My New Christian blog

I will continue to post Linux and technology related information here, but I'm going to be posting Christian related items to my new blog: Thinking About God. If you want to check out my first post and subscribe please click on this link:
http://kbdthinkingaboutgod.blogspot.com/2012/05/god-and-ebooks.html
Thanks!
KBD

SolusOS Debian Stable For Everyone

You know you are onto something when you are trying very hard to find anything you dislike about an operating system, and nothing comes to mind. I find myself looking through the menus, running top in a terminal to see if something is burning up the cpu, waiting and waiting for the other shoe to drop, watching for bugs, and then you finally realize--what did you expect when running Debian Stable? This is Not some half-baked computer operating system.

The only problems with Debian Stable are that it can be a pain to install, multiple steps are involved with the Debian installer and even if you get everything correct you can still end up out of luck regarding a video driver or other necessary drivers. The other main issue with running Debian Stable is that you end up with very old software applications on your system. SolusOS has overcome both of those issues.

I'm using SolusOS as I write this and it has Firefox and Thunderbird 12, which is unheard of on Debian Stable, which is running Firefox (Iceweasel) 3x if memory serves. So out of the box SolusOS has new software applications, including LibreOffice 3.5, you almost have to remind yourself that this is Debian Stable.

As mentioned, the other big issue with Debian Stable is getting it installed on your computer in the first place. SolusOS has an excellent installer that should make even the most timid feel that this operating system is holding their hand during the installation process, nothing to fear here. A few easy steps and you are in the midst of a beautiful operating system.

I came to SolusOS after using Ubuntu 12.04 since its release. Having tried Ubuntu 12.04 and its offspring on my desktop computer I got crashes, bugs, and a freezing desktop. It would work well for awhile, then go buggy on me, and sometimes it would not get past the startup before freezing and needing a reboot. In frustration, I remembered there was a newly released Debian Stable called SolusOS. In a "wtf moment" I decided to bulldoze over my Ubuntu 12.04 install with SolusOS, and then...there was a glowing light at the end of the tunnel, and birds began to sing, and...OK, maybe it wasn't "heaven on earth", but it was so nice to have an easy, quick install, followed by no bugs, no freezing, everything functioning well out of the box. I held my breath in disbelief for a few moments with the realization I had something on my desktop computer that I did not need to baby sit. I didn't have to cross my fingers, keep one eye on the thing at all times, for here was a truly Stable and reliable operating system.

For all the shouts of, "Gnome 2 is dead!" you would have to tell that to the SolusOS developers, because Gnome 2 is alive, and well, and looking awesome on SolusOS. Only Gnome 2 offers a desktop with so many features, functions, and the ability to configure and run flawlessly on a computer. I think one must work very hard to dislike Gnome 2 on their computer desktop. True, Gnome 2 has been discontinued, but I'm perfectly happy to live with it through its final glory days on SolusOS. Yet it will be interesting to see what the next desktop iteration will be once the new Debian Stable arrives. From what I've seen so far, I am confident SolusOS will offer us a fine desktop in the future.

Right now I'm using SolusOS on my netbook and it too is working flawlessly. I'm trying very hard right now to resist a full install on my netbook, having promised myself to leave its hard drive alone for awhile, but if I click on "install" by accident, well, stuff happens.

I think the success of SolusOS is written in stone if the developers will keep this great distro alive and the community gives it support. I can usually find at least two or three things wrong with an operating system out of the box, but right now I'm not seeing any. It will be exciting to watch how the interest in this new Linux distribution will grow as the word spreads that Debian Stable, via SolusOS, is here and available to everyone. Know that Debian can be easy to install and use, and thanks to SolusOS, Debian is no longer just for the computer geeks.

Ubuntu 12.04 Can Unity Ever Be Made Tolerable?

Looking at the Unity desktop in the newly released Ubuntu 12.04 I got to wondering if Unity can ever be made tolerable for those who don't immediately warm up to it. And this made me question how I might make it useful for anyone else who might not be completely married to the classic desktop paradigm.

The first thing I realized was that Unity 3D was not going to cut it. On hardware with low specs such as my netbook Unity 3D is just too heavy and runs too warm on the machine. So using google I began scouring the net trying to find ways to make Unity more tolerable and run less warm and sluggish on my computer.

The first thing I decided was to log into Unity/Ubuntu 2D, this was a no brainer, the computer automatically runs a few degrees cooler and seems a bit faster. But with 2D I lost functions and tweakability. So I found that by installing Ubuntu Tweak I could still disable HUD and enable full screen dash. And I used many tweaks found on This Page

A few things in particular might be of interest: I reduced the icons to the smallest setting using the following command in a terminal:

cd
wget http://webupd8.googlecode.com/files/script.py chmod +x script.py sudo ./script.py 32

In Unity 3D that can be accomplished with the tweak
tools, but not in Unity 2D.

Also worth noting is that to move around the shortcuts in the Unity 2D launcher you need to left click on the icon for a few seconds until it is 'loose' then you can move it up or down to change its location.

I had an issue which has shown up in the Ubuntu 12.04 bugs, I could not get gparted to launch. Nothing I tried worked until I came across a bug report that mentioned running this in a terminal:

sudo apt-get install --reinstall libgtkmm-2.4-1c2a

That fixed the issue. 

For me the global menu had to go, both across all the apps and especially in Firefox and Thunderbird:

sudo apt-get autoremove appmenu-gtk appmenu-gtk3 appmenu-qt

      And in Firefox and Thunderbird you will need to go to tools-add ons-extensions to disable the global menus for those apps.

Something else I did was decide that I was not going to spend time trying to remember the name of every application I use just to be searched for in the dash, so I make a list and put all the applications I use in my launcher so I could avoid the irritation of having to search the dash as much as possible. Now everything I need is in the launcher.

My conclusion about Unity in Ubuntu 12.04? I think it can be made usable with a lot of tweaking, if one is willing to spend the time trying to convert it into a less obnoxious desktop. Remove global menu, remove overlay scrollbars, put everything you will ever need on the Unity launcher to avoid the dash and shrink the launcher down to its least obtrusive form, plus use Unity 2D to get a lighter version of the desktop, then yes, Unity in Ubuntu 12.04 can be made tolerable. Tweaked to the max Unity can be a useful desktop. It has come far from its first, most obnoxious iteration, and with the help of additional settings tools the user can begin to feel they once more have some measure of control over their desktop. Is it ideal? No, I think there are better, much more productive desktops than Unity, but it is no longer the complete PITA it was when we first met it.