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1901

Living Room / Re: Which decade was the most fun for you personally?

« Last post by superboyac on March 19, 2012, 05:54 PM »

Definitely the 60's for me - I was 20 in 1969 but an early starter and growing up in Souf London : soul music, bluebeat, Mods, the Who, the Stones... In fact I was in school with David Bowie (but not in the same year) and Peter Frampton.
On the beaches in the early 60's with the Mods, going to Stones' concerts in 1965 ...
I could write a whole list of the groups I saw live during the 60's and early 70's, the big and small free festivals (I can proudly say that I was at the first Glastonbury festival (actually strictly speaking the second really as the first doesn't really count)), hanging out in the clubs, in Soho...
Lots of drugs, the International Times, Oz, the Whole Earth Catalog.  

I know this sounds like clichés but things were great then - people were much happier then than now, more carefree, more idealistic, more fraternal ... but it was all over by the middle 70's : hard drugs (the Devil's Spawn), hate, greed and glamour.

-joiwind (March 19, 2012, 05:44 PM)

Boy I really envy you guys that experienced the music scene in the 60s 70s.  I had a classic rock phase for several years, man that was good stuff.  It had the good balance of everything...powerful blues influence becoming popular, still largely acoustic with just a touch of the digital creeping in, still musical/lyrical, even the edgy stuff.

One thing I realized in college was that the classic rock people...how shall I say this...they weren't very good looking folk.  And that made it better!  Because after 1980, not only did you have to be talented, but you also had to be relatively good looking...and that just ruins it because you cut the talent pool by a whole bunch when you start considering looks.  I just want my music man!


I guess daltry's a good looking chap...but that's it.

1902

Living Room / Re: Which decade was the most fun for you personally?

« Last post by superboyac on March 19, 2012, 05:49 PM »

So...back to decades...

As a Laker fan, the 80s were good.  So were the 2000s, but not as good as the 80s even thought the championships numbered equal.  Better competition in the 80s.  Plus I'm ridiculously cynical about pro sports now.

Music...I tend to lean towards older is better.  But I'm weird that way.  Gimme acoustic instruments.

Of course, there's technology...and as far as computers go, the newer the better.  I love the media consumption.  On the other hand, I miss the social aspect of the inconveniences.  Nobody ever goes around anymore with a record in their hand saying "Hey!  Check this out!  Let's go listen to it!"  I miss that (even though I only caught the tail end of it).

Going out to the theater was way better in the 80s and 90s.  And from what I hear, it was even more exciting in previous decades.  The funnest movie experiences I ever had was watching the sneak previews on campus in college.

The one invention I am dying for and would instantly make the current decade the best ever:
automated in-home shirt ironing.  This is the last bit of technology I really need.  I hate ironing.  dry cleaning shirts is too expensive.  If anyone could figure out how to iron a dress shirt automatically that is affordable for normal people...well, that's a big one.

1903

Living Room / Re: Which decade was the most fun for you personally?

« Last post by superboyac on March 19, 2012, 05:36 PM »

But please let's not have that discussion here. It will only start one of those no-win never-ending arguments.

-40hz (March 19, 2012, 04:46 PM)

ok ok 
Who was saying over the weekend about how topics were spinning out of control?
Anyone dizzy yet?

1904

General Software Discussion / Re: Superboyac is throwing in the towel: I'm going to transition to Linux

« Last post by superboyac on March 19, 2012, 04:10 PM »

Wine is just a layer that runs windows programs under linux. Think of it as virtual machine running old XP programs on 7.

Install Wine 1.2 from your respective linux respository. You'll get Wine in applications menu or Other" menu. Once you install Wine you don't need to do anything. Just run the windows programs, if it is supported under wine, installation of that program will run (or if it is portable standalone app it will start without any issues). If it is not supported, you'll find nothing and there will be no linux crash either. (Note: in case of window based games running under wine, linux display may crash but nothing will be lost and in next reboot, everything is fine, unless ofcourse if you try to run the same buggy program again. ).

You don't have to run command line, git, adept ..nothing. Wine will run windows program just like you used to run it on windows. Same options, same GUI (okay there is change in window decoration -borders etc as per your linux DE) but that's it. You get your programs running inside linux.

-mahesh2k (March 19, 2012, 04:00 PM)

Yeah, wine was going to be my next experiment.  My fear is that it will work, but be all slow and unresponsive when clicking around...like virtual sandboxes.

1905

Living Room / Re: Which decade was the most fun for you personally?

« Last post by superboyac on March 19, 2012, 04:09 PM »

What about all the draft stuff we hear about in history?  How did that feel?

-superboyac (March 19, 2012, 02:52 PM)

It sucked royally. And it was scary. You could watch the war on the news and get updated casualty figures twice (6pm and 11pm) almost every night. (That was before the era of embedding news reporters and sanitizing the news stories.) 

And you could also talk to the people that made it back.

I never met anybody, including my conservative pro-American relatives who served over there, who ever had anything much good to say about that war. Or their own involvement in it. My cousin (USMC) summed it up in a letter to his folks by saying, "It's going to be ok. We don't kid ourselves over here. We aren't fighting for Uncle Sam, or Van Thieu. We're fighting for each other. At least until the big guys back home figure out what they want us to do. When they do, it gets pretty busy for us. But most days, we just do what we can to keep each other alive long enough for them to send us back home."

I kept a copy of that letter in my wallet and used to read it to people when they said that "at least the people brave enough to serve" believed in what we were doing over there. (I still have it too!)

Somewhere around 58,000 didn't make it back.  And well over 300,000 came home wounded. Many never got the medical or other benefits they had been promised. That's because superpower America had effectively lost its war against an army composed of farmers and other rural types. And we were embarrassed by it. So when it was over, the country mostly wanted to forget as quickly as possible that there ever was a place called Viet Nam.

And it never seemed a noble or inspirational war either. The news footage that came back was gritty and disturbing. Nothing like the glorious and grand thing we had been brought up to see war as when we were kids. In fact, it all looked rather ugly. Especially when the footage showed uprooted villagers and wounded civilians.

Then there was that problem of exactly what we were doing there. None of us (including half the people in government) seemed to have any idea why we were fighting. There were the usual "fighting communism" and "protecting freedom" arguments. But they had an oddly hollow ring to them compared to WWII, where it was painfully clear to everyone why we not only had to fight, but also win that war. (It took the Pentagon Papers leak to get to the real story behind our involvement.)

I was lucky. I was young enough to get a draft card (1A status) very shortly before they finally suspended the draft. Two years later, almost to the day, President Gerald Ford announced the US was officially out of Viet Nam. My cousin's outfit was among the last Marine units to leave in late April 975. We didn't find out that he made it out alive and unhurt until almost a week later...

That's my memory of Viet Nam and the draft.

-40hz (March 19, 2012, 03:57 PM)

Well, I'm glad we don't have to go through that.  Although...minus the draft bit, it doesn't seem too different from our wars right now.

I wonder what citizens of the world would have felt about all those past wars had they had access to video and information the way we do now.  It's easy to stir up feelings of pride and patriotism when you can't see or know what's actually happening.

1906

Living Room / Re: Is Google Now Evil? Ask the Engineer!

« Last post by superboyac on March 19, 2012, 03:58 PM »

The other thing the wealthy don't respect:
They think they are more intelligent because they've learned about risk management, economics, etc.

What they don't get is that ALL practical knowledge to programmers can be seen as if/then loops and some data.  A person who knows a lot about risk management is NOT smarter than a person who knows a lot about C++ code...so stop acting like a bunch of douches and acknowledge that.  It's all relative and all perspective.  Maybe a hundred years ago different information had more distinct relative values, but in an age where information is free and ridiculously easy to access...well...the data itself is not so valuable.  So what becomes valuable?  How to use the data?  geek time.  Now the businessmen will say that their expertise is decision making based on that data.  it is...sure.  But is it worth $1 million a year vs. $50k a year?  Nope.  They get away with it because everyone still thinks geeks are losers with no social skills, etc.  And that idea can die with our parents' generation, sorry to say.  Love ya, but you're time is past.

So we'll see what happens.  The more that gets exposed of our political system, the more that gets exposed about wall street, the more that gets exposed about how large technology corporations make their profits...the more people will realize how much of their time, effort, and money is going into a black hole where nothing fun, good, or comforting is coming out of. 

1907

Living Room / Re: Is Google Now Evil? Ask the Engineer!

« Last post by superboyac on March 19, 2012, 03:45 PM »

People who have no clue about what is the internet and how it works are the ones who run society in much more conservative ways. I am sure even the people who comment on each others clothes or critic based on their looks are now starting to use the internet. 5-10 more years from now, people with "real life and less internet life" will be minority.

I don't think this has anything to do with google. Google is only cashing in on the gaps of laws. I think there needs to be more changes in the current laws on governing internet ads, or else these ad giants will literally setup devices to stalk people. By no means I am too old to comment on future, hell i am yet to hit 30's. But I do think that if we continue to let these creeps walk over our lives, future is going to be "us vs them".

-mahesh2k (March 19, 2012, 03:15 PM)

Well, first, society has to stop painting geeks as the guy who fixes things that lives in the basement, while throwing all of their power/money/respect at things learned in business school.  Give us a little respect also, after all, we're doing all the work.  I'm not saying a complete overthrow...we need the businessmen to balance out the non-techie stuff  OCCASIONALLY.  But the geeks need a little more respect now since they're doing the heavy lifting.  Just like the african americans in the 19th century...and the factory workers in the early 20th...the minorities in the mid-20th...well, it's the geeks now in that position.

it's clear listening to the politicians and the businessmen that the decisions they make about today's most valuable resource--technology--that they are woefully unqualified to even open their mouths.  Even though their position doesn't require them to know this stuff, they are making it even more impossible by not asking for help properly from the people that DO know.  Don't make decisions without asking the experts first...and that means PAYING the geeks who are living in their basements the way they pay the investment banking associates.  because they have worked hard, they have learned a lot, they have done so without so much of a thought of taking advantage of others, and they now have the knowledge needed to help people make the decisions to get out of this mess.  Pay them.  Stop stressing them out for profit.

but maybe this is just the nature of power, money, and true knowledge.

1908

Living Room / Re: Is Google Now Evil? Ask the Engineer!

« Last post by superboyac on March 19, 2012, 03:19 PM »

Is this the fault of Google - not at all. There are a number of culprits:

• The individual who doesn't look at what they are doing (and mostly don't care)
• The stupid who don't understand what they are doing and don't want to know when you try to explain
• The even more stupid who claim to know what they are doing and are too arrogant to accept help
• The lazy - who want to use the internet like a washing machine and aren't in the least interested in how it works

-Carol Haynes (March 19, 2012, 01:44 PM)

This is one where I like to point the finger to both sides.  First, the users.  A lot of non-geeks have certain expectations from computers, which are completely unrealistic.  But they get all worked up about it, even though I'm pretty sure that they are aware that they don't know much about computers at all, and if they did, their expectations would be a little more realistic.  And then, they cast condescending looks upon the geeks who DO understand what's going on...and when we say things like "No...the PC is actually better if you want to DO something." they think we're making a religious argument.  That's the problem with the Apple vs. PC thing...it's the Apple people who make it religious...most of the nerds have very detailed, practical reasons for their preference.

But then, there's the other side.  Apple is absolutely killing their competitors because they spend a lot of time focusing on all the aesthetic stuff the other guys ignore.  Build quality.  Easy to use.  Yes, if you have a lot of options and flexibility like Windows or Linux, of course it will naturally be more complicated to use.  But...it doesn't have to be THAT complicated.  All people, geeks or not, will appreciate something that is easier to use.  So the competitors need to accept that and work on it.

And like I enjoy saying...the personal computer is the most advanced piece of technology the world has ever seen.  Why do we expect it to be as easy to use as a push-button telephone?  Reminds me of your gf, 40hz, when she was talking about entitlement.  it's true...these computer-illiterates feel entitled to having everything be plug n play.  And all it is is frustration due to lack of knowledge.  Go figure out how to download a driver, it's really not that bad.  But they project that anger out to everyone else...they bully the geeks (the curious and seekers of knowledge are always persecuted)...they like to say things like "you have waaaay too much time"...instead of learning beneficial skills, they learn tactics to intimidate, to market, to advertise, how to weild power, how to supervise, etc.  And frankly, I'm a little tired of it.

1909

Living Room / Re: Is Google Now Evil? Ask the Engineer!

« Last post by superboyac on March 19, 2012, 02:58 PM »

^^
[note to self: insert clip]

1910

Living Room / Re: Which decade was the most fun for you personally?

« Last post by superboyac on March 19, 2012, 02:52 PM »

The 90s were a lot of fun because I was doing mostly university work  research. But for sheer fun, it was the 60s as a kid. The music was great, college was a special experience, most everything was cheap, and I didn't grow up being told everything from riding a bike to shooting a gun was insanely dangerous. The older I got, the less fun I had and the more I saw life as a need to avoid the easy but often life-changing mistakes that would cripple my chances in certain professions. Thus I'd choose the 60s every time.

-zridling (March 19, 2012, 01:32 PM)

Sounds pretty freaking good to me.  What about all the draft stuff we hear about in history?  How did that feel?  I don't know how I would feel...there was a time when I actually wanted to join the military, but not anymore (obviously).

1911

General Software Discussion / Re: Superboyac is throwing in the towel: I'm going to transition to Linux

« Last post by superboyac on March 19, 2012, 02:50 PM »

I had a bad experience with Ubuntu a couple of times. A ways back I ran into a (later determined) known bug in Dapper Drake that did ugly things, then somewhere about 10-10 Ubuntu quit loading on my test machine.

I did sorta okay with one of the Suses. I've been dying to try out Mint with xfce, but I need a good 3 day weekend to really try out a distro.

But lately I just lost interest because it's the App side. Forgetting the big hitter programs, I have almost/over 100 mini apps! So the trouble for me is trying to find replacements for everything.

-TaoPhoenix (March 19, 2012, 02:28 PM)

Yeah, me too.  i rely on dozens of little software every day on Windows.  Actually, that would be an interesting list for me to make regarding this little project of mine.  I should list all my regularly used Windows softwares and find equivalents for mint.

1912

Living Room / Re: Mobile hotspots: your experiences. (mine included)

« Last post by superboyac on March 19, 2012, 12:56 PM »

The other annoying thing: a lot of the cooler tablets that I use are wifi only, like the ASus transformer.  The wifi connection routine is a pain and difficult to manage just right.  On the other hand, an ipad or an android phone's cellular connection works all the time every time.  When these guys want to get it right, they can do it.  But only if it means $$$.

1913

Living Room / Re: Mobile hotspots: your experiences. (mine included)

« Last post by superboyac on March 19, 2012, 12:54 PM »

I use my (rooted) Android phone as a hotspot for my kids when they want WiFi acces for their iPod Touch devices (when we're on the road, etc.).  It takes all of twenty seconds to start the app and have the kids connected.  I've also used it for my work laptop when I'm travelling.  For the record, though, I'm on an unlimited plan and I refuse to pay tethering charges.  What a damn joke they are.  Instead, I use whichever free tethering app works at a given point in time.  If said tethering app gets shut down or stops working, I simply move on to the next one that does work.

-skwire (March 19, 2012, 12:47 PM)

Yeah, they are cracking down on the tethering lately.  The phones converted to hotspots seem to be working far better and more reliably than the actual hotspots.  I tried it with a couple of my coworkers' samsungs.

But think about, of course it works.  People will complain like crazy if their phones behave as badly as the hotspot I described.  So the cell phones and whatever is inside is pretty reliable, and using it as a hotspot is also pretty good.  Now, why are the hotspots so much worse?  Because they are an afterthought right now.  Not only that, but hotspots are bad for business.  The cell phone companies don't want hotspots to become high in demand, because it makes it harder for them to charge per device.  So they're not going to go out of their way to market them, or make them terribly convenient to use.  Not until the demand increases.  And the way they are cracking down on tethering, and bandwidth limits, and additional charges for whatever they can find...the demand will soon increase.  Most people still don't understand the flexibility of hotspots as it relates to bandwidth and monthly bills.

1914

Living Room / Re: Which decade was the most fun for you personally?

« Last post by superboyac on March 19, 2012, 12:11 PM »

Just as a follow on: the best thing about that era was (for me) The Whole Earth Catalog.

Almost like Tom Swift and American Boy Magazine got together with Scientific American's The Amateur Scientist column.

Suddenly people stopped talking about doing things and just went out and did them. Farming experiments. Communal living attempts. Self-publishing (all pre-DTP too!), community organizing, art & crafts, independent radio broadcasting and film making, adventuring, lost arts like building a stone wall or building a waterwheel driven saw mill, geodesic domes, arcologies, street theater, beekeeping....it was awesome! It gave people inspiration - and some sort of permission to go around the way things were, and start doing their own thing instead.

And also asking questions...

Much of the entrepreneurial spirit of the 80s came directly out of the philosophy preached by Kevin Kelly and the Whole Earth crew. And by the "can do" attitude and skills learned by those who learned and were inspired by it.

What's really interesting was that this mentality or attitude was nothing new. It was the way most of America used to think before the stock market crash back in 1929.

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose...

-40hz (March 19, 2012, 12:02 PM)

Yeah!  I want that!  i want to do shit!  I've spend 20 years learning HOW to do things very intensely, and now I just want to do them.  But it's hard, I run into a lot of obstacles.  But there's a lot I can do...and I'm going to do it.  I spent 10 years feeling "unprepared" for various reasons, all BS.  I feel like I was duped into inactivity.  Well, no more.  I'm in my prime, I have the energy, I have the skills, I have the community...I'm doing it.  What is "it"?  You'll see...music, art, education, content creation and whatever else comes across my path that is interesting.  I'm going to do my best not to hold back anymore.

1915

Living Room / Re: Which decade was the most fun for you personally?

« Last post by superboyac on March 19, 2012, 12:05 PM »

The 90's for me.

Nice jobs, excellent coworkers, good money, PSX gaming with friends while having "added some extra dimensions" that were way better than the 3D from the theaters/TV's now, still having family.

-Shades (March 19, 2012, 11:45 AM)

Yeah, the 90s were pretty good too.  It's the internet that really opened up our (my?) eyes.  I'm far more aware of things going on all around me and in other parts of the world that I had no idea about...and that makes things different.  I can't be as delusional anymore...even though in a sense, I was happier.  But I wouldn't wish for that kind of happiness now.

1916

Living Room / Re: Which decade was the most fun for you personally?

« Last post by superboyac on March 19, 2012, 11:09 AM »

I haven't heard too much I'd consider "original" or "definitive" in what seems to be a very long time now.

-40hz (March 19, 2012, 10:44 AM)

I'm working on it, buddy.  i got a little something going...

Thanks for the 70s thoughts.  The one thing you said that bothers me the most is the drugs bit.  I am not a fan of today's prescription drugs, and frankly, they scare me more than they give hope.  Starting from when I was 17 and went to college, I learned that far more people take anti-depressant and other similar things (pain killers) much more so than I would have expected.  Probably my favorite girl of all time was a victim to it, through no real fault of her own, very sweet girl.  I know entire families on anti-depressants that most people have no idea about.

I almost want to say a lot of these prescriptions are just far too potent, or they have side effects that are bad enough to make the good negligible.  I also want to say...for some of these folk, wouldn't it be a lot more reasonable to just smoke a little sumptin?

1917

Living Room / Re: Mobile hotspots: your experiences. (mine included)

« Last post by superboyac on March 19, 2012, 10:33 AM »

You can ONLY use the two or three devices your carrier offers, because they're the only people who can buy the hardware.

-superboyac (March 19, 2012, 10:06 AM)

This is something I don't really understand, don't/can't any of the carriers in the USA just sell you a SIM ?

Fair enough if you have to be locked into some kind of monthly contract but why do you have to use their hardware, (phone/3G router/etc) ?

Are you saying you can't buy a phone/3G router from somewhere, (store internet/China), grab a pre-paid SIM and just use it ?

Does the USA even have pre-paid SIMs ?

-4wd (March 19, 2012, 10:25 AM)

I've looked into it, but have hit far too many obstacles to deal with.  You can get a sim card, I think, but even that would be a little complicated.  Getting a router, no way.  You can get an unlocked phone or something and use that as a router, but that will probably be very expensive and complicated, too.  Then, after all that is done, it's a crapshoot what kind of connection you will have.  It may be connected and working, but possibly so unreliable and slow or choppy that you'd be spending half your time using the connection, but the other half of your time will be spent watching and waiting for the wifi to connect, or adjusting the wifi settings, or managing the connection preferences, etc.  Android's wifi manager doesn't help, either.  That's another thing I suspect: the Android OS seems to have trouble with these mobile hotspot things, and wifi in general.  It's not terribly smooth.

1918

General Software Discussion / Re: SCRIBUS - Open Source Desktop Publishing

« Last post by superboyac on March 19, 2012, 10:21 AM »

Scribus is pretty cool so far, I'm a fan.  I'm digging these new open source content creation tools.  I'll take as many as I can get.

1919

Living Room / Mobile hotspots: your experiences. (mine included)

« Last post by superboyac on March 19, 2012, 10:06 AM »

I know relatively few people have tried hotspots, so I'm curious what any of your experiences are.  I've been reading about them on web articles, and most of them are completely useless.

So, I've been using one for a month now.  It's the AT&T Mifi 2372:


Firstly, it's built as cheaply as possible.  The plastic feels about as sturdy as a Pez dispenser.  It takes up to two minutes from when you turn it on until it's actually usable (like the wifi is active and ready to go).  The speed is 3G, and I don't really know what I'm supposed to expect, but it's slow as shit.  Loading the Android market on my tablet takes as long as 5 minutes, usually with a couple of refreshes necessary.  The connection is so slow that it becomes unstable.  Maybe they're two different issues...but when a browser takes so long to load a webpage because the connection is so slow, it usually breaks the connection...so from an end user's standpoint, it makes for an unreliable connection most of the time.

GPS.  I love GPS applications on my mobile devices.  This device supposedly has GPS.  Does it work?  Not really.  It's worked maybe 1 time out of 10 or 20 times I've tried it.  If I open google maps and get in my car and drive...it may take 30 minutes until it's connected and figured everything out.

And remember, these companies offering these are charging $50-$100 a month for this shit.  That is a lot of hours of labor for most people.  I mean, the thing simply doesn't give you close to the service that it is made for and marketed as.  What does this say about these companies?

Furthermore, like cell phones, you can't buy a good device and use it with your carrier.  You can ONLY use the two or three devices your carrier offers, because they're the only people who can buy the hardware.

Anyway, these hotspots are a joke.  Until they can make them connect in under a minute with all the features working, and with a little bit more build quality, I don't see how they are worth more than $20 a month, if that even...if you can't use it, what are you paying for??

1920

Living Room / Which decade was the most fun for you personally?

« Last post by superboyac on March 19, 2012, 09:49 AM »

I'd love to hear from those that were around from the 70s or before.  For me, the most fun and comfortable decade was the 80s, when I was in elementary school.  I don't know if that's because of my age or if things were different.  But I seem to remember the adults having more fun back then also.  I can't put my finger on it but it seems like we are much more private and secluded now than those days.

I've heard from some of my older friends about the 60s and 70s, and boy, they sound fun.  It sounds like that sex drugs rock and roll were not an exaggeration, but I may have a weird group of friends.

1921

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: IDimager Pro 50% off

« Last post by superboyac on March 19, 2012, 09:10 AM »

I've tried this one...looks REALLY similar to acdsee pro.  What does it do that makes it unique or special?  I couldn't really tell.

1922

General Software Discussion / Re: Superboyac is throwing in the towel: I'm going to transition to Linux

« Last post by superboyac on March 18, 2012, 04:54 PM »

me...and mouser and skwire:

1923

Living Room / Re: A change I've seen in the forum

« Last post by superboyac on March 18, 2012, 03:57 PM »

Are we breaking up?  Can we still be friends?

1924

General Software Discussion / Re: Superboyac is throwing in the towel: I'm going to transition to Linux

« Last post by superboyac on March 18, 2012, 03:55 PM »

It's good, but honestly, Windows is not going to be replaced anytime soon.  And I'll tell you why

ok who won the pool? i know skwire and i both had bets in 

-mouser (March 18, 2012, 03:23 PM)

sheesh.

1925

General Software Discussion / Re: Superboyac is throwing in the towel: I'm going to transition to Linux

« Last post by superboyac on March 18, 2012, 03:16 PM »

Update:
Well, I've been messing around with Mint on my laptop for a few weeks now.  It's good, but honestly, Windows is not going to be replaced anytime soon.  And I'll tell you why...installing third party software is not easy.  First, i don't even know how to install something (I'm not asking for help, i can google when I'm ready).  Secondly, I'm pretty sure even if I find third party stuff, I have to check if it works with y distro.  So...there are a lot of obstacles and extra steps involved just to play with additional tools.  I'm sure once I get the hang of it, it's not that bad, but it ain't no download an installer and click next...next...done.

My computing habits involve downloading and installing third party tools ALL the time...every day, multiple times a day sometimes.  Anything that makes that process more difficult is going to be annoying to me.  Because I get impatient with all that stuff...my true desire is to play around with the tool, not figure out how to get the tool set up.

With Windows, I can get anything and get it up and running almost brainlessly.  The only time i get annoyed is when I see a cool tool that is only available for Macs or Linux, and NOT available in Windows.  Now, if I go to Linux, that annoyance gets magnified because there are going to be all sorts of things i find that probably won't work on the distro I'm using.

So that's the state of affairs now.  If i don't need third party tools, Linux Mint is working out great.  But that limits my use of it to my scrap computers lying around, or computers I want to give people that are not necessarily computer people (i.e. they won't be doing too much with it other than web browsing).

Now I understand the raging debate of whether or not it's good to consolidate the distros into some kind of unified thing.  I see the pros and cons of each one.  True freedom is complex issue.  It's almost like the more freedom you desire, the more you have to be willing to work for it.  The less freedom you desire, the less you have to work for it.  ironic, eh?  Isn't the whole point of freedom to not have to work?  Or is it do work, but on things you want to work for?  Interesting...linux...