 Welcome to another edition of Haiti. Haiti is a series of videos I do where I try to respond to viewer questions and comments. These viewer questions and comments typically come from the comments on the videos on YouTube and over on Odyssey. Sometimes the questions and comments come from toots that I get over on Mastodon or sometimes through Reddit, sometimes through email. And the very first question I want to answer is, Haiti, can you tell me why you are window manager hopping all the time? What is wrong with you? Well, this is a very good question. And I will say, I probably window manager hop more than most people should because obviously I have this YouTube channel, I make a lot of video content around window managers, hence the need to try a bunch of different window managers and hop between them. I try to revisit a lot of these window managers I've looked at in the past. And one of the things with window manager hopping, too, is sometimes you get bored with what you're on. So you start with the awesome window manager, for example, and you get it configured exactly the way you want. And then that's fun. That's fun when you have to dive into the documentation and configure your window manager. And once it's set up just perfectly exactly the way you want, then that fun that you were having configuring your window manager all the time goes away because you no longer have to configure it. So what do you do? You move to the next window manager and you try to configure that one. It's kind of like, you know, a drug addiction is really what it is setting up these window managers. And it's fun. It's exciting. Plus all these window managers, they're written in different programming languages, which that's fun, too, because it allows you to try out different languages maybe that you're not comfortable with. Like with awesome window manager, you have to configure it with Lua, with Qtile, you have to configure it with Python, with Xmonad, you have to configure it with Haskell, et cetera, et cetera. So there are legitimate reasons to window manager hop. There's nothing wrong with me. There's nothing wrong with you if you window manager hop. And the next question is, hey, DT, why are you bald? Let's ban that person. And moving on. Hey, DT, did you know that your shorts videos have to be in portrait mode? And what they're referring to here is a couple of weeks back, I made a shorts video. I think I made the video, the topic of the video was about the fish shill, but a shorts video is something less than one minute in length. And it's this new meme that YouTube is trying to push the shorts video. And I made my video kind of as a joke video, but people took it seriously. And I'm flooded with comments about, hey, the proper way to make a YouTube shorts video is you have to do it in vertical format, meaning you on your phone, you need to record it like this, you know, in vertical formats that are like this in landscape mode. And I think that is ridiculous. I nobody wants to watch vertical video. So I don't care what YouTube is defining as a shorts video. I will never make a shorts video in vertical format. Mine are always going to be in landscape mode. I don't care if it gets picked up in the YouTube algorithms or not. I'm not interested in the YouTube algorithms. Anyway, you guys, if you want to watch my shorts in horizontal mode, you're welcome to do so. If it bothers you that I record it like a normal person, well, skip those videos. And the next question is, hey, DT, how did you get your open box windows to glide smoothly side to side? I've got the tiling all in place, but my windows snap into position. So they just snap like, you know, instantly into position, which is the normal behavior with most of your window managers, including open box, if you're using the pi com compositor. Now, the reason mine have some fancy animations, they have some gliding effects and sliding effects in some of my videos is because here recently, I've been using a fork of pi com called pi com dash Jonah Berg. And by default, it comes with some blurring effects and some animation effects. And you can even do rounded corners with it and things like that that the standard pi com really doesn't support. So if you want those fancy effects, try pi com dash Jonah Berg. There's several other forks of pi com that also have fancy animations and blurring and things like that. Here recently, though, I've actually moved back to the standard version of pi com because I don't need all the whiz bang effects. I mainly tried that out for a little while just for making videos and showing you guys how that works. And the next question is, hey, DT, you've said countless times that one of the advantages of tiling window managers over desktop environments is that you need to set up your tiling window manager config one time and you forget about it, whereas things change all the time with desktop environments because they update to new versions and they drastically change things. And his point here was that I've said that in the past, but on the particular video that he commented on, I was rewriting my Qtile config because there was a major update to Qtile from one version to the next. And it broke my config just very minor changes. I didn't have to rewrite the config. There was just some minor changes like three or four lines of the config I went and changed. So yes, I did have to go spend two minutes in my Qtile config. And I probably would have to do that every couple of years. There would be an update that breaks my config where I would have to go spend two or three minutes to research what changed the Qtile guys would let me know because, you know, other people are going to have the same breakage. They'll let you know, hey, this no longer works in your config. If you have this line in your config, change it to this line. That's typically what these projects like Qtile and awesome and Xmonad, they'll do that if they do something major that they know is going to cause people problems, but it's still very, very rare. Matter of fact, my Xmonad config, I don't think I've ever had a version of Xmonad break my config. You know, I've rewritten my config several times just for fun. But I never woke up one day and my Xmonad config suddenly doesn't work because there was a new version of Xmonad that just doesn't happen. I have had awesome do that because sometimes awesome does major updates where they kind of break their own syntax. I've had to rewrite my awesome window manager a couple of times. And I have had to change Qtile obviously on camera a couple of times. But it's still very, very minor. When I talk about desktop environments changing, I mean, GNOME 2 moving to GNOME 3 is a completely different thing. Like they're not even the same thing, not even the same window manager. Nothing on the screen even looks the same. It might as well be like you're running a different operating system. That's the difference with desktop environments and their version changes and a window manager and their version changes. And the next question is Hey, DT, I've heard you saying your operating system or your web browser is quote free as in freedom. For example, GNOME Geeks, but we are restricted in some stuff we can't download any non free web browsers or other utilities which are not 100% free. So what he's saying here is these 100% free as in freedom Linux distributions like GNOME Geeks, they are not free as in freedom because you don't have the freedom to go get proprietary software like Google Chrome. If you want to Google Chrome web browser or other non free pieces of software because they're not in the GNOME Geeks, the repositories. Well, that's they're not saying you can't go get proprietary software. That's not what GNOME Geeks is saying. They're saying this is a 100% free distribution. We're not going to have proprietary software in our core repositories for you to go grab. If you want to go build something from source or you know, grab an app image or whatever, whatever, however you want to go get proprietary software, you go handle that yourself. That's not part of what the core team behind GNOME Geeks is doing. They're trying to build a 100% free GNOME slash Linux distribution. So I and I've heard this question asked several times and I think people get it confused when I talk about things being free as in freedom or these 100% free Linux distributions and people say, well, that's not really free because I can't get the software that I want to get. Yes, you can. They have not locked their distribution down in such a way that proprietary software just won't run on it. For one thing, the computer doesn't know what's proprietary and what's not. You know, I mean, you could write your own piece of software and slap a proprietary license on it. How the hell would the computer know that, right? It's not. They haven't locked your computer down where you can't go grab proprietary software. They're just not interested in helping you go get proprietary software. If you want to go get it, go get it. And I don't like advertising it that often and I know people have asked me, would I ever run GNU Geeks with a non free repository enabled? Personally, I wouldn't because why bother running GNU Geeks at that point? But I will go ahead and put this out there. GNU Geeks, there is a non free channel for GNU Geeks for those of you that needed. And I know some of you want it for proprietary drivers and, you know, hardware support and things like that. If you need that, it is out there. Moving along, Haiti, you should make a script to install all the programs you need for your dot files to make it easier. Cheers. And I think this was posted on my video, a live stream where I was going and grabbing my dot files and redeploying them on a fresh install. And I do actually have a script that helps me do this. Now, when when I was doing this on camera the other day, I was deploying all of my dot files. I was deploying everything. I've got config files for probably 15 different window managers and half a dozen different terminal emulators. And I've got a bajillion dot files. Now that's for purposes of the channel. Now in real life, if I wasn't doing this YouTube channel, I could have a very easy install script that would install the one or two window managers I actually enjoy using the one terminal emulator I actually want to use. And it would be it would be an easier process. What I was doing on camera the other day on that live stream was a bit of a mess because I was dealing with so many different moving parts. And I've had people ask me to write a script how to deploy like a certain collection of dot files on my system, like some people have asked me to write an install script for my Xmonad setup or for my Qtiles setup. And I have played with that idea a little bit. I've actually got some scripts. I've got one script that actually will deploy Xmonad my exact Xmonad and XMObar and install the programs that I use in that particular window manager. I've never shared it publicly because I really haven't worked on it lately. It's something that I played around with several months back and I kind of forgot about. But maybe I'll start playing with that again in the near future and try to get that ready for you guys to share with the public. And the next question is hey DT how many months do you go before you reset your main system to get a fresh start. And I'm assuming what he's asking here is how long do you go before you decide to do a fresh install of your operating system. Because I have mentioned this before that sometimes I will back up all of my data and do a fresh install you know just to wipe out all the crude on my system because I install a ton of programs and he's asking me typically how long do I go in between these fresh installs. I would say two years is a good number. One year I don't like to distro hop all the time I don't like to constantly be reinstalling. So for sure I'll go at least a year after installing something but you know after about two years of running the same installation I think it's sometimes good to just back up all your data and do a fresh install that's just again just to get all the orphan packages and all the crude that may be just lying around in your file system. It's just something I do. It's not necessary. I know there are people out there they're going to be people in the comments that are going to say they've had working installations of Arch and Gen 2 and you're only released distributions that they've had up and running for 10 years and I'm sure they have and I'm sure I could do that too. I'm sure you could do that just for me you know just for peace of mind about every two years I like to do a fresh install. And the final question this question comes from one of the videos I made recently about the situation revolving around the Free Software Foundation and I spoke about the Free Software Movement my thoughts about the Free Software Movement where I see it going forward and this person writes in hey DT that was very well articulated. It's a real talent you have. Have you ever considered becoming more prominent in the Free Software Foundation? The role of officially promoting the Free Software Foundation would seem suited to you. I appreciate the kind words and I agree I would probably do fantastic at promoting the Free Software Movement and the Free Software Foundation in an official capacity. If I wanted to take such a role but the problem with that is I couldn't reach the kind of audience like if I was the president of the Free Software Foundation you know I couldn't reach the kind of audience and spread the message of free software the way I can in the role I currently have as a video content creator putting out videos on YouTube and Odyssey and library you know I reach millions of people you know I don't know what my analytics currently are but probably nearly 20 million people or so have watched my videos so I have made a real impact on people's lives. People that never heard about free software or open-source software or GNU slash Linux or anything like that you know I've reached far more people in this capacity than I ever could sitting on the board of a foundation and there are other reasons why I'm reluctant to take a prominent role in the Free Software Foundation and in other foundations and projects people often tell me hey man you should be more prominent with this group of people or with this Linux distribution or with this project and the reason I don't do that is I like to be able to speak sometimes honestly right sometimes things need to be said and they just need to be said and if I'm acting in an official capacity for a foundation or a project I can't say what needs to be said sometimes like that free software foundation video I did a couple of weeks back I really was very harsh against the GNOME Foundation because those guys are very bigoted mean-spirited nasty people and they are going after Richard Stallman in a very mean-spirited and quite unfair way and you know I can say that Neil McGovern and all the board of directors at the GNOME Foundation they're a bunch of asshats I can say that because it's just DT saying that I'm speaking for myself I'm not speaking for the Free Software Foundation if I was speaking for the Free Software Foundation I couldn't call all those guys asshats because I would be writing the check that all these other people within the Free Software Foundation would have to cash but when it's just me saying their asshats the only person they can really come after is me now I I'm not completely discounting the idea that going forward in the future one day that maybe I won't take a prominent role in the Free Software Foundation or in any other foundation or project but right now if my main focus is spreading the message of Free Software I do a much better job doing that in this position that I'm in right now than I ever could being on the board of the directors of the Free Software Foundation. Now before I go I need to think a few special people I need to think the producers of this episode I need to think Absi Dallas Gabe Lou Mitchell Alan Akami Arch 5530 Chuck David the other David Dylan Gregory Lewis Paul Scott Steven Wes and Willie these guys they're my highest tiered patrons over on Patreon without these guys this episode of Haiti it would not have been possible the show is also brought to you by each and every one of these ladies and gentlemen as well these are all my supporters over on Patreon because I don't have any corporate sponsors here at Distro Tube not having any corporate sponsors means I can say what I want to say I can't get canceled so if you'd like to support my work look for Distro Tube over on Patreon all right guys Peace