(I bet a bunch of you just printed "test", sorry about that)

@vkc give SearchXNG a try. uses other search engines and you can self host if you want to contribute. https://searx.space/

@vkc duck duck go has fallen so far from where it once was :blob_cat_oh_no:

Seriously folks. Have you seen modern HTML and CSS? It rules and HTML/CSS programmers are awesome.

For me, the important part is *not* using a Chromium based browser. I'm basically a "single issue browser user" in this regard.

Firefox still feels like the simplest way to do that. So that's what I'll keep using.

[sorry if that was too snarky]

I know I don't have to say it, but I will anyway:

Your freedom of expression does not grant you the right to my attention.

That's *exactly* why I think it's logical that Mastodon should implement "do not let my server collect replies to this toot", and introduce a simple flag for other instances to honor.

@vkc I used to develop backup software and file systems for a living and I endorse this message!

@vkc yeah but duct tape

@vkc Yes

@vkc I mostly use nowadays
https://news.ycombinator.com/
https://lobste.rs/
https://dev.to/ (I find it more useful than https://www.reddit.com/ for dev informations) and mastodon (following users and specific tags)

I find nowadays little to no useful information straight from google search) and I'm surprised that somebody tries to do so

@vkc
I concur. Internet corporations make for walled gardens, gate-keeping, and rent-seeking. Which are are among the reasons why I’m so keen on #Wikipedia & #Tor. (Hosting my own server or instance is another project for another day.)

@vkc god I'm so thankful I found you out here in the internet wild, been quietly despairing of learning things fast enough before they make internet learning impossible

@vkc
I tend to go lite, with icewm, or jwm, or fluxbox.

@vkc I want to love KDE Plasma... But the level of quirks often ends up with me just giving up on it. Maybe I'm just "doing it wrong". For myself, I use Openbox, for others I tend to use XFCE4.

@vkc ended up costing Mint a couple years ago and thus I’m a fan of Cinammon!

It’s pretty great to have so many options!

@vkc I've got that fun to do later when I get home

I am not a security researcher, and I don't want to sound authoritative on stuff I'm *not* an authority on.

If you run Debian like I do, this page might be useful. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2024-6387

@vkc your posts are a blessing, just kicked off updates now.

@vkc it’s kind of nostalgic, computers used to be made so they would serve us!

Now they look like a tool made to squeeze the last drop of information from us, if they have to “perform” some tasks for us to do it, that’s the price they pay…

@vkc This. Exactly this. We're no longer in control of many machines we own. Instead of solving genuine technical challenges, we have to work around anti-features – artificial problems that should not exist in the first place. Many systems today are outright user-hostile.

@vkc Friendly computing also revolves around Linux as well.
Windows and macOS aren't the only options THANK GOD!

@vkc I’ll have to check it out, thanks for the tip

@vkc What are you running the backend on? I've considered Jellyfin before because it has vastly more front ends than Kodi, but Kodi doing client/server in the same app has been super convenient for my streaming boxes.

@vkc I love it so much.

@vkc I’ve tried it. KDE is massively slower and needs more resources than macOS on my quite old 2014 MacBook Pro. So yeah, good that it works for you but it’s not a real alternative for most non-nerds. Plus, there’s effectively zero professional media software available on platforms KDE runs on.

@vkc ooh I'm not familiar with this. I've been on the Gnome side of things so long I completely forget there's all these KDE things that can actually work fine on Ubuntu these days. I'll have to check it out.

What's your favourite part of KDE Connect?

@vkc I liked the idea of forwarding phone calls to PC via Bluetooth from Windows though