Why does it seem that I have at least two separate identities online nowadays ?? Well I’m a creature of moods, yes OK I know that doesn’t really explain anything, but it is kinda at the most basic root of why I seem to have a split personality, let me explain.
I was toddling along happily in my own little online world, I had my Chromebook to play with, an ASUS Chromebook Flip C434 with an Intel Core M3-8100Y 1.1GHz processor, 4 Gigabytes of ram and a 128 Gigabyte eMMC drive, plenty enough grunt for a Chromebook. I had my blog “Pop’s Little Bloggiverse Home”, my Facebook, my Twitter and plenty of other online presences, and yet I felt somewhat unfulfilled, what could be the problem you wonder 🤔
Well for a long time I had been hearing about this wondrous thing called Linux, I was intrigued by it ( for those unaware Linux is an opensource operating system), you could apparently install Linux on most modern Chromebooks alongside Chrome OS but for what seemed like forever it was in Beta mode and I didn’t want to start messing at that stage. But eventually, lo and behold, it came out of Beta so of course I immediately enabled it on my Chromebook and, mmh, well yes you had a Linux terminal to use and you could install some Linux apps which worked alongside the Chrome and Android apps just like they were native to Chrome. But it didn’t feel like Linux, you couldn’t install a Linux GUI / desktop and it just felt like Chrome still.
So being a creature of moods and impulse I searched for, found and bought myself a blank laptop on E-Bay, by blank I mean it was without an operating system, this was because I wanted to install Linux on it as it’s only operating system thus making it a dedicated Linux laptop. I finally got a nice cheap second hand, blank laptop, it’s a Dell Latitude 5480, with an Intel Dual Core i5-6300U, 2.50GHz processor, 8 Gigabytes of ram and a 500 Gigabyte hard drive. I managed to install Ubuntu Linux on it and very quickly added the KDE Plasma desktop environment to it, I downloaded a bunch of app’s that I wanted such as GIMP, Krita and Darktable amongst others 😁
As well as Linux I had also been interested in something called the Fediverse, Fediverse is a combination of federation and universe, the Fediverse is part of the decentralized web, Mastodon is I think the most well know part of the Fediverse, although even then a lot of you have probably never heard of it. So off I went into the darkness of unknown territory and created myself some presences on the Fediverse, first and foremost I created my Mastodon account for my main social media presence, next was my Pixelfed for my photography, then my Mastodon Art to share my art on, next was my PeerTube, PeerTube is a kind of federated YouTube and finally my Fosstodon for learning about opensource types of things. The main one of these is of course my Mastodon as it is my main social media site on the Fediverse.
These are all just for use on my Linux laptop because I felt the opensource and free nature of the Fediverse goes well with Linux and it’s ideals. Of course being the weirdo I am I didn’t stop there, I felt that this was all kinda like a brand new online world for me to explore, so I set about creating new Facebook and Twitter accounts for my Linux laptop to go alongside my federated universe, I created my Linux Facebook and my Linux Twitter, these accounts are slightly more techie and biased toward Linux and opensource type stuff. Next I decided I needed a new blog for this new universe I had created as well, so along came this blog “Pop’s Alternative Computing”, which is a blog for all things Linux, opensource and Fediverse, for photographs edited with Linux or opensource software, art created with Linux or opensource software, as well as other blog type stuff of course (have you noticed how much I like the word “stuff” 😁) .
My Linux laptop runs great and I’m really enjoying Linux, it has quickly become my fave, for the moment anyway, watch for the mood swings…
Excuse me just a minute while I make a brew and take my medications 😁💊
OK so where were we, ah yes, so I ended up with the double identity situation you see now, I did consider deleting the new Facebook, Twitter and Blog and just using the old ones for it all but then I thought to myself that both these different online personas tend to a slightly different set of topics. Yes there’s plenty of overlap between the two id’s, but I reckon, just for instance that a lot of folk who follow me on my original Facebook profile wont be in the least bit interested in some of the stuff that’s probably going to be on my new Facebook profile, and the same for the other new accounts. I will though cross post stuff from one side to the other, when appropriate of course 😊
So I do intend to keep both of my online persona’s, it’s up to you which one you wish to follow, you could follow the original side of things on your chosen platform, or if you think you might be interested in the stuff on the new side then maybe follow that on your fave platform, or if you’re a real glutton for punishment you could follow both sides of me 😁
So there ya go, that’s why I have two online persona’s or identities, enjoy 😊🙏🏼💕
Oh and since then I went back on E-Bay and bought a cheap second hand laptop with Windows 10 on it, I just wanted a Windows laptop to complete the set, there you go you see, a creature of mood and impulse. The Windows laptop drags it’s heels a little but works well enough, after all I just wanted a laptop running Windows to compare with the other two.
Pop's Alternative Computing 