 Welcome to another edition of HeyDT. HeyDT is a series of videos I do where I respond to viewer questions and comments. These viewer questions and comments, they typically come from the comments on the videos that I post on YouTube and on Odyssey. Sometimes these questions and comments, they come through social media such as Reddit, Mastodon, sometimes they come through email. And the very first question I want to respond to is, HeyDT, couldn't you do a sort of challenge where you try to actually live in different distributions for a week or a month, like Matt from The Linux Cast does sometimes? For example, well, a Boon 2 2304, or at least something that is a bit different from a Window Manager and Arch. Now, this is a reoccurring question that I often get from viewers of the channel, and I'll just say this. I don't like distro-hopping these days. I don't like distro-hopping on my main workstation here at the office or my home computer because I have those set up and I've got a lot of different things going on on those computers where it would be a little bit of work for me to hop from what I'm currently using to another distribution and what would be the reason for that. I understand why new to Linux users ask this because they imagine it will be some kind of radical change and workflow and, you know, I might run into some issues because I'm used to a certain distribution and now I'm using a different distribution. But the problem for me is I've used them all, right? I've used them all, but I've lived in a lot of different Linux distributions. He mentions a Boon 2 2304, which recently came out. I did a video on that and I had people, Hey, why don't you live in a Boon 2 for a while? And this is something that actually comes up a lot on the comments on my channel is, Hey, DT, why don't you leave Arch for a little while and go live in a Boon 2? I've used a Boon 2, right? I've actually lived in a Boon 2 for many, many, many years. A Boon 2 was the very first desktop Linux distribution I used and I ran it for, I don't know, eight years. You know, like seriously, at least an eight year period where I lived in a Boon 2 and even when I started hopping to other distributions here in the last seven or eight years, right? I still have machines that run a Boon 2. I still always install a Boon 2 server on like any kind of web servers that I spend up and things like that. I often install a Boon 2 on friends and family members computers. I've mentioned before that in my laptop bag, keep a USB stick with a Boon 2 always on me. And the reason for that is because anytime somebody wants to do anything with Linux, they're interested in Linux. Hey, what's this Linux thing? Can you let me try it out? I put them on a Boon 2. So I know a Boon 2. There's nothing in a Boon 2 that's going to be new, interesting or exciting to me. And honestly, it wouldn't be interesting or really exciting to you guys if I put it on camera because you're not going to see anything different with DT living in a Boon 2 than DT living in Arch Linux. It will be exactly the same thing. And the reason is as new users, you know, it'll be a little different. But once you've used Linux for a long time like I have, and once you've become used to a certain kind of workflow, and for me that would be the terminal command line workflow, you know, I'm always opening a terminal and doing things in a terminal for the most part, or if I'm spending time working on documents, whether it be writing, creative writing, scripting, programming, whatever, you know, I open up Emacs these days and I live in Emacs. And it really doesn't matter what distribution I'm running. They're all going to have the same pass shell with the same command line programs that I use all the time. It doesn't matter if I'm using Gen2, Fedora, OpenSusa, Debian, it doesn't matter. It's the same shell with the same command line utilities. You guys see me use on camera every single video practically, right? Emacs is going to be the same regardless of what Linux distribution I use. And heck, I could even use Emacs on things like the Mac OS or even Windows. It'll be a little different on Windows because there's some things that are not available in the Windows ecosystem that we have on Linux. But for the most part, it would even be the same there. So I'm not the right person for distro hopping on camera and thinking you're going to see something different. For that to make sense, it needs to be somebody that is actually going to use the distribution, the actual GUI desktop environment that ships with that distribution and actually use it with its default settings the way it was intended. I've never done that, right? I'm not going to install Laboom 220304 and use GNOME. Or if I did use GNOME, I wouldn't use GNOME the GNOME way. Typically, I'm going to set up a key binding to quickly access a terminal, a run launcher, and Emacs, which is essentially what I do in my tiling window manager. So it would be the exact same workflow. Well, it just doesn't make sense for somebody like me to do those kinds of videos. It would be a lot of work on my part to distro hop and, you know, move files around and all of this on my computer. And at the end of the day, my workflow and everything on video would look exactly the same. Moving on to the next questions, another one that comes up all the time, especially here recently. Hey, DT, speaking of Weyland, have you considered trying some of the tiling Weyland compositors on camera? River is configured similarly to BSPWM and has a DWM like tiling layout. Hyperland is another very popular one because of its amazing animations. I would love to find out what's your opinion on these projects and whether you like them or not. On Arch, they work pretty much perfectly. So the problem is not the distribution that I run as far as why you haven't seen me try any of these Weyland compositors, these Weyland window managers. The reason I don't try them is because on my home computer, which is the computer I spend most of my time, it's the one I live in, right? The workstation here at the office is a little different. I just show up here to make videos on this computer. This computer has an AMD card. I could install these and probably be okay on this computer, but this is not the computer at my house that I do stuff on, like, you know, recreational stuff and actually do normal computer stuff on. The computer at my house has an NVIDIA card. NVIDIA is a problem on Weyland, right? So that's why I haven't tried any of these out. It's because to actually use them properly, I'd have to live in them long term, configure them to my liking. And I know it's going to be a headache, especially me being an NVIDIA user at home. And I don't want that headache, but also I wouldn't want to show any of these window managers in a negative light. I don't like showing any free and open store software projects in a negative light if I can help it. And because I know of the problems with Weyland and NVIDIA, I wouldn't want to put that on camera. So the only way for me to really show any of these on camera would be to play with them in virtual machines, but that's not a real experience as far as figure it and really learn the window manager in a VM. That would be kind of weird, right? I'd really need to actually live on it on my home computer, which is right now, it's just not possible. And the next question. Hey, DT, I am making the transition to Doomy Max, but I'm having a hard time to configure it to work with Python. Would you mind making a video on how to make E-Max able to work as an IDE? Feel free to choose any language of your liking. Cheers. So, I mean, I'm not a programmer or developer by trade. You guys see me sometimes do some basic shell scripting on camera. You guys have seen me program in languages like Haskell and things like that on camera. But it's mainly a hobby. It's something I occasionally like to do, but it's not something I really enjoy. I can do it for a few hours at a time or a few hours, say, every month. I'll get the urge to program something, to script something, to write something. But it's not something, you know, I'm not the right kind of person to show you E-Max as an IDE for any specific language because that's not me, right? I wouldn't, I'm not a professional, right? You need to go on the Internet. There's plenty of programming forms on the Internet, Stack Overflow. There's nothing but developers and many of them use E-Max. Ask them, hey, how do you set up E-Max as a Python IDE? They'll tell you exactly the programs you want to install. Again, you're just asking the wrong person. I'm not sure. I mean, obviously I make E-Max videos, but E-Max is a very broad topic, right? E-Max basically is its own, practically its own operating system. It can do so many different things. And in this particular instance, what you're asking me, this, you know, professional programming developer kind of workflow that you're wanting to integrate into Doom E-Max, I'm not the right person to ask that question. Plus, I don't do much with Python. Now, I get similar questions also with Doom E-Max here recently. I've had people ask me, instead of Doom E-Max, hey, DT, can you show us how to take a standard vanilla GNU E-Max and make it into something like Doom E-Max? And I have done that in the past. I've actually, when I switched to E-Max, I started with vanilla GNU E-Max, then I moved to Doom E-Max and then I had it in my mind. I was going to go back to vanilla GNU E-Max and then try to turn it into something similar to Doom E-Max installing Evil Mode and all the niceties that I had in Doom E-Max. And it worked just fine. My config file was thousands of lines long, right? It was a lot of work, but I could get there. And I'm not sure in the end it wasn't worth it to me to transform GNU E-Max into Doom E-Max where I could just start with Doom E-Max. But I know why people ask this because a lot of you guys want to learn E-Max. And if you want to learn the process, I don't mind doing some of that on video since people have asked. So I may actually start doing that. We may do a series of videos where I take vanilla GNU E-Max and then slowly transform it into Doom E-Max. So yeah, watch for that in the future. Moving on. Hey, DT, could you take a look at the E-W-W bar and show DT's E-W-W config? I have actually, this E-W-W bar panel widget thingy has been around for a couple of years. I know it's, you see a lot of cool screenshots over on R slash Unix porn, but it is very clunky, kind of hard to use. It's not great documentation. It's not user friendly at all. I've actually looked at it. I haven't done a video on it because again, I don't like showing brand open source software projects in a negative light. And E-W-W, when you look at some of the things people create and their screenshots, it looks really amazing. And if you're all about artwork and aesthetics, E-W-W, I'm sure is something you'd be interested in. It's a very big time sink. Like you really got to put in some time and effort to transform these widgets and thingies to look and feel and do what you want them to do. And for me, it's just not worth it, especially since it's not going to be, it's not going to have the kind of functionality that the proper panel that shipped with your desktop environment or window manager shipped with, right? It's going to be something mainly for a screenshot. It's going to be something mainly for aesthetics. And for me, I'm more about function than aesthetics. Don't get me wrong. I like my desktops to look good. But I always choose function over good looks, right? Now, once I have something that functions right, I try to make it look as good as possible. But E-W-W, again, it's confusing. It's very difficult to work with. Documentation isn't great. And I get this question about E-W-W all the time. And the reason I get it is because I know a lot of you guys go and look at E-W-W and you can't figure it out or it looks like it's a ton of work. Surely somebody has to have some simple way to explain to me how to use it. And I'm telling you right now, I don't. So it's one of those things you're either going to have to put in all that time and effort to play with this kind of complicated thing or do what I choose to do and just use the bar, the panel that ships with your window manager. I think you're going to be much happier with that in the end. And the next question is a rather lengthy question, but I think it's an important one. So bear with me. Hey, DT, I switched to Linux Mint about six months ago from Windows 11, and I really love it. Now I'm interested in trying out other Linux distributions. For instance, I recently set up a multi-boot system with Arco Linux alongside with Linux Mint and Windows 11, but I'm not entirely satisfied with the experience. I'm considering installing the KDE Plasma desktop environment on Arco Linux to learn and customize it. However, I'm worried that it might be too early for me to switch to an arch-based distribution. I've had one incident where Mint broke, and I don't want to encounter similar issues again. Do you think it's advisable for me to switch to an arch-based distro at this stage? I simply want to ensure that my operating system remains stable. So there's a lot to unpack there. I will say you've been using Linux for about six months, and you've been on Mint, and now you're ready to hop to other things and you're interested installing KDE Plasma on an arch-based Linux distribution like Arco Linux. And, yeah, that's cool, but here's the thing. You also say your main concern is to make sure that your operating system remains stable. Well, here's the catch. You can either have a rolling release distribution where you always have the latest and greatest packages because everything's always being updated all the time, and there's advantages to that. Or you can have a stable distribution, right? You can't really have a rolling release Arch Linux, Arco Linux, and stable, right? You choose one or the other, and they have their pros and cons. If you want something where you install it, it doesn't see packages updated all the time. As a matter of fact, most of your packages on a stable distribution, a static release distribution, something like Ubuntu LTS or Debian or Linux Mint, nothing really is being updated. That's why it's stable. That's why they rarely break on Arch Linux every single program installed on that distribution. As soon as it has an update, they're pushing that thing out to you. That's much more likely to break. Now, the upside is you always have the latest and greatest software, which sometimes you need that, especially if you start buying new hardware that needs, for example, the latest drivers, the latest kernel, things like that. So it is kind of a give-and-take, I will say, since you mentioned stability and that Linux Mint broke on you and it kind of frustrated you and you don't want to experience that again, then I'd probably hold off on moving to an Arch-based distribution at this point and maybe try another static release distribution. If all you've ever tried is Linux Mint, maybe try something else, maybe try MX Linux, which is a Debian-based Linux distribution that does some interesting things, uses the XFCE desktop environment, which you use Linux Mint. I don't know if you were using XFCE and Linux Mint or probably Cinnamon, but that might be one to try. If you were using Mate in Linux Mint, maybe try another Mate distribution like Ubuntu Mate. They put out a really nice distribution as well. Or if you want something that's not Debian or Ubuntu-based at all, maybe give something like OpenSusa a try. OpenSusa is interesting because you have two different branches. You have the static release branch that they call Leap and then you have the rolling release branch that they call Tumbleweed. Maybe install OpenSusa Leap and run that for a few months. You run that for a few months and that looks cool and you're ready to go into a rolling release. Give rolling release a try if you will. Just switch OpenSusa from Leap to Tumbleweed and then try the rolling version of OpenSusa and see how that works for you. If that works for you and you like that and you want to try other rolling release distributions at that point, then give Arch Linux a try. Really, there's no right or wrong answer here. It's one of those things. You say you're excited. If you're excited about Linux and you want to try all these Linux distributions out, I'd say, yeah, go for it, hop. What's the worst that can happen? The worst that can happen is something breaks and then you reinstall another Linux distribution and then give it a try. If that sounds like a bad idea to you, you can always just install these things in virtual machines. Try them out in a VM. And if it looks good in a VM, then maybe put it on real hardware. The next question is, hey, DT, have you thought about doing in-person podcast type content with other creators? Now, this is an interesting comment because I'm not exactly sure what he's asking here. When he says, have you thought about doing in-person podcast type content in-person? Is he talking about live, like somebody here in my studio? Because I thought about that. Obviously, it would be... people would have to come here for me to interview them here at the studio. If you're just talking about meeting on a Jitsie call or a Zoom call or whatever it is, some video conferencing software that we agree on and doing some collaborative effort, I've done a few of those in the past with various people. It's not something I do on a really regular basis, but I've done some of that in the past. But I'm assuming what he's asking since he's specified in-person is doing something live, interacting with an actual live human being here at my studio or if they've got a place or we could meet somewhere. Yeah, I'm always up for that. I have no problems. For those of you... I often get where am I located. Most of you guys know that I live in Louisiana. I actually live in Northeast Louisiana. Anybody that is interested in doing something like that, let me know if you're ever driving through this part of the world and maybe we could get together and do some kind of collaborative in-person event if you're a content creator or somebody in the Linux space. And the next question is, hey, DT, have you thought about making your own Linux distribution? I've thought about it, and it's something I don't want to do at all. I do kind of make my own Linux distribution. DTOS, which is my post-installation script for Arch Linux, that is essentially at the end of the day you get DT's Linux distribution, right? And I know people have a problem with the fact that DTOS, I say it's kind of like a Linux distribution. Of course, I name it DTOS, like DT's operating system, because I hear from people, DT, you really shouldn't call it an OS or a distribution because it's insulting to call your post-installation script that just installs your dot files a Linux distribution. Well, we should actually discuss this because do you guys actually know what is a Linux distribution? When you download an ISO and it installs a distribution for you, what is it actually doing? It's installing Linux, right? Some Linux, say it's an Arch-based distribution, it's installing Arch Linux, essentially a base Arch Linux, plus some extra stuff, which is the creator of that ISO's dot file. It's some config files, right? That's all I'm doing with DTOS. So in the end, the product is very, very similar. The only difference is I do it with a post-installation script, an online script that you have to execute rather than ISO. It's essentially a Linux distribution. I don't want to ever label it a proper Linux distribution because I don't want to support it. I don't have time, right? To me, I could actually build a really nice Linux distribution that would become very popular and I'd get thousands of people, maybe millions of people using it if I really promoted it. Of course, I have a very big platform that's something special, but it would become a full-time job. It would take away from this full-time job, right? I couldn't make the kind of videos or the number of videos about the topics I like to make videos about, right? It would really, it would really hamper what I do here, right? So it would be something, if I made my own Linux distribution, it would have to be, I would have to make that my full-time job. It would be my number one priority and do I really want to do that? Do I want to maintain a Linux distribution for a living? Absolutely not, right? It's not something I want to do. That's why I don't work in IT, system administration. That's why I tell you guys I'm not a programmer. You know, I like doing a lot of this stuff for fun. I don't want to do this stuff as a job. And the final question is, hey, DT, I love your videos. I'm not sure if you've already stated your opinions on this already, but I love about FOSS software, free and open source software, in government and high security environments. Should that software developed especially for them be made open source? Now that is a great question. So obviously I'm a big proponent of the free software movement, free software licensing, such as the GPL, and the other free software compliant licenses like MIT and BSD license, the Apache license, I love free and open source software. I love free and open source licensing. And I want that in as much stuff as possible. But, you know, you only need to license something under a free license if you're actually going to share it with people, right? If, in this case, you're talking about government and high security environment. So software, they're developing in-house for whatever clandestine government agency. Nobody's using it but them. They're never sharing it with the world. What does it matter what the licensing of that software is? They're never sharing it with anybody anyway. So, no, it doesn't need to be open sourced in my opinion because only if it's out in the wild and I can go get that software and I can do something with it, then I want it open sourced because if it's not open source, I can't do anything with it. But in this case, I'm not going to ever get my hands on any of this software, this government software anyway don't share it, it doesn't matter. And sometimes this question comes up from some of you guys especially those of you that are programmers or developers, you're just getting into open source software and you're working on something and you haven't released it public yet, right? It's not widely available, you're only sharing it with a few people an internal team of developers and some of you guys ask me about open source licensing and until you actually make it public, it doesn't matter. You don't have to make it open source if you're not sharing it with anybody, there's no reason. You can have a proprietary license on it as long as you're working on it before the public release but once you release it publicly then the licensing matters because then obviously those of us that are free and open source software proponents really want that thing to have a free license so we can do with your software what we want to do with it. Now one thing I do want to go back to the original question because he mentions should this software be open source because it's in government, high security environments and because he's asking specifically about high security environments and open source, it's almost like he's conflating the two almost it's almost like he's asking because their software is not open source, it's proprietary closed source it's just their in-house project maybe their software is less secure than it would be if they open sourced it and that's not necessarily the case generally speaking I often tell you guys though that open source software would typically have less security issues than proprietary software just because of the number of eyeballs on the source code the more people looking at source code the more likely you're going to find holes in it and then patch those holes right so but just because of that doesn't necessarily mean like the software that some of these high security environments and various government agencies it doesn't necessarily mean their proprietary software is riddled with holes or is somehow less secure because they didn't open source it again I'm a big proponent of free and open source software I would love if all software was free and open source software but in some situations it really doesn't matter and in this case because again it's not publicly shared software anyway I really don't care what they license that software as now before I go I need to think a few special people I need to think the producers of this episode and of course I'm talking about the following people Gabe James Maxim, Homie Stubald, Matt Mehmet Mitchell, Paul Royal West, Armored Dragon, Bash Potato Chuck, Commander Henry, George Lee, Marstrum, Methos, Nader, Yon, Paul, Peace Arch and Vador, Polytech Realities for Less, Red Prophet, Rollin' Tools, Devler, Willy and Zenibit, these guys they're my highest tiered patrons over 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 fine ladies and gentlemen all these names you're seeing on the screen right now these are all my supporters over on Patreon I don't have any corporate sponsors if you like my work want to see more videos about Linux and free and open source software subscribe to DistroTube over on Patreon alright guys peace