It's Been 14 Years!

 I have not been posting much here because work has kept me extremely busy.  However, Linux has been with me all this time at work.  While my coworkers keep complaining that the computers in the classrooms are sluggish, I have no problems. Why?  Because I use a Linux pendrive to use them.  Still, I'm happy that it's 14 years since my migration.  Cheers!!

Woah! The 13th. Anniversary of This Blog!

 When I migrated to Linux 13 years ago I never thought I'd learn no much! 😁

Now that the world is heading to another enormous change, fueled by Artificial Intelligence, I cannot help comparing computer life then with what it is now... of course, also thinking about what it may become in the near future.

What has not changed? Let's see:

1- I still don't know my way around the Linux terminal. I handle about 5 commands, not very well, but that's pretty much it. For the most part, Linux forums have been my help all this time whenever I have hit a problem requiring the console. Such problems, though, have become more and more scarce each year.

2- I am still hearing my colleagues complain about Windows, with pretty much the same issues: "Windows is slow," "Malware is a pain," "I cannot do X or Y."

3- Linux distros keep coming and going.  I've lost many of my most loved ones, but others have appeared.

What has changed?

1- Windows has been losing market share more and more.  I never thought I'd see a day in which it had less than 90 percent.  Well, right now it seems to be doing worse than that:

Now Windows is below 70% worldwide!

 2- Market share metrics have become quite weird.  As you can notice, they seemingly show that Linux has not advanced much in 13 years!  Still, you now see a weird "unknown" label that is in 3rd place. It had 7.3% in March this year and climbed to a whooping 13% in April.  What is that?  Shouldn't the ones in charge of the metrics find out what that "unknown" is?  Russian or Chinese computers with a new OS?  Not really: it is the same here in my country:

Wow! 14.67% "unknown" in Costa Rica!

 

Is that, then, an army of computers with a powerful VPN? Who knows... nobody has cared to explain or analyze this phenomenon. Anyway, market share became irrelevant for tech writers once Windows hit less than 95%.
 

What will change?

I think that the biggest change will be promoted by the different possibilities Artificial Intelligence offers.  They now write, design images or video, compose music and even sing!  I've heard Michael Jackson singing anime themes!

Tux (Japanese style) as designed by an AI

 

Of course, companies with deep pockets are integrating AI chatbots to their Operating Systems and are in a crazy race to be first... but they have become increasingly worried because open source is reducing the gap in the results such companies have.  Their work of years is quickly paired by the advancements of open source AI in months!

I bet soon a Linux distro will come with an AI integrated.  Which one? One of the current ones?  Maybe it will be a totally new distro.  Let's see what happens.

Happy Anniversary, Linux Migrante!  🎉

Happy Anniversary (by Mechatotoro, made with AI Fotor)

 

AI Fotor image made by Mechatoro

Farewell, My Canon Pixma ip1800 Printer! Hello again, Epson XP-231 Printer!

    Yesterday, I discovered that my MX-18 system (32 bits) ran too old for updates. Thus, I started testing MX-21.  This computer is so old and so weird that I always bump into some problem.

    Well, I was right.  Firefox keeps crashing (it started doing it since release 96, I think, on MX-18).  I guess it has to do with the 32 bit architecture because Firefox does not present that issue on my 64 bit laptops.

 

   Then, it was the time to check if my printers worked.  I was totally out of luck with my Canon Pixma ip1800.  Although I had the drivers and knew the way to install them, unsolvable dependencies would make the installation impossible. I'll have to think about a way to get it to work as it is a fine printer and it is perfectly functional. 

   Next, I checked my Epson XP-231 printer.  I did notice something weird: there were no drivers for the XP series! Where did they go? 

 

  Fortunately, a little search got me back on track. Following this method from the friends at Linux Mint, did the job. All I needed to do was to open a terminal and type this command:

 sudo apt-get install printer-driver-escpr

With it, the XP drivers were available again. Instead of the printer setting tool, I used CUPS for the set up. Not to forget, you enter CUPS from your browser by typing this on the address bar:

http://localhost:631

 By the way, the method to get the scanner to function still works! 

The next step will be to see if I can get the printer to go wireless...

It's Been 12 Years with Linux!

Today this blog is celebrating its 12th anniversary! 😄

That also means it has been 12 years since I started using Linux and decided to document my learning and thoughts about the world of the penguin, some days later than Mandriva Linux Chronicles.

Since my first entry here, many distros have gone away (some that were truly dear to me) and others have appeared.

Also, I've seen Linux running on computers that previously would not let it do it. UEFI's restricted boot has interfered with the installation of my favorite distro on some laptops, too. Fortunately, those problems have been solved. 

So, what did I do to celebrate my coming to Linux land?

I bought an external HDD and installed MX Linux on it so that I may use it in my office at work. Using such device to work is extremely important to me, especially because my country was hit by Conti's ransomware and several government institutions, faithful Windows users, are currently experiencing a terrible time.

While they keep repeating the same mistakes and keep falling into the same traps, I will keep my freedom and continue learning.

 

Where Was I at this Time Last Year?

 My job, thanks to all this Covid craze, has kept me busier than ever. While I miss the free time I had in the past, I am indeed glad that I still have a job. Many people have lost theirs and life, in general, has become really tough.

Since my inspiration has left me and I seem to catch the latest news in Tux Land when they are not news any longer (for example, MX-21.1 has been already released and I had no clue!), I haven't been writing much here.

Thus, I decided to do a little retrospective exercise. Where was I at this time last year, for example?  What did I write about?  Did write anything at all in April last year?

I went to check and found only one entry in April: This one. 

What was it about?  Amazing!  Windows updates! What a weird coincidence!

 

This month I spoke with a colleague who had to borrow a laptop from our university to do her online work.  She has a small Linux laptop, but Zoom was not very stable on it.  I recommended my colleague to make sure that Windows updates were already done on the borrowed equipment.

Some days later, she told me that at the end she used the Linux laptop.

I asked her the reason, of course.

"Windows updates simply did not let me use the laptop when I needed it!" was her reply.

As I said before, it is a very strange coincidence that, after a whole year, people keep experiencing the same nasty situation with Windows updates.

Or not?

2021 Is Coming to its End: Time for the Yearly Backups!

 This year has only a few days left.  That means I have to complete the yearly backups.

I still remember the old days, when backups were not fun at all. I mean, I had to format my Windows computer every 6 months and thus, having backups was vital because eventualities would occur regularly.

Right now, although I keep my backing up practice (which I highly recommend to everyone), I haven't had the need to restore from them in years.  In fact, I even have cloned images of my Linux systems that I place on different computers. Thus, if anything happens, I just insert a live USB and install my system with all the configurations.  I keep the files on different media.

Tomorrow I will do the backup of the latest files and I will be ready for next year.

On a different note, I found this image.  That penguin looks familiar! 😜  I guess you can find Linux everywhere now! 

 

 

Bye, Old Router!

My wired connection suddenly went out, along with my main wireless connection, two weeks ago.  Fortunately, I still had another wireless connection, which served me to complete my work while I tried to locate the problem.

It turned out that the problem was my router.  After 18+ years of continuous work, it died. Today I bought a new one and installed it.  I had configured the old one on Windows, with a disc it came with.  To set up the new router, I used Firefox on my little laptop, powered by Linux.

Everything worked without a problem. This is my first network setup using Linux!