In complex systems...

...problems quickly emerge.

Readers of the UbuntuOS blog know that I put together a Debian package of the game Bloboats. This is a real Debian package, not just a Checkinstalled one. I was a bit nervous about whether it was going to work, break someone's system, etc; so I installed it on my own machine and it worked fine.

I just bought the latest Linux Format magazine. The first program I tried to install from the coverdisc was available as a .deb. I double-clicked it, and GDebi said that the program would require the removal of two packages. One of those was my Bloboats deb :'-(

So, er... install Bloboats from source. Don't faff around with my stupid amateur packaging attempt, or if you want to AT LEAST check that GDebi is not going to remove some of your existing programs. And then don't complain  if a  package you install later  gets rid of Bloboats.

I've been spending a lot of time in XFCE recently. I often do this - use Gnome for a couple of months, then get tired of it and use XFCE for a little while. Let's see how this goes.

Also recently, I've been alarmed at the attitude of Ubuntu's developers - "PowerPC makes up only a couple of percent of downloads, so we're going to stop supporting it". WHAT? Linux is only a couple of percent of the computer market, yet you're so quick to critisise companies that don't support it.

Macintosh Linux use is set to grow substantially, and everyone but Ubuntu (and Fedora, they're saying the same thing) realise it. PPC Ubuntu is how I got into Linux. If it weren't for PPC Ubuntu, I'd probably be surfing the web on Windows. And now I'm making a contribution to the community by being on the Ubuntu Podcast, and showing people how NOT to make Debian packages :-)

Now there's talk of forking PPC Xubuntu (well, actually, I'm the only one who's talked about it!). It makes sense to me - the Ubuntu repos have a lot of utilities that are must-haves for Mac users; these include hfsutils, mol and netatalk. A distribution by PowerPC users, for PowerPC users, could fix a lot of problems with PPC distros AND be a good avenue for Mac users to migrate to.