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I watched a video where a guy went on a massive rant about how everyone should use Linux and he doesn't understand why more people don't.

At some point he repeated the joke, "Linux is free as long as you don't value your time."

I laugh about this at least once a week while troubleshooting something I never had to deal with before. Totally worth it in the end.

Pablo Xannybar 2y ago

Funnily enough I spend more time troubleshooting Windows.

I think it honestly comes down to what you're used to. I grew up on Unix and only ever used Windows at school then the office. All my personal machines were either Macs or PCs running Linux so I just know where I am on a Unix system.

The frustration of how locked down Windows 10 is and how you gotta open PowerShell just to remove Candy Crush and even if you do it'll come back during the next random unstoppable update unless you literally make a custom ISO to remove it from the system to start with is way more stress than anything I had to put up with from Linux even when I was running Arch.

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Discussion

Sourcenode 2y ago

I wish I was Unix native. My kids will be

Pablo Xannybar 2y ago

That's doing it right! Raspberry Pi's are a perfect gateway into Unix land from day one as well with how cheap they are, yet always getting more powerful.

Sourcenode 2y ago

That's awesome. This is how we win 👍

Pollomoolokki 2y ago

Switching to Linux was the best thing I ever did to my PC. Wish I had done it sooner, Linux has given me problems yes but they are problems one can solve. Not like Windows where you are shoehorned into a choice Microsoft in their great wisdom has made. (ads in my operating system? omegalul)

What I'm trying to say: I hope open-source & Linux grows (seems like a fat chance tho, it feels like phones&tablets are taking over PC's & the role of PC's somewhat) the world would benefit from it. Greatly I might add.

Pablo Xannybar 2y ago

Thankfully, as a direct result of smartphones overtaking laptops, Linux (Android) has overtaken Windows, since Microsoft failed to get into the smartphone market.

And most Android phones can still be flashed with custom ROMs. I'm using a Pixel 6 Pro with Graphene OS right now. No regrets at all.

Most people won't go out of their way to do that of course, but as long as the options exist, which they do thanks to Android, it's all good with me.

MetropleX [GrapheneOS] ⚡🟣 2y ago

Fantastic to hear you have no regrets at all moving to GrapheneOS. 🫶

Pablo Xannybar 2y ago

Not only that but I even set it up on my girlfriend's phone and she isn't a techie at all. She doesn't find it any more difficult to use than normal Android.

That's the real magic to me. All the security and privacy enhancements are invisible to the end user to the point where a normie can't even tell the difference from stock.

Graphene OS is amazing.

Sourcenode 2y ago

The main thing I miss is g-board and google maps.

I'm staying pure, which is a choice of course.

Pablo Xannybar 2y ago

Yeah I have GBoard (with network permission disabled) and Maps but obviously sandboxed.

Personally it's a compromise I'm willing to make, yeah Google will snag data but only when I choose to open the app and allow it. Then when I don't need it I close it and disable location services.

(Vs stock Google Android which pings your location to Google whenever location services is on even if you use a third party app or it's just on in the background.)

I have been meaning to give OSM+ another try. But I'm about to move out of the capital city and into a small town so I don't expect it to be super great there in all honesty.

Sourcenode 2y ago

I'm on graphine too. It's not as user friendly, but worth the trade of for getting my privacy back.

As you mentioned #[6]. Not easy for the average person, but much easier than it used to be and continuously improving!

Bounty coding will fix most of our open source requests eventually.

Pablo Xannybar 2y ago

I set up the sandboxed Google Play Services for my gf before I gave her the phone and she's never even so much as had to ask me for help with it once, I asked her directly and she said the only issue she has is she sometimes forgets she has to confirm installing apps in the Play Store (tbf even I do that) so actually I'm saying the opposite, it's very easy to use for average users once it's installed and setup - it's the initial setup that most people won't bother with.

I've actually used Graphene OS ever since it was Copperhead and the whole time it was never more complex than normal Android, but once the sandboxed Google Play Services were announced, that's the moment I knew I could set it up, give it to any normie, and they'd have a hard time telling it apart from a stock Android phone.

The only real sacrifice is no Google Pay but luckily my gf doesn't use it and her banking app still works fine (even though it refuses to load on any other third party ROM so I'm impressed!)

Sourcenode 2y ago

Interesting. I was mainly referring to the complexity of setup, but nice to know about those options.

Know of a blog or youtube describing how to create/setup that sandbox?

Pablo Xannybar 2y ago

Yeah even the setup is as easy as plugging it into a browser and pressing some buttons but booting the phone into recovery and wiping it to install a custom OS is always gonna be daunting to most people even if it's automated tbh.

For the sandboxed Google Play Services just open "Apps" (the Graphene one with the white logo) and you can install the Play Store from there. It'll install all the rest of the dependencies at the same time. Once it's done, open the Play Store even if you don't wanna login just yet just so it's been opened at least once. After that you got the barebones Google Play Services sandboxed like regular third party Android apps.

You can install more Google and third party apps either from the Play Store or the Aurora Store.

MetropleX [GrapheneOS] ⚡🟣 2y ago

Don't need to open it once anymore. 😉