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Cake day: May 18th, 2024

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  • Yeah. I use Aurora on my laptop, but, to be fair, I don’t reboot it as often. Maybe every 2-4 weeks I guess.

    I saw the announcement about the failing updates, tried to update my system, and that went as announced, failing to verify.
    I then executed the script, updated my OS successfully and rebooted.

    The system worked fine now for a few days. Yesterday I shut off the device, and today I got greeted by the failed secure boot, having to resort to the image before and fix it.

    On my gaming PC I use Bazzite, but I didn’t turn the PC on the last days. I only executed the update-fix-script, installed the pending updates, played for half an hour and then shut it off again.
    I will keep you up to date with the results once I come home.


    Btw, I asked my partner about her opinion on this. She said that problems like this may happen anywhere, no matter which software, and as long as the devs announce that and offer a simple fix, there’s nothing one can do about it.

    She only suggested a small “news channel” built into the OS.
    Do you think that might be possible to integrate, for example into the MOTD in the terminal? I don’t know if there are possible solutions out there.






  • As others have said, springtails.
    They usually only eat dead stuff, but still can harm the plant sometimes. But mostly, they’re disgusting imo.

    Best ways to get rid of them:

    • Don’t overwater your soil. Keep it on the dryer side and add some drainage (stones on the bottom, some perlite, etc.) to keep everything aerated
    • Or, try switching to inorganic substrate, e.g. pon or LECA. That way, you can get rid of pretty much any soil living pest. But by transplanting the plant you can also kill it, especially since it’s already stressed.


  • I don’t know the pros or cons of it vs Nix and others, but one pro is that it also runs on MacOS and other OSs. I’ve never used it, but it’s nice that uBlue offers a simple installation ootb.
    Many devs seem to use it regularly, and it isn’t dead simple to set up from what I’ve heard. When uBlue offers an installation, then there is at least one person using it, otherwise it wouldn’t exist :D




  • GrapheneOS is probably the best option out there.

    As you said, it’s only for Pixels currently, because

    1. They are more secure than most other phones. They have some kind of chip built in that makes them superior. I don’t know the specifics, but other commentators might add some information if needed. Something with encryption if I remember correctly. The GrapheneOS team is a bit …picky… when it comes to security, and most other phones don’t reach their requirements for a secure device.
    2. Google is one major contributor to Android, and their phones are fine tuned to work perfectly with it. Other manufacturers’ phones feel less polished.
    3. It’s easier to maintain one line of devices that are very similar, instead of keeping hundred phones up to date and secure. Pixels are similar to iPhones, they get updated almost simultaneously and are similar. If you now add a phone from a different line, e.g. a Fairphone or Nothing Phone, things get more complicated. If you look at Calyx (more onto that later), the FP4 caused quite some headaches for the dev team.

    Pixels are cheap(ish) for what you get, and I believe Google makes them so cheap because 99% of users don’t care which ROM/OS is installed. Those are the advertisment-cows that will get milked. If you buy a Pixel and install a custom ROM on it, they will loose money.


    My experience with GrapheneOS has been great. My Pixel 5 hit EOL a while ago and still gets maintenance updates almost weekly.
    Many security additions are overkill for me, but quite some make a lot of sense.

    I used CalyxOS for a year too, but now that I don’t get full updates anymore, I don’t feel safe anymore with it.

    I think GrapheneOS is technically superior to Calyx, especially due to the sandboxing they do. MicroG has full root privileges and can do with your phone what it wants, while also breaking some apps due to missing dependencies. If you choose to enable Play Services on GrapheneOS, they are user level and heavily restricted, and only you decide how much access you want to give them.

    Regarding Calyx, since they don’t limit themselves as much in terms of security, they also offer a ROM for the Fairphone. Maybe check that out too.

    DivestOS also seems to be a good option. AFAIK it’s based on LineageOS and supports a lot of devices, while being more secure than LOS.

    Regarding Linux phones, I don’t have any experience with them. I tried Phosh (Mobile Gnome) on an exhibition a while ago, and it felt great and interesting, but from what I’ve heard, they are nowhere as good as Android.


    My personal ranking:

    1. GrapheneOS on a Pixel. Get an used/ refurbished device if you don’t want to support Google. Best price-performance ratio, great OS, and very good hardware (battery life, camera, etc.)
    2. CalyxOS on a Fairphobe. Modular device with good repairability. Nowhere near as good in terms of what you’ll get for your money. Better security than 95% of other phone ROMs, oh, and you can just swap your battery in seconds if you want that :D
    3. DivestOS on a random supported phone, e.g. a China device. Nowhere near as sustainable (short lived update support, no spare parts, etc.)
    4. Linux phone. Only a goof option for a tinkering device right now imo.

  • Short answer: use uBlue.


    Longer answer:

    Even though uBlue is technically “downstream”, it also isn’t. uBlue builds its’ packages automatically, and you are never more than a few hours (1 day max for huge updates) away from upstream. It feels more like “sidestream” (if that word exists?).

    One reason it exists is, as you already said, because layering takes quite some time.
    At least I personally don’t wanna use stock Fedora (Atomic) and would install some codecs, tweaks and such anyway, and uBlue does that already for me.
    Update time doesn’t matter anymore for me, because uBlue updates itself automatically in the background. Silverblue doesn’t do that afaik.

    Depending on how “custom” your system should be, you can take a look at the uBlue builder, where you can create your own image based on already existing ones if you like.

    The cool thing about Fedora Atomic is, that you don’t have to stick to anything. If you don’t like something anymore, you can rebase in less than two minutes without any hassle and jump from image to image, no matter if it’s an official one (e.g. Silverblue) or some obscure uBlue image.


  • This may be an unpopular opinion, but you can use pretty much anything you like, as long as it isn’t brand new or extremely old.
    Even stuff with Nvidia GPUs and stuff.
    Even MS Surface devices work decently.

    Thing is, for a really smooth experience, where you don’t feel like a second class citizen, and everything works ootb, proper support is advantageous.

    I have a Dell XPS laptop, and it works fine. Sometimes, the WiFi switches itself off, and I have to restart the connection, but other than that, everything is flawless.
    Thinkpads are great too, since they are also used heavily in offices, where they get thrown out or sold cheaply. Maybe ask there.

    I personally would recommend something that you can repair yourself, or at least change the battery and memory.



  • Logseq.

    What is Logseq?

    It’s a non-linear note taking app that allows smart linking and is made as a second brain.

    It makes use of the Zettelkasten system, where, in theory, you make notes of everything and categorize it. Over time, you offload your brain and make it free for more productive stuff.

    Logseq is often considered as a FOSS alternative to Obsidian.