2025: I am still running on Manjaro

My history of distro-hopping between 1993 (or 1994) and early 2025 is worth a story.  The first time I installed GNU/Linux (on my Toshiba Laptop), the choice was between FreeBSD and "Linux."  I downloaded Slackware, through the kindness of the owners of Kuentos Communications on Guam.  I knew nothing of Linux, but after installation, faced with a terminal, I did not know what to do.  What I did was a head-scratcher: I typed "top".  It was a propitious choice: top is a system monitor that I still use in 2025, in it's  modern iteration, as "htop."  Slackware is still alive. 

 I did not install, Yggdrasil, even though it looked.

 At some point, perhaps 1995, I finally abandoned Slackware, for Debian, which was connected with the Free Software Foundation.    I stuck with Debian for a while.  One thing I noticed about Debian, and perhaps other distros further on down the line (Ubuntu) was the impatience of the developers who inhabited the help mailing list.  Instead of a simple answer, one would receive a sharp rebuff because he did not RTFM.  (Read the Fine Manual).  Another problem still persist, and has become even more egretious, IMHO: list lurkers who answer questions with "I don't know." 

 In about 1996, I hopped over to Ubuntu.  This was inspired because it was easier to install than plain Debian; but in fact it was a version of Debian that was easeir to install and maintain.  But Ubuntu was frequently problematical, for me.  Others seemed to be fine with it.  

Next was Knoppix was an interesting side-trip; I installed Cluster-Knoppix on three computers which I built for my classroom at Marianas High School.  With a student, we   actually got a cluster working, at least for a while.  Knoppix, in it's own rite, was easy to install.  It was possibly the first Live CD distribution, and it was simple to install onto a hard drive.

One issue that required constant head banging, was installing printers.  Even until this day, most printer manufacturers do not support GNU/Linux.  There are exceptions.

 Another problem has been incompatibility of software.  This was expected; however, the worst was software---often developed with Government funding---for educational use.  

It has been worth the trouble.

I do not remember when, at some point I started getting in over my head---with Gentoo. With Slackware, I had learned to install Unix software by compiling it from "upstream" source code; this means, the original code.  Debian in particular had painted this upstream code with another layer of patches, and generally made it available as pre-compiled binaries.  This approach was a little uncomfortable for me; I always had hoped for a distro that used upstream source code.  This brought me to Gentoo.  

Computers are tools.  I am interested in them, sure, but as tools.  Tools for functional purposes.  Gentoo's approach was elegant; but frequent updates led to collisions between library versions---especially with KDE's libraries---and routinely to gordion entanglements.  I install a large number of software packages, which leads to a large number of such problems.  The tedium started to bother me: the all night updates, the need to reinstall---often taking days---when things got too complicated. 

This is true: Gentoo had the very best documentation, by far, of any distro.  That was, however, until a fork in the road when developers went through some life changes that caused the documentation system---alas!  the distribution itself---to cease to be accessible to mere mortals like myself.  

Ubuntu was visited a few more times, and Mint Linux.  Neither of these worked for me.  Ubuntu---for reasons I never will understand---often abandoned me at a black screen of death.  Mint was not my cup of tea.

I landed on Arch Linux.   

Arch is touted as a learning experience.  Sure, it's difficult to install, but every user needs to learn the system from the inside out.  After many re-installs---probably often as a consequence of my own incompetence---I realized that I had not learned the lessons, as I had to repeat the same steps over and over again, cluelessly.  Eventually, though, I found Manjaro.

 Manjaro, IMHO, is the best of the Arch derivatives.  Manjaro (along with Arch Linux) will best be treated separately.  Suffice it to say, I have not hopped from Manjaro---save a few short-lived adventures with other Arch based distros---for well over a decade.

 

 

Unix's and GNU/Linux's Unknown Superpowers: ptx, sort, and grep

The Unix operating system is wonderful.  GNU/Linux is wonderful.  Let me make this distinction, before discussing the aforementioned three tools: GNU is Not Unix. This is a story of how capitalism limits the human spirit, in order to extract financial gain.  

 Before writing about the remarkable tools provided by Unix---and now, the GNU computing system (one of the scions of which is GNU/Linux)---one may be forgiven for visiting certain concerns, including the generation of incomprehensible wealth by a few men who now seek to control our lives in ever more of their detail.  I suggest that this wealth was made primarily through marketing, on the backs of the ingenuity of other men, some of whom were out-maneuvered and left behind by certain well known business men.  

It came about, during the early days of computing, long ago: a gifted programmer by the name of Richard Stallman worked at MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (MITAIL), along with other highly capable computer programmers.   Events during that period led to unforeseeable changes, as a behemoth technical-industrial complex grew beyond all imagination, based on deft slight-of-hand and shrewd business moves, as entrepreneurs snatched up computer code, patented and copyrighted it, and concealed it from hapless consumers.  Shrewd manipulations of programmers and code enabled a few men, in less than 50 years, to accumulate over half of the wealth of the financial world.  

This they were able to do by convincing consumers not to share, with the complicity of the legal "intellectual property" infrastructure; to violate the golden rule that many had cherished since childhood.  Make many copies of a useful computer program for a few pennies each, and set prices  arbitrarily high.  The consumer will be so mesmerized by the utility and flashiness of these programs that she will believe you are doing her a favor, selling it so cheap.  Convince governments to sign lucrative contracts.  Update products at speed, and charge for the updates.  Sue public schools when they did not update to newer licenses.  the profits would be almost unlimited.  And, now, change the business model and lease software, so leverage even greater control, and much greater profits. Never do unto others anything without transactional benefits to self.  Above all, do not share a computer program, even though they are useful.  This was a massive wealth grab. 

Tim Wu has written about the  entrepreneurs who built incomprehensible wealth by these same strategies: seize control of the media channels, prevent newcomers by various and nefarious means, and charge arbitrarily high rates for the use of this now valuable commodity:  information.    Radio. Telegraph, Telephone, and Television have been used to manipulate the public, by employing choke points---selective filters---to manipulate elections, gain power, and sell snake oil.  The political landscape has been altered in the interest of gaining more power, prestige, wealth, and control.  It's OK, these persons believe, to lie and deceive.  Today's politicians have gained success by following a model of radical "gas lighting," and in doing so have built empires  of corruption and greed.  

You may know this story. 

 Richard Stallman has been painted under the dark lights of deception as an extremist, even among other adherents to Free Software.  This is how the insidious tactics of industry and politics can influence our opinions to their own benefits.  The Petroleum Industry, in a similar manner, convinces us that global climate change is a hoax, that CO2 is fine.  Our politicians convince us, who are eager to consume their distorted and deceptive messaging, of these things, and many others.  We know they are lying, but the steam engines of their corruption are traveling down the tracks with such unrelenting force and momentum that they seemingly have taken over our own minds and hearts.  

 This is about one little part of the story. 

The MITAIL was at the forefront, in those beginning days of computing.  Richard Stallman was there; he noticed that the software interface of their very expensive printer was inefficient, klunky.  In the hopes of improving this interface, he kindly offered to the company that owned the patents,  to tweak the software and make it work better.  The manufacturer, however, was unwilling to open up the code behind that software, fearing loss of control and profit if it ware revealed.  

This is an important story, but this is not our story today.  Suffice it to say that Richard Stallman decided to do an end-around, in the finest traditions of human cooperation and sharing.  The Unix Operating System, owned by Bell Laboratories (AT&T), was an outstanding work of programming, a thoughtfully produced system of software, an interface of great utility, with numerous subprograms attached to a central kernel, making a whole that by far exceeded the sum of its parts.  But AT& T owned Unix. In the capitalistic world, this was a fantastic money maker.  But the cost of ownership was onerous, making it impossible for the average computer user to purchase.  And as Stallman had already learned, the impediments that proprietary software posed to even the best programmers presented various difficulties---even beyond simple ownership.  The experience with a printer had taught that lesson.  

And what about sharing these wonderful tools?  Stallman recalled an earlier time when the many talented programmers and users at the MITAIL had freely shared programs they had developed.  As a consequence of this open access to the universe of such software programs, even greater programs were spawned from the synergism...  But now many of those programmers had been enticed to leave this world by unimaginably lucrative contracts.  But  these contracts had been concealed within a trojan horse: the non-disclosure agreement.  The code, they promised, they would not share.  And even the end users, who purchased such programs today as Photoshop, Lightroom, games, typing tutors, graphics printing programs....  ad infinitum, are coerced into not sharing the software they purchase.  The industry is serious about this limitation.

So Richard Stallman reached out on the internet to propose a collaboration of programmers to build a new computer system, a free system, that could be "shared without dishonor."  Remember how Unix comprises a set of software units that are hook in to a kernel?  Those units include various commands: copy and move files, for example.  Even typing on a keyboard is handled by tools hooked into the kernel.  The construct, from a plethora of these units, is an Operating System (OS).  Such operating systems as the proprietary MS-DOS, Windows, and MacOS are example of proprietary OSes.  It is forbidden by the proprietors of these OSes to share the programs.  At great expense, these companies have constructed elaborate schemes to make it difficult or (they hope) impossible to share these programs.  

 Do you see where we are going with this?  This massive construct, including now Microsoft, Facebook, Apple, Google, Oracle, Adobe, and others, has used a strategy of concealment, of forcing others to not share, to build huge empires, and horde wealth.  Intimidating the consumer, for example by suing Portland, Oregon's public schools to force purchase of contracts for every copy of windows that had not been updated, as "required" by the manufacturer.  

But GNU is Not Unix.  Richard Stallman recognized Unix as a wonderful model for an OS.  If thousands of programmers all over the world, connected by the Internet,  were to each write one or a small number of   utility programs, mirroring those that perform the functions  of  the Unix programs, while avoiding even any appearance of copying the Unix code, a new operating system could be built up through community action, a citizen-built computing system.  This system was successfully built.  Even a protracted legal challenge by the owners of Unix, SCO, many years later, could not find any copied code in the GNU/Linux operating system.

When I was isolated in Chuuk Lagoon, I had been conducting research that required access to computers.  My family donated a laptop computer, but the Windows OS was clumsy, and, to cut to the chase, could not help me with my project.  An editor that had been sent to me by a linguist at the University of Hawaii was capable, but it was "cripple ware," in a sense, and without the manual---which sold separately for hundreds of dollars--I could not proceed.

 

 The Free Software Foundation (FSF) responded to my request for an editor, sending a version of the Emacs editor ported to Windows, along with 14 disks of Unix tools, also that would run on Windows.  This was just what I needed.  Among these tools were a number of Unix text tools, opening a window into a new world of possibilities.  Very important to me were sort, grep, and ptx.  These, as far as I am concerned, are core Unix (hence Linux) superpowers. 

sort

Windows had a sort utility, but it was extremely limited.  In fact, the more I learned of the tools granted to me by the FSF, the better I understood the fraud that had been perpetrated on the public, corporate world, and governments by Microsoft.  I can liken the difference between the facilities provided by Unix (and later by Linux and FreeBSD) is comparable to the difference between a set of cheap carpenter's tools, and professional quality tools.  GNU sort is the Cadillac of sort programs, the Rolls.  

Later, on Guam, I was able to download a copy of the new Linux OS on Guam.  It was then that I discovered liberation.  From that day, in the early 1990s, until today, in 2025, I never never felt comfortable on a Windows computer.  At that time, one of the biggest differences was that Linux was capable of doing true multitasking, while Windows only could do one operation at a time.  With GNU/Linux I could type a letter while printing a different document, and running another process in the background.  Another difference was the Linux did not crash.  Let me repeat, it never crashed or locked up.  Windows regularly did so.  

grep

 

 I will not explain grep.  Today, in the 2020s, one can run grep on Windows machines.  Suffice to say that grep is a tool that enables searching through a set of files for a search term, and printing to the screen a list of matches. With pipes (signified by the character "|", one can direct the output of grep to another program, like sort.  Then, from sort, one may direct its output to less, a better file browsing tool than Unix's more, a tool that pages through a file.  To do this one would type:

 

    $ grep <filename.txt> | sort | less

 

ptx

 My need was specialized, as I was dealing with lexical text, lists of animal names.  To weed through these, I found ptx was incredible.  Ptx means "permutated index."  What follows is a small segment of output from a search of a text file about flowers and seasons of fishing. 

  /Luma, altitude 100-125 meters,   flower, August 4, 1921, Garber no./
      /\section{Burrows: a different   flower, and palolo.\hfill{}\textsc/
     specifically, he does mention a   flower.
     with certain things. There is a    flower called bust ginger;/    /time
      \textit{Erythrina\/} sp. as an      indicator species.            /about
        /constellation as a seasonal     indicator, he refers to this/
   a resident of Wonipw,/       This    indicator would only be useful to
   the/    /solar alignment as a key   indicator of the   emergence of
      /\hfill{}\textsc{whale:season:    indicator}} \label{sec:org5e260c7}/
     /tree fruits are ripe, it is an        indicator that whales are running/
Samoa/    /was used as a seasonal  indicator on some islands (e.g.,
  /2015, Trees of Yap:  sometimes   indicator of seasons} \label{sec:/
   . \textbf{Sometimes used as an   indicator of season.}       /flowers
   a resident of Wonipw,/       This   indicator would only be useful to
    /variegata\/} flowers in the dry   season, and has been mentioned (/
      and that it flowers during dry   season.       /of year of flowering,
      /these two periods the iéboua   season; the \%\%    season of the/
       /the iéboua season; the \%\%   season of the sun or heat iéboua-/
    /or heat iéboua-délat, and the   season of cold iéboua-tsiam.

tldr

 

Tldr (too long didn't read) is a modern innovation that summarizes the man page for a command.  In Unix, it was specified that who ever wrote a program must provide a "man": page, a manual to its use and options.  Here is output from tldr:

 

$ tldr ptx

  Generate a permuted index of words from text files.
  More information: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/html_node/ptx-invocation.html>.

  Generate a permuted index where the first field of each line is an index reference:

      ptx --references path/to/file

  Generate a permuted index with automatically generated index references:

      ptx --auto-reference path/to/file

  Generate a permuted index with a fixed width:

      ptx --width=width_in_columns path/to/file

  Generate a permuted index with a list of filtered words:

      ptx --only-file=path/to/filter path/to/file

  Generate a permuted index with SYSV-style behaviors:

      ptx --traditional path/to/file 

The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a beacon

I just stumbled upon a statement on the website of the FSF (fsf.org) about the appointment of three new board members of the organisation. I am impressed. The FSF has been on my radar for many years, as I have followed developments in the Free Software world, and used Free Software for my own work. I have been a devotée of free software for over 40 years, as a user. These people at the FSF, as well as the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and GNU: what's not to like? Who is more committed to the concept of free software, free information. freedom from repressive copyrights and patents? Fantastic! The FSF!

VIPSDISP: A quick viewer for jp2 files and for large files in general.

 https://forum.image.sc/t/new-version-of-vipsdisp-a-free-open-source-linux-image-viewer-for-very-large-images/70979

 

Seemed to work fine.  On Manjaro GNU/Linux I had to install a library: openslide.  After doing this, this program started fine.  

 

  

Some grousing: I've been experiencing loss of files and directories

I started working on a directory heavily, to aggregate and organize projects into folders, containing various files, mainly PDFs, images, and random other files, including drafts and "sweeps" related to some of the projects. I have some duplicates, for some of the projects; but with all of the work I've put in over the past few weeks, many files have been lost forever. It is my intention to document here any information relevant to this and other recent glitches or losses of data. I am convinced that MacOS is a scourge. I dropped around 1500.00 on a MacBook Pro, M2, 14", earlier this year. I have long avoided Macs; it was my hoep that I would be able to gain some advantages to my work. But I have lost,in aggregate, probably jmore than I have gained. Problems begin to crop up in regard to copying or syncing directory trees between the mac and the Linux box. - A suite of unresolved problems around the case-insensitive file system of the MacOS. - Dropbox sync issues. This has become a serious problem. I think either I have to completely quit MacOS or figure out a way to convert my data all to a filesystem that is case-sensitive, on the Mac. A plethora of small, hidden files now pollute my directories. Since I have lost files on the Linux Desktop, one obvious way to re-connect with many, or some, of those files has been to tar up an entire directory and copy it via ssh to my desktop. Thi does work, but this is where I introduced a massive number of these invisible files onto the GNU/Linux system. Apple's amazing Finder application is one of the culprits, if not the main one. These tiny files, according to one source in an online forum in which a problem, similar to mine, was discussed stated that these files cause directories to be unseen on other operating systems, possibly Windows. I have no way, yet, of finding out whether this has happened to my system; and, anyway, I have reconstructed some of the folders (directories) on my Linux desktop, which means I have commited mayhem on the filesystem as it existed previous to the apparent deletion of important directories. I have entertained the possibility that my incompetence has conspired with a new console based file manager, yazi, that i have come to depend on as I sorted---and contiue to sort---files into topical higher level folders/directories. Fumble fingers. GUI file managers like nautilus have given me fits in the past. Getting better.

Yazi: a swiss-army utility, for multiple platforms

 I have been using Manjaro for years, now.  Every so often I contemplate installing Arch, which I like, which is not polluted by Manjaro-specific tweaks; but (1) in spite of assurances, it is problematic to install; and (2) none of the other Arch-based distributions have worked well for me.  

Today I want to mention and recommend Yazi, a text/terminal-based "file manager," similar to ranger and a few clones of ranger.  Yazi is, in most respects, the best of the breed.  Yazi, with a few tweaks and some steep uphill learning, made short work of  culling some 150GB of images.  No other tool has been as efficient.   For me.

The home page for Yazi may be found here.

Configuration

Here is where I mention the steep learning curve.  The usage of this tool was not immediately apparent to me.  This is probably on me; eventually, I found the keybindings in the Quick Start page on Yazi's home page.  Not all of the key strokes were either easily understood, or found.  On my MacBook, the color of my terminal interfered with those of Yazi, so I had to read further, and learn to install a theme; the concept and terminology of themes in Yazi were not intuitive.  For me.  Once I figured out how, it was possible to install a theme in the configuration file; various config files are located at ~/.config/yazi.  

 Previewing images

I was able to view images as soon as I had installed yazi on both the macbook and my linux desktop.  But the image was a little small.  I found a couple of things that helped: I learned I could edit the configuration file that determined the maximum image width; after that, the system ran a triffle slower, but I could see the images.  A plugin called "max-preview" enabled expanding the preview even further, in some cases.  I won't explain.  More information is available on the image-preview page of Yazi's home page.

Previewing works nicely on the kitty terminal emulator.  I like kitty, because, out of the box, it is fast, and has a stark black background and intense coloration of text. 

 Bookmarks

Ranger allows definition of keybindings in a more intuitive way (to me) that enabled me to define keystrokes to jump to certain folders/directories that I used frequently.  I just learned to three bookmarking plugins for Yazi that enable something similar, and at least good enough.  bookmarks-persistent, and bookmarks. 

More information on plugins can be found here.

After all that

 A rabbit hole was involved.  But along the way I learned about several other tools that, amazingly, integrate seamlessly (sort of) with Yazi: fzf, zoxide, ripgrep, fd and others.  This is a remarkably polished tool, for a package that has been undergoing rapid and apparently continuous development.  

I recommend installing the development version, which is the default version of yazi in the Arch ecosystem's AUR repository.  This enables some of the more advanced tools.

Fortunately , ranger, a tool I have used for years to browse and sort files and directories, does not work anymore---at least easily---for previewing images and PDFs.  In desperation I reached out to Mr. Google, and discovered a few others.  Nnn is unworkable.  I has never worked out of the box, which was a show stopper for me.  Some others exist.  Yazi appeared out of the mists, and answered my call....  

For now, links on the website of Yazi---a site that is well laid out---point to more information about plugins and other vagaries. 

 

Thoughts about Manjaro, Endeavour, and Gentoo: Recent Dives into the rabbit holes

I have tried Endeavour Linux in the past; something always feels wrong about it.  It has some good points, though.  When I saw it overtook Manjaro, on Distrowatch, my curiosity got the better of me, so I installed it. 

I still like i3 better than other Desktop Managers (KDE is interesting, but slower, for me).  So I reached for the i3 install.

 

Once again, I am disappointed.  Mostly, it's because of the difficulty I had trying to use Endeavour's idiosyncratic customized i3 setup.

 

Pros

• It seemed faster (maybe my older Manjaro is tangled up in knots?)
•  My Manjaro is well worn, feels good, but there are many little issues.  Endeavour felt really speedy.
  
•  Quick to boot.
  
•  

 Cons 

• i3 is intractable to me.  It seemed even more difficult than the last time. 
• Installing the regular config file did not work for me
•  I do not enjoy the wallpaper
• Ranger is not installed
• 
  
• 
  

On the whole, Endeavour was overwritten in one day with Manjaro.  Manjaro is easier to install, and the setup is familiar.   This is regrettable, because I really want an easy-to-install Arch Linux, with Arch repos, without the manjaro overwatch.  

Tried to install Gentoo recently

About 15 years ago, Gentoo was my favorite distro.  I did not like that updating required more than a day, in my aging (but not horribly ancient) hardware.  Maybe it's time to try again?   

Distrowatch's recently featured review of the Gentoo LiveCD received the highest KUDOs of any I have recently read.  So shouldn't I try it?  

The Live CD is nice.  So I tried to install from the Live CD.  There is no Calamares-equivalent installer.  I followed all the steps.  The Boot Manager did not work.  

So I gave up.  I have work to do.  I cannot spend days installing a new OS.  My machine might be up to Gentoo, but I'd have to rein in my penchant to update every few days.   

I never got to find out whether KDE libraries are still a gordian knot on recent Gentoo.  Also, it's a huge learning curve.  Maybe I'll try one of the easy-to-install  Gentoo shortcut distros, but my patience would be certain to be tested.  There are too many steps for everything.  

I might try again.  Maybe on a clean machine.  I want to try Apple Hardware.  

 

Why not Apple M1 or M2?

 The need for speed has me looking at MacBooks and Mac Minis.  

The biggest need for me is an easier to use search function.  The virtual folder feature is so clean and cool, it might be just what I need.  Or maybe I'm fooling myself.

 

Arch and Manjaro

Manjaro is easy to install.  It is my go to system recovery distro.  Let me explain: The System Rescue CDs leave me at the lurch: I still have to dig around, and I don't do well at that.  I'm what might be called a High-Skilled Linux User Without Computer Skills. I can run a system, but the finer points of system tweaking---involving programming---are a massive challenge.  

I have work to do.  GNU/Linux is my biggest ally, but I don't have time or inclination to spend more time, for example to learn to install Arch every few months.  Arch's supporters say that the Arch installation process is a learning tool.  I've learned it too many times already.  Arch is easier than Gentoo.  Gentoo is too much power; more than I can handle, and I cannot keep it on the road.  Arch is the next step toward independence, but every time, I have ended up stepping on my toes, tripping myeself up, and having to re-install.  Because it's easier to install (esp. with Manjaro) than to dive in to the problems.  Even using the greatest help system: Google and the multitudes of users.  I am so dependent on these folk.  How can I repay it forward?  

:-)

Richard Stallman Leaves FSF Again

From DistroWatch.com

John Sulivan, the executive director of the Free software Foundation (FSF), has announced that Richard M. Stallman has resigned his position as president of the FSF. Stallman is best known for his work in creating the free software movement and starting the GNU project, which develops free software that is used by nearly all Linux distributions. Stallman's hard stance on software licensing, along with his controversial views on some social issues and brash communication style, have often made him a divisive figure in the free and open source software communities. This has occasionally led to people petitioning the FSF over the years, asking Stallman to step down.

The most recent controversy around Stallman gained more media attention than usual and resulted in several FSF members threatening to cancel their memberships. Members of the GNOME team announced their intention to cut ties with the FSF and GNU if Stallman did not leave his position. The Free Software Conservancy also placed a similar call for Stallman to step down, stating: "When considered with other reprehensible comments he has published over the years, these incidents form a pattern of behavior that is incompatible with the goals of the free software movement. We call for Stallman to step down from positions of leadership in our movement.". Stallman has also resigned his position at MIT, citing "a series of misunderstandings and mischaracterizations" as the reason for his departure. 

 I have no idea why.  Stallman deserves a good deal more respect than he has gotten.  Over the years, I have been sickened by comments I have seen on various mailing lists and forums.  Many of them comprise little more than offhand name calling.  No question, Richard Stallman's ideas are radical, when taken against the background of a society which is consumer centered and oriented around proprietary commercialism.  

 The best defense of Stallman is to point to the GNU Manifesto.

https://www.gnu.org/gnu/manifesto.en.html 

 

 

 

Interesting Tools

Exa 

Found on https://the.exa.website

I recently stumbled upon exa, a superior (IMHO) ls workalike.  Exa is found on it's own web page.  I installed it from the community repo on my Archlinux machine. It's a pretty amazing take, not only colorized but with some excellent features as well.   I have found it a pleasant alternative.  My bash aliases:

alias lsl='ls -lrt --color=auto'
alias lsla='ls -lrta --color=auto'
alias le='exa'
alias lel='exa --long'
alias lela='exa --long --all'
alias let='exa --tree'
 

On the exa web site is found comprehensive documentation of the numerous options.

UPDATE (July3, 2024): Eza is a community fork of Exa.  I will use that now. 

Kitty :: "the fast, featureful, GPU-based terminal emulator"

Found on https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/

The git repo is at https://github.com/kovidgoyal/kitty

Of late, I have struggled with terminal emulators.  The well known xrvxt was difficult---for me---to set up.  On my archlinux and manjaro boxes, kitty has great colors, and it is simple.  I am intrigued with the "gpu based" part of the description.  I am uncertain how much advantage is derived from being gpu-based, or whether I need to take special steps to compile it with support for my gpu.   For now, it seems quick.  I have little need at this point for extra features.   The developer of kitty, Kovid Goyal,  has produced some other intriguing pieces, including Calibre and an interesting keyboard-based browser, vise.   

I am puzzled that I have not been able to use kitty consistently in my dropdown / scratchpad-based terminal setup---borrowed from Luke Smith.  The reasons for this elude me.   I can only imagine that an entire world exists consisting of the meta data and meta functions of terminals.   I have tried urxvt, su, xfce4-terminal, alacritty (another "gpu-based" terminal),

 

Others: a short list of programs useful to me:

• orage
• powerthesaurus: together with the emacs package by the same name
  
• eepclock
• xnviewmp
• posterazor: blowing up a graphic to print on multiple pages/panes
• dillo: a delightful lightweight browser---I use it for documentation.
• xtide and friends
• gri

My Free Software Story, a chapter

 For me, Free Software is a big deal.  My first whiff of it came from an article in InfoWorld, which I had subscribed to because I was interested in computers, and because it's free.  An article was describing or announcing something to do with the Free Software Foundation (FSF).   I had been standing on the precipice of a project to collect animal names in the language(s) of Chuuk Lagoon, where I was living, teaching, and learning.   My intention was to learn the names of animals so I couild discuss them with local fishermen, in furtherance of my plan to study traditional knowledge of marine life.    

I had received a computer as a gift from my mother, a Toshiba laptop, a really nice one.  But my mother did not understand that to use a computer, one needs software.  I might have had Microsoft word; I don't remember.  I had been living off-the-grid on the island of Tol, using a 10 Watt solar panel to trickle charge a 100 Amp-Hour deep cycle battery that had been given to me by someone in the U. S. Airforce CAT Team (short for Civic Action Team).  I also had a portable HP printer that I rigged up to run off of 12 Volts.  Software was the week link in my plan to "digitize" the names I had been writing down.

During my time in Chuuk, I had become known for my interest in animal names and any thing at all about the behavior, ecology...anything...about marine animals.  And about fishing.  Actually more just about ANYTHING anyone could talk to me about, pertinent to marine life.  Students were my teachers.   

 

I had tried to write the names down using the rudimentary editing software I had---possibly Microsoft Word.  But I could not easily write the diacritic marks used for some vowels in writing Chuukese.  I had approached some linguists at the University of Hawaii.  One of them, Robert Hsu, was kind enough to send a "demonstration copy" of an editor called "Multi-Edit" that was capable of doing what I had in mind.   One of the tricks among software vendors is to disseminate these demo, or evaluation, copies, but charge high prices for a full functioning copy.   I was working at a local Junior High School; my take-home pay was barely enough to cover food for the extended family of my wife.  To obtain the fullly enabled copy of the cripple-ware program Multi-Edit, together with a manual, would cost 300.00.  Not a chance.

I tried all kinds of things to try to learn how to type diacritics in Multi-Edit, but had failed.   When I saw the words "Free Software Foundation" in a small one-column article,   fewer than 15 lines long, my imagination ran wild.

 That was a time before the Internet had grown into what has now become.  Snail mail was the only mail, and on islands like Tol, accessible only by motor boat, and with not mail delivery, the "snails" servicing the mail were extremely slow.  I was spending way too much money on stamps in those days.  I wrote the FSF.  

 

Most of my letters never elicited a reply.  I was, therefore, shocked to receive a small box from the FSF some weeks later!   I had described my lexicon project in my letter to the FSF.  Whoever had read my letter must have understood my plea: I had received over 10 of those plastic 3-1/2" disks full of free software compiled for Microsoft Windows.   Remarkably, included in this package were a number of the Unix text tools, for sorting and manipulating text---beyond my wildest dreams.  And, of course, GNU/Emacs, in the form called "Demacs," a version ported to Microsoft Windows by two Japanese workers.   The unix tools were ported very early during the seminal stages of the Cygwin Project. 

These tools were immediately useful to me.  The biggest deal for me was that Emacs comes with documentation built in, as TexInfo files.   Within a shoret time I was able to figure out how to type in diacritical marks.  At the time, I had plenty of free time, so I was able to read most of the documentation, and set up Emacs to work for me, for useful work.   My innovations, made over the years, are still included in my init file!   

The FSF produced a "GNUS Bulletin", I think quarterly.  I had become a believer in this software, and  I read the GNUS/Bull from cover to cover.   At some point after a couple of years, a small article in the GNUS/Bull announced that two unix clone operating systems had become available:  Linux was one; the other was Free BSD.   When I traveled to Guam, I was able---with help---to download an early version of Slackware Linux.   

GNU/Linux had me, right from the start.  Free Software enabled my project.   Operating System it has been built by community action.  This story has been told many times.  Seldom has it gained traction.  But still, GNU/Linux is a phenomenon.  

As a teacher, at my schools were to be found dedicated administrators: that is, dedicated to buying all the possible proprietary software that government money could buy.   I knew that GNU/Linux was superior.  But it required some learning.   I taught some of my students to install and use GNU/Linux systems, and to build computers from parts.   

Comments on Arch GNU/Linux, Manjaro GNU/Linux, and Archbang! GNU/Linux

I was enticed to install Ez-Linux.   It did not work for me.   So it was with endeavour i3 as well.   After a series of mis-steps I have just spent at least two weeks distro-hopping, recovering from blown installs,  trying a number i3 distros.  I have been intrigued by CentOS; however, the install was a puzzle beyond my skill or desire to learn.  

It's been a while since ez linux install, so I cannot remember what went wrong.  Basically just about everything.  Garuda was not nice; don't remember why.   Endeavour was not good enough, and too far outside my previous experience with i3.   So I turned back to Arch, Manjaro, and, this week, ArchBang!.  

Manjaro has been my goto, no question, for years, whenever I am stuck and need to get back up quickly; and it is robust---enough so that I have (until this week) been running the same install for many months with no problem.  It also works well for whatever I use systemrescuecd for---a workflow that would be lame to a linux guru.  I have yet to recover an install that would not boot: I can just do a quick Manjaro install.   I'm fed up with the fiddly changes I have to make each time.  I do say, though, I am getting better at them.  Refining.  

In fact, my workflow relies upon a number of applications that I compile from upstream source, and I have edited configurations for various packages. 

The most recent revelations were about ArchBang!.  This distro just went over to i3, and it's touted, IIUC, to be a pretty much straight Arch install, using Arch repos.  Manjaro does not play nice when I try to use Arch repos---which requires some configuring: the Manjaro repos are supposedly vetted, and released a bit behind Arch.  IIRC Manjaro's unstable branch is pretty much the same as Arch's stable.  Manjaro has a nice tool for kernels and other system goodies like nvidia drivers: mhwd.  A forgotten acronym.   

The issue with repos bothers me.  I finally installed Arch vanilla on my beastly machine, and many, many packages.  It's working well enough, no recent issues, but I haven't bored in on much work.  We'll see.  

The laptop is another matter.  I've had manjaro working for a long, long time.  It's a c.2010 Lenovo Yoga, 13" (small for my eyes, but workable).   One low hanging issue has been the synaptics trackpad; recently it's become a major show stopper on, at the very least, ArchBang!.   I've been wrestling with Archbang for 2 or 3 days, and it's been a slog. 

I cannot count the issues, but there were some big ones, on which I spent hours of valuable time: especially printing and the synaptics touchpad.  The overall impression of ArchBang! has been unfavorably, but I like the close adherence to real Arch.   But there are too many nits. 

One example is printing.  I have installed drivers and cups for my Epson ET-4750 printer more than a dozen times on Arch-based distros.  It's a piece of cake.  But on ArchBang! I was stymied.  I will never know why, because I will never try to install ArchBang! again.  Sufficeth to say that after installing and enabling cups, a persistent message attended every attempt to install the printer, a Server Error.   I have never encountered this message EVER before.   Multiple google searches later... no idea...   For this reason alone, ArchBang! is unusable to me.

A glaring difference between Manjaro and ArchBang! is handling of the Synaptics touchpad.  I had spent hours tweaking the configuration for Synaptics on ArchBang!, and it was good enough to usually type somewhat smoothly.  I reflected that this has not happened in a long while, though I remembered having to do this in the distant past.   Then an epiphany: I booted into a Manjaro live USB drive, and the typing experience was perfect!  

At this point, I installed Manjaro, mistakenly overwrote the ArchBang! partition, but i don't regret it at all. 

One other way that ArchBang! worked differently was found  when I tried to log in as root: ArchBang did not allow me to log in as root, but did allow using su and sudo in a terminal on an X screen.  Mr. Google told me that this issue had been encountered by others.  It was this issue that required me to boot into Manjaro, to mount and edit the passwd file.   At least i THINK that was how it went.  I forget.

I didn't appreciate the wallpaper on i3, and the odd bindings, especially Mod+t to open a terminal; the upstream bindings, Mod+Return did not work. 

Manjaro just works.

One modest tweak that shows thoughtfulness of the decisions made during assembly of Manjaro's OS is seen in the configuration of grub2, remembering the previous  of multiple boots. 

Manjaro's i3  conky displays not only system information, but also the most important keybindings on the root screen!   I have leveraged this ingenious setup, editing to include MY useful keybindings, the ones I edited into the config file myself..  I liked the popup pdf help page, and even edited a personalized version, but it was too much work to keep up with my frequent added bindings.   I think it would be possible to write a tool to scan the config file and produce a text or pdf file on the fly; or perhaps a script could do this in a few keystrokes; then it would be more useful to me.

I cannot say enough about the perfect configuration of the Synaptic touchpad in Manjaro.   I have not investigated the diffs between the configurations in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/ .  Too bad I won't have a chance to do so, because I will not boot ArchBang! again, ever.

Overall the impression was that ArchBang! is an idiosyncratic distribution, possibly the work of a small group of hobbyists.  Manjaro GNU/Linux i3 community edition has consistently performed.   i3 still runs at a decent rate of speed on a 10 year old laptop, albeit an i7---an earlier mobile i7, though.   

 

One final point: Arch GNU/Linux is not terribly hard to get running.  Manjaro GNU/Linux is much easier.  More to the point, Manjaro incorporates intelligent configuration defaults that allow me to bypass weeks of tentative fiddling on an Arch install.  That said, this epiphany stilll leaves me wanting to learn how to integrate manjaro-like tweaks into my Arch GNU/Linux install on my main machine.