
An interview with Derek Sivers - tortilla
http://derek.sivers.usesthis.com/
======
wyclif
I'm always happy to read a new The Setup that isn't a variation on "I use a
MBP/MBA." +1 for the Arch Linux advocacy.

~~~
mark_h
I couldn't agree more! My all-time favourite in that regard:
<http://russ.cox.usesthis.com/>

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agranig
As for the command-line VoIP app, you can use "linphonec" included in
<http://www.linphone.org/>.

~~~
sivers
Cool! Hadn't heard of that. Thanks much for the recommendation.

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siavosh
I like the fact that he doesn't use almost any apps on his smart phone. I'm
close to the conclusion that smart phones are becoming a curse. Not only did I
see this at my family Thanksgiving (were most everyone was in the family room
heads down on their smart phones), but also myself. Where brief moments of
quiet were reserved for self-reflection are now substituted with OCD email
checking and tiny wings high score getting. Sigh.

~~~
hello_moto
Smartphones and tablets are largely for entertainment, which in turn are
designed to grab your attention to the fullest.

They're kind of bad (there's always that other excuse: limit yourself) seeing
how the majority users are hooked like a drug addict lately (crackberry is an
example)

~~~
gbog
> Smartphones and tablets are largely for entertainment

I don't know for tablets, I don't own one yet (Kindle e-ink doesn't count,
does it?), but for smartphones I do not agree. They are tools. Powerful tools,
like a Swiss army knife on crack.

They can be overused, and there is a full "phone politeness" to build, but it
is not a reason to luditely dismiss them as useless toys.

Things my smartphone allow me to do:

\- Get GPS turn-by-turn navigation from a link received in chat or direct
search, including traffic info. (In China it is GPS is a near necessity)

\- Find a nice mountain path when hiking around.

\- Get an answer immediately when some wikipediable question arise in a
discussion.

\- Get translations from and to Chinese, English, French.

\- Quickly prefill some new contact info and expand it on my computer later.
Take a pic of the contact so I remember better how that is. (Helps with this
Chinese names).

\- Best: Build my own tailored Fuzzy Pinyin to English dictionary and push it
to my phone, so I get a faster search. No dictionaries I know are that fast.
Needed for catching up during meetings.

I won't say I never use it for games or news checking. It happens, mostly on
the toilets, but it is not the main use.

~~~
hello_moto
You're a rare breed sir.

Most people are using it for entertainment.

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achompas
I'm ready to take the full-time plunge into Linux. Spend too much time goofing
off on my Mac, so I'd like to set it up as a pure development machine and use
an iPad for leisure.

Would you guys recommend Arch Linux as a good starting point? I've used Ubuntu
before, and I agree with Sivers's take ("too hand-holdy").

~~~
jhancock
I just went through a distro choice process. I installed various flavors of
Mint, Debian, Arch, Redhat, Ubuntu, Archbang, Crunchbang, even went retro and
tried FreeBSD again. I probably went through 20+ distros.

I really wanted to go with Arch but there are simply some desktop things I
need and I want them to work out of the box and not spend days figuring it
out.

Reasons I couldn't stick with Arch: things like Skype microphone, URL links in
various apps able to open the correct browser, consistent key bindings, laptop
power management. That last one was a killer for me. In the end, I've settled
on Lubuntu 11.10. Lubuntu's LXDE setup is clean and light. It lets me stick
with an Ubuntu repo system without suffering through what may be a multi-year
Unity breaking-in process.

~~~
sivers
I agree with this and with "drats" comment here, too.

For someone new to Linux, I'd still recommend Ubuntu. If it's too cluttered,
try changing the window manager or use Lubuntu.

I only came to Arch Linux after 10+ years of trying others, and it was the
right thing for me, but I don't recommend it to others unless they're already
quite experienced with Linux. (But for those who are, it's wonderful.)

Until then, stick with Ubuntu, Xubuntu, Lubuntu, etc - as you'll get the most
support there.

~~~
sharagoz
I started using Arch a little over a year ago. It was my first Linux distro so
I didn't have much experience, and I cant recall regretting it for a single
moment during the first couple of weeks. Sure, there's a lot of stuff to set
up and configure manually, but I found that to be a good thing. Getting Arch
up and running with everything you need is sort of a crash course in Linux.
The docs are very good so I don't think the average HN reader will struggle.

Btw, I need to thank you Derek: When I was trying to decide which distro to
use I considered Arch because I heard Zed was using it at the time. Then I
read the interview with you on thegeektalk.com and decided to give it a shot
because of your recommendation, and I've loved it from day one. So thanks!

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hello_moto
I think I'd love to have such environment. Simple and distraction free. I feel
that as I'm getting older and priority changes, I'm no longer enamored that
much by technology.

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gbog
Nice to see the Wenlin Chinese-English dictionary cited in this article. It
has indeed a very useful content with many etymologies and good translations.

I bought the CD long time ago and I just checked their website, they
apparently did not publish a phone app. Sad, because using a computer to check
for words is the least practical solution.

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mise
Derek's more hard-core geek than I suspected. I could only dream of being that
hard core :)

Jumping from Ubuntu to Linux Mint was already a leap of faith for me.

