It isn’t just Linux, the same is in the user AppData on Windows (would also guess Mac OS). Both a gift and a curse as I find that when I need to make a backup of peoples’ data before restoring/clean installing Windows/Mac OS or moving stuff to a new PC. Those folders are pretty important to get, as you can have all their bookmarks, history, settings, and passwords just show up (though you need to sometimes have to change the profile if a new one still gets created). Same is true for Chrome and other Chromium-based browsers, but they tend to not bring passwords over the majority of the time (need to manually export and import if the PC is actually able to boot into normal/safe modes of whatever OS used).

FF is easier in the cases where the OS is broken or pulling the drive to copy (though very few people use it to begin with). But it does mean it is a curse if the passwords aren’t also locked (would imagine having a master password might help but haven’t tried to see). While it would make part of my job harder with regards to FF data, it is odd that Mozilla doesn’t break them most of the time when Chromium browsers are able to. Though I haven’t had to help someone with Linux in the same way, so maybe it is just a Windows (and maybe Mac OS been a while since I needed to worry about FF so idk) thing for passwords.

Last bit below is a general rant of a PC repair tech’s daily struggle with customers that freak out when something bad happens before bringing stuff in for repair/setting up a new PC. Just had to get it out, but not specific to FF and just data in general (just kept typing). lol

Would make my job easier if people at least signed into their browsers beforehand and remember their log-ins to get browser stuff working (which would at least give them other accounts/passwords back). But the folks that tend to freak out about their stuff tend to also not make their own backups or sign into their browsers (let alone even remember their passwords for crucial stuff) before anything happens. Password vaults would be the same issue even if they had them, but maybe less if they had to enter their master password daily at least once.

For Windows (and even Mac OS in some cases) cloud stuff like OneDrive being turned on by default for the Documents, Desktop, and Pictures (or the defaults for other services) folders don’t even help them. Because they literally don’t even remember the email used when setting up Windows/services, or for whatever reason lost access to that account and somehow think that just using a different account with a different email will still give them their shit. Claiming that I or my co-workers “lost their data” when it isn’t there due to just the stubs of files that were only in the cloud.

I understand why the did what they did with Edge. It is just wild to see the company that did everything it could to make sure the old internet was coded around themselves. Just to then let Google take over and do the same thing (or at least very similar). Their huge banners for Chrome results and inserted overlay on the actual Chrome site shows how much the ghost of IE still haunts them. They are just so desperate to be liked/used, that it is beyond sad (in a pathetic way).

The funny thing is that I did make a point for a while to use Edge for things that required Chromium-based browsers. But they just can’t seem to stop themselves from making Chrome seem better all over again. All the in your face stuff to push their obvious data mining and bloat the shit out of it is cringe. The only thing that they have going for them, is that they do host their own extension store and (more importantly) still have the full uBO.

I think that Mozilla (for all their own faults/shortcomings) having such a dramatically smaller team does show that it is possible to have real options. They get my respect for how much they really showed that the rigged leader of IE could be attacked. But Google being the Microsoft of the internet focused age is a harder fight. I have been really happy to see major forks of FF gain momentum over the past few years. As they give more options for folks that like the core of FF, but have various issues with Mozilla and still want to avoid Chromium.

Ladybird has the hardest struggle being that aside from being something fully new, the dev team is currently still microscopic even compared to Mozilla. It is still extremely cool to see that any teams are trying to make a browser that isn’t a fork of anything. I haven’t tried it yet (my daily PC is still Windows), but I do like to see when they make progress worth people writing about or commenting information.

Also agree that shits a mess.

I will check it out, even if they push the subscription it still may be good to know about. Not like it comes up often, but some of my co-workers that are in school for CS might find it useful for extra practice.

Currently I have a Pi that I really only use for messing with Linux stuff and some of the purpose built alt-OSes (like media center stuff). So I have a safe environment that doesn’t matter if I brick the OS. Which might be a good option for lots of folks (even though it still lacks the guided tutorials that we have been talking about). Would be great if the Pi folks could create something on there for active learning Terminal.

Very true, I hate that so many sites will sometimes fully load on FF and start to work right before a fake error message telling me to “try updating FF to a newer version” (even though they know it is fully updated and just want to force opening a Chromium-based browser). It doesn’t help that basically all the browsers (aside from FF, forks of FF, and Safari) are all using Chromium.

While some of them are very good, and make some actual changes for the better. It still re-enforces Google to basically pull what Microsoft did with IE. IE would probably still be alive and fucking with the internet if Microsoft had done what Google has pulled off.

Even though original Edge was wonky, it kind of sucks that Microsoft didn’t keep their own shit. But only just because it would be one less major Chromium browser (only good thing currently is that they still allow full uBO).

Though I really hate their overlaid shit Edge puts on the Chrome download site, and the huge banner at the top of Bing search results page when searching for Chrome. I have to download Chrome on peoples’ PCs a lot at work, so that shit is mildly infuriating to constantly see.

I am not sure. Are you on Windows? Another comment mentioned that it seems to not be an option for Linux/BSD.

I am not sure, all my browsers have uBO. But the article didn’t mention anything about adblockers. Google has made YT slow for FF no matter if the user has one or not (which is a known thing). But it was pretty noticeable when I loaded.

Also at the lower end of the spectrum, I feel like maybe there’s a need for sort of a basic tutorial program for the kind of people who are not computer people to learn the absolute basics. I feel like back in the 90s I encountered a few introduction-to-windows sort of programs that would walk you through “this is your start menu,” “here’s what click/double-check/right click/etc” means," “here’s how you turn your computer off” kind of stuff.

I actually agree completely with that. I still remember the “how to use your Mac” intro floppy disks that my uncle still had mixed in with other program disks when I got his old Macintosh SE (dual floppy and no hard drive). It started with stuff like little “games” for how to use the mouse, Trash Bin, and other super basic things for GUI (since the concept was new at that time). My jump into Windows was easier because of that. Though the jump to Windows was its own issue since the family PC we got second-hand was still on 3.11 in 1998 and I was having to use 95 for a keyboarding class in middle school. But it was kind of interesting to have experienced (though not so much at the time as I couldn’t just do things like my friends would talk about on their 95/98 PCs). But even 95 did put effort into a tutorial that was helpful.

Windows these days doesn’t really have a tutorial for things (though Windows 8 did have a pretty okay one). Everything on 10 and 11 just feels like dark patterns in tricking you into shit Microsoft wants, and not a “how to” for even what is going on with the Start Menu. Just get an update and shit is just completely different (mostly with 11’s new jarring layout change).

And I’m slowly piecing some of it together, googling things as I go, and that’s a fine way to learn things, but it is slow and I wish there was a better way to power through learning some of this stuff without needing to go take a whole actual course on it. I think my ideal would be sort of a Duolingo-type app for terminal commands.

I am kind of shocked there isn’t already something like that. Even a lot of web forums these days have a “getting you started” tutorial that walks you through making dummy replies to messages from the bot. And create a dummy post that will be only created virtually while working with the bot. It would be great if the distros that try to be the easiest for new users to have a “introduction to terminal” that can safely show the most likely needed stuff. Like the normal stuff like ls, cp, copy, move, makedir, etc. Along with updating and installing stuff. There are lots of easy search results for these things, but a lot of people learn better hands-on (and especially if they know they won’t be able to just break shit if done wrong).

This is a hardware example (but still applies to the hands-on learning). I personally hate it when I am forced to learn how to fix stuff like iPhone hardware only on actual peoples’ devices. As it makes the pressure so much worse, and know that I might lead to the person not having their phone even longer with so much daily life needing them all the time. Apple does have step-by-step guides and video examples. But actually going through the motions is very different than the “perfect” stuff shown that make it seem easier.

Same can be with the difference in like driving a car in a sim and the class part vs how physical stuff like g-forces and actually feeling a hydroplane. You learn important things in the sim and in the class part of getting your learners permit, but then get a chance to drive with a teacher.

It seems that PC use and basic understanding has regressed dramatically over the past decade due to smart phones/tablets. So the starting point for a shocking amount of users is not good even for Windows (all the new PC gamers coming from only knowing consoles are badly needing to understand how to keep an eye on their drives filling up and to actually use the second drives). So it would be beyond great for Linux adoption efforts to focus on having hands-on “games” that range from basically treating it like the user is back in the early 90s (or the 80s for Apple’s first jump to having a GUI), and for folks that are already aware of the stuff that a complete new to computers folks don’t know.

The first time I watched Voyager, I went into it only knowing that more folks liked TNG and DS9 (at the time I had only ever seen random eps of TNG, TOS, and a few of the TOS movies). So while I went on a random deep watch of all of Trek at the time (Discovery was either about to come out, or had started). I was very happy to find out that Voyager was much better than I expected. Also didn’t take as long to get good (TNG was very weird the first few seasons which I found out quickly).

After watching all the stuff before Discovery, it felt so different and kind of makes it and the other new shows seem strange. Not always bad, just so much modern effects that take attention away from the actors. So far I am in season 3 of Discovery, season 2 of Picard, and only one episode of SNW. Still looking forward to them, just need to be in a “time for Trek” headspace to power through them like I did for everything before.

I personally find Enterprise to be the most weirdly cozy of the pre-Discovery shows (not near being the best taken as a whole like TNG/DS9/Voy). Has a nice mix of the “feel” of the 90s shows, but with some of the “modern” effects for me. Sure they went ham on stuff like “we need some kind of ‘directive’ for handling first contact”, and they killed the show as it was really getting its flow. Really curious what even just one more season could have done as that last ep really felt like a quick end and was so jarring on the characters.

Still pissed that Paramount said they will not do a touch-up remaster for DS9 and Voy like they did for TOS/TNG (and the 1080p remaster for ENT). They say it is because the amount of time and money that TNG alone required, and the sales of the TOS/TNG Blu-rays weren’t high enough. Which sucks since DS9 and Voy are so badly needing something (even a more simple upscale of the non-sfx stuff since the effects would need full re-doing), and the fans of those are really dedicated.

Average Windows advice for basically every “Please help!” posts: “Just run DISM/SFC” marked as “solved”

I work on Windows computers for people, and do run both commands as just general flow. But I was so fucking excited recently to finally run into an issue that those commands actually fixed something (or at least a couple of the noticeable issues). Was so shocked that I had to tell all my direct co-workers.

But basically all other times I have ran them for real problems, I can’t remember any instance where they worked. For all the videos or guides with titles like “How to fix all Windows PCs”, you would think that they are the only solution.

The only frustrating thing with Linux communities/guides I tend to run into (especially when I had zero experience), are steps that get left out. Not out of malice, but because users that are much more experienced leave out things that are assumed to be already understood. Of course I don’t have a specific example off-hand since I already have some understanding at this point. Which kind of shows how easy it is to take certain things as “obvious.” Outside of that, the answers/guides do normally be good and friendly.

My second job was a bagger at a grocery store, which included getting carts. I tend to just collect them if I pass by some just sitting in parking lots on my way into grocery stores and bring them in. On my way back to my car, if I have a cart but notice the corral is just a mess from people just half-ass pushing them in at just whatever angle. I can’t stop from just un-fucking all of them so they are able to be brought back in by workers, or at least so that more will fit correctly. Just really bothers me to see them all tangled up and possibly roll back into the lot to hit cars.

One of my other jobs a while ago was doing lab billing information corrections so we could bill insurance (would take the stuff that was missing random stuff like part of the insurance, diag codes used, and like missing parts of addresses). When I started they said that we would likely see so many insurance numbers/prefixes that we would start seeing prefixes on things like license plates. This was very true (would see the letters at the beginning and be like “UHC” or whatever), and took a long time to not see them.

Though in a personal life going into my professional life (I work on people’s computers). I have an OCD kind of habit to just disable all the easy anti-user stuff in Windows settings and add uBO to browsers. Might not even be why the stuff was brought in, but most users don’t know to ask (or if things can be done) and either just go through using their PCs without all the random shit, or are just so happy that things run much better. I make a point to note that an adblocker was added so they can ask about it, or remind my peers that do the check-ins and outs to mention them and show them how to turn it off if a site doesn’t load something. Also means that I notice when settings get moved around or more anti-user options show up. Which keeps me sharp in both professional and personal life.

I might end up looking at newer stuff, but… how tf am I going to avoid shitty touchscreens, spyware, LED headlights, and all that garbage?

And going to get harder to avoid a lot of that stuff once enough of them eventually get into the much cheaper levels of the used market. Though by then (and even currently in the higher priced used levels) most of the stuff will no longer even be supported to use (even if you for some reason did find a need to use them and be okay paying).

I got a 2015 Rogue SV that stuff like nav or whatever other stuff doesn’t even have access to the apps from Nissan to set them up. And was like one or two years behind Android Auto or even Apple’s stuff. So can’t just have the main screen just cast my phone’s maps. Really only irritates me when I need to go into settings and see stuff for features I can’t use if I wanted to do so. But the backup camera and phone pairing over blutooth for calls and music works, so that is nice to have and useful daily.

I am torn on replacing the head-unit like I did with my much older cars in the past. But those were so much more easy and “normal” to replace. I mostly worry that since it is much more integrated, that beyond just not flowing with the design, that there would be more problematic issues caused with the electrics (especially after seeing how much just replacing headlights with LEDs messed up a lot of cars when they were not a standard part) and the main computer.

Had really randomly bad issues with my last car’s computer towards the last four or five years that I never had with much older cars before. But is also possible that aside from my much more abusive driving while being younger, that I just hadn’t had something with any computer element (just the main one as it wasn’t anything built-in with lots of features.

I think all of these also have Chrome versions, but still better on FF due to being able to install (or side-load if not listed or not whitelisted for mobile) onto the mobile version. The day I learned how to get non-whitelisted ones to install and install from xpi was game over for bothering with other mobile browsers.

• FastStream for downloading videos from YT and a lot of other sites (I daily use it for grabbing stuff on Twitter)
• Bypass Paywalls Clean for the obvious (this one is to the dev’s not github but same kind of site site as it has to be installed via xpi)
• Watch on Odysee for seeing if a YT channel also uploads to Odysee to go watch there if possible and at least give my view there
• SponsorBlock for being able to skip hard-coded ads from the uploads and other sections of YT videos
• DeArrow for being able to view titles for YT videos that are more reflective of content
• Wayback Machine for saving pages to Archive.org along with saving them to my account on there.
• Privacy Possum for more aggressive blocking of tracking (though it does require remembering it is on if a site breaks as it will block things that uBO isn’t the cause of the issue)

Nothing wrong with finding small hopes here and there where you can. I too had briefly thought about Samsung’s store (I have an S24 Ultra, Tab S8+, and my old S20+) maybe being large and known enough by more users than F-Droid. But their lack of press releases pushing back on Google was what told me enough. If Samsung’s store was actively used more than the Play Store on their phones (and had enough really popular apps that weren’t also on the Play Store), then it would at least be something.

Sadly even if Samsung’s store is able to somehow get a pass by Google, I highly doubt that the devs of apps that are only on F-Droid would list them on there. And would still only help Samsung devices (though I know I would start using Samsung’s store a lot more if those devs did list them on there). Though I might find reasons to use my S20+ for some apps that I like having but don’t use daily, and my tablet is on Android 15 so it will be used for stuff I use more often (never thought I would be excited for it to not get major updates).

The main actively used daily app that I am dreading losing (due to the current dev not planning to ever list their active fork on Play Store) is SyncThing-Fork on my Android devices (use different SyncThing apps for PC/Steam Deck). It has been the only multi-platform sync program that actually works correctly for my password vault on my Android devices. Though it is possible that the dev might get it whitelisted, but I am not going to hold my breath. As the main dilemma on a per app level is that the more apps that fall in line ends up supporting Google’s actions, but at the same time not getting whitelisted means just going away (at least on fully updated Android 16+ devices).

Would be nice, but I imagine that Samsung would both need to actually be impacted in an meaningful way with their store, and find some way to prevent Play Services (which they have to meet requirements to be able to load on their devices) from just nope-ing non-registered apps. Both of which I seriously doubt would happen.

They have already been working pretty close with Google on things that removed their actual Tizen OS from stuff like their watches in favor of merging their code into Android Wear OS. Would also guess that they might just work something out to either force apps on their store to be signed by Samsung and cleared by Google. Or that they just require apps on their store to only be listed after registering with Google. Not like Samsung really cares about supporting side-loading if the apps aren’t in their (or Google’s) store.

Sadly I think only a OEM like Samsung would have the massive levels of hardware sales and money for making a real fight against Google. F-Droid and other alt-stores or projects lack both and are easy to ignore. If Samsung were to be actually concerned about this, then I think we would have already seen them filing lawsuits and pushing posts/news articles condemning Google’s plans like F-Droid keeps doing (aside from lawsuits due to money).

Sorry if my wording was bad. I meant installing Irfanview with WINE. Xnview having versions for the different platforms is a major good thing. If I can get myself to use it more than I do Irfanview, then I at least know any future jumps to daily using Linux or Mac OS will work fine (at least for image viewing lol).

I was so happy to learn about Libro.fm randomly. Makes things so much easier to just download and have on my dedicated audio player. No DRM to strip or having to use their player. Only thing that annoys me about them (along with other audiobook services) is that they list books that they can’t sell due to DRM. Most of the time if they don’t have a book you just don’t get a result, but for some reason they will show some books and I get excited to see them. Just to then load the page and see that they currently can’t offer it due to DRM. Would much rather not see the search result. Another mildly annoying thing with their search is that searching for books by authors will include other authors and show results for all their books. Both are just annoyances that aren’t deal breakers so long as everything else is kept the same.

Same here. Every time I have used Linux or MacOS for long periods of time as my main OS. I run into that moment when I need/want to look at images (or even just one), and all the other fun things go right out the door. It is such a weird problem that other viewers can’t manage to “feel correct,” Always amazes me at how this one program is the cause of such a specific emotional response from me. lol

I try out Xnview from time to time on Windows to try and adapt to it, but always run into just something (but it is a very good program and is why I make the effort to check-in on it at all). I think that in Xnview’s case, it is just waaaay too much going on and even with the massive amount of settings I can’t find the ones that “just work” for me. Just end up installing it through WINE and deal with the random weird things that come from using it that way (most tend to be the UI looking so different due to not matching the OS and presenting the fake C: when opening a file from the menu). And still “feels” much better.

Other more simple viewers also don’t “feel” right due to not having some of the additional settings/features Irfanview has for light editing. Would maybe help in the case of Xnview if someone was able to mod it to have Irfanview look (kind of like the various mods of GIMP to layout like Photoshop) and hide the tons of advanced stuff that Irfanview doesn’t have in sub menus or a toggle to switch to the normal setup. Though I can get it kind of close if I play around with moving stuff around on the main toolbar. So still like the best next option I have used.

You are very correct on how lots of sites have made RSS basically a method for just spamming you with crap. They just give a headline and link (not even a paragraph to know what the thing is about). But RSS itself still works the way it used to. It is the sites that enshittify the feeds.

True, especially the part about your mom and others that had to use PCs in the 90s and 80s. I suck with a lot of CMD/PowerShell/Terminal stuff and get really in my head about whatever I am doing. Though a lot of it is due to things like switches and formatting order. Can be very very frustrating if there are a lot of them and having to constantly look at what they mean since they aren’t just regular words (which would obviously make the amount of typing get out of hand). The other main issue for me is dealing with moving or copying things around. GUI is much easier to get due to being able to see it in the same way I would move/copy things IRL. Especially frustrating if using USB drives, since they don’t just auto-mount/assign a letter if only using something without a DE. That part is (for me) a headache to have to deal with since the same OS will just do that if a DE is used. But also not something I do every day (or very often as I mostly use Linux when messing with my Pi).

But your core point of just doing it is very true. The reason that folks in offices in the 90s and 80s were able to get used to it was because they had to, and that there was a reason to at least know the things to do what they needed. They didn’t have to get bogged down with all of it (or even need most commands). So it would be best to focus on the things that are needed to get daily things done. Then it makes a lot of other bits easier to handle later on. And a lot of common things can be printed/written on cheat sheets or getting stickers with common commands to put on the side of the case or stuck to a desk in easily glanced at locations.

If they are willing to torture you to get the data. Then there is also a very real chance that you would still get the same treatment or just killed even if you give the password.