[tde-users] Re: Complete TDE install

On Tuesday 21 May 2024 13:22:33 Darrell Anderson via tde-users wrote: I used to share your opinion, and that was more or less my complaint: that a desktop installed to /opt/ makes TDE appear second-class, that we must sit at the back of the bus, that we don't get included as one of the default choices of desktop by the major distros. Now, however, I don't mind so much. (Been running TDE for about 12 years, KDE3 for another 8 years or so before that.) For one thing, there are some basic technical problems -- if I may call it that -- having to do with the simple problem of naming. Many legacy KDE3 applications retain their KDE names, prefixes, suffixes, as well as the same extensions (for file type, deb, rpm, etc.), so that the newer KDE4/5/6 packages would create apparent conflicts. To attempt to rename *all* the TDE packages that have old KDE3 names would be difficult, because it could not be done easily by some kind of find-and-replace too. Any half-hearted measures would be a waste of time, and at the moment, I believe, only a fool's errand. If we do that, then any renaming scheme must be thorough, comprehensive, rename every single package, so that it is uniform. Also this would obscure our historical connection with KDE. {SNIP} And yet TDE is still used by users who are even *more* tech savvy than those savants who would judge us. ;-) In the end, I think that it's more important to keep TDE free-libre, compliant with GNU/Linux standards, and not go chasing after acceptance by the big guys. Look at what happens to all those other desktops: they all become, sooner or later, to more or less degree, owned by corporations, and then those desktops get changed, streamlined, options removed, our little private, individual worlds are ruined, and we end up with a dilemma -- either conform, and use some desktop that we don't like, that doesn't allow us to configure our machines as it suits us, or just to stop using these machines altogether. (The same, by the way, goes for other applications, programs, distros, etc.; once they are controlleld by some corporation, or by some "inner circle" of developers who have no connection to users.) Things get changed. Look at what happened to the 'Buntus; some would say that they same thing happened to Debian, which is why some rebel developers forked Devuan. Besides which ... I am sure that there are many other technical issues, much harder than just the renaming of packages, that must be resolved before any great changes can happen, before we get out of the /opt/ folder. It would be nice to have a Devuan installation disc with TDE already available for installation; I mean, just a plain vanilla Devuan, not somebody's snapshot of their system. (Nik, among others, has released snapshots, which are nice to play around with, nice to see what others are doing; but Nik configures his system as it suits him, so those snapshots don't work for me.) In the meanwhile, though, I have adapted to the present situation, and I am just glad that TDE exists, as I lose patience with other desktops, and practically have a meltdown whenever I have to use another person's machine, or when I must use public computers. For this, I have taken to portable apps for Windoze, and for those situations where it is possible to use it, I have created a mini-version of my system on a 256 gb flash drive -- COMPLEAT with root, home, swap partitions, and a UEFI boot partition -- so that, with permission, I can use somebody else's hardware, reboot into my own system. Then when I am reunited with my laptop or desktop, I can insert that flash drive, and transfer files over to my main machine. Ultimately, I value my freedom more than I do convenience, and don't mind being the outsider. It used to hurt my feelings when I didn't belong to the group of cool kids at school, but 50-60 years later I find that I actually belong with the misfits, that the misfits are always the ones who are the true insiders, the ones who make interesting work, whose lives are more adventurous and exciting. Whatever minor inconveniences remain in TDE, they are nothing compared to the inconveniences of using some other desktop. Bill