Started renting a VPS and a domain. Now I have my own silly blog, a few services and a proxy to go to blocked sites (with the possibility to upgrade to censorship-resistant protocols if needed!)
Among other things got an IRC bouncer, so started hanging out on IRC a lot more.
Deleted my Twitter, Reddit and Insta (which were almost dead anyway but still).
Went from hating IT and thinking it’s just not for me to studying it in uni, as well as learning some topics myself.
Degoogled my smartphone as much as I could with ADB (although barely noticed a difference, everything was from F-Droid anyway).
Got back on Mastodon when it got rolling a bit more. I follow more accounts now and it’s actually fun.
Got back on linux after a 5 year hiatus. I should have done it a whole lot sooner, I enjoy using my computer more.
Needed a laptop and instead of buying a new one, I got a secondhand laptop from a local system administrator who put linux on it. Debian is great and I love the old Thinkpad.
I’ve applied to a learn/work program in web development. I haven’t started yet, but I will soon. I’m so excited for that.
It’s a local program (I live in the Netherlands) for people with autism or similar issues. They teach you html and java and some other stuff I don’t remember. Eventually they help you to work on projects they do for other businesses and even find a job with a “regular” company, but only if you’re ready for that and able to do it. It’s government funded and aside from the IT professionals, they also have healthcare professionals who help you with any issues you encounter in the work environment. After having been unemployed for years due to mental health issues, it’s a very exciting opportunity for me. I’ve already visited the company and the people and work environment there seem really suitable.
One of the national mobile networks finally put up a blisteringly fast 5G mast near my house. I have finally reached the totally cable-free nirvana I dreamt of in 1997 when I held my first Motorola Startac in my hand and took an office call on a park bench.
I’ve did some distrohopping and in effect switched from Fedora to Fedora Silverblue (very enjoyable)
I’ve completely removed all centralized social media apart from YouTube (I’ll have to invest some more time in PeerTube before I can make the switch) from my life
In general I spend less time doom-scrolling and way more time actually reading interesting stuff (I’ve found LessWrong, a forum about the art of rationality/more rational thinking)
I have replaced all remaining proprietary software components on my desktop with open source ones (e.g. I now use FOSS frontends for Discord and Spotify, namely gtkcord4 and Spot), the only exceptions being the Nvidia driver (I hope that will change in 2024 with NVK) and some games (although 80% of my very limited gaming time is now spent in open source games like Beyond All Reason)
I got a tablet/ChromeBook convertible (Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 5 8GB) which I installed PostmarketOS on and am now daily driving Linux in school where everybody else is using iPads
I am in the process of finally building my own NAS/homeserver
On the negative side I spent way less of my free time programming than I would have liked to
I do also have some goals and ambitions for this year:
Host all my stuff on my own server, this includes files (documents, photos, backups, media) as well as services like my website and automations
Like others here, I dumped Reddit and moved here (and to Mastodon) full time. I also moved to Linux full time on my home laptop and haven’t missed Windows one little bit. I’m looking forward to experimenting more with a couple of other distros of interest (currently Pop_OS) and am having actual fun using my computer again. Heavy emphasis on adopting as many FOSS alternatives as possible in ‘24, and starting to separate myself from the big G.
The process of trying to separate from Google is tough for sure. I believe Louis Rossmann said “it like quitting heroin cold turkey; you can’t, it’s something you have to lean yourself off of slowly”. In my case, Google Photos, Docs and Voice are the most difficult to switch from, but in the case of Google Photos and Docs, I have multiple backups in the event something happens to my account.
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