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the Debian Desktop Experience, part 1

Posted under Other Technology at .
Tags:software, Debian, Gnome

How long has it been since I ran Debian Desktop, rather than Server? I forget. Debian has been my go-to server environment since . . . well, it’s probably the only server OS I’ve used in serious production contexts, apart from a few stints on shared hosting and I don’t know what they all were. But as time goes by I’ve been thinking of using it as my primary environment for everything that needs internet connectivity, but never quite got round to it. Last night an opportunity arose to try it on an old-ish laptop which threatens to become unusable for its primary purpose because:

the main websites its owner uses have announced they will drop support for the installed Firefox at year end, or have already done so Ubuntu 16.04 LTS won’t upgrade the installed Firefox Ubuntu have dropped i386 support in later versions

So it looks like it’s goodbye to Ubuntu. Debian then, maybe?

As I write, after a long overnight and a lengthy sleep, my memory is just starting to get hazy on some of the details but I can note some points.

There may be updates to come in which we try KDE or something.


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Notes

  1. Yes, automatic logins. Not everyone is good at handling complicated login processes. Software developers generally seem to be responding with arguments about good security, which collectively amount to the conclusion that some people shouldn’t be allowed to use the internet, at much the same time as social and commercial services, with government approval, are insisting that everything must be done by internet, even phones. Slight mismatch there?  
  2. I know, they didn’t invent the desktopless environment. It was a feature of at least some versions of CDE if I remember. Is Gnome secretly run by an ancient order of CDE purists who’ve been trying to make the world good and pure and their way since the 1980s? Probably not, but maybe they inhabit the comments sections.  

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