• ~/Prototypes for … my prototypes, typically either starting from an empty directory or cloning a repository and adapting it for my needs. I have this directory on nearly all my devices, desktop of course but also NAS, server, phone, standalone XR headset, etc.
• ~/Apps in addition to ~/bin, typically binaries but all AppImages

FWIW I’m not recommending or not this service but they are :

• based in the US, yet
• provide international roaming
• e-SIMs (so nothing to send)

so it might be interesting in some cases for people not living in the US.

Can’t talk about AMD but I’m on NVIDIA and I always followed https://wiki.debian.org/NvidiaGraphicsDrivers and never had issues others seem to be having. I typically hear good things about AMD GPU support, on Debian and elsewhere so I’m surprised.

Now in practice IMHO GPU support doesn’t matter much for NAS, as you’re probably going headless (no monitor, mouse or keyboard). You probably though do want GPU instruction set support for transcoding but here again can’t advise for this brand of GPU. It should just be relying on e.g. https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/Hardware/AMF

Finally I’m a Debian user and I’m quite familiar with setting it up, locally on remotely. I also made ISOs for RPi based on Raspbian so this post made me realize I never (at least I don’t remember) installed Debian headlessly, by that I mean booting on a computer with no OS all the way to getting a working ssh connection established on LAN or WiFi. I relied on Imager for RPi configuration or making my own ISO via a microSD card (using dd) but it made me curious about preseeding wiki.debian.org/DebianInstaller/Preseed so I might tinker with it via QEMU. Advices welcomed.

PS: based on few other comments, consider minidlna over more complex setups. Consider Wireguard over tailscale (or at least headscale for a version relying solely on your infrastructure) with e.g. wg-easy if you want to manage everything without 3rd parties.

That’s a strange argument, why do you and lots of people replying here believe they are NOT tracked over WiFi which are themselves relying on ISPs?

If you don’t trust your ISP why would you trust random ISPs more?

Pay for stuff if you want something reliable and supporting your privacy. Sure test the free tier to make sure it fits your requirements but please do consider not sticking to it.

Might be Filen (don’t know of it) or Hetzner Storage Box (~10e/month for 5TB iirc) or Proton Drive (Visionary customers have a large quantity, e.g. >6TB) or whatever else you prefer but if you do not actually help people providing services by funding their work they you are supporting BigTech and their “free plans” that comes precisely at the cost of our collective privacy.

IMHO fix whatever you can, donate it all locally (HackerSpace, RepairCafe, Linux non-profit, etc) as there are quite a few people dedicated to refurbishing computers for schools, people who need a computer to find work, etc.

Then for the tinkering aspect, keep one, that’s enough.

Honestly even 1 isn’t really required. Pretty much everything listed here can be done more efficiently without an actual physical computer :

• your current computer can be a server, just turn off the screen or even accept (which I’d argue is a fair assumption) that at night it will be off. If you want external access put WireGuard or another VPN on it.
• Want to test distributions or anything else? QEMU or containers, no need for actual hardware

Nitpicking but a line is missing IMHO namely The code of the program: should also suggest which file to edit, e.g potato.go. It might be obviously to anybody working with Go but for others it’s not.

So infuriating.

Technology is, rightfully, seen as a tool of control.

It should be a tool for emancipation, gaining and increasing agency. It’s been “sold” as such only to then gradually yet inexorably do the exact opposite.

This is deeply dangerous because it erodes trust in both governments and technology.

That being said, it’s not new. It’s been done before, it will be done again.

Consequently what could be done is to refuse any technology without safeguards, including the potential dismantle of the entire ecosystem in place the second it’s being abuse. It should be impossible to have mandatory usage without matching “canary in the coal mine” that force the system to stop AND the person responsible for it to also be removed from their function.

FWIW makes me wonder how much work would be required to have this as a Web container, e.g. Dockerfile with

FROM debian:13
RUN apt update && apt install -y qemu-system-x86 qemu-utils
WORKDIR /linux-inside-out

then https://github.com/container2wasm/container2wasm#container-on-browser

Edit: FWIW the image of Debian 13 with QEMU and its utils is ~1.1Gb

Very cool, reminds me of https://jsandler18.github.io/tutorial/boot.html

Half a dozen people said so already but I’ll repeat :

backup your stuff.

You are like a tightrope walker on a high line without security. Sure the view is amazing, yes you feel free… but a misstep and that’s it.

How? Well depends what your data is but start simple, copy your most important files, e.g. family photos, personal notes, etc (NOT HD movies from the Internet… not anything you can get elsewhere) on a USB stick you go stuffed in a drawer.

Once you DO have your stuff saved though, please, pretty please DO go crazy! Have fun, try weird stuff, bork your installation… and restart from a neat safe place. It’s honestly amazing to learn, so deeply empowering for yourself and those around you. Just make sure your data don’t suffer from it.

reMarkable isn’t about replacing books. You can have a PocketBook with KOReader for 120EUR. It’s not a price per book comparison, IMHO it’s a price per sketch and thus ideas, work, presentations, etc because that’s where reMarkable is unique, low latency e-ink writing.

For “just” reading there are plenty of alternatives, including cheaper alternatives.

Had one from the start and also had a reMarkable 1, 2, Pro and e-readers with e-ink. I did discuss all that before so feel free to check my comment history. You can also check related prorotypes at https://fabien.benetou.fr/Tools/Eink including for the PineNote.

Now on your questions :

how usable is the pinenote with Linux?

Last time I check it didn’t run well enough (basically CLI only) so I’m still on their stock Android OS. Worked great. According to other comments it seems fine now and I’m familiar with KOReader and a bit Xournal++ so I’ll try again.

How hard is the install process?

Easy, I didn’t do anything ;)

Can an average Linux user/self hoster use it daily?

Well in my case yes but again Android, so if you are familiar with it, e.g. adb then it’s easy.

How’s battery?

Fine but power management kind of sucks so it will not go to sleep properly and thus waste battery. It’s also heavy so honestly I wouldn’t travel with it.

Couldn’t find many reviews online…

Again, I did share on Lemmy quite a bit. I do warmly recommend it if you are a tinkerer who doesn’t travel too often. If you are a minimalist who wants to get things done then IMHO reMarkable is better.

The version of Debian it shipped with had a bug where I couldn’t install any software updates without deleting some random lib64 directory. Once I did that, everything was fine.

Neat, I’m still running the stock Android but I’ll try. How long ago did you do that? Is your fix documented somewhere?

I don’t see ads but if I were to, and despite all my precautions some would be on topic based on my past behavior I would methodically dissect to find out the leak. Namely I would try to automate the process :

• identify a place showing ads
• take an action, e.g. search or browser, on a verifiable unique topic (in order to prevent from generic suggestions, e.g medication during flu season)
• verify if the ads become relevant
• enable/disable any of the tools used, repeat

FWIW before whine about the lack of editing or digitization : take of photo of the result on your phone, auto-upload to your desktop or even server and voila, a proper process to have your cake and eat it too.

I very often take a basic A4 piece of paper, or even a napkin, whatever is around really, then sketch to summarize a complex situation, snap a pic and send it to myself. Amazing way to think, very flexible and intuitive, at basically no cost and entirely private. Sure you still have to re-draw it after, IF you want to, but typically the idea itself is already on a substrate, maybe that’s enough. If you want to edit it… guess what, you can edit the photo itself, no need to vectorize it first. Paper is great.

Pretty much all open hardware devices should be on such a list, e.g.

• NitroKey for both authentication tokens and storage (of e.g ssh keys)
• PGB-1 (based on RP2040) or Haxophone (based on RPi Zero) for music
• Precursor for token and dev (via its own FPGA)

so check CrowdSupply for more of such things.

I’d also add reMarkable. Sure you can use their cloud but you do NOT have to. It means you have your own Linux e-reader but also sketchpad entirely offline. You can work and sync with ssh or rsync and even setup your own cloud, cf https://github.com/ddvk/rmfakecloud . If you want something more open from the start check the PineNote but it’s harder to get and you have to tinker a bit more.

No doubt NVIDIA is peddling AI as they are financially depending on it now.

Now from claiming something is powerful and even used to actually shipping code on something low level and benchmarkable like (GPU) drivers I have doubt. I imagine they can say they use AI there to rephrase comment and it would “technically correct” but beyond that I’m still skeptical.

Regarding chip design, AI has been used for decades … if you consider routing to be AI. It’s not generative in the modern sense, it’s not using LLM, but it’s automated a process.

To me it’s the typical Harvard Business School playbook. C-suite repeat keywords they read in their peer most popular magazine, they aggregate in a document they call “strategy” they lower down the chain of commands people “execute” that because they must, thanks to KPIs.

I’d love to hear it from an actual engineer working on drivers but I imagine it’d be hard to get a honest opinion with NDAs and all.

Thanks for providing all the sources!

Source please

Sure, but FWIW I play from AAA to indies and it “works” as in no bug, no noticeable visual glitch.

I don’t benchmark from my driver version to the previous one on Windows or Linux or a price point equivalent with AMD hardware, I just play. I don’t think anybody gain much from checking performance benchmarks before playing a game, at least I can say for sure to me that’s not part of the fun.

I would notice if something was blatantly wrong e.g 50% performance hit, but I wouldn’t if it’s 5% hit. I don’t really care for it as it doesn’t affect my gameplay. Like I said, it’s from a casual player, not a pro player nor a game tinkerer.

Working “better” on Windows means nothing to me. Either I can play and I’m happy or I can’t (which never happened) then I’d be disappointed and potentially check why.

PS: I’m also a developer of XR content so I’m relatively confident I’d spot any significant problem.