winterstillness's recent activity
-
Comment on iPhone 17, 17 Pro and Air announced in ~tech
-
Comment on iPhone 17, 17 Pro and Air announced in ~tech
winterstillness Link ParentThanks. Hearing car integration is more or less equivalent is good to hear. @ogre mentioned AdGuard. I use Firefox (on Android), so I viewed extensions as something installed via browser as...Thanks. Hearing car integration is more or less equivalent is good to hear.
@ogre mentioned AdGuard. I use Firefox (on Android), so I viewed extensions as something installed via browser as opposed to a separate app. It's much better than nothing.
-
Comment on iPhone 17, 17 Pro and Air announced in ~tech
winterstillness Link ParentI actually use Kagi, and saw they were working on Orion. Was mildly disappointed it's available only on apple's ecosystem.I actually use Kagi, and saw they were working on Orion. Was mildly disappointed it's available only on apple's ecosystem.
-
Comment on iPhone 17, 17 Pro and Air announced in ~tech
winterstillness LinkAnyone have insights for someone debating moving from a Pixel 8a to the apple ecosystem? My main use-cases are: Maps navigation Public transit when traveling CarPlay vs Android Auto Music I'm on...Anyone have insights for someone debating moving from a Pixel 8a to the apple ecosystem? My main use-cases are:
- Maps navigation
- Public transit when traveling
- CarPlay vs Android Auto
- Music
- I'm on Windows and my music library is local (flac, mpg, ogg, opus, etc.). I'm looking to copy without converting/iTunes.
- Browsing the web
- How is the adblocker experience? I understand browsers are essentially a wrapper around safari, so there's no extensions.
- Privacy. This one is like choosing degrees of evil. An advertising company vs whatever it is that apple does. Right now I think apple is the lesser evil, but I have nothing to substantiate this claim.
- Maps navigation
-
Against the Storm - Nightwatchers DLC and Commons Update 1.8 available!
9 votes -
Comment on Food in the trenches of World War One in ~food
winterstillness Link ParentAhaa, good to know. I imagine it's something comparable to spam: canned, processed, designed to last forever, some people grew up with it. I grew up with salo (cured pork fat). I'm sure it'll turn...Ahaa, good to know. I imagine it's something comparable to spam: canned, processed, designed to last forever, some people grew up with it. I grew up with salo (cured pork fat). I'm sure it'll turn of a lot of people that didn't grow up with it, but with a good slice of bread it's heavenly.
-
Comment on Food in the trenches of World War One in ~food
winterstillness Link ParentI very recently learned what corned beef was because a fried rice recipe book called for it. Granted, it was freshly sliced at a deli, but it was very delicious. Definitely will keep it in mind...I very recently learned what corned beef was because a fried rice recipe book called for it. Granted, it was freshly sliced at a deli, but it was very delicious. Definitely will keep it in mind when deciding on a sandvich.
-
Comment on Layman's escapades with Linux for personal use in ~comp
winterstillness Link ParentI didn't come into this thinking whether my hardware is supported. We can thank Windows for this mindset; plug and play.I didn't come into this thinking whether my hardware is supported. We can thank Windows for this mindset; plug and play.
-
Comment on Layman's escapades with Linux for personal use in ~comp
winterstillness Link ParentI'll happily stick with Debian 13 until something happens forcing me off. My biggest take away is I should look at AMD next time I'm shopping for a GPU (~2-3 years' time) and avoid ~80% of the...I'll happily stick with Debian 13 until something happens forcing me off. My biggest take away is I should look at AMD next time I'm shopping for a GPU (~2-3 years' time) and avoid ~80% of the problems I've run into. I've been conditioned by Windows to assume hardware will just werk.
I'm very curious about what the Pop OS folks cook up.
-
Comment on Layman's escapades with Linux for personal use in ~comp
winterstillness Link ParentYour experience is very similar to mine. I really wanted to stick with Ubuntu because of how easy it was. But the drag/drop issue is a complete deal-breaker. I'm surprised it hasn't been brought...Your experience is very similar to mine. I really wanted to stick with Ubuntu because of how easy it was. But the drag/drop issue is a complete deal-breaker. I'm surprised it hasn't been brought up by anyone. I must be the only person to drag/drop images when browsing the web. Or it's a problem specific to my hardware/software.
-
Comment on Layman's escapades with Linux for personal use in ~comp
winterstillness Link ParentI remember a very long time ago looking at Pop OPS and seeing a GUI akin to one that Ubuntu provides for "firmware" drivers which lets you install Nvidia drivers. I'm sure it's as user-friendly....I remember a very long time ago looking at Pop OPS and seeing a GUI akin to one that Ubuntu provides for "firmware" drivers which lets you install Nvidia drivers. I'm sure it's as user-friendly. The thing that turns me off is it's based on Gnome. Even though they're rolling with their own variant, I'm sure it suffers from the same issues.
I'll stick on Debian 13 for as long as it doesn't commit sudoku after updating with how I installed Nvidia drivers. So far the only annoying bug I discovered is needing to toggle alt+f1/f2/f3 after turning the monitor off/on.
-
Comment on Layman's escapades with Linux for personal use in ~comp
winterstillness Link ParentTrue, I'm more technical oriented and the level of dedication to figuring things out is because of that. At the time I didn't know what someone meant by "just troubleshoot with journalctl". This...True, I'm more technical oriented and the level of dedication to figuring things out is because of that. At the time I didn't know what someone meant by "just troubleshoot with journalctl". This was a lot of answers, and technically they aren't wrong. But the expectation is for you to already know how to do it, or go to the docs and read+learn how to do it. No one responded with a ELI5 "go to the tty on the stuck boot screen by pressing alt+f1/f2/f3, sign in using your credentials, run journalctl as sudo and make sure you pass these params to filter to error so you're not sifting 1,000 lines of irrelevant info". This is how I found the line that had some Nvidia error which I had to research and linked to some Nvidia driver bug.
I'm in the same boat of "nothing fancy". I just want to continue with my personal life without having to hop distros every couple of months. I don't care about the latest versions of things. I just want my hardware to work.
All that said, with Linux you must technically oriented and expect to read and learn pieces of a greater puzzle to figure out a problem with no expectation there's a solution.
-
Comment on Layman's escapades with Linux for personal use in ~comp
winterstillness Link ParentI'll clarify what I meant by my ambiguous use of "vanilla". I'm not a purist when it comes to OSS/free/etc. I don't think adding repos is "non-vanilla" provided they're part of the...I'll clarify what I meant by my ambiguous use of "vanilla". I'm not a purist when it comes to OSS/free/etc. I don't think adding repos is "non-vanilla" provided they're part of the official/supported/documented way of doing things. To me, non-vanilla means I tinker with configs that aren't documented via "if you want this to work, then this is what you need to do" written out by the maintainers of said distribution. When troubleshooting issues there were so many "just install these packages, add this config, and run these commands" answers. My feeling is the moment you stray from "the golden path" is when you'll be stuck scratching your head when an update inevitably breaks your configs.
For example, Plasma/Wayland/Nvidia. Sure, this is very unfriendly to a non-technical person, but I trust this is absolutely necessary for things to work.
-
Comment on Layman's escapades with Linux for personal use in ~comp
winterstillness Link ParentI heard good things about it and I did give it a try. But I'll be honest, I have a bias against it. It feels "corporate" to me, even though that's nonsense. To be fair, Nvidia installed without...I heard good things about it and I did give it a try. But I'll be honest, I have a bias against it. It feels "corporate" to me, even though that's nonsense. To be fair, Nvidia installed without issues and Wayland worked. I think I had audio crackling with Bluetooth and a wireless controller, but I didn't explore beyond that.
-
Layman's escapades with Linux for personal use
tl;dr After 2 grueling days of mucking about I finally have KDE + Wayland + Nvidia working on Debian 13 (Trixie). I started with Ubuntu 24. It just works, right? To its credit, it does. I didn't...
tl;dr After 2 grueling days of mucking about I finally have KDE + Wayland + Nvidia working on Debian 13 (Trixie).
I started with Ubuntu 24. It just works, right? To its credit, it does. I didn't need to do anything to have it work out of the box. Nvidia was magically installed (even with secure boot enabled).
Gnome woes
But then Gnome would rename and re-encode images I dragged/dropped to "Dropped Image.png" from Firefox. Wouldn't even do that in Chromium. Can't tell if it's a bug, or "what's the use-case" scenario, but this behavior is a deal-breaker.
Not Kubuntu
Why not Kubuntu then? It doesn't do the same magic that Ubuntu does when it comes to Nvidia.
OpenSUSE almost
Latest and greatest whilst being supposedly stable. It took a while to get used to YaST and "patterns", but it was easy to install Nvidia drivers (
zypper inr). But, naturally, there was an issue. I was able to boot, but into a very tiny resolution (on Wayland). After some thinking, I came to the conclusion that I was booting into my "integrated" GPU (on the CPU). Don't know why. Eventually I ran into prime-select boot nvidia and it worked. But then Steam (flatpak) wouldn't launch a game (loaded for a sec, then stopped). I was tired.
Debian & Nvidia driver woes
I always liked Debian. I use 12 at work for development and as a container base image. Seeing that 13 (Trixie) is on the horizon, I decided to give it a go for personal use. Surely the packages it ships with have been written in the last decade.
I followed their docs for Nvidia drivers. But I couldn't boot (no login screen) after installing. Apparently there's a bug with the driver and my GPU (3080) that Nvidia isn't going to fix. So I went and used Nvidia's installer instead to get the latest version. It worked without a hitch. The next kernel update will be interesting I imagine.
Final thoughts
Honestly, Linux feels like it's always a decade away for things to be stable enough to not require any tinkering for your average layman. I'm not the kind of person to muck with custom configs/etc.
I want things as vanilla as possible because I know it's a matter of when it breaks, not if.
Ubuntu feels the closest to the "it just works" experience IMO. I would've stuck with it if not for Gnome.
23 votes -
Comment on DOOM (2016) is now available DRM-free on GOG in ~games
winterstillness Link ParentFelt almost bad for grabbing it for less cost than a cup of coffee.Felt almost bad for grabbing it for less cost than a cup of coffee.
-
DOOM (2016) is now available DRM-free on GOG
36 votes -
Against the Storm - New DLC early sneak peek
7 votes -
Comment on Starsector 0.98a released in ~games
winterstillness LinkI've been keeping an eye on it for quite some time. I'm one of those people that doesn't like playing early-access, betas, alphas, etc. for fear of burning out before the game even reaches 1.0...I've been keeping an eye on it for quite some time. I'm one of those people that doesn't like playing early-access, betas, alphas, etc. for fear of burning out before the game even reaches 1.0 (e.g. Valheim). Is it worth playing in its current state?
-
Comment on What possession(s) do you have that continue to delight you every time? in ~talk
winterstillness Link ParentI keep telling myself I don't need a rice cooker since I already have a pressure cooker. It's a guess how much water+time I need but it turns out well most of the time.I keep telling myself I don't need a rice cooker since I already have a pressure cooker. It's a guess how much water+time I need but it turns out well most of the time.
Interesting stuff, thanks. I'll see if I can "trial" run an iPhone for a week or so.
I'm actually using GrapheneOS at the moment, but honestly, I'm using it mostly to sandbox google's stuff (maps + auto). Not so much to harden against hacking/etc.