Category: Qt

cleaning up my mint messes

whbeebe1 Comment
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I’ve spent yesterday evening and today performing a clean installation of Linux Mint 22 and then moving my content over to it. I’ve been grumbling about abandoning Mint because of its atrocious update tool. I’d spoken about moving back to either Fedora (41) or Ubuntu (24.10). So I swapped a blank SSD into my system, downloaded an ISO of each distribution and installed them one by one onto my system to give them both a quick spin. They’re both excellent, but my personal preferences are still towards Linux Mint, regardless of its flaws. In the end I installed Mint 22 and I’ve been tuning it to my liking since late this morning.

Performing a clean install of any operating system allows you to start a-fresh with just the applications and setup you want. By the time I’d reached a point of operational parity with my older Mint installation, my SSD usage with Mint 22 was 10%, compared to 30% with Mint 21.3. And that Mint 22 usage includes all the tool and development folders I copied over from the older Mint system to new system. I don’t know where all the extra cruft came from on the older Mint 21 installation, except perhaps the applications I installed over the years left behind a lot of cache and configuration data when the application was uninstalled.

The newly installed system is performing much better than before. The desktop is snappier and it appears that running tasks finish faster as well. Desktop graphics, especially text, is clearer and cleaner. This is due in no small part to being based on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS and advances in the Cinnamon desktop, although the absolute latest Cinnamon desktop won’t show up until Mint 22.1 officially arrives with Cinnamon 6.4 in tow. It will be interesting to see if the next Mint release updates without any issues on my newish Mint system.

my new mk770 keyboard

whbeebe

I’ve indulged myself with a new keyboard, the Cooler Master MK770 mechanical keyboard in shades of gray and black. It seems this keyboard has attracted quite a bit of on-line positive coverage. What finally sold me to make the purchase is that it’s a Black Friday sale item for $71. I figured for that price I could give it a try, and if I didn’t like it I could return it.

I ordered on Saturday and it was delivered by Sunday. I’ve spent the last few days learning how to use it and how to ‘program’ the back light colors. I must say I greatly appreciate the feel of the mechanical keys. I also appreciate how heavy and solid the keyboard is. I haven’t felt this kind of keyboard since the late 1970s and early 1980s. That’s when I used IBM keyboards in the IBM ‘moosehead’ terminals at the First National Bank of Atlanta, and the nearly identical keyboards on the original IBM PC and IBM XT personal computers. I’d forgotten how nice such keys were for long periods of typing.

So far I’ve managed to configure the colors using keyboard chording with the function key (the key at the bottom with the Cooler Master logo on it) and other regular keys. It’s a nice light green color.

I’m still getting used to how the arrow keys are positioned on the keyboard. I keep sending the cursor off in unintended directions.

One excellent feature of this keyboard is how it helps and enhances my touch typing. I thought I’d forgotten how, but within an hour of setting up the keyboard I’ve been touch typing like a maniac.

Finally, I’m using the USB-C cable to connect to my Linux system. The cable isn’t all that intrusive.

I never thought I’d get excited over a keyboard, but I am about the MK770. Highly recommended.