FOSS Is Fun

Oh no, I thought that was a feature. I came to rely on it to transcribe long tab titles into my text editor. Is there any way to restore the old behaviour in Firefox? Otherwise I'll have to stick with Firefox 118 or switch web browsers, since Firefox 119 seems to break my longstanding workflow. :(

Any ideas?

I am surprised that no one has mentioned Rnote yet.

It is my favourite newly-created program for Linux. It is a relatively new app which supports annotating files and taking handwritten notes. You can import PDFs, set the page size to infinite or a fixed size (something OneNote can't do), adjust the background to display grids or lines or dots or nothing with any spacing you like, input text with your keyboard, .... It is available on Flathub for easy installation.

The only major downside is the following: Disclaimer: The file format is still unstable. It might change and break compatibility between versions.

(Hopefully) obviously /s

Thanks for fixing this issue! I didn't even know until today that it affected non-Linux systems as well.

You can select a local folder in Obsidian for Android and sync the folder with Syncthing. You can even revoke network permissions for Obsidian and it all works completely offline (Flatpak override: --unshare=network / GrapheneOS: don't allow the network permission).

This is my current setup, even though Obsidian is not FOSS. I like that it stores standard Markdown files in a traditional filesystem hierarchy, instead of what Joplin does with using Markdown files as a database. This means that with Obsidian I can use any text editor or any other Markdown app to access and edit my notes, whereas with Joplin I would have to export them first to standard Markdown and then potentially rename and reorganise all the files and their attachments.

For text-based notes I use Obsidian.

It isn't open source, but it writes standard markdown files to disk, so I can switch programs whenever I like and I am not locked into the Obsidian ecosystem with my notes. That was the main reason why I decided against using Joplin, especially after my experience with converting recipes from Nextcloud Cookbook to markdown ...

In general I am always trying to find a simple file-based solution for whatever I need to do. I want to be able to sync it with Syncthing instead of something fancier that requires a centralised web server or even relies on a cloud service.

There are plenty of reasons to get rid of Ubuntu, but this isn't one of them.

Before Ubuntu Pro, packages in universe (and multiverse) were not receiving (security) updates at all, unless someone from the community stepped up and maintained the package. Now Canonical provides security updates for universe, for the first time since Ubuntu has been introduced, via Ubuntu Pro, which is free for up to five personal devices and paid for all other use cases.

Debian is actually not that different (anymore). If you read the release notes of Debian 12, you'll notice that quite a few package groups are excluded from guaranteed security updates, just like packages in universe are in Ubuntu. Unlike Ubuntu, Debian doesn't split its package repository by security support though.

It misses one important choice: "I want to get notified of new releases of the operating system and want to have a graphical upgrade path."

Otherwise people just run their no longer supported OS until something stops working (I've seen this countless times ...), as very few people follow blog posts or social media feeds of their operating system.

This rules out lots of supposedly "beginner friendly" distributions, such as elementary OS or Linux Mint, as they don't notify users about the availability of a new distribution release. Elementary OS doesn't even offer in-place upgrades and requires a reinstallation.

ThinkPad under Lenovo has also gotten much worse to the point that I don't really consider them anymore ...

Last time I looked you couldn't even buy a 2-in-1 with upgradeable memory (or RAM > 16 GB) anymore and for replacing the keyboard you now have to disassemble the entire ThinkPad. Unlike my L390 Yoga and X201 Tablet, where the RAM is slotted and where the keyboard can easily be changed by removing three screws (which is important to me, as I prefer US International over my local layout and I also value a clean keyboard when buying used). In my experience ThinkPad batteries also tend to loose capacity rather quickly? In addition we already have the second X1 Yoga with a broken hinge within three years of normal usage in my family (luckily this device has a five year warranty, so we'll see if the warranty covers it) ...

Maybe this has changed since the first L13 Yoga (haven't read about any new hardware from Lenovo since then), but these were the main reasons why I decided to buy one of the last new L390 Yogas instead of its successor and why I no longer consider ThinkPads to be more desirable than any other laptop.

Variable refresh rate (VRR), HDR, OLED (e. g. I'd like the panel to become grey and move items around a bit to lessen burn-in) all involve GNOME for hardware support.

They won't do that, because older Pixel phones used Qualcomm SoCs and Qualcomm didn't support these SoCs for more than three Android versions.

They might technically be able to extend support for the Pixel 6 and up (Tensor SoC), depending on the contract and who, Google or Samsung, is responsible for providing the chipset drivers. But even if it is technically possible to extend support, it is probably also unlikely to happen due to the additional expenses it requires.

Overall it'll be interesting to see how many phones actually live long enough to see their final update after seven years. Considering I already had to replace the battery on my three year old Pixel 5 once (which initially came with Android 10 and got updated to Android 14). USB connectors and broken screens are also common failure points for aging phones.

Someone should tell Left Angle that Ubuntu 22 is not a valid Ubuntu release.

It always infuriates me a bit whenever I see that and it immediately tells me that Linux doesn't seem to be a priority for them. For some reason they get the macOS version numbers right ...

https://hyprland.org/

The Arch wiki lists more options to choose from: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/wayland

On Sailfish OS I used to use Pure Maps, which seems to be available on Flathub. I don't know if it works on the Librem 5 though, but you might want to give it a try? There's also an optional dependency for offline maps.

You don't need your own server to use Joplin. You can select a local directory to store your notes and sync this directory with Syncthing between devices.

I am not sure if this works with iOS though.

I was in a similar situation not too long ago.

My criteria for another scripting language included that it should be preinstalled on all target systems (i. e. Debian and Fedora), it should be an interpreted language and it needs to have type safety.

Afterall I settled with Python due to its popularity, its syntax and features (type safety since v3.6, etc.) and the fact that it is preinstalled on many Linux distributions. System components often use Python as well, which means that libraries to interact with the system tend to be included by default.

Actually it is the same story with TLS 1.3 and TLS 1.2. A bunch of sites still doesn't support TLS 1.3 (e. g. arstechnica.com, startpage.com) and some of them only support TLS 1.2 with RSA (e. g. startpage.com).

You can try this yourself in Firefox by disabling ciphers (search for security.ssl3 in about:config) or by setting the minimum TLS version to 1.3 (security.tls.version.min = 4 in about:config).

This has always been the case with Ubuntu. Ubuntu only ever supported its main repository with security updates. Now they offer (paid) support for the universe repository in addition, which is a bonus for Ubuntu users, as they now have a greater selection of packages with security updates.

If you don't opt-in to use Ubuntu Pro, nothing changes and Ubuntu will be as secure (or insecure) as it has always been. If you disable universe and multiverse you have a Ubuntu system where all packages receive guaranteed security updates for free.

Please note: I still don't recommend Ubuntu due to snapd not supporting third-party repositories, but that's no reason not to get the facts right.

Debian has always been the better choice if you required security updates for the complete package repository.

Personally I have my doubts if Debian actually manages to reliably backport security updates for all its packages. Afterall Eclipse was stuck on version 3.8 for multiple Debian releases due to lack of a maintainer ...

I've tried to combat this a bit with a global Flatpak override that takes unnecessarily broad permissions away by default, like filesystem=home, but apps could easily circumvent it by requesting permissions for specific subdirectories. This cat-and-mouse game could be fixed by allowing a recursive override, such as nofilesystem=home/*.

But even then, there is still the issue with D-Bus access, which is even more difficult to control ...

I think it is sad that Flatpak finally provides the tool to restrict desktop apps in the same way that mobile apps have been restricted for a decade, but the implementation chooses to be insecure by default and only provides limited options to make it secure by default.

Sway is based on wlroots and therefore does not need to implement the complete Wayland specification itself. Many other Wayland window managers are also based on wlroots and therefore share a common base (compositor).

Furthermore Sway's git repo has activity up to a couple of days ago: https://github.com/swaywm/sway/commits/master

For servers there's Docker/Kubernetes/Podman, which is well-established and serves a similar purpose as Flatpak on the desktop. Servers were actually first with the increase in popularity of containers.

90 % or more of my desktop (Fedora Kinoite and Silverblue) apps are Flatpaks already. I only have four rpm-ostree overlays (native packages) left: android-tools, brasero/k3b, syncthing (I could switch to SyncThingy for a Flatpak) and virt-manager/virtualbox

With Flatpak there is "flatpak override" which gives you the ability to grant additional permissions or restrict them even further. E. g. I use it to connect KeePassXC with Firefox or to disallow access to the X server to force almost all apps to use Wayland instead of X. It also allows me to prevent apps from creating and writing into arbitrary directories in my home.

Once I reinstall my home server, all its server software will be containerised as well (five years ago I didn't see the necessity yet). I am tired of having to manage dependencies with every (Nextcloud) upgrade. I want something that can auto update itself completely with minimal or no breakage, just like my desktops.

My whole infrastructure is designed so that my homeserver is expendable.

Therefore my most important tool is Syncthing. It is decentral, which is awesome for uptime and reducing dependance on a single point of failure. My server is configured as the "introducer" node for convenience.

I try to find file-based applications, such as KeePassXC or Obsidian, whenever I can so that I can sync as much as possible with Syncthing.

Therefore there is (luckily) not much left to host and all of it is less critical:

• Nextcloud AIO: calendar, contacts, RSS, Syncthing files via external storage
• Webserver: Firefox search plugins (Why is this necessary, Mozilla?!), custom uBlock Origin filter list, personal website

So the worst thing that can happen when my server fails is: I need to import my OPML to a cloud provider and I loose syncing for some less important stuff and my homepage is not accessible.

Since I just rebuilt my server, I can confirm that I managed a whole week without it just fine. Thank you very much, Syncthing!

Have you enabled virtualisation support in your BIOS/UEFI? Many vendors ship their hardware with this switched off by default (and some hardware actually doesn't support it at all).

I don't have any issues with Xwayland and simultaneous key presses. Tested with Bottles (i. e. WINE), BeamNG (native Linux build) and the games from SCS Software (also Linux-native). I am running Fedora 38 Silverblue with an AMD RX 5500 XT GPU.

I didn't know about Logseq! Looks really interesting and since there's a Flatpak available, I'll give it a try. Thanks for mentioning it!

Until a couple of weeks ago I used Fedora Silverblue.

Then, after mostly using GNOME Shell for about a decade, I (reluctantly) tried KDE Plasma 5.27 on my desktop due to its support for variable refresh rate and since then I have fallen in love with KDE Plasma for the first time (retrospectively I couldn't stand it from version 4 until around 5.20).

Now I am using Fedora 39 Kinoite on two of my three devices and Fedora 39 KDE on a 2-in-1 laptop that requires custom DKMS modules (not possible on atomic Fedora spins) for the speakers.

Personally I try to use containers (Flatpaks on the desktop and OCI images on my homeserver) whenever possible. I love that I can easily restrict or expand permissions (e. g. I have a global nosocket=x11 override) and that my documentation is valid with most distributions, since Flatpak always behaves the same.

I like using Fedora, since it isn't a rolling release, but its software is still up-to-date and it has always (first version I used is Fedora 15) given me a clean, stable and relatively bug-free experience.

In my opinion Ubuntu actually has the perfect release cycle, but Canonical lost me with their flawed-by-design snap packages and their new installers with incredibly limited manual partitioning options (encryption without LVM, etc.).

As far as I know, companies don't have to comply yet with the Digital Markets Act. That's most likely the reason why the WebKit restriction is still in place.

Personally I am excited for immutable distributions, so my suggestion would be Fedora Silverblue or Kinoite. It may be a spin of Fedora, but it works completely differently than regular Fedora. I am using it as my daily driver for over a year already and I am quite happy with it (apart from reoccurring breakages caused by kernel updates, e. g. my AMD desktop currently does not work with kernel 6.4 or newer, but this doesn't have anything to do with Silverblue).

There are other immutable distributions out there, e. g. Vanilla OS or openSUSE microOS, so if you really want to avoid Fedora, you could also choose trying out one of these. In the case of Vanilla OS I would wait until version 2 is out, because version 2 will be radically different from the first release.

Actually that's one of the main reasons I use Syncthing: It doesn't need a server, as it is a peer-to-peer architecture. Unlike a centralised solution (cloud storage, Nextcloud, etc.) devices sync directly with each other. If they are on the same local network, you get to enjoy the full bandwidth of your local network. If they need to sync over a long distance over the internet, you are limited by the upload and download speeds of your internet provider, just like with centralised storage.

I have a server that serves as an introducer, so I don't have to connect each device with every other device manually. But the server doesn't need to be available once all devices are connected with each other.

Syncing continues to work without it for as long as I don't reinstall any of the other devices. And even if I'd reinstall a device, I could delegate any other device to be the introducer or connect the devices manually with each other. It really is quite robust and fail-safe.

Because it takes manpower to develop and maintain these features?

Especially desktop icons are difficult to get right (see workarounds like "ReIcon" on Windows). E. g. keeping icon positions across multiple monitors and varying resolutions and displays (which can be unplugged at any time). They can also be a privacy-issue, e. g. when doing a presentation.

But most importantly: GNOME doesn't want to be a traditional (Windows-like) desktop, so why would they implement features that don't align with their ideas for a desktop experience?

There are lots of other desktops, like Cinnamon, that offer a traditional desktop experience within the GTK ecosystem. There is also plenty of room for desktops, like GNOME, that have a different philosophy and feature set.

In my opinion it would be boring, if every desktop tried to do the same thing. And there wouldn't be any innovation, if no one tried to do things differently.

Your're right, ideally wear reduction should probably be done by the display itself. But considering how little manufacuters often care about OS-agnostic approaches, it might be necessary to have software workarounds?

When I was still new to Linux I also had these phases from time to time where I went back to Windows, used mainstream software, like Microsoft Office, etc.. I was still undecided if Linux was really worth all the hassle and I wasn't quite settled on either side.

But I always returned to Linux for whatever reason. Probably because using Windows just didn't feel right ... The times where I returned to Windows got rarer and shorter the older I got. The last time I used Windows for an extensive amount of time was during the Windows 10 beta period. I even had a Windows Phone for a year! I returned to Linux roughly once Windows 10 was released as stable (funnily enough).

I believe that you are likely in a very similar situation at the moment as I was. I think you might just need some time to settle with something and get comfortable. ;)

Joplin has export options itself, but I just don't like how Joplin manages notes on a filesystem. If it can be done nicely (see Obsidian), why bother with something needlessly complex (file structure, need to sync with the filesystem, etc.)?

But everyone has different requirements and for the right person, Joplin can certainly be a good solution. ;)

In my opinion Plasma has gotten much better with the last couple of releases. Around 5.21 the defaults actually got pretty good and since 5.24 Wayland support is quite good, on par with GNOME in my opinion.

After using GNOME Shell for a decade I have recently switched to Plasma 5.27 on my desktop due to its VRR support (I have two 170 Hz QHD monitors). A couple of weeks later I also moved my laptops to Plasma, even though I wanted to keep GNOME on them, since Plasma has gotten so nice!

Just wanted to give a heads-up in case you haven't tried Plasma in the last couple of years. ;) But especially if you rely on dynamic workspaces and don't want to adapt your workflow (like I did when I switched to Plasma), there's just no alternative to GNOME and it has gotten really polished and nice as well.

I actually like to use Comic Neue for personal stuff. https://comicneue.com/

Ubuntu is another nice font, which I like to use for more serious documents. https://design.ubuntu.com/font

For system fonts I use whatever comes preinstalled. I don't modify the font defaults in any way.

Linux Mint nowadays supports release upgrades, but you have to follow their blog to know when a new major Mint release is out and you have to manually install mintupgrade and do the upgrade.

So it is definitely not caused by technical constraints, as Mint has implemented the difficult part (providing and testing an upgrade path) already. Notifying the user about a new release upgrade shouldn't be too difficult? E. g. in the most simple form you could probably preinstall a package that does nothing at first, but receives an update once the next Mint release is out to send a notification to the user to inform about a new Mint release.

When it comes to elementary OS, I think they could support in-place upgrades, as they properly use metapackages (unlike Mint, which marks most packages as manually installed and doesn't really utilise automatically installed packages and metapackages in a way that you would expect on a Ubuntu-based distro), but they probably don't want to allocate / don't have the resources to test an official upgrade path.

But again, I don't understand why it is so difficult for elementary OS to at least provide a simple notification to the user that a new version is out. Even if the users have to reinstall, it is critical to inform them that their OS is about to become end of life. You know, people do things like online banking on their computers ...

It's the first thing I check with every distribution and if it doesn't have an EOL / upgrade notification, it is immediately out.

Haha, that's what I was thinking as well when I first discovered it. Glad you found it through my post!

I took my handwritten notes with PDF Annotator in a Windows VM for over three years ...

Any source for that claim?

At least the Fairphone 3 and 4 use public test keys in production:

• https://twitter.com/GrapheneOS/status/1546224158769659904
• https://forum.fairphone.com/t/bootloader-avb-keys-used-in-roms-for-fairphone-3-4/83448/11
• https://web.archive.org/web/2if_/https://www.reddit.com/r/GrapheneOS/comments/10b5x4n/comment/j67pbny/

Seems like at least the Fairphone 5 finally uses production keys: https://forum.fairphone.com/t/avb-keys-used-in-roms-for-fairphone-5/100314

This is a Yoga exclusive problem due to its non conventional form and function.

That's the only form factor that's relevant to me, so that's what I evaluate. Other ThinkPads and laptops don't matter to me.

The Linux hardware support for Bluetooth, WiFi and other stuff is far superior to any other mainstream laptop maker.

How? They use the same Intel/Broadcom/Realtek chips as everyone else.

MILSPEC-810G certification

If this is something you require, ok. But that's not something I value at all. I haven't dropped a laptop yet and don't need any certifications.

What I see is a lot of plastic cracking and breaking off with the X-series tablets (own an X201t and owned multiple X230t in the past) and new laptops starting to creak after mostly sitting on a desk for a couple of months. So overall I don't think the build quality is anything special and I believe there are laptops for the same price that hold up as well or better over time. But it isn't terrible either, it is just ok in my opinion.

Edit: I have figured you out, you donkey, downvoting every comment I make on my account. Go touch grass and snip your internet cable with a scissor. And maybe eat some shit and get diarrhea too.

I don't think I have downvoted a single comment from you, at least not in this thread.

the TrackPoint

is nice and I prefer it to touchpads. But I don't value it enough to still prioritise ThinkPads over other brands.

the keyboard

is no longer replaceable without disassembling the entire laptop (since the L13 Yoga Gen2). One of the things that made me prefer ThinkPads over the rest.

The typing experience is decent, but I could type just fine on other laptops as well.

Linux friendliness

In which way is a ThinkPad more Linux-friendly than others?

I mean, I can't even use all the hardware I bought on Linux, as the fingerprint reader doesn't have any Linux support, whereas older ThinkPads (up to the Yoga 460) had a fingerprint reader that worked great on Linux. I also haven't received a single UEFI update on Linux through fwupd (I use Fedora if that matters).

I had an inexpensive Acer non-convertible laptop (bought without an OS from the factory) and a HP ENVY x360 (bought for its beefier AMD hardware, but eventually returned after attempts to fix the faulty digitizer failed multiple times) and Linux ran just fine on them as well.

officially allowed user repairability

I agree that it still is an advantage that Lenovo offers HMMs and spare parts.

But if I need to disassemble the entire laptop (which is something I really want to avoid) to replace a keyboard or most components are soldered, a hardware maintenance manual for ThinkPads is of much less value to me than it used to be.

durability superior quality

In which way are ThinkPads "superior quality" or "durable"?

For me the issue is "importing and exporting". I just don't want to have a note-taking software anymore where I can't just read or edit plain text files with any text editor I happen to have.

I know I can export my notes from Joplin into markdown, but when I last tried it, I wasn't satisfied with the result. I don't remember it anymore, but exporting either didn't preserve the file hierarchy, caused issues with linked images or I had to do something else with the markdown files.

I also didn't like that Joplin had to sync with a local folder instead of just using the files directly. Overall it was just too complex for what I need (i. e. a glorified text editor).

But I don't want to discourage anyone from using Joplin. Different people simply have different needs and Joplin is free to use so one should try it out and see for themselves. ;)

Nowadays switching to Windows isn't really an option for me anymore, as I am just too invested into the Linux ecosystem.

It's always funny hearing about how difficult it is to switch from Windows to Linux, because you have to relearn how to use a computer and all your favourite software isn't available.

But for me it's the same, but the other way around! I would have to relearn how to document my installation (scripts, etc.), what program to use for which task or how to force a game onto a certain monitor (the last time I looked into this, the only way on Windows was switching the primary monitor before starting said game; on Linux I can just tell KWin how to make the program behave).

It would be a lot of work with little or no benefit to me and I'm not even sure if all my hardware is compatible with Windows, as I did all my software and hardware purchases in the last decade with only Linux in mind and I usually didn't purchase something if the manufacturer offered no support for Linux (money talks).