Social change

You may have noticed that the social networking share buttons that were here have all been removed, and it's on purpose.  There have been far too many facebook and other bots clogging up my stats and such.  I am also not at all a supporter of social networking, and want the people who find this place to find it because they intended to, and not because they stumbled upon some link on facebook or twitter.

I am not after pointless hits just to beef up my stats.  I couldn't care less about the amount of hits I get.

My main aversion to social networking is that it brings a lot of the ignorant masses this way; people who compute at a very simplistic and remedial level, and will find nothing of use here for the most part.  This is generally followed by questions from them; questions of the type that if you need to ask it, you won't be able to understand the answer in the first place.  People who just don't get it, and need to ask what is so great about PowerPC.

This place will always serve the more rare user who actually tries to advance themselves; rather than have a user lobotomy like most people give themselves when sitting at a computer.

The main point is that people who need to be spoon fed a link to this place to know about it, are usually (but not always) people who won't be after what is offered here.  There is no Apple fanboyism here, no help on how to stay in the passenger seat at your computer, and certainly no ignorant conjecture, so there is little here to appeal to the typical Apple user who is happy to stay in their user prison.

You still have the right to share the content here on social networks, but I have simply made it harder to do so.  If you find other ways to share it, be sure you follow all of the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License that this blog is licensed under.

I have no issue with other blogs or sites linking to me here, as they are typically like-minded; much like the people and organizations I link to in the "Recommended Elsewhere" section of the sidebar here.  It's only the social network sharing of content here that concerns me.

This is not some elitist move to keep out the average user; simply a diversion to keep away most of the people who likely won't want what is offered here to begin with, and a VERY large portion of the social networking user base are these people.


If you're someone who truly wants to advance your ability as a computer user, then welcome home.

MintPPC: Debian for the novice

Since this blog switched from Lubuntu to Debian as the Linux covered (almost a year ago now), there have been a number of people who visit here looking for an easier path to a complete Debian install.  One that is ready to go out of the box, with little or nothing left to configure or install afterward.

Debian, in its pure form, is not at all geared to be user friendly.  It has always been geared to people who are at least at an intermediate user level, if not advanced.  Even the largest standard Debian installs (GNOME and KDE) leave you with many things left to install and configure in most cases.  Which brings up my one gripe about Debian; they use GNOME as the default GUI.  If you've read any of the Linux content here, you know I am a big fan of lightweight GUI like LXDE.  In fact, Debian LXDE is my standard Linux these days, which is the same GUI found in MintPPC.

LXDE has a far lower CPU tax compared to GNOME or KDE, but in its raw form is a lot more simplistic in look and behaviour.  MintPPC puts a lot more polish on LXDE than I have ever seen, and in a good way. The last thing that aging hardware needs is a bloated GUI, and with MintPPC you get the perfect combo of light and pretty.

Everything from the custom LXDE menu, the default icons, wallpaper, the included software packages, and very user friendly package manager has a unique MintPPC feel, while still being the greatest Linux ever made.  MintPPC is exactly what Lubuntu should have been, but never was, and never will be.

The last time I installed MintPPC 11 (newest) was almost 2 years ago now, so I reinstalled it again last night on my testing system to refresh my memory.  The install couldn't have been more easy, and I would even describe it as easier than my Quick and dirty; light and fast method. 

Now you may be asking yourself...  'if the newest version is at least 2 years old, should I be installing it in 2014?'.  The answer is a resounding yes.  While Mint 11 was released in 2011, it was based on Debian Wheezy, which at the time was the testing release, but is now the stable.  That means it's secure, modern, and updated as needed for as long as Wheezy is supported by the Debian developers.  Since Wheezy has only been the stable release for about a year, it still has at least another year to go before Jessie (currently testing) will be the stable.

I would say that for at least the next 2 or more years, MintPPC 11 is a very viable and secure option for those who find standard Debian a bit too steep a learning curve, or those who just want a much more pretty and capable Linux out of the box, while still enjoying the performance benefits of LXDE.  There are even some added GUI tools (such as 'Powerprefs') which give you abilities normally only available via config file edits and terminal commands.

Think of it as a custom Debian LXDE, which is a lot more geared (whether by intent or not) to someone moving from Mac OS or Windows to Linux.  This is my number one recommendation to either a Debian novice, or any Linux novice.  Even advanced users who don't like things as stripped down as I normally do will find all they need.  I like it one hell of a lot, but I just personally prefer a very minimal Linux.  Many of you don't though, so here is your solution.  This one OS has all the qualities of real Debian, while also offering the much more user friendly and out of the box capability of Lubuntu; without all the Canonical BS.

The only things I felt the need to install afterward were Netatalk and Kupfer.

If you have any issues, the MintPPC website is a great place to go; where you can get help from fellow Mint users, along with the people who developed it.

So again, if you're new to Debian, and find it a bit intimidating, or just new to Linux in general, this is the way to go without a doubt.

 

I also took a couple screens myself:

Now accepting Bitcoin donations

There have been at least a few readers here who were interested in donating, but not with Paypal.  They asked for another option like Bitcoin or Litecoin, so today I finally got around to it, and PowerPC Liberation is now setup with a Bitcoin wallet to receive donations.

I just wanted to let those who were asking know.  Here in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada where I live, we actually have the worlds first Bitcoin ATM.  It converts your bitcoins into regular currency.

To make a Bitcoin donation, please go to the Support PowerPC Liberation page.