 Welcome to another edition of Hey DT. Hey DT is a series of videos I do where I respond to viewer questions and comments. These viewer questions and comments, they typically come from comments on the videos themselves, posted on YouTube and on Odyssey. Sometimes these viewer questions and comments, I receive them through Reddit, Mastodon, email. And the very first question that I want to read today is, Hey DT, in your last few videos, any time you mention GIMP, you've referred to it as the GIMP. Is there any reason for that? I've only ever heard anyone else just call it GIMP. So yes, there is a reason that I sometimes refer to GIMP as either GIMP or sometimes the GIMP is because when I first started using GIMP, probably more than 15 years ago, I've been a GIMP user for a long time. I was using the GIMP before I was a full-time Linux user because it was available on Windows as well. And when I started in those early days with GIMP, many people referred to it as the GIMP. That was just how the program was commonly referred to. Those of you that are familiar with the movie Pulp Fiction, you know, there's a character in that movie, the guy that's dressed from head to toe and all black leather. And he was referred to as the GIMP. That's what everybody referred to GIMP the program as, as the GIMP. In recent years, it seems that that has fallen out of favor. And now most people simply call it GIMP without the in front of it. So, you know, I flip flop on it sometimes but, you know, when you hear people like me that refer to GIMP as the GIMP, just know that in the early days, that's kind of how the program was called. Even in print journalism articles about it, people referred to it as the GIMP in tutorials. Even on GIMP's official website, sometimes they would refer to their program as the GIMP. So it's not wrong or right. It's just kind of different back then. Kind of like I still call the GNOME desktop environment. GNOME. Why do I call it that? Because that's how it was pronounced years ago when I first got into Linux. It's the G in GNOME. GNOME is an acronym. The G actually stands for GNU. So they wanted GNOME pronounced GNOME in difference to GNU. So GNOME actually stands for GNU, network, object, model, environment or something along those lines. But nowadays, many people are really annoyed by GNOME because they're like, ah, it's a dictionary word. Why don't we just call it the way it's supposed to be pronounced. Silent G, why don't you just call it GNOME? Well, you can. If you say you're using the GNOME desktop environment, I know what you mean. And if I say I'm using the GNOME desktop environment, you know what I mean. Let's not quibble over the pronunciation of these things. Many of these things have had their pronunciations changed or sometimes the developers themselves don't even know how their program should be pronounced. Many times they just tell you, hey, pronounce it however you want. I don't care. So I call it GIMP. I call it the GIMP. I call it GNOME. It doesn't matter. You guys know what I'm talking about. Don't be so pedantic. And the next question is, hey, DT, you could make an outstanding Udemy Linux scripting course if you wanted to. Easy passive income and you could probably get more fans. So people have asked me about this. Hey, why don't I put some of my videos about the Bashield, Terminal, Vim, Emacs, things like that? Why don't you do a Udemy course or some other one of these paid courses where I sell video tutorials? I don't really want to do that. That's not me. I don't. I want to share this kind of stuff with as many people as possible. The great free and open source programs that I highlight on the channel on video. I want as many eyeballs on that content as possible. I never want to lock any of my content behind a paywall. I don't want to, hey, you've got to pay me to actually view my my course on something. No, no, no. That's not the way I do it. I put all of my videos out there for free. Anybody can watch it. You want to help support me. That is great. If you find my videos helpful, please consider donating with Patreon, PayPal, LBC credits over on Odyssey. But I don't want to lock my content away because some people can't afford to pay for content. And some of the people that really need this content are children, for example. They have no way to pay for a Udemy course. And I would never want to prevent, especially young children, from learning about the great free and open source software that I try to highlight on this channel. Moving on to the next question. Hey, DT, where can I find those Linux themed funny shirts you've been wearing in recent videos? So he's talking about in recent videos you guys have saw my Ubuntu definition t-shirt and my Manjaro definition t-shirt. Guys, in every video of mine in the show description, you'll find a link to my Teespring store where I sell some merchandise that I don't push that stuff. And, you know, I never mentioned that I have a Teespring store, but I've had it since the beginning of the channel, practically. Those of you that know that I have the, by the way, I use Archmug that you often see in the videos, you know, you got, by the way, I use Arch on one side. And then why don't you RTFM on the other side of the mug? I've had this mug forever. And of course, I sell that mug on my Teespring store is actually one of the more popular items on that store, even though, again, I don't push it very often. But if you want that mug or if you want any of the t-shirts like the Ubuntu t-shirt or the Manjaro t-shirt, go check out my Teespring store. The next question. Hey, DT, can you make a video on using a standalone window manager as a day to day system, including Microsoft Teams and stuff? Using those apps without a system tray is kind of unnerving like you essentially don't get any notifications unless you open the app. So what he's asking here actually doesn't really have anything to do with running a standalone window manager versus a desktop environment. It seems like his main point here is if you're running a standalone window manager that either doesn't come with a panel or it does come with a panel, but the panel doesn't have a system tray. Hey, I need a system tray for some of these apps like Microsoft Teams because they put an icon in the system tray. And that's how I'm used to interacting with that program. Well, what you need to do is install a panel that has a system tray. So I don't know what kind of window manager you've been trying. But in Tiling Window Managers, Polybar has a system tray. Polybar works with most Tiling Window Managers out there. If you want a standalone system tray, I did a video about a program called Trayer. It's just a little standalone system tray that you can put anywhere on your screen. So if you have a panel that doesn't have a system tray, you can have your bar at the top and leave a little space at the end of that bar and then insert Trayer. It's like its own little panel, but all it is is a little system tray. Really neat program. That's actually what I use with Xmonead. So in my Xmonead config, you know, I have an Xmobar panel at the top. But at the very end, you guys see a little system tray. That system tray is actually Trayer running. If you're asking about floating standalone window managers like Openbox, for example, just make sure you install a panel that has a system tray. So with Openbox, I use the Tent 2 panel. It has a system tray in it. If you want a more full-fledged panel with a menu system and everything, use the LX panel. That is the panel that came with the old LXDE desktop environment. It's going to have a taskbar and a start menu. And it's, of course, going to have a system tray built into that panel as well. It's perfect for Openbox. The next question is, hey, DT, how did you make the tall letters at the top of your Bash RC file? And what are they called? Thanks. What he's talking about here is in the top of my configs, like my Bash RC and many of my scripts, I have some ASCII art in the header. It's usually just some big ASCII art stylized letters. I think in my Bash RC file, it's just DT in these big ASCII art letters. He's asking, how did I create that? How did I get that? There is a command line program called Figlet. I think I did a video about it many, many years ago in the very early days of the channel, but install a program called Figlet and then in your terminal, type Figlet space and then the word that you want the big bubbly letters for. So Figlet space DT, in my case, is it spits that output in the terminal. I did a copy and paste. I copied that into my Bash RC and to the header. And that's how I got those big bubbly letters in the top of my Bash RC file. And moving on, hey, DT, is you're a really strong and secure password TD. You leaked it in the video you did about Windows 10. So there have been at least two videos where my super secure, strong and complicated password was leaked on camera. The Windows 10 video he talked about. Yeah, you guys saw, I actually typed TD for the password. I think I did a video. It might have been about open SUSE one time where it did not hide the password. I typed in the installer and it leaked that password as well. But don't worry. I know that the Windows 10 video from years back, it leaked the fact that I was using TD as my super secure password. Don't worry. I've changed it since then. I'm using something else now. You'd never guess it. And our next question is, hey, DT, I switched to Tiling Window Manager two days ago, I3, and I really like it. But now many people say that I3 is super bad and everyone should use something like DWM. Is it worth it? Don't worry about what people tell you to use. Don't worry. You know, if you tell people I'm using this Linux distribution, oh, that's horrible. Use this other Linux distribution. It's so much better. Ignore them. If you like what you're on, use it. Same thing with Window Manager's desktop environments. If you switch to I3 and you're enjoying it, keep enjoying it. That doesn't mean maybe later, don't explore something else. But especially suckless fanboys, if they're telling you, I3 is horrible or it's for noobs. You know, if you want to be an elite hacker, you need to be on DWM. Don't listen to all that mess. That's just noise. If you want to try out DWM, it's an OK Window Manager. I like it. I've got my own build of DWM and my own arch repository. And I think it's a great Window Manager. Is it for everyone? No. As a matter of fact, I don't actually use it as my daily driver right now. Of course, I'm using Xmoned, but even though I love Xmoned, I don't think Xmoned is perfect for everybody. Ultimately, you have to decide what is right for you. And along those same lines is, hey, DT, how are you getting along with your Xmoned startup script? What he's talking about here is several months back, I said, I was going to create and deploy that script for my Xmoned desktop. I was going to create this post installation script where if you guys install arch or any arch based system, you know, I'll have this script that you could execute and it would install all the programs I use with all of my configs. They'd go get all my configs off of my GitLab and you would have my Xmoned desktop environment complete with my DOOM Emacs and all the little things that I use on a daily basis. XMobar, you'd have my fish config file, you have the fish shill and all that would be great. I was going to call it DTOS or DTOS. And that has been put on hold because right now I don't have a home computer. I have not had a home computer for three months. Three months ago, you guys know, I moved into this new office and I brought my computer, my workstation here to do all of my work. But now when I go home, I don't have a computer. So I don't want to do some big project and put it online. And of course, I'm immediately going to have issues created, right? People are going to need help. People are going to need support. And I have no way to offer that support other than when I'm in this office. But when I'm in this office, I'm making these videos. So really, these people would never get support because I have a home computer where, you know, in my spare time at home, I could occasionally check in on this stuff. So I put DTOS on hold for now because it just doesn't make sense for me to release something like that now. But as soon as I get a home computer, which hopefully will be soon, I don't know how much longer I'm going to go without having a computer at home. But once I have that straight, the very first thing on my agenda is to get DTOS up and running. And our final question is, hey, DT, how did your beginning in Linux start? How did you discover Linux? Was it the reason you only started using FOS only? Or were you seeking an open source operating system before you got into Linux? Also, what was the hardest thing for you in Linux as a beginner, if you remember? So the wording was a little weird on that. Obviously, English is probably not this person's first language, but I do appreciate the excellent question. How did I start in Linux? So I knew what Linux was almost from the beginning, especially in the mid 90s. I knew what Linux was because I got into building websites as a kid, as a teenager. And of course, even in the early days of the web, the web ran on Linux. So everybody ran Linux web servers. So I knew what Linux was. I played around with Linux on servers as far as Linux on the desktop. What got me started was I was running Windows XP back in the day around 2008. And my Windows XP machine was taken over by ransomware. Somebody was holding my computer hostage. They wanted me to pay money for the antivirus and they would give my computer back to me. And I said, no, no, no, because I knew what Linux was. I'd never run it as a desktop operating system, but I knew people did because I had heard people, especially running a boon to on their desktops. So I went and burned a CD of a boon to and I installed a boon to back in 2008. And I never looked back. I never had another machine that ran anything other than Linux since 2008. Now, part of this question asked, was it the reason that I learned about free and open source software was me switching to Linux? Yes. I used some pieces of free and open source software before I switched to Linux as a Windows user. I told you I was already using things like GIMP. I was also using open office as an office suite because I didn't want to pay for things like Microsoft Office back then. And GIMP, you know, I was using that because I didn't want to pay for Adobe Photoshop. I was being cheap. That's why I was using those programs. I didn't care about the free and open source ideology. I cared about the price tag. But when I moved to Linux and then I saw an operating system that came pre-installed with nothing but this free and open source software, then it really got me curious. Why is so much of this stuff out there? Why are there there's so many of these free and open source programs and why are all these Linux distributions shipping only free and open source programs? They don't ship even trial software because in Windows, you were used to, you know, getting trial software where you'd eventually it'd be free for a month. But after a month, you know, you needed to sign up and start paying a subscription and things like that. That never happened in Linux. And then it started me exploring. What is this about? What is the free software movement? What is the open source movement? I started learning about the history of GNU slash Linux about Richard Solman, Linus Torvalds, Eric S. Raymond. I started learning about the four essential freedoms as far as free software. I started learning about the criteria of the open source definition. And it really made me think it really changed the way I thought about computing about software and about life in general. His question also asked, was I looking for an open source operating system before I discovered Linux? No, I actually wasn't looking for an open source operating system when I moved to Linux. I was just my Windows machine was taken over by ransomware. I needed something else to go on that machine. I just happened to know about Ubuntu at the time I had a CD of it. So again, I didn't it never dawned on me that it was an open source operating system. It was just, hey, this is free and I can install it on this computer and have a computer again. That's how that happened. He also asked, what was the hardest thing for me switching to Linux as a beginner? It was easy for me. I had no issues as soon as I installed Ubuntu. I started working in it day one and I never looked back. I never missed anything. I never missed anything about Windows, the operating system. I never really missed any of my Windows only programs that I was used to using because Linux has so many free and open source alternatives. Many times, these free and open source alternatives are better programs than what I was using back on Windows. So for me, it was a very easy transition. I had really no pain points at all. Now, I think the reason I had a pretty easy transition I already mentioned, I was already using things like open office and GIMP when I moved to Linux. So I was already familiar with those programs, those of you that are still tied to Microsoft Office, the Office Suite, or you're still tied to the Adobe Creative Suite. Then that transition is going to be a little tougher for you guys. But I had already transitioned away from those programs to these free and open source alternatives before I even got to Linux. So that made it a really easy transition. That's one of the things why in some of my videos I do about switching from Windows to Linux, a lot of times I tell you guys, even if you're going to use Windows, start installing some of this free and open source software, things like free and open source browsers like Firefox, free and open source office suites like Libre Office. That way, when you finally do get up the nerve to move to Linux, it's not a shock because you're already using most of the programs that are going to be there on most Linux distributions anyway. That's it for this edition of Haiti, but before I go, I need to thank the producers of this episode. I need to thank Absigate, James, Mitchell, Paul, Scott, Wes, Akami, Alan, Chuck, Kurt, David, Dylan, Gregory, Hiko, Mike, Erion, Alexander, peace, Archon, Fedor, Polytech, Raver, Red Prophet, Steven and Willie. These guys, they're my highest tier patrons over on Patreon without these guys. This episode of Haiti would not have been possible. The show is also brought to you by each and every one of these ladies and gentlemen as well. All these names you're seeing on the screen right now. These are all my supporters over on Patreon because I don't have any corporate sponsors. It's just me and you guys, the community. If you like my work and want to support my work. Please consider subscribing to DistroTube over on Patreon. All right, guys, peace. And check out my Teespring store.