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I think the “trap” is to believe “we” can “win” once and for all.

Under capitalism (and I’m not suggesting there are better systems, only highlight a core mechanism) there will always be competition to capture value, both customers and lawmakers who (should) protect them.

There are countless examples but one of the most obvious on that topic if Microsoft itself with it’s sadly now classic EEE https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend,_and_extinguish of which we can admire the comtemporary version with Github. Initially Github was acquired and no changed, nowadays a lot of basic functionalities, e.g. search within a repository are locked behind a login, there are more and more advertisements for Microsoft other products, e.g. CoPilot. That last product itself is questioning the foundation of free software and open source with its license washing process making unclear who did what, breaking provenance, etc.

The same happened with Google acquiring Android but not locking it down more and more.

The list could grow longer and longer, overall the point is to showcase a pattern : nothing is just “let” alone to grow on its own. It’s gradually captured and enshittified until there is nothing left but the name of a project because corporations exist only to extract more money. There is no moral, only an imperative for profit or their death.

So… unfortunately we WILL have to keep on both building AND protecting what’s been built so far with newer and more powerful threats. Microsoft, Google, and all large corporations who advertise themselves as allies of free software and open source MUST be judge on what they actually do, not on what they claim.

We have to push back and we will always have to. This year and the next.

Makes me curious, I assume within the EU with GDPR it would be roughly equivalent.

What’s the difference between EU countries then and why?

Sadly FUD as ANYTHING that is NOT increasing profit for surveillance capitalism, i.e Google, Meta, etc is a win for privacy!

Of course /e/OS could be better, GrapheneOS could also be better (including on security) but the big picture is that still ANY of those solutions is making surveillance capitalism, the loss of privacy for profit and power, less efficient. That’s good for all of us who, being on Lemmy or other federated instance, believe we do benefit from having more privacy, or at least not trading it away.

TL;DR: be inclusive, bring others up, don’t be exclusive aiming for perfection none of us can attain.

I suggest to replace RTFM by WHYTSF : What Have You Tried So Far.

The goal isn’t to blame or guilt trip anyone, rather it’s to genuinely help and for that others need to know… WHYTSF?!

Love that quote “We’re going to search your house. We don’t have a warrant, but we paid your landlord $100 to give us a spare key. So now we’re searching your house without a warrant,” by Laperruque

Isn’t it “source: model” basically roulette? We go back to the initial problem. Also anything else that is not model might also be hallucinated if at any point the string that gives back “source:” goes through the model.

Can’t it source other LLM outputs as “verified source” and thus still say whatever sounds good, like any LLM? Providing “technical” verification, e.g. SHA, gives no insurance about the content itself being from a reputable source. I don’t think adding confidence and sourcing changes anything, the user STILL has to verify that whatever is provided is coherent and a third party is actually a good source. Thanks for making the process public though, doing better than OpenAI does.

Most distributions include Wine AFAICT yet I’d argue you shouldn’t use Wine because typically it means using proprietary software.

If you are using Wine for games then it’s also reconsider that there are plenty of open source game you can still pay for to support their author.

If you still want to play proprietary Windows games without native support then I would recommend to use a wrapper, e.g. Bottles (because of Proton, not because of the GUI) or even Steam (since you want to play proprietary Windows games anyway) as they’ll remove a layer of tinkering to find the right version, path, etc (basically prefix management).

… but yeah, even though Wine is amazing I would argue every time one uses it, if they are using Linux because they want more agency, they probably should reconsider and search for a free software alternative instead. It will be awkward at first, other UI, other UX, new community, but it’s an investment in the future.

I imagine you did the math already but between the time it takes, the cost to get there and the actual price of paying for the machine I’d consider entry level washing machine (even if you won’t use it for years and you might have to sell it when you move) or a 2nd hand one (especially if you are ready to fix one, could be free). Out of curiosity I checked in Belgium a basic new machines is ~300e and a 2nd that works (but is loud) starts at 40e. It takes some space though but you can stack things on it, again if you are handy installing a plank over. Additionally if you know some people nearby you can trust, you could split the cost.

… but yes, nobody needs a car for that. People are so “afraid” of a bit of rain it’s silly, just dress accordingly.

PS: others mentioned a cart, if things get heavy that’s definitely what I’d recommend. When I buy heavy groceries, typically drinks, that’s what I prefer. It’s way easier than putting things on your back. For dry clothes though maybe it’s less maneuverable.

I haven’t tested this myself but I assume one could benchmark both and see if there is noticeable performance loss.

FWIW the SteamDeck running official SteamOS does have a full desktop environment, it’s just hidden by starting Steam in Big Picture mode.

So… you could benchmark the “gain” but I doubt it’s significant, if any.

Also if you do like to play with hardware for gaming across networks checking Selkies or Moonlight to stream from your machine to your machine, no intermediary, little latency or overhead.

So glad I moved from iOS to /e/OS (last year) then to GrapheneOS (last month).

Indeed, when I read this parent comment I had in mind a snake oil salesman in Lucky Luke (Doc Doxey’s Elixir, volume 38)

Lex Fridman is a fucking moron and his pretentious podcast is unbearable.

Confession time… just like Elon Musk, initially I though Fridman was good. I even recommended his podcast when he started it around 2018. I was thinking “Nice, he’s doing interesting technical interviews” then gradually it became longer and longer about broader and broader topics to the point I asked myself “So… is it still <<The Artificial Intelligence Podcast>>” then shortly after stopped listening entirely.

I think he’s deal is networking. He started with his domain of expertise, namely AI, but then (that’s just me speculating) he noticed the correlation between audience size and fame of the guest, so he tried to gradually climb the social ladder of guests, pulling bigger and bigger names regardless of the topic. He used fame from his employer, MIT, then of his guests, to keep on doing so, and it worked. I also imagined he noticed that the more controversial the broad topic was, again the bigger the audience.

So it went from technical niche to teach… to generalist discussion podcast trying to be “open” to the most outlandish views.

TL;DR: it started good IMHO but it slowly yet surely devolved into garbage indeed.

OG “fake it till you make it” business.

Feels like 99% of “social” network startups. The dead Internet theory started before the LLM craze.

implementing ActivityPub from scratch?

Why do that though? As someone mentioned there is https://fedify.dev/ but also Fedbox itself relying on microfed. So you can rely on existing small servers and libraries https://socialdocs.org/docs/ecosystem/libraries-overview

I would precisely suggest NOT to make your own solution if it’s not your focus. If you are a Pinterest alternative, focus on the photo sharing experience (I naively assume that’s the core) and rely on something well maintained to federate.

So for the PineTime the most popular firmware is https://infinitime.io/ and by default you get

• Watchfaces for telling the time
• Steps (displays the number of steps of the day and the daily goal)
• Heart rate (controls the heart rate sensor and display current heartbeat)
• Music (control the playback of the music on your phone)

and the PineTime is relatively slick, large bezel but frequently people told me, surprised if they knew me, they though I had an Apple watch, which was a brilliant moment to open up the discussion about open source, free software, open hardware.

Meanwhile Watchy has e-ink and the 3D printed frame is very bulky. It’s definitely a lot more noticeable and I received few compliments for it. By default its firmware is https://github.com/sqfmi/Watchy and…

• time (+ weather if connected to network, not mobile phone, via WiFi not BT)
• Steps

… and that’s about it. Honestly the Watchy ecosystem is a lot less lively than InfiniTime. Sure you get some different watchfaces but that’s about it in terms of popular customization AFAICT. Basically I’d only recommend it if you only want a watch for time and if you are adamant about e-ink.

Linux on desktop, self-hosting and GrapheneOS too.

I have a few smart watches, namely PineTime and Watchy by SQFMI but… honestly I don’t wear them anymore simply because I try to be as minimalist as possible. In fact just yesterday afternoon I was wondering if I could do without GrapheneOS because I might actually NOT need a phone.

So… what do you want out of watch?

I can recommend both but honestly it depends on your need.

• Install anyway
• daily drive
• do a SeedVault backup on a USB stick

then optionally, after a short while if you are convinced

• buy a 2nd hand Pixel 8 (cheapest with longest support) or whatever match your preferences, maybe by then even a Motorola with official support
• bring your SeedVault backup back to the new device including, contacts, apps and data

No matter what you do you will be “left behind” but at least you have time to learn something useful in the meantime then reassess.