Ryan

I’ve been using wayblue on my own desktop. They have sane defaults & very pleasant theme. They do a good job keeping their image up to date & enable auto-updating from the get-go.

Usually, I just smoke cannabis until my body goes “TIMBEEEEERRR!” ;-P

Seriously, though, routine plays a big role. I tend to lay down/wake-up at around the same time every day. About an hour before I go to bed, I put on a comfort TV show & brush my teeth. At this point, notifications are being silenced on my phone until the next morning, so less incentives to pick it up. While I’m watching the show, I intermittently close my eyes for a few minutes as a signal to my brain about the direction we’re heading, helps keep the peanut gallery in my head from getting chatty right as I’m laying down.

White noise while I sleep is required, I need something constant that covers-up the incidental noises. Otherwise, I pop awake when someone runs the faucet or what-have-you.

That’s what I’ve figured out works for me, YMMV.

Yeah, given the choice, I’d rather avoid the phone all together. Unless it’s close friends/family, I have to script what I’m going to say to get through it. I don’t have the same reaction to video calls, interesting enough…

I really like emerge/portage, even w/out the “candy” feature enabled. Great color highlighting, and verbose messages about any config change(s) needed.

“Stable” doesn’t necessarily refer to “reliable,” depending on the context. Stable is often used in reference to how often a distro releases new versions of the applications. Using Audacity as an example, in the current release of the distro, they’ll release security & bug fixes for version 2, but if you want version 3, you’ll have to wait until the next distro release.

Upgrades to a new version of an application can introduce new ways of using the app (i.e. icons in different places, how user-created files are written to disk, etc.), which is disruptive to enterprise op’s, which is why Debian & RHEL take this approach.

Hopefully that helps clarify things.

I definitely prefer it over Snaps or appimages. Straight-forward to update, and Flatseal provides a nice GUI to control permissions (if needed). Themes may not work properly, but whatever, not a big deal for me.

The distro’s repo is always my go-to. If it’s not available there, then flatpak, and I’ll use appimage under duress. If that doesn’t work, I’ll figure out a different solution.

I say go for it. I’ve been using it for about 2 years, and I no longer feel like distro-hopping (not sure if you fall into that category of Linux user), because it’s not opinionated about how it’s meant to be used. It gives you all the tools (and foot-guns) to do whatever you want with your computer.

You don’t need separate computers for a local mirror and/or build server to run Gentoo, I’ve never done that. I’ve never owned a Mac, so I can’t really offer any tips hardware-wise, but use a live USB of a distro that you’re already familiar with, so you can refer to the handbook as you go. The people on Gentoo’s IRC channel & forums are very helpful if you come against any roadblocks.

It does take a while, not gonna gloss over that. Once you have it installed, there are very few issues that would require a full re-install. Portage is an awesome package manager, the language of its warnings/errors took some time to wrap my brain around, but it’s very verbose in describing what’s going on.

I really like the simple design that separates the results into docs/blogs/magazines. Obviously, the results reflect the current state, but I appreciate your approach in both the design & sourcing the search results. I think there’s a lot of potential for this to be a regular part of my toolbox, hopefully this takes off!

I second raptir’s note about running zypper dup in the terminal to do system updates. Zypper’s a bit slow because it lacks parallel downloads, but it provides good info if there are any issues.

If you plan to use flatpaks, add the flathub repo with the --user option, and use that one to install. If I didn’t go that route, it prompted me to enter my password for every flatpak app with an update. I’m also a deplorable Plasma user 😜, I don’t know if the same behavior happens with Gnome software, it may be a weird Discover thing (shrugs).

Also, if you need the non-free multimedia codecs, run the following commands:

zypper install opi

opi codecs

Automates adding the Packman repo & switching the relevant packages.

Those are the main quirks I learned with Tumbleweed.

I never recommend Manjaro, even for experienced users. Multiple times, they’ve let their ssl certificats expire, and renewing those has been easy to automate for a number of years at this point. There have been a number of cases where they ship work-in-progress versions of software as part of their default install, and there was an open letter posted calling this out: https://dont-ship.it

So in my opinion, Manjaro leaves much to be desired from a project governance standpoint.

Now, using an Arch-based distro that does the install process for you doesn’t absolve you from learning what it takes to maintain an Arch install; at some point, something will crop-up that requires manual intervention to get back up & running again after an update.

If that is what you’re looking for, I suggest EndeavourOS.

If you want a rolling release, I suggest going with openSUSE Tumbleweed. The installer allows you to pick & choose what you do/don’t want/need, and has a great rollback system in case an update causes problems.

Otherwise, I would suggest Fedora. Stays very current, and the in-place upgrade process is very seamless at this point.

Yeah, the average user: 1) doesn’t care what’s running under the hood, and 2) doesn’t want to control what’s running under the hood.

I’m definitely not an “average user.” I like specifying that I don’t want wifi, bluetooth, or dvd functionality on my desktop when I have no need/desire to use them. So use flags are one of the main reasons I use Gentoo. Occasionally, it causes some mild irritation, but it’s a net-positive for me.

Can’t say that I’ve really used any of the features mentioned in this list, so doesn’t really affect my experience negatively. Also, updating some icon sets to fit with the overall theme would provide a more unified experience. So two thumbs-up from me for removing code that, by & large, wasn’t getting used, should help maintaining it in the long run.

I’ve read articles that were clearly created using ChatGPT, there was no extrapolation to add context/details to illustrate their points, and parts of it read like it just pulled from a Wikipedia page. The tone felt more robotic than pieces they published 6~8 months ago.

ChatGPT can be useful when it’s part of a larger writing process, but I have a feeling that sites that create prompts and paste the output as their articles will slowly die-off because the quality isn’t there.

My thinking is, if the normies weren’t motivated enough to move to Mastodon after Musk’s shenanigans, this isn’t going to move the needle very much, either.

To them, they see it as “hey, they’re making something that’s kind of like Twitter, but I don’t have to create a new login, GREAT,” and not look into it any further. I can see a very marginal percentage that could be curious, but not enough to be that noticeable.

If more normies actually cared at all about protecting their data, it’d be a different story.

[YOINK!]

Definitely adding to my own cheatsheet that I manually created with info from the various git tutorials I’ve read/watched. Very nice to have a visual representation.

Thank you!

Without reading any of the comments, I’ll share this…

Personally, I use “I’m autistic,” not “I have autism.” It’s so ingrained in how I’ve experienced & interacted with the world. There is literally no aspect of my personality, emotional processing, etc. that hasn’t been significantly touched by it in some way. However, I can see how others may not have that same relationship, and a presumption of “autistic” can be problematic to those that prefer “have autism.”

As with anything, always ask what the other person prefers, and kindness goes a long way.

I’m interested to see what others wrote on the subject. :-)

In my experience, snaps are better for servers, and flatpaks are better for desktops.

I haven’t used snaps for a couple years, so they may have fixed this, but I’ve found flatpaks have less issues interacting with peripherals that aren’t mice/keyboards without fenagling with app permissions. A number of snap apps just wouldn’t work without disabling containment entirely (aka “classic”).

Flatpak permissions can be manipulated from system settings in Plasma, and there’s also Flatseal. I am not aware of an equivalent for snaps; doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist, I haven’t kept up with what’s available for snap for some time.

Yeah, it’s never a cut-n-dry deal.

I didn’t research autism for myself until my late 30’s. My thinking for many years was “I’m fine, it’s everyone else that’s weird,” so I totally get the thought process of autistic traits not applying to her struggles.

It’s never easy cutting someone that you care about out of your life, but letting them drag you down with them isn’t healthy, either. This is why you don’t jump into the water to help someone that’s drowning.

Regardless of the path you choose, you have friends here. :-)

First off, I’m sorry that this happened to you.

If it were me, I’d drop that " “friend” " (extra quotes added for emphasis) like a boulder off a cliff. People that are actually friends listen & make amends when told their words caused pain & invalidation.

If it were me (I’m not familiar with your life situation outside of this post), I wouldn’t contact her in any way/shape/form, and the only words I would say if she contacted me would be:

“Actions have consequences,” and walk away.

I know that some of what I’ve wrote may come across as harsh & nuclear, but I have no patience for people that do this. Life is too short to keep people like around.

In spite of the negativity & pain being spewed out of our screens, there are plenty of people that do care & empathize.