The day has finally come for me to take a drastic step as a Linux user. A step I have been waiting to take for long enough. If you have read the title, you must have guessed it : As I am writing these very lines, my time on Arch Linux is running to an end. Goodbye my dear friend! The adventure has been memorable, and you will always remain in my heart. Yet I need to move forward and quench this insatiable thirst for knowledge of mine. I need evenmorefreedom. I need Gentoo.
Why Distro Hop Today ?
There actually are many reasons. I need to re-install Linux as soon as possible because my /root partition is almost full. I gave it 20 GB instead of 40-50 GB, and I still need to have some big programs on my machine such as Audacity, LaTeX, Kdenlive, OBS... I do not have to switch to Gentoo, but I am seizing the opportunity. Like all of you, I tend to get too comfortable and it can take me months or years before being willing to re-install my OS. Now is the best time, I believe.
Do learn from my mistake : If you intend to resize a partition one day, do put it last in your partition scheme. /root should come last, in my opinion, since you can always move your data from /home to an external disk in case of emergency.
My next partition scheme :
/boot/efi : 512 MB
/swap : 4 GB (to be comfy)
/home : Around 190 GB
/root : 50 GB (to be extremely comfy)
Notice that /root will come last, because I want to be able to resize that bast*** if I ever fancy doing it. With this next scheme, I should not have to ever touch it again, hopefully. You never know however. Better be safe than sorry. Speaking about safe... I may use LVM for this next install.
Why Gentoo ?
There are 3 keywords in my life which I abide by like values, or principles :
Liberty
Curiosity
Generosity
I believe that switching to Gentoo will help me in my endeavor of being the best version of myself everyday. It should satisfy both my desire for liberty and my omnipresentcuriosity but also my will to help. There are few people running Gentoo and I am quite tired of power-users being neglected. One should be able to speak about complicated technological topics without anyone feeling offended.
I am done playing around with pacman. Not that I dislike updating my system every morning, but I will not be able to do it if I emerge victorious installing Gentoo. Indeed, installing software and updating the system take significantly more time on Gentoo, since everything needs to be compiled from source.
I also pursue efficiency with all my heart. I believe that Gentoo + Dwm + St is the right formula to satisfy me until I am fully ready to create my own Linux distribution with LFS. This one should be my last step and I am already actively working on it. I need to sharpen my knowledge of C but this is a work in progress. I have many projects in C which I am eager to work on, but I have no time to dedicate to them at this moment. My situation as an au-pair + blogger/YouTuber takes too much time for me to focus on it. It would not be reasonable, since I also enjoy relaxing from time to time.
My Latest YouTube Video
If you have read up till this point... Well, thank you, first of all! Secondly, you may be interested in my latest video. It is a sort of live version of this blog post and you will also learn how to create a live CD from an already-installed Linux distribution, if you do not already know how to do it.
https://youtu.be/hL2YsWn0GY8
Please notice this video is shorter than usual, since I was told I need to be more concise by one of my followers.
In case you would be interested, I added a little sign-off...
Signing Off
Thank you for taking the time to read this blog post. I hope it was helpful to you! Do tell me which Linux distribution you are using in the comments, and why you think it is better than all the others ;-)
If you liked it, feel free to let me know via email, by subscribing, liking, and/or commenting. You may also check out some more of my work. I also have a Patreon page, a YouTube channel, if you wish to support me there, and a GoodReads account.
I have been in Italy for an entire month. This is the third long trip I take, the first one being my CELTA and the second also was in England (near Oxford, as it happens). I believe it is now time to share with you my travel experience but also that I describe to you my language journey in a little bit more details. Let us not forget that I am a linguist indeed...
"An Unexpected Journey"
If this title sounds familiar, it is normal. I totally stole it from The Hobbit. By the way, Tolkien, if you are reading these lines, I am a big fan! Just saying...
Back to the article!
To be entirely honest with you, I did not imagine 3 months ago that I would be an au-pair for this entire year. I did have plans to travel to Italy, but I was focused on English-speaking countries for a long time.
After going through the most terrible depression I have ever had to go through, I made some life-changing decisions : I stopped lying to myself about some dreams I have been postponing for so many years. I decided it was time to dedicate all my energy to what I currently love and stop being delusional about things which might never happen. At that point, I began investing much more time into my blog, since I love blogging so much.
Easy : I signed up onaupairworld.com and created the most detailed profile I could. I also did my best to be 100% genuine. I did not want to lie and end up somewhere I would have to fake. I wanted to be myself and choose a family exactly like a family would do it with an au-pair. I advise you to do the same. Pick a family as carefully as you would pick an employer!
It took a few weeks for me to pick the right family and truly decide where I wanted to go. I still was hesitating between being an au-pair and leaving on a backpacking adventure when I was contacted by an Italian family which really seemed to be the real deal. So I stopped looking at other families in England and elsewhere and decided I would be going to Italy exclusively, for one year, and preferably do the experience with said family. I already knew they lived close to Milano, so I was pretty excited, to say the least...
I used to do only YouTube and Duolingo because I didn't want to invest too much time into Italian straight from the beginning. In my defense, I was far too busy to concentrate on Italian when I began, and doing Duolingo+YouTube was just enough for me to familiarize myself with the language, have fun, and getting into the habit of learning this third language daily.
I cannot give you a precise workflow, since it generally depends on what I have to do during the day, but I strive to do between 1 and 5 hours of Italian a day, without counting exterior interactions I may have.
When I first arrived, I would do YouTube and study my grammar book pretty much everyday. It took me no time to improve, so I also began reading more content in Italian and memorizing more vocabulary with an app called Anki. It was not my first time with said app, although I haven't ever used it as regularly as These days (probably because I haven't ever needed it so badly). For vocabulary, I also use this web page : https://www.50languages.com/vocab/
I am well aware that most of you will not have this chance, but I also speak with native speakers on a daily basis. This has been my primary reason for being here so... You may understand why it is so important I write it here. Here, I have no choice. When I go to a store, to school, to one of the children's activities, I must get out of my comfort zone and get ready to speak Italian. By the way, not only must I face my own lack of competence from time to time, but I have to say people tend to ask way too quickly "do you speak English?" and I hate when that happens. I am here to learn Italian for God's sake! Sometimes I wish people were more patient with poor language learners...
There are still several more things I do almost daily. Not long ago, I signed up on Netflix. To me, this is almost synonym to turning to the dark side of the force... Yet I desperately needed a quality website to find movies whenever I could fancy, which means extremely often. I could not do it without Netflix, which gives me the opportunity to study even harder than before. I sometimes do something I am not proud of : I watch American movies in italian. This is what I call making space (and sacrifices) for learning Italian. English is an important part of me but I have to put my frustration aside and leave some space for Italian, which defines me just as much. Since I am half Italian, half French.
Since I am avid reader, I also read and take notes from the books I read. I am currently focusing my efforts on Twilight (in Italian), which is another book I figured I would never (never say never guys) read. When I came across Twilight in the book store, I just told myself : "okay, you need something you can note vocabulary on but you will not feel bad for writing in a book... *Poof* Oh! Twilight!" In the end, Twilight does not suck half as much as what I used to hear. Do you see how important it is to make your own mind about things ?
Since my level has significantly improved (despite the fact that I still make so many errors), I enjoy listening to Italian songs much more. It also allows me to study their lyrics to search for new vocabulary items. I write regularly and publish my posts on lang-8 for them to be corrected. This way, I practice all the skills : listening, writing, reading, speakingpretty much equally.
My Goals For This Year
Linux
First of all, I wish to keep writing and making videos about Linux. It is such an important part of my life, I cannot imagine how it would be to keep it silent. I also fancy getting a certification to make the job search easier later, but I am not certain the investment would be worth it. I suppose I will rather do it in 2021, when I have a better idea of where I am headed with my blog and YouTube channel.
Italian
Since this should have been one of my 2 native languages, I am quite demanding. I have recently reached (according to several tests I took online and my own observations) a level of B1. My goal for this year is to consolidate this level and bring it to a solid B2, so that I can work toward a C1 the year after. Since I was a beginner when I first arrived and reached B1 in one month, at least B2 must be possible! Let us believe people! This is the only way I know to win!
I also intend to visit italy. Especially the North, since it is more accessible to me. I will go southward later in my stay, because I want to see Napoli and Rome (for the second time), but it is not yet among my top priorities.
Online Presence
This year (from September to July), I wish to grow my online presence as much as possible. This means developing my blog, my YouTube channel, my Patreon, and my goodreads. I need to write more in French as well, on my blog and on Plume d'Argent. If you wish to know more about me, I finally recommend this video, in which I speak in details of everything I wished to clarify about my goals. You may even notice some big progress compared with my previous videos (if you watched any of them).
Being an au-pair is not always easy but it is a fabulous experience, especially if you get to live it with the best host family you could ever have imagined (like I do). It can become repetitive, so you need to have your own interests on the side to get your mind off your work. Traveling makes life easier, but I am well aware it is not simple in these times of coronapocalypse.
For your trip to go as well as possible, here is some advice :
Select where you want to go & why. Having a reason for being where you will end will give you a motivation whenever you may lack one.
Communicate as much as possible with your future host family beforeandduring your stay. They interview you, but you also interview them. If a family is not right for you, find another.
Don't be idle during your stay : travel and learn the language. It would be a shame to waste such precious time, especially since you will probably remember that amazing experience for the rest of your life!
Conclusion & Sign-Off
As usual, I hope you enjoyed reading this blog post. If you did, consider supporting me by subscribing to my blog, via email or wordpress, or to my YouTube channel. You are welcome to spend some more time here too ;)
This post is a little special, since I am writing it to describe my situation and my current state of mind. I would also like to share my latest video with you, which I am quite happy with. It is not yet perfect, I am well aware of it, but I have made significant progress which I am really proud of. For those of you who usually do not read my tech-related articles, do scroll down because everything here will not be about tech. I will tell you bits and pieces of my trip to Italy too!
Before I say anything, I have a request for those of you who have some spare time to dedicate to me : check out this video and give me some feedback. This is the only way I will learn properly. You can do it here, in the comments, or directly on YouTube.
Let's begin with the beginning. I was absent for an entire month, which doesn't mean I have stayed idle but it was for different reasons. Shooting videos, unsurprisingly, does not come as naturally to me as writing articles. It requires a lot more work, especially mentally. For a month, I suppose I was paralyzed. I wanted to shoot a new video but I couldn't just sit down and turn on my camera. I kept doing research but I published no content. I am not unhappy with this situation but I would like to be more active now. I wish to grow this YouTube channel as I did for my blog. Hopefully this should get a lot more readers to come here. Who knows ?
Regarding the video I published this morning, it has some obvious imperfections : it is too long, the sound can still be improved and I could benefit from scripting more.
Regarding the positive side : You can now see my face (I learned how to do it rather recently, about a month ago), the background is pretty good (at least I like it and got one other positive review, aside from me).
My goals are progressively becoming more clear. I know what I want and I am ready to work hard(er) to get it.
My Current Window Manager
I did tell all about it in my video, but I will sum up the basic ideas here. Essentially, I decided last week to move from Qtile & Termite to Dwm & st. I was extremly satisfied with Qtile and Termite but, from now on, I wish to embrace the suckless philosophy. Some of you may not know what it is, so here is another quick summary. Suckless merely means : software that suck less. It's as simple as that. I want to get away from bloated software as much as possible and use efficient programs (preferably written in C). Since Qtile is written in Python, I chose to put it aside, at least for some time. I need to get much more comfortable with Dwm & st. Plus, I am quite happy with the result I have obtained with just a few patches. There still is a lot of work to do, but look :
Quick disclaimer : Again, this post is not to say that my configuration is better than anyone else's. I am just having fun with Linux in my own way. If you are more like me, I encourage you to check out suckless software (at suckless.org). Otherwise, desktop environments are great too ;)
My Stay In Italy
It's official : my first month in Italy is over. I can hardly believe it. Time does fly, it is no joke... I plan to stay the whole year, which may prove long since my job is quite repetitive, but it will truly allow me to grow my presence on the world wide web. I need a lot of time, it appears, especially if I want to get thousands of new people here and on my YouTube channel. My ambition is not huge, but I would love to be able to live from my passion. This is why I am willing to work so hard.
So, what am I doing in Italy then ? Well, I am currently working as an au-pair. Since most of my previous work experience is related to education, I believe this is a good fit. It also is a stable situation, much more stable than backpacking around the world. Wouldn't you agree ? I haven't been able to go sight-seeing much yet, but I intend to go to Milan soon, and then to some other locations I have not yet picked... Tell me in the comments if you have any recommendations.
Regarding the Italian language, I can quite confidently say I now have an intermediary level of B1. It is not enough to be confident in all situations but I can have simple conversations, ask for directions easily and read or watch (with subtitles in Italian) most of what I would like, so long as it is as complicated as The Name of Wind, for instance. I signed up on Netflix as well, because I need to have quick access to a lot of TV shows and movies. This allows me to work a lot more efficiently. I will not say more about my working schedule, since I drafted another post about my stay in Italy which I expect to publish very soon.
Signing Off
Thank you all for your friendliness and support. If you are new here, do subscribe via email or wordpress. I publish new content every week; you may also subscribe to my YouTube channel to help me grow. I would deeply appreciate it. As for my Patreon and Goodreads, I am still working on them but any support there would be appreciated too!
I cannot help but sighing when I think of GNU/Linux distributions. It is such a weary topic and... Well, only if you make it so, actually. There is not much of a point criticizing GNU/Linux distributions, especially when you believe they all roughly are the same. Indeed, all of us are running Linux, in the end... There is a point in discussing the veryexistenceof distributions, however. This is why I have been thinking for so long about the differences between a parent distribution such as Vanilla Arch, and other Arch-based ones.
What Is A Distribution
I do not wish to dive deep into details about what a distribution is in this blog post, but I would still like to clarify some things.
Several elements characterize a Linux distribution :
A set values and principles
A package manager
A wiki
A default appearance (its default settings)
A community
Distribution comes from the verb "distribute" : make available, share, on a small or large scale. This means that anyone with some fundamental skills could distribute Linux, essentially. Let us take the example of Ubuntu : It aims at being easy and usable straight out of the box. It provides a working environment for everyone, no matter whether you are a beginner or someone more advanced. It does it at the cost of freedom, but it still does it rather well. It has a package manager : apt-get. It has a wiki and a forum for its community to interact and ask questions when they have issues. It also has a default appearance, which many distributions do not have (like Arch or Gentoo), since it ships with Gnome Shell by default. If you take Linux Mint, it also has what I would call a default appearance, since you can download three different ISOs with three different desktop environments.
What All Distributions Have In Common
GNU/Linux distributions are all extremely similar, at least for two reasons : GNU and Linux. Yes, they all are the same operating system and all run the same kernel. Which means they also all (or most of them) have the same system architecture, with /etc, /bin, /usr, /home, to list but a few... All programs, whatever the installation method (from source or a package manager) are the same too. There is choice aplenty, this is true, but most of us still use the same programs. This is the configuration of these programs which differ, if you take the example of window managers and desktop environments. Even the installation process is the same. I expect most of my readers will not know what it is like, since it is automated with a GUI on the most highly ranked distributions on distrowatch.com. Yet, it still is :
Getting the ISO
You acquire the ISO &/or verify the signature
You make the installation medium
You boot into the live environment
Within the live environment
You pick a keyboard setup (like US-UTF8) & verify the boot mode (BIOS or EFI)
You connect to the internet & set the system clock
You partition the disk (with whichever partition scheme you prefer, but that generally is done for you)
You format the partitions (mkfs.ext4 for instance, or mkswap)
You mount the file system
Installation & configuration of the system
I will not develop this part, since it varies depending on whether you do it manually or automatically. You will not have to chroot into your new environment for instance, or configure fstab, if it is done for you.
All distributions do not have a package manager, but the most renowned all do. Arch-based ones have pacman, Debian-based ones have apt-get, Red-Hat has yum... Do you not see now how we all are in the same team ?
A World full of Linux Distributions
The one thing I am the most fond as a Linux user is freedom. Freedom is not just a word to me. It means so much more... It bends all limits and empowers people. This is one reason why I am so happy there are myriads of distributions of Linux in the world. They all reflect someone's state of mind in their learning journey. They should all be, I believe, welcomed as blessings. Each one of them gives you the freedom to choose something else, something that you can identify with more than what you previously had.
Some of you may believe it contradicts what I previously stated, but despite my love for sub-distributions, I would not run one as my daily driver. When I have a good tool such as Vanilla Arch, Gentoo, Debian... I'd rather use this one tool well, rather than re-invent the wheel entirely. I am grateful these distributions are there for people who need them more (beginners, for instance), but as a free-minded individual, I am already most happy with Vanilla Arch, which allows me to do all I can possibly want to do. Although Gentoo calls me a bit more loudly every day... Ahem...
Here are some Arch-based distributions I would seriously recommend (from recommendation and personal experience) :
Manjaro
Arco Linux
Parabola
Endeavor os
Artix
I also believe Linux Mint is the path to take for all beginners or people who want to run away from potential headaches. I would endorse it more than Ubuntu, because it gives you more freedom. The fact that there is such a myriad of distributions is extremely helpful for neophytes. Even I had the chance to start with Linux Mint and then Manjaro instead of going straight to arch.
I wish all these so-called Archers calmed down with the hate on Reddit and helped others like they were helped, instead of digging their graves. To me, these people do not represent what the open-source community stands for. As Linux users, we wish to be free, and especially free to run whichever program might tickle our fancy.
For Your Culture
Here is a list of the 7 parent distributions (or so I enjoy calling them), although it is a little different than what it was at the very beginning of Linux :
Arch (based off Crux)
Debian
Gentoo
Ubuntu (based off Debian)
Slackware
Sorcerer (Now : Source Mage)
Redhat (What you know as Fedora or CentOS today)
I'd like to add LFS to that list. If you are curious and want to make your own Linux distribution one day, you should check this out : Linux From Scratch. They have an amazing book, which you can get as a PDF and read at your own pace. Stay away if you are not ready to build your own kernel, however...
As for Ubuntu, it is an exception to the rule. It has become a parent distribution but it was not there at the very beginning. Well, many distributions have changed since the very beginning : Crux has become Arch, Sorcerer has become Source Mage (there is another fork of it, actually, called Lunar Linux).
My Journey With Linux Continues...
You do not know this, but I studied html 5, CSS 3 and JavaScript (ECMAScript 6 mostly). My very first programming language was python, but I did not explore it in the same depths as JavaScript. Today, I wish to learn C, in depths. I want to keep learning more and more about how computers work, and how I can make efficient programs to better my experience and that of others. Recently, I switched from Qtile & Termite to Dwm + St because I want to use programs that are written in C. They are much more efficient than Python and, since I am learning C, it sounds like a reasonable choice to modify my environment for it to reflect my current state of mind. Qtile was written in Python. Same for ranger. I uninstalled both and switched to the vifm file manager. Not that I often use a file manager anyway...
When I have more time to dedicate to all this, I am seriously considering switching to Gentoo. I believe it will be the last big switch I make in my Linux journey, but I am not yet entirely sure. LFS calls me too... Dwm & St satisfy me a lot, so I do not believe I will switch window manager any time soon. I kept Qtile for several months, but I was aware it was probably only temporary. Dwm & st sound more like an investment I can identify with.
A Short Announcement
My partnership with Amazon has lasted long, but I decided to put an end to it. It is not me. So say goodbye to Amazon affiliate links! I am not here to sell you something. I am here to interact with you and give you value. And have fun!
Signing Off
If you wish to support me, you know I have a Patreon ? And a YouTube channel (which I haven't updated in a month) ? And a goodreads account ? Yes, you know all that, there is no point in repeating it over and over, right ? Feel free to stay for some more articles. I won't add a link but do read some more and you like my work (I'd be flattered).
Since I have not written a book review in quite some time, I figured I would do it today. After all, I still am a so-calledself-nominatedlibrarian, am I not ? Moving on... The Chronicles of Narnia is a collection of 7 books written by C. S. S. Lewis, also known as one of the greatest fantasy authors of the twentieth century. All are rather short, since the entire volume is merely 700 pages long.
Depending on which edition you purchase, pages may appear thicker. I know that, on mine, there often are a lot of words on each page. More words than what most readers are accustomed to these days, anyway. A book page usually contains between 200 and 300 words, 300 being a good standard. You may double this amount for certain editions of Narnia. To give you a basis for comparison, it is quite as thick as The Name Of The Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss, although with a little fewer words.
I dare say this masterpiece has become a classic for fantasy readers, like another trilogy I have in mind, which was written by J.R.R Tolkien around the same time as Lewis did this saga.
Actually, for those of you who did not know, Tolkien and Lewis both lived in Oxford, an internationally-renowned university city that has offered the world some of its best authors : Lewis Carroll (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland), Philip Pullman (His Dark Materials), Oscar Wild (The Portrait of Dorian Gray), to cite but a few... Without realizing it, you might have caught glimpses of that ancient place of knowledge, in movies such as the Harry Potters.
Lewis and Tolkien sometimes spent time together at a pub called The Eagle and The Child, since they were both part of a writer’s group named The Inklings. During their meetings, it is most likely they shared more than hot beverages…
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader: If you are fond of Caspian's character, this is a must-read. Some characters are absent, but you should enjoy this one like its prequel.
I still can precisely picture that scene, many years ago, when I picked up The Magician's Nephew. It was an intriguing and somewhat magical time, since that book attracted me like a magnet despite my strongest will to resist it. It was a Saturday morning like any other. It was 10 a.m and I had just come back from school. I needed to study for an exam but... Well, it was an English exam, in my defense...
I told myself I would only read a few pages. If you are a fellow bookworm, you must be well aware this type of excuse is pretty much the same as pressing the snooze button and believing you actually are going to get up in 5 minutes. I read that first episode of the Chronicles at a dashing speed and loved every single word in it. I had such a tremendous experience that Narnia became my favorite book before even finishing it. Eventhe intense moments of boredom I felt whilst reading TheHorse And His Boy or The Silver Chairprovedunable to alter that feeling.
Since I cannot go much further into this review without spoiling the book to potential readers, I will not say much more. I could add, for instance, that the story of Narnia resembles much that of the Bible in terms of structure. The character of Aslan cannot go unnoticed with the good many traits he shares with God. The way the world of Narnia was created and later [find the missing regular verb in past-simple form] will similarly remind Christians of their religion. There obviously are too many references to list them all in one blog post, but there are many analyses which you could easily find on Amazon if you ever wished to dig any further and improve your understanding of that complex story.
Before I leave you, I would like to tell you a last anecdote. You see, my reading of the ending is quite as special as how I first sank into The Magician's Nephew. Unfortunately, my ravenous curiosity tricked me into looking a bit too far toward the ending, and I discovered something. Something I was afraid of. For months, I had to leave off Narnia and read other things, because I was not ready to face such an ending. I wanted to keep Narnia alive in my head for as long as I could. Until that one day when I picked it up again. I was finally blown away by such a brilliant ending, and you will have to read it for yourself to find out what I loved so much about it.
Anyhow! As a conclusion, I must recommend the whole saga ! If you are a fantasy fanatic, as I am, be ashamed if you have not consumed that wonderful beast yet (but not too much, just enough to read it immediately) ! Tell me if you have or have not read it in the comments and let us discuss which books we enjoyed least and most !Or tell me if you intend to read it now...
Signing Off
Thank you for taking the time to read this blog post. I hope it was helpful to you! If you liked it, feel free to let me know via email, by subscribing, liking, and/or commenting. You may also check out some more of my work. I also have a Patreon page, a YouTube channel, if you wish to support me there, and a GoodReads account.
