Maybe you’ve seen that penguin somewhere before? His name’s Tux and he (she?) is the Linux mascot. Linux is an operating system for computers but, unlike Windows or the Mac system, it isn’t made by a company but by thousands of unpaid volunteers. It might be worth looking at if you’re getting fed up with being locked into some company’s walled garden … or if you like that penguin. 🙂
Well, this isn’t one of those “linux Blogs”, and I’m not planning to post any nerdish code hacks or cool applications here, but I’d be dishonest not to add tinkering with the computer to one of my regular activities. I started out late – in 2002 or so, with a laptop that had been designed for Windows 95 and was running Windows 98. It was all very new and exciting, but meanwhile the rest of the world had moved on and trying to view “modern” web pages on this machine became less and less fun. Things improved a lot when a friend loaned me a more modern machine, but life remained a struggle to keep the demands of what I was trying to do within the capabilities of the machine I was using. Uninstall this… disable that… All this combined with finding anti-virus software and firewalls that wouldn’t make things grind to a complete halt…
The final straw came when Microsoft announced that Windows 98 would no longer be supported, and the only options to keep things reasonably safe would be to upgrade to Windows XP (and buy a computer that could run it) or try Linux. I was told about Ubuntu Linux, whose motto was “Linux for human beings”, and gave the then current “Breezy Badger” version a try. Now, it wasn’t a delightful experience, to be honest – very slow, and partly incomprehensible. My computer was still too slow and under-powered. Linux went on the backburner for a year or so till a version called “Xubuntu” – a bit simpler and lighter than regular Ubuntu – turned out to work OK, and Windows was finally left behind. There were some new things to be learned at first, but after about 6 months there came a lightbulb moment when I realized that the system and programmes were on your side! You were no longer struggling to get things to do what you wanted against the aims of some company, the penguin wanted to help you… Now I wouldn’t think of going back to Windows, even if it was free.
If you’re up for something different and would like to give Linux a try, it has some advantages even for non-geeks: it’s safer – you don’t really need an anti-virus – it’s very easy to install new software, and of course the price is right. Everything’s free as in free beer, and equally important, free as in freedom – no-one’s trying to control what you do with your computer. T, who has trouble using a VTR, does her email and web browsing as if nothing had changed. It’s also possible to install Linux and Windows together on the same computer and choose which you want when you start up.
You might try Ubuntu Linux, which has changed a lot since I used it – it’s now very shiny and smart. There’s also Linux Mint, which is based on Ubuntu, but with even more emphasis on usability. (A friend was recently introduced to Linux via Mint and likes it very much.) Finally, I’m now using something called BunsenLabs Linux – this is more spartan, but runs faster as a result, and offers even more opportunity for tweaking the way you want. I like it a lot, and have been involved in its development. If you visit the BunsenLabs forums you might run into me under the name johnraff. 🙂
Well, Linux isn’t for everyone, but if you like tinkering you might get caught!
asazuke 
Hi!
I switch between Mint and Bodhi Linux– both set with the Fluxbox window manager (Although sometimes I play with Enlightenment).
Just wanted to thank you for your script for the shoutcast-tuner which suits me very well. (I found it at the Crunchbang Forums.)
I also liked reading some of your blogs and viewing your photos.
I stay heartbroken about the Sendai quake and Fukashima disaster. It is some reassurance to me however that people like you do not give up because you obviously love Japan.
I send my best wishes.
Hi Robert, and thanks for dropping in!
Glad you’re enjoying the blog – I’m sorry it’s not updated a bit more often. There are some posts in the pipeline but i keep getting distracted by linuxy things like that shoutcast script…
Japan will need a long time to recover fully from 3/11, especially the nuclear waste issue which is still not at all sorted out, but although the region hit by the earthquake and tsunami is still devastated and things are very hard for the people who lived there, for the rest of us life goes on more or less as normal. Electricity is going to be a bit short this Winter apparently.
It’s still a special country.
johnraff, you sound like an interesting person. I have just switched over entirely to linux now, #! as well, I was an Ubuntu 10.04 user, with a dual on windows that was getting less and less attention, and penguin love just took over,ubuntu 10.04 it was fast for me and great intro, subsequent ubuntu’s left me a bit frustrated, always reverted back to 10.04…. #! is lovely. I run a centos VPS for my personal(and wifes’) cloud, and now #! just fits perfectly in the family 🙂
all the best.
Mykleman
Hi mykleman, thanks for your comments.
Maybe see you round the CrunchBang forums 🙂
John
do you have any news about what happend to busenlabs website i can’t download the iso file.is there any way to contect them. i just saw your name on github.sorry to bother you like that . i thought you’re a part of bunsenlabs Development
Hi Abhishek, I just checked and iso file downloads seem to be working OK: https://www.bunsenlabs.org/installation.html
There is an admin email address if you search the website or forum carefully. 🙂
the main problem is that the website is not working.i can’t access https://www.bunsenlabs.org/.. whenever i try to open this link it says – This site can’t be reached http://www.bunsenlabs.org took too long to respond.and also i am from india .is there any server issue with the bunsenlabs sever cause i’ve been trying for sevral days.. i really can’t access it.please send me his email.
website server is down in india or something is worng with the website server .is there anyone i can contect?
the main problem is that the website is not working.i can’t access https://www.bunsenlabs.org/.. whenever i try to open this link it says – This site can’t be reached http://www.bunsenlabs.org took too long to respond.and also i am from india .is there any server issue with the bunsenlabs sever cause i’ve been trying for sevral days.. i really can’t access it.
thanks for the reply.one last thing can you send me his email so i can send him some screenhshots .so that confirms the actual issue is in the sever or anything. thanks for your time
the main problem is that the website is not working.i can’t access https://www.bunsenlabs.org/.. whenever i try to open this link it says – This site can’t be reached http://www.bunsenlabs.org took too long to respond.and also i am from india .is there any server issue with the bunsenlabs sever cause i’ve been trying for sevral days.. i really can’t access it.
You can check with this site if bunsenlabs.org is down in India: https://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/
yup it’s down india… can’t you fix it
hi sorry to bother you again but it’s still not working in india.
—— sudo apt update
Hit:1 https://deb.nodesource.com/node_18.x bullseye InRelease
Hit:2 http://packages.microsoft.com/repos/code stable InRelease
Hit:3 https://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye InRelease
Hit:4 https://deb.debian.org/debian-security bullseye-security InRelease
Hit:5 https://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye-updates InRelease
Hit:6 https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/debian bullseye InRelease
Hit:7 https://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb stable InRelease
Err:8 https://pkg.bunsenlabs.org/debian beryllium InRelease
Could not connect to pkg.bunsenlabs.org:443 (49.12.104.37), connection timed out
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree… Done
Reading state information… Done
All packages are up to date.
W: Failed to fetch https://pkg.bunsenlabs.org/debian/dists/beryllium/InRelease Could not connect to pkg.bunsenlabs.org:443 (49.12.104.37), connection timed out
W: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead.
——– inxi -r
Repos:
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
1: deb https://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye main non-free contrib
2: deb https://deb.debian.org/debian-security bullseye-security main contrib non-free
3: deb https://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye-updates main contrib non-free
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/bunsen.list
1: deb https://pkg.bunsenlabs.org/debian beryllium main
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list
1: deb [arch=amd64] https://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nodesource.list
1: deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/nodesource.gpg] https://deb.nodesource.com/node_18.x bullseye main
2: deb-src [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/nodesource.gpg] https://deb.nodesource.com/node_18.x bullseye main
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vscode.list
1: deb [arch=amd64,arm64,armhf] http://packages.microsoft.com/repos/code stable main
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/winehq-bullseye.sources
1: deb [arch=amd64 i386] https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/debian bullseye main
Hi Abhishek,
we’ve finally found what the problem is, and hope to get service to India restored soon. Thank you for bringing this problem to our attention.
John
hello sir,
the problem is still not fixed.i really support you guys but fix this issues ASAP.Thankyou
I think it should be fixed now.