After a morning of drama, I have come to the conclusion that CentOS Stream is not the end of the world and that Red Hat is doing a very (very, very, very) poor job of public relations in explaining it.

After reading many CentOS Stream posts, I think it's going to be the current RHEL release, but ever so slightly rolling. It should work fine as a RHEL clone almost all of the time. The big difference for users is 5 years of support instead of 10.

Fedora's @mattdm says give CentOS Stream a chance https://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos-devel/2020-December/075503.html

Regarding CentOS Stream and 'enterprise' Linux, I think five years is an appropriate period of support. The two-year cadence for Debian really works for me. Six months is too short. Maybe one year would work.

It looks like CentOS Stream releases will get five years of support https://centos.org/distro-faq/#q6-will-there-be-separateparallelsimultaneous-streams-for-8-9-10-etc

Red Hat resets CentOS Linux — and users are angry - A very good overview from @sjvn for ZDNet https://www.zdnet.com/article/red-hat-resets-centos-linux-and-users-are-angry/

Keep up to date on Debian Long Term Support at Raphaël Hertzog's blog https://raphaelhertzog.com/

Please support the Debian LTS project https://wiki.debian.org/LTS

CentOS's Johnny Hughes seems more than a little conflicted https://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos-devel/2020-December/075534.html

This guy has a point on CentOS Stream vs. CentOS Linux vs. RHEL https://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos-devel/2020-December/075492.html

This view of CentOS Stream as being RHEL a month in the future seems reasonable https://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos-devel/2020-December/075551.html

Remember the days when CentOS wasn't owned by Red Hat, and there would be huge gaps in activity and releases? This doesn't justify anything. It just flashed into my mind. https://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos-announce/2020-December/048208.html

This guy is NOT happy about CentOS 8 turning into CentOS Stream https://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos-devel/2020-December/075464.html

Follow this thread on the CentOS-devel mailing list https://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos-devel/2020-December/075451.html

FAQ - CentOS Project shifts focus to CentOS Stream (in which CentOS/IBM kind of sort of answers a few questions) https://centos.org/distro-faq/

The untimely end of CentOS 8 throws quite the monkey wrench into cPanel and the entire shared-hosting world https://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos-announce/2020-December/048208.html

Remember Scientific Linux? I used to run it. The project ended because CentOS was doing the same thing so well. I can see it making a comeback now. https://lwn.net/Articles/786422/

CentOS founder is starting Rocky Linux, a new RHEL clone, now that CentOS is changing focus https://github.com/hpcng/rocky

Springdale Linux is a longtime RHEL clone - Hacker News https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25350357

Scientific Linux ended when it didn't seem necessary. The move to CentOS Stream probably means more Red Hat clones are on the way. For me, this illustrates why Debian is so important. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25345428

Many of the CentOS users who aren't happy with CentOS Stream say they will move to Debian Stable. But I imagine Ubuntu LTS will grab most users. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25345428

CentOS Project shifts focus to CentOS Stream, and people are not happy - Hacker News https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25345428

How to defog your windshield in no time this winter - Lifehacker https://lifehacker.com/use-this-method-from-a-former-nasa-engineer-to-defog-yo-1845817132

I have been experimenting with Git and Github as a way of working on writing projects. Hosted Git repositories are not just for programming. https://github.com/passthejoe?tab=repositories

Reviews of steel strings for acoustic guitars https://github.com/passthejoe/acoustic-steel-strings

Reviews of strings for the classical guitar https://github.com/passthejoe/classical-strings

The Zen of Debian (work in progress) https://github.com/passthejoe/zen-of-debian

My Emilio Pujol project is becoming more about his work overall and not just about the 17 variations on Aguado in 'Escuela Razonada' Vol. 4. https://github.com/passthejoe/pujol_variations_on_aguado

Steven Rosenberg on GitHub https://github.com/passthejoe

Steven Rosenberg's newer posts http://passthejoe.net/

Steven Rosenberg's microblog of short posts http://updates.passthejoe.net/

Steven Rosenberg's frugal technology, simple living and guerrilla large-appliance repair https://stevenrosenberg.nfshost.com/blog/

A whole bunch of new packages means Debian 10.7 has been released https://www.debian.org/News/2020/20201205

Why the release of Ruby 3 will be monumental | Jared White/RUBY3.dev https://www.ruby3.dev/the-art-of-code/2020/11/12/ruby-3-monumental/

C++ programming language: How it became the invisible foundation for everything, and what's next - Owen Hughes/TechRepublic https://www.techrepublic.com/article/c-programming-language-how-it-became-the-invisible-foundation-for-everything-and-whats-next/

I'm going to try the @EclipseJavaIDE for Java, C++ and Ruby. I didn't know it covered all these languages and more.

I ran out of clean sweatpants. I tried wearing regular pants. How did we ever do that? I had to rip them off my body and find the emergency sweatpants I didn't know I had. Sorry, Levi's, I just can't do it.

ES-175 chronicles - Vasily Ivanenko https://qrp-popcorn.blogspot.com/p/es175-pickup-modification.html

Fender Telecaster jazz box - Vasily Ivanenko https://qrp-popcorn.blogspot.com/2017/01/fender-telecaster-jazz-box.html

1968 Princeton Reverb repairs - Vasily Ivanenko https://qrp-popcorn.blogspot.com/2017/01/1968-princeton-reverb-repairs.html

Why Matthew Yglesias left Vox for the paid-newsletter platform Substack (hint: it's about political correctness in media) - Conor Friedersdorf/The Atlantic https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/11/substack-and-medias-groupthink-problem/617102/

I learned a new Vim thing: Open the last file you closed with :e# http://passthejoe.net/post/2020_1113_vim_tip_open_last_file_you_closed/

Why it pays to be grumpy and bad-tempered - Zaria Gorvett/BBC Future https://getpocket.com/explore/item/why-it-pays-to-be-grumpy-and-bad-tempered

Study says Facebook is bad for your emotional and physical health - Minda Zetlin/Inc. https://getpocket.com/explore/item/a-2-year-study-of-more-than-5-000-people-shows-this-1-activity-destroys-your-emotional-and-physical

After a few months playing the classical (even though it has a pretty nasty crack in the back), I went back to the Fender guitar (Lead I, front half of the humbucker as a single-coil). The Ernie Ball Power Slinky strings (11 to 48) are SO nice. It's hard to say too many good things about them. I have one of the pure nickel versions to try next. https://www.ernieball.com/guitar-strings/electric-guitar-strings/slinky-nickel-wound-electric-guitar-strings/6-string#P02220

Running four sites on NearlyFreeSpeech.net should cost me .92 per month - Steven Rosenberg http://passthejoe.net/post/2020_1107_nearlyfreespeechnet_costs/

So I tried to swap the esc and caps lock keys, with the idea being easier access to esc for Vim, but it was a disaster. You can't just move keys around. It's like driving on the wrong side of the road and the wrong side of the car.

Talkyard - is an open-source forum that is available as a service, or to run on your own system. It can also do blog comments. https://www.talkyard.io/

Raspberry Pi 400 Personal Computer Kit – https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/raspberry-pi-400

Raspberry Pi 400: the desktop PC: It's a Raspberry Pi built into its own keyboard. Get it with everything but a monitor for . https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/raspberry-pi-400-the-70-desktop-pc/

I moved a WordPress blog from one shared host to another. The new host is telling me every day that hackers are making repeated attempts to log into the site to use it for nefarious purposes. WP is definitely a target. I will take steps soon to reduce the risk.

I have made it through week 9 of Computer Architecture and Organization. We're working on x86 assembly. Boolean algebra, K-maps and logic circuits at the beginning were a little rocky, but the assembly language has been more smooth.

I've been playing the classical guitar for about 15 minutes a day for the past few months, mostly from Emilio Pujol's method. Today I hauled out the electric guitar and played from William Leavitt's Vol. 2. Even 15 minutes a day is enough to show improvement over time.

Sorry, but my Twitter feed is boring. I'm not here anywhere near as much, even though I use the Twitter API via a local script to post.

The cheap pen that changed writing forever - Stephen Dowling/BBC Future https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20201028-history-of-the-ballpoint-pen

WordPerfect for DOS Updated http://www.columbia.edu/~em36/wpdos/

This wasn't my first WP install without a cPanel, but it was the first time I moved an entire WP system (files + database) without any utilities like WP's export/import. It went all right. I need more practice in database admin, and I got some here.

I moved a WordPress blog from one server to another, and boy are my arms tired.

Why I'm Tcl-ish - Colin Macleod https://colin-macleod.blogspot.com/2020/10/why-im-tcl-ish.html

I had problems with the new Microsoft Edge while my Windows install was updating, but now it's doing great. I imported my Chrome settings — even a Chrome extension — and Edge is doing my daily production.