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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 16th, 2023

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  • file.pizza if this is a one off or rare occurrence. If you’re doing this regularly, there are better options, provided the person at the “source” computer is competent. A significant question is whether or not these computers are on the same network. I would recommend running a HTTP server if you don’t care about privacy, HTTPS if you do. There’s no need to buy an SSL certificate, self-signed is more than adequate for this purpose.

    It’s more complicated to set up, but the advantage is that when you’re done you can send the receiving party a link they can open in any web browser, no hassle.



  • I’ll go against the grain a little bit and say it’s a little weird. There’s nothing wrong with liking multiple distros, but a lot of people either stick with RPM-based (Red Hat, Fedora, CentOS, Rocky, OpenSUSE, Mageia) or Debian-based (Debian, Ubuntu, Mint, Pop!, Elementary). Then you have weirdos that like Gentoo, where nearly every package you install has to be compiled on the system. Or Arch, where the “installer” throws you in a terminal, and damn near everything has to be done manually to get your system up and running. And updates are “rolling release”, and if you try to update just one package without updating the rest of your system things can easily break.

    I am mostly a fan of Debian-based distros myself. But I’ll use CentOS on a VM if I’m trying to self-host anything that recommends it.


  • My personal favorite is Debian. I’m the IT director at my job, and 90% of our machines, including end user workstations, are running some form of Linux.

    One really nice thing is that most stuff is saved somewhere in your home directory. You can switch between all sorts of distros, and if you install the same software, browser, email client, etc. most of your stuff will automatically be there and work out of the box.


    1. Based on opinion, but okay, I’ll give you that one.
    2. Ubuntu has terminal built-in, it’s far from hidden. Most Android installs (average smart phone) don’t include a terminal, you have to either use adb from a computer, or download a terminal from an app store.
    3. Ubuntu’s root user is not locked down. By default the user can run any command they want using sudo, and a basic google search will tell them how to enable root login fairly quickly. By comparison, just about any android smartphone has to be “jailbroken” using an exploit in order to access root. Some phones, especially in the USA, can’t be jailbroken at all.

    Ubuntu is pretty upfront about any telemetry and allows you to disable it easily. A lot of Android’s telemetry can’t be opted out of, unless you happen to have an unlocked bootloader and can install a privacy-focused custom ROM.

    These are not the same, although I get the point you’re trying to make. Ubuntu has a user-friendly interface, with a goal of making Linux accessible to all. But for anybody who wants to, it’s fairly easy to dig into the internals and become a “power user.” It certainly makes no attempt to stop you from doing so. Android, on the other hand, on MOST instances, locks down everything, with little to no overrides, even from the user, many times “in the name of security.”



  • It should also respect your PRIVACY! There are numerous articles about CPAP machines transmitting your data to not only your doctor but also your insurance company, WITHOUT your consent. Possibly your employer as well. If your insurance company decides you’re “not complying” and using your CPAP machine enough, they’ll take it away from you. Your employer could fire you.

    Having a sleep apnea diagnosis can also limit you from certain jobs, and can make it harder to get life insurance. In some ways it feels like you’re not a free man anymore.


  • I bought my son a used Surface Pro 4 for schoolwork. Luckily we haven’t run into many problems, but there is a known problem where the processor still runs the battery dead when it’s shut off. You’re actually better off using standby.

    If he runs the battery dead, we can plug it in and it will boot, but shortly die afterwards. But if we wait ~15 minutes to charge it a little, it stays on as long as we want it to.



  • We’re running Linux on the vast majority of PCs at my job. We used to run Lubuntu, but switched to Debian. You can use pam_mount so user folders are mounted from a server at login, to create a “roaming profiles” environment. But there really isn’t a great solution for laptop users that might be away from the office.

    If you do use pam_mount, don’t mount their entire home folder. That will end up throwing a bunch of stuff on the server, like chrome temporary internet files, and their .config folder, that just aren’t needed on the server and will slow everything down. Just mount their individual Documents, Downloads, Pictures, Videos, Desktop, etc. folders.

    We’re a small business, we don’t have any Enterprise Support or anything like that.