Linux Fundamentals

Linux is over 30 years old.

I entered Linux 23 years ago, having discarded Microsoft Windows for good, at the age 50 years.

Why pay for a bad commercial product?

Linux has four FREE products for productivity.

1. Firefox Free for web browsing.

2. LibreOffice 7 for office work.
I used AbiWord for all my books (40 in number) and changed to LibreOffice for the last 8 books.

3. GIMP for photo editing.
Similar to photoshop and better.

4. VML for videos and films.

5. Audacity and Alsa mixer for audio.

6. Blender for editing audio and video files.

7. Scribus for desktop publishing.
AsciiDoc (I have not used) is a similar application.

8. Besides there are lot of command line applications.

LateX was the best but it seems nobody is supporting it.

Vim
Emacs
Kile
TexWorks
TexShops
Lyx

Windows base has nothing to offer.

No one is too old to learn Old Tricks!

Russian Linux Star Linux is superb.
It is in my very old laptop.
It erased Microsoft OEM BIOS script in a flash.
UEFI of Microsoft prevents dual booting with Linux.

Endless OS also erases Microsoft BIOS script but it takes over the hard disk and no dual or multi booting is allowed.

Endless has limitless collection of utilities, including a set of free Google Applications.

ALT Linux of Russia has MATE as a desktop and its installation is bit cumbersome and kernel is old.

My best discovery is Sparky Linux GameOver.

1. Linux GNU
Free Software Initiative in 1985.
Richards Stallman.

He was the Sath GURU!

2. Linux

Linus Tovarlds in 1992, Kernel Man!

The kernel that ports to different hardware.

3. System-D and System-V

Are boot managers.

System V has almost become obsolete.

4. X-11 Windows
Yggdrasil was the first Live CD.
X-11 gave the graphic interface.

5. Gnome was the First Desktop that incorporated software for users.

MATE

KDE

XFce

Enlightenment in Bodhi Linux as an example.

6. Distributions

Redhat and Fedora in 1995 and second commercial distribution.
I started with Redhat 8.

It used RPM package management tool.

Suse first commercial distribution in 1994

Debian

Currently Kernel 6.1 and Gnome 43.
Gnome 44 is coming.

First impression of Debian 12 is, it is smooth and fast.

Debian is the mother of all current distributions including Ubuntu and NOT a commercial distribution and the foundation for Free Software now with over 60,000 packages in its repository.

Debra and Ian started it.
Ian left us very young in 2015 (42) after an altercation with the Police.

He was married (1993) to Debra Lynn.
Divorced in 2008 with three kids and very little is known about Lynn.

She appeared to be an author.

By the way, I use Debian as my base.

Its complete install has almost all the Desktops but one can choose individual isos of different Desktops in  Live CD/DVD format for live sessions or for install.

Debian wad established in 1993.

He made Linux implementation global.

It is an embodiment of Linux Community for the Community.

Everything from documentation to implementation is community based and resist proprietary software by default.

Debian 12 is about to be released.
It is at FREEZE stage.

Ubuntu is the most popular and made Linux presence felt worldwide.

Gentoo

Slackware is the oldest.

Emma Bantus is very popular in Africa.

Pop Os on proprietary machines.

Tuxedo on proprietary machines from Germany

MX Linux

Arch and Endeavour

Zorin

Endless OS

Vanilla

Mint

Manjaro

Kali Linux for Penetrations Testing and hacking

6. Small but powerful!

Puppy Linux is my favorite!

4M Linux is sleek.

7. WINE
Wine is not an emulator.

It made Windows API implementation in Linux easy.

Wine implements Windows software on Linux background and brought games to Linux through Proton.

Linux was devoid of games and was catering mainly for servers including NASA.

8. Valve made Linux game console global.

It is called Steam (version 3) Drive and Deck.

It is commercial and so far we haven't got a striped down version for the Linux community.

HOLOOS is trying hard I hope it will be soon available from www.distriwatch.com.

9. Running  Linux on VM ware or Virtual Machine is a waste of time.

It does not provide the first hand experience and feel of a Live CD.
Go to www.distrowatch.com download a free iso.

There are over 300 isos in Linux Tracker.

10. Linux has its  own file system.

I use Ext4 and I do not like Btrs at all.
Linux does not run on FAT or NTFS partitions.

Install it along with other operating systems having partitioned it during installation.

Ubuntu does a good job.

I use Gparted in a USB stick for partitioning disks.

Gparted live CD another option for partitioning.

Partition Magic of Windows is proprietary now.

I have 20 odd Live Linux distributions in USB sticks including Vanilla Linux.

Dual booting has become easy now that many distributions have ways to overcome Microsoft's UEFI restrictions.

11. Final note.

I published a book at Amazon Books by the name "Linux Fundamentals; Core Features."
It is 155 pages only.
There is another book Publishing a Book Using Only Linux Utilities.

All utilities used for publishing the book were Free Software.

No proprietary tag attached.

I have published over 35 books on various other topics including Buddhism using only Linux utilities and  Linux PC running many distributions.

No Microsoft Windows at all on my PC.

Buddhist Philosophy runs in parallel with Linux Free Software.

The best Gift is "Gift of Dhamma".

Learning Linux Fundamentals is a True (Self) Gift.

Linux will come handy (long after my demise).

I leave royalties to my family members.

12. I am waiting for an affordable Linux Cellphone.

Beating Google,'s Androids is a Big Ask.

Mind you Google Base is Linux!

I hope affordable cellphone will come before my demise.

Apple is variant of Unix but very expensive!

Pine Linux or Lineage products are too expensive and are more expensive than Steam Deck.

American War Politics, Until End of 2024

I am going to sign off posting political stuff here, until the election fever is over.

I do not want to hint bright and scientific ideas to these STUPID guys.

Equally nothing much happening on the Linux Front to write about!  

There would ONLY be politics and nothing but politics till the end of 2024.

It is true for Ceylon, since lame duck, unelected president has no power to dissolve the parliament or call for elections for the presidency, while everybody else wants some form of elections.

Longer they hold on worse for the ruling party.

By the way, elections want solve any of our problems but like buying a lottery ticket it is an addiction. 

However  in Ceylon, politics is unpredictable, violence including political assassinations are on the card.

I am saying the above (assassinations) due to many reasons.

A Buddhist monk, Buddha Rakkitha plotted killing SWRD.

He was living with a female cabinet minister.

Poor Somarama was sent to prison (he did not know how to hold a pistol) but a thug hired by ?j did the job.

Ossie Corea was my guess.

Soma Thera died under suspicious circumstances similar to Professor Senaka Bible.

Gaminie Dissanayake and Laiith Athulathmudali were killed by goons of Chandrika.

Baddegana Sanjeewa was a Chandrika goon.

There are lot of othe non political goons of the underworld who are active in drug smuggling.

There is a Triangular Drug syndicate that operates from Thailand, Mumbai and Colombo.
Local Mafiosi has connection to this triangle.

I have no knowledge of how Putin's mafioso operates.

One place I never want to visit is Thailand.

Vijaya Kumaranatinge and Ranjan Wijeratne were killed by JVP.

Lot of journalists were killed by goons of Senior Premadasa.

Sotti Upali was one of the goons,

It started with killing Richard Zoysa and culminated with killing Lasantha Wicràmatunge on the 8th of January, 2009.

Number of Tamil journalists killed far exceeds the number of Sinhala journalists killed both by LTTE and successive government agents.

Then Upali Wijewardana disappeared in mid air.

Then Jeyataj Fenandupulle was killed not by LTTE but by a guy who was eyeing for the post of PM. I have no knowledge of his goons and how he operates except for the Easter Bombing.

Our  Rajan Kadhiragarman was killed by a marksman of the LTTE.

Violence is endemic in Ceylon including domestic violence and conflicting parties solve their problems by killing each other.

Under 16 years, as a minor, I have seen two fatal events using  sword as a weapon and a third non fatal event (in our village and none were my relatives) in my neighbourhood.

The First case in my internship was a murder case.

A guy had cut the abdominal aorta with a sword and in spite of pumping over 22 pints of blood, the surgeon could not suture the bleeding artery.

Then, I had a young guy under 20 whose liver was pierced by a cris-knife.

We packed the wound with rubber form and pumped blood and saved him.

It was a bloody mess and we tried to save the guy.

We left this village and moved to a better residential area closed to the town.

Mind you all these were born Buddhists!

Then were had JVP and D.JVP violence and mayhem!

Political violence including killing journalists is normal and none were adequately or conclusively reported or investigated fully, in the South and in the North.

Luckily nobody except services can carry weapons but political thugs and underworld guys and girls possess weapons.

If one does do a real analysis more than 50% of the guys and girls (having underscored the local politicians who kill opponents) in the parliament have some form of criminal record.
They use parliamentary privileges to cover their tracks.

I do not mind British Stray Storm Shadow missile hitting our parliament while in full session debating prevention of terrorist act, killing all it members so that we can say full good bye to parliamentary politics.

From the ashes of Phoenix or Parliament (all members dead) we can design a new constitution where no member is allowed more than two terms, no list MPs, no bonus MPs, ability to file a case against any corrupt politician by any citizen so that  his or her civil rights are permanently abolished, for anyone with pending cases (civil or criminal) is not allowed to contest and any political party whose member is convicted on any offence (better even pending cases) is barred from contesting two consecutive elections.

There are 181 parties and by the above provision we can cut down the number of parties at any election.

The beauty of this proviso is that the ballot paper which is like a newspaper would become smaller and we safe the paper, trees and even our precious planet.

These are wishful thinking and would never see the day light in my time on this planet.

One brother of a killer politician is having a local TV station on his credit.

It is total mess.

Moving to the foreign scene India, Pakistan and Bangladesh included President Biden wanting a Regime Change in Russia and getting Ukraine guys to send drones to Moscow to kill Putin are not good omens at all.

All the above are my guess-estimates without hard  facts and RAW, C.I.D, CIA, MI-5-6 and KSB should not ask me to provide incriminating evidence.  

Me leaving Ceylon well in advance from the battle field is preemptive safeguard measure, since a stray bullet can kill a guy or girl watching a political event.

I can remember an innocent undergraduate was shot in front of the University Senate.

I rushed to the hospital but he was DOA or dead on arrival.

This was my first job in the university and I decided to leave Ceylon soon after the compulsory service of 6 years.

Coming back to American politics, there is nothing but politics till the end of 2024.

Trying to poison President Putin using Ukraine as a rump state has misfired.

There wers over 22 biological labs in Ukraine and WHO is silent except for the Wuhan labs.

President Putin knows this  very well and he will drag the War in Ukraine willingly or unwillingly.

He has good store of missiles in store and Ukraine will be a Rump State by then with or without EU certification.

EU will crack open and nobody except perhaps, a woman will soon take the chair temporarily.

De Santos is a stupid guy.

Biden was the worst president in American history and De Santos is going to spoil the soup for Republicans.

The Shifty Shiff's bogus Steel Document (UK Guy), bogus impeachment process, Hunter Biden Laptop,Twitter collaboration, Ukraine War, MIC and Neocolonial White House Staff are enough SAGA to win enough electoral  colleagues seats for the Republicans, come next election and De Santos wants to spoil it.

He cannot win against Biden but Trump can.

Instead of uniting Republicans he is trying to become an instant hero.

I am not a supporter of Trump and I do not care what happens in American politics but politically speaking Trump should be given a second chance, so that he would clean up the FBI.

He had a raw deal instigated by FBI.

He started by firing former FBI director and he has the stamina to stand up to the FBI.

Muller Report was a scapegoat!

CIA will become a non entity when Ukraine collapses.

BRICS will become an alternative to American hegemony. 

Doing sweet nothing China becomes a world power by default and it will take years for Russia to cultivate European Dream.

For the time being, Russia should turn to Asian and African countries for friendship.

That is where the emerging economy is and certainly not in E.D.E or Energy Deficit Europe.

No EDGE at all!

        

Running Parallels with Proxy War in Ceylon and Ukraine

Let me be forthright from the very outset.

I am writing this as a simple Buddhist who is totally against any war anywhere on this Planet Earth.

Hatred begets hatred.

Loving kindness brings harmony.

In Ceylon we had over 35 years of political  hatred under JRJ (UNP) and Sirimovo (SLFP).

These two parties and their collaterals ruined Ceylon.

The breakaway offshoot parties from these two parties still carry hatred in Ceylon including LSSP, CP and MEP.

There are 81 registered parties in Ceylon and one is headed by a monk.

According to Buddha monks should not take part in politics or should not give advice to kings (currently president Biden and Putin), queens or presidents.

The latest in this development are Wira Wansa Associate Conglomerate and Champaka's new party of descent (HATE).

These two are offshoots of the OLD JVP lead by Wije (Wira) Weera who started revolution in this country when there was no NEED or racial animosity in existence.

He started hating India to begin with.

It is believed North  Korea was instrumental  in creating this party of  descent who used killing opponents in broad day light, as a political stunt and tool.

Less I talk about LTTE is better and it was a party of HATE from its origin and it systematically  exterminated, all other moderate Tamil parties.

TNA is the remnant collateral.

I have nothing but admiration for Sampanthan for his political stamina.

By the way, I do not understand how the Tamil political parties evolved in the North.

Muslim parties analogy is simple.

When two dogs fight, the small dog steals the flesh of politics.

Here is the entry point for CIA.

CIA used Indian RAW as its collateral in creating descent in Ceylon just like in Ukraine.

India hated Ceylon and feared it would supersede Singapore as a power keg of the Indian ocean.

USA and CIA was eyeing Ceylon as a base.

I know it as first hand information since, I protected the satellite in the surgical theater as a surgical equipment.

India crested DJVP (second RAW creation) in 1988-89 to scuttle the launch.

Indira Gandhi was the architect of the first but I am not sure of the second, may be PM, Rajiv.

Only difference in Ukraine was it armed the Neo Nazis and Bandera in Ukraine for over a decade (equivalents of JVP and D-JVP).

Both Republicans and Democrats without exception helped to create Russophobia.

CIA and MIC (Military industrial Complex) were direct beneficiary but they have now met their nemesis called Russians who withstood Nazis.

It looks like Ukraine militants (Bandera) are going to be all but a pushover for Wagner group and Chechens.

I have sympathy for average Ukrainians who are refugees in Poland and EU countries.

Poland had to stomach spill overs historically.

Coming to India and Indians they did not provide refugee status to Ceylonese Tamils.

That is the typical Duplicity of Indians.

Currently India while buying cheap Russian fuels and selling them back to EU countries 3 times the stock price and are asking for a seat in the Security Council is the real Geopolitical Duplicity.

Pakistan and the rest of the neutral countries should oppose double dealing Indians, and there should NOT be a place in the Security Council for India.

China obliterated Tibet and Dalai Lama is a lame duck.

China fought two wars with India for a narrow stretch of land and should not be given a seat in the Security Council.

Instead South Africa deserves a place in the Security Council.

WHO is a collosal waste and should be abolished for the reason allowing CIA to operate lethal viral labs to kill President Putin  in Ukraine (over 22 labs in number).

One need not do anything to resurrect USA and UK for using Depleted Uranium and let the guys/girls who masterminded these operations die of lethal cancers.

France should be allowed to have Nuclear Plants in every city but they should not be allowed to buy Uranium from outside sources, at all.

They should dig and mine Uranium in France and not in West Africa.

No gas and fuel from Russia or any other country to France and UK until all the Depleted Uranium is utilized in a War Zone of their choice.

Above points are raised to show not only India but all except a few EU countries are Duplicity Giants. 

This piece is not complete unless I make some references to Israel and Muslim conflict.

Both religions are essentially similar, God based.

One branch arise from a legitimate child and other branch from an illegitimate child from same father.

The God I think was an intermediary by creating another bifid child of humans and gods.

I am a guy who believes in, the god has no relationship to human evolution.

If there was a hybrid child it would have been from an alien species who visited this planet millions of years ago having had sex with an evolving primate species.

By the way, the age of this planet is not 7000 years as according to Bible and Kuran but much more ancient and revising these texts according to at least Sumerian artifacts, if not scientific is mandatory.

By the way these two texts have many editions and are constantly changing with time.

Archeologists and writers are born liars except for a few. 

This comment applies to Bagawath Geetha, too.

Former CDC chairman and his committee of hifi scientists should be sent to prison for operating "gain in function" research in China.

I have a request for President Putin.

We took 35 years to end our war of attrition and we are totally bankrupt.

He should end the War (attrition till next Presidential Election in USA is prudent) soon, on his own accord with a Strategic Bomb near the border of Poland (please avoid spent up Uranium) or on the head quarters of the Military Alliance of the EU, lest Russia too, go bankrupt with Esoteric Missiles of mass distruction.

Otherwise, MAD or Mutually Assured Distruction!

Postscript.

Please note I am not in Ceylon currently and if I post this post in a local post I will be categorised as a terrorist.

All Ceylonese are by default terrorists thanks to our robust constitution.

I think Ceylon should not have a constitution but let our monks deliberate Security Council Debates, on monthly basis in every village in Ceylon and the UNO should fund these rabid monks.

By doing so, (debating security) as rabid dogs,  fighting each other, they will exhaust their inbuilt anger and spent up steam, the rest of the citizens can exercise their free and democratic rights only in their residential domains, if they possess any of their own but not rented out.

According to proposed amendments to the constitution tenants are terrorists with no legal rights.

In the alternative each monk should be provided with a Steam Deck and Drive with a big overhead TV to play "War Games" in preparation of the Security Council Debates.

I have another proposal!

The rent for University Students should be raised by three times the local prices.

By doing so, we can reduce the number entering the Universities drastically and then having more dons than undergraduates in every university that fails to function with perennial strikes.

The dons themselves can create creativity  perpetually without students asking valid questions.

Versatility of Linux

The biggest plus point of Linux is one need not worry about Virus attacks.

The file structure of parent child relationship makes it difficult to insinuate wild or viral coding when running the system.

There is a big community that supports Linux and also individual distributions.

Number one attribute of Linux, is it protects the hardware both old and new.

One can use hardware as long as one desires or until one decides to buy new infrastructure/s.

Number two attribute is, it detects hardware problems at boot time and reports them before booting.

It gives a live report at booting but the problem is that it flashes them fast, in less than 30 seconds.

One should develop the habit of reading them at boot time.

If one press Control plus Shift and F1 the boot time readout is available.

Once the kernel detects the hardware the Linux distribution boots instantly.

Rest depends on the desktop type.
Xfce boots fast and KDE plasma boots slowly.

One can go to command line using Ctr + Sht and Function keys before and after booting.

Number three is, it schedules all the processes as either live or inactive and saves resources for  work in progress.

Linux is absolutely fast due to above and many other reasons.

Then there are many solid distributions to choose.

One is not hooked to a company or product that fails to update.

War Mongering, MIC, War and Peace

MIC = CIA = War Mongering is the current equation for White House and White Hall..

Only Donald Trump speaks of Peace and that is what a good businessman should focus on.

When MIC or the Military Industrial Complex gets activated all other industries including Silicon Valley go into hibernation.

Ceylon was a base for War for over 35 years and that was instigated by RAW of India.

We are bankrupt now.

CIA was an indirect beneficiary.
Only Ukraine helped Ceylon then and I have nothing against Ukraine.

Downfall of Ukraine started with the Neo Nazis becoming a proxy (USA) for War against Russia.

Russia lost over 30 million against Hitler's Nazis and Ukraine is no match or nemesis for  Russia.

Just read the book War and Peace of Maxim Gorki.

Unlike modern USA under Biden = Demolition of Russia is a historical joke, Biden included.

Russia is a great culture if one forgets about Stalin and Communism, the contribution of Russian civilization to history is enormous.

What is the contribution of USA and CIA,?

War in some remote corner of the globe.

Ultimately WAR would revisit USA, if they consider using nuclear arsenal.

The failed Ukraine Saga would  lead them to  China.

Astute President Putin won't lead us to World War III but Xi Ping is an unested man in global affairs.

If at all, China is preparing for a global war with over 300 satellites activated.

Proactivity is a dangerous preposition!

Hope he does not become a mad man of communism.

BEWARE!

Mao Se Tung killed 3 to 5 millions of his own citizens.

Any man on War footing can become a Hitler.

In Ceylon we are still unable to give civilian casualties.

Generally civilian casualties far exceeds military and Ukraine is an exception.

RATIO of One to Seven casualties of Military in Ukraine and currently Poland will never be able to absorb the NATO brunt.

Next casualty is Poland.

History repeats.

As a closing note, I should say something about Eurovision.

I do not watch it for years.

It has become a politicised organization and promote subtle political message.

I believe singers and song writers should be free of political assertions.

It kills creativity.

I can understand if somebody is suppressed and under autocracy as in China.

The suppression of artists from Russia in Eurovision is the begining of the downfall Eurovision on the grounds of its own hypocrisy.

Like independent political commentators singer should be free of bondage.

There is a healthy manifestation in journalism.

New and vocal media are coming up with the help of freelance crowd or open sourcing.

This a threat to CNN, BBC and Fox News who are becoming organs of certain political parties.

It is a trend in Ceylon, too.

Apolitical mass is growing world over.

Once it grows beyond 40%  I think political guys and girls cannot keep on lying to the intelligent voter or citizenry.

Coronation, Wealth and Thamasha

If a referendum is held in UK and average British citizen is given the opportunity to decide (economic migrants should be excluded) I am pretty sure more than 50% will have a negative reflection on the monarchy irrespective who holds the reign.

I am not saying that democratic view should always be the right view, simply because view of 49% is ignored.

What I say is mankind has not evolved a correct political system, yet which is all inclusive.

In my analysis we are level ZERO CIvilization.

Level One (1) civilizations are devoid of political systems that control beings of that sphere.

The way we treat animals  Level One civilizations treat us as subhuman (animal analogy).

There are no WARS in level one and above civilizations.

The WAR represents the animal behaviour of humans.

Monarchy and commonwealth were built on wars of attrition.

We are on the threshold of World War III.

We have had two world wars already.

Third World WAR is end of our civilization and there is no sane institution (including Vatican and UNO) in this world to get us out of this quagmire!

Whopping Loss for Conservative in UK

It is whopping loss for conservative in UK.

Reasons.

1. Helping USA to blow up gas pipeline.

2. Helping (under water drones) to damage a bridge in Ukraine.

3. Arming Ukraine to fight a proxi war for America.

4.  Sending mercenaries to Ukraine

5.Total Lack of diplomacy and Piece Negotiations.

Joining the War Mongering Biden.

Same story will befall on Democrats who are good at lying openly.

In Ceylon cancelling local election fearing defeat is obvious.
Hope judges see the day light and give a verdict favouring the voter.

Why I detest AI technology

I detest AI technology.

AI may be good for an autocratic country like China.

I will never alight a plane only on AI.

Remember the plane crash that guys put autopilot and were engaging in homosexual act.

They perished with the passengers.

Remember the Shuttle Crash that pilots could not cancel the autopilot mode.

When on flight and unexpected events occur on a made made machine only the man can figure out his own faults.

AI will work on a particular program mode.

If that mode fails it has to reprogram having deactivated the original program.

If the AI cannot figure out the outcome mode it invariably go back to default mode with faults ingrained.

AI could fail but human brain can figure our a contingency plan.

We should be able trust our brains without panic.

Only a few can master the brain in panic mode.

That is why TRAINING is Vital.

I trust almost all pilots with enough flying hours to their credit function well under trying conditions.

This being said, I can enjoy my flight.

So never ever criticize them including ground staff.

They are trained to handle difficult situations. 

Debian 12 at Freeze Stage

It looks like a Major Debian version 12 is ready for Freeze.
That means by the end of this year Linux enthusiasts are going to see a major upgrade.
I am fed up of Arch Linux except Manjaro Linux.
Hope they come out with a New Desktop.