For example, how do I know that the Samsung calendar app is any better than the g calendar app? Is the only way to go full open source (I'd prefer this, yes).

Also, should we stop using things like the default photo gallery? I have a feeling they steal data from that as well.

I know this is more phone related but I don't have this issue on my pc since I mostly use linux and open source software.

I had backblaze, and it's really a bummer they don't support linux. The closest one I've found is Icedrive, but it costs a bit more. I don't mind paying a bit more though for a FOSS solution (technially not free but yeah). I probably only have 2 TB of actual important stuff but it would be nice to have more for future.

I realized I was at risk by having smart devices on my normal network, so decided to move them to my guest network.

I don't like my smart tv, but it's all I have to work with for now. I want to keep it on my guest network, but still stream using jellyfin. I see on my netgear router there is an option to "let devices on guest network see other devices and access local network" which would probably allow it to see my jellyfin server, but then doesn't that defeat the point of a guest network? Maybe I need to learn what a reverse proxy is...jellyfin server is currently on windows (not my pc) but could move it to my linux pc if needed.

And yes, I plan to get a media center linux box in the future so I don't have to deal with the garbage smart tv os!

So im a very typical American. Cars, big lawn, etc. I do the best I can with a garden, fixing my own cars instead of buying new, and trying not to buy things packaged in plastic. I also want to make most of my lawn clovers and wildflowers etc because I hate the boringness of grass and want biodiversity.

Now I think the solarpunk movement is awesome, but I feel like im just a poser. Obviously I can't leave my house and go live in a grass hut. Im also one of those people with a million hobbies, so im always doing things (and by extension, purchasing things, though usually used). I've also always been a car guy, which kind of goes against the whole eco thing. Though I do pretty much only drive smaller cars. I wont buy electric until they are analog and disconnected from any sort of internet.

I feel like there's many out there like me who just feel they wont make any difference anyways so they don't get as involved. But what other things can someone like me do? I've thought about some panels on the house to potentially run small servers off of, but that's pretty much it

Maybe it's because I was last into linux more heavily 10+ years ago. But I am amazed at how distros work now. 15 year old wifi adapter that originally came with cd based drivers? Works perfectly without anything extra. Racing wheel i got on ebay? Works perfectly. Mouse, keyboard, tartarus, no issue. I am just very happy with how well linux has been working, and hopefully this will bring more people to make the switch. However, I have not had luck with vr (oculus. I hear index does better). Thats the one thing I do hope for more progress on.

In this wonderful world of corpo late stage capitalism, guessing the answer is not a chance. But I was wondering if anyone has ever been successful in stopping development of farm/forest land. The town im in keeps developing like crazy (for who im not sure, as there's still a decent homeless population and empty housing but anyway). My place is in an unincorporated area, with a couple neighbors and a beautiful field/trees across the road. I worry more every year they are going to concrete wasteland it and put a fricken 10th McDonald's right near me. Yes, im spoiled. But im guessing the only possible way to stop it would be to buy the land, or maybe get all the neighbors together to buy it? It's probably about 20 ish acres. Like i said, im pretty sure the easier option is to move away, unfortunately.

Im wondering if this is a common adhd thing.

For example, I have always wanted to program, but I can't let myself start with some easy gui building block code. I need to understand how the code is interacting with the computer itself and know how they did it in the 80s. Then of course it's too hard for me and I give up.

Or if im making music, I need to do everything from scratch the hard way, making it as hard as possible (and killing any creative effort i had in the beginning).

It's the same with anything. I can't progress if I dont know the absolute reason why something is being done. And if I do it the easy way, I didn't do it right and took shortcuts so it was worthless.

I've always wanted to understand what is actually meant by this. I have wanted to get into programming for years, did some basic python and c, but could never really progress. Not necessarily a linux question but I know since most distros come with libraries already, it's popular to use for programming.

I have trouble understanding what people are actually programming if it isn't their job. Like, you go to your computer and start working on...what? I don't know enough to make an entire program or debug a game, so im just unsure what people do especially when starting out.

Also I don't really want to learn it for a job. I just want to learn it to know it. But im not sure how to apply it to anything realistic.

Maybe a dumb question. But is this just a matter of copying over? I have 6 hdds I've accumulated and want all the data from them on one big drive now. They are all ntfs as they are from windows, but I am going to boot from my mint drive to move the files, just so windows isnt running or accessing anything on the drives while I move the data. I'm transitioning to full linux, but I want to consolidate these drives first. I dont want to clone drives, so no dd here, just copying files from 6 different drives onto 1.

Just a useless post but... I wanted to state, how much more fun and involved it is computing with Linux. I'm a very basic user - but still, learning more and more about this OS and how it operates, and most importantly, how awesome FOSS is, is very enjoyable. I feel like I can do anything, if I have the initiative to learn it. My dream is to be able to program something useful, and contribute to the FOSS community someday.

I hope more people can feel this same feeling, that using this OS is much more the feel of computing as it's supposed to be, at least to me!

Just wondering the best method here. Searching doesn't always get me the answer for every game, and I keep having this issue where I launch a game and it will load then stop without ever displaying anything (liminal core and assetto corsa are 2 examples). Running mint, all AMD. protonge, wine tricks, all of that needed stuff is installed. I run steam from terminal to try and see if I can figure out where it's crashing, but I'm not totally sure. Is there a better error dump I can access ? I've tried multiple proton versions, do I need to launch it with all 50 versions to find a working one?