Linux Distros

Posted on May 17, 2015 by ehurst

In response to a direct request, I will outline the Linux distros that I tolerate and why. Keep in mind that I think all operating systems suck, but some are more tolerable than others. The entire question is based on the person tolerating. I’m not a fan of any of them.

First, let me introduce my usage. I don’t care much for common computer entertainments. I do play a few puzzle and card games, and I do listen to worship music, along with a few secular favorites from younger days. Mostly I read, research and write. I spend a lot of my surfing time on the Net using a plain text browser to avoid visual clutter around the information I seek. I use a graphical browser when convenience matters or when the information is by nature visual and it’s worth the trouble to me. I also do my own book covers, so I chase down free-to-use images to modify and paste over it with titles and such. I’ve done some book covers and original artwork for other folks, too. By the way, I prefer to use laptops.

Second, I’ve done some work with clients in my computer tech support ministry testing how they do or don’t tolerate the difference between Windows and Linux, and what kinds of things they find tolerable. In this context, and in my own personal use, I’ve tested a lot of Linux distros that I don’t like and won’t be addressing those here. That leaves us with three that I can recommend to other people.

Please don’t ask me why I didn’t include your favorite if you have one. I’ve had enough of debates and disputes from fanboys when I somehow insult their current OS deity.

There are three primary use patterns I’ve encountered.

1. The common home user: For those who have the least time and attention to devote to computers in the first place, Kubuntu is the shortest path to Linux (thus, the title to the Kubuntu book I published). It has its own weaknesses, and I don’t care to use it much personally. However, it is the one most Windows refugees tolerate best because it demands less change in their usage habits. It requires less from the user because it automates a lot of tasks. I wrote the book to cover what I believe are the few things most users might not figure out on their own. I charge a small price for my book on this, but you can find drafts of the individual chapters posted on this blog.

2. The typical home office or business user: If you have more time to devote to the migration process and need something more business-like, CentOS is the way to go. The free version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), it is the most reliable Linux distro I’ve used, and the release cycle is very long. Once you get it working your way, you can keep it for a very long time as is and the people behind it will support it with fixes and such. If you have money and need more accountability, use the commercial version, Red Hat. All software companies suck because they can’t stay in business and please everybody, but Red Hat is more responsive than some others. But if you have the interest and time to bother with learning it yourself, CentOS is the same software without commercial tech support. It’s a little tougher to get the entertainment stuff working, but it can be done.

The current version, CentOS 7, is pure 64-bit. If you have older hardware that can’t run 64-bit, you’ll need CentOS 6 — more work and fewer options because it’s a bit older. On CentOS 7, I cannot imagine a Windows user migrating easily to the GNOME desktop, so I recommend you install KDE. On CentOS 6, the default GNOME desktop is an older version that’s less difficult to grasp. In either case, your options are constrained just a bit on just about everything, but that’s where safety and stability are found.

3. The computer hobbyist: The most powerful and versatile Linux distro is Debian. It lies behind Kubuntu but requires a lot more from the user. It also does way more different kinds of things and invites you to explore in ways the other two cannot. If there is something you want that Debian doesn’t already provide, chances are very good you can build it yourself more easily on Debian than other distros because Debian tends to be generic Linux. Thus, if you really need to have it your way, chances are Debian will bring you closest to what you want. It’s more work because there are more options. It also tends to run on more different kinds of hardware than just about anything else.

Other stuff that I’ve tried disappointed me in various ways, and some was of no interest in the first place. I’m not that kind of hobbyist and I’m by no means a fanboy of any of them. Again, this is not meant as a sales pitch, nor an invitation to compare your favorites with mine. I refuse to debate any presumed objective superiority of any of them because there is no such thing. The user is the measure of all things, despite the fact most users want things they cannot and should not have. The whole point is to get them as close as possible, because this is not the venue for saving people from themselves. I’m pretty agnostic about how people use their computers, and the focus of my computer ministry is helping you get whatever it is you want.

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Psalm 50

Posted on May 16, 2015 by ehurst

If we take Asaph as the name of the man known to lead the Temple musicians, then he must have also been a prophet of some sort, for his psalms typically deal with the judgment of God.

Were Jehovah like any earthly ruler, He could not really know what was in the hearts of men. But He is God, and knows each soul better than it knows itself. His Covenant with Israel is a covenant of hearts bound to a deity, not bodies bound to a political throne. When He comes, you cannot hide by departing His jurisdiction. His domain is all Creation, far greater than our entire universe. There is no place His searching does not touch.

We begin with established titles and names: El, Elohim and Jehovah. There’s no mistaking who we are talking about here. Some translations are more picturesque about His divine summons — the whole earth from the sunrise to the sunset. From the glorious city of His Temple, He comes forth to reveal His moral character. Revelation is an act that condemns sin, even as it opens the door to repentance, but His stormy wrath will consume sin. No part of Creation is exempt from His judgment, not even Heaven. When God holds court, no living thing is excused from appearing. At some point in this ceremony, He calls out His covenant people. The Heavens themselves declare His justice, for He defines the meaning of the word.

He comes to judge His own people first, those who should know His justice best. Israel stands condemned, accused by Justice Himself. Obedience to the rituals is not the issue here. Why do His people act as if He had some physical need for sacrificial animals as food? Do they not know that He owns all Creation, not merely whatever they choose to bring Him? Whatever God wants is His without bothering to notify anyone, for to no living being is He accountable, but all are accountable to Him.

And what does He really want from us? Genuine gratitude is the ultimate pleasing sacrifice. Obedience from the heart is His just due. The Covenant is an agreement between two parties; do what you have committed yourself to do. Don’t pray to anyone else, but call on Jehovah and He will answer. Then we will glorify Him.

He has a belly full of people who profess His Word, even presuming to teach it, but whose hearts are not open to Him. This is hypocrisy defined, because they secretly wish to get in on the thief’s plunder. Their best friends are adulterers. With that same mouth they deceive and prey on others. And because God did not roar from the Heavens, as if they were petulant children who obey only when the lash is hanging over their heads, they decided that He was as venal as they.

God’s scale of time is not ours; it is we who must conform to His outlook. When the fruit of moral failure is ripe in His mind, then He acts. Contemplate these things while they are mere words of warning in a psalm, not when you are called to account. You cannot imagine what God’s wrath is like. Adore Him now sincerely while He considers His actions, for His power to bless is waiting on you.

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Just a Nutcase

Posted on May 15, 2015 by ehurst

So here’s what I see coming for Windows users: Windows 10 will be a buy-once-update-forever kind of thing. You won’t get much choice on updates and feature changes. If you have it, you have to accept anything MS wants to do to it. You won’t own it, only rent it. For awhile, at least, you won’t be forced to upgrade from Win7 or Win8, but look for that to change.

On the other hand, if you really like some of the older versions of Windows and the software that ran on it, this is a good time to learn about virtual machine (VM) technology. Run Linux as the host machine for the Net and Windows in your VM to get the best of both worlds. I do it every day.

I’ve decided to add a second volume to my Debian book and introduce more advanced topics. It will be titled More Debian 8 for Beginners. Isn’t that so very imaginative? It’s where I’ll describe the easiest path to running a VM.

Keeping your sanity and control over your computers may get tough in the near future. Given that corporations have taken over the US government, don’t expect things to get any better.

The wrath of God on the US began some time ago, but many were not aware of it. So this should help get your attention on the matter. Given what we know about people in general, the resistance to migrating out of those areas is likely to include rioting and violence we can hardly imagine now. Unless somebody comes up with a massively cheap means of desalination, Californians won’t need to worry much about earthquakes, but desertification.

Meanwhile, we are still in a heavy rain pattern here in Oklahoma. We haven’t seen a renewed tornado threat since the first couple of days two weeks ago, but this stuff seems like some kind of endless monsoon. All of the reservoirs in the state are overflowing, and it’s much the same quite a ways north and south of here, from South Texas to South Dakota — most of the High Plains. That should reduce pressure on the Ogallala Aquifer somewhat. Still, should things turn dry here, the southern half of the Ogallala could just about disappear.

In colloquial terms, you might say God is engaging in some herd thinning here in the US. Food production will likely fall enough to bring us down to third world status. Oh, and there’s that business of the spreading bird flu in the Heartland requiring vast flocks of food animals to be culled.

I’ve read suggestions that the bird flu epidemic may not be entirely natural. At this point, it makes little difference. Even if you discover incontrovertible proof of culpability, it’s unlikely the real culprits will be held accountable. This is how empires collapse, and it won’t seem to us sudden at all. At some point there won’t be much to lose and folks will start going off like land mines. It won’t be like the preppers imagine, though; they ignore way too much good social science research into human behavior at large.

Every day, I overhear people still obsessing over the US Constitution. Too late, folks; get over it. So long as you maintain a religious doctrinaire commitment to what actually never was, a shining image of a vigorous Western republic, you won’t see clearly enough to recognize what’s coming. Preppers aren’t cynical enough and take themselves too seriously. Given that my first allegiance is to Christ, and I don’t take any human government seriously, you can bet I’ll salute whatever flag they offer.

I’m guessing that Western metropolitan areas will see riots soon enough over water, but just outside of the deep urban areas you should see a few communities organize to resist as a whole, and some will be a fair match for state and big city forces. However, the state governments in the Heartland are already stoutly resisting federal agencies and are less likely to face popular revolt. I suspect the Deep South will look like the Civil War all over again. But instead of fighting Yankees, they’ll be fighting each other. The rest of the country is a mixed bag and unpredictable to me. In the long run, I suspect the federal government will show itself too feeble and rigid to assert its policies. In other words, I expect the US to break up into regional states.

That’s barring, of course, things we peons haven’t seen that might be hiding in the shadows. The previous paragraph reflects simply the current visible trends. By the way, you should realize that recent riots over police misconduct were all staged. If you’ve been paying attention outside of the mainstream press, you realize that big money is behind igniting race wars. Don’t fall for it. I saw it coming back in the 1980s when police training changed radically, and several political coups were completed behind the scenes that forever changed the direction of politics here in the US. Up to that point, there was some hope of change in the system, but it died by 1990. It’s too complex to outline here.

I can tell you that the worst of it is frankly religious in nature. The most outlandish cults in America run the political machinery. They wear mainstream labels, but it’s all shockingly different behind the false front. Even if I wrote about it, the facts are so outlandish that no one would believe me except flakes and weirdos. Some major mainstream figures in evangelical circles, for example, are manifestations of the Antichrist, as it were. Not the mythical nonsense spewed by weirdos, but the real Spirit of Antichrist from Scripture animates a lot of big church activity.

Don’t mind me; I’m just a nutcase.

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Say It Again, Rich Bowen

Posted on May 14, 2015 by ehurst

This is just so good I had to link to it: Someone with a real job in Linux has posted an article about how Open Source documentation sucks, and it reflects the awful attitude that dominates Open Source coders. Granted, we know that some of what makes people so good at computers is because they suck with other people, but Rich Bowen realizes Linux will not make much headway if we make it so darned hard for ordinary users to understand. And this is why I write and publish free books on Linux.

(Unintended irony here: Mr. Bowen works for a company that has not been nice at all to this writer. I love their product but not their attitude.)

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Two-Fisted God

Posted on May 14, 2015 by ehurst

The Lord comes with both hands full, one for blessing and one for wrath. One hand or the other is for you. The difference is whether you’ve determined to be His servant before That Day. In Scripture, “That Day” is not any particular point in history, but any time God decides the grapes of wrath are ripe for harvest. The same harvest offers sweet wine from the first blush of stomping grapes, until the last dregs of bitterness ferments into vinegar.

Ever been to live stage show? Scripts are typically organized into scenes, an imaginary context with a certain amount of atmosphere suggested by stuff on the stage. When the scene ends, the curtains close and the orchestra plays while the sets are moved around out of view. If it happens that the stage hands are moving around heavy stuff, even loud music can’t drown out the noise. It’s all part of the atmosphere.

One of the hardest things to bear in reading alternative news sites is the one-thingers. That’s anyone who spews endless chatter about one particular theory of why things are going bad. It’s always because of the nefarious plots from this or that bad actor. You could probably repeat the litany and name the favorite targets: Jews, Freemasons, CIA, Rothschilds, Knights Templar, Jesuits, Bilderbergers, CFR, Skull and Bones, etc. The labels are defined variously and we are never quite sure what they mean in the context.

It’s painful because the most dangerous lie is fake simplicity when the truth is complex. That is, while there are probably quite a few evil oligarchs in each of those organizations, no one of them is fully in control. I’m willing to bet each of them would love it if they were totally in control, but it’s not that simple. We are talking about real people, not aliens with superior intelligence and technology. Some of them belong to several different groups that conspire to aggregate as much wealth and power as possible. Conspiracies are quite real, but most theories are only a half-truth at best. We cannot predict any literal outcomes because of the chaotic maneuvering in the background among a large group of oligarchs jockeying for dominance.

Nor can we pretend that the coming tribulation will fall heaviest on these conspiring oligarchs. If falls on human sin, and that includes all the hedonistic sinners that made it possible for the oligarchs to gain control. I could wish that God would appoint some oracle to tell the whole story with obvious accuracy, but He seldom did anything like that in the past. Those few times He did, it was always swathed in many layers of moral declaration so that the facts, even the factual predictions, were merely symbols of something more important. Do we really need to know all the ugly details of the oligarchy’s evil plans?

Instead, let’s focus on a moral truth that most people ignore: God’s wrath is revelation, but it’s never so precise and clear as our Western mythology demands. It’s always in shadowy expressions of symbol and parable. It’s not meant for cognitive processing, but for the heart to process and tell the mind later — however much the mind can grasp.

What we should see through the lens of our hearts’ perception is that lots of oligarchs have lots of wicked plans, competing for a limited pie and sometimes playing several roles in different conspiracies to capture an opportunity to benefit themselves individually.

So we sit here trying to understand a very convoluted play, often in cryptic language and with symbols that ignore our cultural background. The loud music is the media making lots of noise to keep us distracted. For example, someone recently made lots of noise about exposing the facts behind the assassination of Osama bin Laden. Sorry folks, but bin Laden died in December 2001 from complications of Marfan Syndrome. Various groups have produced his shadow repeatedly since then, trying to scare us and keep us from paying attention to the rumbling backstage. There are numerous other examples.

Insert: It’s worse than we knew.

The only difference between a democratic government and naked tyranny is that the former is less work piling up the bodies and more work using the bodies to deceive for a whole lot more money and power.

If your heart’s eyes are blinded by a reliance on logic and facts, then you’ll never understand when God comes and strips away the covering. Only your heart can understand what He intends to reveal. Pray, and if you feel led, act — but pray that God will continue revealing His hand of wrath. Pray and act to help expose the moral truth, the revelation that only active hearts can see. Then you will be standing in the place where His hand of blessing opens for our joy.

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New Debian Book Published

Posted on May 13, 2015 by ehurst

Cover art for Debian book I decided to give the book a new cover and title: Debian 8 for Beginners.

You can get your free copy here.

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Network Age Faith

Posted on May 12, 2015 by ehurst

I still believe that the Network Civilization is replacing Western Civilization. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

The closest we ever came to God’s ideal in terms of human society stood for a time after the Flood. At some point, things went wrong, symbolized by the Tower of Babel. There was some potential in the early Hebrew nation, but we know from the prophets that Israel served as much as a failed example as anything else. Only in their best moments did they demonstrate what was possible, and there weren’t many of those moments, and they weren’t that long by comparison.

John’s Apocalypse, at least in part, warns that things will never get right again. There was a shadow of good living in the early New Testament churches, but those were quickly subverted. Throughout history since those days, the best we could expect to see has been brief flashes of time when people understood the importance of living in the extended family setting — “family” as defined by shared spiritual DNA. Meanwhile, the general trend of human history is toward increasing moral chaos.

Having a visible organization makes you a target. Satan already knows when he sniffs trouble for his plans, but he works through people who take a little longer to recognize something worthy of oppression. Over the past few years I’ve been encouraging an individual faith that grows despite a lack of physical proximity with fellow travelers. By no means is this optimal for the fallen human soul, but it may well be optimal in our context. My closest spiritual fellowships, with but a couple of exceptions, are here online.

In human meat space, most of us are isolated alien beings scattered across the planet. By our divine calling, each of us finds ourselves far from another. Some of us are fortunate to have found a spouse who shares our faith, but most of us are very much alone geographically. What I wouldn’t give to see each of you face to face…

Yes, it’s painful. I’m doing what I can to keep this power of living alive without that heart-to-heart proximity. Do your part, brothers and sisters. The coming Network Age will be harder than ever.

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Nothing New

Posted on May 11, 2015 by ehurst

I don’t have any revelations from God. All I have is this weird sense of waiting.

So the wedding last night went off well enough. The State of Oklahoma makes us clergy folk the custodians of the marriage license once the ceremony is finished. So for tomorrow’s long bike ride, I’m heading off to the county offices downtown. At least they have a bike rack where I can lock it.

I never charge for ministry services, but the couple gave me enough to cover the new wheel bearing assembly. It’s ordered and in transit. It will be nice to dive the car faster than 40MPH without all the noise and vibration.

Most people don’t seem to understand why the US economy is about to collapse. There is way too much debt, and debt servicing has absorbed so much productivity that everything is grinding to a halt. On top of this, we have already exported the majority of our production jobs, so about the only jobs left are in low-wage positions in various service industries. The US economy rests entirely on consumer spending and frivolous consumption. The consumers don’t have any money for it any more.

Granted, Oklahoma is doing better than a lot of other states, because you can’t ship farming and petroleum jobs offshore. We still have lots of mini-mansion building around here and people buying them. I suppose I’m living in a good place to survive as things decline.

And for some crazy reason my old review of LifeChurch TV is getting a hundred visits today.

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Network Privacy Is Dead

Posted on May 10, 2015 by ehurst

Digital privacy is a myth. For example, if you buy any Android device, you must have a Google account to activate it. So long as that device is in use, Google is tracking your every move. If you are running Windows 8, your system login is some kind of MSN account (including Hotmail, Outlook, or some similar email service). So long as your are logged in and online, Microsoft is tracking your every move. As I understand it, Apple can or does do the same thing, but I haven’t messed with their OSes in a while.

On top of that, private corporations are creating and selling to anybody with enough money software that will allow you to insert a rootkit on just about any device and track whatever the user does. It allows you to steel their encryption keys. In other words, our biggest threat is not governments directly, but the corporations all too willing to sell you to the government.

Nice long article over on Alternet if you want to know some details. The point is: If it starts with making a profit, the user is the product being sold.

Addenda: One of the few tools that can find stuff like Hacking Team’s RCS is Detekt, a free and Open Source program.

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God’s Bow in the Clouds

Posted on May 10, 2015 by ehurst

“I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.” (Genesis 9:13-15 KJV)

But every covenant makes a claim on both parties. Don’t nit-pick over the English translation; this is Hebrew parabolic language and the other party is all Creation, but surely the keystone is humanity living in this realm of existence after the Fall. We can hardly envision how radically the earth changed after the Flood because we can’t imagine what it was like before, only that it was very different. However, so long as you can see a rainbow, the Covenant of Noah applies to all human life.

We’ve had a patch of stormy weather lasting several days here in Oklahoma. I suppose you could say God has treated our little hilltop here like the Ark, because it has left us largely untouched, albeit pretty wet. Our biggest clean-up issue will be mowing very tall greenery once the ground is dry enough to permit the use of mowers. I’ll have to borrow a powered one because it’s already more than my poor little reel mower can handle.

But had the Lord seen fit to crush our mobile home in a tornado or rolled it with howling winds seen in other places near here, we would have blessed His name and gone looking for His new provision of housing. Those of us determined to submit to the demands of Noah will surely see the blessed provision promised with it.

I’m performing a wedding evening, and the storms for the day have already passed. That gives time for the flooding to receded from low-lying areas. We live among hills and valleys here, so any direction you go will mean crossing at least one or another overflowing stream. Do you suppose our drought is broken now?

We aren’t fearful, but we know all too well that the man-made storms won’t be so kind to us. I have a relentless and immeasurable sense of divine calling, so it’s more than just Noah driving me to prepare my own ark. Some of you may know that I’ve been struggling mightily with the Lord, trying to get some idea, some vision, some image of what direction I should look so I can follow His call. For now, all I have is some vague expectation that my computer skills will be the ostensible path. This is the handle by which I will open the door to His future for me.

As long as people keep using computers and connecting to the Internet, I have some idea how I can bring Him glory. I’m praying that you who sense His calling have at least that much to go on.

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