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Joined 3 years ago
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Cake day: January 17th, 2022

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  • FWIW I do use a PineTab2 on a daily basis and… it works. I can warmly recommend it but some caveats :

    • WiFi didn’t work for a while, it’s good now though (mostly stable, AFAICT no instability for me)
    • BT still does not work (not ideal if you need a mouse)
    • USB-C is a single port for charging, single port for devices, iirc usb-C hubs don’t work, only usb-C to A single converters
    • it’s… not fast, so if your workflow is a bit of Web browser or a text editor great, if it’s Blender or Gimp or anything that can be a bit demanding, it might test your patience
    • WebCam does not work, problematic if you have to do video calls

    Overall while keeping such limitations in mind, still recommended! (if you can get it shipped somehow)




  • upgrade the UEFI or other hardware-level firmware you need a way to upgrade

    Indeed but unless the unit received is seriously flawed (to the point of possibly being exchanged by the manufacturer), no upgrade to UEFI or hardware-level firmware is actually required. Most people who received a computer never even upgrade the firmware. I’m not saying it’s not “nice” to upgrade it but the typical scenario for most common laptop or desktop is that such upgrades are optional.


  • I have a Razer Blade Stealth 13 QHD+ touchscreen (RZ09-02393E32) since 2017. Until recently it was mostly Windows and Ubuntu side by side. I realized few months ago I never ever boot on Windows so I removed it. I also got tired on Ubuntu pushing for its own package management system which I don’t find useful. Consequently back to “just” Debian stable and works great for me. Didn’t have to tinker with anything, just works.





  • I used Kodi with LibreElec for years in a similar setup. It was nice… but in practice I didn’t really use the “cool” functionalities (like indexing, image preview, Web remote control, etc) so instead I checked how Kodi works and noticed DLNA. I saw that my favorite video player, namely VLC, supports DLNA. I then looking for DLNA server on Linux, found few and stuck to the simplest I found, namely minidlna. It’s quite basic, at the least the way I use it, but for my usage it’s enough :

    • install VLC on clients, including Android video projector, phones, XR HMDs, etc
    • install minidlna on server (RPi5)
    • configure minidlna to serve the right directory with subdirectories ( /var/lib/minidlna by default )
    • configure few extra software that get videos to push them (via scp script and ssh-key) to rpi5:/var/lib/minidlna/

    voila… very reliable setup (been using for more than a year on a daily basis.



  • Just yesterday I pinned VLC on my KDE Plasma Task Manager. Why? Because this way I can directly open “Recent Files” from it. I discovered about this functionality just last week with Libre Office Draw. It’s so efficient, it absolutely changed how I use my computer daily!

    but… why do I bother with this long example? Because IMHO that’s from KDE, not Debian. When a distro improve the UX, as I also wish, it can be mostly by selecting the best software in its packages to maintain (e.g. here KDE but yes could indeed be their own custom made package, even though it requires a lot more resource AND other distro could also use them back assuming it’s FLOSS) but arguably the UX is mostly of the distribution itself is limited to the installation process.


  • more cutting edge than Debian

    In what aspect? How about Debian Unstable?

    I’m personally on Stable but I do also have some AppImages (and recently discovered AM https://github.com/ivan-hc/AM thanks to someone here), my own ~/bin directory and quite a few tools. I feel that there are very few things from an end-user standpoint that needs to done only through the distribution package manager. I believe having a stable OS but “cutting edge” specific apps (say Cura, Blender, etc) is a good compromise. As you mention Firefox over a PPA (which is also have I have) is such a good compromise. So I’m curious (genuinely, not trying to “convert” you to Debian on desktop) what is better on that front on Ubuntu rather than Debian.

    Edit: to clarify I both pay my bills (literally, and work too) and play (including recent VR Windows only games) on my Debian stable on desktop.


  • a shortage of meaningful innovation

    Well… a distribution IS a selection of packages and a way to keep them working together. Arguably the “only” innovation in that context is HOW to do that and WHICH packages to rely on. For the first, the “latest” real change could be considered immutable distributions, as on the SteamDeck, and declarative setup, e.g. NixOS. For the second… well I don’t actually know if anybody is doing that, maybe things like PrimTux for kids at schools in France?

    Anyway, I agree but I think it’s tricky to be innovative there so let me flip the question, what would YOU expect from an innovative distribution?