I'm in a tailscale network with everyone I want to chat with if that changes anything.

Must be/have:

• Easy to roll out, not much harder/more involved than setting up something like discord ideally.
• Clients available on Windows and Android and Linux of course.
• Decentralized/Peer to Peer. I don't want to set up a server computer but I will if I absolutely must. All devices behave as if they're on the same LAN thanks to tailscale if that helps.

Would be nice to have:

• Groups and sub groups like discord.
• Stickers like telegram.
• Voice/Video chat. I would miss desktop streaming a bit but I could always fall back to Discord if I must.

Is there anything at all like that? There are so many options it's kind of overwhelming.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/27852459

It allows to launch exported activities from various apps and helps to create useful shortcuts

2 examples where I find it to be quite useful:
1. Quick Record shortcut for Audio Recorder

It currently does not have a quick recording shortcut.

Audio Recorder Gitlab issue where a user requests the feature. Maybe attention from someone here would be helpful?

You can directy search for the app in Activity manager, open it and create a a shortcut for the Recording activity.

2. Shortcut to open Android/data folder in the native Files app

Context for the folder location I use here

For Android 11 & onwards, you can't access the Android/data folder(without root) from regular file manager apps like Material files(awesome opensource file manager).
The Telegram X app stores it's downloaded files in a folder there.
Material files calls the native Android Files(not GFiles, documentsui.files) app to open the Android/data folder.
Activity manager can be used to create a shortcut for that

1. Search for and open the Files app in Activity Manager and choose the Launch with parameters option for the FilesActivity
2. Action, choose ACTION_VIEW
3. Data = content://com.android.externalstorage.documents/document/primary%3AAndroid%2Fdata%2Forg.thunderdog.challegram%2Ffiles%2Fdocuments or any other directory you like
4. Mime type, choose vnd.android.document/directory

You can then launch the activity with the parameter.
This will be recorded in History(the clock sign). You can long-press the entry and create a Shortcut.

---

Do you have any other cases or ideas where this would be usedul? Please do share them here.

---

On a tangent, Material files allows making shortcuts to files and folders. Markor, text editor app, allows the same too.

This post contains a canary message that's cryptographically signed by the official BusKill PGP release key

The BusKill project just published their Warrant Canary #009

For more information about BusKill canaries, see:

• https://buskill.in/canary

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA512

Status: All good
Release: 2025-01-14
Period: 2025-01-01 to 2025-06-01
Expiry: 2025-06-30

Statements
==========

The BusKill Team who have digitally signed this file [1]
state the following:

1. The date of issue of this canary is January 14, 2025.

2. The current BusKill Signing Key (2020.07) is

   E0AF FF57 DC00 FBE0 5635  8761 4AE2 1E19 36CE 786A

3. We positively confirm, to the best of our knowledge, that the 
   integrity of our systems are sound: all our infrastructure is in our 
   control, we have not been compromised or suffered a data breach, we 
   have not disclosed any private keys, we have not introduced any 
   backdoors, and we have not been forced to modify our system to allow 
   access or information leakage to a third party in any way.

4. We plan to publish the next of these canary statements before the
   Expiry date listed above. Special note should be taken if no new
   canary is published by that time or if the list of statements changes
   without plausible explanation.

Special announcements
=====================

None.

Disclaimers and notes
=====================

This canary scheme is not infallible. Although signing the 
declaration makes it very difficult for a third party to produce 
arbitrary declarations, it does not prevent them from using force or 
other means, like blackmail or compromising the signers' laptops, to 
coerce us to produce false declarations.

The news feeds quoted below (Proof of freshness) serves to 
demonstrate that this canary could not have been created prior to the 
date stated. It shows that a series of canaries was not created in 
advance.

This declaration is merely a best effort and is provided without any 
guarantee or warranty. It is not legally binding in any way to 
anybody. None of the signers should be ever held legally responsible 
for any of the statements made here.

Proof of freshness
==================

14 Jan 25 01:01:33 UTC

Source: DER SPIEGEL - International (https://www.spiegel.de/international/index.rss)
A Miracle? Pope Francis Helps Transsexual Prostitutes in Rome
Boost for the Right Wing: Why Did a German Newspaper Help Elon Musk Interfere in German Politics?

Source: NYT > World News (https://rss.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/World.xml)
What an Upended Mideast Means for Trump and U.S. Gulf Allies
Russia and Ukraine Battle Inside Kursk, With Waves of Tanks, Drones and North Koreans

Source: BBC News - World (https://feeds.bbci.co.uk/news/world/rss.xml)
Gaza ceasefire deal being finalised, Palestinian official tells BBC
Watch: Moment man is saved from burning LA home

Source: Bitcoin Blockchain (https://blockchain.info/q/latesthash)
0000000000000000000042db9e17f012dcd01f3425aa403e29c28c0dc1d16470

Footnotes
=========

[1] https://docs.buskill.in/buskill-app/en/stable/security/pgpkeys.html

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=xahN
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

To view all past canaries, see:

• https://www.buskill.in/category/Canary/

What is BusKill?

BusKill is a laptop kill-cord. It's a USB cable with a magnetic breakaway that you attach to your body and connect to your computer.

Watch the BusKill Explainer Video for more info youtube.com/v/qPwyoD_cQR4

If the connection between you to your computer is severed, then your device will lock, shutdown, or shred its encryption keys -- thus keeping your encrypted data safe from thieves that steal your device.

when I was making my previous post, the suggestion box thingy that pops up listed this one from 2023. It had this cute image I thought deserved resharing.

I feel like this was important to get out there. I don't know how many of you use DivestOS, but this also applies to the Mull Browser, which was a good browser and a common suggestion due to it being based on Firefox, and therefore not running in Chromium.

Unfortunately, it seems all of this is coming to an end. The software will no longer receive updates, and therefore should not be used anymore. I wish the users of DivestOS-related software luck in finding good replacements.

~~For a browser at least, Brave has good content blocking and basic protection. Overall, this is a pretty big blow to mobile Firefox.~~

Browsers, on mobile especially, are very subjective. Here's a table DivestOS provided on their site https://divestos.org/pages/browsers.

For the OS itself, it's probably back to stock :(. I mean, GrapheneOS is always there for pixel users, but most DivestOS users are not running it on a pixel.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/50554806

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/23671806

Introducing SystemD Pilot, GUI app for managing systemd services

SystemD Pilot is a desktop application for managing systemd services on GNU/linux machines. The app is very lightweight and supports common tasks such as starting and stopping systemd services.

It can also show detailed status for each service.

Features: List services

Filter by running state

Start, Stop, Restart, Enable and Disable services + show status for each service

Create override configuration for any unit file using the edit button

Option for reloading systemd manager configuration (systemctl daemon-reload)

Easy search. Just start typing and the app will find relevant services

Lightweight

Available for download as deb, rpm and AppImage

Integration into GNOME desktop (libadwaita)

Made with love for the FOSS community. Please give it a try and share your thoughts.

Excuse the awful title of the post but sched_ext is a really cool development that greatly improves Linux's scheduling efficiency. Minus all the technical details, it means that very intensive workloads that involve multiple demanding programs can actually coordinate with each other and not suffer performance penalties.

Fun Demonstration video with Terraria running under Proton in Ubuntu!* (where the 50% faster comes from, don't take it at face value you can read the case studies instead).

It's recently been merged with the Linux 6.12 kernel. And some orgs like Bazzite already ship their own schedulers.

Linux stays winning! Free software always wins!

Lifelong Mac user here, enjoyed the thread on what distros other hexbears use. I'm looking to preserve privacy a bit more by moving away from a walled garden. I'd like to move to using a linux distro at home, but am curious about the hardware to use. (Should add here that I'm a software engineer...my code isn't that hardware intensive but I mean I have to run an IDE so that can burn a lot of cycles.) Something I really like about AppleSi is the battery life + performance...it feels really unappealing to buy a clunky intel or amd laptop and get worse battery life. Any suggestions for hardware to look for? (I'd prefer to buy something second hand.)

One key argument for moving to Linux is the environmental benefits. Joanna Murzyn, who spoke at the KDE Akademy conference in 2024, warns about the increasing problem of electronic waste (e-waste). In her presentation, titled Only Hackers Will Survive, she highlights the environmental toll of throwing out perfectly usable computers.

E-waste, which includes discarded laptops, desktops and other electronics, releases toxic substances like lead, mercury and cadmium into the environment, according to Murzyn. These substances can contaminate soil and water as well as cause long-term harm to ecosystems and human health. Murzyn urged people to resist the urge to “upgrade” to new hardware and instead explore solutions like Linux that extend the life of existing devices.

For users with older laptops and desktops, especially those incompatible with Windows 11, switching to a Linux distribution is a powerful way to avoid discarding perfectly usable hardware. openSUSE, for example, provides excellent performance on a wide range of hardware, including machines more than a decade old. By choosing Linux, users can continue using their devices for years to come and don’t need to invest in new hardware.

Switch to GNU/Linux! If you're still using Windows in $CURRENT_YEAR, flock to Linux Mint!; Apple Silicon users will want to check out Asahi Linux.

fuck reddit and all but i'm sure some of us use it for some very carefully curated hobby related stuff or maybe still browse TrueAnon or Deprogram, which are basically Hexbear rear-guard outposts

someone suggested RedReader as the last surviving android app that somehow still uses reddit's old API.

so I grabbed it on F-Droid and

wow compared to browsing with firefox mobile + ublock it's a game changer. quick, snappy, with rich features. took a minute to get used to the UI but it's vastly superior to it's predecessors

who knows how long it will use whatever backdoor it does

EDIT, FYI: it doesn't seem to allow viewing of anything flagged NSFW despite granting permission. whatever API backdoor it uses won't allow it. sucks because some useful non-horny subreddits are flagged NSFW just to protect them from bans

Hyfetch exists, and is really great. It comes with a lot of pride flag color options for the art, and is continuing to update the code for regular neofetch as well, since neofetch is dead (to access regular neofetch, use the "neowofetch" command).

Hyfetch also just added support for fastfetch, so the output is more detailed and not as slow! I like seeing the info and the colors every time I open up my terminal, so this is a really great addition. To use fastfetch with Hyfetch, just install fastfetch (I use Fedora, it's in the repos), and then use the "hyfetch --config" command. If you don't yet have hyfetch you don't have to use the config, it will ask you when you use the hyfetch command for the first time.

Just a little PSA, carry on

I'm Indian, so I'm thinking about using FOSS software from different places so that my data is not at risk of being fully harvested by software that can be infleunced by one side alone.

Wpuld asking this have a negative effect?

Man, original DS games look terrible on the 3DS, is there anything I can install that will fix this?

I think I've finally found it: The elusive Firefox fork for my day-to-day needs. It needed to have sane defaults like Librewolf but also as user empowering as Vivaldi (as well as not being proprietary which is cringe).

Zen I believe accomplishes both of that. It's a relatively new project but it does have active development with new changes added every release. Here's the rundown:

• Licensed under the Mozilla Public License 2.0, the same as Firefox. So enjoy that warm feeling you get when using open source software that won't pull the rug from under you.
• Follows Firefox release cycles: If a new Firefox version comes out, Zen is not behind.
• Instead of horizontal tabs, Zen only uses vertical tabs for navigation. If this is a deal breaker, then Zen isn't for you :(
• Supports split view, workspaces, browser profiles, side panels, tab unloading (saving memory by deactivating a tab), theming, mods and everything else that base Firefox supports (like firefox sync).
• Cannot play DRM-protected content as of yet on Windows and MacOS (rare Linux W?) due to license fees. This is your netflix, your disney+, your spotify.
• No mobile version (nor does it seem to be planned), though firefox sync is still supported.
• Looks GORGEOUS. I never realized how ugly Firefox looks by default, esp on desktops like GNOME and KDE where it tries to integrate itself into the system theme.
• Performs FABULOUSLY: Optimizations from the firefox level to even providing an optimized binary executable for modern CPUs.
• SANE defaults like HTTPS everywhere, no link prefetching (where the browser loads links that it thinks you're going to go to), uncluttered Firefox home.
• Probably more I'm not listing

Download here: https://zen-browser.app/download

How do I use Zen?

Well firstly, Zen doesn't come with any extensions by default. So I made sure to chuck in my Ublock Origin, Privacy Badger, ClearURLs, LibRedirect, etc. It also uses secure DNS by default with Cloudflare so you might want to turn that off (I have a DNS homeserver that does encrypted DNS through other means).

I also really like using the side panel to put my wiki sites and dictionaries in. I've only been using Zen for a week now and it seems to be my forever browser of choice.

joke appropriated from

FREE AS IN

If you want to play it, go find the torrent there. I can't say for certain its safe, so at your own risk.

And FFS use a VPN and do not play while your Switch is connected to the internet if you're using official hardware, you know what Nintendo is like.

Please let me know if it's any good! I'm going to wait till I'm on holiday so I won't be playing it until release.

Release notes: https://www.openbsd.org/76.html

After 21 years of development, FreeCAD 1.0 is rapidly approaching. The project has entered a release-candidate phase, where testing versions are released for last-minute evaluation and bug discovery before finalization. This post links to the RC1 announcement (the big news), but a second release candidate has been published since then.

The libre spirit applied to woodworking & household furniture!

Rather than adopting an IKEA-like prescriptive approach to DIY, Autoprogettazione expressly encourages its participants to experiment freely with techniques and materials either by introducing formal variations to the designs or by realising different items altogether. Playful tinkering of this sort is the way in which human beings, since time immemorial, have developed what curator Glenn Adamson calls “material intelligence,” namely, the ability to understand deeply and give shape to the material world around us. A faculty which relies not so much on rational thought as on trial-and-error experimentation, resourcefulness, curiosity, intuition, and skill.

If you've been running Linux for a while, you may have seen libcaca get pulled in as a dependency here or there and thought it had a funny name. It is a library for manipulating text graphics ("ASCII Art," though it has full UTF-8 support). I visited their website this morning and thought it was remarkably quaint.

Also got a big laugh out of "Terror on the Desktop."