firmgently

I use an app I made for myself:

[link redacted]

The main downside is probably that it doesn't automatically share data between devices, but it's fine for me as I just use it on my main work PC.

It can save/load data to files so I have an `inotifywait` script watching my Downloads folder. When I save/download a file from the app it automatically gets backed up to cloud storage.

I'm not sure how usable it might be for people. I've made a start on hints/instructions but that part of it is pretty threadbare as I've not got around to sharing it with others yet.

A fork of gedit 2 (for anyone interested in such trivia)

I often search for the etymology of words. I used to overthink it when trying to find the right search terms but eventually realised that "[word] etymology" gives pretty much perfect results every time ('vaccine etymology' gave the answer on Google and DuckDuckGo without even needing to click any links).

Just mentioning this for other people who like looking up words. And yes it's obvious... unless you're one of those people who sometimes overthinks search terms.

This isn't the right comparison to make.

As you mentioned, Linux runs on hardware made by hundreds/thousands of different uncoordinated manufacturers. Mac OS runs on a very narrow range of hardware built by the same manufacturer that makes the software. Linux is a very different project to Mac OS.

So take the best examples of Linux machines and compare those with Macbooks. So if eg. Dell XPSes or modern ThinkPad X series have solved the sleep problem consistently then it's fair to compare those with Macbooks.

Of course this doesn't help those people who have trouble with sleep on Linux and hopefully it will get better... but comparing a broad elastic OS running on a vast mess of thousands of different devices with an OS designed specifically for a small range of tightly controlled hardware isn't reasonable. It would make more sense if there were no good examples of decent Linux machines, but this isn't the case.

This probably refers to TTL, which can be easily changed to disguise the 'hop' from your device to your phone... but Deep Packet Inspection is apparently commonly used nowadays too. To get around that you need to be encrypting with a VPN or similar setup.

This is my simplistic understanding of the state of play based on the last time I looked into it but as mentioned above it's easy to Google.

I don't know much about figma but you can save .fig files from the browser app to your hard drive (I just did it to check).

I'm not sure if any other apps can make use of .fig files so you may well still be tied to the app in that sense but you can at least own/archive your working files.

I moved to a 10.1" display as a winter (low power) necessity. There's more sun now so I have enough power for my larger laptop but am not using it, I prefer the ergonomics of my current setup.

My tablet is on an arm suspended at eye height about 15-20cm away from my face. At the same time I can have my ThinkPad BlueTooth keyboard+trackpoint in an ergonomically sound position (not possible to do both of these things solely with a laptop due to the keyboard and display being tied together).

I had a 15.6" laptop display and a ruler within reach so I just measured... at 35-40cm away from my face the visible area of the 15.6" screen is occluded by the visible area of the tablet screen at 15-20 cm away. The aspect ratios are different (my preferred 16:10/1920x1200 on the tablet vs 16:9/1920x1080 on the laptop lcd) but this is roughly correct. Admittedly 35-40cm is probably a little further away than most people have their laptop screen but it's in the ballpark.

I've had setups with multiple/larger monitors in the past. It's hard to compare properly as so much has changed for me. I move towards spending more and more of my time in the terminal and have learned to make good use of tmux for workspace management (and i3 workspaces when I'm using a WM). I don't miss the multiple/larger monitors (but am not suggesting anybody should be the same as me).

I can say that this is my favourite of my personally-owned setups ever, for its lightness, silence, low power usage and minimal space requirements. These requirements of mine are very specific of course but you asked for a subjective measure. I am very happy (and on a 10.1" screen)!

Next time I upgrade I'll be looking for a nice rootable tablet... possibly something x86 which can run linux so I can get VMs to work. I think I'm done with laptops.

[ To repeat stuff I've mentioned here before but which might help make sense of the above:

+ the 'display' is an Android tablet running termux (as it's the fastest and nicest terminal I could find)

+ I just use termux for its terminal and work in Debian Stretch via Linux Deploy

+ Termux is very good on its own but in my experience the best armhf packages are on Debian. I'm comparing to termux and Arch which are all I have experience with - they are both great but I've found some packages to be either missing or had problems due to termux's clang vs gcc... or that Arch uses Armv7 binaries whereas my tablet seems happier with Debian's Armhf in some cases. I specifically had trouble getting a working binary for Chromium which is essential for me as I need the developer tools but achieved it on Debian.

+ I run Debian GUI apps via local XSDL server and/or VNC

+ So far the only thing I've been unable to achieve is VMWare emulation of X86 OSes but as I don't have an X86 CPU in here I can't be surprised about that ]

Reading these comments I feel obliged to mention the Android app 'DriveDroid' which lets you store multiple disk images on your phone and then acts as a bootable USB disk. I've got GParted, CloneZilla, Alpine, Debian etc live disks always in my pocket. All I need is a micro-usb cable (which most modern homes seem to have laying around) to boot into various OSs and tools.

No affiliation, I just think it's a cool free app and it's proven very handy for me loads of times.

"disproving commonly accepted things is a way to become a superstar in the scientific field"

It doesn't necessarily follow that people will gamble grant money on the off-chance that you might turn out to be that superstar.

I use mbasic and can reply to comments on posts.

I just checked the details and (for example) I click under the post: "2 scratches 'pon wood" (sorry I have language set to Pirate but it's the equivalent of "2 comments").

This takes me to a page showing the post, comments beneath, and a text field for me to reply into.

So it's there, just check the various links under each post to see what's available. Actually I've yet to find anything that I can't do on mbasic. I've thought something was missing several times (turning off notifications for specific groups springs to mind) but always found a way to do it eventually. It's often a hideous UX but I like how ugly mbasic is, it's FB without the sugar so you can taste how bitter it really is :) (for anybody wanting to say something like "if it's so horrible why do you still use it", it's something I do reluctantly because I have a few geographically distant friends who I like to keep in contact with and who always message me through FB)