Hi everyone, I should just like to point out that this has nothing to do with the departure of Aravisian. I do have to say that Aravisian is the next stage up (several stages up) on me when it comes to the terminal. I’ve been lazy in learning - others coming to Linux from Windows don’t want to start learning the Command Line Interface - they only ever used that to troubleshoot Windows issues like
ipconfig -release
and
ipconfig -renew
when there were no successful ways of sorting out ip address issues (which is what happens when M$ stole Novell’s Netware technology).
I am guilty on a different level to Aravisian, I talk to other people as if they know what I am talking about - I have to remind myself that this is not the case. We could all take a lesson or two on that. Rattling off CLI to a noob can be a great off-putter, talking about anything technical to a bog-standard desktop-user is going to put that bog-standard desktop-user from embracing a new system.
The real reason why I am leaving is the issue over snap.d and pulse audio. It seems like a sign for me to move on - I accidentally deleted my Zorin install - all my data is gone from my Zorin 15.3 after several failed attempts to use ‘testdisk’, partially down to cylinder overlaps from what I can tell. I have found my Nirvana in Devuan - the break-away Debian crew who saw (as I do) nothing wrong with ‘sysinit’ that got replaced with ‘systemd’. The killer for me was ‘snap’ and it’s gaping security flaw, then the recent discovery of a serious programming flaw in ‘pulse audio’ - rt-kit daemon - the very name makes you suspect of ‘rootkits’ - and I only discovered this whilst using FerenOS - I will only be using that system whilst working from home until my retirement next year - yes I’m an old git!
I booted Devuan in live mode and attempted to override windowsfx10 only to have not looked carefully (I wast tired and upset over a family matter - let this be a lesson - never do things when you are tired and upset!) However, this seemed like a sign to me and I am happy to just ‘let go’ of lost data. When I booted Devuan, no issues with Sound - it picked up my Soundblaster - no need for blacklisting of other sound devices (HDMI, onboard sound) - worked straight out of the box. So it’s been a great ride - with much appreciation to Artyom and Kyril from those heady days of Zorin 4 and beyond. I still think Zorin is the best OS for Windows users to transition from, and as I put in my forward of the ‘unofficial manuals’ for 12 and 15 which I will leave for downloads until 2023 when I will pull it down as it will be end-of-life for Zorin 15, that I was encouraging users that they would gain the confidence to look at other distros - in the end the beauty of Linux is that it offers you choice. That said, choice is taken away when you are forced into accepting second rate applications such as pulse-audio, and snap poorly constructed. It has been a tremendous privilege being both a moderator and member of this forum and a Zorin user. Sadly, the way some Linux distros are going they are shooting themselves in the foot with an M1 rifle. (Bit of useless information here - when I was a student many years ago, a housemate had read somewhere that if you shot-off your big toe with an M1 rifle, the shock would kill you - well that is what Ubuntu is doing with ‘snapd’, and possibly Red Hat with ‘flatpak’ - bring back ‘Click’n’Run’ - but then again, who really knew what that was doing in the background!). Stay safe and take care everyone. I will not change my belief on who or what Covid-19 was created by and for what purpose. The Genome project was labelled as a way forward to identify medical issues and to resolve them - well I’ve got my own theory on that one and there is a link to Covid-19 - you don’t have to be a Sherlock Holmes to work that one out.
