From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

There is for me a very good rant about Linux. I agree with him for most
of things. He didn't even mention my favorite flat design and gray
fonts.
https://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/linux-product-philosophy.html
--
Linux Mint 22.2 kernel version 6.14.0-36-generic Cinnamon 6.4.8 AMD
Ryzen 7 5700G, Radeon RX9060XT, 32GB of DRAM.

--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

yossarian wrote:

There is for me a very good rant about Linux. I agree with him for most
of things. He didn't even mention my favorite flat design and gray
fonts.
https://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/linux-product-philosophy.html

I've read dedo/Igor's stuff; reviews, criticisms, perspectives, for
years. He doesn't fall into a 'fan-boi' category. Some of his
criticisms have fallen on my 'deaf' ears because his perspective is
different from my own.

I've also listened to linux users who are 'frustrated' by the linux
'tiny' percentage of the desktop market and especially frustrated by the powerfully negative fragmentation condition.

To me, the fragmentation is a form of 'the price of freedom', which
freedom is so powerful that even MS has jumped onto the open source
bandwagon in its own MS way.

I share dedo/Igor's 'disappointment' in the current Wayland adoption evolution; and in fact, the term 'evolution' from a biologic sense is
like the 'diversity' of the linux condition.

Personally I remain optimistic for the future; I don't CARE how few
linux desktops there are, I would LUV for the Wayland process to find
its way, I don't share dedo/Igor's unhappiness w/ systemd, because I
believe that the success of the systemd 'fork' is a good thing, not a
bad thing.

Time will tell how Wayland problems will eventually work out; it is NOT
like the Hindenburg disaster, not is systemd.
--
Mike Easter
--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

On Sat, 28 Feb 2026 12:33:16 +0100, yossarian < wrote:

There is for me a very good rant about Linux. I agree with him for
most of things. He didn't even mention my favorite flat design and
gray fonts.

None of which has to do with Linux. Linux is an OS. Issues like rCLflat
design and gray fontsrCY are to do with the GUI layer, not the OS.

Unlike its proprietary competitors, in Linux the GUI is a separate, replaceable, modular layer, which is not inextricably bound into the
OS.
--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

Lawrence DrCOOliveiro wrote:

None of which has to do with Linux. Linux is an OS. Issues like rCLflat design and gray fontsrCY are to do with the GUI layer, not the OS.

Unlike its proprietary competitors, in Linux the GUI is a separate, replaceable, modular layer, which is not inextricably bound into the
OS.

Yabbut; from a 'conventional' user's perspective, the GUI is the *face
of* the OS, so the 'face' matters, just like a lot of people feel/act
about the face of a person.

So, the 'parts' are the face, how apt/able is it (to do the things I
want to do) and how 'secure' is it (to not do things I don't want it to
do), etc.

Linux is strong in a lot of those areas, but from a desktop perspective,
not strong enough to swing a lot of 'voters' to use it there. Over the years/decades linux has evolved a LONG way on its face.

A lot of linux users are not that 'conventional' /populace/ but may be developers, supercomputer needers, server needers, mobile users, etc.

So, some areas linux wins hands down, other areas not so much. The face
is just one little part of the big picture. From dedo/Igor's
perspective, he is kinda crazy/demanding for the face; always has been.
--
Mike Easter
--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

On 2/28/26 6:33 AM, yossarian wrote:

There is for me a very good rant about Linux. I agree with him for most
of things. He didn't even mention my favorite flat design and gray
fonts.
https://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/linux-product-philosophy.html

I don't really see his rant. Of course I'm in a big way a user not a geek.

If the machine runs, it's good. Oh I can get in the background and fix/adjust a few
things but I couldn't tell you if I had Wayland or X11 (actually I could in LM).

I also have a KDE OS and I don't know, easily, if it's KDE 5 or 6, Wayland or X11, systemd
or other. To me, it works. I'd have to run inxi or neofetch to get a hint.

I can't do anything about these issues so what's it to me? I use an OS and rate it by
how it works, not what's behind the screen.

I does bother me that there isn't more push to make it THE desktop OS.
Maybe I'm ostrich and have my head in the sand. <grin>

So much for MY rant. LOL
--
Linux Mint 22.3, Mozilla Thunderbird 140.8.0esr, Mozilla Firefox 148.0
Alan K.
--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

Alan K. wrote:

I does bother me that there isn't more push to make it THE desktop OS.
Maybe I'm ostrich and have my head in the sand. <grin>

When a particular user around here whines about linux 'fragmentation', I
would remind him that if he wants to get 'behind' one specific distro
dev in which there is some kind of over-arching 'master', whether that
be RedHat and its 'partiality' to its Gnome (now somewhat more divided
to include KDE) or some other like LM and its fondness for Ub/Deb and
mostly Cinnamon, he wouldn't have to worry so much about all of the 'fragmentation' going on across the entire linux landscape.

Linux doesn't really 'herd' any better than cats. So the people who want
a master can go MS or Apple in which that linux kind of fragmentation of
the UI doesn't exist, or rather isn't as 'powerful'/dominant as linux frag.
--
Mike Easter
--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

Alan K. wrote:

On 2/28/26 6:33 AM, yossarian wrote:

There is for me a very good rant about Linux. I agree with him for most
of things. He didn't even mention my favorite flat design and gray
fonts.
https://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/linux-product-philosophy.html

I don't really see his rant.-a Of course I'm in a big way a user not a
geek.

If the machine runs, it's good.-a-a Oh I can get in the background and fix/adjust a few things but I couldn't tell you if I had Wayland or
X11 (actually I could in LM).

I also have a KDE OS and I don't know, easily, if it's KDE 5 or 6,
Wayland or X11, systemd or other.-a To me, it works.-a I'd have to run
inxi or neofetch to get a hint.

I can't do anything about these issues so what's it to me?-a-a I use an
OS and rate it by how it works, not what's behind the screen.

I does bother me that there isn't more push to make it THE desktop OS.
Maybe I'm ostrich and have my head in the sand. <grin>

So much for MY rant. LOL

many PC users just want a viable OS alternative to Windows, so they can
be rid of M$, and all it entails, including having to pay for software,
and since most of us are not geeks, and are not greatly interested in technical issues, I think that the more user friendly, and 'windows
like' distros are, eg. LM, Zorin, the more likely it is that those
distros will rise in popularity, and consequently be more supported by developers, and have more support for users, so it's likely one, or
maybe two, will become the 'norm' for Linux use among the great
unwashed. just my opinion of course.-a :)
--
Linux Mint 22.3

--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

On Sat, 28 Feb 2026 17:34:50 -0500, Alan K. wrote:

I also have a KDE OS and I don't know, easily, if it's KDE 5 or 6,
Wayland or X11, systemd or other. To me, it works. I'd have to run
inxi or neofetch to get a hint.

fastfetch -- neofetch is so 2015...

I usually know because of general background noise. I know the Arch and
Fedora boxes are KDE Plasma 6.6 because Fedora made so much noise about
it. I didn't notice any difference. I know the Mint laptop is x11 because Cinnamon on Wayland isn't there yet. All of that has very little impact
on what I do.
--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

On Sat, 28 Feb 2026 14:25:47 -0800, Mike Easter wrote:

Linux is strong in a lot of those areas, but from a desktop perspective,
not strong enough to swing a lot of 'voters' to use it there. Over the years/decades linux has evolved a LONG way on its face.

Er, which face?
--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

On Sat, 28 Feb 2026 10:23:34 -0800, Mike Easter wrote:

Time will tell how Wayland problems will eventually work out; it is NOT
like the Hindenburg disaster, not is systemd.

Perhaps I'm lucky but I'm running Wayland on the Fedora, Ubuntu, and Arch boxes. Even the Raspberry Pi with the Debian Trixie derived Os is Wayland. Zero problems.

The only x11 is the Mint laptop and that's because Cinnamon doesn't play
nice with Wayland. I logged into the experimental Cinnamon/Wayland session
and it didn't stay up long.

Of the whole hered, I don't have a SysV box; all are systemd. Again, no problems.

--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

On Sat, 28 Feb 2026 14:25:47 -0800, Mike Easter wrote:

Lawrence DrCOOliveiro wrote:

None of which has to do with Linux. Linux is an OS. Issues like
rCLflat design and gray fontsrCY are to do with the GUI layer, not the
OS.

Unlike its proprietary competitors, in Linux the GUI is a separate,
replaceable, modular layer, which is not inextricably bound into
the OS.

Yabbut; from a 'conventional' user's perspective, the GUI is the
*face of* the OS, so the 'face' matters, just like a lot of people
feel/act about the face of a person.

That is one of the habits of thinking that those new to Linux have to
unlearn when coming from the proprietary competition.

They have to realize that the distro they are installing has *no*
distinctive face: they can make it look how they like.
--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

On Sat, 28 Feb 2026 14:44:54 -0800, Mike Easter wrote:

When a particular user around here whines about linux
'fragmentation', I would remind him that if he wants to get 'behind'
one specific distro dev in which there is some kind of over-arching
'master', whether that be RedHat and its 'partiality' to its Gnome
(now somewhat more divided to include KDE) or some other like LM and
its fondness for Ub/Deb and mostly Cinnamon, he wouldn't have to
worry so much about all of the 'fragmentation' going on across the
entire linux landscape.

rCLFragmentationrCY implies a bunch of broken shards with some kind of
lack of unity among them.

That would describe the proprietary market, fragmented between
Microsoft and Apple. It would describe the BSD world, fragmented
between roughly similar but subtly incompatible variants that cannot
even share filesystems, let alone kernels.

It does not describe the Linux world. Remember, the Linux world
invented rCLdistro-hoppingrCY, which is something you can only practise in
a non-fragmented world.
--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

On Sat, 28 Feb 2026 17:34:50 -0500, Alan K. wrote:

On 2/28/26 6:33 AM, yossarian wrote:

There is for me a very good rant about Linux. I agree with him for most
of things. He didn't even mention my favorite flat design and gray
fonts.
https://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/linux-product-philosophy.html

I don't really see his rant. Of course I'm in a big way a user not a
geek.

If the machine runs, it's good. Oh I can get in the background and fix/adjust a few things but I couldn't tell you if I had Wayland or X11 (actually I could in LM).

I also have a KDE OS and I don't know, easily, if it's KDE 5 or 6,
Wayland or X11, systemd or other. To me, it works. I'd have to run
inxi or neofetch to get a hint.

Neither inxi nor neofetch tell you. I don't even know what Wayland or X11
are, or how they relate to XFCE or XFWM4 or any of the other alphabet
soups. I expect I could learn, but I don't know what good it would do me.
I read the Wayland entry in Wikipedia and I couldn't make head or tail of
it.

The main limitation of Linux (specifically LM) for me is that some minor things - matters of practical importance - do not work properly and there seems no prospect that they will get fixed. The developers appear to be
more interested in grand long-term projects to replace things that already
do work.

--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

Handsome Jack wrote:

On Sat, 28 Feb 2026 17:34:50 -0500, Alan K. wrote:

On 2/28/26 6:33 AM, yossarian wrote:

There is for me a very good rant about Linux. I agree with him for most
of things. He didn't even mention my favorite flat design and gray
fonts.
https://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/linux-product-philosophy.html

I don't really see his rant. Of course I'm in a big way a user not a
geek.

If the machine runs, it's good. Oh I can get in the background and
fix/adjust a few things but I couldn't tell you if I had Wayland or X11
(actually I could in LM).

I also have a KDE OS and I don't know, easily, if it's KDE 5 or 6,
Wayland or X11, systemd or other. To me, it works. I'd have to run
inxi or neofetch to get a hint.

Neither inxi nor neofetch tell you. I don't even know what Wayland or X11 are, or how they relate to XFCE or XFWM4 or any of the other alphabet
soups. I expect I could learn, but I don't know what good it would do me.
I read the Wayland entry in Wikipedia and I couldn't make head or tail of
it.

The main limitation of Linux (specifically LM) for me is that some minor things - matters of practical importance - do not work properly and there seems no prospect that they will get fixed.

what things?

The developers appear to be
more interested in grand long-term projects to replace things that already
do work.

the only thing that annoys me is the super small window controls-
minimize, expand, close. I can't think of any good reason for making
them that small.
--
Linux Mint 22.3

--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

On Mon, 2 Mar 2026 00:20:44 +1100, Axel wrote:

Handsome Jack wrote:

The main limitation of Linux (specifically LM) for me is that some
minor things - matters of practical importance - do not work properly
and there seems no prospect that they will get fixed.

what things?

Just as one example, that Thunar regularly crashes.

The developers appear to be more interested in grand long-term projects
to replace things that already do work.

the only thing that annoys me is the super small window controls-
minimize, expand, close. I can't think of any good reason for making
them that small.

A presumably related one is that none of the window themes provide thick enough borders that you can easily grab to resize the window.


--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

Lawrence DrCOOliveiro wrote:

Mike Easter wrote:

Unlike its proprietary competitors, in Linux the GUI is a separate,
replaceable, modular layer, which is not inextricably bound into
the OS.

Yabbut; from a 'conventional' user's perspective, the GUI is the
*face of* the OS, so the 'face' matters, just like a lot of people
feel/act about the face of a person.

That is one of the habits of thinking that those new to Linux have to
unlearn when coming from the proprietary competition.

They have to realize that the distro they are installing has *no*
distinctive face: they can make it look how they like.

I'm not one who thinks that a linux should 'look like' Win to a past (or current) Win user who is evaluating a distro. But I do feel that the
'feel' of using the interface should not be 'completely foreign'.

When such as .eu cities plan to 'enforce' a change of systems on their
masses or populace, they do a lot better if they convert them via their interface w/ the 'new' opensource *applicatons* first and not 'worry
about' the fact that a Win is under the different opensource app.

After they are fine w/ the new apps, changing to a linux is easy. That's
why I feel that the user interface or the 'face' of a different system shouldn't be TOO abrupt or disconcerting.

People can adapt to change if you don't expect /too much/ from them all
at one time.
--
Mike Easter
--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

Lawrence DrCOOliveiro wrote:

Remember, the Linux world invented rCLdistro-hoppingrCY, which is
something you can only practise in a non-fragmented world.

Well, there's distro hopping and then there's distro hopping.

I don't even know if I'm considered a distro hopper if I sample newer
current versions of numerous (scores) of different distro/s 'all the
time' -- but I'm doing that w/ live or live w/ persistent 'versions' of
'all those' distro/s, but not even installing them.

Meanwhile, I always go back to my installed daily driver for my everyday activities. So I'm not sure I've actually 'hopped' such as changing my 'everyday' system from one thing to another. I've only 'dallied' w/ the different distro, not 'settled into' it.

When I read Jesse Smith's reviews, he is very often a true hopper for
his work at reviewing, 'settling in' to using a distro for a while. And *certainly* dedo/Igor tweaks a distro he uses all over the place,
because he is VERY into the user interface issue's fine points.

Typically I don't even 'get around to' doing much tweaking w/ a sampled distro's interface, except for setting the tz and installing some method
for employing sticky keys if not available in settings, such as xkbset.
--
Mike Easter
--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

On Sun, 1 Mar 2026 10:52:45 -0000 (UTC), Handsome Jack wrote:

Neither inxi nor neofetch tell you. I don't even know what Wayland or
X11 are, or how they relate to XFCE or XFWM4 or any of the other
alphabet soups. I expect I could learn, but I don't know what good it
would do me.
I read the Wayland entry in Wikipedia and I couldn't make head or tail
of it.

Neofetch does if you know what you're looking at. On the Ubuntu box

WM: Mutter (Wayland)


I have Cinnamon on the Mint box

WM: Mutter (muffin)

Muffin is a X11 windows manager. For Xfce you will probably see xfwm4,
another X11 window manager.
--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

On Sun, 1 Mar 2026 07:27:39 -0000 (UTC), Lawrence DrCOOliveiro wrote:

It does not describe the Linux world. Remember, the Linux world invented rCLdistro-hoppingrCY, which is something you can only practise in a non-fragmented world.

Is it distro-hopping if you have several machines, each with a different distro?
--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

On Sat, 2/28/2026 8:40 PM, rbowman wrote:

On Sat, 28 Feb 2026 10:23:34 -0800, Mike Easter wrote:

Time will tell how Wayland problems will eventually work out; it is NOT
like the Hindenburg disaster, not is systemd.

Perhaps I'm lucky but I'm running Wayland on the Fedora, Ubuntu, and Arch boxes. Even the Raspberry Pi with the Debian Trixie derived Os is Wayland. Zero problems.

The only x11 is the Mint laptop and that's because Cinnamon doesn't play nice with Wayland. I logged into the experimental Cinnamon/Wayland session and it didn't stay up long.

Of the whole here, I don't have a SysV box; all are systemd. Again, no problems.

The one on the left has a different init system.
The one on the left is native X11.
And, it's ahead on a few of the benchmarks.

[Picture] Use "Download original" for highest resolution

https://i.postimg.cc/63B9s1SB/bench-and-compare.gif

I don't have very good control there. Ubuntu on the right
seems to be using "Balanced". While Devuan on the left,
all I can determine (from dmesg) is that the performance
bias is "Normal". Turbo is disabled on the machine (sometimes
I have it running, sometimes not, depending on how
warm the room is getting). I tried to keep settings consistent
for these comparison runs, but as for internal choices
(Balanced or Performance), I think they were running the same
but I don't have good proof.

I tried to get a pure Wayland, but that will have to wait
until I can discover what distro does that. I used to be able
to choose all three at one time, but some of the players have
backed out of pure Wayland. XWayland is what they are using
at the moment, as in the right-hand column.

While I ran that bench, I prefer GLXGears with Vsync off,
because that displays the starkest comparison. Even though
GLXGears is non-linear above about 20,000 FPS (the machine
or the OS is likely hitting an interrupt limiter). Most of my
cards are weak sauce, so they tend to be in the linear range,
but some of the audience, they might read out 20,000 when their
hardware really wants to show us 100,000 .

Paul
--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --------------9AA2BA402E3A1D569C77C9C9
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Handsome Jack wrote:

On Mon, 2 Mar 2026 00:20:44 +1100, Axel wrote:

Handsome Jack wrote:

The main limitation of Linux (specifically LM) for me is that some
minor things - matters of practical importance - do not work properly
and there seems no prospect that they will get fixed.

what things?

Just as one example, that Thunar regularly crashes.

The developers appear to be more interested in grand long-term projects
to replace things that already do work.

the only thing that annoys me is the super small window controls-
minimize, expand, close. I can't think of any good reason for making
them that small.

A presumably related one is that none of the window themes provide thick enough borders that you can easily grab to resize the window.

That's adjustable in Menu > Preferences > Themes > Settings> "Override
the current theme's scrollbar width" and move the slider
--
Linux Mint 22.3


--------------9AA2BA402E3A1D569C77C9C9
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
</head>
<body text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Handsome Jack wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite" cite="mid:10o1kbc$ae8m$1@dont-email.me">
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">On Mon, 2 Mar 2026 00:20:44 +1100, Axel wrote:

</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">Handsome Jack wrote:
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">The main limitation of Linux (specifically LM) for me is that some
minor things - matters of practical importance - do not work properly
and there seems no prospect that they will get fixed.
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">
what things?
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">
Just as one example, that Thunar regularly crashes.

</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">The developers appear to be more interested in grand long-term projects
to replace things that already do work.


</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">the only thing that annoys me is the super small window controls-
minimize, expand, close. I can't think of any good reason for making
them that small.
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">
A presumably related one is that none of the window themes provide thick enough borders that you can easily grab to resize the window.


</pre>
</blockquote>
<br>
<span class="T286Pc" data-sfc-cp="" data-processed="true">That's
adjustable in <span class="Yjhzub">Menu &gt; Preferences &gt;
Themes &gt; Settings</span>&gt; "Override the current theme's
scrollbar width" and move the slider</span><br>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Linux Mint 22.3

</pre>
</body>
</html>

--------------9AA2BA402E3A1D569C77C9C9--
--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

Handsome Jack wrote:

Alan K. wrote:

If the machine runs, it's good. Oh I can get in the background and
fix/adjust a few things but I couldn't tell you if I had Wayland or X11
(actually I could in LM).

I also have a KDE OS and I don't know, easily, if it's KDE 5 or 6,
Wayland or X11, systemd or other. To me, it works. I'd have to run
inxi or neofetch to get a hint.

Neither inxi nor neofetch tell you.

That is not quite correct; inxi has enough power to tell you about
wayland, x11, KDE 5/6, and even systemd if you use -Ix.

Neofetch is all about its 'appearance' so its help just tells you more
ways to display it. Well, a little more than that, but not like inxi.
--
Mike Easter
--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

On Sun, 1 Mar 2026 15:01:00 -0000 (UTC), Handsome Jack wrote:

On Mon, 2 Mar 2026 00:20:44 +1100, Axel wrote:

Handsome Jack wrote:

The main limitation of Linux (specifically LM) for me is that some
minor things - matters of practical importance - do not work
properly and there seems no prospect that they will get fixed.

what things?

Just as one example, that Thunar regularly crashes.

Have you tried getting more info on the bug and sending in a report?

Developers tend to need all the help they can get.
--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

On Sun, 3/1/2026 10:01 AM, Handsome Jack wrote:

On Mon, 2 Mar 2026 00:20:44 +1100, Axel wrote:

Handsome Jack wrote:

The main limitation of Linux (specifically LM) for me is that some
minor things - matters of practical importance - do not work properly
and there seems no prospect that they will get fixed.

what things?

Just as one example, that Thunar regularly crashes.

The developers appear to be more interested in grand long-term projects
to replace things that already do work.

the only thing that annoys me is the super small window controls-
minimize, expand, close. I can't think of any good reason for making
them that small.

A presumably related one is that none of the window themes provide thick enough borders that you can easily grab to resize the window.

Here, have one of my scroll bars. They're free (if you can find one).

OK, now let's adjust some columns in a File Manager,
to our liking. What's that, you've given up already ? :-)

Now, if my Thunar won't crash, what do you recommend I do ?
When things like this happen, the very first question I
ask, is what generation of RAM does the machine have ?
Is it DDR2 for example, running faster than DDR2-533 ?
DDR2 can be very stable... if you run it slow enough.
DDR3/4/5 can be a bit better.

Paul
--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

On Sun, 1 Mar 2026 13:12:14 -0800, Mike Easter wrote:

Neofetch is all about its 'appearance' so its help just tells you more
ways to display it. Well, a little more than that, but not like inxi.

The neofetch github was archived 2 years ago and it hadn't been touched
for several years prior to that. Fastfetch is the replacement and on my Cinnamon laptop shows 'Muffin (X11)' for the WM.

fastfetch --gen-config-full will create a JSON file in .config/fastfetch
if you want to tweak it. There is a .config/neofetch configuration file
but it doesn't have many options.

--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

At Sun, 1 Mar 2026 15:01:00 -0000 (UTC), Handsome Jack
<jack@handsome.com> wrote:

On Mon, 2 Mar 2026 00:20:44 +1100, Axel wrote:

Handsome Jack wrote:

The main limitation of Linux (specifically LM) for me is that some
minor things - matters of practical importance - do not work
properly and there seems no prospect that they will get fixed.

what things?

Just as one example, that Thunar regularly crashes.

The developers appear to be more interested in grand long-term
projects to replace things that already do work.

the only thing that annoys me is the super small window controls-
minimize, expand, close. I can't think of any good reason for making
them that small.

A presumably related one is that none of the window themes provide
thick enough borders that you can easily grab to resize the window.

I had that trouble before, but switched to one of the HiDPI themes.
--
-v System76 Thelio Mega v1.1 x86_64 Mem: 258G
OS: Linux 6.19.5 D: Mint 22.3 DE: Xfce 4.18 (X11)
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090Ti (24G) (580.126.18)
"...and on the seventh day, He exited from append mode."
--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

On Mon, 02 Mar 2026 03:27:20 +0000, vallor wrote:

At Sun, 1 Mar 2026 15:01:00 -0000 (UTC), Handsome Jack
<jack@handsome.com> wrote:

A presumably related one is that none of the window themes provide
thick enough borders that you can easily grab to resize the window.

I had that trouble before, but switched to one of the HiDPI themes.

Doesn't seem to make any difference on mine.
--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

On Sun, 1 Mar 2026 18:09:19 -0500, Paul wrote:

On Sun, 3/1/2026 10:01 AM, Handsome Jack wrote:

On Mon, 2 Mar 2026 00:20:44 +1100, Axel wrote:

Handsome Jack wrote:

The main limitation of Linux (specifically LM) for me is that some
minor things - matters of practical importance - do not work properly
and there seems no prospect that they will get fixed.

what things?

Just as one example, that Thunar regularly crashes.

[snip]

When things like this happen, the very first question I ask, is what generation of RAM does the machine have ?
Is it DDR2 for example, running faster than DDR2-533 ?
DDR2 can be very stable... if you run it slow enough.
DDR3/4/5 can be a bit better.

I have no idea. Is it really a good idea to supply a file manager - one of
the most vital tools of any OS - that crashes if you're using a specific
type of RAM? None of my other applications do that.
--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

On Sun, 1 Mar 2026 21:22:49 -0000 (UTC), Lawrence DrCOOliveiro wrote:

On Sun, 1 Mar 2026 15:01:00 -0000 (UTC), Handsome Jack wrote:

On Mon, 2 Mar 2026 00:20:44 +1100, Axel wrote:

Handsome Jack wrote:

The main limitation of Linux (specifically LM) for me is that some
minor things - matters of practical importance - do not work properly
and there seems no prospect that they will get fixed.

what things?

Just as one example, that Thunar regularly crashes.

Have you tried getting more info on the bug and sending in a report?

No, but if I did that wouldn't change the fact that Thunar regularly
crashes, and that that is not a satisfactory state of affairs.

Developers tend to need all the help they can get.

Thousands of people much better informed than I am must have reported this bug.

--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

rbowman wrote:

Mike Easter wrote:

Neofetch is all about its 'appearance' so its help just tells you
more ways to display it. Well, a little more than that, but not
like inxi.

The neofetch github was archived 2 years ago and it hadn't been
touched for several years prior to that. Fastfetch is the
replacement and on my Cinnamon laptop shows 'Muffin (X11)' for the
WM.

fastfetch --gen-config-full will create a JSON file in .config/
fastfetch if you want to tweak it. There is a .config/neofetch
configuration file but it doesn't have many options.

Well, I have no experience w/ fastfetch, but I LUV inxi. So I asked
gglAIov: 'compare fastfetch and inxi'

Fastfetch and inxi are both command-line utilities used for
displaying system information on Linux, but they serve different
primary purposes:
Fastfetch is a modern, ultra-fast alternative to Neofetch designed
for visual, stylized output (often used in desktop screenshots),
while inxi is a comprehensive, deep-dive diagnostic tool designed
for system troubleshooting and hardware analysis.

I'm not interested in neo- or fast-'s 'visual stylized output'. I want
inxi's comprehensive deep-dive or a choice of an 'overview' or a verbose/detailed of only one section of its many parameters.
--
Mike Easter
--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

Mike Easter wrote:

Well, I have no experience w/ fastfetch, but I LUV inxi. So I asked
gglAIov: 'compare fastfetch and inxi'

Fastfetch and inxi are both command-line utilities used for
displaying system information on Linux, but they serve different
primary purposes:
Fastfetch is a modern, ultra-fast alternative to Neofetch designed
for visual, stylized output (often used in desktop screenshots),
while inxi is a comprehensive, deep-dive diagnostic tool designed
for system troubleshooting and hardware analysis.

I'm not interested in neo- or fast-'s 'visual stylized output'. I want inxi's comprehensive deep-dive or a choice of an 'overview' or a verbose/detailed of only one section of its many parameters.

Well, rather than pay too much attention to some LLM, I installed
fastfetch from a .ppa and ran it.

I definitely like it better than neofetch, but it also definitely isn't
inxi. I like to be able to 'focus' on a parameter, or not, depending;
and to dive deeply or not, depending. inxi is great at that.

-fast's dev/s are a little crazy for .json, which is like a foreign
language to me.

Here is the documentation. It is generated from the JSON schema, but you might not find it very user-friendly.

https://github.com/fastfetch-cli/fastfetch/wiki/Json-Schema?tab=readme-ov-file --
Mike Easter
--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

Mike Easter cited:

Here is the documentation. It is generated from the JSON schema, but
you might not find it very user-friendly.

OTOH, there's a very large man, 588 pp which tells me fast- has more
power than I realized, in terms of isolating modules.
--
Mike Easter
--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

Mike Easter wrote:

OTOH, there's a very large man, 588 pp which tells me fast- has more
power than I realized, in terms of isolating modules.

Oops; nevermind. It doesn't isolate (as a command option); but it has a
lot of modules.

I actually don't like it that much better than neofetch, which it
surpasses; but it doesn't come up to inxi's ankles for me.
--
Mike Easter
--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

On Mon, 2 Mar 2026 09:20:46 -0800, Mike Easter wrote:

I actually don't like it that much better than neofetch, which it
surpasses; but it doesn't come up to inxi's ankles for me.

Horse for courses.

$ inxi -w
Weather:
Report: temperature: 16.81 C (62 F) conditions: overcast clouds
Locale: None, CO, Unknown current time: Mon 02 Mar 2026 11:00:51 AM MST
(America/Denver) Source: OpenWeatherMap.org

Nice feature but the problem is I'm 900 miles from Denver. The problem
with inxi is unless I use -F, which is deprecated in favor of -e if you
ask it, you're dealing with

"You can use these options alone or together, # to show or add the item(s)
you want to see: A, B, C, d, D, E, f, G, i, I, j, J, l, L, m, M, n, N, o,
p, P, r, R, s, S, t, u, w, --edid, --mm, --ms, --slots. If you use them
with -b, -e, or -v [level], inxi will add the requested lines to the
report. "

Of course if you go digging fastfetch isn't much better.

You can have fun with fastfetch. For some reason if you go on subreddits
like r/linuxmint people love to show screen shots with fastfetch. The 'I
use Arch btw' gets sniffy. I actually use EndeavourOS on one box but I
hacked the config so it swears it's Arch Linux x86_64. You don't even
have to mess with the config. -l specifies the logo and there are 497
built in.

fastfetch --list-logos




--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

rbowman wrote:

Horse for courses.

$ inxi -w

That isn't the way I use inxi's weather. I use my zip code, because my
city (and county) have LOTS of different climates. In fact, I often use
the zip code next to the west of me, because almost all the time there
is a prevailing breeze from the west that comes thru' and around my
house, and I feel that the weather report and forecast for that area is
more like my weather than my own zip.

Oops, wait; I lied :-/ (was mistaken about inxi)

I don't use inxi for weather, I use wttr.in and my zip or my next W zip.

curl wttr.in 'yourzip-noquote'

The accuracy problem in an area like mine which has such a diverse bunch
of microclimates, is how the system is 'rigged' to using particular
/station/ databanks.

There are little home reporters which may be closer than official jurisdictional weather reporting. Fortunately I have a NWS national
weather service station not far to my west.
--
Mike Easter
--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

On Mon, 2 Mar 2026 15:06:33 -0000 (UTC), Handsome Jack wrote:

On Sun, 1 Mar 2026 21:22:49 -0000 (UTC), Lawrence DrCOOliveiro wrote:

On Sun, 1 Mar 2026 15:01:00 -0000 (UTC), Handsome Jack wrote:

Just as one example, that Thunar regularly crashes.

Have you tried getting more info on the bug and sending in a report?

No, but if I did that wouldn't change the fact that Thunar regularly
crashes, and that that is not a satisfactory state of affairs.

How do you expect them to fix the bug without information as to what
the bug is?

Developers tend to need all the help they can get.

Thousands of people much better informed than I am must have
reported this bug.

Have you checked the bug tracker?
--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

On Mon, 3/2/2026 10:04 AM, Handsome Jack wrote:

On Sun, 1 Mar 2026 18:09:19 -0500, Paul wrote:

On Sun, 3/1/2026 10:01 AM, Handsome Jack wrote:

On Mon, 2 Mar 2026 00:20:44 +1100, Axel wrote:

Handsome Jack wrote:

The main limitation of Linux (specifically LM) for me is that some
minor things - matters of practical importance - do not work properly >>>>> and there seems no prospect that they will get fixed.

what things?

Just as one example, that Thunar regularly crashes.

[snip]

When things like this happen, the very first question I ask, is what
generation of RAM does the machine have ?
Is it DDR2 for example, running faster than DDR2-533 ?
DDR2 can be very stable... if you run it slow enough.
DDR3/4/5 can be a bit better.

I have no idea. Is it really a good idea to supply a file manager - one of the most vital tools of any OS - that crashes if you're using a specific type of RAM? None of my other applications do that.

I'm explaining a typical root cause.

Even when you get a Dell or an HP, when you receive it, you should be
using "memtest" in the GRUB menu and test that the RAM is stable. A good memory tester, tests from "0..Max" of the RAM. The BIOS has reserved locations
that must not be tested by non-BIOS activity, and memtest asks the BIOS
for the reservation list, before it tests. If you have four RAM slots, you
can put two sticks on one channel, test them, if they pass, turn off the
power and swap the two sticks (so the high stick takes the low stick role,
and the low stick takes the high stick role), and that comes the closest
to constructing a test to thoroughly test RAM. If you don't want to do
two RAM tests like that, just run one memtest with the sticks left in
their slots, and that's "close enough" for Thunar to not be crashing.

*******

On both Windows and Linux, setting up to capture crashes is a
pain in the ass. The easiest thing to do, is attach gdb to a
running application, and wait for a crash. Tools like this one,
may be able to do the stack trace for you and print it out.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Apport

Since that looked painful, we can compare the complexity to this one.
This one tells you how to "make a program with a bug in it". And
then the gdb result shows the stack trace for the bug. We run our
buggy program, and see if the stack trace points at the defective line.
Real programs can be "stripped" of line numbers, so then we have to be
content with just getting the "type of crash" as our evidence.

https://www.cs.toronto.edu/~krueger/csc209h/tut/gdb_tutorial.html

gdb is used for Ring3 programs (Thunar). kdb is used for kernel debugging.
Any time an executable has multiple processes or threads, this
greatly increases the brainpower you need to run the tools. For example,
if you do "ps" and see seven Firefox thingies running, which one
do you attach to ? That's part of the fun. On Firefox, the movie
player is the most likely one to crash, and maybe there is a good
reason to attach gdb to that PID when we figure out which Firefox
is the movie one.

Thunar can have great complexity inside, but attaching it shouldn't
be any worse than attaching to that sample program.

gdb /usr/bin/thunar /home/jack/Downloads
> run
... Thunar crashes
> backtrace
... Copy the screen info and put in a text file
> quit

Since Thunar deals with file systems at the virtual level,
it is "insulated" by doing things like stat() on files and
getting the "standard information" for them. Thunar is
a middle-man.

Using a program like "strace", you can watch what files Thunar was looking
at when it crashed. This would be as a second test run,
to collect some "behavioral" information up to the crash point.

https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/strace.1.html

strace /usr/bin/thunar /home/jack/Downloads

and one of the things you see at first, is it "poking" the
Downloads folder and collecting information. Then, when you
start mousing around where that crash thing happens, the
last lines out of the strace in the terminal console,
hint at what file was helping that crash along. Thunar
does not have to crash on a "file reason" -- if it is
a RAM stability problem, the gdb result and the strace
result will be random and no discernible pattern will be
there. That's one of the reasons we might run the "memtest"
first, to assure ourselves how sweet the computer is and
it would never cause us problems like this :-) That's
why I memtest -- "trust, but verify" :-)

When using strace, set the scrollback on the terminal to
a high number of lines, as strace can produce a large amount
of output. While you can redirect the output to a text file,
I'd have to go look up whether the output is on stderr or not,
to make a tee and some redirects to make that work. For a first
run, you can just let it puke into the terminal. That's so you can
see how it works.

Paul
--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

On Sun, 1 Mar 2026 08:27:08 -0800, Mike Easter wrote:

Lawrence DrCOOliveiro wrote:

Mike Easter wrote:

Unlike its proprietary competitors, in Linux the GUI is a
separate, replaceable, modular layer, which is not inextricably
bound into the OS.

Yabbut; from a 'conventional' user's perspective, the GUI is the
*face of* the OS, so the 'face' matters, just like a lot of people
feel/act about the face of a person.

That is one of the habits of thinking that those new to Linux have
to unlearn when coming from the proprietary competition.

They have to realize that the distro they are installing has *no*
distinctive face: they can make it look how they like.

I'm not one who thinks that a linux should 'look like' Win to a past
(or current) Win user who is evaluating a distro.

But we werenrCOt talking about you, were we? We were talking about some,
in your terms, rCLconventionalrCY user -- whatever that might be.

But I do feel that the 'feel' of using the interface should not be 'completely foreign'.

You have that choice. It can look however you like.

People can adapt to change if you don't expect /too much/ from them
all at one time.

You have the choice of how it looks. Linux is all about choice.
--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

On Mon, 3/2/2026 9:54 PM, Lawrence DrCOOliveiro wrote:

You have the choice of how it looks. Linux is all about choice.

"Every Linux Desktop Environment Explained in 1 minute"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnb_XGULKbc

Paul
--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

On Mon, 2 Mar 2026 22:21:54 -0500, Paul wrote:

On Mon, 3/2/2026 9:54 PM, Lawrence DrCOOliveiro wrote:

You have the choice of how it looks. Linux is all about choice.

"Every Linux Desktop Environment Explained in 1 minute"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnb_XGULKbc

Interesting but it sounded like the ax fell at 1 minute regardless. There
was a link to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sa4IlJugs_o in the sidebar
that I think would be good for Windows refugees. Multiple distros with multiple DEs available for each distro tends to confuse them.

Then there are the distro tweaks; Mint's Xfce is different than Debian's.
Mint seems to make it a little more Windows like with the taskbar on the bottom.
--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

On Mon, 2 Mar 2026 11:58:09 -0800, Mike Easter wrote:

There are little home reporters which may be closer than official jurisdictional weather reporting. Fortunately I have a NWS national
weather service station not far to my west.

I just stumbled on inxi's weather report. emacs developers must have had a hand in it. At least it doesn't tell fortunes afaik.

I wrote a Python program to pull down the weather from

https://api.weather.gov/points/{latitude},{longitude}

where I pass in the coordinates. That gives me the grid and I can get the latest observations. The points query also returns the forecast url so I
can print out the next week like

Tuesday
Mostly sunny, with a high near 57. South wind 1 to 5 mph.
temperature: 57
wind 1 to 5 mph S

Tuesday Night
Rain likely after 11pm. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 34. South wind
around 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%.
temperature: 34
wind 5 mph S

The return is JSON but is easily parsed in Python. I've got a program
running on the Raspberry Pi that reads the inside temp/humidity from a
DHT11 sensor that I'll expand to also get the current conditions. Output
it to a LCD for a little at a glance info.

--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

On Mon, 2 Mar 2026 22:21:54 -0500, Paul wrote:

"Every Linux Desktop Environment Explained in 1 minute"

That would only leave milliseconds for each one ...
--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

Handsome Jack wrote:

On Sun, 1 Mar 2026 21:22:49 -0000 (UTC), Lawrence DrCOOliveiro wrote:

On Sun, 1 Mar 2026 15:01:00 -0000 (UTC), Handsome Jack wrote:

On Mon, 2 Mar 2026 00:20:44 +1100, Axel wrote:

Handsome Jack wrote:

The main limitation of Linux (specifically LM) for me is that some
minor things - matters of practical importance - do not work properly >>>>> and there seems no prospect that they will get fixed.

what things?

Just as one example, that Thunar regularly crashes.

Have you tried getting more info on the bug and sending in a report?

No, but if I did that wouldn't change the fact that Thunar regularly
crashes, and that that is not a satisfactory state of affairs.

why not use some other file manager? I use LM22.3 and Thunar is not the default manager

Developers tend to need all the help they can get.

Thousands of people much better informed than I am must have reported this bug.

--
Linux Mint 22.3

--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

On Tue, 3 Mar 2026 17:58:07 +1100, Axel wrote:

Handsome Jack wrote:

On Sun, 1 Mar 2026 21:22:49 -0000 (UTC), Lawrence DrCOOliveiro wrote:

On Sun, 1 Mar 2026 15:01:00 -0000 (UTC), Handsome Jack wrote:

On Mon, 2 Mar 2026 00:20:44 +1100, Axel wrote:

Handsome Jack wrote:

The main limitation of Linux (specifically LM) for me is that some >>>>>> minor things - matters of practical importance - do not work
properly and there seems no prospect that they will get fixed.

what things?

Just as one example, that Thunar regularly crashes.

Have you tried getting more info on the bug and sending in a report?

No, but if I did that wouldn't change the fact that Thunar regularly
crashes, and that that is not a satisfactory state of affairs.

why not use some other file manager?

I could, but that wouldn't change the fact that Thunar - the file manager supplied with the OS - regularly crashes.

I use LM22.3 and Thunar is not the
default manager

What is?

I've tried Nemo, and it is good, but it has one fatal flaw: when you pick
up a file from the desktop and drop it into another folder, it *copies* it instead of moving it. That is enough to make it unusable for me.

--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

On Tue, 3 Mar 2026 17:58:07 +1100, Axel wrote:

Handsome Jack wrote:

On Sun, 1 Mar 2026 21:22:49 -0000 (UTC), Lawrence DrCOOliveiro wrote:

On Sun, 1 Mar 2026 15:01:00 -0000 (UTC), Handsome Jack wrote:

On Mon, 2 Mar 2026 00:20:44 +1100, Axel wrote:

Handsome Jack wrote:

The main limitation of Linux (specifically LM) for me is that some >>>>>> minor things - matters of practical importance - do not work
properly and there seems no prospect that they will get fixed.

what things?

Just as one example, that Thunar regularly crashes.

Have you tried getting more info on the bug and sending in a report?

No, but if I did that wouldn't change the fact that Thunar regularly
crashes, and that that is not a satisfactory state of affairs.

why not use some other file manager? I use LM22.3 and Thunar is not the default manager

I should have added: And this Thunar thing is only one of many small but annoying problems that don't look as they will ever get fixed. I can live
with most of them - and Lord knows LM is still far preferable to Windows -
but they are still problems.
--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2