IT nerd
Microsoft tried that with TPM. Which you can bypass for the most part with Rufus and a clean install. Still some kernel anticheat games you can’t do so so easily.
I’ve already switched over to Linux, just got one more system to migrate. So far 100% worth it to not deal with Microslop.
Same here, running my 3700X with a 3080.
I should’ve pulled the trigger on the 9800X3D last year like I wanted, but thought it was just too expensive.
Welp.
I’ll have to try that. I saw Comet, but getting some errors and slowness compared to Element (classic)
True, we all also interacted in the real world for years before the internet.
So the Internet is also non-essential!
But, it makes it convenient. Discord is also super convenient.
It’s not like we didn’t see the writing on the wall 10 years ago, but all of us accepted convenience over everything else. Now we are reaping the “benefits”.
For me I have a private self hosted wiki that I use to document everything from gaming to my servers to just general life stuff. I’d love to start up a forum for gaming/tech, but I don’t have the resources nor funding to do that, plus there’s a decent amount of others already out there…
Sucks that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all alternative, yet.
Stoat doesn’t have enough features.
Matrix is confusing for the masses, plus there is so much conflicting information online of what home server do you join? You shouldn’t join matrix.org’s because of admin abuse? Element clients on mobile are meh.
TeamSpeak is a voice first platform.
For my situation it looks like I should move my wife and I to Signal and then my friend group to Stoat, but the recent server issues(prob due to influx of new users) has caused a bit of my friends to have a sour taste out of the gate…
Nothing is ready to replace Discord IMO. And that sucks. We need dedicated forums again, more wiki servers, and better chat applications.
Either parent your kid, or don’t, but it is not my job to make sure your kid is coddled on the internet.
As a recently new parent myself, your post is great. And as a IT nerd, your post is also infuriating.
It is so beyond easy nowadays to monitor and restrict your child’s access to online content. Seeing the post you’re replying to just reminds me of everyone I’ve ever talked to that had X issue and their only response is “throw hands up in the air after trying nothing”.
My kids are still too young to be reasoned with, but my wife and I agreed that:
So far our oldest loves finding our phones and can open the camera app from the lockscreen and she runs around taking photos. So we’ve been letting that slide…but we don’t unlock the phone, so it’s a compromise we’ve made as she LOVES taking photos and seeing photos, which I want to encourage. As for content watching we have a TV with Plex and if there’s something we approve of on YouTube and we want our kids to watch it(Ms. Rachel), then I download the YouTube video and put it on my Plex server. No ads, no algorithm auto played videos, just pure approved content. And we have classic cartoons(Rolie Polie Olie) and disney/pixar/ghibli movies, etc.
Of course if your kid is at school with no phone but its recess and their friend has a phone with zero limits…yeah I can’t control that. But I can at least parent my kid to know that I don’t like that and I don’t want them to participate it.
Also when they’re a bit older(5 or 6 years old) I plan on teaching them internet safety. Don’t post PII, don’t visit certain websites, always use an adblocker/ublock, only talk to people online that you know in real life, etc. I do plan on playing video games with them(if they have an interest) and I know that will eventually lead to online lobbies, but I am hoping to teach them in private Minecraft servers certain etiquette first and go from there.
I’m both excited and terrified, but this is my job as a parent!
So use a VPN, buy a 3d printer in another state, send it to a mail forwarding service?
Or buy a printer and install different firmware on it?
And maybe my understand of 3d printers is wrong, but a 3d printer itself doesn’t know what it is printing, it only gets the gcode from the slicer. So if the slicer is what is being modified, then use an open slicer like OrcaSlicer?
So a nothing burger of massive proportion this looks like. Which will soon spread to California. Great…
You can check out MediaStack: https://github.com/geekau/mediastack
Here is their “full vpn” compose file here(all of *arr goes through vpn): https://github.com/geekau/mediastack/blob/master/full-download-vpn/docker-compose.yaml
And their “mini vpn” compose(only torrenting goes through vpn): https://github.com/geekau/mediastack/blob/master/mini-download-vpn/docker-compose.yaml
Probably something there will give you the right push towards fixing your setup? Best of luck! I am actually going to be attempting this soon(gluetun+qbit), but with ProtonVPN.
For reference, the current estimated amount of desktop Linux users globally is somewhere between 60-80 million. In English-speaking countries, the total is around 19-20 million.
That sounds about right when comparing Microsoft’s claim of “1 billion” Windows devices. 5% of a billion is 50 million(not a perfect comparison as 5% Linux is total including MacOS/others from statcounter but you get the idea). So 50 million to 100 million Linux users globally sounds about right.
Some OEMs with some models here in the USA also offer it. HP and Dell offer it. I think Dell gives Fedora and Ubuntu? And it takes off ~$130 USD or so from the price, so it’s the full Windows license cost.
Personally if I have that option I’m taking it and just reinstalling whatever I want anyway, but it’s nice having that option.
Also if I’m going to spend $2k+ on a new laptop and they don’t give me a non-Windows/blank OS option then I’d go to support and request a special product link. Otherwise I’ll find another brand or buy used.
Install Tailscale on all devices.
Then ssh into whatever you need.
If you need desktop remote access the Windows RDP should work for Windows to Windows machines.
For Linux host to Windows client I’ve had good experiences with Remmina Desktop.
GW2 gamer here too, I’ve been switching over to Linux over the past few months and this is on one of my to-do lists(figure out HUD/overlay software for GW2).
Another hurdle I’ve had is getting mod support. For example, Tale of Two Wastelands. The standard installer is exe only and it runs via proton but it doesn’t use all CPU threads to decompile the game assets. Takes over a hour to do. Luckily someone was able to build something that fixes this for Linux, takes 10 minutes or so depending on your CPU: https://github.com/SulfurNitride/TTW_Linux_Installer
So I’m sure something is also available for GW2
Going back through my github issues/comments, it was around May 2024 with the v1.105.0 release was my last attempt.
I’m happy to hear it is stable now, I’ll probably give it a shot again here soon. Again, I loved the app and I was hosting it for friends/family to share photos of my kids, so it helped immensely with everyone collaborating with uploads(though mobile uploads for individual photos wasn’t available at that time, had to direct people to use the website…).
To be fair I don’t think I used the docker installation back then, so I’ll probably make a stack for it this time around.
Way too late, at least for me.
I’ve switched over to CachyOS on three devices. My main laptop, a spare laptop(for the wife to try), and a gaming PC. All three are great and easy to use. No stupid pop ups, no AI, and I don’t have to worry about it not booting up compared to Windows(which this was the opposite 10 years ago!).
At this point even if they make a great OS and call it Windows 12 I have zero faith that they won’t reverse and make Windows 13 terrible.
At least with Linux I have a dozen or so options to choose from and they all work just fine. So if CachyOS becomes terrible(doubt) then I’ll switch to something else.
At this point Windows needs to go above and beyond and be stable for YEARS and multiple versions before I switch back, which big doubt.
This is what we use Jira Service Management for at work(break/fix tickets), but Jira, the core software, is used for stuff like code development.
Not sure what use case OP has for Jira specifically, but I could see it being beneficial for a homelab where you’re building out docker containers manually or tracking your own coding projects or you want an (overkill) way to do project management for your homelab.
I really want to use Immich but I’ve installed it 3 different times and each time an upgrade completely breaks my installation and I spend hours troubleshooting. And yes, I read the patch notes and do whatever changes they mark in bold red as a warning.
It’s amazing when it works and they’re doing a great job at adding features, but my God does it break if you just look at it wrong.
Since others were posting end of life style docs, here is another: https://www.erikdewey.com/bigbook.htm
Cloud options:
Self-Host locally options:
Honestly you can probably find a N100 or N150 miniPC online for cheap, like $200 USD or less. Install Proxmox(or just install Ubuntu or whatever), install Docker+DockHand, and then install Tailscale and from your laptop/computer with Tailscale on it. You’ll be able to remotely access it, spin up whatever servers you want, and I doubt your campus IT will even see anything due to the tailnet mesh.
If you’re not living on campus, then even better, just self host your own stuff.
Uh that can’t happen with Linux. The closest you can look at is Red Hat, which doesn’t affect distros from Debian or Arch.