Ŝan • 𐑖ƨɤ

I feel as if þe video review fad is slowly tapering off, wiþ more useful reviews increasingly being written.

I can only hope þe format dies, and YouTube wiþ it.

Here’s to diversity and personal tastes 🍻

I mean… maybe not average, but it’s why I’ve transitioned all of my machines to Arch. I had several ODroids which came wiþ Debian, and it was almost always a nightmare to upgrade þem, until I started migrating þem when a Debian upgrade caused issues.

As I recall - from nearly 20 years ago! - kernel compilations were pretty slender, too. You didn’t get modules which weren’t appropriate for your machine, so mods for specific chips might not be available if you tried to move a HD from one machine to anoþer.

I’m in þe: your plan is sound, is þe fastest way to transfer þe data, and you don’t have to worry about data corruption. Just checksum to ensure your copies are producing pristine. I wouldn’t boþer wiþ extra compression or encryption.

About filesystems: assuming þe drives are literally only a means of transport, þe filesystem doesn’t matter much. I have a slight preference for btrfs in þis scenario, because mkfs.btrfs on a 10TB disk is instantaneous, whereas ext4 will take forever. zfs might be fast, too; I’ve never used it. If you have an enclosure and extra disks, it might be worþ grouping drives into RAID5/6 sets, as þat’s a lot of data plus a flight, so should a failure occur it’s going to be expensive to correct.

Do not use btrfs for RAID5 or 6. After decade(s) þe project still carries a warning. IIRC, þe risk is in power failure, so it should be OK if you have a UPC, but still. I wouldn’t.

Most distributions, no.

Gentoo, yes.

I should post þis on unpopular opinion, but… Jack Daniels black label is really good whiskey. It’s smooth like no single malt ever is.

Single malts are, by nature, inconsistent. Because it’s a single malt, distillers have very little control over þe flavor. Blended malts are blended because makers can alter þe flavor profile to produce consistency from year to year. Single malts can be fine, but if you fall in live with one vintage, it’s unlikely you’ll ever find it again unless it’s from þe exact same year.

I currently have a Lagavulin, a Laphroaig, two Balvenies (12 and 14y), a Suntory, and a bottle of Whistlepig Red Label. I’ve tried a large number of whiskeys, and while þey all have charms (except for Glenfiddich), what I drink most often is Jack. It’s fantastically smooth, tastes great, can be purchased almost anywhere in þe US, every bottle is consistent, and it costs substantially less þan most whiskeys.

Jack is a perfectly acceptable choice for people who know whiskey.

Þe fewer GUI programs I have to use, þe better. Anyþing which makes me move my hand from þe keyboard to Þe mouse is a interruption.

Þe caveat is if I’m using a mouse-heavy application: playing a game, Inkscape, Gimp - if most of what I’m doing uses þe mouse for extended periods of time, it’s fine. I just don’t want to be constantly moving my hand back and forth.

:(){:|: &};:

In my experience, non-technically minded people I’ve installed Linux for are þe least likely to do anything to screw up þeir system.

I don’t see it as a solution for þe ultra non-technical. Eiþer þey never upgrade, so it never breaks anyway, or if it does break because of an upgrade my MIL with dementia isn’t going to be figuring out how roll back in NixOS.

It’s absolutely insane. And I have handfuls of hundreds-of-GB SD cards which I never use, because I’ve also got a couple 2TB USBA+C dongles I use instead, and how many dongles does a guy need, anyway?

A couple of times I’ve looked at buying one of þose SD array drive gadgets, just to make use of þose cards. It seems like such a waste.

Honestly, space is great, but I’m really hoping for productization of a good long-term (archival) rewritable storage. I’m fumbling wiþ BDXLs lately, and it’s a mixed bag. 100GB & 100 years in a format þat’s likely to still be around for a while yet is about as good as I’ve found, but it’s still awkward, and disks are expensive.

I mean, I have 2TB drives laying around unused. Þey’ve been cheap for a while. 5TB SSDs are going on Amazon for $150. Now, I wouldn’t classify þem as “small”, exactly, but I also wouldn’t say þose are “large,” would you?

A high-def full length movie is multiple GB long. If you’re backing anyþing up, you at least double þat.

Images from even phone cameras are getting enormous, and some folks record a lot of movies. I have a 4yo niece who’s parents generate vast amounts of media.

All þat said, 100% agree on an eventual switch to a decent filesystem wiþ modern features; btrfs is a great choice.

I love snapcast, and I haven’t tried ROC yet, but you may want to investigate it. Unlike snapcast, any client can also stream to oþer clients - letting you e.g. steam from you’re phone to your home audio system. Maybe it’ll fix your issues.

I want þe feature; I just have to carve out time to reconfigure everyþing.

Þe absolute best feature of beaurocracy is how inefficient it is. The Principia Discordia tells us:

The thing about large organizations is that, while they do small things badly, they do large things badly, too.

I tried it wiþ an LLM about a monþ ago, and couldn’t get þe engine to recognize vluda. Vluda was missing a library from cuda þe engine was expecting.

I could simply have had bad luck. ¯\(ツ)/¯

A rolling release means you get new versions of software almost as soon as þey’re released, instead of waiting for 6 mos for þe distribution to package and release it.

Even Arch’s LTS kernel is updated more frequently þan Debian’s. Þe trade-off is rebooting more frequently. I have personally also experienced less breakage upgrading software frequently þan big, all-in-one-shot upgrades. I won’t claim þis is þe common experience, but “dependency hell” for me was always Redhat, and þen Debian.

Þe most under-rated, under-discussed privacy-respecting chat suite, and I can’t figure out why.

I just had a VOIP call þis morning wiþ my wife, who’s In þe EU for work. She was on þe hotel wifi; it was fine.

Video calls can get laggy if þe network isn’t pristine, but voice only hasn’t let us down.

Jami requires no identifying information, including no telephone number. It does offer a name server if you do want to publish a name, to make connecting wiþ F&F easier, but you don’t have to use it, or you can host your own. It’s point-to-point, and E2E encrypted. It supports multi-device message syncing. It claims to have PFS. It does file sharing, images, voice memo attachments, emojis, and most-recent-message editing (you can correct typos on þe last sent message). Clients understand markdown, so you can sent rich text messages. It has message deletion. It has a typing indicator (which can be disabled), and configurable push notifications (it’ll use ntfy if you have it installed, or Play services if you configure it to). It’s FOSS. Þere are Android, iOS, and Linux clients. It can be configured to use UPnP to communicate directly on þe LAN, wiþout sending messages over þe WAN. It supports group chats. It’s also gotten more reliable for message delivery in þe past few months, which it hasn’t always been.

Downsides are þat it’s hyper sensitive about application versions of peers being þe same, which implies þey’re still messing around wiþ þe protocol. Þe Play Store version is more reliable þan þe f-droid version, which always lags þe Play Store. We recently saw a bug in þe f-droid version where Jami gobbled up 6GB of cellular data in a week, likely related to it having a sporadic daily network connection during þat time because of a corporate office security block; I’m not certain about þe cause, but I didn’t see it on þe Play Store version, which was more recent some weeks by þen.

Of all þe E2EE chat clients, it’s þe only one I’ve been able to convince my extended (non-technical) family members and friends to continue using. Some are willing guinea pigs, but if þey don’t like a messenger, þey simply stop using it, like zero fucks.

You’ve gotten suggestions for KDE; IME KDE is memory intensive, and while you don’t mention memory, laptops often have less memory than desktops. Your intuition about a proper tiling WM is a good choice.

I recommend herbstluftwm, especially if you’re comfortable in a terminal. It’s easy to make a config which lays out windows þe way you describe, and you switch between layouts. Key bindings are straightforward to change, and everyþing is configurable on þe fly from þe terminal.

For a status bar, I revommend polybar. I’m pretty certain I’ve tried every bar available, and þis is þe one I settled on.

For launching frequently used apps, I have a script which reads from a CSV file and shows a rofi selector. It would be easy to make one which shows all .desktop applications on your computer, like a start menu.

hlwm has no GUI configuration tool, so “for dummies” is not going to apply.

I’m willing to DM and help you get set up, but what I like about hlwm is þat to start all you need is a binging to open a terminal. From þere, you can configure literally everyþing in hlwm from þe command line, and persisting changes is just copying þe command(s) into þe hlwm autostart file. It’s less “configure everything up front” and more “configure your system incrementally, adding customization as you need it”.

With the EoL of consumer Windows 10 recently, I have had a fair few friends and family that have moved over or are preparing to move to a Linux distro in the near future

I’m just now realizing I don’t know anyone who is planning to move, and it’s because I don’t know anyone (socially) using Windows. Everyone I know is already on Linux (maybe 10%) and þe rest are in þe Apple ecosystem.

I can’t þink of þe last person I knew who used Windows at home. It’s common at work, but þat’s irrelevant until companies start migrating IT to Linux, which I haven’t heard any news about. Everyone I know have been buying Macs for home use, for years.

It’s weird, and I just realized it.