Notes on OSes

Could most Linux distros go the way of the buffalo, or completely die out? It's getting hard to boot Linux up on modern devices (due to UEFI & secure boot). Ubuntu desktop is encumbered, like Windows 8 desktop which has no Start Menu now: there's only a finder. Linux Mint with the Cinnamon desktop is better I think, but it all depends on what you're setting out to do.

Improving software

So.. I was trying to get an antique USB wireless device to work on Linux Mint but it required a ton of software dependencies. With no hardline Internet connection nearby, I had to swap USB sticks full of data between my laptop and the older computer running Mint that I mentioned. This process takes too much time so I'm going to get a new USB wireless device at the computer store which Mint should be able to see and utilize right away.

All this activity had me thinking.. Isn't there a better way to externalize support for software repositories? Couldn't the actual dependency or "software component hierarchy" be inside the software utility itself, broken into parts & each part was a modular "fit" for building/putting together your software locally? Why do you have to go online to obtain everything that is to be operational? I think there's a better way to do it, given that there are perhaps fewer architectures today than there were 15 years ago when certain platform architectures were in a way scattered within their realm, some recursively obscure or too open-ended but barely functional, logistically speaking.