Hiatus – Again, It’s Been A Long Time

So, it’s been a long time without any news – time for an update.  A new job, and all kinds of other things have gotten in the way.  I’ve made some changes to try to be as open source, Linux, and privacy-minded as I can.

Post-Install Guides

The page with the most views seems to be my Fedora post-install guides.  I’m now on Fedora 27, and I got frustrated with Gnome about 6 months ago…I don’t remember why…but I’ve been on the KDE spin ever since.  I’ve gotten used to it pretty quickly, and I like it better.  I’ve switched a few of the applications I use to stay within the KDE ecosystem.  For instance, instead of Guake, I use Yakuake – which is essentially the same thing.  There are a few other changes and odds and ends here and there, but for the most part my previous guides stand.  Perhaps I will add a new one in the near future.

Software and other Updates

Another recent update is my provider’s (Linode) efforts to mitigate the effects of the recent hardware bugs (Meltdown and Spectre).  My server has been migrated to new hardware and is using an updated kernel (which they are kind enough to provide!) so I was up and running after just a few moments of downtime.  Protecting my home machines (all run Fedora, except my iMac) they are all covered by the most recent kernel update.

In other news, I’m making more efforts in my daily life to cut out proprietary software, and to use websites with no tracking as much as I can.  I have committed myself to using DuckDuckGo for my searches, and lessen my reliance on Google.  I still have my Gmail address – not because I love Gmail as much as because I’ve had it for years, and the thought of changing it is pretty daunting.

Aside from in the office, for which I do not have a choice, I’ve stopped using Microsoft Office entirely.  I used to have it in a VirtualBox VM, or use the Mac version occasionally, but I’ve forced myself to stick to LibreOffice.

I’m also pricing and selecting parts to build a new computer – one that will be AMD and Radeon centered.  I’ve read more and more about the improvements that have taken place with the open source Radeon driver, and of course after this latest Intel fiasco (I understand that AMD isn’t 100% out of the woods, but they are much less vulnerable and have handled this process better) I want to reward the company that is cooperating the most with Open Source developers.

And while they are not all open source, I am no longer buying any games on Steam that do not run on Linux.

I know that none of these are huge changes – and I’m not going to influence the market on my own – but every little step helps, and I’m working to adjust my lifestyle to accommodate more open source projects and avoid tracking.