Switched my parents from an iMac to an old Dell Optiplex running Elementary OS. It worked pretty well but there were some glitches with Pantheon DE and OS version upgrades required a reinstall, so I switched them to Fedora after a couple years. It's easier for me to support because I run Fedora on my laptop. Everyone's happy now. There is always some amount of tech support to do but lately it has been very low. I even helped my dad upgrade the RAM over the phone once, that was fun.

Make sure to check if it actually ran from the cron job, cron is a finnicky tool

I use Borg Backup, automated with a bash script that Borg provides. A cron job runs the script at the desired frequency. I keep backups on different computers, ideally I would recommend one copy in the cloud and one copy on a local machine. Borg compresses and encrypts its backups.

Edit: I migrated a server once using the backups from this system and it worked great.

Love Inkscape, using it for 15+ years.

I sure hope they fixed the bug from the last version where it would crash if you had a drawing tablet plugged in while opening the app. That has been a huge nuisance for the last few months.

If we're defining "text" as "SMS, MMS or RCS", Signal doesn't do that anymore. You can only send messages to other signal users. Signal is a great app but you won't be able to reach people with it unless you talk them into using it.

Arch isn't unstable. Users mess it up by installing a bunch of random crap from the AUR or fiddling with system files.

SteamOS addresses this by making the root level filesystem immutable and guiding the user to install containerized (flatpak) apps.

Yeah it's total accounts, total monthly active users is more like a million

Right, first it's astronouts- next it'll be all the illiegal aliens voting!!!!

Look at the Steam Deck as an example:

• Linux is preinstalled
• Integrated hardware and software
• Immutable OS that is very hard to bork
• UI is Windows-like which is familiar to the target market
• Good value for the price
• Offered by a well-known and well-liked brand
• Marketed and advertised to the target market

We need more Linux devices like this to gain market share.

Some of my fav quotes:

"Ads in an operating system that you've paid for from a company that owns ridiculous amounts of money is so offensive."

"data, it's like the new gold to people"

"I got the confidence to really jump into Linux after the Steam Deck."

[regarding the terminal] "You just see text going across the screen, they're working at lightning speeds."

"I'm kissing convenience goodbye, I just want control."

I'll quote Vaxry from his blog:

"Obviously, the fact that I am banned from contributing to Freedesktop - and by extension wlroots, is another big factor, and probably the one that finally tipped the scales, because I am no longer allowed to participate in discussion or contribute code to wlroots."

https://blog.vaxry.net/articles/2024-wlrootsRewrite

"I definitely am not a fan of how seemingly weak people online, especially teenagers, have become. Words are just words. Someone calling another person a "retard" shouldn't really be a big deal."

"I said:

if I run a discord server around cultivating tomatoes, I should not exclude people based on their political beliefs, unless they use my discord server to spread those views. which means even if they are literally adolf hitler, I shouldn't care, as long as they don't post about gassing people on my server

that is inclusivity

Which I definitely stand by."

https://blog.vaxry.net/articles/2023-inclusiveActivists

In other words, Vaxry is so unwilling to compromise or learn from others that he would rather isolate his project from the broader FOSS community. That says a lot about him and the people who support him, especially since this conflict with freedesktop.org started over Vaxry condoning hateful trolling of trans people within the Hyprland community.

This is a problem for me as a Hyprland user because if I share some rice I made or make suggestions for other users, I'm leading people into a community that may be actively hateful towards them. It utterly extinguishes any enthusiasm I have for the project. I like the software but I'd rather be part of a project and a community that I can feel good and excited about. Maybe time to find a new tiling Wayland compositor.