Hi, I’m sbird! I like programming and am interested in Astrophysics and all things space. I also have a hobby of photography.

I’m also on Piefed at scallisto@retrofed.com

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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 12th, 2025

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  • As for laptops, there are a lot of other options like Tuxedo, NovaCustom, and Slimbook

    I would avoid the Brax phone, they haven’t fulfilled orders and are super shady + social media influencer platform is never a great look. I would prefer the Fairphone, they’ve been around for ages, and you can install mobile Linux on their devices too since they let you unlock the boot loader. postmarketOS on the FP6 is developing rapidly and very exciting! Other pmOS supported devices like the OP6 or Pixel 3a series could be considered too, as well as the custom Android ROMs (Graphene, Calyx, etc.)

    AsteroidOS is Linux on smartwatches, what more do you want? You also have Pebble if you’re into e-ink and that sort

    As for TVs, it’s tricky, but just look for the non-smart ones (there are quite a few!), and I know Sony makes the Bravia TVs where you can set them to be “basic” non-smart mode. You could also go with a projector instead, those usually don’t have smart TV shenanigans. You can also use a Linux mini PC running Plasma Bigscreen and/or Kodi as an alternative to Google TV.

    Mini PCs running some form of Linux (Bazzite, CachyOS, Fedora, Mint, whatever) are always awesome. You also have emulation stuff, like the MiSTER Pi mentioned by another user, but you could run emulation stuff on any cheap hardware (running Linux) just fine.

    OpenWRT is supported by lots of routers, and GL.iNet makes routers that have it preinstalled. You also have the MikroTik routers, which run the Linux-based RouterOS (+ they are based in Latvia 🇱🇻)

    Reolink cameras w/ Frigate and Home Assistant is the best combo.

    The only wireless headphones I would recommend are the Fairphone Fairbuds Gen 2, since they won’t die in a few years w/ replaceable parts and battery, and even then, for 99% of usecases, I would rather go with IEMs + some wireless dongle (I use the Fiio BTR11, but others exist too, in particular, the Fiio Snowsky Retro Nano has replaceable batteries of an esoteric form factor). You get the convenience of wireless as well as all the benefits of wired: harder to lose, better audio quality, WAY cheaper (seriously, I spent less than $30 on my kit), longer lasting, etc. I would recommend the Kiwi Ears Cadenza and Truthear Gate, and I’ve heard the Hexa/Pure is great too. Moondrop’s Chu 2 are awesome too with a metal shell for a ridiculously low price, but the brass nozzle oxidises and clogs in humid environments (I am in the humid land of HK, so no go for me)

    As for printers, the Open Printer is crowd funding and looks really neat! You of course have the Brother laser printers too, but not sure about their telemetry and tracking.

    I am moving to Piefed at scallisto@retrofed.com (https://retrofed.com/u/scallisto)


  • Jolla phone runs Sailfish OS (partially closed source, but Linux-based) while the Volla phones can either run Android or Ubuntu Touch (more open-source). They have very different aesthetics and target different prices too (the former is cheaper and has a plastic fantastic build, while the latter are glass slabs)

    Personally, I’m rooting for postmarketOS, since it’s compatible with lots of devices. has the ability to install Flatpaks due to using a mainline (or at least closer to it) kernel over Ubuntu Touch and SailfishOS using the Android kernel (or at least parts of it I think, “proprietary blobs”), and recently the Fairphone 6 has been getting good pmOS development (super exciting! Even fingerprint has been made to work!)

    I am moving to Piefed at scallisto@retrofed.com (https://retrofed.com/u/scallisto)




  • Ideally, install Steam with a native package, but if that doesn’t exist, the Flatpak is always fine. You can also use Lutris if you want an all-in-one launcher for Steam, GOG, standalone, itch.io, emulators, etc. (and I know Heroic is nice if you need Epic Games)

    If you use a newer device, you might want a distro with a newer kernel, but even Debian will work okay for gaming nowadays.

    For most games Proton will work OOTB, but you might want to check on forums and ProtonDB for any information regarding specific tweaks for certain games. The only ones that don’t work as of yet are because the companies don’t want it to work. (plenty anticheat games work on Linux, Big Tech simply decides to revoke that functionality because money talks)

    Linux gaming has had huge development over the last few years, it’s awesome!

    I am moving to Piefed at scallisto@retrofed.com (https://retrofed.com/u/scallisto)



  • I really want one. It’s a little cheaper than the original RG DS, has larger screens, ships with Linux OOTB (and sacrifices the memory needed by Android, which never ran well to begin with), has an integrated stylus, and comes in pink too! (I’d rather have a lilac, but you take what you get)

    The only thing I’m waiting on is Rocknix support. It looks like the new NNDDSS still needs a bit of work too (can you change it to Drastic in stock firmware?). GammaOS Nano is also able to run on this apparently, which is pretty exciting. Will definitely wait for CFW, since Anbernic’s stock OS is never all that great.

    If I do get one, this would be my first dedicated handheld (I’ve mostly used my laptop and phone for it right now), and I’m eyeing a dual-screen option since it will fulfill a use case that neither device does very well. The candy bar devices are all excellent, but they’re essentially smartphones with a controller attached to them (smaller ones, but an extra device that fulfills a similar function nonetheless)

    I think the RG DS is better if you want a smaller device that can do more RAM intensive stuff (like Android or PortMaster), or perhaps you just like Turquoise or the Red/Black dualtone over the Deep Blue or Pink (white is present on both), but for me, I would take the Plus any day.

    I am moving to Piefed at scallisto@retrofed.com (https://retrofed.com/u/scallisto)


  • I know the community is working on a project called OpenCentauri, an open firmware for the Elegoo Centauri Carbon (great printer and amazing value for the money, but it uses a closed variant of Klipper, who knows what it’s doing in the background)

    You also have the DIY Voron kits, and Sovol produces Prusa-likes and Voron-likes that usually use open firmware.

    Just avoid Bambu as somebody who owns an A1 (set to LAN only mode, using a microSD card to transfer print files), as aside from the lock down shenanigans and attempting to take down forks of their Bambu Slicer software (which itself is a fork of a fork), they also use a closed firmware and are heavily promoting their cloud services. I also heard that Creality is one to be cautious of too.

    I am moving to Piefed at scallisto@retrofed.com (https://retrofed.com/u/scallisto)







  • Fish is setup out of the box while ZSH is minimal OOTB and can be extended with all sorts of themes, plugins, etc. They both offer syntax highlighting, tab completion, fuzzy search, as well as many other QoL features over bash. The main upside of ZSH is that it’s compatible with the same POSIX scripts bash supports, while fish uses their own scripting thing (that can be easier to read and simpler, yes, but you lose compatibility with a lot of existing scripts!)

    In my opinion, I would say fish and ZSH are awesome for most people, while ZSH has the edge when if you use a lot of scripts, and fish is better if you don’t want to configure anything (though oh-my-zsh, which is very simple to install, puts ZSH nearly on par with stock fish)

    I am moving to Piefed at scallisto@retrofed.com (https://retrofed.com/u/scallisto)



  • I’m not going to preorder it anytime soon, I would rather see (independent) reviews of a finished product first. ON their website, they note that it could be good for retro gaming (though that price for the chipset isn’t great compared to the competition, but you get open hardware + modularity!), as a music player (audio jack!), and sysadmin / networking diagnostic stuff (where Linux is preferred over Android or iOS), but obviously there are better devices for each of those use cases. Few devices can do it all though, and you would be supporting open hardware and all that jazz. They also say that it could be useful for testing Linux mobile apps and that sort of stuff (since it’s an ARM chip w/ optional LTE support), but won’t be too good as a daily driver phone (no earpiece speaker, LTE being an optional upgrade).

    I probably won’t get this, as I already have a computer (which does run Linux!) and smartphone and don’t need/want another fun Linux device (my OnePlus 6 running postmarketOS fulfills that role already).


  • This looks really neat, and it’s awesome to see more open hardware! And the price seems pretty reasonable too for what you’re getting, especially given this is a smaller company. The modular plates are also open, meaning you can design your own ones! It looks like it starts at 2GB / 64GB eMMC, and goes up to 8GB / 128GB. It has display out support too, and the super long software support (7 years) is very nice. The device is apparently repairable too, with spare parts to be easily available too! It’s definitely a computer first, phone second, since LTE support is an optional upgrade, and there is no earpiece speaker (so calls will be very bothersome to others). It also supports M.2 SSDs, but it’s in the more esoteric 3042 B-Key form factor (and an adapter for more standard 2230 SSDs will be another separate upgrade). If the Comet actually comes out and orders are fulfilled, I think this could be an awesome device!

    I am moving to Piefed at scallisto@retrofed.com (https://retrofed.com/u/scallisto)


  • sbeak@sopuli.xyztoLinux Gaming@lemmy.world•games like old roblox?
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    24 days ago

    that it has its own marketplace

    What, so you want microtransactions? Unless you mean user-created games, in which case Luanti is pretty awesome for that. There are Minecraft-likes (e.g. Mineclonia), but there are other games that do their own thing: Asuna is more creative focused with mechanics inspired by Terraria, NodeCore is the opposite where it’s very technical, etc. They just share the same voxel core, but otherwise they are pretty different to each others. There are even some story driven games, arcade games, etc. that are kind of neat too. Luanti is cross-platform and you can easily setup multiplayer (which can be easy peer to peer LAN or a server)

    I am moving to Piefed at scallisto@retrofed.com (https://retrofed.com/u/scallisto)


  • sbeak@sopuli.xyztoLinux@programming.dev•asahi <3
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    24 days ago

    OK this is pretty awesome.

    from their article:

    Linux support for M3 series SoCs and the machines powered by them is now in a state where almost everything supported on the M1 and M2 series machines just works. This includes the webcam, internal microphones, USB (up to the hardware limit of USB 3 10 Gb/s), hardware accelerated video decoding including support for AV1, WiFi, Bluetooth, and much more! The only major exceptions remain full DCP support and the GPU, which we will have more news on in the coming months. Do not expect performant or power-efficient 3D acceleration right now.

    I am moving to Piefed at scallisto@retrofed.com (https://retrofed.com/u/scallisto)