Gyroscopic Investing

dualstow wrote: ↑Sat Nov 14, 2020 3:43 pm < previous thread > Getting into Linux, Smith1776, March 2020

Xan recently posted about spy-happy MacOS which always gets me thinking about Linux again
https://www.gyroscopicinvesting.com/for ... 7&start=12

But as MangoMan lamented in so many words, Linux is a pain in the ass. I’ll continue to use my google phone, Apple tablet and desktop Mac, so i have no illusions about privacy. I do encrypt some folders and documents.

Let’s say I wanted to keep things dead simple and only use a linux laptop for typing my journal. Then i could encrypt it and decide later if i wanted it on the Mac’s hard drive. Thanks to some members of this forum, I got a simple flavor of linux on a very old Toshiba laptop. {I think that was LXLE. Thanks, Early Cuyler]. It ran like a dream. And, i got a lot of help with Emacs. {Thanks, your-name-is-on-the-tip-of-my-keyboard. Joe? i haven’t een any posts from you guys lately}. I love Emacs.

But, just as I was customizing Emacs to make it look like the IBM pc jr of my childhood, it blew up on me.
TextEdit doesn’t blow up on me.

All that said, I’m still curious about Lenovo’s new Linux offerings.

dualstow wrote: ↑Sat Nov 14, 2020 3:57 pm Vinny, i don’t know why your snips are getting “emacs-ulated” but i’m referring to the ancient text editor when I write Emacs.

Pointedstick wrote: ↑Sat Nov 21, 2020 12:40 pm The discovery that macOS is now spyware like Windows 10 is extremely disappointing and renews my confidence in the FOSS world. Sometimes it is a sacrifice, but it's important to keep in mind what other things are being sacrificed by using proprietary spyware-infested operating systems.

Personally I'm using a Lenovo ThinkPad right now and I find its Linux compatibility is rather disappointing. Power management in particular is quite bad. I'm getting to the point where I feel like my next computer will be from one of the FOSS-friendly hardware companies that only ship their computers with a FOSS OS out of the box. My wife now uses one of these (https://kde.slimbook.es/) and I am frankly a bit jealous of it. The screen, keyboard, trackpad and speakers aren't quite as nice as the ones on my Thinkpad, but everything just works instantly, the battery life is ridiculous (12+ hours of real use) and it's superfast. And frankly my standards are kind of unrealistic in the first place.

System76, Purism, SlimBook, and Star Labs have extremely impressive FOSS hardware these days. System76 and Purism are American companies BTW. Though Purism is somewhat dysfunctional internally, and I'm not sure I'd recommend their products at the moment.

Also I'm hoping to work with some of the Lenovo folks to improve this over the course of the next year or two.

Smith1776 wrote: ↑Sat Nov 21, 2020 12:43 pm Pointedstick, have you ever been tempted to use the Tails OS broadly in your tech life?

Pointedstick wrote: ↑Sat Nov 21, 2020 12:40 pm The discovery that macOS is now spyware like Windows 10 is extremely disappointing and renews my confidence in the FOSS world. Sometimes it is a sacrifice, but it's important to keep in mind what other things are being sacrificed by using proprietary spyware-infested operating systems.

Personally I'm using a Lenovo ThinkPad right now and I find its Linux compatibility is rather disappointing. Power management in particular is quite bad. I'm getting to the point where I feel like my next computer will be from one of the FOSS-friendly hardware companies that only ship their computers with a FOSS OS out of the box. My wife now uses one of these (https://kde.slimbook.es/) and I am frankly a bit jealous of it. The screen, keyboard, trackpad and speakers aren't quite as nice as the ones on my Thinkpad, but everything just works instantly, the battery life is ridiculous (12+ hours of real use) and it's superfast. And frankly my standards are kind of unrealistic in the first place.

System76, Purism, SlimBook, and Star Labs have extremely impressive FOSS hardware these days. System76 and Purism are American companies BTW. Though Purism is somewhat dysfunctional internally, and I'm not sure I'd recommend their products at the moment.

Also I'm hoping to work with some of the Lenovo folks to improve this over the course of the next year or two.

dualstow wrote: ↑Sat Nov 21, 2020 6:09 pm This is all fascinating, and I mean that sincerely, but it’s incredibly hard to be free of spying, isn’t it. Even if we gave up our Macs and Windows machines for a linux laptop, wouldn’t we still be tracked on our phones? (Any good phone options?)

I don’t mean to be a Debbie Downer. Maybe it’s about mitigating the spying where we can? Do our searching and shopping on a Linux machine and keep it simple on the phone?

l82start wrote: ↑Sat Nov 21, 2020 6:52 pm purism is working on a linux phone, "Librem 5" its a interesting project, open source, same OS as their computers..

dualstow wrote: ↑Sat Nov 21, 2020 7:27 pm

l82start wrote: ↑Sat Nov 21, 2020 6:52 pm purism is working on a linux phone, "Librem 5" its a interesting project, open source, same OS as their computers..

I remember reading about that once upon a time -- probably here -- and being impressed.
I guess there's not too much available right now.
(I've got a pixel 3a myself, a google phone. And google fi is my carrier).

Pointedstick wrote: ↑Sat Nov 21, 2020 11:17 pm FWIW My team has been working on the Plasma Mobile version of the PinePhone.

Pointedstick wrote: ↑Sat Nov 21, 2020 11:17 pm FWIW My team has been working on the Plasma Mobile version of the PinePhone.

Pointedstick wrote: ↑Thu Oct 06, 2022 2:58 am You want Kinoite, which is the KDE version of Silverblue. It is an experimental distro, but quite exciting.