Kicking the bloatware habit

[archvortex]

It's been a slow process but I have finally let go of some old habits. It took me a while to find a light WM that I was comfortable with besides i3 and I now use spectrwm. Bye bye Openbox! I've dumped using graphical file managers like pcmanfm, thunar and spacefm for console types mc and ranger. Dumping GUI for CLI, has not been a learning experience because I have been using computers since 1980 ( COBOL FORTRAN, Pascal and BASIC at university) but an unlearning experience to break old habits. It's not so much getting out of your comfort zone but changing your comfort zone. It's also not so much seeing the error of my previous ways but seeing things in a more simple, minimalistic way. There is nothing wrong with using Graphical User Interfaces if that is your preference and I will maintain one LXDE/Openbox partition on Gentoo to do stuff with my kids and wife. The rest of the time will be spent doing things in a minimalistic way using CLI instead of GUI (learning to use noX and emacs right now). Faster and simpler rather than slower and bloated.

I've seen on other forums that LinuxBBQ is for crazy hackers, the releases are insane or grillers are elitists. Grillers definitely have a different mindset than the multitude of Linux users but elitist? I think of the Grill as somewhere that DIY users can learn, bloom and prosper. I've learned more in the time here at the Grill (albeit more than a year lost after the bus crash) than I did in 13 years with Gentoo and Arch. I've learned more about WM, CLI programs and setups than I did while I was a project leader for an Arch spinoff ;). And every day I check in on the Forum, I learn something new or nearly piss myself laughing. There is no better place in the Linux ecosystem to learn and improve your user habits than here. Thanks guys for all your contributions, your camaraderie, the laughs and knowledge sharing! You can teach an "old dog" new tricks and new habits.

[machinebacon]

Thank you for being with us, even though you used lxterminal the other day :D

Soon you will regard the python-dependency of ranger as bloat, too. You will start counting dependencies, and install obscure no-bloat shit just for the sake of it (for example, ii or sic for IRC, edit files with busybox built-in vi/ex, shit like that) and probably end up like most of us here: not visiting other forums anymore - only to collect stuff for possible memes. ;D

[wuxmedia]

^ that.

[dkeg]

elitist ...

[ivanovnegro]

Crazy hackers, hahahaha. I never hacked anything, yeah maybe my phone and it did not work out. :D

[vic]

Elitist! Moi?

[franksinistra]

s/hackers/tinkerers/
s/elitists/survivalists/

FTFY

[archvortex]

I laughed when I saw "elitists" and I'm trying to find the post so I can link to it. It was an Ubuntu or Zorin user and then others chimed in like a bunch of screaming chimps. Maybe they couldn't find the installer or something. LOL. I dunno. I've mentioned using BBQ on different forums and I've gotten similar responses. Complaints that it is difficult, too minimalistic, popular applications are not included, blah, blah, blah. WTF? It takes about 5 minutes to install and so fucking simple if you have already got a partition ready. Boo hoo, you have to spend an extra minute to boot in and add a user and then reboot. "Where's the pretty slideshow showing the bloatware applications while I watch my installation?" It only takes a minute for the system to get installed, Numnuts, so there's no need for a fucking slideshow. Commands like 'ins packagename " instead of "apt-get install packagename" or "upg" instead of "apt-get upgrade". How fucking simple is that and with less keystrokes? Oy vey!! OMG, where is our rant thread? I feel one coming on or maybe it's just an aneurysm.

[archvortex]

MB,

Yep, no BBQ street cred for using lxterminal. LOL

[machinebacon]

^^ That was on the Crunchbang forums by a user who managed to get his entry in the Rotten Meat section of our wiki :)

[archvortex]

I thought it was either #!, Bunsen, Ubuntu or Vsido. I was following links to have a look at how others had their spectrwm.conf set up.

[pidsley]

I don't worry about people who call us elititist minimalist hackers and think it's too difficult to run "sudo bbqinstaller." In fact, I am happy those people don't like us, because I am sure we would not like them. I hope we never become popular.

[ivanovnegro]

^ Exactly.

Commands like 'ins packagename " instead of "apt-get install packagename" or "upg" instead of "apt-get upgrade". How fucking simple is that and with less keystrokes? Oy vey!! OMG, where is our rant thread? I feel one coming on or maybe it's just an aneurysm.

Those are just aliases but I think many do not even know such a thing exists. You can still use your usual apt command skills but this is already too much for some people and they cry for Synaptic.

[archvortex]

I don't worry about people who call us elititist minimalist hackers and think it's too difficult to run "sudo bbqinstaller." In fact, I am happy those people don't like us, because I am sure we would not like them. I hope we never become popular.

Exactly! I think that would be the general sentiment around here. I'd rather be here in this humorous, sharing and learning environment than in some "popular" distro forum.

Those are just aliases but I think many do not even know such a thing exists

Precisely! Aliases especially for repetitive tasks on the commandline, hence BBQ's list of practical aliases.

I think the photo sums up the core LinuxBBQ developer and user

[ivanovnegro]

We are not even so much against the tide. We are just different. We give obscure shit a chance. :)

[archvortex]

It's just the name of the pic I found on the internet. The school of fish can be representative of the general Linux users going along merrily in the direction of increased bloatware, pretty desktops et al, whilst BBQ users get an idea to do something different and not follow the lennings ( uh, I mean lemmings) and like you said, give obscure shit a chance.

[machinebacon]

ivan, it's not us swimming against the tide - it's them! :D

we have been called elitists, pompous (anyone remembers?), self-indulgent (or self-indulged?) and that we are not a serious enough. and that we are too serious. pffff.

[wuxmedia]

^ don't forget arrogance. That was one of my fave spins...

[Theo]

The ALSA/Beer competition was way too serious and for elitists only :P
If learning a lot and beeing serious sometimes and ended up with a good laugh is something for elitists only.. I'm guilty :)

[GekkoP]

Pompous is a wonderful word. I'll take it as a compliment and a very charming use of the English language.