TCB13

TCB13 , 11 months ago

This is the kind of project that hurts Lemmy as whole. Defederation leads to fragmentation making Lemmy less likely to be a replacement for Reddit.

TCB13 , 11 months ago

The problem is that Reddit has a massive user-base and profits from the FOMO on newcomers while Lemmy is a very small thing most people don’t know about and there are multiple cases of instances defederating others just because they feel like it… like the BS that beehaw.org pulled. Now we’ve lemmy.world and beehaw.org two of the largest instances that don’t talk to each other.

TCB13 , 11 months ago

xkcd.com/927/

TCB13 , 11 months ago

We don’t need to. What we need is to making things properly and ensure interoperability between those services. Think about email, it doesn’t matter what’s your provider and email client you can email anyone else. Why can’t we chat between WhatsApp and Telegram in the same way? That’s the real question that people should be asking and forcing companies into fixing.

TCB13 , 11 months ago

Portugal here, we also have those kinds of taxes on hard drives and physical media in order to “save the artists”. The reality is that the money goes for a gov agency that essentially doesn’t help any artist. ;)

TCB13 , 11 months ago

BTRFS - easy, fast, reliable, snapshots, compression, usable RAID, CoW, online resizing… ZFS - hard to get into, reliable, snapshots, compression, state of the art RAID, CoW…

Everything else, particularly Ext4 should be avoided. Your life will be a lot easier once you discover snapshotting and also how more robust and reliable BTRFS and ZFS are. I got into BTRFS a few years ago in order to survive power losses as I had issues with Ext3 and Ext4 regularly with that. My experience with Ext4 disks was always: if something goes slightly wrong your data is… puff gone.

TCB13 , 11 months ago

First thing I do after every server Debian install: remove that old networking, remove chrony, install systemd-networkd, systemd-resolved, systemd-timesyncd. Why? Because 1) you get a way cleaner system that runs less processes to do the same and 2) systemd-* is better.

TCB13 , 11 months ago (edited 11 months ago)

I hate systemd with a passion, as the refuses to wait for networking when you haven some service specified to be started After networking

If you apply what is written at www.freedesktop.org/wiki/…/NetworkTarget/#cutthec… it will work.

Systemd-networkd has a learning curve, once you learn it you’ll find it superior and more flexible than anything else.

TCB13 , 11 months ago (edited 11 months ago)

I get your points and that’s a valid issue however, systemd-networkd is designed for more persistent configurations but you’ve a few options:

1. systemctl reload systemd-networkd and networkctl reload. Don’t forget that if you change units on the filesystem a systemctl daemon-reload is required before the previous commands.
2. networkctl commands such as reload, reconfigure, up, down and renew. Read more about them here.
3. Temporary / volatile runtime units: manually drop a config under /run/systemd/network/ it will apply until you reboot the machine.
4. Transient scope units: those are kind of supersede temporary units as they are managed through a D-Bus interface so 3rd party applications can manage systemd. They don’t seem to work right now for network, but this allows you to change unit options dynamically.

An interesting thing to consider is that in most cases you can have your network configurations in /etc/systemd/network but only bring them online when required. This for me seems to solve most cases, you’ve your network all configured and ready to go.

TCB13 , 11 months ago

Well networkctl up enXX + pre-configured network files with the addresses and whatnot might be a suitable for your requirements.

TCB13 , 11 months ago (edited 11 months ago)

Then I don’t understand why maintainers all keep using network.target.

Because most services are able to dynamically accommodate networking changes and act accordingly and it’s rare to have cases where we really need a working link with addresses and a proper connection when the service starts. For those special cases, as described, you need to enable systemd-networkd-wait-online.service and include After=network-online.target and/or Wants=network-online.target in your service.

Programs should be designed to detect and react to networking changes and both Apache and Nginx are good examples of software that does that. There are simpler cases like stuff that needs to bind to non-existent IPs at boot (before networking) that can be dealt with ipv4.ip_nonlocal_bind and net.ipv6.ip_nonlocal_bind as described here.

This may also interest you as it includes what “up” means a few other details: systemd.io/NETWORK_ONLINE/

I still find it a solution desperately looking for a problem to solve.

Systemd does a LOT more than “you can control loads of dependencies”, it solves tons of painful issues and provides a cohesive ecosystem of tools to manage stuff like:

• Start services in parallel (while init was one after the other)
• Defer service startup until they are actually needed
• Replace a bunch of poorly integrated tools such as dhcpcd, dhcpv6, chrony, NetworkManager, resolvconf, logrotate among others with a cohesive ecosystem of tools that are way easier to work with;
• Has facilities to deal with IPv6 advanced use cases like IPv6-PD without having to depend on four different packages;
• Centralizes logs and provides journalctl as a unified interface so you can quickly browse them by specific, filters, timestamps and events.
• Replaces crontab with something auditable that actually makes sense;
• Monitors the status of your services and restarts them if they crash according to specific rules. Can also be used to limit execution time and trigger notifications when stuff fails.
• Allows you to isolate your processes with sandboxing (like jails) techniques by restricting what resources (CPU time, RAM, networking, filesystems) they can access by settings everything in a single unit file. Even setup basic firewalls for your services;
• Create full fledged containers both privileged and non-privileged here and here while providing tools such as machinectl to manage them.

Systemd is very useful and most people (including myself) don’t know about half of the things it can do. It isn’t teached because of the current poor state of thing when it comes to software development but if you use it you’ll quickly find how to have systems running very well with less processes than conventionally.

TCB13 , 11 months ago

HP EliteBooks are usually very supported out of the box and work flawlessly, even with Debian. Lenovo is no longer a good brand, they now have weird issues such as a simple USB 3 cable passing along the back of the laptop will slow it down because the laptop’s EM shielding isn’t properly done.

TCB13 , 11 months ago

For context, 3 years ago I worked at a company that bought 20 new Lenovo IdeaPads all equipped with i7 CPUs and 32GB of RAM. After 6 months only 3 or 4 survived. All of them had that shielding issue, others started to fail randomly like microphones not working, failing USB ports , screen glitching out or other issues. One of them even broke by itself during a firmware upgrade. We ended up going back to HP because, at least, they’re reliable.

TCB13 , 11 months ago

Still better than X’s logo 😂😂😂

TCB13 , 11 months ago

I worked fully remote during the pandemic and a year after in a IT team leader position and let me tell you, we did things / delivered quality stuff on those 3 years that we wouldn’t be able to do if we had to go to the office.

TCB13 , 11 months ago (edited 11 months ago)

Window management is one of those areas I’m fascinated with because even after 50 years, nobody’s fully cracked it yet

The article begins with a false premise, misrepresenting the capabilities of Windows and macOS in terms of window management. In reality, both operating systems have been offering effective window management features for years, dating back to Apple’s Exposé release with macOS Panther in 2003. On the other hand, current versions of iPadOS, and GNOME are plagued by poor desktop experiences that hinder efficient multitasking.

Most of us simply want a DE that doesn’t get in the way, but the “solutions” proposed by GNOME often create more obstacles, slow down multi-tasking, and obstruct proper window management. Instead of addressing these issues, the GNOME team continues to introduce convoluted features that fail to improve the user experience. For instance, requiring users to switch to a full-screen interface to access other applications is subpar UX design - Windows 8 did this and proved it was the wrong approach. Additionally, GNOME’s lacks a decent notification area / menu bar like Windows and macOS. Where’s a way to control what icons show up and what are hidden? What about reordering them?

The GNOME team’s fixation on their own unique desktop vision holds back the progress of desktop Linux as a whole. With its potential to excel in this space, GNOME has an opportunity to become a top-tier DE, but poor decisions such as removing desktop icons and insisting on subpar window management keep it from reaching its full potential, becoming the face of Linux desktop.

TCB13 , 11 months ago

His ideas are mostly disjointed. Windows got one thing very right, very fast and snappy multitasking and that’s about it. GNOME adds animations, takes the focus from the applications and the information inside them to become the “center of users attention”. This isn’t good, a DE should be almost invisible, as minimalistic as it can be so the user can quickly switch between Windows and get their job done specially on smaller screens. I guess most people running GNOME that say they enjoy never touched Apple’s old Exposé or the current Windows Task View (Win+Tab) this aren’t aware how far and how productive you can be on a very small screen with a simple way to move around.

TCB13 , 11 months ago

Yeah, but it used to be. Why can’t we just pick the good parts instead of the garbage…?

TCB13 , 11 months ago

KDE would’ve been great if they had some sense of design and knew how to properly apply spacing and proportions across the DE. But in terms of pure usability they are orders of magnitude above the crap GNOME is pushing for.

TCB13 , 11 months ago

C’mon this isn’t right:

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/61d9d869-906d-4a6e-b626-fee717d67b1d.png

TCB13 , 11 months ago

The ideal desktop would be something like… KDE’s usability in terms of a bottom bar, notification area and menu + the design consistency of GNOME. I’m currently doing that with ArcMenu and Dash to Panel under GNOME but still get annoyed from time to time with a bunch of details.

TCB13 , 11 months ago

Until you find out that extensions don’t provide the same level of integration as something that comes built in with the DE. A prime example of this was when they dropped desktop icons in GNOME 3.28 and all extensions for that available to this day have issues with drag and drop and other things.

TCB13 , 11 months ago

Interesting, I’ve been looking not for a download manager but for a Cyberduck / WinSCP replacement for Linux, how does this one works for that? Anyone found anything better?

TCB13 , 11 months ago

Unless you’re talking about Sim City 4!

TCB13 , 11 months ago

Even better, Debian 12 comes with LXD on the repository.

TCB13 , 11 months ago

Still a piece of garbage. Can’t they simply admit they were wrong and add a permanent panel with icons (like Windows or Mac) at the bottom of the screen and move on?

TCB13 , 11 months ago

Yes but extensions work to a degree and not out of the box. For instance, when they abandoned desktop icons a long time ago we never had and extension that delivered the same polished experience.

TCB13 , 11 months ago

No, KDE is even worse than GNOME. GNOME has some sense of design and things are properly designed most of the time, consistent spacing between elements and whatnot, KDE fails on that. GNOME fails on providing a basic desktop experience to those familiar with Windows and macOS.

TCB13 , 11 months ago

Besides, Plasma is much more like Windows. It has panels, lots of windows and bugs.

On that we can agree. And let me add more: inconsistent design.

TCB13 , 11 months ago

Yes ironically desktop environments “revolutionized” computing by not having a way to type what program we want to then, after decades re-introduce that :D

TCB13 , 11 months ago

Again, extensions aren’t as polished as built in stuff. A prime example of this was when they ditched desktop icons, the extensions that followed fail sometimes.

TCB13 , 11 months ago

I’m using that and ArcMenu…

TCB13 , 11 months ago

😂 😂 😂 😂

TCB13 , 11 months ago

Because, once again, extensions and quicks fixes doesn’t provide the same experience as built in features. Eg. GNOME 3.28 removed desktop icons and the extensions currently available don’t provide the same polished experience.

TCB13 , 11 months ago

The boat has wifi right? Modern developers can’t work for 10 seconds without installing packages from the internet.

TCB13 , 11 months ago

Okay, can’t argue with that :D my point was that development is so fuck up nowadays that nothing can be done offline anymore (at least easily) and this new generation of developers don’t even know how their hardware works, the basics of an OS and their favorite tools. They can’t live without pulling a few docker images and whatnot.

TCB13 , 11 months ago

What OS? Maybe something similar to this? github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/issues/119433

TCB13 , 11 months ago

Well actually some pirated software usually works better than their retail version. yewtu.be/watch?v=DEP_7_gx6M8 community.adobe.com/t5/…/12557832 community.adobe.com/t5/…/12934822

TCB13 , 11 months ago (edited 11 months ago)

Syncthing is a very good piece of software, even when working cross-platform. Nextcloud, however, is the biggest and most cumbersome pile of garbage open-source produced in the last decate.

Currently I’m running Syncthing on my NAS and all my devices sync to it (no cross-device sync to avoid issues). Then I’ve an SMB share to allow access to the files on iOS devices and FileBrowser for a cloud-like web browser access experience. Works flawlessly uses very little RAM and its solid, private, secure and manageable open-source - not something like Nextcloud that calls home, breaks everything on upgrades, wastes ram and runs slowly to only deliver an inferior experience in all possible ways.

Some of my experiences with NC are described in detail at lemmy.world/comment/1571886 and lemmy.world/comment/346174

TCB13 , 11 months ago

Nextcloud is everything other than minimization and stability. I bet if you take a quick look at their repositories you’ll find security-wise questionable stuff very fast and also tons of different pieces not a single thing.

TCB13 , 11 months ago

Well, I’m amazed you didn’t get downvoted to hell by saying NC is bad. Some of my experiences with NC are described in detail at lemmy.world/comment/1571886 and lemmy.world/comment/346174

TCB13 , 11 months ago (edited 11 months ago)

How much wifi and open-source do you really want?

If you are willing to go with commercial hardware + open source firmware (OpenWRT) you might want to check the table of hardware of OpenWrt at openwrt.org/toh/…/toh_available_16128_ax-wifi and openwrt.org/toh/views/toh_available_864_ac-wifi. One solid pick for the future might be the Netgear WAX2* line. One of those models is now fully supported the others are on the way. If you don’t mind having older wifi a Netgear R7800 is solid.

If you want full open-source hardware and software you need a more exotic brand like this www.banana-pi.org/en/bananapi-router/.

Both solutions will lead to OpenWRT when it comes to software, it is better than any commercial firmware but there’s a catch about open-source wifi. The best performing wifi chips are Broadcom and those don’t usually see open-source software support**. MediaTek is the open-source alternative and while they work fine they can’t, unfortunately, beat Broadcom. As most hardware is Broadcom they have hacks that go behind the published wifi standards and get it go a few megabytes/second faster and/or improve the range a bit.

DD-WRT is another “open-source” firmware that has a specific agreement with Broadcom to allow them to use their proprietary drivers and distribute them as blob with their firmware. While it works don’t expect compatibility with newer hardware nor a bug free solution like OpenWRT is.

TCB13 , 11 months ago

Okay, at the end of the day: DD-WRT does bad job even with Broadcom drivers (lack of recent device and wifi 6 support) + bugs and OpenWRT does a very good job software wise but it doesn’t support Broadcom at all.

TCB13 , 11 months ago

I don’t get it. DNS is easy if you actually learn it and study the thing instead of simply trying to “make it work”.

TCB13 , 11 months ago

The main compromise I’ve had to make is on the iOS experience.

Me too. I’ve all my computers syncing with Syncthing to a local machine and access the data on iOS using FE File Explorer Pro via a SMB share pointed to the Syncthing data dir.

TCB13 , 11 months ago

There’s also www.skyjos.com/owlfiles/ and I’m not sure if its a successor and what are the differences between the two.

TCB13 , 11 months ago

This kind of BS is why I buy second hand HP Mini units.

TCB13 , 1 year ago

Roundcube always! I tried others and always went back to Roundcube. If you install it properly (using composer for everything) it won’t break on updates.