I admit, my brief tryst with Fedora 16 the other night has been stuck in my mind. It was good. Really good. I guess I had a few preconceptions going in. When you go with IBM, when you date that FBI agent, or that covert military assassin, you just expect some kind of perfection. They’ve got to have hard-core discipline, they had to work everything out well in advance. A downright ruthless execution in the name of perfection.

But you know what? You get them alone, and they’re just human. Just like you and me. I guess it’s not easy having to live up to perfection all the time. To never make a mistake. And when I saw Fedora 16 was human, that it farted and belched like the rest of us, it just turned me off. But that’s my fault. And F16 was sure willing to point that out. Because it’s perfect, right? Even when it’s not. And that can be infuriating.

I’m with Fedora 16 right now, as a matter of fact. And we’re getting along great. There’s really some stuff to love about Fedora, if you can look past the attitude. In fact, Fedora 16 has the features of Gnome 3.2, which is mostly ahead of the features that even Debian from the future has. I have a feeling Debian unstable will have them soon enough, though. But right now, with all their corporate intelligence connections, Fedora 16 is bringing out all the latest surveillance equipment, laser blasters, and Doctor Q saying “oops, sorry that shouldn’t have exploded, you shouldn’t have done that” when you yell about his super power ultra device nearly killing you.

And that’s the thing. Fedora 16′s Doctor Q seems to live deep under a volcano that hides a vast giga-warp mothership that also exists trans-dimensionally in orbit around the planet, laying down black rectangular obelisks for we monkeys. That’s why I’m a lucky guy Fedora 16 is even tolerating my fingers right now. What could they possibly want with me? I don’t know. But what I do know is that Fedora 16 is smokin’ hot, tight, and cold as ice. Fedora 16 will make me into a better man.

That’s why you can’t mount filesystems with a type “smbfs” any more. You have to specify “cifs”. F16 will just stare at you, saying “I don’t know what you’re talking about” unless you say it the “proper” way. And again, Fedora 16 is irritatingly right – it’s cifs now, not smbfs. And it doesn’t care what damage it may cause to people who don’t keep up on everything. It’s those damn perfect rectangular monoliths interconnected with the mothership, electrocuting us into being perfect. That cat-o-nine-tails and leather again, perhaps, but with a purpose.

That being said, though, browsing a Windows network through Nautilus didn’t work. Not like I personally care much, because I mount anything like that through the fstab. And Fedora 16 yet again wiped out my other operating systems from the boot grub menu — all except for Windows. Now, I’ve heard from other people that this never happened for them, so I asked if they were using LVM, but I haven’t heard back from any of them, so I suspect it’s a detection issue that only effects OS’s installed on LVM volumes.

Also, I managed to get the Nvidia proprietary drivers built, installed and loaded properly, which I have documented in case it might help someone else save some time/effort. Of course, you can always download the drivers from Nvidia yourself and build the kernel, but following those directions uses Doctor Q’s special Fedora sauce, which makes Doctor Q happy, which in turn is good for keeping Fedora 16 happy with you.

You know what I love most about Fedora 16, though? No, not the Jules Verne submarine. No, certainly not yum. No, not even the tight and sensible international cyber warfare landmines and electric fences of selinux integration (which is gratefully out of sight and mind most of the time). It’s that all my Google email addresses and contacts and calendar just appear as if they’d always been there, after filling out an “Online Accounts” control panel doohickey. OK, I admit it’s a little disconcerting as well. But CIA agents and military assassins exist to protect me. I have to remind myself of this. Again and again. F16 is very exciting – a physique that doesn’t quit, from the ground on up to the tip top of the head.

Bitches don’t have Miro, though. But that’s ok. Miro’s a slug dog with all that hybrid python crap going on. Unstable Debian has Miro, though, and it works pretty well now. Screw it. Fedora must have something better – I mean, just look at it!. And you know what else, screw Debian with all that lazy peace-loving hippy crap, too. Ima climb on board this F16 and jet right on up, and out. Watch your heads down there, suckas.

But gosh, it is a little cold being up so high.

In all seriousness, though, Fedora 16 is prime lean beef. It’s incredibly well thought out. It’s perfectly stable so far. I only found a couple, very minor things, that weren’t right, like Gnome having no idea what a terminal program was (which can be fixed by yumming in libgnome). It’s a great release. I’m going to be using it for a while instead of Debian unstable. My killer CIA military covert intelligence gatherer deserves a second chance – cuz he’s human after all, even if he can’t admit it.

Can’t decide — saga continues: The Trials of Cohabitation: Juggling Debian Sid and Fedora 16

After a few nights of carousing, last night I decided to stay home and spend some time with Debian from the future. I swore I wouldn’t, but I actually moved a few things in; cloning a few git repositories, connecting Debian to the SAN, even putting in a few feeds I watch into Miro.

I was very clear though, this isn’t a permanent situation. This Debian from the future is “unstable”, and that’s just no good for a long term relationship. Everything may be going perfectly right now, but tomorrow, after I let my guard down, BLAMMO!, and I’m screwed.

But I can’t help wondering, maybe I’m getting caught up in the semantics alone — just because Debian from the future might be “unstable”, doesn’t necessarily mean that I can’t trust it, and live with it. I mean, after all, so many other distributions running wild out in the world get all their real mojo from Debian unstable, or Debian testing. So how is it any different, being with them instead of Debian from the future?

I honestly don’t know. Perhaps these dressed-up reflections of Debian from the future out there, who call themselves stable, really aren’t so stable, but just know how to put on a business suit, or some sexy, form-fitting clothes for whatever club they’re going to haunt.

I like to think that these other players look hard at Debian from the future, taking the best and fixing up anything that might be broken, before heading out to strut their stuff, as their own. But maybe they’re just popping some pain pills and antidepressants, smearing on some makeup, or inflicting some home-brewed plastic surgery on themselves first, to make them at least appear more appealing.

I don’t know. But what I do know is that unstable Debian from the future and I had a really nice time last night hanging out at home, baking a few cookies, and doing a few puzzles together. But in the back of my mind, as Debian’s being so sweet, I’m thinking, ok, when and how are you going to screw me over? But it just looks so innocent, so perfect. And then I start to feel bad about myself – what kind of jaded bastard have I become having left Debian so long ago. And now here I am, coming back, projecting all my bullshit onto the poor thing.

But this is Debian from the future. It is unstable. Debian admits it outright. This isn’t the stable version of Debian from today I’m with, this is the future, beautiful and exciting Debian. I don’t even have to coax it into being better. And he admits he may just fall apart.

And I think, my time with Fedora 16 the other night was great. F16 is plugged into all the right places in the working world. F16 has the connections. It’s upwardly mobile. F16 schmoozes with the venture capitalists and goes on secret missions for the CIA. But when something goes wrong, it never seems takes the blame. It points fingers. It’s a politician. It’s a military covert op. It repeats it over and over again until it’s true. It’s got the power, it’s got the juice. It’s sexy as hell.

Then there’s Debian from the future, sitting right here as I type this. Just as smart, and sexy in the way that just happens accidentally, just naturally. A sexy you can take home to mom without it being all aloof and condescending. And a power that needs nothing at all to remain powerful. No big connections, no political maneuverings. Raw fucking chi. And still likes sci-fi!

Those ones like Gentoo, and the hairy, sweaty, greasy Arch Linux aren’t right for me. Not at home, that is – not for my workstation. Out in the garage, yes! Absolutely. Tinkering with the stock car racer kits. Tuning up the engines and valves to maximum efficiency. Making the most perfect, beautiful body and paint job, exactly how I’ve always wanted a crotch rocket to be. But I won’t be driving that to the grocery store. And I won’t be able to build another one quickly if the garage burns down, or a friend wants one just like it. But yeah, I appreciate the garage just as much as the next guy.

I’m a confused man right now, mostly homeless, in between distributions. Sleeping on Debian from the future’s couch. I could maybe use me some F16 for a while. After I fix its nvidia jets from their blow-out. Or maybe I could stay – move in with the unstable Debian and make myself useful. I think I’m going to head out again tonight, though. I have to admit I’m a little curious about what that lizard Suse has become. I want Mint to hurry it’s ass up and get into town with its new clothes. I’ve got some expectations on their LMDE track.

I’m also starting to get a curiosity for the more exotic and obscure. Is that what a mid-life crisis is? I’ll dive in. Debian won’t mind. Yet somehow, I know Debian will be back there, watching and smiling, as I go flailing around in search of… something…

The confusing saga continues: Fedora 16 Isn’t Ruthless Underneath It All – It Just Needs Some Love and Understanding

After a night and a day of feeling at home and happy with an “unstable” Debian, last night I decided to get a taste of another distribution. First, I quit Ubuntu, ending up with the rough and tumble Arch Linux, then back home to my old flame Debian. But I’m not yet ready to settle down.

By the way, I’ve been helpfully “educated” a few times by people telling me I should use virtualization to try out other distributions, rather than installing them outright on the workstation. Yes, I am already aware that several virtualization technologies exist and I am completely comfortable using three of them. But the virtualization experience is never the experience you have on your bare metal workstation. Your workstation can run virtualizations. I’m looking to replace my workstation. I want to know how it looks, how it feels to drive it, its subtleties and idiosyncrasies on the bare metal. Virtualization cannot fully provide this.

So during this experimental phase, I’m using various LVM volumes on the workstation to install the OS’s. Last night I was planning on wiping out the Fedora one and trying Pinguy OS, at the suggestion of someone named “Anon”. I like the story of it: someone wanting to take Ubuntu and dress it up with all the things to it that a normal person would want, like a stock DLNA server, for example, and rich media capabilities already installed and made lovely. And, apparently, a bazillion mozilla browser plugins pre-installed for you. That’s where I started thinking, this Pinguy OS might be just a little too eager to please. I’m not really wanting to be drown in gifts and attention. I’ll feel awkward. It ended up making me want to run. Perhaps I just don’t deserve Pinguy OS’s lavish generosity. But my primary reason for deciding against it is that it’s built upon Ubuntu, and Ubuntu is why I’m in this homeless mess right now. Well, not really. It’s all my fault.

So I decided not to blow away my Fedora volume, and instead thought to give it another go. Off I went, booting into Fedora 15. It was right in the grub menu, where Debian put it, having detected it from the last couple installs. Debian put all my possible boot OS’s into grub menus for me. What a sweetheart.

Up comes Fedora. It’s a striking Gnome 3 environment, just like unstable Debian, and unlike the phony Ubuntu unity. I ran the software updates and it found quite a few, which took quite some time to install. For a very well-performing OS, Fedora seems to have a very slow software package management system. Perhaps it’s just very careful, and that takes time. Or maybe it’s written in Python (oh no he didn’t!).

Of course, I need Flash in the browser so I can watch… videos. So I went out searching for the “special” Fedora way to install Flash — I don’t want to gum up their works and get punished later. That’s not a dig on Fedora really — lots of distributions have their own special ways for Flash. By the way, why won’t Flash die? I think Silverlight did today at least.

Then I remembered a guy potentially named Mike mentioning rpmfusion; a Fedora repository that contains all the seedy, unclean software like Flash, supported by Fedora and absolutely not supported by Fedora. You know how it goes. But I discovered while reading the instructions that Fedora 16 had arrived already. That was fast. So I thought, yes! Let’s experience a Fedora revision update!

Well, the little 100M standalone partition I had made to install the /boot in Fedora 15 (to get around lack of LVM) wasn’t large enough to handle an upgrade (which is fairly ridiculous) so I decided to do a fresh install of Fedora 16 instead. So I did end up wiping the Fedora volume, to be replaced with a new Fedora – which understood both RAID and LVM during the install process! Many cheers for Fedora, and Red Hat. It’s incredibly gratifying to find this level of quality in a Linux install.

And I have to say, the install process was both simple and even a little beautiful to watch. They did a very slick job. And it was fast. I very much liked the thoroughness of their user creation step, too, allowing you to specify custom uid & gid (without having to pre-create a gid). They also have seemingly excellent support for installation onto SANs, and even iSCSI doohickies across the network. Most impressive. I was really starting to feel this Fedora, and I was liking the feeling.

Fedora felt fresh, clean and surgically well-organized. A kind of tight business suit, styled up, with hair pulled back in a bun so tight the face contorts into an implied grin (or maybe grimace). I couldn’t help getting a little thrill of memories of my days spent working in an IBM shop, where everything is documented and thoroughly planned, even the errors. They supported all the right stuff there on install, and even offered support for encrypting your swap area. I’m at the FBI here. And it felt nice.

Because they thought it all out, right? They got it all planned. They’ve got a pride in perfection. And I’m lucky to be using it. Really, they’ve done a lot. And Red Hat contributes so much back to Linux. Fedora absolutely reeks of class. And up-tightness. And strategy. I swear to God I’m back in an IBM shop, at the FBI.

So onto the Gnome 3 desktop I go. Beautiful work. And my first order of business, assigning a keyboard shortcut to open a terminal. Easy enough. But when I go to use the shortcut I just defined, I’m told that no terminal program has been defined. What? The gnome-terminal, you git. Okay, I can live with that. So then I fire up a software update, and get a load of new things, which seemed to install noticeably faster than Fedora 15, which was a relief. Happy. Firefox starting up, version 7. Then adding the repositories for that filthy Flash. Also, the nvidia proprietary drivers instead of the nouveau ones that don’t offer full 3d acceleration…

And the nvidia kernel drivers are built. It’s time to reboot. What a joy. I could stay with Fedora easy – the model of beauty and efficiency. Then the grub boot menu comes up. What! You psycho! All my other operating systems have disappeared from the menu, except for Windows. Now this kind of thuggish behavior I would expect from Arch Linux, but from you!? Fedora? Arch Linux just doesn’t know any better. But you, what the hell is your excuse!? Are you going to play dumb? Tell me you didn’t plan this? Well, fine. No big deal. I can set you straight in a minute here, and we can just move on from this. But seriously, even the brute gave me fair warning, and an out, before taking a club to me!

Then the screen flashes. Just like a X video driver problem. I ran the damn script to update the Xorg.conf file to use the nvidia module. I even double-checked it. Oh, I see, but for some reason you stubbornly loaded the nouveau kernel module instead. So somebody didn’t bother updating the initramfs for boot, or they left out an autoload definition. OK. I’ll go figure out the “special” Fedora way for keeping that driver out, and bringing the nvidia one in. Done. Rebuilding the init image. Reboot. Hey, it’s starting up! The video screen displays a crisp, sharp gdm background image. Then a flash! And are you serious? You’re giving me a sad mac picture in the middle of my screen, telling me to contact my system administrator? You know what? Who needs you, you up-tight psycho – playing at being all sane, together and professional. What an act. Oh, I’m sure you’re just great when everything is going your way. But one little thing, and you just explode!? Cya!

So, to the reset button, and up comes my vandalized grub menu, the last claw-slash that Fedora will get into me this time. I manually set grub to boot back to the unstable Debian installation, which is proving to be anything but unstable. Back to the beautiful desktop, with the nvidia drivers working just fine – never a hassle. Ah, Debian, I really don’t deserve you. Even when you’re supposedly “unstable”, you’re a saint.

Now, to be fair, the Fedora issue is a little overly dramatic. Could you tell? It probably wouldn’t have been a big deal to get the nvidia drivers working with it. I did see a mention at one point about their being a “conflict” with that version of the gnuc libraries in a Fedora 16 beta, and the nvidia drivers, with Fedora claiming it was nvidia’s fault. Get out the cannons, boys. Point the fingers and guns. I’m happy in a just as functional and more solid unstable Debian.

And here it is. I really liked Fedora. Truly. I may head back later and tinker with the video driver. Fedora feels like science. It feels like Engineering. With all the coldness in between. I like that. But I also like the more ruffled homey-ness of Debian. Debian somehow manages to be just as science-like and engineered, but somehow with a sweet little breath of magic. It’s the difference between a ultra-sleek corporate-styled modern living room that looks amazing and you want it – and you get it – but after a little while it’s more like you’re intruding in IT, than it’s being a living room for you. I don’t know what it is that Debian does differently here. Maybe it’s just the cartoon stars and rocket ships! Or the genie swirl.

But the thing for me is, Fedora felt like the old IBM shop I worked in. So perfect and engineered. Always an answer. When something’s broke, it’s broke for a specific reason. This page intentionally left blank. It’s a little exciting, in that leathery-bondage kinda way. Or should I say cellophane wrap. A cat-o-nine-tails to tell me how it is. How I’m going to like it. Whereas back here with unstable Debian from the future, we’re just chillin, and everything is right as rain.

After you decide to leave something behind, there’s nothing left but new. Or, perhaps, returning to what you left behind a long time ago instead.

I decided that Ubuntu and I were no longer going to work out. We had a good thing for a while. A pretty face, took care of the domestic chores for me, while I brought home the bacon. I left Debian for Ubuntu, knowing that Ubuntu was little more than an imitation of Debian. I was seduced by its beauty and how little it demanded of me. And all the while I knew Ubuntu wasn’t just doing it for me – Ubuntu wanted something back. I can’t blame it. I gave it money instead of attention. And I was rewarded. But lipstick and sculpted abs only go far. The superficiality was becoming an issue, and I didn’t like where Ubuntu was leading me. So we called it off.

I can’t go long without a workstation, though. Ubuntu and I were through. I found myself looking around for anything, anywhere. Any glimmer of intelligence, beauty and strength, and most importantly, a good heart. My first night I went to the city, to the warehouse districts where things were new and exciting. So many of the fresh, beautiful people talking about Arch Linux. I’d been there before. Once. It was raw. Passionate. Like how it used to be when I was a kid, just starting to explore. And now, here I was again. The dark warehouse allies of the city, in the arms of hairy Arch Linux again.

But all the while, my thoughts always wandered back to Debian. So steadfast. So true. So set in its ways, but always still evolving. Taking the punches dealt out from young upstarts who want a piece of their own. Always remaining an example. An inspiration. Being something that others can always look to and count on to offer advice and help. Someone that lets others even blatantly steal from them, and remains nonplussed – for imitation is the most sincere form of flattery.

But I couldn’t go back. Not after being away so long. I remember what it’s like being stuck there, day after day, for 2 or more years at a time. I’m not some 9 to 5 desk jockey who always needs the same things, unchanging. I want new, spice and variety! Yet not in the savage streets. I couldn’t go back yet.

So I decided instead to travel to the future, to a future Debian, who I know will always have the good heart. Last night I installed Debian Sid, or unstable. It’s where I will live, while still exploring. We have an understanding this time. Debian unstable can be just that, unpredictable and every so slightly dangerous, yet free to let its hair down in all its glory. I’ll be gone at night, checking what else is out there, but will be coming home to Debian Sid until I find something better. I know, I’m a real fucker. But Debian takes it, from everyone and everything else. It’s an amazing organization that has evolved over the years. And always, the servers I deal with will run Debian stable. Unless we need something wild… then we’ll see…

So I’ve moved in to Debian Sid now on a temporary basis. I’m not going to make myself too comfortable just yet. But I tell you, the future Debian is quite a sight to behold. What a fool I was to ever leave for Ubuntu. No, I can’t say that. Things wouldn’t be how they are now, otherwise, and things now are good.

The install of Debian Sid (unstable) was pretty painless. I started with a “business card” image of the stock Debian installer, cat’ed it to a USB thumb drive, and booted the install. I selected the advanced install, which allows you to select other Debian distributions, like testing or unstable.

The install was mostly flawless, after realizing its failure was my fault for having created a 100Mb LVM partition for it instead of a 100Gb one. It did fail at installing grub on the boot sector, saying it couldn’t find the drive. Not bad, though. Who needs to worry about a grub install failing when grub’s already on the drives?

So here I am in the future Debian, the unstable branch. It’s using Gnome 3, which I got my first taste of in Fedora. But somehow, it feels like a better experience here. It is certainly much better than Unity. And I’m not exactly happy with Gnome 3′s disconnect from Compiz, either. I shouldn’t eat so many sweets, anyway, though.

Now, Linux Mint has a version that is based upon Debian instead of Ubuntu (which is, of course, also based on Debian). Perhaps the Mint people have been getting some of the same feelings I’ve been getting about Ubuntu, and have decided to start migrating to the source, rather than going through any middle-men.

That is why I decided to try Linux Mint’s Debian-based distribution, which takes from Debian Testing, I believe, so it will have newer software packages than the stable branch. My thinking was, maybe the Mint people will work out any bugs that might come through from using one of Debian’s non-stable branches, so I don’t have to worry about anything breaking.

Unfortunately, Linux Mint’s installer doesn’t recognize LVM/raid drives. For me, that’s pretty much a deal-breaker, unless there is some very compelling desire I have to try out a specific distribution that does not support it LVM/raid on the install. It isn’t rocket science, which means they should be supporting it, but it is very inconvenient to have to reassemble all that by hand. Do people still use just one partition of one hard drive on their workstations? I suppose if impermanence isn’t an issue…

So tonight I’ll be trashing Fedora off the workstation here and trying something else. I’ve had a few good suggestions from people and I really appreciate it. And for now, my venerable, steadfast companion Debian, from the future, is where I’m at. Smart, stable, strong and hot? It will take a lot to get me away from here this time.

The saga continues here: Heading Uptown to See Fedora Linux – A Tale of Science, Secret Agents and Corporate War