I find dockerization tends to make things waaaay easier to bring up/take down with simple yet consistent configuration schemes. I distribute all my self hosted stuff across a small cluster of machines- if I want to move a service from one to another it’s as easy as moving the config folder and the docker-compose. Don’t need to have startup scripts, or remembering installation steps after a fresh install, or worry about python/package versions. Plus it helps keep track of what services are set up, soni don’t have to worry about leaving anything unused but still installed and running. And updating is as easy as pulling the images and recreating the containers.

And FOSS is just cool.

It’s such an underrated feature of desktop Linux. The fact that if I experience an issue with a piece of software, I could find the program’s source code and browse issues to see if anyone had a shared experience. And if not, I could publicly submit an issue which the developers and other users/contributors could help resolve. And if you’re brave/experienced enough, you can take a crack at fixing it yourself and potentially resolving the issue for other users!

On windows/macos which both fail to foster robust foss communities remotely comparable to Linux, the best option more often than not was sending an email to some support address that either never gets checked, or only replies with canned messages. After which you’ll never know whatnif anything happened to your report.

Lots of the most best tools for desktop Linux are free and open source, so you really don’t need to pirate desktop software. As far as multimedia goes, I generally find it much easier to sail the seas on Linux as opposed to Windows where everything felt hacky and difficult to isolate.

I mean compared to some elements of windows, yeah Linux is more similar to macos. But compared to other elements of macos, Linux is more similar to windows. But to say it’s super similar to either one in particular is kind of missing what makes each of them what they are.

Macos and Linux skills and fluency aren’t significantly more transferable than between Linux and Windows. They’re three pieces of software that ultimately try to do the same thing, but go about it in drastically different ways. There are only so many ways from your house to the grocery store, so some of them are bound to cross.

If Microsoft keeps fucking up at every turn, it seems like at some point the only thing that’ll keep them afloat is workplace/education investments in their environment. Seems like they’re even losing their grip on being the default OS preinstalled on non-apple PC hardware and the advantage that provided.

I mean, that’s kind of a whole separate thing. An account in a mobile food ordering app is significantly less invasive than an account on your whole entire operating system- like, laughably so.

Never mind that one is on your mobile device, which is an incredibly invasive surveillance device as-is for all except those with enough dedication and paranoia. Conversely, a desktop is at least conceptually much more practical to harden for privacy.

For what it’s worth I guess, I do not use mobile food ordering applications or accounts.

You don’t have to host a website. Just make software that works like the website and runs locally.

No offense, but you were told about handbrake, a tool that goes out of its way to offer a cross-platform GUI and complained about it not immediately working- with no elaboration.

We learn to write before we learn to navigate computer systems- the command line is only scary because digital illiteracy is taught to us the second we are presented with the windows/macos login screen. It truly does not get simpler than telling a computer convert image.pdf image.jpg.

These tools are daunting, yes, and it’s not your fault that everyone is taught that computers are magic boxes we have no real control over, but the hours you spend in a command line are just like the hours you spend learning to sew, or play an instrument. Nobody starts with every manpage seared into their brain, but if you’re able to look up a sketchy website that may well give you malware, you have the tools needed to learn this valuable skill.

Nobody ask this person their thoughts on federal marriage law conventions in the us in the year 2015

Last I used it, it didn’t have nearly the functionality that ubo does

I mean, the phrase ‘sane defaults’ comes to mind

I mean, yeah like another user said, ideally it would be in the interest of groups which allege to have am interest in some form of democracy. But additionally, the ability to set up browsable partial mirrors which could be hosted by miscellaneous nonprofits and individuals both within and outside of the US would be a massive first step to preserving the information that IA stores. The fact that attacks on their servers can eradicate all access to the information they store is troubling given how many enemies they’ve made simply through the work they do.

That’s cool but I’ll check back in to see which fascist technocrat is running bluesky in 8 years

I love the IA but they need to be infinitely more decentralized like yesterday

The number of times I’ve heard that by people expecting it to win them arguments is incredibly discouraging.

I had that problem when i first started using jellyfin- I would have to give my users some sort of default login which I couldn’t trust them to actually go and change within jellyfin. And then when someone forgot their password, they’d have to ask me to manually reset their password, and until then they couldn’t use their account.

My solution was to use the jellyfin LDAP auth plugin with an lldap docker container, so once I set up my users’ accounts, they have to do the password reset process themselves to initially set their password, and the only info I need from them is their preferred username and email address. Makes sure they’re familiar with the password reset process as well, and now if I get any questions/support requests related to passwords, I can simply direct them to the lldap password reset page.

It also makes it much easier to offer extra services such as mastodon and NextCloud which support LDAP, so users can manage their logins on all platforms from a central place.

Agreed. Started out in Plex when j knew nothing about self hosting, very quickly made the switch to Jellyfin and haven’t looked back. If I’m hosting my media, storing it locally, and running my own server, I’m much better off not integrating the software of some company that feels entitled to bleed some extra revenue from me.

Not to discredit your experiences with Linux but you just listed Ubuntu four times

I mean yeah, but for a lot of people if they ditch their phone they’ll also lose their job and possibly relationships they value.

Cell phones spying on people isn’t good, but most people are simply not informed about how invasive they are and couldn’t make an informed decision if they tried. Pair that with the fact that cell phones are essential for a lot of modern life, and it’s not difficult to see why the average person is generally more wary of smart speakers than cell phones.

I meant they’re easier to justify in the sense that I see why people don’t put much thought into putting a spying device in their pocket, not that I agree with the disregard. Most peoples’ friends, family, employers, etc. all expect them to have a cell phone and be available by it. Additionally, the way most people interact with their phones, the spying is much less obvious. They joke about them “always listening”, but a lot of people don’t understand the privacy concerns of pretty typical internet use, so the fact that the device has more than just a microphone, it appears to be worth it to a more typical consumer than us.

Contrast that with an Alexa, google home, or apple home thing, devices which nobody cares if someone else doesn’t own, which most people only see as a microphone and speaker, and whose primary functionality is to always be listening to you. The skepticism is much easier to arise.

I’m not saying the level at which cell phones spy on their users is acceptable or even worth it, just that I see why the average user who isn’t conscious of their privacy doesn’t regard them with the same concern they do smart speakers.

Phones are at least easier to justify since everyone kinda needs one now and there aren’t many great private options, especially for the lay person