Background in hard sciences, computing (FOSS), electronics, music, Zen.

  • 4 Posts
  • 10 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: October 2nd, 2023

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  • First of all, the meagre ‘search’ in ‘Manage Bookmarks’ does not tell you where a ‘found’ bookmark IS, which makes it next to useless. (If ONLY it would tell you that in the list you see when you click the URL.)

    Over the years (on DESKTOP, I can only guess the horrors on tinyscreen) I’ve developed a system of folders with generic names that I use to sort BMs as I add them. My 3 top categories - the only ones visible in the ‘Toolbar’ are OFTEN (frequently visited sites grouped by folder), RESOURCES (folders at the top are most-visited) and LOCAL (most-visited on top). I also use the ‘New bookmark order’ extension, which adds new bookmarks to THE TOP of whatever folder I put them in (easy to open and drag-into folder topic).

    Works, but it’s hardly ideal, that’s for sure. Don’t think anyone at Moz has addressed this design in years.)



  • After many years of using FFox, I just tried a Zen install on Linux. It did not turn out as well as I hoped.

    I did not have FFoxesr installed in the way the OS would have installed it (though it was still in the user folder). This meant that Zen did/could not see my bookmarks, extensions or passwords … and the options it offered didn’t work out. (It wanted an HTML bookmarks file … I had them saved as JSON … and a ‘CSV’ (??) passwords file … wherever that is … and it found no extensions folder.) So, for starters, years of customizations had to be manually restored.

    But, fair shake, I did manually re-install bookmarks AND a few extensions that had saved databases (e.g. UBO, NoScript, Block site). (It ignored the sub-folders in the JSON bookmarks folders, dumping all bookmarks into the top-levels.) And I had to re-create all the settings. (Most of which exist in the .mozilla folder on Linux … easy to find.)

    I played for an hour with what I put there (without a menu bar … or a tab bar, all URIs are shoved together -by name- in a sidebar … I did figure out how to see a bookmark bar). I could discern no -truly useful- advantages to it. None. That was not offset by some pretty cosmetics. So even if you do get all of your customizations past the one-size-fits-all install, for long-time FF users I see no substantial advantages to the Zen browser.










  • When I started with Linux, I was happy to learn that I didn’t need a bunch of separate partitions, and have installed all-in-one (except for boot of course!) since. Whatever works fine for you (-and- is easiest) is the right way! (What you’re doing was once common practice, and serves just as well. No disadvantage in staying with the familiar.)

    After I got up to 8GB memory, stopped using swap … easier on the hard drive -and- the SSD. (I move most data to the HD … including TimeShift … except what I use regularly.)

    I use Mint as well; for me this keeps things as simple as possible. When I install a new OS version (always with the same XFCE DE) I do put THAT on a new partition (rather than try the upgrade route and risk damaging my daily driver) using the same UserName. A new Home is created within the install partition (does nothing but hold the User folder.)

    To keep from having to reconfig -almost everthing- in the new OS all over again I evolved a system. First I verify that the new install boots properly, I then use a Live USB to copy the old User .config file (and the apps and their support folders I keep in user) to the new User folder. Saves hours of reconfiguring most things. The new up-to-date OS mostly resembles and works like the old one … without the upgrade risks.