I started with Ubuntu (when it was left, right and center in my country) but soon gravitated towards Debian. The old packages can be a pain sometimes ( I even tried running Debian Unstable for sometime and ironically that is quite Stable as well) but other things are quite sane.

The distro isn’t hard to use (though it does not hand hold like Zorin OS, say) compared to likes of Gentoo or Arch and deb packages are quite common (for third party software).

I ultimately(distro hopped a lot) settled on Void Linux but Debian, IMO, is still slightly easier. The only Achilles’ Heel is the woefully sore update cycle since the focus is on stability.

It is not a power profile problem since I have looked into that. Even under normal circumstances, simple stuff like having tons of tabs open cause it to creak. Yes the hardware is not cutting edge but my previous laptop was worse (4 GB Ram) and whilst Linux showed it’s limits then, it never came close to crashing ever. I don’t think my Debian install in the past ever freezed on older laptop.

But it is bonkers on this model.

This issue did not affect my previous laptop. However, under heavy load, my current laptop sometimes freezes and even REISUB sometimes failed to work. The only way is to force power off via button.

This persisted across all distros from Debian based to Fedora to current Void.

Other times, laptop will stutter to a near halt post some complex process and even after said process(like a Handbrake task) is closed, continues to act as if the resources were never freed.

I only used Windows 11 for a single month b/w 2016- current (other wise, distro hopping was default) and it was stable. I can’t pin point the actual root cause (driver issues, kernel level problem) but still persist with Linux (Windows has its own stuff of problems that we all are aware).

Betteridge’s law of headlines strikes again!

First NSA started snooping, but I didn’t care because it did not affect me.

Then Israel started snooping, but I didn’t care because I was not the target.

Then India followed in the footsteps but I didn’t speak and instead tacitly supported it.

And then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me.

state-owned cyber security app that cannot be deleted

I think it’s called malware.

Sheer uselessness. It will do as much to reduce fraud as the UK law has done to reduce porn content for non adults. What it will mean is that people with multiple SIM, will need to have an always active plan on that number, something telecoms will really like.

Also, it essentially means the death knell for WhatsApp Web (in India) because as stated in article, who wants to log in every SIX hours.

The web is designed for humans to use, so if Atlas can monitor us - how we book train tickets for example - it can learn how to better navigate these kinds of processes.

That is called malware. Or at the very least, Open AI should be paying the users for basically getting their browsing data for free, not other way around.

Second, I object to it being called a Google killer in the article. It is based on Chromium whose future is basically in Google’s hands right now for all Intents and purposes. The days of multiple Web browsers are gone. We have the same thing in new clothing. Opera ditched it’s rendering engine for Chromium, MS ditched Trident for Chromium.

Currently, there are basically only three real browser engines : Chromium, Gecko which powers Firefox Derivatives and Safari(Blinkit? I am not sure of its exact name). Even if Open AI’s new browser (or Perplexity 's for that matter) takes market by storm, they will remain dependent on Google because the underlying code is. They can’t be truly independent unless they have their separate engine. And if the new Ladybird project shows one thing, it is that shipping a new browser might be easy, but a new rendering engine is very tough.

I moved to weechat. It is terminal only. I had setup some keybindings either ways on hexchat to navigate faster via keyboard between channels / servers and weechat can replicate them (albeit it takes a little time to read documentation in this case). Many folks also are hard on users of irssi but weechat met my simplistic needs.

Not to mention almost any distro will have a packaged version of weechat in its repos.

I don’t generally use LinkedIn. I opened it today after long time and got logged out and was shown this.

It is ironical because Microsoft owns LinkedIn but for rescuing a Microsoft account (which is arguably more important because emails at the least are linked to it. And then there is One drive, Authenticator apps and what not) none of this is required. But for rescuing what is essentially a fruitless social network, they need an ID.

Of course, it made a mockery of everything you know of Windows because it’s not like Windows. Neither is it meant to be used like one nor is it heading in that direction (not to mention that Windows is one monotonous thing, like if you know your hands across one install of Windows, you know it all. The same is not true about Linux. A Void Linux user might still not be as adept at a Gentoo install).

You are contradicting yourself. First you call it magic and then you call it not very deep. If it’s the latter, why do so many production servers run on Linux?

Some Linux distros like Debian have a fantastic reputation for stability. Sure, bugs still exist. I personally struggle with a distro agnostic bug that breaks workflows often on my current setup. But things have come a long way. And it’s better than Windows non customizable privacy invading approach any day.

The twin advantages Windows has is wrt games (though that is slowly being covered) and more importantly, specialized software. I know folks IRL who have to use Windows just because their work requires it.

It seems like you updated your webpage in the wake of the meme incident. But it has made it unbearable to read. Whilst I was able to read the article in reader mode, the ~ page is virtually an eye sore to browse right now.

While Void isn’t exactly under rated ( it is very highly rated on distro watch for one ), for someone looking for a systemd free distro or a light weight one in general, it is a decent choice. The repos aren’t as broad based as Arch but they do have newer versions of the software that they host.

I could be wrong, but aren’t Linux Mint and Pop OS ultimately based on Debian? (Mint is based on Ubuntu which in return has a Debian base). Debian was my main entry way to the Linux world and there is a reason why so many distros are built on it. Very old as well (not as old as Slack ware but Slack ware isn’t exactly noob friendly).

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I hate the official YouTube app. I have YouTube Premium but that’s because I use YT Music mostly (have been using on and off since GPM days). But shorts shoved in your face, subscription page jumbled with updates, comments and videos (I only want videos) ; no way to choose a system wide video quality (app only has High or Data Saver option; one needs to manually toggle for each video ; contrary, NewPipe has this basic feature).

There is also the donate button on multiple YouTube videos (Atleast give me the option to remove/customize that button/other buttons on that ribbon). Why are paying users subject to worse UI?

Oh, and these people throttle stuff on Firefox and have probably been doing since times immemorial.

I have been wondering if I should let YT Premium lapse and not renew it. I tried Spotify Premium once and whilst it’s 3rd party support is phenomenal, it has its own bugs (and they are similarly slow despite their forums being full with bug reports as well). Almost like I should hoard my own music from ahem, sources.

Indian newspapers have launched partially automated YouTube channels, some with AI avatar presenters. Nearly a fifth of Indian readers said they use chatbots like ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini (including AI Overviews) weekly to access news. In the U.K., that number was only 3%.

I knew YouTube channels were popular as a news source in my country (with their over the top hysterical style) but didn’t knew that Gemini/GPT was also getting big here.

I still read a digital version of a proper newspaper. I find it slightly more informative and factual. In the good old days, I used to get a physical newspaper because nothing beats the touch of paper.

Whatsapp is popular a lot in many parts of the world. In India, WhatsApp is almost the defacto standard messaging app with Telegram probably flying in a far second. I doubt I know anyone who even uses stuff like Signal or Threema or any of the alternatives.

Is there support for blocking individual elements of a page in v3 version of uBlock Origin? (I won’t be surprised if it lacked it). I usually block various other elements of page like useless headers/footers/comment sections on some sites I routinely visit on Firefox.

I have Prime too for shopping mainly. I also can’t use Prime Video because it refuses to go beyond 480p on Firefox for Linux (Atleast last time I tried).