Free Palestine 🇵🇸 @ netchami @sh.itjust.works

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1,016

Joined

2 yr. ago

I thought a more advanced distro, that is still stable, would be good overall. However, not getting new software for a long time sounds quite annoying.

Arch is actually not as bad as many say. It's pretty stable nowadays, I even run Arch on some servers and I never had any issues. It gives you the benefits that you can basically find any package in the AUR and everything is up-to-date. Try it out, if you don't like it, you can still switch to something else.

I’m wanting to challenge myself to get much better with Linux, partitioning, CLI, CLI tools

The best way to learn the CLI is to use it. Try not to use your graphical file manager for a while and only interact with the file system through the terminal, that teaches you a lot.

I’ve been considering installing Arch the traditional way, on my X220, as a way to force myself to improve. Is this a good way to learn more about Linux and a Linux system in general?

Yes.

I always hear good things about the Arch Wiki.

It is truly fantastic.

Is there any other tips someone can give me, to sharpen my Linux skills?

Use the system, don't be shy, try different things out. If you are scared that you might break something, try it out in a VM. Break your VM and try to fix it. That teaches you a lot.

I was even considering trying out Gentoo on my X220, but the compiling times sound painful.

I would not recommend that, updating packages will take ages, it's not a great experience.

I’d rather avoid a Linux distro that’s implementing something like ads or telemetry…if that’s even a thing that’s happening?

Fedora has some telemetry, but as far as I know, you can turn it off during the installation. Some desktop environments like KDE Plasma also have options for telemetry but it's disabled by default. If you want it, you manually have to enable it in the settings.

Should I avoid OpenSUSE

Some software might not be available on openSUSE

or KDE Plasma

Not really, Plasma has a shitload of features and customization options, if many options tend to overwhelm you, you might be better of with a different desktop environment, if you are fine with customization options, Plasma is great for you.

Are there any ‘10 things to do first when installing Linux for the first time’ recommendations?

Since you said that you want to install openSUSE, I recommend this video: https://youtube.com/watch?v=ajVqJ1nl9bM

Mission Control looks pretty nice, it tries to resemble the Windows Task Manager really closely so it's great if you are switching from Windows

What init system do you use on your Linux distro?

Back when I used macOS, I liked an app called SnippetsLab. Nowadays, I just throw them in Emacs Org files. Emacs is actually very handy for this, you get syntax highlighting in the code block, you can execute the code right from inside your Emacs environment and there's even alpha support for lsp-mode inside of Org code blocks.

At least I'm not aware of any reason. Just wanted to put the alternative out there.

LinkSheet is an alternative to URLCheck

If you need Chromecast support, check out SkyTube. It's very important that you download SkyTube Extra, not SkyTube FOSS because it doesn't support casting. You can use Obtanium to automatically grab the latest APK from GitHub. It's also available in the IzzyOnDroid repository on F-Droid.

Media corporations won't solve that either. They will simply take your money and put it in their pockets while pretending that they care about artists.

Thanks for the suggestion

FreeTube doesn't use the YouTube API. Quote from their website:

FreeTube grabs data by scraping the information it needs (with either local methods or by optionally utilizing the Invidious API).

Neither Invidious, nor Piped, NewPipe or FreeTube use the YouTube API.

NewPipe has a component called NewPipeExtractor which scrapes the data from YouTube.

LibreTube uses Piped which uses the NewPipeExtractor.

Invidious scrapes the data from YouTube.

FreeTube can either scrape the data from YouTube or use Invidious.

Most Gentoo users use OpenRC.

YT also knows FreeTube

But they can't really do anything about it, unless they start requiring you to log in in order to watch videos...

They sent a cease and desist letter to Invidious, but that's all they can do. It's practically impossible to block Invidious because it's completely decentralized. The Invidious instances only pull metadata, the video stream is actually pulled in by the client.

I mean, yeah, that's true. But I haven't heard of many big YouTube/Odysee creators uploading their videos on PeerTube or even entirely switching to PeerTube.

Piped has some issues because Google tries to IP-ban all Piped instances, but Invidious actually pulls the content through the client, not on the server so it should work flawlessly. I also never had any issues with FreeTube.

It's not just the discovery, there's just not enough quality content.

Or just stop giving these shitty corporations money altogether and start pirating.

Take a look at these amazing guides:

https://ripped.guide/Audio/Music/

https://rentry.org/firehawk52

And join !piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com

Personally, I use deemix with Deezer Premium ARLs to download my Music in full 320kbps. Works like a dream. You can accomplish the same thing on Android with Murglar. This section of the Firehawk52 guide explains it pretty well.

I've seen this recommendation a couple of times. In my opinion, the MotionBox UI just looks terrible. I prefer Piped or Invidious for watching YouTube. You can use these in combination with LibRedirect to automatically redirect all YouTube links to these alternative front-ends. FreeTube is pretty good if you need a desktop app. I love LibreTube on Android, NewPipe is another option. There's also Yattee with this guide on iOS and SmartTubeNext on Android TV.

Using Signal with disappearing messages set to a really short time is probably the closest thing you can get. You can use a VOIP number from Cloaked behind a VPN to sign up anonymously.

I admit for the very limited things I do and only occasionally I use Paint.net

Unfortunately, it's not available on Linux

Still in my mind Gimp is much more powerful?

Yes it is, but it's also much more complicated. I never fully understood GIMP, I prefer simpler options like Paint.net.