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| -rw-r--r-- | fedora-desktop.jpg | bin | 0 -> 173820 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | fedora-notifications.jpg | bin | 0 -> 161868 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | fedora-software.jpg | bin | 0 -> 164331 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | fedora26review.txt | 10 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | flavors/kubuntu.png | bin | 0 -> 1080382 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | flavors/ubuntu-mate.png | bin | 0 -> 2041861 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | invoices/scott_gilbertson_invoice_92.doc | bin | 0 -> 14848 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | open-source-insider-1708.txt | 25 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | ubuntu1710-flavors.txt | 41 |
9 files changed, 73 insertions, 3 deletions
diff --git a/fedora-desktop.jpg b/fedora-desktop.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..933a7b5 --- /dev/null +++ b/fedora-desktop.jpg diff --git a/fedora-notifications.jpg b/fedora-notifications.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..24f161e --- /dev/null +++ b/fedora-notifications.jpg diff --git a/fedora-software.jpg b/fedora-software.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..085589e --- /dev/null +++ b/fedora-software.jpg diff --git a/fedora26review.txt b/fedora26review.txt index b488185..fbb5e56 100644 --- a/fedora26review.txt +++ b/fedora26review.txt @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ The Server and Atomic Host releases are aimed at servers and container-based dep Fedora 26 brings an updated kernel, version 4.11, Mesa 17.1.4, and jumps to GCC 7. More visible changes include the latest version of GNOME, 3.24, a new partitioning tool in the Anaconda installer, and much better support for ARM processors, notably an official version of Fedora for Raspberry Pi which appears to be much more stable than the previous release, which seemingly had more caveats than features. -The most obvious change is the move the GNOME 3.24. GNOME 3.24, nicknamed Portland, ships with quite a few new features and improved applications, including Night Light. Night Light is a new settings panel that tints the color of your displays according to the time of day. In the even Night Light makes the screen color warmer, which helps prevent sleeplessness and eye strain. +The most obvious change is the move the GNOME 3.24. GNOME 3.24, nicknamed Portland, ships with quite a few new features and improved applications, including Night Light. Night Light is a new settings panel that tints the color of your displays according to the time of day. In the evening Night Light makes the screen color warmer, which helps prevent sleeplessness and eye strain. The screen color automatically tints based on the sunrise and sunset times for your location. You can manually control it as well if you like. The GNOME top bar shows when Night Light is on, and the system drop down menu allows you to turn it off temporarily. That's handy if you want to edit photos or similar because what you see is not what you get with Night Light. @@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ GNOME 3.24 ships with a new app, Recipes, which contains recipes contributed by Other GNOME applications updated 3.24 include Web, Photos, Polari (yes, GNOME still ships with an IRC client, because one day we'll all realize that IRC was amazing and go back to using it), Games, Calendar and the Calculator. Of these the most notable is photos which now adjusts your thumbnail size to make better use of the available space. Unfortunately Photos still has only very basic photo editing tools, but it does make a good photo organizer. -GNOME Software continues to see improvements in this release with new icons to that make it easier to see which applications are installed. The installed applications view also now helpfully shows how how much disk space each application is taking up. The Software app has also improved Flatpak support with a couple minor new features though the number of apps available as Flatpaks remains disappointingly small. +GNOME Software continues to see improvements in this release with new icons that make it easier to see which applications are installed. The installed applications view also now helpfully shows how how much disk space each application is taking up. The Software app has also improved Flatpak support with a couple minor new features though the number of apps available as Flatpaks remains disappointingly small. As you scroll through that list of installed apps checking the installed size you'll probably notice one monster taking up more space than most, LibreOffice. Normally version bumps of LibreOffice are hardly worth mentioning, but this one contains the first look many users will get at the still in progress NotebookBar UI, which apes Microsoft Word's "Ribbon" interface. I happen to dislike Ribbon and by extension NotebookBar, but it will probably go a long way to making it easier for Office users to switch to LibreOffice. For the rest of us it's pretty easy to ignore -- for now anyway. @@ -30,6 +30,10 @@ If GNOME is not for you there are plenty of Fedora Spins worth checking out incl I generally prefer to run GNOME with Fedora because the overlap of Fedora devs and GNOME devs is such that GNOME is nearly always just about flawless on Fedora and Fedora 26 is no exception. Even the wallpaper feels perfectly suited to the stock GNOME theme. I've been using Fedora 26 since the beta was released earlier this year and have yet to experience any showstopping bugs, though I did have to wait a bit for some apps as EPEL and Fusion support is often a little behind the main release. -I've also got Fedora Server installed on a couple of VPS instance and haven't had any major issues there either. The server edition comes with one thing I haven't tested yet -- the new Fedora Modularity project. Support is listed as a "preview", not to be used in production, but the project is soliciting developer feedback. The idea is to build a system that lets you have some elements be cutting edge, say a new kernel and the latest development release of Node, but stick with the stable version of your favorite database. As the project homepage puts it, the Fedora modularity project is for "when you want a rolling release. But not really." It's a very interesting idea that bridges the gap between a traditionally super stable system, e.g. Red Hat and pure container based system like Fedora Atomic. If you'd like to learn more there's a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4O8G9SZwqtkIAuKcT8-JpQ">Youtube channel</a> that has some really nice video overviews of features and project goals. +I've also got Fedora Server installed on a couple of VPS instances and haven't had any major issues there either. The server edition comes with one thing I haven't tested yet -- the new Fedora Modularity project. Support is listed as a "preview", not to be used in production, but the project is soliciting developer feedback. The idea is to build a system that lets you have some elements be cutting edge, say a new kernel and the latest development release of Node, but stick with the stable version of your favorite database. As the project homepage puts it, the Fedora modularity project is for "when you want a rolling release. But not really." It's a very interesting idea that bridges the gap between a traditionally super stable system, e.g. Red Hat and pure container based system like Fedora Atomic. If you'd like to learn more there's a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4O8G9SZwqtkIAuKcT8-JpQ">Youtube channel</a> that has some really nice video overviews of features and project goals. In the mean time Fedora 26 makes a welcome update for the already very nice Fedora 25. + +fedora-desktop.jpg - The stock Fedora desktop with its very nice wallpaper +fedora-notifications.jpg - The GNOME notifications area now includes weather forecasts +fedora-software.jpg - See how much disk space each installed application is using in Software diff --git a/flavors/kubuntu.png b/flavors/kubuntu.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..69fa0d3 --- /dev/null +++ b/flavors/kubuntu.png diff --git a/flavors/ubuntu-mate.png b/flavors/ubuntu-mate.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..17959ff --- /dev/null +++ b/flavors/ubuntu-mate.png diff --git a/invoices/scott_gilbertson_invoice_92.doc b/invoices/scott_gilbertson_invoice_92.doc Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b1b3e50 --- /dev/null +++ b/invoices/scott_gilbertson_invoice_92.doc diff --git a/open-source-insider-1708.txt b/open-source-insider-1708.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c140530 --- /dev/null +++ b/open-source-insider-1708.txt @@ -0,0 +1,25 @@ +Just in case you didn't believe Firefox was on a trajectory that should have it crash and burn into extinction in the next couple of years, former Mozilla CTO, Andreas Gal, has usage stats that <a href="https://andreasgal.com/2017/07/19/firefox-marketshare-revisited/">confirm it</a>. To use Gal's words, "Firefox market share is falling off a cliff." The same could be said of Firefox itself. + +What's most interesting about <a href="https://andreasgal.github.io/adi/">this data</a> and Gal's interpretation of it is that at the same time Firefox is sliding into irrelevancy it's becoming a better and better browser. It's faster than it's ever been and it uses less memory. It uses less memory than what's replacing it (Chrome). Of course as the ancient Betamax vs VHS format wars demonstrated, having a superior product does not translate to market share. + +The big question is why? Why is Firefox, despite being faster than ever and using less memory than Chrome, losing ground to Chrome? + +Gal believes a big part of the problem is Google's monopoly on search and its aggressive marketing of Chrome. Log in to Google Mail, Google Calendar or YouTube and Google will push Chrome through overlays, bars at the top of the screen and other means. The language of these ads implies that whichever browser you're using -- if it isn't Chrome -- is slow and insecure. + +As Gal puts it, "it's hard to compete in a mature market if your main competitor has access to billions of dollars worth of free marketing." Indeed, it's impossible. + +"Firefox’s decline is not an engineering problem," writes Gal, "Its a market disruption (Desktop to Mobile shift) and monopoly problem. There are no engineering solutions to these market problems." + +To be fair there may be some explanations for Firefox's market share drop related to the source of Gal's data. Gal used Mozilla's (previously) public data on active Firefox Desktop installs running the most recent version of Firefox. There are two potential problems with that data. First legacy XP users are not counted because they're no longer using the latest version of Firefox. Then there's those of us that will be sticking with a legacy version of Firefox because some feature has been dropped. For example it'll be years before I move post Firefox 57 because of Mozilla's decision to drop "legacy" add-ons. Since the power of add-ons are a big part of Firefox's appeal I won't be upgrading until all the plugins I use have been updated. + +As with anything that puts Mozilla or Firefox in a negative light there are a million ways to defend both. Perhaps the best is to point out that Firefox still has 90 million daily users, which, while less than it was in the past is still nothing to sneeze at. + +There's another important thing to realize about Firefox's decline, it's something that's completely anathema to Silicon Valley and capitalism more generally -- Firefox doesn't have to be number one in market share. Gasp. What? + +Yes, it's true, Firefox can survive and even do very well as the number two browser on the web, perhaps even the number three browser on the web. Indeed my favorite web browser, Vivaldi, is barely a blip on the market share radar. + +Is a monoculture on the web bad? Yes, monocultures make systems vulnerable, but despite Firefox's declining market share there's no browser monoculture just yet. + +When Firefox first came along Microsoft had a monopoly by pre-installing IE. Now Chrome has something of a monopoly. But there's an important difference between IE and Chrome -- Google and Chrome aren't neglecting the web the way Microsoft and IE did, which means Firefox's role today doesn't require it to have a majority market share. Firefox can take on a different role, providing an alternative for those that want it without worrying about market share. + +Perhaps the most sage observation to come of Gal's post can be found on Hacker News where a commenter <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14421381">points out</a> that "Mozilla won the browser war. Firefox lost the browser fight. But there's many wars left to fight, and I hope Mozilla dives into a new one." Indeed. diff --git a/ubuntu1710-flavors.txt b/ubuntu1710-flavors.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fa09611 --- /dev/null +++ b/ubuntu1710-flavors.txt @@ -0,0 +1,41 @@ +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +## Kubuntu + +Kubuntu 17.10 offers perhaps the most different and yet mostly highly refined and modern looking Ubuntu experiences of all the flavors. Even the Kubuntu installer is leaps and bounds beyond the rest in terms of polish and that extends to the desktop itself, which isn't heavily customized from stock KDE. + +This release features the latest version of Plasma 5, the KDE desktop and KDE Applications 17.04.3. The two major non-KDE apps -- LibreOffice and Firefox -- are still well integrated into the default theme. The big news in Plasma 5.10 is that KDE has finally caved in and accepted the Desktop-as-folder metaphor. That means KDE users can now litter their desktops with icons and files named "newfile", "newerfile", "newestfile" just like everyone else. If that's not your style you can disable the feature, but, while I don't happen to use the desktop as a folder, it does strike me as the sane thing to use for your default desktop. + +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. + +## Lubuntu + +## Ubuntu Budgie + + + + + + |
