• Activity
  • Votes
  • Comments
  • New
  • All activity
  • Showing only topics with the tag "foss". Back to normal view
    1. Tips for buying + reading ebooks that are synced without using kindle/play books?

      Hey! I’ve been trying lately to get rid of big platforms from my life. One part of it is that I usually buy ebooks/audiobooks from apple, Amazon or google, however I’m then also forced to use...

      Hey! I’ve been trying lately to get rid of big platforms from my life. One part of it is that I usually buy ebooks/audiobooks from apple, Amazon or google, however I’m then also forced to use their reading app, which is a vendor lock-in I’m not comfortable with.

      I know there are plenty of ebook readers out there, but I’m trying to find

      1. A store where I can buy ebooks that can be opened in a ebook reader of my choice.
      2. A way to then sync my progress between phone and laptop. I have nextcloud setup, so if I can make use of that then it’s perfect.

      Anyone here got any tips?

      22 votes
    2. Best FOSS app for Lemmy?

      I tried out Sync for Lemmy. Loved it, but I was not a fan of the tracking for ads and the price to get rid of that being $20. Anyone tried the free open source Lemmy apps? I used to use RedReader...

      I tried out Sync for Lemmy. Loved it, but I was not a fan of the tracking for ads and the price to get rid of that being $20. Anyone tried the free open source Lemmy apps? I used to use RedReader for Reddit, so I don't mind it being a bit worse than something like Sync.

      27 votes
    3. What do you use to journal with?

      The recent PKM thread had me thinking about what folks are using as journaling app/portal. I do use Obsidian for my second brain right now and genuinely love it. But I find the mobile app on...

      The recent PKM thread had me thinking about what folks are using as journaling app/portal. I do use Obsidian for my second brain right now and genuinely love it. But I find the mobile app on Android to be a bit clunky, if I'm honest. Seems slow to open even with very few plugins. For jounaling I've used DayOne for years. I started back when it was iOS/MacOS only, but then switched phone to Android and haven't been back. But now they have an app and web app for that. What I don't like is the somewhat goofy format it saves in and it's on their servers. They used to allow you to at least leverage your own Dropbox, but no longer.

      For the past several months I've tried several FOSS options. Main criteria is that I could host it myself, supports offline entries stored in an open file format (preferably MarkDown), and had either multi platform app or a decent web app. That lead me to try these:

      Memos
      Pros:

      • Great persistent web app
      • Slick UI that is light and snappy
      • markdown support
        Cons:
      • Stuffs the .md inside a database file so can be a bit cumbersome to export data
      • No offline support. There is a 3rd party app that hopes to implement it

      Flatnotes
      Pros:

      • Incredibly simple
      • Another easily deployed app
      • Flat Markdown files
        Cons:
      • Web app on mobile is almost unusable as in it doesn't scale well to smaller screens
      • Very early development, but very likely to stay as minimalistic as it is now.
      • No offline and very unlikely to ever have it

      Joplin
      Pros:

      • Multi platform apps that perform well
      • End-to-end encryption supported
      • Could replace both DayOne and my To-do solution (Google Keep)
      • Offline support
        Cons:
      • More database stuff instead of flat markdown files

      One solution I've been testing lately is using IAWriter to write to a 'Journal' folder within my Obsidian vault on Google drive Obsidian Vault > Journal > 2023.... for example. This works surprisingly well. Of course IAWriter is a bit spendy at $29 for Android and then more $ for other platforms as they're sold separately.

      So I'm curious what other people are using for just simple daily journaling, random thoughts, etc. If there's an approach I've missed I'd love to hear it. Joplin is so dang close but not having the structure of plaintext files is a no go for me as I don't want to be trapped by any one product should something happen to the development down the road. Doesn't have to be free, but I want control of the entries either on my own server or cloud storage.

      46 votes
    4. Why does it seem that FOSS users don't value user-friendliness very much?

      The vast majority of free and open source software available is well known for being clunky, having very unintuitive UI/UX and being very inaccessible to non-nerds. We can see this in Linux...

      The vast majority of free and open source software available is well known for being clunky, having very unintuitive UI/UX and being very inaccessible to non-nerds.

      We can see this in Linux distros, tools, programs and even fediverse sites.

      I understand that a lot of it is because "it's free", but I also feel like a lot of people who make and use FOSS don't actually value user-friendliness at all. I feel like some of it is in order to gatekeep the less tech savvy out, and some of it is "it's good enough for me".

      What are the best theories for why this is the case?

      EDIT: A lot of replies I've been getting are focusing on the developers. I'm asking more why the users seem okay with it, rather than why the developers make it that way.

      67 votes
    5. Is there an open-source version of the Garmin Connect app for Android?

      I am considering the purchase of a Garmin GPS watch, but I don't want to run the bloated Garmin Connect app on my phone. Really all I want, is the ability to pull coordinates from my watch (.gpx...

      I am considering the purchase of a Garmin GPS watch, but I don't want to run the bloated Garmin Connect app on my phone. Really all I want, is the ability to pull coordinates from my watch (.gpx files) and put them on my phone or computer. Does a privacy-respecting app like this exist?

      6 votes
    6. FOSS and UX (twitter thread)

      @Kavaeric: Let's walk through this, shall we?Say we've decided to make a new FOSS word processor. Call it, I dunno, Libra-Office or O-Pan-Office. Just a thought. Word processors, as you might guess, are also a fairly entrenched market.Who's our target audience?

      26 votes
    7. Is Firefox still a good (enough) browser for privacy?

      Someone posted this on the privacy subreddit. I also ended up finding this and this after doing a bit of searching. As someone who isn’t in the CS/IT spheres (chemical engineering is my...

      Someone posted this on the privacy subreddit. I also ended up finding this and this after doing a bit of searching. As someone who isn’t in the CS/IT spheres (chemical engineering is my background), Firefox has been my go-to browser for awhile, although I’m being made aware of the flaws of Firefox (most of which go over my head) and behavior of Mozilla. What can be done to fix this, especially considering that Firefox is the only FOSS browser with a significant user base?

      22 votes
    8. Is there a website to propose/join open source groups?

      I'm interested in working on an open source project from scratch with a group of like minded people and curious how to get something like that started. Does anyone know of any websites that...

      I'm interested in working on an open source project from scratch with a group of like minded people and curious how to get something like that started. Does anyone know of any websites that facilitate that kind of thing? Like where people might propose an project and others can tentatively join?

      12 votes
    9. Ask Tildes: I'm looking for (FOSS? Self-hosted?) photo manager software

      Specifically, I've got a big honkin' pile of photos stored on an online storage space, and I want some kind of software that lets me share links to a pic, or a group of pics, or a folder, etc ......

      Specifically, I've got a big honkin' pile of photos stored on an online storage space, and I want some kind of software that lets me share links to a pic, or a group of pics, or a folder, etc ...

      ... and here's the crux ... without making extra copies of the pics ... just has renamed, custom-permissioned links to the original pic(s).

      In database terms, I want something that gives me Views of my photo collection.

      I run my own Nextcloud instance, which is close. It has very nice, very granular photo management and sharing capabilities ... but as far as I can tell, whenever I share a pic with someone, it actually makes another copy of it for the shared instance. If I share the photo 5 times w/5 different people/groups, then suddenly, I have 6 copies of the pic.

      Any recommendations?

      8 votes
    10. password, the typing game, is about to receive mobile support

      I've been working on the mobile version of password for a while now, mostly lending to the fact that much of the infrastructure of the game required expansion to accomodate for that. Plus, this...

      I've been working on the mobile version of password for a while now, mostly lending to the fact that much of the infrastructure of the game required expansion to accomodate for that. Plus, this sort of gameplay on mobile is a new territory for me, which makes it both worrisome and exciting.

      Long story short, you can preview the mobile gameplay of password with the same link:

      Play the game.

      The gameplay is different from the desktop version. Here, you have to tap the keys in the order of their number: 1, then 2, then 3, and so on until the last key. Tapping keys out of order (4, then 6) results in a foul, which takes away a bit of time. Tapping all keys in the correct order means you win the round and get awarded the score. Other instructions are on screen.

      It is NOT the final version. It's playable but contains some visual bugs. I'm gonna work on fixing those in the coming weeks. Right now, I'm looking for feedback:

      • How does the mobile gameplay feel?
      • How does the sizing of the score looks?
      • Are there any problems with swiping or tapping?
      • How does the timer bar look on smaller screens? (Think smaller than iPhone X.)
      • How does the timer look on devices that have a notch?
      • Does it load the correct version at all? (If you're on a mobile device – smartphones and tablets – you should not see keyboard references. If you do, it didn't load the correct version of gameplay.)

      Desktop gameplay has only received visual updates. You can still play it with the same link.

      Let me know if you encounter issues. You can post here, or you can open an issue in the GitHub repo. If you do, make sure to provide what information you can on the issue, like what sort of a device you're using (maker, model, OS version, browser etc.): this helps figure out the problem easier and quicker.

      I know of these issues so far, and am working on resolving them:

      • after pressing the last key of the order (8 right now), the red border flashes, as if you've received a foul (you don't)
      • score has to fully animate towards the final value before it resizes to fit the screen
      • swiping distance may or may not be too short, so it may feel as though it doesn't register
      16 votes