• 0 Posts
  • 179 Comments
Joined 4 years ago
cake
Cake day: January 17th, 2022

help-circle

  • Right, then I can’t help you.

    To clarify for others though as I guess I wasn’t clear based on the downvotes : I’m not suggesting a single piece of software is a viable alternative to Lightroom. Rather I’m saying Lightroom itself is a collection of algorithms dedicated to photo editing wrapped in a UX one is familiar with. On the other hand ImageMagick (just to pick one I know relatively well) is a set of command line tools for image editing. It’s mostly used as a backend with other tools as interface. I imagine there are plenty of alternatives to ImageMagick too, probably some that can include arXiv STOA algorithms for photo editing, maybe some even with a GUI but my point again is to reconsider the workflow to understand how the tools one rely on actual work.

    So to hopefully express myself better this time, ImageMagick + Gimp + Krita + some script in a Github repository based on an arXiv publication + I don’t know what + … all together or in part might be better for some people but no I don’t know an all-in-one open source alternative that cover ALL needs without them being expressed first.


  • Not.

    Now to be slightly more helpful (apologies for the provocation) I suggest you consider alternatives to Lightroom. I know that instantly you will receive countless comments on how alternatives are just nowhere near as good as Lightroom… and that’s OK. IMHO it’s OK because I bet YOUR usage of Lightroom isn’t the usage of others. So… I recommend you forget the brand “Adobe” or the product “Lightroom” and instead you list here the actual function of a tool you need.

    This way, by listing actual needs rather than a bundle product with branding and specific UX, you go back to the root of your problem, namely WHY do you need such a piece of software in the first place.

    Sure, you might end up with an entirely different workflow. Sure it will probably be absolutely alien at first… but so was learning how to use that piece of software in the first place too. Right now you do have the concepts, so replacing one click by a command line tool, or 1 piece of software by 10, is IMHO acceptable. What you will hopefully have in the end if YOUR workflow that is even more adapted compared to what you had first. It will be “weird” and maybe nobody else will get it but for you it will be exactly what you need.



  • I think that’s an important distinction here :

    • there can be NO genuinely open devices

    versus

    • open devices can’t be popular

    So when you say “what’s frustrating is that we can’t really vote with our wallets, and any right-to-repair or consumer-is-in-charge movement is going to be limited by intelligence agencies, corporations like John Deere, Apple, and the entire entertainment industry” I disagree.

    We CAN really vote with our wallets precisely by purchasing things like Precursor, MNT, NitroKey, etc while at the same time expecting, sadly, that it won’t become the most popular devices in the market. I believe allowing creators and maintainers of such system, and even distributors like CrowdSupply, to exist even though they are and might always remain niche, is already empowering. So I’d argue both of us already voted with our wallets on this topic and our acquaintances too.

    I’d also be cautious about preemptive pessimism. Sure it’s important to be mindful of worrisome examples like the FlipperZero (which AFAICT is only banned for purchase in Brazil due to lack of Anatel’s certification for wireless, I believe it’s possible to legally bring and use a FlipperZero in the country but I’m not a lawyer) or DRM for streaming (which I thought was a huge deal until I disabled DRM support in my browser and basically nothing changed in my browsing habits) precisely to learn from them. Also FWIW I did gather some ideas on the topic at https://fabien.benetou.fr/Content/SwappingPartsOfTheRestrictionStack so I’d be curious about your opinion on the topic, suggestions welcomed.


  • TPM. It’s what protects your phone and servers from attackers. Desktop would also benefit from it a lot.

    Hard disagree here, TPM is only 1 more protection, it’s not what alone does protect your data.

    Also desktop vs phone and servers are very different use cases. You can easily get your phone stolen in a public space. Your server if it hosted in a data center you don’t own might get compromised … but your desktop, it means breaking in or inviting in guests you do not trust. The situations are very different. Encrypting disks on a small device holding sensitive data, e.g. banking, that can easily be taken from you in public makes sense for most people. Doing so on a heavy bulky device that sits in your locked house where is quite another thing.





  • Historical context : it’s a 1yo post.

    TPM itself isn’t the problem. TPM itself technically might be a good solution, what the FSF precisely put forward is “out of the user’s control”. They even mention how it’s not about theoretical ideas but how it’s actually used. If Microsoft gets to decide HOW your computers works DESPITE you wanting NOT to behave that way AND it makes Microsoft itself, or its partners, even more entrenched then it’s a serious problem, it means “your” computer is their computer.

    What we have all witnessed is that bit by bit OSes like Windows, but also MacOS and Android, are not simply providing stores or tightly controllers channel (with fees for themselves) but ALSO removing entirely, or making it radically harder, to install software the user actually wants to install (not malware).

    It’s not about TPM, it’s as usual about who control your computer.









  • Can’t talk about AMD but I’m on NVIDIA and I always followed https://wiki.debian.org/NvidiaGraphicsDrivers and never had issues others seem to be having. I typically hear good things about AMD GPU support, on Debian and elsewhere so I’m surprised.

    Now in practice IMHO GPU support doesn’t matter much for NAS, as you’re probably going headless (no monitor, mouse or keyboard). You probably though do want GPU instruction set support for transcoding but here again can’t advise for this brand of GPU. It should just be relying on e.g. https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/Hardware/AMF

    Finally I’m a Debian user and I’m quite familiar with setting it up, locally on remotely. I also made ISOs for RPi based on Raspbian so this post made me realize I never (at least I don’t remember) installed Debian headlessly, by that I mean booting on a computer with no OS all the way to getting a working ssh connection established on LAN or WiFi. I relied on Imager for RPi configuration or making my own ISO via a microSD card (using dd) but it made me curious about preseeding wiki.debian.org/DebianInstaller/Preseed so I might tinker with it via QEMU. Advices welcomed.

    PS: based on few other comments, consider minidlna over more complex setups. Consider Wireguard over tailscale (or at least headscale for a version relying solely on your infrastructure) with e.g. wg-easy if you want to manage everything without 3rd parties.


  • IMHO fix whatever you can, donate it all locally (HackerSpace, RepairCafe, Linux non-profit, etc) as there are quite a few people dedicated to refurbishing computers for schools, people who need a computer to find work, etc.

    Then for the tinkering aspect, keep one, that’s enough.

    Honestly even 1 isn’t really required. Pretty much everything listed here can be done more efficiently without an actual physical computer :

    • your current computer can be a server, just turn off the screen or even accept (which I’d argue is a fair assumption) that at night it will be off. If you want external access put WireGuard or another VPN on it.
    • Want to test distributions or anything else? QEMU or containers, no need for actual hardware