Farewell Ubuntu, hello again Debian!

Decided to leave Ubuntu. (well, the desktop versions at least.... keeping the MythTV orientated beastie for now).

Why have I jumped ship?

Well, I feel they are heading into a direction that is not compatible with my ideals and needs. Each to his or her own I guess.

No default Gimp in 10.04?

No CTRL-ALT-BACKSPACE X-server reset?

No xorg.conf (well, there is, but is it deprecated to a larger extent)

These are a few off the top of my head that irritate me. Shame.

Using Debian Lenny at the moment, and it feels like 'home'.

Ubuntu

Ubuntu - just perfect!

I have now switched to Ubuntu 9.10, otherwise known as Karmic Koala.

It is very stable, and, I think that I have been won over to using Gnome again after many months using Fluxbox.

I won't go into a review on this, but it is a fantastic achievement from the Ubuntu Team, and something that should be shouted about from the rooftops.

British Computing

There was once a time when Britain was a world leader in the Computer Industry. Just as it used to be in the Ship building, car making, coal mining and the steel industry.

But, over the years successive failures at both Governmental and Commercial level have left us with an over reliance on foreign made computers running foreign Operating Systems, foreign owned cars, imported coal and ships that we 'lease'. Fantastic.

The nature of International trade means that not having British made hardware is not so much of a problem, it is the OS that is the sticking point. Relying on some overseas company to 'fix' problems just doesn't seem to be a sensible way to go.

What if in the future we fall out with the country that is supplying the coal, the cars, the ships and the OS?

They get taken away, and possibly sabotaged. I think that there is a need for homegrown software, developed and managed by the country it is to be used in, purely for a security perspective and a cultural necessity, that is, it will teach the programmers of tomorrow not to be too reliant on one company or country to supply you with the tools you need.

Putting off the inevitable.

I dislike trends. Both in fashion and in technology. I also dislike linguistic fads too.

I used to view blogging as a trend, everyone and their dog was blogging, you were a nobody if you didn't blog your thoughts to the world.

I resisted, and it was not until the furor died down that I attempted to create one, realising that maybe there was value in having a blog. It was a place where you could not only express yourself, but also help and instruct people if you so desired. So, having put it off the inevitable, here is my blog. Tada!

I now see Twitter/FaceBook/MySpace etc etc now doing the same thing.... becoming a trendy thing to do. And you know this is true when Opera Winfrey wants a Twitter account! But unlike a blog, I don't see it becoming anything more than a fashionable thing to do.

I tried Twitter, and frankly it is a great lesson in how to waste your time. Endless people droning on in 140 characters or less on how their days has been, what they had for breakfast or how their dog messed on the floor. I mean, honestly, if you are fascinated by this then I think it speaks volumes about how little you really are switched on to the real world.

I cannot also stand the ongoing viral adoption of slang phrases that seems to sweep the internet message boards from time to time... the most recent are the 'FAIL' and the "I HAZ" memes. I am afraid that if you use those words in any text you are writing to me, I will stop communicating with you. If you say them to me in real life, I will walk away from you.

JUST STOP IT, it makes you look and sound like a moronic pleb that has no free will of your own and will simply follow the herd like the cattle you are.

Now, if you excuse me, I have some kids to chase off my lawn....