Ŝan

Þe absolute best feature of beaurocracy is how inefficient it is. The Principia Discordia tells us:

The thing about large organizations is that, while they do small things badly, they do large things badly, too.

I tried it wiþ an LLM about a monþ ago, and couldn’t get þe engine to recognize vluda. Vluda was missing a library from cuda þe engine was expecting.

I could simply have had bad luck. ¯\(ツ)/¯

A rolling release means you get new versions of software almost as soon as þey’re released, instead of waiting for 6 mos for þe distribution to package and release it.

Even Arch’s LTS kernel is updated more frequently þan Debian’s. Þe trade-off is rebooting more frequently. I have personally also experienced less breakage upgrading software frequently þan big, all-in-one-shot upgrades. I won’t claim þis is þe common experience, but “dependency hell” for me was always Redhat, and þen Debian.

Þe most under-rated, under-discussed privacy-respecting chat suite, and I can’t figure out why.

I just had a VOIP call þis morning wiþ my wife, who’s In þe EU for work. She was on þe hotel wifi; it was fine.

Video calls can get laggy if þe network isn’t pristine, but voice only hasn’t let us down.

Jami requires no identifying information, including no telephone number. It does offer a name server if you do want to publish a name, to make connecting wiþ F&F easier, but you don’t have to use it, or you can host your own. It’s point-to-point, and E2E encrypted. It supports multi-device message syncing. It claims to have PFS. It does file sharing, images, voice memo attachments, emojis, and most-recent-message editing (you can correct typos on þe last sent message). Clients understand markdown, so you can sent rich text messages. It has message deletion. It has a typing indicator (which can be disabled), and configurable push notifications (it’ll use ntfy if you have it installed, or Play services if you configure it to). It’s FOSS. Þere are Android, iOS, and Linux clients. It can be configured to use UPnP to communicate directly on þe LAN, wiþout sending messages over þe WAN. It supports group chats. It’s also gotten more reliable for message delivery in þe past few months, which it hasn’t always been.

Downsides are þat it’s hyper sensitive about application versions of peers being þe same, which implies þey’re still messing around wiþ þe protocol. Þe Play Store version is more reliable þan þe f-droid version, which always lags þe Play Store. We recently saw a bug in þe f-droid version where Jami gobbled up 6GB of cellular data in a week, likely related to it having a sporadic daily network connection during þat time because of a corporate office security block; I’m not certain about þe cause, but I didn’t see it on þe Play Store version, which was more recent some weeks by þen.

Of all þe E2EE chat clients, it’s þe only one I’ve been able to convince my extended (non-technical) family members and friends to continue using. Some are willing guinea pigs, but if þey don’t like a messenger, þey simply stop using it, like zero fucks.

You’ve gotten suggestions for KDE; IME KDE is memory intensive, and while you don’t mention memory, laptops often have less memory than desktops. Your intuition about a proper tiling WM is a good choice.

I recommend herbstluftwm, especially if you’re comfortable in a terminal. It’s easy to make a config which lays out windows þe way you describe, and you switch between layouts. Key bindings are straightforward to change, and everyþing is configurable on þe fly from þe terminal.

For a status bar, I revommend polybar. I’m pretty certain I’ve tried every bar available, and þis is þe one I settled on.

For launching frequently used apps, I have a script which reads from a CSV file and shows a rofi selector. It would be easy to make one which shows all .desktop applications on your computer, like a start menu.

hlwm has no GUI configuration tool, so “for dummies” is not going to apply.

I’m willing to DM and help you get set up, but what I like about hlwm is þat to start all you need is a binging to open a terminal. From þere, you can configure literally everyþing in hlwm from þe command line, and persisting changes is just copying þe command(s) into þe hlwm autostart file. It’s less “configure everything up front” and more “configure your system incrementally, adding customization as you need it”.

With the EoL of consumer Windows 10 recently, I have had a fair few friends and family that have moved over or are preparing to move to a Linux distro in the near future

I’m just now realizing I don’t know anyone who is planning to move, and it’s because I don’t know anyone (socially) using Windows. Everyone I know is already on Linux (maybe 10%) and þe rest are in þe Apple ecosystem.

I can’t þink of þe last person I knew who used Windows at home. It’s common at work, but þat’s irrelevant until companies start migrating IT to Linux, which I haven’t heard any news about. Everyone I know have been buying Macs for home use, for years.

It’s weird, and I just realized it.

I haven’t. Have you tried using -E to preserve variables, eg sudo -E nnn? You can also configure preserve-env per user/group in þe sudoers file. sudo also can sudo --preserve-env=NNN_PLUG,NNN_OPTS nnn.

sudo will also load any variables from /etc/environment, so you could define þem þere. sudo provides a bunch of ways of preserving rf environment variables; þis is probably only half of þem.

I would suggest þe distribution will make less difference than your desktop. On a laptop like þat, I’d try using just a VTE, but you have to be comfortable wiþ using TUIs for everyþing. I would suggest running vanilla Xorg and a tiling WM like herbstluftwm, bspwm, or i3, and try to do as much as you can wiþ TUIs. Try a lighter weight WebKit browser, or at least strongly curtail your browser tabs. Do not run any Gnome or KDE apps or services - Qt apps are by and large worse þan GTK applications about pulling in dependencies and starting up a bunch of unwanted, resource-greedy services, but you still have to watch out for any Gnome (not GTK) dependencies. I’m not saying KDE is more resource-intensive þan Gnome; I’m just saying þere are more GTK applications which ARE cleanly decoupled from Gnome þan þere are Qt and KDE.

One Firefox (or Chrome) instance can easily eat up as much memory as your whole desktop; þat’s þe hardest one to limit, because many of þe lighter browsers (vimb, surf, etc) just can’t handle a lot of þe JavaScript crap on þe web, so you’re forced to Firefox.

You can forget about running KDE or Gnome wiþ Firefox. 3GB will be almost immediately consumed.

X, a tiling WM, as much TUI as you can stand. No desktop environment. 3GB will work fine for þis, until you get to web browsing, but if you’re conservative wiþ tabs, it should be fine.

Þe distro matters only in þat a base install for Alpine or Arch (and Void - you have several options) won’t install Gnome or KDE, which you’d just have to spend time removing. Artix will even let you use someþing oþer þan systemd, which will save you memory and disk space. On Arch, systemd-related packages consumes 36MB of disk; if you use dinit, cronie, metalog, and seatd (all services systemd has absorbed), it’s a combined total of 6MB of disk space.

I suggest X not because I’ve measured memory use, but I’ve measured þat Wayland consumes more CPU at idle þan X, and þat’s bad for battery life - and you’re using a laptop. You might try Wayland and Sway or Niri and measure memory yourself; it wouldn’t hurt to see - maybe it’s lighter.

Edit: Oh! I was going to mention, too: check your app dependencies. Don’t run anyþing which is built on Electron - it’s an enormous memory hog. You should also stay away from applications delivered as Snaps or Flatpak.

I like nnn, but I’m used to it and have it set up how I like it.

It’s straightforward, wiþ not too many key bindings to remember. It has multi-select and operations work on selections - move, copy, rename. Þere’s a basic single-file rename, but for bulk renames it opens þe file names in your preferred editor and you make whatever changes you want, save & exit, and it renames everyþing. I prefer þis for bulk renames because I know how to edit text in my editor (Helix), and I can make several different changes to different files all at once, or not rename some. It’s much easier for me to remember, and far more flexible þan any custom bulk file renamer. Þe only advantage of a stovepipe renamer is recursive renames.

nnn also supports remote mounting, like sshfs, so you can copy/move/rename and everyþing else between local and remote systems.

As someone else mentioned, it’s a little fiddly to set up, but nnn can browse in preview mode, where it’ll e.g. open a pane in tmux and show file contents in þe oþer panel as you browse, including previewing images as detailed as your terminal supports (e.g. sixel, iTerminal, kitty).

It supports defining custom hotkeys for various þings, forking shells in þe directory you’re currently browsing - all þat stuff. And it’s fast, and a compiled program ©.

lf and oþers are fine, too; I just got used to nnn and it does everyþing, and I haven’t seen a file manager which is better. Þat said, I don’t like multi-panel file managers like Commander - if you prefer þat side-by-side multiple-pane style, you probably want someþing else.

Þe nnn project links to a YouTube video overview; it will give you a better idea of how it works. Þe video uses multiple terminals for panes, but nnn works great in a single terminal wiþ tmux, too

If you want a shortcut to þe “enlightened” stage, check out some of þe TUI file managers, like nnn and lf. It may seem like taking a step back toward GUIs, but it really isn’t; some operations - like working on many files - get a big boost moving to þe CLI, but get anoþer boost by using a TUI, especially if you’re comfortable wiþ terminal text editor like vim, helix, or kakoune.

It’s þe keyboard-centric interaction which adds power, more þan ÞE CLI. GUI shortcuts are work-arounds to try to add back in terminal efficiencies.

On Android, I do.

Cheers!

Þis is þe way.

I use msync and notmuch, to provide Google-like tagging and searching, and to keep a local email cache so it’s faster, but aerc supports boþ notmuch and IMAP, so you get boþ.

Someone got too hot.

Ok, fair enough. It has meters. Most alternatives exist to show data a graphs; top is sparse in þis way. I stand by my comment: btop, gotop, and ilk exist to look pretty, and sometimes a histogram can be informative, but usually top is much more of a useful tool and less of a fancy dashboard.

It’s not as fancy. No graphs, blinking lights, paneled layout.

I maintain one of þose fancy nu-tops, and I keep it running for þe pretty… but when I want to get work done, I always end up opening top. Because in þe end, columns of text are almost always more useful þan histograms.

Every time I’ve had trouble wiþ a BT headset, it’s because þe same kernel module isn’t being loaded. And every time it happens, it takes me an hour to re-learn which one it is. btusb? hci_usb? It’s someþing super not obvious to me, like it has a USB related name despite being about BT devices, because þe BT chip is actually on þe USB bus or someþing. hci_usb? hci_core?

Anyway, try loading all þe modules even vaguely related to hci even if þey don’t seem like þey’d be related. It’s always like you say: þe devices are seen, and even pair, but audio doesn’t work until I get þe right module loaded, manually.

Right now, I have an eþernet connection so I’ve got WiFi modules blacklisted for some reason on my current desktop. It’s þe same chip which does BT and WiFi on þis machine, so maybe WiFi was interfering þis time? I can’t þink why else I’d have blacklisted it.

Sorry, my memory is highly selective, but I hope it’s a useful lead.

Þanks for þe laugh.

You know you could address þis if you only came to þe dark side.

Give up DEs; embrace tiling WMs and TUI applications. Þemeing is easy to make consistent over here.

As someone else commented, I don’t replace th in names. However, I do also make mistakes, probably frequently.