be less embarrassed to admit I use Zoom? Because I feel some judgement out there…

Keybase joins Zoom | Keybase Blog

On Open Source and the Power User Fallacy

April 23, 2020

Scott Nesbitt always has an interesting take on technology. I agree with this one, which he published in his weekly newsletter (subscribe here; you can thank me later), which is about how just because you can do something yourself, it doesn’t mean you have the skills, time, or inclination.

So yeah. I could host my own OwnCloud instance or my own email server. Or even my own WordPress instance. But it would take up a lot of time and energy. So I outsource. I understand there’s a cost in terms of money and privacy and understanding everything going on underneath the hood of these tools. And like Scott, I’m comfortable with the trade off.

On Open Source and the Power User Fallacy | Weekly Musings

Free software for remote working

April 1, 2020

A lot of us are now suddenly thrust into fully remote work environments. Purism shared their stack of free and open source tools.

My personal situation is tougher, since my colleagues and I have to agree upon our tools, and some of that conversation is informed by access: both what our college pays for, but also the larger university.

For instance, we’re a Windows shop. Rather impressively, Office 365 allows me to get a ton done in the browser.

I’ve been using the non-free (and perhaps sinister) Zoom for web conferencing because it runs flawlessly on Linux. WebEx is horrific if not impossible. I actually now run WebEx calls in a virtual Windows 10 partition. I’d like to experiment with Jitsi, which is free and open source, and looks as easy as anything. Hacker News had a very useful thread on it.

I spend a certain part of each day in the Windows partition, but if it’s not for WebEx, it’s usually for relatively minor formatting issues, either with Word or Excel. I was using Boxes for virtualization, but while it’s simple, it seemed to run slowly and didn’t handle sound very well. VirtualBox feels much more robust.

My Cowin E7 Bluetooth headphones are fussy. Connecting both audio and mic can take a few tries. I don’t know if that’s Linux or the nature of Bluetooth.

But in general, Linux is getting me through, just like always!

Free software for remote working | Purism

The Linux Setup (Again) – Charles Profitt, System Administrator

March 18, 2020

Charles reached out to me about doing another interview, which is something I’ve thought about for a while. You do an interview about your setup and it’s locked in time, when really your Linux set-up evolves. So I was happy to hear from him again, after our 2014 interview. He’s using Fedora and GNOME now, rather than Ubuntu and Unity, but as he mentions, his workflow hasn’t changed. Which is the beauty of Linux. The desktop and distro can change, but your workflow doesn’t have to.

You can find more of The Linux Setup here.

You can follow me on Mastodon here and follow me on Twitter here.

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

    I am Charles Profitt. I am a systems administrator for a K-12 school district. I focus on the technology infrastructure of the district including wireless, firewalls, cybersecurity, and identity management.

  2. Why do you use Linux?

    I use Linux as the operating system of choice because I enjoy the ability to tinker while using a secure and stable system. I am the type of person who enjoyed squeezing enough memory out of my MS-DOS system to be able to use the CD-ROM drive, listen to music, and play a game. Linux still allows me to see under the hood.

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

    I currently use Fedora on both my work and personal laptops. I have used Ubuntu, Debian, SuSE and Arch in the past. For me the best mix of the latest and greatest on a stable platform is Fedora.

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

    I currently use GNOME. I like its simplicity and several of the default apps. I enjoy having GNOME extensions that allow me to personalize my experience. I currently use Disconnect Wi-Fi, KStatusNotifier, Refresh Wifi Connection,
    Transparent Top Bar, and Vitals.

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

    In my job I rely on nmap, nano and ssh for my job. I use nmap for security scans of my network, to look for unknown and misconfigured devices. Note-taking at meetings is completed using nano. I use ssh to connect to the multitude of appliances that I manage.

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

    My work laptop is an X-1 Carbon 6th gen with a core i7 processor, 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD. My home laptop is a Dell XPS 13 9343. This laptop has a 256GB SSD, 8GB RAM and a Core i5 processor. I am looking at replacing the home computer with an X1 Carbon 8th gen when they finally go on sale.

  7. How would you broadly describe how your setup has changed since our last interview?

    When I was interviewed the last time, I was a member of the Ubuntu Community Council and was running Ubuntu. Despite the change in distros, not much has changed. While I miss the Unity interface most of my workflow is unchanged.

  8. Will you share a screenshot of your desktop?

Interview conducted March 10, 2020

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, for the first or second time, drop me a line.

You can follow me on Mastodon here, follow me on Twitter here and subscribe to the feed here.

The Linux Setup – Steve Best, The Art Directed Journal

February 5, 2020

I found Steve via this very thorough review of elementary. I played with elementary years and years ago and it didn’t feel right for my workflow, but it seems like it’s picking up more and more steam. I should probably give it another chance someday. And I definitely hear Steve on the pragmatism of Linux. There are philosophical reasons for choosing free and open source tools, but there are also practical ones. Neither is more valid than the other.

You can find more of The Linux Setup here.

You can follow me on Mastodon here and follow me on Twitter here.

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

    I’m Steve Best, and I have a site that is really more of a hobby than anything else called The Art Directed Journal. I use it to practice/experiment with HTML and CSS, as well as improve my writing skills. By profession, I’m in cyber security, and Linux does cross-over somewhat into my day-to-day.

  2. Why do you use Linux?

    I have used Linux in varying capacities since 2004. I use Linux for all the stereotypical reasons. It’s fast, secure, and free. I’m not against Microsoft or Apple, but I like to use what works. Right now desktop Linux is what works for me. I have found that with my current hardware set up, Windows is just a bit too much in terms of system requirements to be anything other than frustrating. This is an older piece I wrote, which explains my “why” for Linux more in-depth.

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

    I am currently using elementary OS (5.1).

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

    I use Pantheon, which comes default on elementary. It is actually one of the main reasons I use elementary. It is fast, fluid, and it makes my old hardware run like new.

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

    I have come to rely greatly on Code, which is the default code editor on elementary. It is very lightweight, but yet extremely feature-filled. It is another of the main reasons I use elementary. Anything else I can do on my iPhone.

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

    My personal laptop is a very old HP Pavilion with a dual core i5 and 4GB RAM. For a number of reasons, I have just never replaced it, nor do I have any plans to do so in the near future. I really need a new battery, more RAM, and a solid state drive. I’ll eventually get around to upgrading these things on it. However, my iPhone 11 is probably my most used “computer,” in terms of my personal use.

  7. Will you share a screenshot of your desktop?

    The wallpaper is from Windows 10x, which I downloaded off Twitter. 🙂

Interview conducted January 26, 2020

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 me on Mastodon here, follow me on Twitter here and subscribe to the feed here.