Embassy, by Sam Drake

Since I finished my undergraduate program here recently, I wanted to relaunch this blog. I am a man of sundry and divers interests, so choosing what to start with is a difficult matter. Let's start with a bit of a technical post, to get the ball rolling.

Nazareth

I do most of my blogging from Nazareth, a Dell Latitude D830 mobile workstation. My dad used to use this machine in his business, so it was just laying around before I put it to use. I certainly own more powerful or more compact computers, but I write on Nazareth for a couple reasons. One is the fantastic keyboard, which matters for quite a bit. The other reason is because of the somatic response I've built with it.

There is an entire sector of the tech market dedicated to “distraction free computing.” I have skeptical feelings towards this corner of the market that I will likely share at a later date. However, the consumer demand for something that is not an “everything box,” a slippery germ brick that can literally do everything, is easy to understand. Tools have functions, and approaching the tool is a somatic experience. When you walk up to something like a wood lathe or a loom or a computer in a cubicle at an accounting firm, the body and mind lights up with connections to all the previous times you did the thing. To use a computing metaphor, your brain begins to “load” the wood lathe-associated programs “in to memory.” This is a powerful tool for productivity, and even the simple joy of doing, that disembodied modernity has made itself blind to.

So, I use this machine to write because I've built a somatic relationship between this machine and writing. I chose to build that somatic response with this particular machine because it is limited in important ways and quite capable in others.

I completely maxed out this machine with a first generation Core 2 Duo processor and 4 GB of ram, which does make for a good experience running a minimal Linux distribution like Debian with XFCE or CrunchBang++, but only if you don't care about battery life. Running the processor wide open like that makes it difficult to leave the desk, which is the whole point of a notebook computer. Power efficiency was just in a different paradigm at the time this machine was made, so if I wanted a useful amount of battery life from it, I was going to need an era appropriate operating system.

Operating Systems

This blog post was nearly called “Blogging in OpenSUSE 11.” Using an operating system that is not actively being developed is not a big problem if you're not connected to the internet, though there are some limitations with hardware this old. You generally only get the software that's on the disk. There's usually a lot of good software on that disk, but finding compatible software for your twenty year old linux distribution on the internet will likely be more trouble than it's worth. Your network connectivity is very limited, even on your home network. Basically all modern hardware assumes that your duogenarian computer and OS combo is nothing more than a gigantic security risk, and will insist you upgrade something before talking to you.

I briefly tried a workflow of composing in OpenOffice (remember OpenOffice?) and using a USB flash drive to bring my work over and publish it from another computer, but this was a giant faff and zero fun at all. I can't publish straight from Windows XP or some kind of Linux c. 2005, so that left those options off my list. I need an operating system that's like something from the Y2K era but still receives security updates, device drivers, etc.

After trying several options, I decided to give Haiku a go. I've run it on this machine before, and it runs very well. It's a featherweight operating system in a lot of ways, which keeps power consumption down. It has the Nextcloud desktop client, which I require. The built in web browser, WebPositive, is completely up to the task of pulling up write.as and posting the blog there. There's actually several choices for a nice markdown editor, with CuteMarkEd serving admirably for this post. Capable, yet limited.

Alternatives

I reserve the right to change my mind in a couple days. As a lowly humanities major with sundry and divers interests, I'm limited in my ability to compile my own software and I require the package maintainers for all the resources that enable the lifestyle to which I have become accustomed. It's very difficult to get in to my Bitwarden vault from this machine, and the operating system seems to think my battery is either full or nearly dead, with nothing in between. Trackpad support is adequate, but touchy.

If I were to move to a different operating system, it would likely have to be a Linux distribution because Windows is Gross. In that case, we'd probably be looking at CrunchBang++ or AntiX, depending on my fancy. I might even try to ditch the Desktop Environment entirely, run Fedora Sway or i3wm. That might even make another good blog post...

In Conclusion

Are you ever tempted to end every blog post with, like, a statement about the human experience? It must be a product of writing so much for the Church, in my case. You should go cobble together some ill-advised string of computing gadgets to make something happen. Compose your screenplay on an Apple IIe, and use a serial wifi modem to send it to the world via telnet! Diagram your next big idea on a Palm Pilot and sync it to whatever version of Red Hat they were on in 2005. Sky's the limit, kid. New stuff is a scam.