I’ve been ricing my Debian daily driver the last 24 hours or so and I feel as if I have gotten to a point where it can’t get any better (without implementing hyperspecific mods that might be difficult to reproduce after an update).
It’s in every way better than Windows and more user-friendly than all the Apple stuff should you know how to use search engines, seriously. It also simply looks better and the trimming I did reduces cognitive load significantly. I don’t have to make that many decisions during use.
All of this produces a feeling of anguish. I don’t know if it’s because it felt to easy or something else entirely. Maybe I cannot stand knowing that this could be the standard everywhere.
Colemak and various other efficient keyboard layouts exist. So do BT ergo splits and orthos. We don’t have the limitations of typewriters anymore, QWERTY and staggered keys are indeed optional. How this example from the world of keyboards isn’t the default is rather puzzling. Or take Python, why do universities, some would say even respected universities, teach this language when Go and C/++ exist? I have similar feelings about the lack of alcohol taxation and the low rate of rice cooker adoption in the west.
It really makes me want to get active to proselytize because we live in a world with all the tools available to us to create lives for at least 80% of all people that are entirely fulfilling and within personal control. Until I work somewhere where I can affect change in the direction of sustainability I have several VMs to take apart and put back together.
I hope you can forgive the weltschmerz. How do you feel about this?
Suffering from success.
…Or maybe pedantry?
Nah I get that. I spend hours and money modding or fixing consoles and then hardly play them. I just enjoy the hard stuf. And I’m not very good at games.
My Linux journey started with Debian (which is still on the home server) but I now have Arch and Fedora (Sway spin) on my two laptops.
The laptops basically run the same apps and I’ve been working on configuring/ricing the Arch laptop to my liking.
I’m currently setting up a local Git repo (following this tutorial) so that my Arch config can be used on Fedora.
The cool thing about the Git approach is that it’s easy to make it publicly available if you choose … and easy to roll back if you screw something up.
I also have automated snapper snapshots set up for the later scenario 🤪
All of this produces a feeling of anguish… Maybe I cannot stand knowing that this could be the standard everywhere.
I have similar feelings about the lack of alcohol taxation and the low rate of rice cooker adoption in the west.
You are struggling to accept the imperfect world as it is. You should stop introspecting on the symptoms and try to figure out why you are unhappy with other people’s choices.
I already know why that is. Perfectionism :)
And I know it’s a darn problem lol
“It’s really great, and I hate it” is kind of an insane take, but if you’re looking for things to tune, tweak, or squeeze extra performance out of, try compiling your own optimized kernel and drivers. Maybe get into building a more portable profile for yourself so your changes can move with you elsewhere.
I think there is a misunderstanding. While I do think that it’s great, I am not saying that I hate it haha
Good point though about portable profiles, that’s why I’m messing around with NixOS currently.
I love the phrase “ricing my daily Debian driver”.
I do often have this feeling “everyone could be enjoying this”.
Once in awhile it comes out when someone asks me about how I countered some Microsoft or Apple bullshit, and I admit I jumped ship and have been enjoying software freedom.
A few have actually switched after interrogating me about my experiences.
Ricing Debian is as easy as on any other Distro. Most people I know are using Debian AND (Cinnamon/GNOME OR Xfce). Those are maybe a bit annoying to modify and make your. KDE however works like a charm and people think I’m using Arch because it looks unlike anything the way I’m using tiling.
Props though for getting people to switch, you’re a real one.
Fellow Debian user ricing my daily driver here. Other people may call me crazy too, but I can see where you’re coming from. I’ve mostly come to terms with it by reminding myself that most people are either blissfully ignorant or too busy to care.
Have you considered making a sort of install script or even just a public repository for your tweaks? Makes it all a bit more accessible for those interested to adopt elements of your system. I’ve personally wanted to put together an automated install script once I perfect my Chicago95 rice since I’d imagine there’s quite a few people who want a one-click, retro, but functional system.
Fellow Debian user ricing my daily driver here. Other people may call me crazy too
that makes two of us!!
I’ve mostly come to terms with it by reminding myself that most people are either blissfully ignorant or too busy to care.
Active meta ignorance, making yourself be ignorant of the ignorance of others. Which is the same as ignorance but implemented as an abstraction :P
Have you considered making a sort of Honestly, I have not. I don’t do much with sharing stuff on my GitHub since my programming stuff usually doesn’t exceed a handful of scripts save for when making websites. install script or even just a public repository for your tweaks?
The whole idea of putting all the changes I made to my system is daunting since it’s quite a lot even though it isn’t that finicky at the smaller scales. I wouldn’t know where to begin and I take it it takes a few weeks to get a basic structure going that feels comfortable. I’ll try it though! Thank you for the good suggestion