Voidlinux, google-chrome, conferences, etc

 Yeah, that's a heck of a title.

So, I'm at a conference right now for work, and I've been ill the last 24-36 hrs. Like, no food/drink ill, with all that implies. So, I've missed some things here and don't know how my boss feels about it. I've texted, and it seems ok, but who the hell knows these days. I feel really bad about missing some of the presentations, because it's important to get this information in my field, as it tends to provide us with directions to go that may involve proposals to our legislature for changes to laws and such.

 Anyway, that's the backdrop for this. I'm currently sitting in my hotel room and trying to get work done on a training manual and keep track of what my direct reports are doing in my unit back home, while I'm here feeling like someone keeps punching my gut every few minutes.

I don't use a state laptop, not been issued one. I also don't use Windows on my personal laptop. Sometimes that creates issues in accessing items I need. So since we made the big switcharoo a few years ago to google as our email/office suite etc, I sometimes need Chrome to access it. I know a browser's a browser, and I personally don't use Chrome at all if I can avoid it. I don't really even like using Chromium, but I will if it gets work done.

So today, in an effort to get all my passwords and links synced to my laptop I went to install Chrome. I use voidlinux. I love it but sometimes a package I need isn't there and usually I just find something else to use. Today I just needed to have Chrome with all it's bells and whistles to access some sites for work.

Luckily there was a great tutorial on building the package for xbps to install, and by following that I think I see how to do some other things on my laptop with building other packages for it. I appreciate the tutorial and wanted to point it out to anyone else trying to do what I was and get the official Chrome installed under Void. So KURO, thank you very much!

Into the Void

 A while back, I got a thinkpad off of Ebay. I had been planning on putting a different distro on it, since I was getting tired of Ubuntu again. This lead me to search out non systemd distros. 

After a brief search, I settled on Void Linux a runit or Openrc based distro. You can choose the init system you want instead of being stuck with a elephantine octopus like systemd.

It's been a fantastic switch for me, I have had a limited learning curve to be functional and choose what I want to install and do with my system.

I recommend it personally to those looking for a system that they have total control over what is installed and don't want to stick with the systemd distros, for whatever reason.

You will have to read documentation. You will have to pay attention to notes and announcements. However, I haven't had a breaking update from Void like I did when I ran Arch.

Try Void and let me know what you think. 

Unsubscribe me

 I realized today that I'm still getting email from twitter. So I had to log back in and change my preferences then deactivate the account once again. so now it will take another 30 days to get rid of that account. 

You would think, in a normal universe, without dark patterns, that an account deactivation and prelim to deletion would automatically sever all communication ties with a service. This also prompted me to run through my mailbox, and while taking care to do it on legitimate sites, I used the unsubscribe link in a lot of email today to get rid of some of the clutter coming at one of my accounts that is solely used for that purpose.

It's a cathartic feeling, cutting the cord on digital junk mail. I can only hope it works to some extent.

September 23

 Typically as I am destined to do, this place has been fallow for a long time. It's been almost 2 years since my last post. Some updates:

Mastodon: I've move from mastodon.social to fosstodon.org, to mastodon.sdf.org. I think sdf will be the last though. I like the community and it fits me the best so far.

I still need to backup my laptop, nuke the drive and install a better distro than ubuntu. I need a less cluttered and more rolling release. Something that just works with my dell laptop, and with it being many generations behind. It's a Inspiron 5558 that's been updated with another 8gb of RAM, to end out at 16GB. With a 1TB pile of spinning rust for storage.

Work is work. that's what happens in Govt. I don't mention it much, and will keep it brief when I do. Mostly relating to policies I think are just dumb.

So maybe I'm coming back here for a while, but again, don't count on a steady schedule. It's just when the mood strikes me for longer form text.

Inkscape #1 - Sphere - expanded

This comes from a tutorial I found on YT. I skim it a lot trying to find neat things to recreate and this one just struck me as interesting.

There are many variations I could do with this one, all involving changes in color. To me, I thought the grey background added a bit to the image.

Mastodon

I decided to try going back on Mastodon again. I am on 2 instances, mastodon.social and mastodon.technology, both under mrxevious. If you use Mastodon, and anything I do interests you, then you can give me a follow if you feel so motivated.

Plans

Never in my history of doing things, am I ever able to keep this place up. One day I hope to make this a priority. For now postings will be sporadic or probably in bursts of short groups date-wise as life allows. 

Plans for the future: 

• Remove ubuntu 21.10 and replace with either MX Linux (Fluxbox version) or Garuda Linux. 
• Begin posting experiences with FOSS Software. 
• Explain why FOSS is not something to fear.