egeexyz

The Uncertain Future of Brunchmarks

When I created the Distro Delves series in late 2019, I created a couple of other series' as well. One of them was called:

Brunchmarks!

The spirit of the series goes way back to the beginning of the Egee channel when I did Linux benchmarks. That is probably what my channel was most known for a long while.

The idea of performance testing distros was rolled into the t...

Fixed My First Bug! 🎉

Our Snap has only been live for about a week and we've already received our first bug report on Github!

Obviously bug reports aren't exactly good things but the fact that engineers are already interested enough in our work to try it out and report issues on Github is freaking awesome!

This particular bug was really strange. A dev tried our Snap an...

Manjaro KDE 20.0.1 - A Step Backwards

Whoever is in charge of Manjaro's styling needs to be throttled a bit.

They've been over saturating the colors more and more with each release and now it just looks bad. The icons in particular just look awful.

Certain apps grossly misuse colors too, such as Pamac, which uses different shades of the same shitty neon-green. I'm guessing it's a bug but maybe the designer handling the UX doesn't understand color theory or something.

It's just weird because the previous color sc...

Ubuntu Budgie 20.04 - It is fine

Truth be told, I think I like Solus' Budgie a bit more. I find Ubuntu Budgie's panel to be really cluttered and the icon sizing inconsistent. And the layouts don't work quite right either - raven is glued to the right side of the screen which causes weird behavior on certain layouts.

Most users aren't as pick as I am and probably won't mind the rather poor UX design. And the Budgie applets are pretty darn cool.

Overall, Ubuntu Budgie is fine but it's not a distro I would ...

Life is Strange

Like, literally life - not the game.

I've been doing the consulting gig for about a month and it's been interesting to say the least.

Their business model is based around Maas, Juju, and Snapcraft - all Canonical technologies. The idea is that they will produce Snaps and Juju charms and then offer professional support for enterprises that want to use or extend them.

This is exactly the business model Canonical enables with the Snapstore!

Working on th...

KaOS 2020 - Underrated?

Maybe.

Something I didn't mention in the video is that the community (in the forums, at least) seems rather hostile and closed-minded.

When I was trying to figure out the 64-bit thing, I stumbled upon multiple forum posts of users asking about 32-bit packages such as Steam, and people were just rude.

I don't get why users in the Linux community can be so belligerent. People are trying to use your distro so when they ask a question, you are rude to them??

Obvio...

Lubuntu 20.04 - On 🔥

I was on fire when I recorded the voice-over for this video.

I've begun recording the intro segment without video so I can sort of focus on coming up with something witty to say and this was the result.

I'm going to be playing XCom 2 during the Lubuntu live stream because a friend gifted it to me and he wants to hang out while I play it for the first time!

Top 5 List Glitch - Behind The Scenes

I mentioned the weird glitch at the end of the Top 5 List video in the previous post but I wanted to save the story behind it for its own post.

It started out as a legit mistake

For this video, I actually recorded the voice-over before recording any footage for it. This made it easier to capture the correct footage segments since I already knew what I needed f...

A Test of Things to Come

This is a big video.

Not just because its a "Top 5" video (list videos are always popular) but because I'm trying the new thumbnail thing and because I included something weird at the end of the video, similar to what I did with the most recent Distro Delves episode.

These weird outro segments service three purposes:

1) Encourage viewers to keep watching until the end of the video (audience retention!)

2) Make my videos more u...

Thumbnail/Title Proof of Concept

I had some downtime between running builds at work and this crazy idea popped into my head.

I don't know if this is the thumbnail or a short animated title card or what.. but I think it's pretty cool lookin'.

Thumbnails for Distro Delves?

I haven't done the video thumbnail thing for quite a while but I'm wondering if I should start now that Distro Delves is kind of the thing I do on the channel.

My issue with thumbnails is that I hate making them. It's more work than you might think just to create a decent looking picture that looks well on several different resolutions and isn't obscured by the sometimes random crap YouTube and other services place on the thumbnail.

I'd like to have some ...

Pop!_OS Encore Poll!

It's time for another encore poll!

If you are wondering -

Why don't you just add these polls to the video post?

The answer is simple: I can't 😂. Patreon lets you choose the "type" of post and a poll is a specific type and I can't do a Video and a Poll together.

Anywho, vote for the game you want to see me play on stream later today!

Pop!_OS 20.04 - Donezo

Well, I did it. It took me less than 12 hours but I managed to produce a video from start to finish in a single day.

This episode was way too much fun to produce. It ended up being the shortest episode to date, too. And some trivia - I had to do 2 takes because I somehow forgot to record the voice-over for the OBS section. If you listen with headphones, you'll hear the difference. That's why I always try to do the VO in a single take.

For those of you that watch the video...

Today's Goal

I want to see if I can produce a Distro Delves episode in a single day.

I produced & published the Ubuntu 20.04 delve in about 12 hours but that was across 2 days, which is still a milestone.

I'm working on Pop_OS today and I'm aiming to get everything done and have the unlisted video posted here on Patreon by the end of the day today.

If I manage it, this would be a major increase in...

Fedora 32 - Nailed It

In my previous YouTube post I talked about the tone & mood I was aiming for in the voice-over.

I think I really nailed it with this video

If I were to guess, I think it has something to do with not preparing. I wrote my notes and recorded this voice-over this morning about an hour after rolling out of bed without any preparation at all. I think my hair was even still wet f...

The final Distro Delves PC rev 1.2

I actually wrote this post as a draft last week but forgot to post it before episode 20.

If you were expecting something fancy and elegant, prepare to be disappointed! 😂

In future seasons, I will built more presentable Distro Delves PC's but for now, this is what we get. I built it out of spare parts so I don't think it's that bad 😝 .

The biggest change from rev 1.0 and rev 1.2 is that silly graphics card. Its an Nvidia GTX 750ti bad the or...

Fedora 32 Live Stream Game Poll!

I am finally starting the Live Stream game poll! I've talked about this for months and months but now that I've had a chance to test the idea, its time to make it a regular thing!

I'm still standardizing on a mini Distro Delves checklist for the live stream but it will feature a segment where I'll play a game on the Distro Delves rig based on what you guys vote for here.

The live streams...

Developers In Their Element

My friend Matt sent me this rather nostalgic picture today.

I'm in the middle, my manager Ken is on the left and on the right is a mad lad dev named Justin.

This was a picture from late at night working on the dreaded "Lift & Shift" project at Shiftwise.

I have almost no memory of this picture or whatever we were doing here. I vaguely recall organizing the AWS architectu...

Unimpressed

I've made it a personal policy to not call people or projects out publicly but sometimes, I really just need to vent.

The FOSS community can really frustrate me. For a long time, people would point the finger at Microsoft and spread FUD around how Microsoft is trying to take over Linux, EEE 2020-04-28 23:18:04 +0000 UTC View Post

Ubuntu 20.04 - It's OK

Ubuntu 20.04 LTS is OK.

That pretty much sums up my feelings about it.

As you guys probably know, I wasn't planning to release this video until a week or so from now, after I produced a few other videos. I've been getting comments on videos, community posts, and on Twitter about reviewing Ubuntu so, I decided to just do it while people were still interested in it.

Some interesting trivia about thi...

Scored a new gig!

This year has been nuts.

I've already blogged a few times about my ups and downs finding jobs and getting laid off or losing contracts. But now, I finally have so great news!

I joined up with this tiny company called OmniVector Solutions. It's literally just a pair of guys and they just scored a giant contract with a European automaker helping to fix &...

Low Effort - Great Results

I have to admit, I wasn't expecting much from this video.

I almost always record the voice-overs after the footage is captured and after 4 days of fighting to get the right footage, I put almost no effort into recording the voice-over.

I spent about 10 minutes watching the footage this morning and recorded the whole thing in one take with just a few simple cuts. I don't know if you can hear it in my voice, but I was not aiming for perfection.

I think I got ...

I Remember Why I Stopped Making Tutorial Videos

If you saw this post, you'll know that I have/had 3 install .sh videos planned for the weeks ahead.

I already released one of them - the video about using Lutris to play Windows games. I'm currently working on the SteamPlay video and ugh it has reminded me why I stopped making videos like these.

Videos that involve gam...

My history with Linode

I started my relationship with Linode last year when Andrew reached about to me about making a video using Linode's platform. I believe this was sometime after my video about using Ansible on Azure. They set me up an account and gave me a giant credit to use their services for the Egee.io game server stuff.

I've made 3 videos for Linode and they've always great to work with. Their recent requests have been around their...

[Song] Cherub Rock

The track in this post is a remix - the original track is on Soundcloud!

Lately, I've been so busy that I haven't had the inspiration to record any music.

As you guys probably know, I'm a huge Smashing Pumpkins fan. I re-tuned one of my guitars back to standard tuning today and played a familiar chord progression - the intro to Cherub Rock, which I've recorded a cover of 2020-04-18 17:35:01 +0000 UTC View Post

Redefining The Channel

I could go on & on about how weird this year has been for the channel but I'm going to try to keep this post focused on what the channel has become.

Here's a quick timeline:

2014 - 2016: Linux Gaming Reviews & Benchmarks

2016 - 2019: Linux variety & experimental stuff

2020 - Current: Linux-oriented series' & Live Streams

Looking back, I feel like I've completely (and inadvertently) re-invented the channel in 2020.

I actually got the...

Game Review Request? Sure!

Over a month ago, this kind indie game developer emailed me and asked me to review his game.

I haven't done legit game reviews in years so I kind of ignored it at first.

I started doing live streams regularly towards the end of March and I got the idea to showcase his game.

Believe it or not, one of the reasons why I wanted to do this live stream was so I could feature his game! But I streamed for ...

End to the Patreon Update saga

I've been talking about & teasing Patreon updates for months. In fact, I think I first brought it up a year ago. 😬

I take Patreon and my relationship with you all very seriously and I don't want to make brash changes arbitrarily; I want to improve my Patreon in a way that will scale with each additional patron.

As of last weekend, I have finally made the finishing touches to the Patreon ...

Windows games with Lutris - Weirdly Simple

I had a difficult time writing the outline for this video.

"How do you use Lutris?"

Uh well, you install it and then just.. sorta use it. It's really that easy.

Brevity has become a characteristic of my videos lately and this one feels almost too short. In just over 3 minutes, I explain how to install Lutris and install some games. I dunno - it just feels weird.

I'm happy about the video though. That stupid 2020-04-15 03:06:51 +0000 UTC View Post

Upcoming Video Schedule

I've got the next few weeks of videos planned out!

Distro Delves should return by May and I'm aiming to wrap up my backlog of Install.sh videos entirely.

I talked about Install.sh in a previous post but basically, there are a few targeted videos I'd like to make for the series and then be done with it unless I get a bunch of requests for a specific game.

I'm also bringing Brunchmarks back for a si...