An interview with Derek Sivers(derek.sivers.usesthis.com)
derek.sivers.usesthis.com
An interview with Derek Sivers
http://derek.sivers.usesthis.com/
8 comments
I'm always happy to read a new The Setup that isn't a variation on "I use a MBP/MBA." +1 for the Arch Linux advocacy.
I couldn't agree more! My all-time favourite in that regard:
http://russ.cox.usesthis.com/
Believe it or not, so am I. :)
As for the command-line VoIP app, you can use "linphonec" included in http://www.linphone.org/.
Cool! Hadn't heard of that. Thanks much for the recommendation.
I like the fact that he doesn't use almost any apps on his smart phone. I'm close to the conclusion that smart phones are becoming a curse. Not only did I see this at my family Thanksgiving (were most everyone was in the family room heads down on their smart phones), but also myself. Where brief moments of quiet were reserved for self-reflection are now substituted with OCD email checking and tiny wings high score getting. Sigh.
This is part of why my phone doesn't have much on it. Twitter and g+ can be a distraction but when things are going on (say, Thanksgiving) unless it really IS a down moment I just ignore them. Plenty of time for such things later. Pity I don't have the same restraint when at a computer.
Smartphones and tablets are largely for entertainment, which in turn are designed to grab your attention to the fullest.
They're kind of bad (there's always that other excuse: limit yourself) seeing how the majority users are hooked like a drug addict lately (crackberry is an example)
They're kind of bad (there's always that other excuse: limit yourself) seeing how the majority users are hooked like a drug addict lately (crackberry is an example)
> Smartphones and tablets are largely for entertainment
I don't know for tablets, I don't own one yet (Kindle e-ink doesn't count, does it?), but for smartphones I do not agree. They are tools. Powerful tools, like a Swiss army knife on crack.
They can be overused, and there is a full "phone politeness" to build, but it is not a reason to luditely dismiss them as useless toys.
Things my smartphone allow me to do:
- Get GPS turn-by-turn navigation from a link received in chat or direct search, including traffic info. (In China it is GPS is a near necessity)
- Find a nice mountain path when hiking around.
- Get an answer immediately when some wikipediable question arise in a discussion.
- Get translations from and to Chinese, English, French.
- Quickly prefill some new contact info and expand it on my computer later. Take a pic of the contact so I remember better how that is. (Helps with this Chinese names).
- Best: Build my own tailored Fuzzy Pinyin to English dictionary and push it to my phone, so I get a faster search. No dictionaries I know are that fast. Needed for catching up during meetings.
I won't say I never use it for games or news checking. It happens, mostly on the toilets, but it is not the main use.
I don't know for tablets, I don't own one yet (Kindle e-ink doesn't count, does it?), but for smartphones I do not agree. They are tools. Powerful tools, like a Swiss army knife on crack.
They can be overused, and there is a full "phone politeness" to build, but it is not a reason to luditely dismiss them as useless toys.
Things my smartphone allow me to do:
- Get GPS turn-by-turn navigation from a link received in chat or direct search, including traffic info. (In China it is GPS is a near necessity)
- Find a nice mountain path when hiking around.
- Get an answer immediately when some wikipediable question arise in a discussion.
- Get translations from and to Chinese, English, French.
- Quickly prefill some new contact info and expand it on my computer later. Take a pic of the contact so I remember better how that is. (Helps with this Chinese names).
- Best: Build my own tailored Fuzzy Pinyin to English dictionary and push it to my phone, so I get a faster search. No dictionaries I know are that fast. Needed for catching up during meetings.
I won't say I never use it for games or news checking. It happens, mostly on the toilets, but it is not the main use.
You're a rare breed sir.
Most people are using it for entertainment.
Most people are using it for entertainment.
I threw my smartphone out 2 years ago. I got another one only a week ago and don't use it, it is sitting in my drawer. Best decision I ever made.
I'm ready to take the full-time plunge into Linux. Spend too much time goofing off on my Mac, so I'd like to set it up as a pure development machine and use an iPad for leisure.
Would you guys recommend Arch Linux as a good starting point? I've used Ubuntu before, and I agree with Sivers's take ("too hand-holdy").
Would you guys recommend Arch Linux as a good starting point? I've used Ubuntu before, and I agree with Sivers's take ("too hand-holdy").
I just went through a distro choice process. I installed various flavors of Mint, Debian, Arch, Redhat, Ubuntu, Archbang, Crunchbang, even went retro and tried FreeBSD again. I probably went through 20+ distros.
I really wanted to go with Arch but there are simply some desktop things I need and I want them to work out of the box and not spend days figuring it out.
Reasons I couldn't stick with Arch: things like Skype microphone, URL links in various apps able to open the correct browser, consistent key bindings, laptop power management. That last one was a killer for me. In the end, I've settled on Lubuntu 11.10. Lubuntu's LXDE setup is clean and light. It lets me stick with an Ubuntu repo system without suffering through what may be a multi-year Unity breaking-in process.
I really wanted to go with Arch but there are simply some desktop things I need and I want them to work out of the box and not spend days figuring it out.
Reasons I couldn't stick with Arch: things like Skype microphone, URL links in various apps able to open the correct browser, consistent key bindings, laptop power management. That last one was a killer for me. In the end, I've settled on Lubuntu 11.10. Lubuntu's LXDE setup is clean and light. It lets me stick with an Ubuntu repo system without suffering through what may be a multi-year Unity breaking-in process.
I agree with this and with "drats" comment here, too.
For someone new to Linux, I'd still recommend Ubuntu. If it's too cluttered, try changing the window manager or use Lubuntu.
I only came to Arch Linux after 10+ years of trying others, and it was the right thing for me, but I don't recommend it to others unless they're already quite experienced with Linux. (But for those who are, it's wonderful.)
Until then, stick with Ubuntu, Xubuntu, Lubuntu, etc - as you'll get the most support there.
For someone new to Linux, I'd still recommend Ubuntu. If it's too cluttered, try changing the window manager or use Lubuntu.
I only came to Arch Linux after 10+ years of trying others, and it was the right thing for me, but I don't recommend it to others unless they're already quite experienced with Linux. (But for those who are, it's wonderful.)
Until then, stick with Ubuntu, Xubuntu, Lubuntu, etc - as you'll get the most support there.
I started using Arch a little over a year ago. It was my first Linux distro so I didn't have much experience, and I cant recall regretting it for a single moment during the first couple of weeks. Sure, there's a lot of stuff to set up and configure manually, but I found that to be a good thing. Getting Arch up and running with everything you need is sort of a crash course in Linux. The docs are very good so I don't think the average HN reader will struggle.
Btw, I need to thank you Derek: When I was trying to decide which distro to use I considered Arch because I heard Zed was using it at the time. Then I read the interview with you on thegeektalk.com and decided to give it a shot because of your recommendation, and I've loved it from day one. So thanks!
Btw, I need to thank you Derek: When I was trying to decide which distro to use I considered Arch because I heard Zed was using it at the time. Then I read the interview with you on thegeektalk.com and decided to give it a shot because of your recommendation, and I've loved it from day one. So thanks!
Agreed completely. Thanks for the suggestion--I'm going to try Lubuntu and Mint in VMs and stick with whichever I like more.
This is a super-valid point--I don't want to spend 4 hours fiddling with drivers to get my Mac's webcam working. After reading your and Derek's advice, I'm going to pop Mint and Lubuntu into separate VMs, and transition to whichever I enjoy more.
Opinion:
Emphasizing "as a good starting point," I'd recommend anything in the Ubuntu branch. This includes Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Lubuntu and Xubuntu, as well as Mint, based on Ubuntu. The Ubuntu repository system is excellent.
My favorite is Lubuntu, because it's "just your stuff" with very minimal "vestigial crap" (as the old Anybody's Bike Book https://duckduckgo.com/?q=anybody%27s+bike+book would call it). Lubuntu does have a few small rough edges, but I like its usable minimalism.
At the moment I don't think the main Ubuntu/Unity variant is good as a starting point, because its UI is significantly different from all other distros and therefore does not lead you down a path of expectations to look for when you eventually try other distros. In other words, Ubuntu/Unity mainly teaches you about Ubuntu/Unity, whereas most other distros give you more general Linux UI experience and expectations. Welcome to the Ubuntu/Unity world, as opposed to welcome to the Linux Universe.
When you're at a "starting point," then you want a distro that doesn't demand attention. Distros like Arch and Gentoo are for people who are ready and willing to spend time getting things going exactly the way they want. When you're at a starting point you don't necessarily know exactly how you want things, and being forced to choose is stressful.
Treat your first starting point distro as a stable base, from which you can learn. Branch out from there as far as you want, at your chosen speed. Dual booting and virtual machines will allow you to try experiments at little cost. But if you're also GSD, you want to be able to completely ignore your distro whenever you want.
Emphasizing "as a good starting point," I'd recommend anything in the Ubuntu branch. This includes Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Lubuntu and Xubuntu, as well as Mint, based on Ubuntu. The Ubuntu repository system is excellent.
My favorite is Lubuntu, because it's "just your stuff" with very minimal "vestigial crap" (as the old Anybody's Bike Book https://duckduckgo.com/?q=anybody%27s+bike+book would call it). Lubuntu does have a few small rough edges, but I like its usable minimalism.
At the moment I don't think the main Ubuntu/Unity variant is good as a starting point, because its UI is significantly different from all other distros and therefore does not lead you down a path of expectations to look for when you eventually try other distros. In other words, Ubuntu/Unity mainly teaches you about Ubuntu/Unity, whereas most other distros give you more general Linux UI experience and expectations. Welcome to the Ubuntu/Unity world, as opposed to welcome to the Linux Universe.
When you're at a "starting point," then you want a distro that doesn't demand attention. Distros like Arch and Gentoo are for people who are ready and willing to spend time getting things going exactly the way they want. When you're at a starting point you don't necessarily know exactly how you want things, and being forced to choose is stressful.
Treat your first starting point distro as a stable base, from which you can learn. Branch out from there as far as you want, at your chosen speed. Dual booting and virtual machines will allow you to try experiments at little cost. But if you're also GSD, you want to be able to completely ignore your distro whenever you want.
As a nice alternative to Ubuntu or Arch, I'd like to recommend a little-known distribution called Chakra Linux (http://chakra-linux.org/). It started out as an Arch distribution, and gradually has moved to focus on being a KDE4 distribution.
Upsides: a beautiful, modern, easy-to-use, not-glitchy graphical environment for everything. A decent built-in package manager with rolling updates. Support for most of the basics.
Downsides: No easy rollbacks (yet) on the package manager, so if an update breaks something, you'll have a hassle. Hardware support still lacking (my laptop's trackpad isn't detected; I haven't had time yet to see about porting drivers for it).
I set mine up with Chrome and the built-in terminal and a few other basics in Linux, and then installed the VirtualBox package and (after massaging it a little bit) got it running a Windows 7 environment where I have my preferred text editor of choice and a few other goodies. A shared drive is set up between the two that allows me to, for example, run a local web server on the Linux side and edit the files in the current project in the Windows VM. I really really like this setup.
I love OpenBSD too, and have used Debian a lot, and we use Ubuntu (and other Linuxes) in the shop for various things, but this is the first distribution I've been happy with for regular desktop use.
If you want to give it a serious try and have any questions, drop me an email and I'll see if I can help.
Upsides: a beautiful, modern, easy-to-use, not-glitchy graphical environment for everything. A decent built-in package manager with rolling updates. Support for most of the basics.
Downsides: No easy rollbacks (yet) on the package manager, so if an update breaks something, you'll have a hassle. Hardware support still lacking (my laptop's trackpad isn't detected; I haven't had time yet to see about porting drivers for it).
I set mine up with Chrome and the built-in terminal and a few other basics in Linux, and then installed the VirtualBox package and (after massaging it a little bit) got it running a Windows 7 environment where I have my preferred text editor of choice and a few other goodies. A shared drive is set up between the two that allows me to, for example, run a local web server on the Linux side and edit the files in the current project in the Windows VM. I really really like this setup.
I love OpenBSD too, and have used Debian a lot, and we use Ubuntu (and other Linuxes) in the shop for various things, but this is the first distribution I've been happy with for regular desktop use.
If you want to give it a serious try and have any questions, drop me an email and I'll see if I can help.
Install a different desktop environment on Ubuntu, or use Mint or Debian. Apt-get and compatibility with all the repositories isn't "hand-holdy".
It's great if you want the opposite of hand-holdy. The Arch docs boldly ask you to solve your own problems before asking for help.
That said, I loved Slackware and FreeBSD when I ran them. Arch has more in common with those OSes than the Debian or Red Hat derived Linux distros. If you have the patience to learn, you will likely break it in just like Derek describes.
That said, I loved Slackware and FreeBSD when I ran them. Arch has more in common with those OSes than the Debian or Red Hat derived Linux distros. If you have the patience to learn, you will likely break it in just like Derek describes.
I'm sure that Arch is a great option; I know several people who are completely happy with it.
My personal suggestion isn't really a distro: I recommend any distro that runs KDE well. I think Arch is fine for KDE, but I haven't tried it. OpenSUSE and the KDE spin of Fedora are both great; I would probably side with the latter if I had to, but both would do. Kubuntu was not great; I would avoid it.
I like KDE because it's very configurable and consistent. Also, it's shiny. I like shiny :) You really should try it.
My personal suggestion isn't really a distro: I recommend any distro that runs KDE well. I think Arch is fine for KDE, but I haven't tried it. OpenSUSE and the KDE spin of Fedora are both great; I would probably side with the latter if I had to, but both would do. Kubuntu was not great; I would avoid it.
I like KDE because it's very configurable and consistent. Also, it's shiny. I like shiny :) You really should try it.
when in doubt, you can't go wrong with Debian, and since you're already familiar with apt. if you want to be on the edge with packages, upgrade to 'sid' instead of sticking with 'stable'.
I think I'd love to have such environment. Simple and distraction free. I feel that as I'm getting older and priority changes, I'm no longer enamored that much by technology.
Nice to see the Wenlin Chinese-English dictionary cited in this article. It has indeed a very useful content with many etymologies and good translations.
I bought the CD long time ago and I just checked their website, they apparently did not publish a phone app. Sad, because using a computer to check for words is the least practical solution.
I bought the CD long time ago and I just checked their website, they apparently did not publish a phone app. Sad, because using a computer to check for words is the least practical solution.
Derek's more hard-core geek than I suspected. I could only dream of being that hard core :)
Jumping from Ubuntu to Linux Mint was already a leap of faith for me.
Jumping from Ubuntu to Linux Mint was already a leap of faith for me.
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