I tried to understand GNOME, and I failed at tiling too
Against any logic, and mostly out of esthetic and usability curiosity, I wanted to try GNOME. Not version 40 yet, but 3·38 in Pop!_OS, with the tiling manager Pop Shell and the upcoming COSMIC thing to…
Theming my Salient OS
In my previous post I was looking for more “purity” in Arch, and somehow my judgment led me to prefer Salient OS. But I won't be using it as themed by its creator: I have “impurified”…
Looking for purity in Arch Linux
In my previous installment, I decided to go for an Arch derivative, and the pseudo-scientific rating gave ArcoLinux as the winner. But is there any “purer” Arch, something with as few as possible additions and customizations,…
The Long Road to Linux-Only (Not Excluding a Bit of WINE)
Remember the undetected headphones issue I had with many Linux distros? I was wrong to be so stubborn as to try to fix it in the current and future distros--and to make it a key point…
COVID-19: Winning the War, but Losing All the Battles
It's been more than two months since I wanted to write a follow-up to my previous comments on this pandemic, and I never got beyond the title. I finally decided to put a few things there,…
Language Learning Apps, Revisited: 34 Products + Bonus Links
More than three years ago, I discussed a few apps meant to help you learn a foreign language; while I still believe the best way to learn a language is to use printed manuals with audio…
How to download full-size scans from Gallica.BnF.fr
Online since 1997, Gallica is the digital library of the National Library of France (Bibliothèque nationale de France) and its partners. Among the 4 million available documents, some are scanned newspapers, magazines, and other publications that…
The Last Sleep of the Civilization Part II
In the first part of this series, it was about COVID-19. But the symptoms of the impending death of our civilizations include another one, which was visible for quite some time—but the political correctness managed to…
The Last Sleep of the Civilization Part I
I'm breaking the radio silence out of rage. So much stupidity while living “in the best of times” is unbearable. Given that I gave up any social media presence, here I am, ranting on my personal…
The Sorry State… and the Quick Fix
I was indeed wasting my time: there is a classic answer to the question “what if I want to run Linux instead of Windows on my laptop or desktop PC?” The whole time wasted with what…
Modern Times, Here I (Slowly) Run Away From You
Four months ago, I said I'll switch from Windows 7 to a pure Linux machine. At some point, I said I'll install Neptune (basically Debian 10 with a few tweaks), but here I am, still hesitating.…
Le Twitter des cons
I've given up Facebook long ago; now I have the proof that Twitter isn't any better anymore. A little social experiment proved to be "the last straw" (so to speak). Even as I have little motivation…
When Italian Design rhymes with kitsch
“Italian Design” is synonymous with good taste when used as a qualifier for clothing or cars. How about Linux distros? I'm afraid the things can be very, very different in such a case. Ever since I…
Don’t trust the magazines on choosing an OCR
This covidiocy is so alienating that I wasn't in the mood of writing anything. Better late than never, a few notes on the free OCR software, simply because a stupid British magazine pissed me off. There…
73 Minutes That Define Linux on the Desktop Today—Rather Depressingly
I must be nuts to dedicate a blog post to a videocast by Bryan Lunduke, but there's a good reason for that. For the first time ever, I'm glad YouTube suggested me this particular video. Glad…
KDE and Debian aren’t exactly my cup of tea; or should they?
I'm disillusioned although not dispassionate about everything that's software; but when one sees the catastrophic crap that is Win10, whatever might be wrong in Linuxland becomes almost acceptable. Why are we still using Windows? Five weeks…
Linux Intermezzo: Buggy Indeed, But Win10 Is Worse
Some time ago I said to myself that I should definitely switch to Linux. Returning from Win7 to Win10 in the times of a pathetic 2004 (but which Windows update isn't buggy like hell?) isn't particularly…
In omaggio a John Peter Sloan (1969-2020)
Sono nato inglese ma morirò italiano, said five years ago the most famous language teacher in Italy. Nobody thought though that this would happen so soon. Here's a text I wrote more than one year ago,…
Mon héros, le Pr Didier Raoult
Entretien exclusif accordé à Apolline de Malherbe, sur BFMTV, diffusé le soir du 30 avril. On y trouve énormément de bon sens, et également du savoir. On en apprend beaucoup. Vers la fin, le professeur nous…
End of World Diary N°4: Le monde est tellement con, yet the future is interesting
I hesitated quite some time before starting this post—more than three weeks, actually. The world seems so stupid—in some regards, even more stupid than it was in the Middle Ages—that it's simply pointless for me to…