Andy McDandy Vent Page

In my last post I gave my opinion of what was supposed to be a debate between two gentleman, Reds Rhetoric and a flat earth believer who goes my the name Southern Israelite.  I ended that review stating that maybe I will post a list of everyone that would have to be in on such a hoax so the following is a complete list of government space programs.  A few have been discontinued and a couple of been renamed or merged in to another.

I wanted to include the total number of employees for each organisation but unfortunately that information isn’t easily available online.

As you can see, we have 82 space agencies ALL run by governments around the word.  Again, some have ended or renamed or merged in to another but there is no way that a round earth hoax could remain as such for so long when you have that many governments and the thousands and thousands of employees.  Someone would have leaked something over the past five decades when mankind first made space flight possible.

If you are a flat earth believer and STILL believe that a round earth is a hoax, then you need to see a psychiatrist and have your head examined.  I’m sure medical science pertaining to the brain would love to do a case study on you.

So as most already kn ow by now, Apple, Facebook and Youtube have given Alex Jones the boot, something that should have happened a long time ago.

Many of his followers are probably saying that it is against free speech because they have no clue about their own constitution.  The US Constitution is about what the US government can and can not do to its citizens.  It has nothing to do with private businesses.

His followers are probably also saying that he was band for spreading the truth which is a 100% lie.

First, Alex never mentions the truth in any of his stories, it is all fabricated bullshit because he knows there are many Americans who are so stupid that they will believe anything he spews at them.

Second, Alex was removed from these platforms, not because he was spreading fake news but because he was encouraging his stupid zombie followers to do harm on to others.  Take the whole pizza gate situation.  He made up claims that there was a child sex ring happening at a pizza parlour and told his viewers to do something about it…well one of his followers did and now we have people dead.  The fact that Alex was not also arrested for that crime is mind boggling.

I am absolutely ecstatic that he is off those platforms.  I know he can never be removed completely from the internet but as least there is now less chance of stupid people seeing his bullshit lies and believing them.  In turn this might help decrease the number of killings in the United States that have been caused by Alex promoting violence towards others.

Disclaimer:
I have been using Linux for almost 10 years but I am in no way an expert with the Linux operating system. On a scale from beginner to expert, I consider myself closer to the beginner side of the scale.

Elementary Linux is a fairly decent IF you are a former Mac user, otherwise you may find yourself reformatting your hard drive and installing something else.

I have used a Mac on and off when a customer shows up with one for me to repair but I have never been a fan of the desktop theme. To me, the single left click to launch stuff and Apples over use of the colour grey plus the top task bar becoming a menu bar for each program is irritating.

Elementary does not come with LibreOffice or any office suite which I found strange since every other distribution I have tried have always came with an office suite.

For the Mac lovers, you get your single left click, a mostly grey theme and of course, the beloved dock bottom centre of the desktop.

People like myself who prefer double left click, I could not find any option in the settings area to change that.

There was also no theme changer in the settings.

Like every other distribution, my Brother HL-2140 laser printer requires installing a driver downloaded directly from the Brother website. The default driver that is always selected by Linux distributions does nothing but cause the printer to spit out blank pages endlessly. It would be great to see the actual Brother driver get added and remove the current drivers that come up for this printer. I should also note that unlike other distributions, Elementary doesn’t allow you to change a printer driver or if it does, the option is hidden from the average user.

The supplied mail program is decent, being along the same lines as Thunderbird and Outlook Express just without the same polished look.

Elementary doesn’t appear to come with any kind of desktop widgets.

It does come with a really nice notepad type program called Scribble and at first I got a little frustrated trying to find the button to save an already named file but eventually I found out that this nice little word processor automatically saves as you type. An awesome feature in my books and would love to see more word processors incorporate this feature.

Well there you go, a review from someone who is not a Linux export but rather a more average desktop user. Once again, if you are coming from Mac, you will like Elementary but if you are coming from Windows, stay away.

I had no plan to make a part two of my personal opinion on what is holding Linux back from becoming mainstream but I realized I forgot a couple other things so here they are.

TV Tune/Capture Cards:

When I was first introduced to Linux, I was using the ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon video card which was also a TV Tuner card.  Unfortunately for me, there was (and last time I checked) still no support for internal video/TV Tuner capture cards.  Years later I upgraded to an Nvidia card and a Diamond ATI Theater HD 750 capture PCI-E card.  Of course, it worked great in Windows XP but not in Linux.  I even tried that card again in summer of 2017 and still no Linux support which is extremely frustrating.  What is worst is that this card was sold in both North America and Europe based on the fact that the card uses the European style coaxial connector with a converter to allow the connection of North American coaxial connector.  I would have expected a device sold in Europe to have Linux support given how Linux Desktop appears to be more popular outside of North America.

I feel the Linux community could greatly benefit from a web store devoted to only Linux supported hardware or a team that can get internal tuner cards to finally work.  I am aware of the linuxtv.org site for Linux tuner devices but the categories can be confusing to someone like myself who doesn’t have in-depth knowledge of the hardware/chip set of the device.

Accounting Software:

In the Linux Desktop world, there are two main accounting programs, GNU Cash and Xtuple.  GNU Cash is devoted to lawyers and Xtuple is devoted to manufacturers.  What about everyone else?  Is there anything for them?  NOPE!  Sure, you could use Quickbooks Online but with so many companies being hacked these days, can a business really trust that Intuit will keep your business and clients data secured, especially given how much Intuit loves Windows?  I for one would not be surprised if Intuit online services are being run on and your data saved to a Windows based server.  We all know how useless Windows is at protecting your data so anyone who cares about their data won’t use Quickbooks Online.

It is times like this I wish I knew programming beyond basic HTML and PHP because creating a Quickbooks alternative for Linux would be a big game changer for the Linux Desktop.  Xtuple could release a version of their software for non-manufacturers but every time I bring it up to them, they say no.  It is like they do not want the extra money they would make from so many businesses that do not really want to use Windows, and believe me, there are a lot based on my 10+ year of repairing Windows computers for home based business owners.

A recent video by Matt Hartley from Freedom Penguin posed the question about possible problems with Linux keeping it from mainstream popularity.

I have been using Linux for almost 10 years yet on a knowledge scale, I still consider myself closer to the beginner end of the scale rather than the expert end. Since I am not an expert, able to solve any problem that occurs in Linux without help from Google search, I feel that puts me in a better position to review Linux distributions because my review will be more closely to what a new user will think when using the distribution for the first time.

The one benefit I feel is great regarding most Linux distributions is the live session, allowing possible converts to try before install, however, I do wish there was an option to bypass the live session and jump right in to the installation for those who do not require nor wish to try the live session.

Now on to the problems I have found across all distributions I have tested myself over the years. Note that 99% of the various distributions I have tried have been Debian based with one time being Fedora and one time Mandriva.

Desktop Theme:

When you look at every Windows release since at least Windows XP, the default theme has always been quite polished and even having vibrant colours. In Linux though, the default themes are, well, boring and doesn’t feel polished at all.

Now some, like myself, would say that Microsoft programmers spend too much time making their desktop theme rather than focusing on making a great operating system that won’t take 3+ hours just to install a small handful of system updates. A more polished default theme would help make a better impression to a newcomer.

I know there are a few websites that offer desktop themes for Linux but with so many versions like GTK2, GTK3, Metacity, GDM, and so on. For someone, even myself, find this all so confusing. One thing that would make this so much better if having just one main site for all desktop themes which all Linux distributions can connect to, only accessing the section devoted to the desktop environment being used.

Printers:

Matt and his guests mentioned they have no problems with hooking up printers and using them right away but in my case, I have to visit the Brother website and download the appropriate driver for my HL-2140 laser printer. The default driver that gets installed does nothing but instruct the printer to spit out blank pages continuously non-stop until I turn off the printer.

My Samsung CLX-2160 colour laser w/scanner is usable right away but not the Brother.

Default Software:

This is another thing I believe to be wrong with the Linux desktop. I understand to want by the distribution creators to include a set of default software, after all Microsoft and Apple both do it for their desktop operating systems but if you are trying to attract those users over to Linux, you need to make sure the software is as close to what THEY are used to using.

I have always felt Linux installers needs to include the question of which operating system they are coming from/used to using then install the proper software and desktop theme that closely matches. Take ElementaryOS default theme for example. That theme is perfect for those coming from the MacOS environment while Linux Mint Cinnamon is more for Windows users.

LibreOffice closely resembles MS Office, albeit and older version but never the less, it is the closest office suite that I know of.

When it comes to browser, e-mail and video/music players, a selection screen during install would be nice listing the top software that closely resemble what is found on the OS they claim they are used to using. Offering this option allows the end user to end up with an OS much better suited to what they’re coming from. Linux distribution creators need to keep in mind that most home desktop users don’t like change and learning new things which is why they MUST make their OS as close to Windows or Mac if they plan to target those users. Until that happens, Linux will not gain mainstream popularity.

Gaming:

I know, I know, lack of AAA games on Linux is not the fault of Linux itself but rather the narrow mindedness of game developer CEO’s like Mike Morhaime & Bobby Kotick from Activision Blizzard, Tim Sweeney from Epic Games and Andrew Wilson from Electronic Arts just to name a few. None of them want to accept the fact that their games need to come in order for market share to get where they would like to see it.

Although not the fault of Linux, desktop users who also use their PC for gaming will place the blame on Linux itself for this. It would be great to see pod casters like Bryan Lunduke and others get these CEO’s on their show to discuss supporting Linux. As I stated at the beginning of this blog, I am no expert therefore it is hard for me and other non-experts of the Linux operating system to counteract their reasons for not supporting Linux.

Too Many Choices:

Yes, having choices can be a good thing but too many choices will turn the good in to bad and that is where I believe the Linux ecosystem resides. The only way to turn that bad back in to good is if the community comes together and focus on just two main distributions, one made for Windows users switching to Linux and one for Mac users switching to Linux.

For over 2 years I have been trying to get one of the best Canadian made television series and it’s 5 follow up movies released on DVD/Bluray with little success.  Not even Canada’s own Entertainment One (the current rights holder) would release the beloved series in celebration of Canada’s 150th birthday.  I guess that proves Entertainment One Canada is not proud to be in Canada.

I have even tried to reach out to other big companies like Canadian Tire, Coca-Cola Canada, Amazon Canada and even Walmart Canada with zero response.

It is a shame that such a beloved Canadian made drama series is being kept locked up in some warehouse as if to say that it is not worthy of releasing all because it is about indigenous people and not white people.  I am sure that the reason is not racist but it certainly appears that way when you see the garbage from decades past that is being released.

This series is beloved not just by Canadians but also those outside of Canada.  Americans who received CBC through aerial and overseas residents who saw the show while visiting Canada have all loved and wanted more of the show.  Residents as far as Germany forwarded their support for DVD release over 2 years ago when I first visited Entertainment One Canada in Toronto.

Is there anyone out there who will help bring North of 60 out of the warehouse and into everyone homes?

As a DOOM and Wolfenstein fan, I would love to see Bethesda show love to ALL PC gamers, whether they use Windows, OSX or Linux. With the great performance that can be obtained in non-Windows operating systems, it is disappointing that more AAA developers do not support other operating systems.

Microsoft has been screwing with it’s Windows users privacy for years and with the want to ditch Windows being the highest ever since the launch of Windows 10, the demand for non-Windows support is higher than ever.

As someone who loves trains, I have always wondered how great it would be to have a MMO style train simulator instead of the usual offline versions train lovers are normally stuck with.

How could such a simulator work on such a mass scale, easy actually. The simulator could be setup so when people log in, they can choose to either accept a work order to move goods from point A to B, sort cars at a sorting station or maybe even work at the monitoring station, making sure lines are clear, switches are correct, and so on.

For non-Windows users, there is nothing more annoying than computer products being advertised as available for PC when it is only for PCs running Windows.

In the computer world, PC stands for “Personal Computer” NOT “Windows”. A computer can run many different operating systems, from Windows to OSX to Linux. There are many more types of operating systems for PC but the three I have mentioned are the most common today being used by desktop users with Linux continuing to climb since the launch of Windows 10 and it’s always listening Cortana and keypress tracking.

It would be great if software developers and game news reporters stop using PC and instead start mentioning the actual operating system(s).

My second wish for 2018 is for the developers behind Pinball Arcade to FINALLY support the Linux PC.

Around 5 or 6 years ago, Pinball Arcade released a newsletter that clearly stated Linux support would be coming that year but it turned out that was an absolute lie.

At this time, Linux PC gamers do not have any pinball games on the same level as Pinball Arcade.  One comes close but doesn’t have the same great titles so lets hope that 2018 will FINALLY be the year that Pinball Arcade appears on STEAM for Linux PC gamers.