Over the past few days and weeks, I’ve decided to downsize my digital and tech collection. I own so many computers, laptops, smartphones, smartwatches, accessories, and so on—I can never really use it all. I bought a lot of it just to own the latest “hot stuff.”

That’s why I’ve gotten rid of most of it—either giving it away or selling it for very little. And I’ve kept only the bare essentials. Often not even the newest or best.

For example: I now only use my Peladn Mini-PC with an old Ryzen 5 5500U as my computer; I don’t even use the newer, faster ones to their full potential, so I gave them away. I’ve now reinstalled Debian Stable on it, with an absolute minimum of programs—just the bare essentials: browser, LibreOffice, Tuta, Signal, VLC, Nextcloud, Localsend, Rustdesk.

I’ve moved away from Fedora because: Fedora = Red Hat = IBM = US Big Tech = US MAGA fascists.

I’m also saying goodbye to Proton and will only use Tuta and Posteo from now on.

All my new smartphones like the S25 Ultra, Pixel 10 Pro XL, etc., are gone; I’ve kept the cute Pixel 8a in beautiful blue, very compact, running GrapheneOS. That’s more than enough—it lasts almost 3 days, and here too, I’ve installed only the absolute essentials.

#linux #unix #opensource #freesoftware #debian #bigtech #surveillance #grapheneos #minimalism #digitaldetox #digitalminimalism #usa #trump #fedora #redhat #tuta #proton

Unfortunately, my experiment with CachyOS is over, even though I gave the system a fair chance this time. First of all, I really liked CachyOS. The speed is phenomenal, and everything would have been perfect except for one tiny detail that is essential for me: Localsend didn't work. And I couldn't figure out why. I was able to install the program easily, and my computer recognized all the devices around it. Except for the devices around my computer with CachyOS on it... and it was also not possible to send files from the computer to the recognized devices or mark them as favorites. Not even a firewall was activated or anything else in the network settings as usual. With all the other distributions I usually use—Fedora, Debian, OpenSUSE, Zorin OS, FreeBSD, even a “real” Arch—there are no problems at all. And since I'm constantly sending files and photos back and forth between my smartphone and computers and don't want to be constantly plugging and unplugging cables, CachyOS is not for my everyday use. I find that very unfortunate. But it's usually little things like this that make you less happy with a distribution or Linux in general than others might be. 😧 #linux #unix #opensource #freesoftware #cachyos #fedora #debian #zorinos #arch #archlinux #freebsd #localsend

For the past few weeks, I've been prowling around CachyOS like a hungry lion around a grazing herd of antelope. I even installed it once, only to return to my usual distribution a few hours later.

But it gnawed at me deep down—also because, after many years of abstinence, I wanted to install my old Steam library again and play a game or two. And according to all the enthusiastic reports, CachyOS is the perfect Linux for gaming. That's why I did it again yesterday and gave CachyOS a new – and this time fair – chance. It's really great and incredibly fast when you seriously get to grips with it!

#linux #unix #opensource #freesoftware #cachyos #steam

@stefan@social.anoxinon.de @dino@fosstodon.org Stell ich mir zwar ein bissl umständlich vor, den Lappi in die Hosentasche einzustecken 😎 aber das nenn ich mal eine coole und spannende Alternative! 👍

@justincrozer@fosstodon.org I read this on a fairly influential German tech website. Here is the source. It says at the very bottom of the last paragraph that Samsung would meet all the necessary requirements, which is why it is assumed that it could be Samsung with a phone produced specifically for GrapheneOS.

https://www.galaxus.at/de/page/grapheneos-verschiebt-pixel-alternative-auf-2027-41106

@justincrozer@fosstodon.org Rumor has it that GrapheneOS's secret OEM partner is Samsung. This phone was supposed to be released this year, but has now been postponed until 2027 due to the chip crisis and other factors. In any case, it should work out. Then we would finally have a hardware alternative.

Postscript: What I and most Europeans don't understand: don't Americans understand what is happening to their country? That democracy and freedom are being destroyed and a terrorist state is emerging? The whole world hates the US now! Why are there still no mass protests, no coup by the army? Trump is a corrupt, criminal, mentally ill, fascist criminal, murderer, and narcissist who openly enriches himself and ruins the country! Everything, absolutely everything he accuses his opponents of, he himself is guilty of!

#linux #opensource #freesoftware #trump #usa #ice #fascism #eu #democracy #minnesota