Sometimes older is better

Sometimes older methods have great value if we take the time to look closely. Case in point, I started watching some tutorial videos on the Unix VIM editor.

VIM’s functions predate the advent of the mouse so all movement and text selection is done with standard typewriter keys, that’s right, it means no arrow keys either.

I’ve always shied away from VIM because it seemed so outdated and complicated. People who use it say it’s the best editor around once you take the time to learn it.

Since it’s a modal editor (meaning different key combinations cause it to work differently). It takes some getting used to.

Since it was created during a time that mainframes were in use I thought I might want to finally learn to use it; since I use an operating system that is based on a mainframe OS.

Well, The more I use it,  the more I learn about it,  the more I wish Microsoft  had put some thought into adding these features in Word. The search features and text replacement in VIM  completely blow Microsoft Word away. I have to admit that it takes some getting used to learning a new method of selecting text, but now I see why everyone raves about this editor.

So sometimes newer isn’t necessarily better. There is a lot to be said for being around for over 40 years.

Back to Ubuntu with Gnome Desktop

For many years I switch between Linux Mint and standard Ubuntu. However a couple months back I got bored and decided to see what the KDE project had been up to.

I was impressed at how cool KDE was, but the desktop seemed slow to me, and at times somewhat confusing.

So after a few months it was time to change desktops again. With all the news about Ubuntu changing from the Unity desktop to the Gnome desktop it was time for me to take a look at Ubuntu and Gnome again.

Now keep in mind that I haven’t used Gnome since version 2.X, which was before Unity came out. So this was my first experience with gnome 3. A lot of people rave about Gnome 3 so I thought it was time I gave it a look.

I was really surprised and how much faster gnome 3 is compared to the desktops I have been using the last few years. I’ve also had a lot of stability problems over the years with the desktops I had been using and I was really surprised and how solid Gnome 3 is. While there’s always a bit of a learning curve with a new desktop I really like the shell features in Gnome. The desktop is really customizable.

So it looks like I’ll be staying with this version for a while.

P.S. I just had a closer look at Nautilus file manager, Wow has it changed, as in totally Rocks, Well done Canonical!