Linux Usage for 2015

Calendar year 2015 is coming to an end, and I know I haven't been posting much here lately. But here's my Linux usage for 2015.

Desktop Computer

For year 2015, I noticed that I've used Red Hat family distributions starting Feb 2015.

Distribution	Used from	Used until
CentOS 7 (Gnome)	2015-06-15	2015-12-31
Fedora 22 Workstation (Gnome)	2015-06-04	2015-06-14
Fedora 22 Workstation (KDE)	2015-05-30	2015-06-04
Fedora 21 Workstation (Gnome)	2015-02-06	2015-05-30
Antergos (Gnome)	2014-08-23	2015-02-05

Laptop Computer

My laptop, an aging IBM ThinkPad T60, is what I normally use to try different distributions. So there is a lot of variations in usage in this computer.

Distribution	Used from	Used until
Q4OS 1.2 Orion	2015-08-08	2015-12-31
Manjaro i3 0.8.13.1	2015-08-06	2015-08-07
Debian 8.1	2015-08-03	2015-08-06
Peppermint 6	2015-07-10	2015-08-02
Bodhi Linux 3.0	2015-07-06	2015-07-09
CentOS 7	2015-05-14	2015-07-05
elementary OS 0.3 Freya	2015-05-10	2015-05-13
CentOS 7	2015-03-22	2015-05-10
Fedora 21 Workstation	2015-02-02	2015-03-22
Ubuntu MATE 14.04.1	2015-01-29	2015-02-02
PC-BSD 10.1	2015-01-28	2015-01-29
Ubuntu MATE 14.04	2014-11-11	2015-01-28

For year 2016, I'm planning to try out Linux distributions that make it easy for me to (1) install proprietary video drivers and (2) the Steam client because I've decided I want to try and play some video games again.

My current pick as of this posting is the Linux Mint 17.3 Rosa MATE edition. As a matter of fact, it's currently an ongoing installation to my desktop PC right now.

Here's to the new year for computing, especially Linux. Happy Linuxing!

Linux Distribution Usage History

A little over a year ago, I assembled my first desktop computer all by myself. I've been using computers for a very long time but it was only until that point in my life where I felt the inspiration to try and build one myself. After much reading and YouTube watching, especially the part about inserting the CPU into the motherboard, I bought all the parts and started assembling.

PC Build Components (May 8, 2013)

But this post isn't about that. When I successfully completed that build, I already decided to boot only Linux on the machine. And so I made a running file in Google Drive to log all the Linux distributions I've used since May 8, 2013. (I felt really stupid for not thinking of doing this earlier, when I started using Linux in 2008...but oh, well.)

A note on VirtualBox installation in Fedora

I use VirtualBox ^[1] a lot. It's actually one of the first few applications I install after doing a fresh install of a Linux distribution. As I am currently using Fedora, I noted that it's best to do it like so:

    $ sudo yum install VirtualBox kmod-VirtualBox

kmod-VirtualBox is the kernel module for VirtualBox. If for instance, when logged in using, say, for example kernel 3.12.8-300.fc20.x86_64 and doing sudo yum install VirtualBox, then the kmod-VirtualBox-3.12.8-300.fc20.x86_64... will be installed along as a dependency. Now this is fine, as long as you are using the 3.12.8-300.fc20.x86_64 kernel, the kernel module for VirtualBox is useable. But then a new kernel update comes along, say kernel 3.12.9-301.fc20.x86_64 and you log out, reboot the computer and choose this shiny new kernel. Then once logged in, you run (assuming you do things from a terminal emulator, like I do) VBoxManage startvm 'my-virtual-machine' --type headless and the STDOUT spews forth an error telling you that kernel modules haven't been installed for the current kernel (or something like that).

That's where the meta-package kmod-VirtualBox comes in. So when there's a kernel update in Fedora, the specific VirtualBox kernel module will automatically be installed for that kernel. Then you can happily continue using VirtualBox in Fedora.

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^[1] VirtualBox package I used are in the RPMFusion third-party repository which needs to be activated before it can be used.

Fedora 20 Heisenbug Experience

Updated Jan 21 2014

I haven’t touched Fedora for a long time. Perhaps the last version I cared to try out was Fedora 16. Using it again has showed me why it's been that long — adding 3rd party repos was a bit cumbersome for me, coming from mostly an Ubuntu and Debian background.

For the last quarter of 2013, I was hell bent on using only Debian and its derivatives (except Ubuntu and its derivatives) as my main OS. The last I had installed was a rolling release based on Debian Sid, Semplice 5.1. Unfortunately, I only used it for a day because my mind kept nagging me that if I were to "roll", Arch Linux is the way to do it.

I succumbed and installed Arch Linux. I was using it for close to 15 days, too, until I broke my system attempting to dual-boot with, wait for it, Fedora 20! I didn’t want to go through installing Arch from scratch again so I decided to go with Fedora 20. And here we are.