smileyhead

@smileyhead@discuss.tchncs.de

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smileyhead ,

Main problem with ActivityPub, in my opinion, is being build on the Internet, which is already broken.

I do not blame creators, this is how it is right now. But I believe the end goal of decentralization is to have any device able to listen to connections and just forward posts from device to device.

smileyhead ,

If Linux (from 2009) Made a VR Headset

smileyhead ,

Non-copyleft licence for an OS... 🤢

smileyhead ,

Both are Chromium apps.
First running on Chromium, second running on modified Chromium.

smileyhead ,

Not on all. Chromebooks are closer to a smartphone, meaning not all drivers are available for Linux.

smileyhead ,

Do it the Linux way and remove the fan yourself.

Just kidding. Or am I?

smileyhead ,

For frameworks treating Chromium as app development platform like Android.
Firefox dev tools are much better for typical web development.

smileyhead ,

There is a toggle for DRM in both Firefox and LibreWolf that is off by default.
It will prompt you when site would like to use it, so you can happily say no and launch your favourite file sharing software.

smileyhead ,

You say Angular. But what else can we expect for a framework for making WebKit/Chromium apps.
Angular working in Firefox is an afterthought because it has very much similar featureset.

smileyhead ,

I see very weird or even inaccurate descriptions here, so let me say it much simplier how it is most commonly used today:

Programs are expected to be unpacked/installed to proper locations. Like /usr/bin for binaries or /var/lib for their data.
But not all programs, especially games and those ported from Windows, are made in recpect to this schema and expect everything in one directory.

So TLDR:
For badly ported programs or quick installs that want every of program files in a single folder.

Is osmand normally terrible?

I just tried osmand. It took forever to locate me and then the map would freeze for minutes, then the blue arrow would finally jump to my location. It seems useless for real time navigation, is that normal? Google maps works fine on the phone (Android) so it's not the hardware. Is there maybe some setting I haven't found?...

smileyhead ,

OsmAnd is one of the oldest open source Android apps. It has a ton of features, but also the codebase is very stale.

If you don't need such big featureset you may try Organic Maps.

smileyhead ,

KeePassDX.
Different codebase, but 100% compatible and even same color theme.

smileyhead ,

Try at least once install pure Arch from the installation instructions without automatic install scripts (best in VM to not worry about the data).
It is a very good learning experience and definetly would get you closer to what Arch based systems are about.

smileyhead ,

It's great if you want portable computer. But as smartphone, still no camera is a big downside :P.

smileyhead ,

Worth it to try out and see the current state. The ecosystem is close to daily usage if you mind some bugs and use only standardized FOSS things.
There are bugs here and there like GNOME Web crashing on more load that definetly can be a turn off for many to switch now, but it is worth trying out especially when going back is easy on OnePlus phones.

smileyhead ,

No available port for 8T yet.

smileyhead ,

It basically is, but this kernel is much modified by modem maker, SoC maker and device and component manufacturers.
They almost always do dirty low quality patches just to make one device work with Android and not care about sending them to upstream (mainline) kernel or even about compatibility with anything but their Android version.

https://not.mainline.space/ - example of OnePlus 6 having more than 5,600,000 lines of code difference from normal Linux kernel. And is still considered pretty close compared to most phones.

smileyhead ,

They are publishing their version of the kernel. The problem is that this kernel is so much modified and dirtly patched it is useless to run anything other than Android.

And many device drivers for Android are now proprietary blobs in Android userspace outside of the kernel code.

smileyhead ,

Just type any game title to the torrent tracker and you'll find you this is only for the first crack.
After game is cracked by just one person, everybody can pirate it just like if there was no DRM.

DRM-free is exactly the reason I buy on GOG and would never pirate a game that exists on GOG.

smileyhead ,

Signal encryption can be taken out of the app and applied elsewhere, because it has been already done. SimpleX is nice but this is single app single implementation thing.

smileyhead ,

At least we know that this won't be open federation. But still maybe some company could bridge them or at least could become a JMP.chat like service for WhatsApp.

Element wrote a first look summary on this: https://element.io/blog/the-eu-digital-markets-act-is-here/

smileyhead ,

maybe they could convince meta to use it

I think he/she meant convincing Meta to use MLS, not Matrix.

smileyhead ,

Specification may be not controlled by Google, but the single available client implementation is controlled by Google and almost all carriers are delegating managing their RCS servers to Google.

While XMPP or Matrix server you can host even on your LAN network between two computers.

smileyhead ,

Apple can implement RCS, but what then?
Currently people not using Apple approved device in US can be marginalized. After RCS people not using Apple or Google approved device are going to be marginalized. And they both have wide requirements in order to be approved, recently Google started requiring Play Integrity check. So no RCS after you get rid of YouTube app for example.

This is the same discussion all over about defaults like if this was LibreOffice vs MS Office debate.

smileyhead ,

If you did root your phone, you can turn RCS back on with the standard Magisk hiding procedures

I really do not want to use hacks like that in order to send a text message.
It reminds me of the:

  • Voting in elections now requires buying a Big Mac and having receipt for verification, I don't want that.
  • No problem with that, just ask a friend to buy it for you. Or you can just fake

A messaging standard that requires carrier, phone modem and phone operating system all implementing in order for it to work is outdated mindset from the era of flip-phones. We have Internet now, which allows sending any data to any device and we have installable apps that can send anything through it. Implementing an awful and already outdated standard in a most user freedom unfriendly manner just to replace even more outdated standard is not great.
Imagine if Google now started promoting a FAX 2.0 protocol for fax machines, which would implement some of basic email features already being in email for 20. No, just use email and if your friends do not have it show them how to use it.

smileyhead ,

This is why it is a full number release not point release. In those they make breaking changes.

smileyhead ,

My brother in Christ, serving a file through HTTP is exactly what Tim Berners-Lee invented in 1989.

smileyhead ,

Serving static app in Caddy:

sudo apt install caddy
sudo systemctl enable --now caddy

Then in /etc/caddy/Caddyfile:

example.com {
   root * /var/www/html
   file_server
}

That's all, really.

smileyhead ,

You cannot forget some rsync flag and lose part of metadata about files.

smileyhead ,

I keep / and /home on a btrfs subvolumes, so I do not have to think about their sizes and also can do snapshots.

smileyhead ,

AppImage is a nice way to have an app on an USB stick, remote server or for archival. But for normal app usage, why?

smileyhead ,

TIP: Flatpak have a build-in way for creating USB, check out the "flatpak --help".

But the point is with Appimage all that have to be installed is FUSE, which is expected to be installed on most installs when you go to a friend or work where Linux is used.

smileyhead , (edited )

This was the peak of light themes.
Nothing is pure white except the parts with lots of text that needs to be very clear.

1000002073

smileyhead ,

Yes. I would like a theme based on the same principles as Windows 7 style, but not trying to minic the same look.

smileyhead ,

Matrix was built by Israeli intelligence

It get some resources from them at the start, but they do not fund it for a long time.

consumes so many resources that it’s not feasible to self-host on most budgets

When you join large rooms like :matrix.org, it consumes a lot of space. But otherwise it is not that heavy. I hope they fix this, as this can be fixed with better resource planning, the biggest tables on the database are those like state_groups_state that does not hold bare information and just group information together for quick search. (I hosted a server and MatrixHQ room took 100GB..., 95% of the database).

As such it’s highly centralized

Looking at server list it seems very healthy. Also (opinion alert) I think having thousands of public server running by a randoms like there is for big chunk of Fediverse will not be as healthy as dozens of well funded community servers.

the community is still largely being ran by Matrix.org as the keeper of the implementation server

Synapse is not the reference server, there is no one official implementation for a purpose. And old news, it is now hosted by Element under AGPL.

smileyhead ,

This site is really unrealiable. It is based on browser's user agent.
It has spikes like this regurally and always Linux community talks about it.

smileyhead ,

This site is using stats based on browser's users agent string, very unreliable source of imformation today.
Please stop celebrating when it have an anomaly and do it's temporary spike up or down every couple of months.

Linux is in fact rising, like all desktop OSes besides Windows, because Windows is losing market share. But celebrating stats from this site is not worth it.

smileyhead ,

Maybe. But this does not change the fact that managing Windows is so much pain even if some of clients I manage computers for have Windows because of the software like Adobe, I think every day how good it would be to get rid of it.

smileyhead ,

DisplayPort is super easy to convert to HDMI and the adapters are cheap. The other way around is not so easy.

smileyhead ,

DRM is not to stop pirates, but to show investors and licence holders you are trying to stop pirates.

smileyhead ,

Isn't it beautiful that when someone try Mac and some Windows software is not available the reaction is "oh well", but on Linux they try very hard and immediately reach for tutorials trying to install it?

smileyhead ,

The benefits are there, some of ideas out of my head:

Better networking for administrator, access to /etc/hosts file, not being tied to a single VPN slot.

Using old mobile phone as a simple server, having access to firewall tools and normal remote control.

Installing simplier graphical interface for eldery people.

Lifetime updates for many system components that are not device specific.

Simple backups and cloning with standard tools like rsync or borgbackup instead of Google Drive. Also backing up whole system.

Everyone can add a feature, you can make a difference, no need to mess with Google's Android developing pipeline.

Making native apps for mobile and desktop at the same time, no need for bloated web-like abstraction layers.

Apps made in Python, C, Rust... No need to fit into Android SDK.
And no forcing Android SDK and Android Studio!

Customizations of the interface look via CSS files (Phosh have it to some sort).

Someone give more ideas?

smileyhead ,

Try to compile just the Android SDK yourself. No one even knows if this is possible (if all the source code needed is there).

smileyhead ,

You can't even compile any of those FOSS apps without running propietary build of Android SDK. No one managed to build current versions of Android SDK from the source code yet.

Android is like one big blob and changing anything in it require giant effort. Meanwhile making new feature for a Linux phone with common Linux tech stack is super easy and any mid-tier developer can change something in Phosh for example.

smileyhead ,

Which one?
Android SDK source is under Apache licence, but binaries are under EULA. There were some efforts to properly package it under free licencje, but currently no one do it.

As for Android being giant blob, maybe not the best word but it really is barely available to change. If I want to add a new feature to the UI, I need to build whole ROM again and deal with Google's developing platforms. While on Linux you can get the code for a component from some GitHub/Codeberg and modify/reinstall just that component.

smileyhead ,

This is a problem with the current industry, smartphones are conceptually no different than any other computer. It's Qualcomm not publishing proper documentation and tools, propietary bootloaders, drivers being baked as Android packages, no specification how main processor can talk to a modem...

smileyhead ,

In my region everyone uses Facebook Messenger. And if you don't use it, to contant people that won't install an app for you (like meeting you for first time), the only option is SMS.

smileyhead ,

Just cost? Absolutely no.
Internet protocols are better in so many ways that phone based messaging should be obsolete for years.

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