Yeah the boot process is a mess! Debian’s noisy GRUB and unsightly boot text is an obvious and unnecessary paint point for a desktop user but very desirable for server installations. You do have some options though!

Carlo Contavalli apparently has a relatively simple work-around discussed at https://rabexc.org/posts/grub-shush. What I’ve done in the past is rebuilding Ubuntu’s source deb package for GRUB against my Debian system. You can grab it at https://packages.ubuntu.com/source/lunar/grub2. Build instructions can be found here https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/117503/how-to-compile-a-debian-package-from-source.

The great thing about Debian, Linux, and FLOSS is that you can even automate downloading Debian’s source package when it gets updated, applying the silent patch, applying Ubuntu’s compilation options, compiling the deb, and installing the deb! But yeah why can some package maintainer not provide such as an option in the repository! It’s really an annoyance for many and almost makes me feel like I’m not the type of user the Debian community desires. Like, “Wait… what? You like pretty stuff? GTFO!” Maybe its even true? Hopefully you will enjoy using Debian! Its most preferable to Ubuntu in many ways these days!

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There are a number of nice skeuomorphic tagged themes on pling and other icons and such also are available there. The best option might be to just abandon the trendy GTK scene and embrace good old TDE! TDE has KDE3’s Plastik theme which looks great to me! (And there is a new port available for current KDE if anyone is interested.) But the early pre-gummy version of ClearLooks would be my favorite if it existed. Raleigh is pretty nice with those classic zebra stripes! Please do let us all know what you find because there are many of us not so happy with the corporate minimalist aesthetic.

Psyche!

Since Washington seems like a nice place for me to live I decided to look into Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez’s explanation for her vote in favor of this deplorable National Defense Authorization Act. She writes, “The bill also included my amendment to improve the military’s ability to fix its own equipment.” Voting against human rights in order to get a right to repair seems like an absurd deal for anyone who actually supports human rights to make.

It would be ideal if blue cities in red states seceded and formed their own 51st state of free cities. The rural voter oriented laws which emerge from state governments impede the right of city citizens to the pursuit of Happiness.

twstalker is still working for me.