 Welcome to another edition of Haiti. Haiti 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 posted on the YouTube videos. Also the Odyssey videos as well I post on both YouTube and Odyssey. Sometimes these questions and comments they come through social media such as Mastodon, Reddit, sometimes through email. And the very first comment that I want to respond to is Haiti. Welcome back. I hope you enjoyed your well deserved free time. So for those that don't know I took about three or four weeks off from the channel at the start of the new year. So I started off 2024 by taking a little bit of a vacation, a break from the channel, not necessarily strictly for vacation purposes but also I just had some other things in life that I wanted to take care of. I needed to dedicate some time to. So it made sense to step away from the YouTube channel just for a few weeks and just to get things in order. And it was a really nice break. I've got to say I enjoyed my time away and you know, being back I've been making videos now for a couple of weeks coming back and yeah, I feel recharged. I feel refreshed and yeah, I think it was great. I think it's something that I need to do more of is every now and then you know recharge the batteries. And for those of you that are content creators, video content creators, audio content creators, if you're a podcast or whatever it happens to be, you know, if you're really pushing it hard, right? If you're really pushing yourself to the limit and you feel like, you know, I can't take a break because if I go away, you know, all my viewers will leave, all my subscribers will leave, you know, basically your entire YouTube channel will collapse if you take even just a few days off. That's not the case, right? That's all in your head. And honestly, every now and then it is good just to step away, you know, just to get a better perspective on on life in general. Moving on to the next question. Hey, DT, I was wondering why there is no arch stable branch. Maybe there's somebody like me who likes to try Pac-Man and Arch Linux, but needs a stable environment. Okay, so there is some confusion here. So Arch Linux, they actually do have a stable branch and an unstable branch. They just don't label them that way. The standard Arch repos, which everybody is using the standard Arch repos unless for some reason you change the repos. So your standard Arch repos are the core repo, the extra repo, the multi lib repo. Those are kind of your stable branch, right? That's the normal Arch repo. So you can call them the stable branch. Now, whether it's actually stable, I mean, you know, that's subjective, but there is a separate group of Arch repos called the testing repos. So you've got core testing and extra testing and multi lib testing. And those are really for testing purposes. Those are really kind of like the unstable branch of Arch. And they're really for developers, for testers, right? They're not for just your average Arch Linux user. So if you're asking about, Hey, does Arch have a stable repo? Well, yeah, the ones that you're on, right? If you're using the standard core repo, extra repo, yeah, those are the stable repos. Now, it's not stable in the way something like Debian stable or Ubuntu LTS. It's not that kind of stable, but compared to the testing repos, yes. So there are stable and unstable branches to Arch. It's just not stable and unstable the way you would think with maybe a distribution like Debian, for example. And the next question has to do with my shell prompt. He asks, Hey, DT, smiley face, why do you use the little at character? That's not really the at symbol, like in your standard English alphabet. This at character is a special Gregorian alphabet character. He's wondering why I'm using that as part of my shell prompt. Well, I use the Starship prompt in the bashell, fish shell, Z shell. So all of those particular shells, I have the Starship prompt enabled and I'm using one of the default themes for Starship and they default to using that character. I didn't choose that character myself. So it's not a conscious choice I made necessarily. So that's the answer. The next question is, Hey, DT, what are your thoughts on notes and file organizations? I'm trying the para method that's P a r a. I think that stands for projects, areas, resources and archives. It's a it's a note taking method, basically. And he goes on to say, I don't really know what I want or need other than less of a mess. Nice to see you again. It's good to be back. I appreciate that. Now, as far as note taking methods or, you know, organizational methods, I'm not much of a note taker. I do take notes on my system. You know, like I, I've got a lot of org files, but I don't really organize them in a specific way. It's just whenever I feel like I need to jot something down, I write it down in a org document. I don't really organize it, but I don't really I'm not one of those people. I don't depend on notes for anything. You know, I know a lot of you guys feel like you have to have this organizational note taking system just for work purposes. I've never been one of those people. I don't I could live happily ever after without having any kind of note taking system. So because of that, I'm really way the wrong person to talk to you about this stuff. Because honestly, not being that kind of person, I've never used any of these various note taking and organizational methods that are out there. And there's dozens of these things out there. So for me, you know, I'm just one of these people when I feel like I need to jot something down, I open Emacs, my text editor, I write it down. And then, you know, I've got a folder on my system called org. And I have sub directories in the org folder for you know, I've got a Linux folder where if I'm jotting notes down about Linux, for example, maybe installation process for a particular distro, you know, I'll have a name of distro.org, you know, a file just for that distro tells me how to install, you know, Arch Linux or how to install Gen2 or how to install Nick, you know, I'll have a little file for that because, you know, if I ever go back to this particular distro, you know, I'll remember, hey, I took notes on this before, but it's not. Again, I'm not that into note taking. And the next question comes from the very first video that I made when I came back from vacation where I reinstalled Arco Linux on my machine and, you know, it's a lengthy process. It took me a few days to get everything back up and running just right. And this person writes in Hey, DT, I'm not sure why people think that reinstalling sucks. I've got a separate drive for my home folder. It made reinstalling easy. You should do a video about using a separate drive separate partition for your home folder. Alright, so that's a great comment. Certainly putting your home directory on its own separate drive, its own separate partition does make reinstalling a lot easier. And I sometimes do that. And I actually have that going on on this machine. Like, for example, I mentioned I have a music directory that's got more than 100 gigs of music on it. That's on its own separate drive. It's on separate partition. That way, I don't have to worry about moving that large amount of music every time I reinstall I sometimes do that with my video directory, too, because I've got plenty of drives. I've got extra drives in this machine. I've got a six bait IC doc. So I've got six extra SSDs attached to this machine other than the main drive, which is a NVMe drive. So yeah, I do that already. And I have made videos about that. I actually made a video I think it's titled basically move your home folder to a separate drive to its own separate drive or something like that. I'll link to that video in the description. But yeah, it does make your life a lot easier. Now, the problem is that doesn't necessarily solve my problem with why it took me so long to get back up and running us because, you know, I've got a lot of different pieces of data on a lot of other, you know, they're not all in my home directory on this computer, for example, also, it doesn't really solve the problem of I've got to reinstall all the software that I want to use. And you know, I didn't want to just copy over my package list from my old installation and install exactly the same programs, all those programs because that installation was broken. So I did want to start from scratch and slowly build up. So that's why it's taking a little longer than maybe it would for you. But for me, I'm doing that for a reason. Because again, my installation, my previous installation was was not working well. So but yeah, the home folder situation that you're talking about putting that that home folder on its own separate drive on its own separate partition, I agree. That's the way to go. And the next question, hey, DT, As-salamu alaykum wa alaykum as-salam, what laptop manufacturer is best for Linux? So this question comes up constantly. For one thing, I do want to warn you guys, I'm not much of a laptop kind of guy, I have laptops, I have laptops in case I go out of town, if I take a trip somewhere, obviously, I can't take my main production work station. But I'm not like many of you guys, I know a large percentage of the people that watch my content, a lot of computer users out there in general, all they use are laptops, like they live on laptops, I don't. That said, I have used a number of different brands of laptops over the years with Linux, I've installed Linux on many brands of laptops for personal machines of mine, as well as for friends and family. And as far as laptop manufacturers for Linux, honestly, Linux pretty much works on anything you want to put on it. But I was just specifically talk about the ones, the brands that I have used. As far as manufacturers, I think Lenovo is probably at the top of the list, right? Any Lenovo ThinkPad is fantastic with Linux. I've also had really good luck with Toshiba laptops, I've also had a really good experiences with Dell laptops. So Linux generally just works on all those machines from those manufacturers. I know a lot of you guys out there run Linux on your MacBooks. Now, me personally, I would never buy Apple hardware and then wipe out the macOS to install Linux on it. So that's a little weird for me. But I do know that there are a lot of Linux MacBook users out there, but I don't have personal experience with that. So I would, I can't recommend you go that route. But I will say just generally speaking, almost every laptop manufacturer out there, almost every machine, you should be able to install Linux on and it should, it should just work. The next question is, hey, DT, what happened to your tan? Well, so this comment was from the video I did the other day. I did one of these vlog style videos where I recorded the video on my phone and I was using the overhead lights in this office, which are overhead fluorescent lamps and these big fluorescent bulbs, right? They're very white in color. You know, they're a real white lighting and it kind of washed me out, right? It was very bright and it kind of washed me out and made me look very white and very almost ghostly in appearance. But that said, it is wintertime here in Louisiana. I don't have to get outside as much in the wintertime and I'm very white in the winter, you know, because I just don't get enough sun. You know, in the summertime, I'm outdoors a lot. So I'll be a little darker in the videos that I make in the summertime compared to the winter. So you're right. I am a little too white right now. I've got, you know, friends and family. You know, I have like black friends and black family members that will sometimes point out that I'm looking a little bit too white that I need to get outdoors, catch a little sun, get a little vitamin D. Moving on. Hey, D.T., do you eat a salad if you suspect someone barfed into the refrigerator where its ingredients are kept? That's kind of a ridiculous question. For one thing, who is barfing in a refrigerator? And if they are, I mean, if it's your refrigerator, wouldn't you know who went to the refrigerator and puked if somebody did that or not? I could understand if it's a strange refrigerator, like it's the refrigerator at a friend's house or maybe refrigerator at your workplace. But this is a strange question. So here's the deal. You know, there's a committee of people that put together these Haiti D.T. questions for me and whoever let this question go through, I need to fire that committee member. And the final question for this episode is, hey, D.T., I really admire your work and support for free software. Just one question, when it comes to free speech, where is the line between it and its abuse to cause harm to others? By the way, I support free speech whether I agree with what is being said or not. So this is a bit of a tricky question to answer because it can get kind of deep, especially deep down this political rabbit hole. And I typically don't like talking politics. For one thing, I'm just not a very political person. I don't like talking politics online or in real life. Like in real life, I never get into political discussions with anybody in real life. That's just, it's not something I enjoy. It's just not something I'm really interested in, but I will say just from personal opinions, whether they happen to be political in nature or not, I do support all things freedom. That's why I support free software because I think it is important for people to have freedom when it comes to their digital lives. I support all things freedom though. So free speech, freedom of religion. You should have the right to privacy. You should have the freedom to defend yourself. That's why I'm a big proponent of gun rights. The Second Amendment, that's why I'm a big proponent of the First Amendment here as far as the U.S. Constitution. So that's your freedom of assembly and freedom of expression, freedom of speech. I think those are basic and alienable human rights that every human on the planet deserves. It's not a, it's not an American thing. That's another thing that I hate about the people that have political mindsets is, you know, I'm speaking as far as all of humanity, all of us, you know, whether you're American or not American, it doesn't matter. Nationality doesn't matter. Male, female, whatever gender identity, whether you're a straight, gay, whether you're white, black, Asian, it doesn't matter. You know, we are all brothers and sisters in humanity. And I think as a human being, all of us have these basic and alienable human rights. All of us have these basic freedoms that we deserve to have, but in many cases we don't. So again, I don't typically like talking politics. I never give you guys like political opinions on anything other than these freedom kind of things, because obviously being a proponent of free software, you know, a lot of these other freedoms that I'm a proponent of, I think are related to the free software movement. I think tangentially, you know, some of these things are related, even though I know people will disagree that, you know, free software is not necessarily tied to, for example, free speech or, you know, freedom of religion or whatever it had been, freedom of the press, right? I think they're all related, but I can understand that some people will have a different opinion, you know, but that's fine. If they can make that separation in their mind, fine, I can't. You know, that's just, that's just a decision I've come to. And ultimately, you kind of have to think on things. You have to come to your own conclusions. The thing I would tell people is make your own decisions. Don't come to a decision based on what your political party is. A lot of people join a political party and they join this team, and this team tells you what to think. And that's ridiculous. And you know, this is, this is why I am not a member of a political party. This is why I haven't had a TV in years. The reason I don't have a TV in years is because I can't stand, for example, a political commentary, political news, you know, a lot of, a lot of the crap that's on TV is very political in nature. I don't have a TV. That's why I'm so, like, if somebody wanted to have a political discussion with me about a certain topic, I couldn't because I'm not informed on anything it's because I don't want to even be a part of that world. I don't want to be a part of the political world. So I don't have a TV. I haven't been on social media in years. I've got, like, YouTube. You know, I can sometimes be on Reddit, but the reddits, the subreddits that I hang out on are not political in nature. But I'm not on Twitter, for example. I don't know. I got off Twitter many, many years ago. I want no part of that because all Twitter is is people arguing about politics. And it's just, it's very mean-spirited. It's very hateful. It's nothing, but a lot of angry people yelling at each other. And if you enjoy that, hey, you know, I'm not going to make any kind of judgment of, you know, moral turpitude. If you're one of those people that enjoy that, I do not. In my life, I don't argue with people. I never get in an argument with people. That's one of my rules. Like, if somebody wants to argue with me, I'm just not going to do it. And when I came to this realization several years back that I just wasn't going to get into arguments anymore, at least not out of anger. Like, if you want to have a discussion with somebody, that's fine. But most of the time when you're arguing with somebody or debating somebody, it's out of anger, right? Both of you are angry at each other. And what's the point of having that kind of discussion? And I really think politics is like the biggest negative force that is destroying humanity. I think politics has ruined basic human etiquette, basic human discourse, us being able to just talk to each other. That's why I will never be a member of a political party. I'm never going to sign up to a team and have to go out and destroy other people, you know, because that's what you're doing on social media when you're arguing with these people. You're trying to to destroy them digitally, destroy that other person by just shouting over them, by shouting the loudest. I can't do that, right? And then they're arguing about things that they shouldn't be arguing about. They're debating topics that seem like very obvious things. Like I already talked about how I support all things freedom. I think logically, reasonably, rationally supporting basic human freedoms. We can create a list of basic human freedoms that everyone on the planet should have. And these people on both sides of whatever political spectrum you're on, you support some limitations on human freedom no matter which party you belong to and you'll sit there and you'll argue about it. You'll sit there and argue about limiting these people's basic and alienable human rights. They're human freedoms. And the only reason you even take these positions a lot of times is because you want to win an argument on the internet, on Twitter or Facebook or wherever you're arguing. You know, it's all about you winning an argument. You don't really care about what you're arguing about. You're not necessarily championing this cause that you think you are, right? For you, it's all about just winning an argument. That makes you feel good. If you think you can win an argument, you know, that's what that's all politics is. Let's all get together and be negative. Let's all get together and be angry. You will never see anybody having political debates, political discussions without both sides being angry. And just the kind of people you probably know, these really political people in life, like they love discussing politics. They're all wrapped up in the latest news, right? And these very political people, are they typically happy people or are they typically negative people, right? In real life, they're negative people. They're angry people because they see the worst in humanity. And because politics is nothing but negativity, nothing but anger, it will destroy you. And again, I think it's the biggest threat to the human race in general because anger is the greatest threat to humanity. Because ultimately, there is a chain. It begins with anger, right? Anger then leads to hate. You begin hating the other person and then hate finally leads to violence. So that's why, you know, negativity is anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to violence and ultimately violence then leads to wars and, you know, mass casualties among the people. Ultimately, if you want to be a better person and if you want the world to be a better place, you have got to get rid of that negativity, that anger. So you have to leave politics behind. Eventually, you have to come to a place where you get out of that political war that, for whatever reason, so many people are trapped in. And the easiest way to do this is just don't be angry. I know it's hard. It's especially in the beginning, but just don't get angry at anybody. Never make a judgment. Never morally judge this other person that has some kind of political opinion, maybe that you don't share. Don't be angry at that person. Maybe try to understand that person. This is another thing. You know, don't be angry at some jackwagon on Twitter that's spouting off some political nonsense. Maybe that, you know, you staunchly, vehemently disagree with. Don't be angry at that person. Again, you know, anger leads to hate. Hate leads to violence. Instead, what I want you to do is be nice to this person that you disagree with. Actually, try to be overly nice. Be cordial. Be respectful. Respect that other person. And I know for some of you that are overly political in nature, I can't respect this other person. He doesn't agree with me. Okay, you don't have to agree with that person. You don't have to agree with them. You don't have to disagree with them. All you have to do is respect that person. All respect he is, is you acknowledging that this person exists, right? That they have their opinions that they've arrived at, and that you agree to just let them be them. Right? Let them be themselves. That's, that's it. You know? Just, just let that person do their thing. You know, just agree to disagree. What I think is one of the saddest truths in the world today is that almost all of the negativity and hate in the world is caused by politics. Specifically, it's caused by you folks that are political in nature. And I know you're not going to agree with this. You're just, oh, I'm political because I'm trying to actually make the world a better place. I'm not making it worse. No, no, trust me. I don't care what political agenda you have. If you are wrapped up into that political hate machine, you are the problem. You are the reason the world is the way it is. You are the cause of racism and homophobia and transphobia and all of the issues, especially the social issues that are out there. You are the driving force behind that. I mean, if you stop and think about it for just a little bit, it's you people, you political people that are constantly talking about all this negative stuff. You're always in your negative state of mind, your negative state of being, and you're arguing about these negative things, right? You are the one that are keeping the negativity alive. If you're constantly on Twitter calling people racist, you know, always having these racial discussions, you are actually the one that is keeping racism alive. That's really the only thing that keeps racism alive in the world is politics, is the political people that are constantly arguing at each other about racism and calling each other racist, even though probably neither one of them are. As long as you're talking about things like racism and homophobia and transphobia, those things will exist. They will manifest in the world as long as people are, you know, internally manifesting those things or externally manifesting those things on social media in their political arguments. So stop talking about the negativity out in the world. If you quit talking about it, guess what? It goes away. If you stop being negative yourself and negative toward others, the negativity of the world goes away because honestly, you know, your view of the world is subjective, right? When people say that, you know, the world is racist or homophobic or transphobic or whatever, you know, you're putting this label on the world that's, again, it's your own subjective thoughts. You can't, there's no objective way to measure that. It's all in your head. So honestly, if you change yourself, you'll change the world, right? If you quit being wrapped up in all of that negativity and hate, the world will cease to be a negative and hateful place. There's the famous quote by Gandhi that, you know, if you want to change the world, that, you know, you be the change that you want to see in the world. And that's absolutely right. Every spiritual guru, every philosopher, every religious founder, you know, whether it be Jesus, Buddha, whoever, you know, if you read great writings from the great spiritual teachings, they all talk about this, that you're not out, you shouldn't be out there trying to change the world. You can't control what other people think. You people that are arguing politics on Twitter, do you really think that either one of you are going to change your minds because your argument is better than the other person's argument? One thing, you're not even listening to each other. You're just there to be in an argument. You will never change your mind about anything. And guess what? That person you're arguing with, he's never going to change his mind about anything either. Because you're not really talking to each other. You're talking at each other. And since you can't change this other person, don't worry about that other person. Quit getting into those political arguments with other people. Instead, work on yourself. You be the change you want to see in the world. If you want the world to, you know, not have racism, homophobia, transphobia, whatever whatever change you want to see in the world, make sure that that change exists in you. You quit living in that kind of mindset. And trust me, immediately you will start seeing the world in a totally different light. You'll see the world as being a much better place because in your mind you're in a much better place. I have gone on a very long rant on what was supposed to be a very straightforward question about free speech. I don't know if anybody's going to find any real value from that very lengthy rant that I just went on. But again, I wanted to share it because honestly that is some of my feelings, right? That's the way I think about the world. Peace, guys.