Recent posts on Bit Cannon
I installed Chimera Linux on my laptop a month ago and have been using it daily since then. This post details the experience so far. Chimera Linux on HP Aero 13 laptop Note 07 Jul 2024: Keep in mind that this was written in July 2023 and the distro has continued to improve. So the following does accurately represent the current state of things. What Is Chimera Linux? Chimera Linux is a unique…
I've used iPhones since 2008, adding thousands of dollars to Apple's giant pile of cash. Much like my move from macOS to Linux more than 3 years ago, Apple's recent behaviour has prompted me to consider iPhone/iOS alternatives. Join me on this journey into the world of Android and the lack of real choice that smartphones present in 2020. Background For about 12 years I've…
This was a lot harder than planned but it’s done and working. pic.twitter.com/JL19s40GDt — Wesley Moore (@wezm) July 20, 2019 I built this machine for work use. I started a new job in March 2019 that involves working with two compiled languages: Mercury and Rust . I wanted a machine with lots of cores/threads to keep the edit-compile-test cycle as short as possible. Specifications…
I recently returned from a 3-week trip to Broome to escape the awful Melbourne weather. The first week I worked remotely and the latter two were holiday. A week before leaving I acquired a new laptop: a Huawei MateBook X Pro (2018). In the days before heading off I worked to set up the new machine into a state that would allow me to perform all my work duties. I wanted to take the new laptop as it…
After I ordered a new laptop yesterday (Huawei MateBook X Pro (2018)) I started pondering what OS I might run on it. I started looking through the DistroWatch.com Top 100 OSes (by Page Hit Ranking). This table (shown in the right side bar on the homepage) ranks OSes by the number of hits to their DistroWatch.com page in the last 6 months. It's a decent proxy for what's out there and what…
Since publishing, A Tiling Desktop Environment , I've continued to think about the topic, absorb the comments I received, try out some of the suggestions, and poke around the code bases of some existing window managers and Wayland compositors. This weekend I set up a new website to document the thinking and research I've been doing. It's called Desktop Institute, and has a fun…
I've been thinking about graphical shells recently. One of the great things about open source desktops 1 is there is a plethora of choice when it comes to graphical shells. However they seem to fall into two camps: Full featured desktop environments that stick to the conventional stacking window metaphor. Narrowly featured window manager based environments that include tools like tiling…
This is the sixth post in my series on finding an alternative to Mac OS X . The previous post in the series recapped my first year away from Mac OS and my move to FreeBSD on my desktop computer. The search for the ideal desktop continues and my preferences evolve as I gain more experience. In this post I summarise where I'm at two years after switching away from Mac OS. This includes leaving…
At various points in my Finding an Alternative to Mac OS series I've made promises about trying Windows and writing about the experience. This is as close as I'm going to get to that post: What about Windows ? Or, Windows 10 is better than previous versions and has the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) now. Regarding Windows, I should say that I am strongly biased towards *nix style…
In, A Year Away From Mac OS , I wrote about my switch to FreeBSD on my desktop computer and noted one of the downsides was losing Stardew Valley: I initially missed playing the game Stardew Valley on FreeBSD. It was consuming a few hours of my time each week prior to the FreeBSD install. The extra friction of rebooting into Arch to run the game basically stopped me playing, which wasn't…
I recently picked up a ROCK64 with 4Gb RAM to test it out as a fanless desktop computer. The ROCK64 is a credit card sized single board computer (SBC) like the Raspberry Pi. It's available with 1, 2, or 4Gb of RAM, and optional eMMC storage in addition to a microSD slot. The ROCK64 is fairly comparable to the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ except it does not have Wi-Fi, can be configured with much…
This is the fifth post in my series on finding an alternative to Mac OS X . A bit over a year ago I wrote about my search for an alternative to Mac OS and switch to Linux. In this post I reflect on how that year went and detail some further adventures into Mac OS alternatives. January 2017 — Linux All The Things After originally choosing to use elementary OS full time I grew frustrated with some…
This is the fourth post in my series on finding an alternative to Mac OS X . Part 3 was about finding replacements for some of my favourite Mac productivity apps. My migration away from Mac OS X is still going well. I rarely use Mac OS anymore. The one remaining application I'm yet to find a suitable replacement for is MoneyWell . Update 30 March 2019: I have discovered Buckets and will be…
This is the third post in my series on finding an alternative to Mac OS X . Part 2 was about my experience with elementary OS and the switch back to Arch Linux . I received a lot of great responses to the last post , thanks to all that commented, emailed and shared the post. I'd like to particularly call out the comment that Daniel Foré, the founder of elementary OS left on Reddit : Hey…
I gave a short (10 min) talk at work on my adventures with Linux. It covers the same core content as the post, Finding an Alternative to Mac OS X — Part 2 . Topics covered include: Motivation for the experiment Experience with elementary OS Linux alternatives to macOS apps Some recommendations Looks like your browser can't play this video. Perhaps try downloading it instead. The Alfred like…
This is the second in my series on finding an alternative to Mac OS X . Part 1 was about evaluating 13 alternative operating systems and then choosing one to use full time. The selected OS was elementary OS . The motivation for this change is to get access to better hardware since Apple is neglecting the Mac lineup . If video is more your style I gave a short (10 min) talk at work on my adventures…
This is the PC that my Linux experiment was run upon. Originally it was my work PC but after changing jobs I now use it at home. This machine runs Arch Linux from the NNMe drive with a ZFS zpool comprised of 3 × 250 Gb Samsung 850 SSDs used for /home . Specifications Component Description CPU Intel Core i7 6700K (Base:4.00GHz, Turbo:4.20GHz) CPU Cooling Cooler Master Hyper TX3 Evo Motherboard…
Update: The GNOME FreeBSD port has been updated and is now quite recent and I moved my desktop PC to FreeBSD in October 2017 . As part of my evaluation of macOS alternatives I set up GNOME 3 on FreeBSD . I received some comments asking about this so I thought I'd expand on it a little further. FreeBSD GNOME desktop I'm a FreeBSD fan and (small scale) donor . It was the first open source…
This is the first in a series on finding a replacement for Mac OS X. Background I have used Mac OS X since the public beta and use it at both home and work. I've also run various Linux distributions and BSDs since around 2000, so am quite familiar with them. In April 2016, dissatisfied by the lack of MacBook Pro updates (and performance of Ruby ) I had a custom PC built for work. It has a…
Yesterday I tweeted that I had successfully installed Rust on my C.H.I.P . computer. @LeMoussel replied asking for a tutorial, so here goes: Step 1: Connect to C.H.I.P. My C.H.I.P. is running the Headless v4.4 Debian image. I connected to it using a serial console over USB , as described in the documentation. To do this, connect your C.H.I.P. to a computer (I'm using macOS in these examples)…
This is a running list of the watering system parts, updated as I go. 3 ⨉ Water Pump 1 ⨉ relay module
The first project that I'm planning is an automatic watering system. I have a bunch of pots on my balcony and keeping them well watered is a challenge, especially in summer. Furthermore, if they are watered too much, swarms of fungus gnats appear, which are difficult to get rid of. The goals I have in mind are: Automatically water plants based on moisture levels in pots. Solar powered —…
Hi and welcome to Bit Cannon! I'm Wes , a software developer and tinkerer from Melbourne, Australia. Here I plan to write informally about hardware and software projects I'm working on. I've recently revived my interest in embedded systems and have acquired a Raspberry Pi 3 , C.H.I.P. and have an Arduboy on the way. I have a few ideas kicking around for what to do with these devices…