Hey!! the notebook is back!!! Did any of you miss it??

Just an update on life: the school year is almost over yay!!! I can start working on my website again :3 This time I'm planning to revamp my homepage... I think I will stick to the red and black theme but I definitely have to change up the layout AND make it responsive. I recently got a new laptop and its screen is about 40% smaller than my computer. My homepage doesn't look very good to me. I think the current layout is pretty but it needs to be prettier.

Other stuff that I've been up to:

Hullo +_+ so I'm in summer vaycay right now. I can do anything now. But that itself is an issue of its own; I can do anything now and I can't decide on what!!

I've been doing some fun stuff these days like dabbling in Linux. I'm not a techy person and I'm not into computers at all, but I wanted to try out Linux for two reasons: 1) I hear it's faster than Windows, and 2) it's supah customizable. Of course the second reason is what got me sold :3 So yesterday, I impulsively installed Debian 12 onto my laptop in dual boot.

I think a lot of people in a community like Neocities are likely to be into Linux and FOSS and all that crap. If you, the reader, aren't, then... it's fine you can still keep reading because I myself am I noob, and I'm writing about what I know so far about Linux (and what I do not know) from the perspective of a non-techy noob who is willing to face all the trials and tribulations that come from using Linux, all for the sake of a prettier taskbar (screenshot below).

very tiny double panels :D (aka taskbars) link to art he's dying!!!

Wut da hell? Noobie install Debian?? This is the reaction that my nerd friends had when I told them that I installed Debian 12 as a tech illiterate noobie. Honestly!! It's valid. I decided on Debian within the span of like, 24 hours at most and 10 hours at least. Honestly I didn't know what I was getting myself into. I just knew that it was lightweight and had XFCE which is a super customizable desktop environment (or so I've heard). The customizability was the main thing I was chasing, really. But I was also excited to use a fun new unfamiliar environment that was out of my comfort zone!!

Oke! Here's some quick context for non-techy people like me. One thing about Linux (full name: GNU/Linux) is that it has a lot of "versions", or what the community calls "distributions" or "distros" *shudders at that word* Distros are essentially "starter kits". All Linux OS distros are based on the "Linux kernel", AKA the code that ensures that the software interacts with the hardware. However, distros differ depending on the other stuff that comes pre-installed on top of the kernel. This includes like the shell (the command prompt or terminal) and its libraries, the window system (for the GUI; some types of window systems are Wayland and X11), window manager (also for GUI), desktop environment (essentially how the desktop will look and work; the fun stuff), and finally its pre-installed apps and programs (like file manager, games, text editors, browsers, etc). There are hundreds of Linux distros!! And they all got different fun names like Ubuntu, Arch, Debian, Linux Mint, Pop!_OS (yes with the underscore), Puppy Linux (:3) and more. They have different pre-installed software and are made to suit different types of people with different types of needs.

Err, so what's the big deal with me installing Debian? Honestly, those nerd friends of mine never even explained why (lame) so I had to find out myself. And even then, these are just informed inferences that I pieced together from reading and watching videos and articles about Debian. So if I say something wrong here, contact me or something! I wouldn't like any Linux disinformation on my website, even if this page is just my journal.

Debian is for servers!! Like, for those complicated back-end(?) stuff? For like, techbros and programmers. Not really for normal daily desktop users like me, they say. Debian has its own special repository/library of software. Stuff in there is super polished by developers, hence why Debian is called "stable", meaning it's not buggy. Along with this fact, Debian updates rarely and have pretty outdated software/packages which should be ideal for servers. And also something something it doesn't have access to proprietary software like drivers for Nvidia and stuff which makes it bad for desktop use (but I think that doesn't really apply to Debian 12, the most recent version which released like a month ago).

Debian is very plain out-of-the-box. While other distros are jam packed and complete with features, Debian barely has anything pre-installed onto it (that's the point though. Debian is meant to be super plain and configurable.) Typically, one would need to manually install things (like manually manually, like reading the documentation and the logs manual. like using the terminal manual) I think that's the main reason why people say it's not for Linux beginners. But honestly.. could it be that complicated for a regular home user like me? Yes— at first! I've made some mistakes, I'll be honest.. I think I broke my system on the first day of installing Debian 12 XD (It wasn't that bad... somehow Firefox was asking to be the default browser everytime I open it, even if I said "yes you can be the default browser" the previous session.) But then I did the thing that I should have done wayyy way before— read the documentation. Haah... It's so silly!! But reading can get you far! If you're new to Linux, don't think that you can just solve a problem from a random article or video online. That's how you solve problems on Windows, but on Debian? You could break something in your system!!! Well... I decided to reinstall Debian today xD I didn't want to have to deal with diagnosing the problems I've caused by pasting random commands I found online into the terminal. Everything is pretty alright so far :3 All I do on my computer is browse the internet and code my website; it couldn't get that bad, right!!!!

Enuff with the Debian talk; I just found out about Peppermint OS (the name is cute and oooh red + black scheme!!! Though... it is kinda ugly.) I installed Linux Mint on my old desktop computer but I think I want to replace it with Peppermint. Peppermint OS is quite fast and lightweight which is perfect for that old thang of mine. Linux Mint is still pretty slow on my computer right now. Hmm I still have to do more research on it though. My mother will be the main user and I need to make sure the experience is as painless as possible, and I need to get it to print stuff. I'm also considering installing Windows on it again in a dual-boot, but I think it's not very practical to have Linux on it anymore. If I were to install Windows, then I would get Windows 7 since it seems that it's the only good/new Windows version that my computer can run. Hmm

I should also list the drawbacks of being on Linux (Debian 12 XFCE specifically!)

I still have Windows but I've barely used it today or yesterday. I kept it just in case. I think I will only use it when I'm not a home and I need to preserve the battery. Besides that, it's still there for my games like Stardew Valley and Minecraft. I still have to figure out how to pirate on Linux, hmm. (I so sorry, I want to pay for Stardew Valley but that won't be happening very soon due to money issues.) Good thing though it seems that I can have Dolphin and DeSmuMe and probably a GB/GBC/GBA emulator on Linux. Anyway...

I love Hyakkimaru!!!