The Standard of Communion

Posted on October 12, 2014 by ehurst

It’s a very, very sad reflex that asserts itself every where I look.

Reading between the lines of the Law Covenants, we learn that God places a heavy emphasis on social stability. It seems the summum bonum of Jesus’ second commandment — Love your neighbor as yourself. Not stasis by any means, but within the flux of worldly sorrows, the whole of our earthly duty, aside from acts of worship, is to go long on people and short our investment in material goods. People are the single most important investment we can make on this earth. That’s a critical part of how we glorify the Father.

Satan cannot create anything, but can only pervert what God has done. The pinnacle of everything wrong in human history so far is the Western cultural middle class. If there is anything that hinders our efforts to cast lose from this world and serve God in truth and spirit, it is the social orthodoxy of materialism that comes from the rise of the middle class in Europe after the Middle Ages. They have dumbed down “prosperity” to mean mere material wealth.

A part of that awful perversion of materialism is the damned assertion that homogeneity is godly. We all snicker at the typification of suburban sameness, but the instinct for conformity is distinctly the domain of the cultural middle class. Example: “One doesn’t wear white shoes after Labor Day” — with prissy snobbish snickering in the background. You get the picture. These are the people who do their best to destroy Christian faith by perverting the meaning of the term. These are the people who created the culture where everyone stands around staring at their cellphone, ignoring each other and all the genteel arts of civility. These are the people who throw you in jail for daring to be the least bit non-conformist.

Think about the virtual staff here at Kiln of the Soul online parish. Yours truly didn’t choose Sister Wildcucumber as an associate. God chose her; I simply was blessed with recognizing her calling and talent. It’s not the same as mine. When God speaks to me, I don’t hear what she hears every time God speaks to her. There is no conformity or orthodoxy, just a functional overlap and commonality of purpose. She writes what she has experienced in serving God, and it must of necessity come out different than when I write about my experience in some ways. The details are not the point, but the tendency to hear from God.

The whole standard of communion between us is not full agreement on the details. The standard is what we can tolerate together from each other. I can work with her and we can amplify each the other’s labors. God blesses the synergy because it’s His energy. He confirms this for each of us. She could have easily said “no” when I invited her to join the staff. Others will eventually come later and each will have the same option. And it wouldn’t be wrong for someone to ask me. I can’t decide for others, only for me. It is my duty to God to remain sensitive and recognize His hand at work. Not in the concrete results, but in the move of the Spirit of God to give strength and clarity to the moral vision, to harmonize with His character in this world.

We aren’t investing in some organization with numbers, real estate and a big budget. Those things don’t exist here, and cannot. We are investing in souls who all share one common trait, almost impossible to describe. We all see with eyes of faith beyond the inherent deceptiveness of our mere human senses. We perceive the world through our hearts, not trusting our senses and our reason. We don’t measure as man measures because that’s too small and narrow. We measure with the depth of divine moral discernment.

The standard of communion is the room God has built into each soul.

Posted in eldercraft | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on The Standard of Communion

Kubuntu Guide 06

Posted on October 12, 2014 by ehurst

06 — Installation

Back up all your important files to an external device of some sort. That would be whatever you keep in your Documents, Music, Pictures, Videos and perhaps Download folders. If you know how, you can find your font collection and save those in a separate folder. Most Windows type fonts have four files for each one, so get the full set for each font you want to save. You can use them in Kubuntu. Set this aside for later.

Once you decide to install it, the next screen reminds you what you’ll need. I highly recommend you put a checkmark in the two boxes farther down for the third-party software and the updates. On the next page you should select the second option: “Guided — use entire disk.” We won’t be covering dual boot in this guide. The idea is to migrate, not hedge your bets.

The next screen graphically depicts what will happen next and you can click the “Install Now” button in the lower right corner. The time zone should be obvious, but this is the screen where you need to wait for the installer to download some updates. When it reaches 100%, click “Continue.” Next comes the keyboard, but unless you are using something rather unusual, you can accept the defaults and move on.

The next screen asks, “Who are you?” First is some version of your real name. The next box below that is for your user account name. Keep it short and simple, and traditionally it should be all lower case letters. You’ll need a good password here and one more for later. The password you use here is for both your account and for administrative actions. The point is that, if someone comes to your computer running in your absence, they can’t change anything without knowing your password.

The password business has gotten really difficult these days. Do not use a word or name already common in your language. At one time, seven or eight characters was enough, and you could make up a word using both upper and lower case and mixed with digits and other symbols. It was common to simply use a famous quote or line from a song and take the first letter from each word, adding appropriate punctuation, changing a letter or two to numbers, etc. These days you probably need more like twelve characters. I highly recommend you use a random password generator and simply take the time to memorize it. It’s okay to write it on something you keep in your purse or wallet. Most of us can do this after about twenty or thirty times looking it up. There are several sites that offer the free service of password generation; here are some randomly chosen from search engine results — one, two, and three.

If you believe your system is physically rather secure, you can also opt to login automatically whenever the machine starts. The actual installation can take awhile. When the screen tells you it’s time to reboot and remove the installation disk, you are almost there. There will be some more initial configuration and eventually you land on the desktop.

One of the first things you’ll notice is the default decorations might be a bit much. However, the general layout should be familiar. You’ll see an empty frame displayed on the desktop. Run your mouse along the sides until a control appears and close it. There are tons of options you won’t understand at first, and most of them are just toys. This guide assumes you’ll want to stay rather close to a default Windows-like display configuration, but you don’t have to accept any part of my advice. This is DIY, remember?

Right-click on the desktop background and you’ll get a fairly standard looking context menu. Be aware that the context menu in Kubuntu is very contextual. The items in any given menu could change one you make some choices; come back to it later and the labels might be different. One of the first things we need to do is enable using normal icons on the desktop. In the context menu, that’s the last item, whatever it says. Click on that and you’ll get a configuration window for the Desktop Settings. The left window pane lists sections and the main window on the right is the configuration options for the selected section. Under “View” I recommend you change the Layout to folder view. After changes in each section, you need to hit “Apply.” Otherwise, the configuration utility will bug you about it.

While you are here, you’ll see only one wallpaper, with an option down below that to download and install more. If you click that, you’ll need your regular password for it. If you already have a collection of images suitable for your wallpaper, hold off until we can start coping files over. You can come back to this as often as you like, always the last item on the context menu of the desktop background.

The second section in this configuration window is what the mouse buttons do. Likely enough the defaults will work for now. Next is Location, and I recommend you select “Show the Desktop folder” — this is a folder in your personal file system where links and icons are stored for display on the desktop. Next is Icons and I generally find them too large, so I drop down to the middle of the right window pane and bump the slider left one notch. You can check the other options to suit your taste. The last item — Filter — won’t mean much to you right now, so we can skip that. When you like what you have for those settings, close the window

This is a good time to offer up a minor warning. By default, Kubuntu rarely uses the double-click. Most icons are single-click to activate. If you hover your mouse a moment over an icon, you’ll see a plus sign. That would be the Windows equivalent of CTRL+left-click — it selects the item for action under the assumption you’ll select more files for the same action. If you hover over an icon and see the minus sign, it’s already been selected and you can hit that minus to de-select it. Otherwise, simply clicking on an icon will activate whatever it represents, or something will try to open the file. If you can’t adjust to single-click, we can change that later.

The last item for now is the toolbar at the bottom of the screen. It’s called Panel and it will surely need customization. However, there is a lot involved and I’ll refer you to this page for an overview. Once you’ve had a chance to read that, I’ll add a couple of items. First, removing widgets from the Panel is easy, but adding them can be a bit cranky. Using the instructions, I suggest you at least temporarily widen the Panel long enough to drag the widgets you want onto it. If you simply double-click on an item in the list (one of the few places where double-click works) it will simply insert on the right end and you cannot move it. You’ll have to remove it and drag it if you want it somewhere specific. Wait for the empty square to peek out from behind the item you are trying to drag onto the Panel. One of the things most Windows folks do is the remove the default Applications Launcher (the big blue “K” icon) and replace it with the other version, the traditional Application Launcher Menu. The other thing is that they remove the widget with a trio of colored dots next to the menu button, called “Activities.” You can read up on it later if you like, but most Windows refugees have no use for it.

That’s enough for now.

Posted in meta | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Psalm 19

Posted on October 11, 2014 by ehurst

Modern Western man surely sees the beauty in nature and could perhaps reason from it to a glimpse of some divine hand in the vista. Ancient Hebrew man, along with men of every nation within a years’ travel, would have seen an additional level within that vista. Those Ancient Near Eastern (ANE) minds would assume a distinct moral significance to all things visible. This moral significance eclipsed any sensory data in importance. There was a fundamental distrust of sensory data long before any sort of modern cynicism about mirages, smoke and mirrors, and a much deeper level of distrust. It was not simply a matter that ANE minds ever expected to find the physical facts behind delusion, but regarded our human existence itself as delusion on some level.

This regard was deeply embedded in the assumptions about reality. Thus, our visible world was at best a mere manifestation of something more real and just beyond the reach of intellect. Could a man bring his mind into subjection to this higher reality, all the things he could see would take on a different meaning, would be ruled by a significance not obvious to human talent alone. This is what’s behind this hymn of David.

Because David knows the Creator, he doesn’t merely see the sun, moon and stars in the sky, but symbols of God’s divine character. The sound of the wind is more than mere air moving across his auditory organs, but the song of angels glorifying the Lord. Thus, it’s not a matter of literal communication, but a significance only perceptible to those who embrace His revelation. All the beauty and sorrow in Creation together testify to the truth of those who recognize the Creator.

So David unleashes the lyrical imagination of how words can be called upon to serve up a banquet of truth that only a higher awareness can taste. He offers a vision of how, once you allow the revelation of God to touch you, everything you encounter serves merely to confirm it. And how many songs in how many modern languages today are taken from this one psalm?

In the process of recognizing how Creation merely confirms the Lord’s Word of Truth, David carves out an image of how the written revelation of Scripture brings to us far more than the words themselves can convey. Hebrew language did not convey truth; it posted markers of the path your soul could follow to the Living Truth. Thus, the Scriptures are all the more valuable for what they cannot actually say to us. This is what David had in mind when he praised the Scriptures. There is no conflict here between what the Law of Moses required and what Creation itself confirmed by fulfilling that Law’s promises.

And in David’s mind, sin wasn’t some eternal mark in Heaven’s registry against his redemption, but a failure to lay hold of the full depth and richness of those promises. The image of purity wasn’t something artificial and objective, but a matter of harmonizing with Creation and God’s moral character. The man who can lay hold of that has nothing to fear in this world.

Posted in bible | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Psalm 19

Song of Solomon 8

Posted on October 11, 2014 by ehurst

In Hebrew culture, public displays of affection were permitted only between children. In the typical tribal social structure, children at play were presumed some relation to each other, whereas adults engaging in such behavior would be scandalous. It was too likely such affection between adults held an entirely different meaning, something that should be private. The bride is thus offering a vain wish for the intensity of her desire, scarcely able to keep her hands of her man, even in public.

As she continues in this vein, the imagery is uncomfortable for Westerners. It’s not that Hebrew people were loose about incest, but that the imagery was not taboo. For them, the whole scene flows smoothly as the bride exults in the symbol previously mentioned of sex in her mother’s bed. The business of offering refreshments is more of the sexual euphemisms we’ve seen throughout this play. The third verse is more blunt.

She then cautions the other maidens about messing with her man. It’s not combative or defensive, but almost humorous in tone. The maidens respond with singing the bride’s praises. Doesn’t she look glamorous in his company?

The bride returns to the image of the apple tree, an exotic and rare treat in Ancient Palestine. Her man was all of that from birth. She calls out to him, seeking to be his one and only. When love works as it should, it outlasts human existence itself. The whole world is not enough to purchase what only the heart can give. While on this theme, the bride’s family speak up about her childhood. Unspoken is the implication she bore the capacity for deep and lasting love even as a child.

Back then, they wondered how they would ensure she could qualify for the marriage she so richly deserved. As with any girl growing up, she had few feminine charms. This is all in the vein of anyone who sees a developing child and wonders what will become of them. They were determined to protect her chastity but didn’t want her to be too aloof. If she was cold like a stone wall, they would decorate her with jewelry, but if she was too social, they would guard her closely. She then notes that she was more like the wall with little interest in guys. However, her charms caught the attention of the one real man who saw past her facade.

She goes on to describe how Solomon’s harem is loaded with more sex toys than he could possibly use, offering the image of a vast commercial vineyard. This is not meant to insult the king about using his harem for prostitution, but how his wealth in everything, including women, was off the scale. Did he even know one wife from the next? (Solomon pokes fun at himself for being so extravagant.) She describes herself as a small private vineyard producing just enough of the very best wine for a man who was content with her alone. She had no interest in being part of some fancy harem.

The whole drama ends with the final affirmations using common romantic imagery. The groom asks that she pay no attention to anyone else but him. She responds by telling him to waste no time in taking her.

Posted in bible | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Song of Solomon 8

Kubuntu Guide 05

Posted on October 11, 2014 by ehurst

05 — Installation Considerations

It’s possible Kubuntu won’t run well on your hardware Then again, some computers don’t seem to run much of anything very well. If you’ve ever read or experienced a struggle to get Windows drivers for some particular computer, you are familiar with the difficulties.

With Kubuntu in particular, and Linux in general, most of the drivers you need for the system itself are already built in or easily available as add-ons. (We cover printers and other peripherals in a later chapter.) One of the major selling points for moving from Windows to Linux is that your old XP hardware is not at all obsolete. It can still support a current Linux desktop. Move up to a low-spec Vista or Win7 machine and you’ll be in Linux luxury.

We are currently in a transition period for Linux. While Linux has long offered 64-bit operations, the developers’ loving care and attention went first to server usage. Much of the user’s GUI experience still worked better in 32-bit for a while. Then again, most 64-bit consumer hardware you could buy was actually 32-bit with 64-bit extensions. It was an added capability, but not really a core function. That has changed over the years, and 64-bit is more mainstream. The way things are moving, this is probably the last release of Kubuntu where preferring the 32-bit version still makes good sense. For now, there are simply fewer problems if you run in 32-bit. And having a lot of extra RAM isn’t an issue, because Linux 32-bit has for several years come with extensions to address more than 4GB of RAM, which is the breaking point in Windows.

One of the nicest advantages to the collection of Ubuntu derivatives is the high volume of easily accessed user information. For example, this page lists the basic hardware requirements, which are the same for Kubuntu. The primary landing page for Kubuntu is here, but the generous documentation is found on this page. I highly recommend you at least review the installation sections (their chapter 6) to become familiar with what you’ll see. If you decide to look over the entire guide, you may not need this book for much. Most of what we cover here are the gotchas you’ll run into along the way, plus added guidance for the specific needs of migrating from Windows.

All software is buggy to one degree or another. For the most part, no software will ever be released as a finished product. Open Source development is particularly bad about thousands of different projects, each proceeding on its own course, many at a breakneck pace of development. New features are added, and each comes with new bugs and even some breakage. Some Linux distributors simply play along, with daily updates in one package or another. By the time you can test something and find a flaw, your report is tossed aside because it applies to something already obsolete in their minds.

End users aren’t too happy with that, because it often means cascading conflicts between two or more essential packages. Or the next release of something is so different it breaks all your settings and doesn’t work at all like it did before. The developers in their own projects often could care less about that. However, if your clients are corporate end users, it’s simply not going to work at all. So some Linux distributors run two projects in parallel. There is one group that is constantly testing newer stuff, but released in frequent increments with everything built together on the same basic system. That’s the hobbyist background, often volunteers. For their actual flagship product, they’ll take long breaks between releases and then support them for a very several years with fixes and so forth. Those releases are usually much more highly polished.

Here is the official release schedule for Ubuntu. Ubuntu with all the derivatives releases a hobby version twice each year. The version number follows the last two digits of the year; currently version 14. They predictably release in April (.04) and October (.10). However, on even years, the first release in April is given special attention as their Long Term Support release (LTS). Thus, the current LTS is 14.04. If it’s not LTS, then it’s usually “dead” within a year or so, but the LTS releases are supported for five years. When something is found to be broken or has a security vulnerability, someone in the system will rebuild that part using the original build environment and issue an update. All of the various Ubuntu-based systems get the update at the same time, and you are notified automatically.

Thus, Ubuntu and friends are considered fairly user-friendly. For this guide, you should download Kubuntu 14.04 32-bit. See this webpage for download links; it’s about 1.0 GB. Click on the big black label inside the box to see the links. You can order a DVD already burned from several different vendors online and your favorite search engine can help you.

Once you get your hands on that DVD, you can run it “live” from the disk without installing, to test whether it is compatible with your hardware. One of the first screens you see after booting from the DVD offers you the choice between installing and simply running it: “Try Kubuntu.” It will lag a bit because it has to load from the DVD into RAM, so it does not represent how fast it works once installed. However, the whole point is to get a look at it and see if it knows how to use your machine.

As a side note: If you knew how, you could use a Kubuntu DVD to mount your Windows system drive and make changes, including moving, removing and adding files, plus editing files and saving the changes. A great many alternative repair disks you can find online are simply a live-run Linux disk with special tools. Indeed, most anti-virus companies offer something like this for emergency system clean-up.

Posted in meta | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Kubuntu Guide 05

Kubuntu Guide 04

Posted on October 10, 2014 by ehurst

04 — Peculiarities of Linux

In general, the Linux/Unix experience holds sufficient differences from Windows that you might benefit from some explanation.

The DIY Linux/Unix culture assumes a much tighter interaction between the user and the machine. With most of your fellow Linux users, it will seem like an obsession. We’ve already noted they seem far more interested in the computer itself and exploring its capabilities than actually using it. They demand a much closer involvement in the arcane processes, but it yields to us more ordinary users a much greater control when we do want it.

Given all the recent revelations of snooping by government, corporations, advertisers and criminals happening on a level not previously understood, the value of having control over your own system has taken center stage in computer technology. It’s possible you could continue pretending it won’t matter much and simply accept what comes with default commercial provision for your computer use. If you’d rather not surrender everything just yet, Linux offers a far greater degree of control. Having that control is pointless if you have no idea how to use it.

One of the most important factors has already been hinted at above: Linux is the system underneath the GUI. With all the DIY perfectionists and highly varied artistic visions involved, you should hardly be surprised that the Linux GUI could be any one of dozens. That’s because the GUI itself is modular. The basic graphical display is called “X” and the desktop runs on top of that. We’ve mentioned that we’ll be using KDE, and that Ubuntu has their preferred Unity. KDE is all over the place and quite popular, but Unity is pretty much restricted to Ubuntu. There are others and you’ll see names like GNOME, MATE, Cinnamon, E, LXDE, XFCE, etc. Those all represent integrated desktop display systems, but there are also a host of other GUIs that don’t integrate much, just control the display. They don’t add in all sorts of matching tools and various little applications we all take for granted.

Coming from Windows, you’ll experience KDE as probably the most fully integrated GUI package. However, you can never forget that underneath is the command line interface (CLI). Depending on how you use a computer, it isn’t even necessary to have a GUI, and Linux comes with a wealth of applications that run on the CLI. Not just text editors, but web browsers, email clients, multimedia players — all of these are highly developed and fully functional without any graphical display elements. Then again, when properly configured, you can display graphics on the CLI. Frankly, Open Source developers continue their love affair with the simplicity and power of the CLI.

It’s possible to avoid the CLI on Linux, but it’s foolish. Too many of the very best things about Linux will never appear on any GUI. Even Windows and Macintosh retain their CLI tools. Indeed, Mac is Unix with a full CLI, while Linux is simply Unix-like. There are some computer tasks that simply cannot be done properly any other way. As a side note, every bit of GUI software adds complexity and vulnerability to the system. The more you can rely on the CLI, the fewer openings you offer to those who would seek to seize control of your system from you. Adaptation to this higher self-reliance is much easier with Linux because what seems initially obscure is actually just unfamiliar to you coming from the outside.

In this book, we will explore the CLI just a little bit. I’ll hold your hand it keep it as simple as possible. It’s quite easy to run a CLI terminal session from within the GUI. It’s also quite easy to transfer commands with cut-n-paste back and forth between the two. In fact, with Linux, the mouse itself has its own clipboard. If your pointer has a middle button, you can paste from the pointer without using the GUI clipboard, and it works even if there is no GUI. Linux has allowed decent mousing operations on the CLI since the days of the first mouse drivers.

One of the things most surprising to Windows refugees is that, even with your GUI running, you can still log into the CLI. When you log into your Linux desktop, running underneath are typically a half-dozen CLI sessions waiting for you. Not only is Unix inherently CLI, but it was multi-user from the start, before DOS or Windows ever existed. But these days we seldom have multiple dumb terminals plugged into a running server, so we keep all those sessions on board the same hardware in the form of virtual sessions. Very early in the game, this was extended to the GUI, but without the extra log ins. On your Linux graphical desktop, you will always have the capability of multiple virtual desktops, each with its own viewing portal. Instead of crowding multiple application windows onto one working space, you can scatter them across several. It’s like having extra desktops lined up on either side but hidden off-screen until you need them. You don’t have to use that feature, but it’s nice to know that you can.

Having that capability, both in the GUI and the CLI, has become so completely integrated into the Linux way of things that the system would hardly work without them. Any extra draw they might have on system resources has already been highly minimized. It won’t improve things by turning off all that extra capability, in part because it would break stuff. As it is, in recent years, some of the most power-hungry Linux systems still use less computer power than the current crop of Windows operating systems. With the current version of Kubuntu, you will typically use less power than Win7 or Vista, and much less than Win8. At the same time, you will likely have less trouble with drivers, stability and security. Again, it’s not perfect, but it’s quite likely better in many ways.

Posted in meta | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Kubuntu Guide 04

Death and Hell Stalking Us

Posted on October 9, 2014 by ehurst

Maybe it’s not so different in substance; maybe this is just the veneer peeling away. Western Civilization is especially bad about forgetting the past in the sense that we have no ability to transmit from generation to generation what it felt like to live in different times. The dry facts we’ve got, but we hold no reverence for our elders and their experiences, only some ghostly sparkles as the dusty patina over the past.

The WW1 generation is long gone, and virtually no one alive today remembers much from WW2. Whatever those times were like, it was not long after that the world was bathed in hope and optimism about the future. We thought we could build a whole new world and not repeat the mistakes of the past.

Instead, we have done worse. Now we are driving hard over the cliff and the official lies are a fading threadbare curtain, billowing sheer and transparent in the winds of turmoil. It seems a very small group of powerful elite really are trying to kill as many of us as they can. They filled our environment with consumer toxins. Then they sicced the police on us, so that random slaughter has become the norm. To be honest, only for a brief period in history did anyone ever think of policemen as good people, so the new police state fear is just a return to the historical norm. That we are so shocked by their behavior simply shows how short our collective attention span is. Our brief foray into social mythology was whole hog.

We opened our borders to every diseased migrant we could find. Our officials declared all sorts of imaginary plagues and offered us toxic remedies that only weakened us. Then we vacuumed up all the lose wretches from where they wallowed in disease and poverty and set them among the prissy middle-class communities to infect with all kinds of stuff for which we have no resistance. And it would seem our researchers have decided to test more genetically modified and weaponized diseases to release in other countries, only to bring carriers here to make sure we test it on first world populations.

But wait; we are no longer first world. Our economy has been decimated, and it’s pretty obvious that was intentional. What’s left of our productivity is consumed with senseless war, political boondoggles and vaporizing medical care.

This is going to hurt. It’s a time of tribulation and they are trying to kill us, but only after they’ve extracted the last ounce of wealth from our bodies. God alone knows how this all will pan out, but it’s here now. Death and Hell have been released for a time on the earth. The Enemy of Souls feeds on fear.

So don’t fear. Refuse to participate. From a more honest reading of Scripture, we understand that death is not our enemy, but our friend when God sends it to us. It’s His prerogative alone in our souls, but we welcome the chance to receive the final reward for our labors. That’s a pretty straight translation of the New Testament view on death. So don’t panic; death is just a circumstance.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Death and Hell Stalking Us

Kubuntu Guide 03

Posted on October 9, 2014 by ehurst

03 — Why Kubuntu?

The name Linux isn’t actually a thing, but a kind of thing. The underlying code base is there for anyone to build as they like. What you can build with it can be tweaked for specialized uses. Most of these projects are given away for free; the term for a “brand” of Linux is distribution. It’s distributed in a more or less coherent operating system together with various included software. While there are just a few major projects, each one is likely to have dozens more that make adjustments in the basic major distribution. So, for example, Debian Linux has a very large number of derivative projects. One of them is a group of projects released under the flagship name Ubuntu. The company behind it is named Canonical. They invest money in the product and sell support contracts and some advertising. This one comes with a default graphical user interface (GUI) that is wholly unsuitable for Windows refugees. It’s called Unity and it works fine if you think your desktop is a cellphone. While you can install one or more different GUIs, it’s usually easier to get one of the derivatives that come with a different interface by default. The name “Ubuntu” is changed to reflect that.

We will be using Kubuntu — the KDE desktop on Ubuntu. There are two particular advantages. First, it’s not actually under Canonical’s control; it’s a volunteer derivative project. That means we don’t have to deal with the advertising part of Canonical’s business. Second, this is the one GUI closest to Windows in terms of how the user experiences it.

Let’s face it: The traditional Windows desktop GUI is the standard. Way back before Microsoft was planning their GUI on top of DOS, they first copied some existing ideas while also investing a lot of time and money in research. This research was designed to detect instinctive human behaviors when first encountering a GUI. Lots of test subjects with little or no computer experience were allowed to play with the mouse and the researchers watched and evaluated. The net result was the Windows 95 desktop. Not perfect, but it did take into account typical human expectations. That was before most current computer users were born. It’s hard to say whether that basic GUI is still the best match for instinctive behavior, there’s no doubt it’s what most people are now used to seeing. Efforts to innovate too much don’t get very far in terms of popular acceptance.

So there’s no reason to depart much from the standard Windows desktop GUI. The K Desktop Environment (KDE) stays pretty close to that. It was even better in the past, but recent bright ideas from the not-so-user-friendly Open Source developers haven’t damaged it too much. It’s as close as we’ll get.

Another advantage is that we gain the highly automated and generally sane defaults that come with Ubuntu itself. Much of the Linux experience is very much DIY with defaults that make the developers happy. The underlying Debian design is mostly by and for systems administrators; it’s server software. It works okay on the desktop and can be adjusted to meet common expectations, but it’s not there by default, regardless of which GUI you put on top. The installation defaults exclude a lot of things for reasons that most likely mean nothing to you. It tends to cripple the functioning of the software on some hardware combinations. As I said, you can fix that and the extra goodies are available, but not included by default. You have to know what you need and do some extra work. Canonical decided to take Debian and polish it up, including all the extras by default. Most things you are likely to need from an operating system are already pretty close to what you might expect in Kubuntu.

But it’s not Windows. In fact, Linux is a type of Unix, and that affects the entire experience.

Posted in meta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Kubuntu Guide 03

Kubuntu Guide 02

Posted on October 8, 2014 by ehurst

This is the second chapter in the book, and it’s pretty much a rehash of a previous post, so regular readers may want to skip this.

************

02 — The Perils of Software Development

If you have to watch out for your own interests, you at least have a chance with Linux.

The term Open Source has become rather familiar to most people who surf the Net. The basic concept is software that is not proprietary; it’s open to public inspection. Whether it’s better than commercial software development is not the point. The idea is that anyone can get involved. If it matters to you, the door is open. All it takes is sufficient competence to engage it intelligently, even if you don’t actually contribute code. The broader concept of Open Source has caught on in a lot of other areas seen on the Internet. It’s typically the antithesis of the older corporate atmosphere. Like many today, having worked in that atmosphere, I have come to hate the entire claptrap of corporate greed and materialism. However, that doesn’t mean Open Source development brings us to computing nirvana. Quite the opposite, for the simple reason that the essence of Open Source development caters to the worst of human moral failure. It makes godlings of developers with talent, when said talent all too often accompanies the most implacable arrogance about the way things ought to be.

Greed we understand. If a man is unwilling to take the risks of violent seizure of things he wants, then he becomes a manipulative slimeball who suckers you into giving him those things. When it comes to computer technology, you can bet the slimeballs far outnumber the thugs. In an effort to pull in the big bucks, the corporate guy will at least try to convince you that he’s offering what you want. We’ve learned to be wary of those who are playing head games, so it’s not too hard to find corporate software that meets most of your needs, provided you can adjust to the dominant market paradigm. Gamers get what gamers tend to want, as do consumers of other entertainment, while business managers and government drones get what they want. That’s where the money is. At some point on the scale of accommodating unusual demands, it starts to cost providers too much to and they simply don’t respond. They may even squelch developer interest in obscure features — “Not on company time.” Then there are a host of niche market providers who extend the original product or even make a whole new product on the cheap.

When you know how to develop the software for yourself, you don’t have to worry about what anybody else wants. You can follow your own vision. Chances are you can get a few other volunteers to work alongside and develop something really nice to answer common needs. But that usually means needs common to computer geeks, and perhaps no one else. I suppose no one really knows exactly why, but there is a powerful correlation between software developer talent and social stupidity. That is, it would seem a great many geeks are so very good at computers precisely because they are so very bad about dealing with people. For some reason, these two seem to come in the same package a great majority of the time. I’m not suggesting oddballs hate the rest of us, but they often have no clue just how alien they are. Yet, give them some power over those others that they do not understand, and suddenly it becomes a primary form of entertainment to abuse everyone who isn’t like them. Pretty soon, you find a significant portion of them revel in perversion.

So instead of designing software that tends to meet the broad human need of common users, they develop software with the intent of herding folks into some private or sub-cultural computer orthodoxy. “Well, that’s the way you ought to be doing it!” There is none of this business of dealing with the reality of what is actually out there. Instead, it’s a highly unreasonable demand that the world change to conform to their vision of perfection.

While the corporate software guys tend to be just as freakish, they have managers who keep them in check. If the weirdo developer wants a paycheck, he’d better produce software that the marketing dweebs can sell. There is no restraint on Open Source developers, unless you count the tight club membership in certain projects. Social skills are often not a high priority for selecting project managers in Open Source. That’s okay within the development process, but there is also nothing to protect the end user from the hateful arrogance that pervades way too many projects. Developers only hear from each other and maybe a few devoted fanboys permitted to hang around. This remains a pretty incestuous environment.

It’s the fanboys who pretend they are the marketers of the resulting product. They also just don’t get it. They love and understand the product, but the wider audience they do not. Mostly they succeed in alienating the world, but you would think they have no idea what effect their noise has on the rest of us. They have a religious zeal that drives everyone else nuts, and they get angry when we don’t bow the knee to their favorite deities. It’s not merely that they aren’t interested in what you might want or need, but they are spitefully hostile to anything that isn’t already provided by their favorite product. It’s so totally brilliant, how can you not be impressed? You aren’t supposed to want something different; the developers said so.

No, I don’t have any easy answers to this quandary. We are stuck between the quagmire of cloying corporate artificial niceness and the stony fierce sense of personal entitlement from the independent guys. Rare indeed is the software project that is neither of these. Sure, you can meet some genuinely great people in Open Source development, and some projects truly serve the user. However, those are not the dominant experience. The difference is that, with Open Source software, you don’t have to worry about the product hiding secret traps. In commercial software, the actual product is you and your attention delivered to the commercial marketing allies of the software producer. There are restrictions that prevent you from interfering with their abuses. With Open Source, the developer is his own customer. If he’s cranky, you have to tolerate his quirks in the design, but there are no secrets used against you.

Again, the one thing that keeps computer technology alive is that people find it useful, but developers often don’t like people as people. You are more likely to sense this honestly when using Linux. Moving from commercial software to Open Source does require some adaptation to a different culture, one which is dominated by the DIY ethic.

Posted in meta | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Kubuntu Guide 02

New Project: Kubuntu, the Shortest Path from Windows to Linux

Posted on October 7, 2014 by ehurst

For my readers: The time has come to write the book that has gestated in the back of my mind for a year or more. As you know, I am no part of a Linux salesman. The whole point is to offer an alternative to Windows for those who might need it. More to the point, they might need it without all the fanboy hype. I don’t want to hear from the fanboys any more than you do.

So I’ve backed up my Win7 system in case I need to restore it later and I’m running Kubuntu 14.04 32-bit on my system. Nothing is bug-free and this is no exception. I’ll be offering advice on handling the gotchas. For now, here is the draft of the first chapter…

************

01 — Why Linux versus Windows

If you like Windows well enough, there is no reason to change.

The most tiresome thing I experience in reading about Linux is the mindless enthusiasm of those utterly lacking in empathy and a sense of proportion. If it’s not broke, don’t fix it. The itch to tinker and explore is essential to how Linux in particular, and Open Source software in general, came into existence. But that doesn’t justify ignoring very real human needs. For most of humanity, computers are merely machines that save us time and make possible blessings not available any other way.

This book is for folks who simply need to get work done on a computer and something about Windows just doesn’t quite cut it. At the same time, there is no need for shocking the user with dramatic changes, especially changes simply for the sake of change.

Here are some possible reasons you might have for switching from Windows to Linux:

1. Licensing — Unless you are willing to take the risk of using pirated software, playing by the rules and laws that favor corporate software makers can be very expensive. Linux is free and the licensing generally affects only those who modify the software itself. You might have to pay for packaging, and there are some companies making software for Linux that isn’t free, but virtually anything you need can be downloaded for free. You can make all the copies you like and use it on as many machines as you please.

2. Control — Linux is very much a Do-It-Yourself (DIY) system. While you may not understand all the stuff running in the background necessary for it to work, the information is freely available as to what it is and why it’s needed. There is no cult of secrecy based on high-paid training and expensive access to the obscure details of the system. You can have all that if you need it, but it’s not required. Indeed, the Linux user community at large is usually quite eager to help you understand. The main point is that there is no secret agreement between other parties forcing you to accept something not in your best interest just so they can make a profit at your expense. The Linux community as a whole is intensely anti-snooping.

3. Security — The Linux community is also intensely pro-security, so it is generally harder to crack. Not impervious, just far less likely to suffer from external threats. Criminal hackers tend to like using Linux themselves because of the built-in safety factors, and background noise of clandestine chatter between computer criminals indicates they aren’t eager to face the challenge. Perhaps it’s partly due to much smaller numbers against the difficulty, so that there isn’t that much profit from all the work of attacking Linux systems, but we are unlikely to ever know. Even if you and all your friends switch to Linux, it will probably ever remain a rather low proportion of personal computers connected to the Internet. (Servers are a different story.) At any rate, once you get used to how Linux stuff works, it’s okay to relax and not worry as much about random attacks to your system. Most of them will simply not work on Linux.

4. Bloat — You can easily find a user-friendly Linux OS that is up-to-date and runs just fine on older hardware. So your old XP machine that can’t really handle Win7 will run a current version of Linux just fine, and for quite a few years to come. This wasn’t always true in the history of Linux, but in the past decade or so, Windows has begun demanding a lot more power than Linux does for the same work.

The primary reason you won’t switch from Windows to Linux is lack of convenience. Never mind all the political and philosophical hullabaloo from Linux advocates, some hardware doesn’t work, or doesn’t work very well, under Linux. You can’t just pick up any old piece of hardware at the electronics store and expect it work as advertised if you run Linux. You have to be somewhat more discriminating. On the other hand, I’m not the only computer user who found some Linux drivers much better than the Windows version.

Some activities are very complicated compared to Windows, such as home networking and sharing printers. Those things can be done, but it takes more work. And let’s face it: Compatibility between Linux versions of software with the Windows version is hit-and-miss. For a writer, the best you can get for free under Linux still does not compare very well with even Word 2000. Grammar checking in Linux remains primitive and almost useless. (But you can easily make MS Office 2000 run on Linux, as well as other popular Windows stuff, as we shall see later.)

Don’t stumble into this blindly. There are problems with any choices you make. The next chapter examines the underlying reasons why this is so.

Posted in meta | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on New Project: Kubuntu, the Shortest Path from Windows to Linux