Linux Mint + Mate

According to DistroWatch, Linux Mint has dethroned Ubuntu as the top linux distribution downloaded. To me the reason is clear: Gnome 3 sucks!

OK first some disclaimers: My first test of Gnome3 was on an atom powered (but still high-end) netbook. While this particular netbook chugged along just fine with Gnome2, it completely choked on Gnome3. On a nice big machine you won't notice a difference, but philosophically that upsets me. If Gnome3 did much more than Gnome2 then I wouldn't mind it hogging more system resources. But from what I can see, Gnome3 does less while still using more resources. It is horribly inefficient from my user perception.

Linux Mint comes with Gnome3 by default, but has another gui called MATE, intended to restore the Gnome2 user environment for people who need to get work done.

Gnome3

To everyone who defends Gnome3:

The entire spirit behind linux is giving the user ultimate control and a wealth of options. Fallback mode is not acceptable. There are 2 big problems with Gnome3:

1) the graphics code is so inefficient it can hardly run right now. older machines are just SOL. Newer machines are made sluggish by the inefficient graphics. They had to switch to lightdm just to make it run acceptably on modern machines.

2) New features of Gnome3 should be configurable and optional. If they truly are better you won't have to force people to use them. People will choose to use them on their own. The fact that you removed that option already makes me think people won't use it unless they're forced. But nobody is ever forced into one disto. We'll just switch! Makes me sad though, ubuntu was one of my favorite distros until now.

Update: everybody switched to Mint!  Yay!

Ornery Ostrich

Dear Canonical....

Just because tablets are the new hip thing with the iOS and android fanboys doesn't mean I want my desktop OS to look a damn thing like a tablet!!!

I've been a linux user since the late 90's but sometime around Karmic I went whole-hog and deleted windows altogether. I use ubuntu for everything, both work and fun. But work is the important one. I use my ubuntu laptop for WORK. Serious work.

I already avoid upgrading linux because I know I'm going to spend the next few days fighting with xorg.conf and getting basic support for my hardware. But now, on top of that, I have to install a separate display manager and a separate desktop environment because you wanted to make your linux OS tablet friendly?!?!

Ok, seriously... how many tablets out there actually run ubuntu??? Bueller?? I've never seen one. Maybe a few convertible notebooks could benefit from it. I've never even seen a *modern* tablet that could even take a linux install... they are all locked down like mobile phones with mobile phone operating systems which is A MAJOR STEP BACKWARD from where computers are today.

Gnome3? Forget that. You just crushed linux's big advantage of being light, fast, and great for older hardware. Its even slower than KDE.

Unity? DO NOT WANT!!! What good does that do on a desktop? Or even a laptop? Canonical is pumping out a tablet OS as if there are tablets out there to run it! Are they taking an "if we build it, they will come" approach? Oh and where the hell is the default session setting? Gone I see?

OK... count to 10.... breathe....

Time to switch to a new distro. Maybe CentOS or Xbuntu.


Oh... and one more thing.... thanks Nvidia for disabling overscan correction at 1080. Like that is going to stop linux people doing anything.


Update:  After years of struggling, Canonical finally abandoned Unity altogether.  Ubuntu went from being #1 on distrowatch to a distant 4th.  Mint gave us back ubuntu with a classic MATE desktop and it surged to #1.  

Roku SoundBridge Radio

Dear Roku,

Your SoundBridge Radio is truely awesome! I love it. I researched many internet radios before purchasing my SoundBridge. I looked at units made by Logitech, AcousticResearch, and countless nameless others, but the Roku SoundBridge had a superior feature set than the lot of them. I listen to my SoundBridge all the time, especially before bed and in the morning AND I use it as my primary alarm clock.

At least I did, until my SoundBridge died. Luckily, it died less than 30 days since I bought it! A cursory exam would suggest that it baked it's little brains out, but I didn't care 'cause I could get my money back!

Unfortunately that left me with a big problem. I still wanted an internet radio and Roku is totally the best around! So I spent even more money and got the bigger, nicer, Roku SoundBridge radio with built-in stereo speakers and sub! I was back!

I listen to ambient music at night to fall asleep, news in the morning when I start my day, and music with a beat when I'm working on the house. I even listen to music in other languages! It's so great!

At least, I used to, before it died. Again. Only this time the warranty is a few months expired, so it's my problem. I did the only thing I could do... took it apart and started poking around looking for broken bits.

When I got it apart and laid all the bits out in front of me I could tell what was wrong with it! The dragon is sick. At least, I think it is. I don't know what that bit is really called. I call it a dragon because of its shiny outside and how it spits fire. But it wasn't doing as good a job of spitting fire anymore. I could tell, cause I could see all the burn marks from where it used to be able to spit fire real well.

I would highly recommend not putting live dragons in radios. First of all, how do they even get food or water? I assume dragons need those things. How long do dragons live? I assume they would die eventually, I mean without food or water or anything. Then how will people get their music from a dead dragon? Obviously they won't, since my dragon died and now I have no music.

Putting aside the argument for or against the use of dragons in radios, I have to thank you for locking that dragon in there so tightly. It was hard to get that dragon out. REALLY hard. There was no way that dragon was going to get out of there on its own. Even after I removed 25 phillips and star-bit screws I still had to pry open many parts that had been most firmly glued together. Well done.

So anyway, I replaced my dead dragon with a more lively donkey. A nice donkey. Nice in a less-likely-to-burst-into-flames sorta way. And I've got my music back!

Seriously, good job on making one of the best internet radios out there. I love it. I wish you would make new ones. But... you know... new ones that actually *work* without bursting into flames. It's cool to mix music with fire at a concert, but not in my living room.

Thank you,

-Graham

--------------

I sent this to Roku but they never responded.  I bought two of their radios and they both broke, the first one after just a few days, the second one just out of warranty.  This was before Roku got into the set-top streaming biz.  It's hard to find nice internet radios.  (No money to be made from apps or subscriptions.)

Sony vs. Sony Customers

Today Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) sued GeoHot because he cracked the PS3.

C'mon guys... let's get together and file a class-action lawsuit against SCEA for removing the OtherOS feature from our devices that we bought and paid for! That was one of the selling points for me. SCEA owes me damages.

Update: the class action lawsuit happened.  Sony DOES owe me money.  And they haven't paid.