Why I jumped from Pop_OS to Zorin OS 16

Jan. 12, 2022

For the past few years I’ve been using Pop_OS on my primary desktop and I’ve been really happy. It has been solid as a rock, every update is smooth, and it seems to have more polish than other distros. However, in the last few weeks I’ve switched from Pop to Zorin OS 16 due to breakage of my workflows from updates. There is nothing wrong with Pop and it is still a great desktop OS. But it is not for me.

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My favorite tech finds of 2021

Jan. 2, 2022

This year was one of the best years for tech finds for me in a long time. I discovered so many new projects that my bookmarks are overflowing with things to test. I love reading lists of the hardware, software, and apps people use. The one’s they use everyday and where the spend most of their time is always intriguing. Because I found so many amazing projects this year I figured I would share what I’ve been using and what I’m looking forward to working on in 2022.

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Full walkthrough: Installing LineageOS on the Walmart onn. UHD streaming box

Dec. 4, 2021

My OTT streaming interface of choice is Android TV. But, I have been constantly frustrated with the amount of bloatware that comes on my TV and the official Google TV dongle/device. Ideally I would have an open-source based OS that isn’t built to spy on my living room. At the very least I can remove bloatware and whatever my TV manufacturer is running in the background. This is why I was excited to learn that a group of people have figured out how to get a TV version of LineageOS on Amlogic G12*/SM1 family devices which includes the Chromecast with Google TV and the Walmart onn UHD streaming device.

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Privacy, hardware, and unfair comparisons

Nov. 9, 2021

One of the challenges of taking on a privacy-first approach to tech, and when recommending changes to other people, is the experience when changing hardware. As a Linux desktop enthusiast with a privacy emphasis and someone who installs third-party ROMs on my mobile, I spend a lot of time tinkering with old hardware. This is often for two reasons. One, I find it fun to refurbish old hardware for new uses. Two, I have an extremely low budget and acquiring old hardware is somewhere between cheap and free. But I often deal with very underwhelming experiences because I am using old hardware. I think this permeates through the user experience and leads to unfair comparisons that is stopping people from trying, and enjoying, alternative options with a privacy emphasis.

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Trying (and failing) to find something happy

Nov. 5, 2021

I will admit, I am in a dark place a lot lately.

Don’t get this confused with not being able to go out. Refuse to let extroverts make introverts feel guilty for not going out in the public. I can 100% guarantee you that being around other people would fix my overall disposition. I find other people… Draining. Going out in public has the exact opposite effect on me. I dislike eating at restaurants, prefer to watch movies at home (where I can have real captions on the screen and not in some dumb box), and would never waste my time shopping in a store where they probably don’t have what I’m looking for.

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Firefox is just the better browser. That’s the blog.

Nov. 2, 2021

At this point the browser flame wars have been going on for three decades. If software freedom and privacy matter to you, even a small amount, then why are you still using Chrome?

The fact is that using any version of Chrome, whether the official Google version or a Chromium fork, continues to solidify the dominance Google has over the open web. Yes, there is an open-source version of Chrome that is theoretically de-coupled from Google. But, you could say the same for Android and the AOSP project. The project may be open-source, however the direction and priorities are clearly set by Google. Just look at the differences between official Chrome and Chromium, including the recent enforcement of using Google sync features with Chromium.

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I’m thoroughly impressed with CloudReady on a nearly 8 year old Dell

Nov. 1, 2021

Being able to re-purpose old hardware for modern uses is one of the pillars of tech I strongly believe in. I’ve been repairing PC’s for over 10 years, trying to squeeze as much life out of hardware other people felt deserved to be in the trash heap. With this mindset, I recently had a chance to install CloudReady onto an old laptop for a coworker and I have to say: I am thoroughly impressed.

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Gnome theming and tweaks on Pop_OS

Oct. 25, 2021

Although the default theming from Pop_OS is nice and hasn’t been a problem for the 2 years or so I’ve been daily driving it, for whatever reason I got the urge to play around with new Gnome themes. I believe this was largely driving by an interview with Pop_OS principal engineer Jeremy Soller on the Opt Out Podcast.

In the interview, Jeremy Soller indicated that he has a vision that Pop_OS isn’t necessary a distro, but a series of configurations and tools that can be applied to any distribution. Rather than thinking of Pop_OS as a complete package, like Windows or MacOS, my desktop really is something I own and can do what I want with it, which includes changing the look and feel.

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Configuring wireless adb and Android screen mirroring with scrcpy on Pop_OS

Oct. 23, 2021

This is a way to connect to an Android device wirelessly through adb. Doing this will enable using scrcpy over the network, which is important because my phone cannot currently use it’s USB-C port.

The downside to this setup is that you need to be able to connect to the device over USB at least once.

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Building the perfect CLI-only laptop with the Pinebook Pro

Feb. 17, 2021

Networking

These are popular and baked right into the OS.

• nmcli
• nm-tui

speed-test
Went with this snap instead of fast because fast is not available for arm64 and I want to use on my Pinebook Pro. Instead I’m using speed-test.

bartaz / speed-test-snap

CLI Management

Fish Shell

Finally, a command line shell for the 90s

This is much better than the standard bash shell. The directions on their site weren’t the way I needed to set it up, however.

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