I'm a real lover of all things geeky, the internet, and anything related. I enjoy web design, playing around with new technologies, and strumming away on my guitars.
I am also a huge advocate of open source software like Linux.
I write for a number of websites all over the internet. I also run my own blog, RefuGeeks which attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors each month. I like to write about anything tech based, particularly open source technologies like Linux.
I love music, when people ask me “What’s your favourite band?” I usually can’t answer that as I like so many variations of music. Pretty much anything apart from drum ‘n’ bass is fine with me.
I really enjoy web design. I have created numerous web sites (including this one). WordPress is my development platform of choice and links to some of the projects I have been part of can be found in the Portfolio section of this site.
I love the whole mantra of Open Source technology. Everyone mucking in for one common goal. I am a huge Open Source fan and can regularly be found writing about it all over the internet. My personal Linux distribution of choice is currently Elementary OS Luna
About this Blog // Just a collection of my mundane thoughts and silly ramblings...
I'll try not to offend, or bore too many of you. If I do, then I apologise profusely. :-)
Anyone that follows me on any social networks, or the sparse updates I add to this blog will know that I have been on the hunt for the perfect operating system for my needs over the last few months.
I’ve hopped from Linux Distro, to Linux Distro including Ubuntu, Ubuntu Gnome, PinguyOS, Xubuntu, Kubuntu, OpenSUSE, Fedora, Bhodi, and a few others. They are all great and capable operating systems. But all of them had at least one niggle that I didn’t like, or that slowed me down – in their own ways they all just do too much.
I also considered Google’s ChromeOS, but decided against it in the end as I really need the flexibility and power that comes with normal applications, as opposed to web apps.
For some time I settled on Windows 8 with a custom Start menu installed from StartIsBack. But I really wanted the freedom and joy that comes with using FOSS, so although Windows 8 is great, it couldn’t scratch my itch either. I then heard that the Elementary team had announced the release of Luna Beta 2 – and oh what a game changer that was!
I had already tried Luna Beta 1, but it was lacking some features and it was still a little buggy on my machine. But Beta 2 is a completely different animal. I’ve been using it for around a week and a half now and it’s a complete joy to use. It’s stable, beautiful and most importantly, it gets out of my way and let’s me get on with my work. Which is exactly what I want from an operating system.
My Elementary Luna desktop
Elementary Luna is an operating system that is very loosely based on Ubuntu. However, they have re-developed many of the core features of the OS. It isn’t a hacked version of Gnome, or Unity, or XFCE, or any of the other UI’s. It’s their own UI built from the ground up called Gala.
Elementary OS Luna Beta 2 is so stable that I think if it were an Ubuntu release, the Canonical team would have no problem in calling this a stable, or even LTS release. It’s a great operating system and I can’t recommend it enough. I’ve migrated all of my machines over to it and I will be here for a long time to come yet I think!
NOTE: Even though Luna is extremely stable and awesome. It’s still a development release. Just because I’ve had positive experiences of Luna doesn’t mean that yours will be the same. So if you install this OS and your machine blows up, you cannot blame anyone but yourself.
Many people who know me or follow me will know that I can usually be found hanging around Google+ (Google’s version of Facebook), and generally it’s a happy affair where I can really geek it up with my fellow techies. But today I saw a post from Dietrich Schmitz and I just had to re-share it with an accompanying rant.
Basically Dietrich has created a campaign on FundRazr were he is basically asking for supporters of his site, Linux Advocates to pay his wages for the next 6 months ($10,000) so that he can continue to work on the project full time. Dietrich justifies the campaign by explaining the amount of time and expense he has put into Linux Advocates.
Time yes, expense, no. The site is hosted on Google’s free blogging platform, Blogger. So in monetary terms, Linux Advocates has cost Dietrich absolutely nothing.
“I launched Linux Advocates at my own expense and have devoted considerable time and energy to getting it started off on the right foot. In order to continue operating it at the same level, I anticipate devoting myself in a full-time capacity. To that end, I anticipate the need to defray costs of $10,000 over the next six (6) months.”
Dietrich even goes on to tug at the heart strings of readers by explaining that he will have to go on welfare soon if he does not get the donations he feels he deserves.
“My funds are nearing the point where I will become financially depleted and simply will cease to operate and worse without income will require Welfare assistance to live. With your help, I can continue to survive and serve this important advocacy.”
Well in some cases, absolutely yes! I fully support many open source projects and donate regularly too them. However, for someone to start a free blog and expect for us, the community to pay their wages is just completely and utterly out of the question (in my humble opinion).
Linux Advocates aims to promote Linux to the masses. That’s great, I fully support the mantra. However, in the Linux world the developers must come first. Begging for wages is completely polar to what Linux advocacy is all about.
Now, on the other hand, if Dietrich had spent time growing his site and had millions of visits a month and require large, powerful servers, and therefore large running costs, then I would have respected him more. Even then though, I would expect him to make up this deficit with other means like advertising.
There is already a PayPal donate button on your site Dietrich. Is that not enough?
I’m a firm believer that you shouldn’t get into blogging unless you do it because you enjoy it, not to make a quick buck. As it usually shows through. If you build a good solid blog, with great content, and build it up over time then the financial rewards will come anyway if you want them too.
Just to put this into perspective. I started RefuGeeks around 2 years ago, it started it’s roots in the same place a Linux Advocates but it now had a fairly powerful dedicated server that it needs to run on. Over the last couple of years I’ve invested hundreds of pounds into RefuGeeks (I hope my girlfriend isn’t reading this as she will kill me!) but even now I wouldn’t dream of asking the incredible RefuGeeks readers for a donation. Sure I have adverts on RefuGeeks, but the money they bring in don’t cover costs. However, every little helps and I am happy to do this because I love it! That to me is how a blog should be run.
I personally feel that Dietrich Schmitz is way off the mark on this one. To ask a community for donations on a blog that is just a few months old and had absolutely no money invested into is ludicrous. If you need money Dietrich, then do what the rest of us do…go out and get a job. Don’t sponge of your community!
What do you guys think? Am I totally in the wrong here? Are Dietrich’s requests reasonable? I’d love to hear what other members of our fair community think (that’s if you’re still awake after hearing me rant!)…
Since writing my rant, as a clearly concerned member of Dietrich’s community, he responded with the following comment on Google+:
Blood boil? Oh dear. Maybe you should see a Doctor. It just could be hypertension you know.
Clearly he takes negative feedback from concerned members of his community very seriously. Subsequent to this I found that I have been removed and blocked from the Linux Advocates Google+ Community, and I was banned from commenting on the site…all because I disagreed with the all mighty Dietrich.
So, what now? Well, the thought came to me that I can do so much better than a poorly designed blog on Blogger so I campaigned for people to help on Google+ and the answer was called by Bhushan Shah, Brandon Holtsclaw, Guillermo Garron, and Yop Spanjer and we have now formed FOSS Advocates which will be what Linux Advocates should have always been.
There won’t be any censorship (apart from spam), and you will be free to explore everything that FOSS has to offer. Let’s hope that me and my team can make FOSS Advocates the success that Linux Advocates should have been.
So I recently mentioned that I would be moving away from Ubuntu in favour of ChromeOS. I chose ChromeOS because I wanted something that would work well, is stable and is fast.
I came to the decision after trying many, many Linux distro’s and none of them worked how I wanted them to work. Anyway, the decision to move away from Ubuntu got me thinking and it occurred to me…Do I have to use Chrome OS? What about Windows? I use Windows a lot in work and it’s what my background is in. However, trying the Windows 8 preview was far from a nice experience.
I thought I’d throw caution to the wind and install Windows 8, except this time I decided to buy a StartIsBack license to give Windows 8 a more “normal” feel.
I’ve been running Windows 8 on my machine now for around 3 days now and it is running extremely well. It’s fast, capable and pretty nice to look at. I’m yet to actually use the Metro interface, and I really don’t think I will be using it to be honest (as it’s god awful). My machine boots straight to the desktop and the performance is better than that of Ubuntu 12.04 that I was using previously.
Now some of you may say that I’m selling out because it’s proprietary software and that I previously said I would be moving to ChromeOS, so let me answer some those questions before they arise in the comments:
Proprietary software - Yes it is, however I’ve always said that I will use what I think is best for me. I don’t bear any affiliations with other companies just because I like the way they work or that they have a good moral standing. I need my machine to work and if I can work best in Windows then so be it.
The price - So what? I’m happy to pay for the software that works best for my needs. I’ve said in the past that I would happily pay for any Linux distribution if it met my needs.
ChromeOS cop out - Somewhat yes, but it occurred to me that I don’t want to spend over £300 just because I’ve decided to move away from Ubuntu (especially since my existing laptop is great). I got my Windows 8 license for £14.99 because my laptop qualified for the discounted upgrade. I may still turn to ChromeOS if Windows 8 doesn’t work out for me over time, but for now it’s doing the job nicely.
What about Virus’s - Well, in all the years I’ve been running Windows I’ve never had a significant infection that’s affected my data or my privacy. As long as the machine is kept up to date, I have good AV and I don’t go on any dodgy sites then I should be fine.
Probably not. I’m sure at some point the lure (and fun) of the Linux desktop will draw me back – at the very least I’m sure I’ll end up dual booting very soon just for fun. But at the moment Windows 8 is working for me. Maybe I’ll get a Chromebook, maybe I won’t. Maybe Windows 8 will crash & burn and become the laggy mess that Windows usually is after a few months of use. I suppose only time will tell…
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