added septembers pieces

2 files changed, 54 insertions, 9 deletions

diff --git a/open-source-insider-1709.txt b/open-source-insider-1709.txt
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@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+Vivaldi founder and Opera co-founder Jon von Tetzchner has published an essay asking Google to return to its former motto, "Don't Be Evil". For full details check out The Register's <a href="https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/09/05/opera_founder_adwords_blasts_google/">earlier coverage</a>, but the short version is that von Tetzchner thinks speaking out against Google's monopoly position in both search and advertising temporarily cost his company its Adwords campaign. Whether or not this is true, here's the thing: it's easy to believe Google did because actual documented examples of Google "being evil" abound.
+
+That said, I take issue with von Tetzchner's piece for two reasons. First it presupposes there was ever a time when Google wasn't evil, which I see no historical evidence of -- Google is "evil" now because Google has been "evil" from the outset. It's "evil" is in the core and there is no going back to some idyllic time when Google wasn't evil. Its evil may not have affected Tetzchner until recently, but that by no means precludes its prior existence.
+
+As Tetzchner himself notes Google has long blocked browsers it didn't like (for whatever reason) from using its services <em>even when those browsers worked just fine</em>. It's currently engaged in a rather nasty campaign to switch anyone not using Chrome to Chrome by implying that anything other than Chrome is insecure. Browse google.com using Firefox to see what I'm talking about.
+
+Or take another example currently in the headlines, actually there are quite a few in the headlines these days, but the one that I've been following is the class action lawsuit against Google for systematically underpaying its female employees. That's not something that started this year, nor is it something that affects just one part of the company. It appears (from statements made by the U.S. Department of Labor) that the problem is deep, systemic and existed from the start. It's impossible to know for sure of course because <a href="https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/05/29/google_tries_to_hide_diversity_data/">Google won't comply</a> with the US Department of Labor's request for data -- despite Google's own claim that the data will exonerate it. Ha! 
+
+Google went so far as to try to have the request thrown out because the US Department of Labor <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/22/google-gender-discrimination-case-reporting-restricted">dared to tell the Guardian</a>, "the investigation is not complete, but at this point the department has received compelling evidence of very significant discrimination against women in the most common positions at Google headquarters." Trying to have a data request thrown out on one hand, while saying the data disproves the assertion on the other smacks of well, bullshit.
+
+But never mind the fact that Google has always been evil, the second and main reason that I take issue with with Tetzchner's essay -- while agreeing with him about the problem -- is that there is no practical top-down way to fix the situation. Regulation, which is Tetzchner's suggestion, is probably needed, but it won't do much beyond raising some money for governments.
+
+Will governments step in to regulate Google because it's abusing a monopoly position in both search and advertising? The magic eight ball on my desk says, "signs point to yes". The EU has <a href="https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/06/27/google_record_antitrust_fine_europe/">already fined the company a record 2.4 billion Euro</a> for favoring its comparison shopping service over others. Ironically, in my experience, Google's comparison shopping tools are some of the worst of the web, but never mind that. 
+
+My contention is that whether governments step in and regulate and fine Google over the long term doesn't particularly matter for the average user of the web. A governmental hand slap -- even if it's the largest in EU history -- isn't going to help because Google is already an integral part of the ecosystem of the web, and as anyone with an inkling of how ecology works can tell you, you cannot just yank and rearrange ecosystems without severe and often unanticipated consequences. 
+
+Take search for instance. That DuckDuckGo you use and love? I know, I do too. But a lot of its data comes from Google and Bing APIs. Take away Google and DuckDuckGo will be scrambling to expand its results. Still, don't stop using it, just recognize that that doesn't mean you're free of Google. I tend to worry less about the advertising monopoly, that will probably go belly up on its own -- along with its competitors -- once the ROI for customers finally reaches absolute zero, which it shows every sign of doing in the very near future.
+
+And I know, you're immune to all this because you don't use Google services at all. I used to think that too until it occurred to me that that's an incredibly myopic view of the web. The web is an ecosystem and all of it is interconnected and interdependent, even if Google is a cancer on the web -- and I think that metaphor is apt -- it won't disappear or even change without a rippling cascade of consequences that are difficult to even imagine let alone predict.
+
+Consider just the simple case of the companies I do chose to support and who products I do use. Most, if not all, of these other companies probably rely on Google in some form, whether for advertising revenue, analytics data, e-mail or half a dozen other small, but important parts of their business. Via those companies I am still dependent on Google. The entire ecosystem is at this point dependent on Google and that's something that no amount of regulation is going to fix. 
+
+Is there a way out? I think there is, but it won't happen overnight and it will take your help. Given the current lack of diversity in so many areas of the web, if the ecological metaphor holds, the web is incredibly unstable. That's an opportunity. 
+
+It's an opportunity for new species to find niches, to gain a toe hold and to still be standing when great ecological collapse of the current system happens. New companies, and more importantly new models of interaction, will stand a better chance of surviving. To be a bit more concrete, if you stop using Google services, if your company stops using them, if your company resists the buyout offers and forges its own path, if your open source project rejects centralized code hosting, uses open protocols for communication (Google is hardly the only dangerous monopoly out there) and so on, collectively these add up to far more than the sum of their parts. These seemingly small actions start tipping the ecosystem in a new direction, after all what really kills off a species is an ecological change and in the case of the web, users like us can create that change, we can make the web an ecosystem that's hostile to rigid, hierarchical, centralized forces like Google.
+
+The good news is that this is already happening in the tiny niches of the system that the Googles and Facebooks pay little attention to, right now the rapid new growth is perhaps most noticeable in things like distributed social systems (for example, <a href="http://scuttlebot.io/">scuttlebot</a>, et al), new protocols like <a href="https://github.com/ipfs/ipfs">IPFS</a>, even once far-fetched ideas like DIY mesh networks are quietly happening, not in silicon valley, but outside, on the fringes of the ecosystem. Will these specific efforts survive? Possibly not, but something will, the ecosystem of the web is far too young to have reached equilibrium. 
diff --git a/ubuntu1710-flavors.txt b/ubuntu1710-flavors.txt
index fa09611..bd29160 100644
--- a/ubuntu1710-flavors.txt
+++ b/ubuntu1710-flavors.txt
@@ -1,24 +1,26 @@
-The Canonical project is gearing up for one of it's biggest releases ever. Ubuntu 17.10, due to arrive October tk, will be the company's first release since it abandoned its Unity desktop, Mir display server and the dream of "convergence". Instead Ubuntu users will get the GNOME desktop with a few tweaks that promise to make it a little bit more Unity-like. But Unity-like does not mean it will be at all familiar for long time Unity users. Make no mistake, Ubuntu 17.10 will be a stock GNOME desktop with a couple of add-ons to improve the overall experience. 
+The Canonical project is gearing up for one of its biggest releases ever. Ubuntu 17.10, due to arrive October 19, will be the company's first release since it abandoned its Unity desktop, Mir display server and the dream of "convergence". Instead Ubuntu users will get the GNOME desktop with a few tweaks that promise to make it a little bit more Unity-like. But Unity-like does not mean it will be at all familiar for long time Unity users. Make no mistake, Ubuntu 17.10 will be a stock GNOME desktop with a couple of add-ons to improve the overall experience. 
 
-That radical change in interface has already led to much outcry and gnashing of teeth, but most of that is unnecessary, after all the main Ubuntu release is far from the only choice. And now that the Ubuntu 17.10 beta 1 release is here, it's perfect time to explore other Ubuntu flavors to see which, if any, you might enjoy.
+That radical change in interface has already led to much outcry and gnashing of teeth, but most of that is unnecessary, after all the main Ubuntu release is far from the only choice. And now that the Ubuntu 17.10 beta 1 release is here, it's the perfect time to explore other Ubuntu flavors to see which, if any, you might enjoy.
 
 With the possible exception of Kubuntu, almost all of these flavors will be easier on the RAM and processor than GNOME and all of them still use the same Ubuntu repositories and tools that long time Ubuntu users are familiar with.
 
-## Xubuntu 
-
-
-
 ## Ubuntu MATE
 
 Ubuntu MATE takes the popular MATE desktop -- probably best known as a Linux Mint desktop -- and wraps it with some Ubuntu-specific improvements. To my mind the result is even nicer than Linux Mint's stock version of MATE, especially with its very slick set of the theme options. 
 
-Ubuntu MATE has possibly the biggest release of the bunch due in 17.10. It's also possibly the best choice for those pining over the loss of Unity thanks to the "Mutiny" panel layout which neatly mimics the Unity dock. Mutiny debuted in the last release, but 17.10 has quite a few improvements and a couple of new panel layout options, including one the mimics the Windows start menu and another that's OS X inspired.
+Ubuntu MATE has possibly the biggest release of the bunch due in 17.10. It's also possibly the best choice for those pining over the loss of Unity thanks to the "Mutiny" panel layout which neatly mimics the Unity dock. Mutiny debuted in the last release, but 17.10 has quite a few improvements and a couple of new panel layout options, including one that mimics the Windows start menu and another that's OS X inspired.
 
 To use the various different panel layouts, you need to install and open the MATE Tweak tool and look for the panel section. It's also possible to start with any of the stock layouts and then tweak it to your liking and save the results.
 
 Mutiny isn't the only thing Ubuntu MATE offers potential Unity refugees, in fact Ubuntu MATE's Unity support is more than skin deep and includes support for the Global Menu (rather than menus being in application windows they're in the top bar) and, even better, Mutiny supports a Unity-style HUD. The HUD, one of the best features of Unity 7 for anyone who wants a more keyboard-driven desktop, allowed you to search and run menu-bar commands without reaching for the mouse. Ubuntu MATE's version works exactly the way Unity 7 users are accustomed to.
 
-Suffice to say that if you're really missing Unity and Ubuntu's version of GNOME isn't for you, Ubuntu MATE is probably your best bet. It's not Unity, but it has enough of it's features out of the box that you'll likely feel right at home.
+Suffice to say that if you're really missing Unity and Ubuntu's version of GNOME isn't for you, Ubuntu MATE is probably your best bet. It's not Unity, but it has enough of its features out of the box that you'll likely feel right at home.
+
+## Xubuntu 
+
+If you're looking for a lightweight, fast, but still well polished desktop to replace Unity, Xfce in the form of Xubuntu is a excellent choice. Xfce's development pace is just about right in my view, with updates typically bringing a slew of minor fixes, the occasional major improvement but never a complete re-write of anything. Xfce isn't going to try to "revolutionize" your desktop.
+
+Xubuntu 17.10 is a good example of this, there's a ton of bug fixes, plenty of point updates for all the underlying Xfce tools and stability improvements. If you've used Xfce before you'll feel right at home in this release. 
 
 ## Kubuntu
 
@@ -28,14 +30,30 @@ This release features the latest version of Plasma 5, the KDE desktop and KDE Ap
 
 Another nice new feature involving folders is support for "spring loaded" folders. That is, when you drag a file onto a folder and wait a second the folder will open in a new window, which makes it faster and easier to file things away even if your organizational system has deeply nested folders. 
 
-This release also sees a new features for Krunner, KDE's search tool -- if you search for an app that's not installed you'll get the Software Center's install page as a result.
+This release also sees a new feature for Krunner, KDE's search tool -- if you search for an app that's not installed you'll get the Software Center's install page as a result.
 
 ## Lubuntu
 
+It's an exciting time in the Lubuntu world, or for that matter any distro using the LXDE desktop, which is undergoing a massive change, moving from from GTK 2 to the Qt framework. The result will actually be an entirely different desktop from any practical point of view which is why Lubuntu is currently available as two sub-flavors if you will -- Lubuntu and Lubuntu Next. The latter is the currently still pretty unstable LXQt.
+
+While I would not suggest Lubuntu Next right now, nor indeed would I suggest it even after 17.10 is final, the current version is, for someone like me, who likes their desktop very minimal, something I've been keeping a close eye on for some time. Once Lubuntu Next becomes more stable, likely with next year's 18.04 release, I'll be taking a much closer look.
+
+In the mean time Lubuntu itself remains a great choice for anyone who wants a very lightweight, traditional desktop experience. 
+
 ## Ubuntu Budgie
 
+The newest kid on the block, Ubuntu Budgie debuted early this year with the release of 17.04. The Budgie desktop is an outgrowth of the Solus project (please, don't call it a distro). At the moment most of Budgie is built atop GNOME based tools like GTK, but the plan is to, like LXQt, move from GTK to Qt as development progresses. 
+
+The Ubuntu Budgie flavor features the latest version of Budgie, 10.3 which is most notable in my experience for using considerably less RAM than its predecessors. That is due, apparently, to the project's decision to ditch several of the default GNOME apps, including GNOME Photos, Contacts, and Documents. All those make heavy use of the GNOME file indexing service that runs in the background. Without them Budgie has been able to significantly reduce its memory use when idle.
 
+No matter which flavor you decide to try, you'll get all the same underlying Ubuntu tools and repositories that you're familiar with even if all you've ever used is the main Ubuntu desktop. Currently all the flavors are beta 1 releases though so you'll want to do you testing in a virtual machine rather than your primary desktop. Like Ubuntu itself the final release of all the flavors will come next month.
 
 
 
+Screenshots:
 
+kubuntu.jpg - The default desktop for Kubuntu 17.10.
+ubuntu-mate.jpg - The default desktop for Ubuntu Mate 17.10.
+ubuntu-budgie.jpg - The default desktop for Ubuntu Budgie 17.10.
+xubuntu.jpg - The default desktop for Xubuntu 17.10.
+lubuntu.jpg - The default desktop for Lubuntu 17.10.