I think the defaults are extreme and also use LW as a no telemetry/ads FF replacement, but I understand the vision. I’m fine with LW having the defaults it has, they can be easily turned off and I’d rather start with extreme privacy and just change what I need than the other way around where I could be leaving privacy options on the table.

APIs can be complex too. Look at how much stuff the Win32 API provides from all the kernel calls, defined data structures/types, libraries, etc. I would venture a guess that if you documented the Win32 API including all the needed system libraries to make something like Wine, it would also be 850 pages long. The fact remains that a documented prototype for a software implementation is free to reimplement but a documented prototype for a hardware implementation requires a license. This makes no sense from a fairness perspective. I’m fine with ARM not giving away their fully developed IP cores which are actual implementations of the ARM instruction set, but locking third parties from making their own compatible designs without a license is horribly anticompetitive. I wish standards organizations still had power. Letting corporations own de-facto “standards” is awful for everyone.

In the mobile Linux scene, Qualcomm chips are some of the best supported ones. I don’t love everything Qualcomm does, but the Snapdragon 845 makes for a great Linux phone and has open source drivers for most of the stack (little thanks to Qualcomm themselves).

RISC V is just an open standard set of instructions and their encodings. It is not expected nor required for implementations of RISC V to be open sourced, but if they do make a RISC V chip they don’t have to pay anyone to have that privilege and the chip will be compatible with other RISC V chips because it is an open and standardized instruction set. That’s the point. Qualcomm pays ARM to make their own chip designs that implement the ARM instruction set, they aren’t paying for off the shelf ARM designs like most ARM chip companies do.

Hopefully Qualcomm takes the hint and takes this opportunity to develop a high performance RISC V core. Don’t just give the extortionists more money, break free and use an open standard. Instruction sets shouldn’t even require licensing to begin with if APIs aren’t copyrightable. Why is it OK to make your own implentation of any software API (see Oracle vs. Google on the Java API, Wine implementing the Windows API, etc) but not OK to do the same thing with an instruction set (which is just a hardware API). Why is writing an ARM or x86 emulator fine but not making your own chip? Why are FPGA emulator systems legal if instruction sets are protected? It makes no sense.

The other acceptable outcome here is a Qualcomm vs. ARM lawsuit that sets a precedence that instruction sets are not protected. If they want to copyright their own cores and sell the core design fine, but Qualcomm is making their own in house designs here.

The name Unity just needs to be avoided. I get the well intentioned meaning behind the word, but it has been the name of three major controversial/disastrous products in semi-recent history - Ubuntu Unity Desktop, Assassin’s Creed: Unity, and the Unity Engine.

Leave it on, but turn off the monitor. I have it set up as a GitLab runner for some projects and also want to be able to SSH/SFTP in to access files, run updates, etc.

If you read the article, it is indeed full Linux because the 4004 is running a MIPS emulator that provides the necessary memory management features. Pretty much all of the “run Linux on some old chip incapable of running Linux” projects achieve it via emulating a more featured architecture that Linux supports, not by somehow compiling Linux to natively run on a 4 bit, MMU-less architecture.

Change for the sake of change is so dumb. I’m tired of pointless UI changes every so many years because some middle manager and their designers need to wow some dumb exec to get a promotion and they do so just by rearranging all the existing functionality because the product itself is already a complete solution that doesn’t actually need a new version. Sadly, this mentality even creeps into FOSS spaces. Canonical and Ubuntu wanting to reinvent the wheel with Unity, Mir, Snap, etc. GNOME radically changing their UI all the time.

Concord

I just got my passport photo taken on Monday at Walgreen’s and uploaded the emailed copy to the online renewal form. It was denied for being too zoomed in. Ugh! Why do they change the photo requirements for the online form?

I got a NexiGo portable gaming monitor that I’m pretty happy with. It is a 16 inch 2560x1600 display, 144Hz, and supports FreeSync. I got a bidirectional DisplayPort to USB C cable so that I could use it with my desktop for LAN parties and it’s great. It has a built in flip-out kickstand, a folding magnetic cover, OK built in speakers (good enough to game with anyways), and can be powered via a second USB C port with an A to C cable. On a device that supports USB C video output like a laptop or Steam Deck it can run off a single cable but I mostly wanted it for my desktop.

When it first came out it had double steak, when it became a permanent item it was made smaller.

You can view WiFi passwords for saved networks on pretty much every OS. There’s no reason to be secretive about entering WiFi passwords, at least to the people whose devices you’re entering the password on.

LibreWolf on everything that supports it (Windows/Mac/Linux) and Fennec F Droid on Android.

Some of my favorites:

• Chicken flatbread melt (like a taco but with a fluffy flatbread instead of a tortilla)
• Beefy 5 layer burrito
• Cantina Chicken Quesadilla
• Breakfast Crunchwrap (preferably steak)

The Cantina Chicken Quesadilla is one of my favorite items lately. The new green sauce is pretty good too.

I’ve tried most of the common options (with the notable exception being the vastly overpriced Librem 5). The best option IMO is the OnePlus 6 or 6T (they’re almost identical) running postmarketOS. It is much faster than the PinePhone Pro with way better battery life and has proper modern GPU support (OpenGL up to 4.x, Vulkan). The main thing preventing daily driving the OnePlus 6/6T is that the earpiece audio doesn’t always work for calls and that it won’t wake from sleep when an incoming call comes in. The PinePhones are better to use for voice calling, but slower, lacking many graphics APIs (no Vulkan, limited OpenGL), and have much worse battery life. The camera doesn’t work at all on the OnePlus phones yet, it is starting to work on the PinePhones but the picture quality isn’t all there.

At the moment I have both a OnePlus 6 and 6T, but I have stock Android on the OnePlus 6 and postmarketOS on the 6T. I use the Android one as my daily driver with my primary number SIM but got a second cheap Mint Mobile SIM for the postmarketOS one for experiments and mobile data. I prefer browsing on the postmarketOS phone, and I use it for VPN, SSH access, file management, and some coding on the go which are things Linux phone excels at over Android. I mostly use the Android phone for calls, texts, camera, maps, email (GMail), Discord, and casual browsing. If they fix the earpiece audio issue I would probably be fine daily driving the

Open source NVIDIA drivers (NVK, nouveau, nova) finally being usable for gaming.

Linux phones, postmarketOS

RISC-V CPUs becoming more and more viable

Linux on phones and tablets is a thing. Typing from my Xiaomi Pad 5 Pro running postmarketOS and LibreWolf.