COMPUTER AMERICA; ALL LINUX SHOW
New year, or recycled year?
Introduction
Before we get started, you should really follow my YouTube channel, my personal Websites, and if you are curious, my Flipboard magazines where you can follow the things that catch my attention.
Subscribe to Marcel’s YouTube channel where you can view the latest editions of the Cooking With Linux show.
https://www.youtube.com/user/freethinkeratlarge/
You might also want to support Marcel’s video habits on Patreon.
https://patreon.com/marcelgagne
“Cooking With Linux” on Flipboard https://flipboard.com/@wftl/cooking-with-linux-oun4gv1ly
My own site is http://marcelgagne.com where I talk about whatever comes into my head, including Linux and Open Source software. If you just want the Linux and Open Source stuff, head over to http://cookingwithlinux.com .
Today’s Wine
Today, I’m taking you to Italy with a wine from Tommasi in Veneto, a 2016 Graticcio Appassionato. This is a wonderful red wine with tons of depth and character. It’s rich and fruity with flavor, but well rounded. It’s also one of those wines that you should open and let breathe for a while. As it turns out, it gets better and better if you just leave it alone for a half hour before you drink it. Enjoy!
News. Rumors. Conspiracy Theories
What should we expect from Linux in 2019.
Is the Linux philosophy still relevant in 2019? And why that’s the wrong question.
What happened with Linux in 2018?
Today’s Featured Topic
The rich and powerful take what they want. I want to take that philosophy that isn’t, from the above story, and talk about it in terms of big tech firms controlling everything and how they control the discussion because they control the platform.
Then, we can talk about federated social network apps. There are blogging platforms and microblogging platforms. Then there’s the million pound gorilla, Facebook. Diaspora was supposed to be the open source Facebook “killer”, and though it hasn’t had much of an impact, it is being used. But there are others as well, including Friendica, which I’m going to cover in terms of functionality, how to set it up, and how it works.
Anyone can download the software from https://friendi.ca/ and set up their own server.
In fact, I have set up a server at https://utechme.com . Create an account, log in, and see what you think. Here’s what my Friendica server looks like.
Distribution Focus
With today’s distribution, we’re going to look at something that’s a product of three great houses (sorry, still in Dune mode). This distribution is called MX Linux. One house is Debian, and from that one you get the system’s base which uses Debian Stable. House antiX and house MEPIS round out the triad as the two branches of developers who have joined forces to create this Debian based distribution.
For a desktop, it uses XFCE which is a more lightweight environment. You pretty much have to like XFCE because other desktop environments aren’t easily available. One upside, which we don’t think about much these days, is that the resource demands tend to be fairly low.
The configuration, as far as look and feel (e.g. color theme), is handled through MX Tweak, one of the many distro-specific tools that MX features. For example, by default, the panel is vertically aligned to the left but MX Tweak lets you move it wherever you like.
You can download the latest version at https://mxlinux.org/ .
Other Stuff
Let’s talk about stuff and things. Maybe.
Until next time . . . A votre santé! Bon appétit!
— Marcel Gagné