It is a LOT of work indeed! In fact I even commented on that hours ago in https://lemmy.ml/post/36231170/21124115

… but as you mention the alternative is ALSO a lot of work PLUS frustrations.

So between learned helplessness and tiring empowerment the choice remains obvious.

FWIW whenever it feels like it’s “too much” I reminder myself how I browse through obscure man pages decades ago… to still find them useful today! It’s crazy that so long after learning about tools like more or grep is useful on :

• a desktop
• a console (SteamDeck)
• a mobile phone (which basically didn’t exist back then)
• a VR headset (yes, via termux)
• the “cloud” (as in fine it’s just a server)

and the IT pro with 10 NAS setup are the perfect linux users.

Well I’m closer to that. I’m an “IT pro” (I pay my bills by writing software) and I did learn CS at uni… and yet it’s STILL damn hard!

I think that might be the part that “grandma” (bit sexist and ageist there but going with the example) finds it hard is a given but that professionals are struggling daily is somehow hidden away.

I can give you examples from just yesterday :

• my deGoogled Android phone rejected my SIM card yesterday “SIM 1 not allowed”
• my home IoT server stopped working

and few others smaller problems. So… I had to find ways to fix that which lead me to learn that :

• some bug into HomeAssistant (my IoT server gateway) led me to restart its container, without having to restart the device itself
• my Android ROM has a “Reset Network Settings” within the “Reset Options” menu

The irony is that some people who are not professional might even know about the later one but I didn’t. So… my whole point :

TL;DR: IT is hard for everyone because it’s complex (lots of moving parts) and always changing (“updates” are not just “better” but different) so we ALL must keep on learning.

Then it’s arguably delegating some of the cost to the final user, large streaming companies spending a bit less on IXP contracts while viewers have to have newer hardware that might need a bit more energy too to run.

Thanks for the clarification, it makes me wonder though, is it bandwidth saving at no user cost? i.e is the compression improved without requiring more compute at the end to decompress?

So… a lot more people now have :

• 4G/5G on the go and proper broadband at home and office and even in unique location (sadly via MuskSat for now…) other ways to get data
• very capable devices in mobile phones, (mostly Android) clients e.g. video projector or dongles, of course computers
• human eyes… that can’t really appreciate 4K on average

… so obviously we should NOT stop looking for more efficient ways and new usages but I’m also betting that we are basically reaching diminishing return already. I don’t think a lot of people care anymore about much high screen resolution or frequency for typical video streaming. Because that’s the most popular usage I imagine everything else, e.g XR, becomes relative to it niche and thus has a hard time benefiting as much from the growth in performances we had until now.

TL;DR: OK cool but aren’t we already flattening the curve on the most popular need anyway?

Use ffmpeg to record audio from your desktop (which will include the meeting) then pass it to whisper.cpp or other text-to-speech FLOSS solutions. No need for “AI” or Windows software for that kind of tasks.

You might want to check sshfs but overall yes rsync works well. I just uploaded 200Go yesterday, no failure.

On my LAN if I want to share without downloading them then I rely on MiniDLNA/ReadyMedia for DLNA/UPnP meaning it works with VLC on desktop, obviously, Android video projectors, mobiles, etc.

Guess it depends on your usage but I stopped using Samba when I didn’t have Windows machines on my network. Never looked back.

If your computer boots when plugged in (not only by pushing the power button) it would be feasible via a connected plug, but you’d still need a small computer, e.g HomeAssistant on a RaspberryPi, to convert the HTTP request to ZigBee, or a WiFi plug but I’m not sure which one would handle an HTTP request, if any.

The discussions here are quite passionate so a bit of a reality check :

“PineStore has also discontinued the PinePhone Pro which was talked about in the last recent blog post. TLDR, sales were low”. https://pine64.org/2025/08/16/august_2025/#pinephone-pro-discontinuation

So… people here say they do want one, but clearly not like that one.

Also recently the crowd funding of https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/liberux-nexx--3 barely reached 10% of €1,434,375 Fixed Goal with just 135 backers.

So… also clearly not that one either.

So what accelerated development do people not just want to claim they do want, but actually pay for?

I fallback to a deGoogled phone precisely because Linux phone isn’t up to my expectation in terms of convenience for now.

You can check my post history but just during the last few days :

• replied to “Why did PinePhone fail” as I have 2 of these https://lemmy.ml/post/35398519/20774482
• discussed on banking apps, authentication bottlenecks on iOS/Android https://lemmy.ml/post/35398519/20854067

… so yes, not there yet

PS: on “assistant” (I really think the naming is over-blowing capabilities) I have been using HomeAssistant daily for years now. I have a Nabu Casu on my shelf… and didn’t even set it up because it was either 3rd party service dependencies (not why I rely on HA) or a very complex setup. So… I would recommend not looking there, at least few months ago when I received mine, sadly.

So… you receive plenty of great technical advice, I won’t go there.

I’m sure your title is wrong. I know for a fact that there is plenty of things you did with Linux that looked until then impossible. They do look impossible to most people today. So… yes there are plenty of things you don’t know how to reliably do but you eventually will manage!

I did read a bit from the Greater Good Science Center in Berkeley https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/ and there was a piece specifically on “everytime” or “always” as basically shortcuts during arguments that reframe the situation incorrectly. You surely meant to say “I often get frustrated trying new things on Linux” instead. It sounds like I’m nitpicking, yet simply rephrasing gives a totally new outlook to the situation. We all, literally ALL of us, do struggle when we try something new. We often fail but if we keep on trying, get methodical about it (what was the error message? did I try something similar before? how does it actually work? who could help me? etc) then you are bound to succeed.

So no, you are not the problem. No, you are not an imbecile. No, you do not always fail!

Good article, I’m running Docker on my server (a dozen or so self-hosted services like PeerTube) but Podman on my desktop (for e.g. Immich) and prototyping. Honestly I should switch my server to Podman too now that most hurdles, e.g. compose support is pretty much on par and rootless practically always works.

Did it fail?

Yes… it did. I have both (details in this post) and I’d love to use either daily yet I don’t do it. I also don’t know anybody who does.

Was it useful? Absolutely but IMHO the fact that the 2nd version is not fully usable (camera, power usage, etc) without active progress despite being a 4 years old specifically targeting tinkers is not a success. I’m genuinely wondering who would want a PinePhone 2. I’d love to but based on what happened with the Pro, I’m not sure I would despite using my other Pine64 on a daily basis.

I have both the PinePhone and the PinePhone Pro, IMHO :

• lack of Android apps (yes, I know, weird to open with that but for a lot of people, that’s the 1 thing, not actual calls or SMS) despite Waydroid because it didn’t exist initially then requires higher specs
• bad power management : the battery is small so without spot on power management one ends up with less than a day of normal usage, that’s a show stopper for most
• lack of updates : the PinePhone Pro was available without camera support, no big deal, most were expecting based on the initial pace of updates that it would eventually come but even today checking https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/PinePhone_Pro it’s either Not implemented or Not working

… so with all that very very few people used either as a daily driver and thus even less probably invested time to make it actually usable.

It’s amazing as a tinkering device with connectivity… but in practice I went instead to a deGoogle Android phone (with /e/OS by Murena). I still have other hardware by Pine, e.g. PineNote or PineTab2, so I do enjoy they provide a very valuable service to the community and I’ll keep on, probably, getting more from them but one has to be pragmatic about the software limitations coming from a company that basically does not provide software for the hardware they sell.

Coincidentally enough the FSF just wrote https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/the-software-we-have-to-use-at-work-must-respect-our-freedom

Thanks for the clarification, makes me wonder if there are compatibility matrices to check what hardware works where but also automated benchmarks because I’m honestly skeptical of significant performance changes over minor versions except on very specific cases, basically bug impacting performances.

the software is dependent on Bonjour

Might want to look at Avahi instead of relying on the official implementation and Wine.

FWIW CLI is 99% not actually writing with reverse-i-search, it’s mostly typing once then recovering, optionally editing, then executing again.

And yes switching work is drastic… but if it’s 8hrs/day for years on, it might be the most important decision still. I understand it’s not an easy one though so I’m not pushing for it.

Filemaker 19 pro … replacement for Directory Opus but for Linux?

So… this is a long shot but I’d recommend to reconsider how you work. Switching to Linux is already amazing while also being demanding. Still, there are genuine alternatives to pretty everything on any OS, not just Windows.

What is more challenging IMHO but also more interesting… is reconsidering how you work, not just the tools you enjoyed so far. So yes, as others pointed in the thread there are custom file managers (beyond the default or popular ones) but, and please hear me out, there is also the command line. I know… I know it is VERY different but that’s a good thing! If you already looked and used an alternative file manager it means you are a power user. The command line (or CLI for short) is precisely a way to have MORE freedom to manager files. There are countless tools that one can combine to modify files. It will take a while to learn but it’s definitely worth it. A good starting point could be https://wizardzines.com/zines/bite-size-bash/

For the other software… well if it’s from work, even though I’d also suggest to look at alternatives, e.g. learning Python/Tkinter or even low code FLOSS alternatives or Web based one… you might not have that freedom. Consequently I’m going to make an even more outlandish suggestion : if your work does not trust you to pick your own tool… maybe reconsider your workplace? I know, bit crazy but long term, might still be worth it.

Apologies for the life changing suggestions!

Debian, but with latest kernels to improve gaming experience.

Genuine question as I’m a basic gamer but not a super performance oriented one (namely, I click “Play” and I enjoy with basically default settings) what PikaOS kernel version is available now (6.15.0 AFAICT from their wiki) versus current Debian stable (6.1.140-1 (2025-05-22) AFAICT from uname) feature is differentiating for gaming?

I understand, beyond security implication, that having a newer kernel should be “better” in general terms but if I take e.g 6.15 vs 6.1 what actual difference does it makes? Is it like a 1% FPS increase? It is a feature e.g. FreeSync/FSAA/etc that the driver itself require?

PS: I admit it’s an in depth question because I have frequent “arguments” about people criticizing the “slow” Debian stable so this is kind of an excuse to understand what I am actually missing.

For my next pc I’ll use linux

Check my post history but that’s pretty much my #1 transition recommendation : do check that your future hardware is actually compatible. Most is… but you don’t want to risk it when it’s relatively easy to check!

PS: if you can, try to buy from manufacturers that do NOT sell a PC with a Windows installation. Ideally do buy something pre-built, try to give money to companies that even do ship with Linux installed. It’s economically and morally nicer but also insure that your setup will 100% work.