I use an audio interface with bookshelf speakers… mostly overkill for people who don’t make music because they have xlr and line level inputs for using a professional mic.
Do you have room in your computer setup for two bookshelf speakers at ear height? Because otherwise, I’d recommend a sound bar type of deal.
Everything search app is easily my most used on my Windows PC. Instant, as-you-type file search by name with detail sorting and wildcard support. I set a keyboard shortcut as well. It puts Explorer search to shame. As good as Spotlight, which I was missing from when I had a Mac in 2008.
LaunchyQT - modern fork of Launchy that actually gets development. App launcher, dead simple.
FanControl - Fan curve software with all the features I want including hybrid temp sources, sensible automatic settings, visual graphs with an intuitive interface.
AutoHotKey - Hotkey scripting language that I can use even as someone who barely codes.
Transcribe! - Not open-source but it’s a reasonably priced audio and video slow down app for transcribing.
Yeah, it makes very little sense to “play the long game” on a private site to spread malware to a small user base when you could just go to any public tracker where it’s the Wild West. Could someone do it? Sure, but it’s really not realistic to expect that regularly.
Some of them have freeleech on some torrents. TorrentLeech has freeleech on every torrent over a certain size (I think 15 GB) + Box Sets of any size and then you just have to seed for 10 days total, then you can stop without penalty to your ratio. I have never paid money to TorrentLeech for access. I suppose this would change quickly if I was downloading individual episodes of a new show or 10 to 14.99 GB torrents, but that’s not my usual usage pattern.
I will say that some of your criticism is correct. I will often avoid using the private tracker to avoid having to seed for 10 days. I can’t get to a 1.0 ratio on private trackers, but I can on public ones, but freeleech seeding adds to my ratio with no penalty for downloading. The zero-sum vibe is both real and off-putting.
I currently have a ratio surplus of 34 GB, and it started me with 25 GB. The benefit is if I really want something, it’s easy to access
It is in fact an algorithm because it’s choosing what posts to put in front of you based on multiple criteria (time since it was posted, votes/number of comments/time since last comment). They are relatively transparent and well documented criteria, though.
However, it’s not a personalized feed based on your interests and unsolicited data collection, which is what people sometimes mean when they say “the algorithm.”
Absolutely devastated. The shade. 💀
Yes, with the caveat that it could overwrite the Grub menu/boot partitions of other Linux installs on the device. I’d disconnect all disks with working Linux partitions and possibly all Windows ones too while installing to USB from a Live USB.
Taken from the linked announcement, it appears not:
The GNU Linux-libre project takes a minimal-changes approach to cleaning up Linux, making no effort to substitute components that need to be removed with functionally equivalent Free ones. Nevertheless, we encourage and support efforts towards doing so.
So basically it’s the user’s or maintainer group’s job to select replacement code/libraries/drivers and how they do that is up to them.
The only workable discreet GPUs with open source drivers that work right now are on Team Red (AMD) edit: and Intel.
There are good people working on Nvidia foss drivers but they have a long way to go.
Oh and lastly, here is a link to a thread of Linux beginner advice that I think is good. I have a nice response there that is pretty detailed. It’s in the Marxist lemmy though. https://lemmygrad.ml/post/735631
Don’t use regular Arch if you’re struggling. There are some arch-based distros that are more user friendly, though. Like EndeavourOS or ArchMan. Manjaro can be good too but there are legitimate problems with how the project is run.
I was having graphics driver problems in Ubuntu-based distros until I tried Linux Mint.
If you get crashes right before or after login, it’s often a (Nvidia) graphics issue. To get around this, you could use nomodeset in the Grub menu to get a successful first boot where you can then install the proprietary drivers.
Look at sections 4 and especially 5 on this page
Also, here is that info in a tutorial format
Also, you may want to set the Desktop Environment to Xorg or X11 (same thing) if Wayland is causing you problems. It’s older, but in some cases more efficient and less experimental. Check out the section: Switching desktop environments using a graphical user interface. It should look similar to the pictures. And notice that the “gear” icon may not appear until you select a user.
If your problem is different than this, open a support ticket in the discord or forums of the distro you’re using. Linux Mint has a great system for this on Discord.
Thank you for putting some actual student-budget options.
Yeah, Framework seems like a premium product for sure. I want one but I definitely can’t afford it anytime soon. Also worth noting that a new framework mainboard rivals the price of some entire laptops. So while it is definitely upgradable and one of the most repairable laptops in the world, it is still a pricy ecosystem to be in.
This was his first reaction, just as satisfying to read: https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2023/dear-red-hat-are-you-dumb
S tier phone, my only complaint is that the bootloader is locked down and downward facing speaker. Next phone I buy will be able to be de-googled.
The battery life is head and shoulders above 99% of the market, oled is a killer feature, so is 120 hz.
Watching flash animations and playing flash games on Newgrounds.
This isn’t niche at all, but gbatemp is fantastic. Lots of emulation, modding, romhacking, general gaming discission, etc.
But that’s a live environment that doesn’t save anything you install, right? That’s not what I want.
I can’t even install Nvidia drivers permanently which means I can’t actually “try” it properly. The generic drivers/nomodeset can’t run high refresh rate so I can’t see how laggy it does or does not feel.
Based on what you’re saying, I guess the only way to not remove the old bootloader would be to physically disconnect the other Linux system drive while it installs. Because having to use the USB to load the local system is really really not ideal.
Edit: I learned you can make a live usb with persistent storage which lets you install and update programs. However, there are limitations.
Yeah, I booted a live usb installer for Ubuntu with budgie (I created this by writing the Ubuntu ISO to a 32 GB USB drive using Rufus). Then I booted from the Live USB and chose another USB 64 GB drive to install to. It seemed to take quite a long time (all night) but the installer was showing a prompt to restart and a completed message when i woke up.
I actually was never able to boot from the new Ubuntu install other than using the target USB drive’s bootloader to boot into my old Linux Mint on another drive.
The Linux Mint kernel was listed on the Ubuntu Grub menu along with Ubuntu and Ubuntu Recovery and I was able to select Mint and successfully boot to Mint. After installing Ubuntu, when trying to boot from my Mint drive without the Target Ubuntu USB connected, it gave an empty Grub prompt.
From there I ran timeshift to restore the old bootloader and everything else.
The reason I’m fairly certain it was a new boot loader is that it had a gray background where my old one had a black background.
I have Windows on a 1 TB NVME, Mint on a 200 GB SSD, and a 1 TB data HDD, as well as the 32 GB USB live stick and the second 64 GB which I chose as the target to install to. Because the sizes are all different, I think it was unlikely that I chose the wrong disk to target, as I double checked the name and size was correct.
Right now, I don’t need help fixing it Windows and Mint are as I want them after a Timeshift restore. I just want to know how not to ruin my old Mint Grub next time I install a second Linux on USB.
Edit: switched around to match chronological order. To clarify, when I say “target usb” I am referring to the 64 gb usb I installed to from the Live environment.
Klipsch has been a consistently good brand for a long time. I checked on ebay and there’s some great ones for $200 to $300. Only 2.0 setups for that price, though.
You will need an amp for those unless it’s got a built-in amp (some models have that).