Thoughts Today.

Holy hell, Ubuntu handles Bluetooth like a dream. When the computer lock screen comes up after I’ve stepped away from my desk, all I need to do it move my mouse just a little and it jumps back to life. In Windows or Fedora, I’d have to shake the thing for a bit to get it to connect. And the switch from the system audio to my headphones when I turn them on (and vice versa) is seamless. On Fedora this would work some of the time. The rest of this time, Bluetooth would just drop altogether taking my mouse with it. Sometimes it would come back on its own, other times I’d have to restart.

Also to note, Ubuntu handles OpenRazer and Polychromatic beautifully. As of right now, I’ve not lost my settings once. Static white is the name of my game and that’s what’s happening. Even my old Deathadder Chroma ¹ is happy. Razer doesn’t even support this mouse in the newer versions of their software, but OpenRazer is more than happy to step up.

And good goddamn, I can’t overstate how fucking good Strawberry Music Player is. I only really use it for Radio (Soma FM) and my local collection, but it’s just so lovely to use. I first discovered it years ago on Fedora, brought it over to Windows when I switched back, and I’m happy to report it’s still awesome.

Minor Gripe

For a system that constantly brags about how customizable it can be, there are certainly some limitations that make little sense. Maybe it’s different distro to distro, but I find the Menu Editor in KDE Plasma weird in that it allows you to rename/rearrange/delete/whatever you want except “these few items!”. While I’m sure most can be accomplished via the terminal, or by fucking around in config files, I wish I were able to do more in the GUI or that what’s there is more obvious. Saying you can customize what you want and then limiting this is something I’ve come to expect from Microsoft or Apple (not that you can customize much of anything in macOS to begin with).

At least there is an option to reset everything back to default, so there is that.

Minor Thought

I really think that most people could totally use Linux as a daily driver. What does the everyday person use a computer for? The web. seriously, everything is available on the web from Google to Facebook to MS 365 app and most all of this runs great in browser.

Why don’t more people switch?  Most of it is change. People really don’t like change. They move to new things kicking and screaming and while they finally get used to change, it takes a long, long time. I know people who lose their minds when there is a slight GUI update. Hell, there have been more than a few GUI updates that I haven’t liked. ²

A great example is my dad who, back in the day, freaked out when Outlook Express was put out to pasture and he had to switch to Windows Live Mail. Then he freaked out when Live Mail was gone and he had to use the Windows 10 Mail app. Then earlier this year there was the New Outlook and, well, yeah. The freakout over the New Outlook has only recently subsided. This was nothing compared to the freakouts when he had to upgrade Windows itself (every single time from 95 to XP and then to 7 and then to 10). Those were were epic ³. I don’t even want to imagine what trying to get him on Linux would be like (or any other platform to be honest).

There is also the fact that the one thing Microsoft has worked on is relative ease of use. For all the things people complain about (and there are things to complain about), Windows is pretty easy to navigate. Anyone who has used Windows for any reason is used to, for example, just downloading and double clicking an exe file to install whatever application they need. They don’t want to have to figure out what Repositories are available, or what to do with a .run file once it’s downloaded. Or install an .sh file from the Command line. Deciding between Snap or Flatpack.

For some of us, hunting around for solutions to the problems we encounter is not really an issue. We’re the minority, so we don’t count. The fact is that Linux offers just enough friction that even someone who want to just live in a browser will give up pretty quick.

I have more thoughts on why people won’t be rushing to Linux anytime soon but for now I’ll end here.

^1: I generally use mouse on a new install before setting up Bluetooth, and now keep plugged in just in case something decides to shit the bed.

^2:<cough>Bitwarden</cough> Their update wasn’t that bad, but changing how you populate your creds in the browser is kinda counterintuitive after so many years of training your users to doi it a certain way that works just fine to something completely new is rough, man. Now I find myself clicking on the site name and seeing all the info show up in the BW window rather than populate the un/pw fields on the site I’m trying to login to (I turn off the autofil suggestions on the form fields because they’re annoying) . I then backtrack and click on the little button that says “Fill”. Like I said minor, and it doesn’t ruin my day when it happens, but why?

^3: My favorite memory was him absolutely losing his mind when I installed Windows XP for the first time. I had to go in and flip from the Luna interface back to the old Windows Classic interface and set up Explorer to look and run exactly like it did on Win 95 – yes, when you double clicked on a folder another folder would open. Even after all this was done (including finding the wallpaper for the old 95 Plus Pack Dangerous Creatures theme – and he still uses this wallpaper today), he was beside himself that there was a My Documents folder on the desktop. It took a long time for him to just give up and accept it.

I don’t know what it is, but the moment I get comfortable, I manage to click on something and then everything breaks.

There seemed to be a brief period in 2022/23 where everything was working just fine. Hell, I even finished two songs under Fedora, and the experience was smooth pretty much all around. I was happy in the thought that Linux had finally achieved something near mainstream workability. Then I ran an upgrade (a jump from 36 to 38 I think?) and it completely wiped out my audio. Nothing I tired would get it back. So I reinstalled the earlier version and turned updates off. Didn’t matter though. A couple of months later, I did something else that hosed nearly everything on my system. Then I went back to Windows and then missed Linux, then Linux really got janky and …

… Fuck it, back to Windows. I just didn’t have any more patience left at that time to deal with Linux’s little fits. Windows 11 is a lot of things but one of the things it hardly does anymore is crash. Next to Windows 2000, it’s one of my favorite versions based on stability and general ease of use. The marks against it are the increasing levels of shit MS is stuffing in there. I don’t wants ads or tracking or AI and I’m speaking as someone who has a home built computer with enough horsepower to run most things well and who doesn’t have to put up with Windows S mode.

Then last week I decided to say fuck it, and put my money where my mouth is and try Linux again. I downloaded and installed Fedora Jam (I was used to it) and it was ok but a little weird due to some minor changes in the latest version of KDE Plasma. I also had a few hiccups, one of which caused me to do a full reinstall … and things were just off. Sound, especially sound kept dropping in and out. Among other things, devices would drop off the list if I chose a different  profile for another device. Fedora Jam just didn’t feel as “welcoming” as it did a couple of years ago. Finally I gave up and spent Sunday evening back in Windows just to finish a few writing things up.

Yesterday I said fuck it. There are sooooo mannnnyyyy distros out there why try and force something that’s just not working? Throw a dart. Let’s try Ubuntu Studio.

And here I in Ubuntu studio. Even though it’s taking a little bit of getting used to, Ubuntu is holding its own at the moment (I’m knocking on all the wood I can find). The only issue I’ve run into is, again, Reaper just does not want to play nice with the Scarlett 2i2. Mixbus loves it so, ok. Fine for now.

Ubuntu Notes

• • • Installing Steam was a bit of a pain until I realized that the Flatpack repository wasn’t enabled. Once I was pointed to Flatpack, everything was smooth sailing. The Wither 3 took an inordinately long time to start on first launch, but it runs just as well as it did under Fedora which is to say it runs just as well as it does under Windows (again, knocking on that wood).
    • Got Scrivener running with zero issues this time around.
    • Configuring the desktop look and feel was easy as Ubuntu Studio is still using KDE Plasma 5.x. I think I’ll hold off upgrading Plasma for a good while.
    • Wayland is a much better graphics option than X11 if you have a large monitor.
    • Sure there are no ads and trackers to disable, but christ in a sidecar, the amount of apps installed by default on these distros is insane.