thelinuxexperiment

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#macOS #macbook #laptop

00:00 Intro 00:49 Sponsor: Proton Mail, the secure and private email service 02:22 macOS: sub par software 07:49 The Apple Ecosystem: not useful to me 09:35 macbook Pro: top notch hardware, but... 12:24 M1 Pro CPU: powerhouse with one crucial flaw 13:20 Performance & Battery Life: no equal 14:30 Why it's just not for me 16:04 Sponsor: Get a PC made to run Linux 16:59 Support the channel

MacOS sucks as an operating system. No going around that, it's designed for mono tasking, or full keyboard use. No window tiling, dock can't minimize apps by clicking on them, the green button puts everything full screen...

The Global menu is great though, I wish it was well supported on Linux. No cut and paste for files and folders in the file manager is completely insane, and dragging files to other folders, or even to an open app is SO SLOW.

Installing apps was OK once you get used to it. The app store is pretty useless, as everything I wanted to use wasn't in it: resolve, firefox, GIMP, rectangles, an app for nextcloud notes, obs, steam, none of them are in the app store.

Virtual desktops are ok: gestures are good, but I'd argue GNOME does them better now: three fingers up in macOS doesn't show the virtual desktops, you also have to move the pointer towards the top of the screen to reveal them, or create a new one You also can't just swipe right with 3 fingers to get to a new virtual desktop and start opening apps there.

Clicking on a window only focuses it, it doesn't select what you want, which is also annoying to get used to. Font rendering is absolutely great, though, especially compared to font rendering on Linux.

Now in terms of hardware, there's very little that's wrong with this macbook pro:

• The display is pretty great, high res, color accurate, high refresh rate, it's very good, bUT it's also covered in super reflective glass, without a matte coating. The keyboard took me a while to get used to, no numpad on such a big laptop is annoying. The webcam, mic and speakers are insanely good, and trounce everything I have ever used with Windows or Linux.

But, in the end, I still prefer using my Slimbook Executive 16. Why? First, while the build quality of this mac is undeniably better, it's also extremely heavy. 1.5 kilos for the executive 16, 2.1 kilos for the Macbook

The ports on the mac are far less useful as well, lacking any USB A port. In terms of trackpad, I'm not super convinced by the one on the macbook. It's huge and precise and gestures work really well, but the click is just so unsatisfying.

M1 is a cool architecture, but it also has trouble running VMs for operating systems that aren't ARM based, which means it's basically unsuitable for my day to day work where I need to test distros, on a VM first, and then on actual hardware.

On geekbench, It scores 2038 in single core score, which isn't bad, and 12636 in multi core, which is among the highest I've ever reviewed on a laptop, and it was on battery, not plugged in.

Battery life is insane, with 14 to 16h of light work, and 6 to 8h of video editing, compared to 7 or 8h on the executive, and about 3 to 4h of editing.

In the end, I have more fun using my Executive 16. It feels solid enough, although it does scratch more easily, it weighs less, I like its keyboard and display just as much, and I actually prefer the touchpad on the Executive The mic, speakers and webcam aren't super important to me, so I don't really mind the downgrade, but I have to admit the ones on the executive are just way below the ones the macbook ships with.

On top of that, my Executive can run a full blown Linux distro, and VMs, which this mac can't, yet. Of course I'll try Asahi on it at some point, but for now, it looks far from ready.

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#Linux #OpenSource #technews

00:00 Intro 00:38 Sponsor: 100$ free credit for your Linux or Gaming server 01:37 SUSE will create their own fork of RHEL 04:06 Thunderbird 115 is now live, and it's awesome 05:45 Linux passes 3% market share on the desktop 07:21 Desktop environment updates 09:13 China has its own from scratch Linux distro 10:51 Google sued for scraping user data and violating copyright 12:51 Gaming News: FidelityFX, Meta's graphics library 15:11 Sponsor: Get a PC made to run Linux 16:13 Support the channel

SUSE makes their own 1:1 RHEL compatible distro

https://almalinux.org/blog/future-of-almalinux/

https://www.oracle.com/news/announcement/blog/keep-linux-open-and-free-2023-07-10/

https://www.suse.com/news/SUSE-Preserves-Choice-in-Enterprise-Linux/

https://www.suse.com/c/at-suse-we-make-choice-happen/

Thunderbird 115 is now live, and it's awesome

https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/115.0/whatsnew/

Linux passes 3% market share on the desktop

https://linuxiac.com/linux-hits-3-percent-market-share/

Desktop environment updates

https://blog.system76.com/post/cosmic-skies-of-a-colorado-july-2023

https://thisweek.gnome.org/posts/2023/07/twig-104/

China has its own from scratch Linux distro

https://www.reuters.com/technology/china-releases-its-first-open-source-computer-operating-system-2023-07-06/

https://news.itsfoss.com/openkylin-linux-os/

https://news.cgtn.com/news/2023-07-05/OpenKylin-becomes-China-s-1st-open-source-desktop-operating-system-1lcms33vj7G/index.html

Google sued for scraping user data and violating copyright

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/07/11/tech/google-ai-lawsuit/index.html

Gaming News: FidelityFX, Meta's graphics library, Yuzu

https://www.winehq.org/announce/8.12

https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/07/amd-opens-up-the-fidelityfx-sdk-and-its-now-on-github/

https://www.khronos.org/blog/meta-uses-khronos-open-standards-in-new-intermediate-graphics-library

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#framework #laptop #linux

00:00 Intro 00:37 Sponsor: 10% off your first website with Squarespace 01:35 Who are they? 03:45 Customization Options 05:10 Comparison with Framework 07:07 Design & Build Quality 08:53 Specifications 10:35 Performance & Battery life 11:51 Display, inputs, speakers, mic & webcam 13:41 Should you buy one? 14:58 Support the channel

NovaCustom Website: https://configurelaptop.eu/

NovaCustom is from the Netherlands, and they're specialized in laptops, you won't find desktop PCs in here. They put the focus on customization of your laptop to your exact specifications, they ship Linux out of the box, and they use coreboot.

They offer 3 years of warranty, and they guarantee spare parts availability for your device up to 7 years after your purchase.

They have 14 inches, 15 inches and 17 inches, the cheapest they have is 749€, and the most expensive goes up to 3900 euros but that's with all the options ticked

Of course, you can change the specs, but you can also add you own logo, you can change the boot logo, you can engrave the palm rest, you can pick between Windows and Linux, or you can ask them to create a dual boot.

You can choose yo use your own keyboard layout, in ANSI or ISO, change the look of the super key, change keyboard illumination, ask to completely remove the mic and webcam...

Framework goes further, since you can even replace the entire motherboard and keep the whole chassis, keyboard, panel, webcam and ports. They don't have as many models and sizes though, and until the 16 inch model releases, you're not getting any dedicated GPU options, and you're limited to 13 inches.

Novacustom is more about customization, repairability, and allowing users access to their own hardware, where Framework is more about keeping the exact same device, and making it modular, and allowing complete upgrades.

In terms of price range, Framework will be a little bit more expensive than NovaCustom for the same configurations, but they do have better panels, and newer CPU options, plus Ryzen options that Novacustom don't currently offer.

My review unit is the NS51 series, their mid range laptop. In terms of build quality, it feels very rigid, the hinge is super solid. The whole thing is pretty heavy, 1.7 kilos, and it's quite sturdy.

The only real issue I can see is the position of the power button, next to a USB port

All the spare parts are accessible for up to 7 years after your purchase, and they give you a complete service manual.

My review unit came with a core i7 1260P. In terms of I/O, on the right, you get gigabit ethernet, the ill placed power button, one USB 2 port, a micro SD card reader, and on the right, you have your barrel charger, an HDMI port, a USB 3.0 port, and 1 thunderbolt 4 and 1 type C 3.1 Gen 2 port. You can charge the laptop using USB C.

This laptop came with coreboot, with Dasharo firmware.

In terms of performance, the CPU gets a more than honorable 2498 in single core, and 7450 in multi core. As per battery life, this chip is relatively power efficient, it lasts for about 7 hours at mid brightness, wifi on, watching youtube videos in a loop.

Now let's look at the various things this laptop comes with. The display is 15.6 inches, 1080p, 16:9, 300 nits of brightness. It covers 98% of SRGB.

As per input, the keyboard feels pretty good to type on. They keys have good travel, they bounce back well, it doesn't feel mushy for a membrane keyboard, and it sounds pretty good. It's a good keyboard.

The touchpad is decent, it doesn't feel like glass, but it's smooth enough, large enough, and it feels precise. It did wobble a little bit and you can feel that when just using tap to click.

Now, the webcam is the usual potato quality fare, it's 720p.

The microphone is the same, it will be suitable for short video conferences, but it makes you sound distant.

And finally, the speakers, they're your average fare.

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#internet #ads #marketingdigital

00:00 Intro 00:44 Sponsor: Learn how to deal with ransomware attacks 01:32 The ad-based internet 04:08 Twitter: anything but the kitchen sink 05:46 Reddit: shooting themselves in the foot 07:14 Youtube: nickel and diming 08:58 Alternative platforms won't save us 11:43 Three possible outcomes 14:41 The Ad Based internet is on its way out 15:13 Sponsor: Get a PC that was made to run Linux 16:02 Support the channel

Google has shown that with enough scale, just running ads on a website is enough to keep the content free of charge. But of course, as with everything where money is involved, it went way too far. This limited the ad revenue, and so websites decided to add more ads.

To compound that, ads started paying less and less, so websites started chasing profits by making the internet worse for everyone.

Twitter's revenue is 89% ads. It has existed for more than 10 years, and has never made any money. So even at that scale, ads are just not working to sustain a company.

All the changes Musk is making to Twitter, like firing most of the workforce, charging for the API, limiting the number of tweets, Twitter Blue, it's all to try and turn a profit. So, the experience of Twitter is now ten times worse, because ads don't work.

Now let's look at Reddit. Reddit is about as popular as Twitter. And Reddit isn't profitable either. They're kept afloat by raising money from investors. And so Reddit charges for their API now. Reddit made their site worse for everyone: the regular users, and also everyone browsing the internet and landing on reddit to see a "this subreddit is private" message, making any web search ultra inefficient.

And we can also look at Youtube. Youtube is HUGE. And it's hard to know if youtube is profitable or not. The consensus seems to be that it is, but the actions of youtube seem to indicate that maybe it's not THAT profitable. For example, youtube seems to be planning some moves against adblockers. Youtube is also taking steps against third party frontends, like Invidious. They wouldn't do stuff like that if profit growth was awesome.

I love alternative platforms, but they'll probably never replace the giant ones: they don't offer a business model for people to create content on them.

As a user, you probably don't care about that. And the person running the instance of said platform maybe is ready to fund it out of pocket, but the people creating the content on these platforms? They're not making money from them.

And so as ad-based internet models start dying off, I have a feeling we're going to be faced with 3 options

First, the big platforms survive as-is with the ads, you can still have ads on your own website, but the platforms will start keeping more and more of the ad revenue.

This is where we're heading now. People are tired of ads and their privacy invasion, and the over abundance of them, but platforms seem to think this is the way to go.

Second option, the big platforms and websites evolve to another model, like paywalling everything behind a paid subscriptions like Youtube Premium.

It would basically kill off an entire portion of the internet, but it probably wouldn't be the worst portion to lose.

Third option, the big platforms and the internet as a whole can't find a new model to replace ad based ones, and big platforms and big websites die off. Content creation becomes a hobby mostly.

This is probably the best outcome for the internet as a whole, as it would probably kill off most clickbait, disinformation, AI generated crap. We would have far less things to read and watch, but a lot of if would be higher quality.

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00:00 Intro 00:35 Sponsor: Save 10% off your first purchase of a website with Squarespace 01:34 France arrested people for being private and using Linux 03:53 Windows 11 is losing users 05:44 System76 announces big updates to their FOSS firmware 07:27 Debian 12 is now out 09:04 BlendOS 3 offers a new spin on immutable distros 10:53 Other news: Thunderbird beta, extensions support donations 13:17 Gaming News: Apple uses Wine and VKD3D, Proton updates 15:03 Sponsor: Get a PC that runs Linux perfectly 16:07 Support the channel

#Linux #OpenSource #TechNews

France arrested people for being private and using Linux

https://www.laquadrature.net/2023/06/05/affaire-du-8-decembre-le-chiffrement-des-communications-assimile-a-un-comportement-terroriste/

Windows 11 is losing users

https://www.techradar.com/news/windows-11-lost-users-this-month-should-microsoft-be-worried

System76 announces big updates to their FOSS firmware

https://blog.system76.com/post/major-updates-for-system76-open-firmware-june-2023

Debian 12 is now out

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klfgPmUsirs

BlendOS 3 offers a new spin on immutable distros

https://blendos.co/blend-os-v3/

Other news: Thunderbird beta, extensions support donations, Ubuntu adds quarter tiling, and staged releases for snaps

https://ubuntu.com//blog/release-management-for-snaps-made-simpler

https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2023/06/ubuntu-23-10-window-tiling-feature

https://linuxiac.com/gnome-extensions-now-supports-donation/

https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/115.0beta/releasenotes/#whatsnew

Gaming News: Apple uses Wine and VKD3D, & Proton updates

https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/06/proton-experimental-fixes-up-halo-mcc-ubisoft-connect-creativerse/

https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/7/23752164/apple-mac-gaming-game-porting-toolkit-windows-games-macos

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#Debian #Linux #bookworm

00:00 Intro 00:38 Sponsor: Check out TuxCare's newsletter for news about Linux security 01:24 Debian 12 Stable 02:17 Not completely FOSS anymore 04:24 Desktops: not that outdated 09:16 Apps and packages 11:14 Who it's NOT for 13:02 Debian 12 is a great desktop 14:33 Sponsor: Get a PC that runs Linux perfectly 15:25 Support the channel

KDE Plasma 5.27 video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onPUaAKoGIM GNOME 43 video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wefK40cjz9s GNOME 44 video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HZIHvACggs

So, to begin with, Debian 12 moves away from its pure "FOSS" roots. Debian 12 now enables the non-free firmware repo by default IF Debian detects you'll need it on your computer. Just know it's possible to disable this during the boot process.

Debian 12 actually splits non free software into 2 different repos: non-free, which is for packages and apps that don't conform to Debian's guidelines on free and open source software, and non free firmware, which is the same thing, but specifically for drivers and firmware.

Debian isn't generally known for shipping the very latest and greatest desktop environments, but Debian 12 isn't far off. For Plasma users, you get the very latest, KDE 5.27, with all its bug fixes and updates, which means you're not missing out on anything.

If you were using Debian 11, you were using KDE 5.20, so you're jumping a full 7 versions ahead, which means your experience will be drastically better, whatever your use case.

If you're a GNOME user, you'll get GNOME 43, which isn't the latest, but GNOME 44 wasn't a huge update by any means. If you were using Debian 11, you were on GNOME 3.38, which means you'll get a whole 4 new versions worth of features, support, performance improvements.

Of course, Debian 12 also updates virtually every single package and app they ship. You get the LTS kernel version 6.1, and you get the Mesa drivers 22.3, and the nvidia drivers 525.

All in all, 67% of packages were updated from Debian 11, and the repos now include 11000 new packages as well, for a total of more than 64 000.

Of course, Debian 12 isn't a desktop for everyone. If your use case is "I like using the very latest thing", then obviously, it's not for you. If you want the most beginner friendly distro, while Debian isn't a bad choice; it's also not the easiest. If you want to game on Linux, Debian will also not be your first choice.

In the past, I would never have recommended Debian Stable as a desktop for most users. It was too old, too outdated, the older applications in its repos were just not a great experience, and Flatpak wasn't super well supported. Older desktop environments were also lackluster, as each new release brought some crucial improvements that you really couldn't do without.

With the maturity of formats like Flatpak, snaps or AppImages, you don't have to care about what versions of apps are in your repos. If you need something newer, you can get it, without adding a third party repo that might mess up your system's dependencies and shared libraries.

And desktop environments on Linux are now very mature, which means using a 6 month to 2 year old desktop isn't a dealbreaker anymore.

And of course, Debian stable won't be for everyone. Tinkerers, enthusiasts, hobbyists, and people who like to game won't find what they want in Debian 12. But for anyone who just wants a computer that works reliably, day after day, without failed updates or stuff that randomly breaks, Debian 12 is an obvious choice. In terms of combining stability, software availability, and now, hardware support, nothing comes close.

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#Linux #Windows #ux

00:00 Intro 00:35 Sponsor: Monitor and secure your internet connection with Safing 01:35 The Start Menu 05:34 How the start menu affects Linux desktops 06:42 Disjointed User Interface 08:55 Program installs and storage 12:22 System Updates 14:17 Windows design matters to Linux 15:53 Sponsor: get a PC that supports Linux perfectly 16:46 Support the channel

This is going to be controversial, but the Windows menu, or really the whole start menu paradigm is bad. This menu is used to start and open things. It's not a multitasking experience. So having a menu that occupies a small corner of your screen is not great.

The reality of things is that people are now just used to it. In Windows 11, the centered menu is a disaster, and once it's open, it's just a bad launcher. Apps are sorted chronologically, so if you don't know the name of a program, you're out of luck, and you can't create any folder that you could build muscle memory upon. And there's the case of opening multiple apps in a row. With the windows menu, you need to open it as many times as the number of apps you want to launch. Not efficient.

The issue is, this bad menu design affects Linux desktops. Because many distributions or desktops don't want users to run away, they mostly moved to a windows like menu.

We all know about the mismatched UI of Windows.The real problem is that people are now completely used to it. And for Linux, it means that UX, or just UI is not often considered.

Next, let's look at how apps are installed on the system. On Windows, while the store is progressively getting better, the main way to install a program is still to head over to its website, download an executable, and run it, then click next a few times, pick a location, and let the program install itself.

The files are stored in a single folder usually, with all the libraries the program needs, and the program itself in its own directory structure, that varies from program to program.

And this is a bad design. First, for security reasons. Storing executables and libraries and data in a single folder is a surefire way to have badly set permissions on these files.

Second, it makes finding the files you're looking for difficult. You need to learn each program's directory structure, and look online to find where the data is stored.

And this bad design on Windows also influences Linux desktops negatively. Because to this day, I still get people telling me it's easier to install a program on Windows than on Linux. Seriously.

The reality is that a lot of people don't understand how to install programs on Linux. They're so used to downloading them manually that they try to replicate this, and get super confused.

And a lot of newcomers to Linux just don't understand where the files a program uses live, because they're used to having them lumped into a single directory. The better way to look at it is: what type of file am I looking to access? And then this tells you the folder where it's been stored.

It's no secret that system updates are dreaded by a lot of Windows users. Windows updates have always been problematic, super slow to install, they require a reboot in most cases, and they can make your system worse than it was, so it's no wonder that many users are wary of these.

App updates are also handled separately from system updates. And people that moved from Windows to Linux will keep this fear of updates, because it's been drilled into them again and again that updates or even worse, major version upgrades, aren't a good thing. But they ARE.

And that negatively affects Linux desktops, because you'll get plenty of people who don't apply their updates and then ask for help about a bug that's been fixed already, or who stick to insecure software that has patches available. It makes the work of maintainers and developers harder.

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#rss #socialmedia #linux

00:00 Intro 00:40 Sponsor: Learn about kernel livepatching with this free webinar 01:45 Why social media sucks for news 04:04 What is RSS 04:55 Advantages of RSS 06:49 What can you add to your RSS reader 10:13 Choosing an RSS Reader 13:02 Use RSS, not Social media for your News 13:45 Sponsor: get a PC that runs Linux perfectly with Tuxedo 14:29 Support the channel

The big, main reason social media sucks for news is that they were never designed for that. All the big social media platforms have one goal, and one goal only: to keep you there for as long as they can, so they can show ads, and make more money.

On top of that, things you are subscribed to might also never be shown to you.

You can't really go back to older things, search through what you archived, sort it in a specific way, create your own organization system.

RSS works with 2 components: an RSS Feed Reader, and RSS Feeds. Feeds are what you'll subscribe to: they're just a simple file a lot of websites have, that can be read by the Feed Reader, which will aggregate all these feeds in one place. And RSS has TONS of advantages!

First, you'll only ever get what you subscribed to. There is no algorithm, no recommendations, no ads in between posts. And you can add a LOT of sources: websites, video channels, podcasts, social media accounts, and even newsletters.

Second, all feed readers have organization capabilities.

Third, you can sort things. Fourth, you can go back and search through older articles. Fifth, you can navigate super easily from one article to the other. And finally, it's portable: all readers will let you export and import your feed list.

RSS is all about adding sources, or feeds to your reader.

A lot of websites will display a small orange square icon, which is the RSS logo. Clicking the icon will bring you to the feed, or give you a URL you can copy. That's what you want to add to your feed reader.

But some websites don't have an RSS feed, or an icon to access it. No matter, most RSS feed readers will let you add any website URL, and automatically create an RSS feed for you.

If you want to add videos from a youtube channel, let's say a bearded french Linux content creator, most feed readers will also just let you copy paste the channel's URL and add it as a feed. On Peertube, it's even easier, just click the subscribe button, and you get the ability to access the feed.

You can even add social media posts if you really want to. Using rss.app, you can just copy paste a social media profile in there, and it will spit out an RSS feed you can add to your reader. And you can also add podcasts.

If you're really into RSS, you can also add newsletters. Using the website kill-the-newsletter.com, you can generate an email address and a feed.

The first thing you'll need to pick is obviously an RSS Reader.

If you want a single device solution, it's very easy. On Linux, Newsflash is the one I use. A few web browsers will give you access to an RSS Feed reader built-in, like Opera or Vivaldi, and Thunderbird also has the ability to do that.

If you want the simplest multi-device solution, Feedly is a good bet. You can create a free account, add up to 100 different feeds, create a few folders, and if you want to go over that, they have paid plans. They have mobile apps, and a web interface on PC.

There's also Newsblur, which does the same thing, and is open source, but the free version limits you to 64 feeds.

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#android #samsung #googlepixel

00:00 Intro 00:29 Sponsor: Save 10% on your website or domain name with Squarespace 01:49 Hardware: too many bad choices 04:41 Why NOT Samsung Phones? 06:30 Why NOT Google Pixels? 08:14 Software Issues: nothing fits 11:18 Alternative ROMS? 13:35 What to use, then? 15:27 Parting Thoughts 15:55 Sponsor: Get a device that runs Linux perfectly 16:49 Support the channel

My preferences are: relatively small phone, very close to 6 inches, a high refresh rate display, 90hz or more, a capable camera array, preferably with a video portrait mode, and, the hardest one, I don't want a phone sold by a chinese company.

Let's start with the size. Current phones are just way too big. If I can't reach the top left corner with my thumb without shifting my grip, it's too big. Period.

As per the provenance of the phone, Chinese manufacturers are a red flag for me. It's not paranoia, but every chinese company is legally required to hand over all information about their users to the chinese government: https://www.techradar.com/news/dell-wants-to-cut-out-chinese-made-chips

I used Samsung phones for a long while. I started on the Galaxy S8, then I had an S9+, an S10e, then an S21. I ran the default Samsung ROM on some of these, and I find Samsung phones great. I even miss the curved edges screen.

My problem with Samsung is more in terms of reliability. All phones I owned from them had the exact same issue: after about a year, they stop recognizing my SIM card. This happened to EVERY Samsung phone I ever owned, so I'm done with them.

So that leaves Google, the Pixels are highly rated by people who use them.

But first, and it's subjective, I find them horrendous to look at. Plus, they're very unreliable. The first gen had severe performance degradation, the second one had a bad OLED screen that burned in way too quickly, and an easy to break USB C connector. The third pixels were plagued by software issues. The fourth pixels had a bad screen again, and a very insecure face unlock mechanism.

The fifth pixels seemed to have huge manufacturing issues with the screen separating from the main body, and almost right after launch as well.

The 6th one has issues with the fingerprint sensor not working well, the assistant could ghost dial random contacts, there was a screen flicker issue, so basically no quality control on that phone.

And as per the pixel 7, it looks like the camera glass is spontaneously cracking.

I'm sure I could look hard and long enough and find something that I'd enjoy, but Android is just messy. Samsung's brand of Android, called oneUI was pretty good, with a great design flair, easy to use with one hand, with major controls at the bottom of the screen, good gesture navigation, and looks wise, it was pretty good.

BUT it's riddled with ads in a lot of the default applications, and it's a mess of applications you can't remove. It's bloatware central.

If you go with Vanilla Android from Google, then you get something that is way more trimmed down, with only Google apps and services, but the design is horrible, in my opinion.

Which leads us to alternate ROMS. Graphene OS works on Pixels, and as I explained, no way I'm buying one, not with that track record.

Then there's Lineage, or /e/, my favorite one, which goes even further than Lineage in terms of removing Google crap, and has a very nice simple aesthetic that I find super pleasing.

/e/ is what I would use, if I could find a phone I like to use it on. My Galaxy S21 is in a drawer, and I'd love to use that with /e/. But I can't, because they don't support it.

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#mastodon #fediverse #socialmedia

00:00 Intro 00:39 Sponsor: Extend the life of your Python applications 01:30 The Fediverse: a network of social networks 04:57 ActivityPub: all your social networks can talk to each other 06:44 How Mastodon works 08:33 How PeerTube works 10:19 How PixelFed works 11:39 Parting thoughts 13:02 Sponsor: buy a device that runs Linux perfectly 14:11 Support the channel

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List of Fediverse services: https://fediverse.party/en/miscellaneous/

Fediverse is a contraction of Federated Universe. It's basically a very large network of servers that form, well, a social network. But contrary to the ones you might be used to, like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and others, the Fediverse is composed of different services.

The more well known are Mastodon, a Twitter-like microblogging service, PeerTube, a youtube-like platform, or PixelFed, an Instagram-like social network, but there are a TON of others.

Each service is also decentralized, which means there is not one big server farm where everything is hosted: each service is split into instances, basically independent servers, with different goals.

ActivityPub is an open standard, that lets all services on the Fediverse talk to each other. How does that work? Well, in practice, it means you can use your Mastodon app to follow a Peertube channel, or someone that posts pictures on PixelFed, or see new articles from a Wordpress website.

And this goes a bit further: for example, if I comment on Mastodon on a post from Peertube, that comment will also appear on Peertube underneath the video.

Let's start with Mastodon. Mastodon is basically Twitter, but open source and decentralized. It lets you post messages with up to 500 characters, it supports images, videos, polls, content warnings, animated avatar pictures, emojis, links, mentions, hashtags, anything you're used to on Twitter. Mastodon has 1.5 million active users, which might seem small compared to Twitter, but it's more than enough to have interesting conversations with a lot of cool people.

To join Mastodon, all you need to do is pick a server, also called an instance. You can pick any server you like, and it will let you interact with everyone else on any other server.

And then, you can use Mastodon on the web, by typing the address of your instance in your browser, for example, for me, it's mastodon.social, or you can use a mobile app.

Now let's talk about PeerTube. It's a Youtube alternative, although it's much, much smaller. Peertube is also decentralized, being split into different servers, that are federated together, so you can follow people from different instances and still have a complete subscription feed. It also supports ActivityPub, which means you could subscribe to my peerTube channel from a mastodon account, and have a post in your timeline every time I publish a video.

And as a creator, it also lets you sync your youtube channel to it, so you can auto-publish all your videos to Peertube in a few clicks, which is also a great help.

To watch peertube, just type the address of your instance in your browser's URL, for me it's tilvids.com.

Another cool service on the Fediverse is PixelFed. It's basically Instagram, without all the crap they tacked on lately, like reels, or lives. It's just pictures and videos. It's free software, it also uses the ActivityPub standard, so you can follow PixelFed users on Mastodon, for example, and it's ad-free.

It also lets you add filters, just like Instagram, or crop, resize, adding alt text, and you can use hashtags, locations, or create collections, basically photo albums.

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00:00 Intro 00:35 Sponsor: Monitor and secure your internet connection with Safing 01:30 Thunderbird 04:14 Geary 05:49 Kmail 07:45 Evolution 09:36 MailSpring 11:11 BlueMail 14:13 Sponsor: Grab a device running Linux from Tuxedo! 15:32 Don't let me end up like Bradley Cooper in Nightmare Alley

Thunderbird is cross platform email client that was initially developed by Mozilla using the same technologies as Firefox. Thunderbird does a LOT. You get a calendar and tasks list, and a complete address book.Thunderbird also has plenty of configuration options to let you tweak how it looks and works, manage tags, offline use, spellchecking, and how your email actually displays.

It also has plenty of hidden, features, like a complete RSS Feed reader, that you can access by adding a new Feed account in the settings, and you can even use it a chat client for Google Talk, IRC or any app using the XMPP protocol.

You also get access to extensions! You can add, for example, sticky notes, or integrate Thunderbird with Nextcloud to upload your large attachments to your storage and send them via a link in the email, you can add a conversation view, you can turn your favorite folders into tabs in the interface, you can add Google calendar support, or even add Exchange support.

If you're looking for something that will look right at home on your GNOME desktop, with a simple and easy experience, Geary is what you want. It's very simple, without many options to change how it works0.

If you use KDE, you'll probably want to head towards Kmail, which is designed to look right at home on that desktop environment.

Kmail can work with Exchange accounts, supports OpenPGP, and you can integrate SPamAssassin or Bogofilter to remove spam.

If you want a more complete suite for handling all your productivity needs, Kmail can also integrate with Kontact, which brings in an address book, a calendar, a todo list, RSS feeds, a journaling solution, and some sticky notes.

Evolution doesn't get many updates these days, and it looks more at home on a GNOME 2 desktop than on a GNOME 3 one, it's still a pretty useful email application. Evolution will pick up on your dark theme and GTK theme, and you get access to your email, contacts, calendar, tasks, and notes.

You can change how things look, with the message panel on the right or the bottom. You also get a ton of preferences to change how you write your email, manage your labels, how the calendar and tasks work, if you want to load external content in HTML emails.

Mailspring is a pretty nice email client that you can get from flathub. It can use most email providers, like Gmail, iCloud, GMX, Office 365, or Outlook, and of course independent IMAP accounts. It comes with multiple themes out of the box, including one that looks like Yaru, Ubuntu's theme, and it has a dark theme.

It's got a comprehensive set of keyboard shortcuts, including presets, and you can set rules for incoming email, create hmtl signatures, as well as configure a lot of things.

Bluemail isn't open source but it still has a Linux version, and it has an interesting approach: treating your inbox as a todo list.

It has a small kanban board to let you organize your email as if they were tasks. You just drag them to a column, like Today, Later, or Done, and you've got yourself a little organizer to avoid using another app to convert your actionable emails into tasks. You can create other columns if you like to sort your work exactly how you like.