My New Favorite Desktop Environment

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Tags: computer desktop gnome linux lxde open source opensource software

This past week, I installed Fedora 17’s LXDE spin. I LOVE IT.

I’ve been a Gnome user since 1.0 (see the screenshot under Red Hat 6.1 in the linked article). My favorite was probably 2.4 (2.6 messed up the file browser by default), which I compiled from source in Slackware. Everything worked how you would expect. At 2.4, it was leap years ahead of everybody else with the possible exception of Enlightenment, which you could use for the window manager anyway.

But then, about 10 years later Gnome 3.0 came out with Gnome Shell… and the peasants sobbed in the streets. The Gnome developers decided that they know better than their users and unilaterally changed the way things work. Don’t get me wrong, it looks pretty, but it’s now useless for real work.

I’ve tried KDE many times over the years. I can’t put my hand on it exactly, but I just can’t stand KDE.

I’ve enjoyed xfce as well, but it just wasn’t quite what I was looking for. There was a disconnect between the developers and myself. Certain things were just odd or out of place for my taste.

I’d probably love Enlightenment 17, but it’s difficult to find a distro with packages and I’m too lazy to compile from source.

Enter LXDE.

On a whim, I decided to install Fedora 17 LXDE spin. It’s exactly what I’ve been looking for. Familiar Gnome looking goddness, but without the bloat. It’s quick. It’s a normal desktop, not Gnome Shell or Unity, so I can use it and get actual work done.

Admittedly, there are some rough edges. It’s a smaller, newer desktop environment, so they don’t have all the bells & whistles that some of the older ones do. But I’m okay with that because it doesn’t try to change my workflow like Gnome Shell does. Plus, it’s way faster than Gnome ever was.

I did download & use one of the Gnome 3.0 desktop backgrounds. It’s just so pretty.

I think I’m in love.

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Malware

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Tags: computer liberty linux open source

With the recent news about flame, stuxnet, and duqu, I find myself wondering if the NSA has put some backdoors in SE Linux. They wrote the code and its huge. It would be pretty easy to hide something there.

Its making me more paranoid.

But these kinds of attacks are so targeted I doubt they would do something like that. Plus, the code is available and everybody can see it. So once it is found, everybody would know who put it there.

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Baptism videos

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At our church, before any baptism, we get to see a short video of the person’s testimony. I love this tradition because it is so encouraging.

A couple weeks ago, in the middle of her testimony, a little girl told us all about heaven. She said, “In heaven, you don’t have to wear shoes or take baths or brush your teeth!” It was really cute.

She concluded with the all important, “and I just really love Jesus.”

On another one of the testimonies, a man told us that his brother brought him to Christ. I immediately thought of the four friends who brought the lame man to Jesus and cut the hole in the roof to lower him down to Jesus so he could be healed. Then I hoped that others were as stirred as I was to make a difference — to carry our friends and neighbors to Chist so he can save them too.

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Stop SOPA

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Tags: freedom liberty politics

Please head over to copyblogger.com and read Sonia’s new article about SOPA, the Internet Censorship Act.

Take action at http://americancensorship.org/.

Key facts:

  • SOPA will kill the internet as we know it.
  • Any user on a site that can make a comment has the power to shut your site down — just by linking to another site.
  • SOPA is shoot first and ask questions later. No judicial process. Your site is just off the air.
  • SOPA only hurts the lawful — not the law breakers.
  • SOPA restricts freedom and liberty — and is therefore un-American.
  • SOPA is the same kind of censorship employed by China and Iran… and our state department speaks out against them for it.
  • SOPA goes against the 1st amendment to the constitution — and your right to free speech.

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My New Articles on Rest Ministries

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Tags: health pots

I recently wrote a 2-part article for Rest Ministires, a nonprofit organization serving people with chronic illnesses. Rest Ministries has been ministering to my wife since before I met her and I wanted to say thank you in a way that might be helpful to others as well.

So I wrote an article called “Carrying SuperRachel: How I care for my Chronically Ill Wife.”

I hope that it is helpful to some other husbands / caregivers out there. Chronic pain sucks, but there are things you can do to help minimize the emotional pain and alleviate some of the logistic problems.

Click here for Part 1 – Carrying Super Rachel – The Logistics of When Your Wife Is Chronically Ill

Click here for Part 2 – How a Husband Can Encourage a Chronically Ill Wife: The Spiritual and Emotional Stuff

Grace & Peace,

-Matt

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