I have all the blobs, I like my hardware to work
this post was submitted on 22 Jul 2024
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Linux
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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FOSS-y
- 3D: Blender
- Automation: Python, Ansible and Bash
- Calendar: ProtonCalendar
- Chess: Lichess
- DesktopOS: Pop!_OS
- Drive: ProtonDrive
- eBook: Calibre
- E-Mail: ProtonMail
- FOSS Android Apps Center: Droidify
- Flashcards: Anki
- Git Repos: Codeberg
- IDE: AstroNvim
- Keyboard: Keychron Q1 HE QMK
- Laptop Firmware: Coreboot
- Maps: OpenStreetMap and OrganicMaps
- Messenger: Signal
- Music Player: cmus
- Office: LibreOffice
- Password Manager: Bitwarden
- RaspberryPi: Raspbian
- Raster: GIMP
- Recording: OBS and GPU Screen Recorder
- Shell: Fish
- SmartphoneOS: GrapheneOS
- Terminal: Alacritty
- Torrent: qBittorent
- Tried Game Engines: Bevy and Godot
- Typing Test: Monkeytype and Keybr
- VPN: Mullvad
- Vector: Inkscape
- Video Player: mpv and VLC
- Virtualization: Quickemu
- Weather: OpenMeteo
Why Obsidian when there's so many good foss note-taking apps?
You could list it, but I tried to migrate Obsidian to Logseq. For now, I have no time. I mostly write MarkDown though.
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100% except the damn firmware and things I can't change
Edit: I didn't see the community, sorry, feel free to disregard this comment lol
Phone OS: GrapheneOS Calendar: Fossify Calendar Files: filen.io Gallery: Fossify Gallery E-mail: ProtonMail Notes: Notesnook Keyboard: HeliBoard Maps: OrganicMaps Passwords: Proton Pass RSS: Feeder Step counter: Forest YouTube frontend: NewPipe, FreeTube Weather: Breezy weather
I still use services like Spotify, FB Messenger, and Play services for some of my banking apps. I'm a bit new to this whole privacy thing and custom ROMs, but so far it feels good. When I buy a computer I'll install Linux on it.
Pretty FOSS?
PC - Thinkpad T14s Gen 4: EndeavourOS, Firefox and Thunderbird with the Proton suite of things such as Mail, Pass and VPN - I do pay for them but I think it's worth it.
Phone - Pixel 8 with GrapheneOS and as many F-Droid apps as possible. Proton apps for Mail, Pass, Drive, VPN. Cromite browser. The only that aren't are probably my banking apps, but I could always switch to web I guess.
I think my biggest hurdle is a Map app that has traffic data that isn't Google maps.
Have you tried OrganicMaps? You can download the map for your state (or states) and it works extremely well offline, with the one downside, being not all specific addresses have been uploaded... but you can sure find the street and the UI is unmatched for FOSS map apps.
Excluding hardware (microcode, UEFI, etc); within my Linux system, the only proprietary software I have installed are Nvidia drivers and Steam (installed via flatpak). When I first made the switch to Linux, I was actually shocked at the minimal amount of proprietary software I actually used/needed.
Ages ago someone wrote a bash script that would calculate your "stallman score", essentially checking the license of every package in your system.
absolutely-proprietary?
nmap isn't Foss?!?
From absolutely-proprietary:
"the FSF considers the v7.9x license to be non-free - however, the previous license was apparently non-free also"
That's all I know
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I don't run Linux anymore, though this should change sometime next year. I use Blender and Krita for work, QOwnNotes for note-taking, Firefox for the web, QBittorrent for sharing holiday films, etc. For image editing I use Affinity, probably the only notable proprietary program on my system apart from Windows.
Daily computing is mostly FOSS programs and my laptop is sold with Linux preinstalled (though I bought the higher spec Windows version and installed Linux myself. Cloud is FOSS, self-hosted in the public cloud (until I get fiber). Phone is rooted Android w/ FOSS apps wherever they meet my needs. I'm about 50% through degoogling and de-Microsofting. Ereader is KOReader (FOSS) running on old Kindle brand hardware. Keyboard is Ergodox Ez which I think the firmware is FOSS. Smarthome is still Smartthings which is not FOSS.
I'm going to give myself a C- 70% FOSS
You shouldn't use root on Android. It throws the security model out the window. Just run something without google
Going to probably try this after I build my pihole and I can VPN home for ad blocking. Currently I need root to avoid seeing ads.
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Currently running majority FLOSS, and glad for the excellent options that these very capable people have released.
Desktops, laptops, HTPC:
Trisquel GNU/Linux on Libreboot BIOS hardware
--//--
Phones and tablets are:
GrapheneOS + Fdroid only apps
--//--
Rockbox audio players
(+ Open Tunes from FMA, Argofox, CC netlabels, jamendo, bandcamp etc)
--//--
Gadgetbridge + Amazfit Bip (watch)
[Looking to switch out this watch for a FLOSS smartwatch like: pinetime or bangle.js]
--//--
and dd-wrt on the router
This guy has mad FOSS cred. I bet even his socks are made of free range organic open source wool released under a Creative Commons attribution share-alike licence.
Seriously though, that sounds like an amazing setup. I always wanted to mess with gadget bridge some more. I have a number of old MiBand devices lying around as well as a Bip. The third party apps for that thing had more features than almost every fitness tracker I've had potentially even including my Garmin watch. What tools do you use to analyze/review/visualize the gadget bridge data?
Thanks for the props :]
I usually look at the session graph data on Gadgetbridge, or export a bike GPS track to OSMand to look more in depth at position, height, speed etc.
OpenWRT is going to be better than DD-WRT. It is certainly more flexible
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Id say around 80% since I use a lot of foss programs and only use linux/android/openwrt/brother printers. The other 20% is random proprietary stuff like steam I guess to be generous.
It's just the firmware, my work-necessary programs, and steam.
I love arch, but i'm planning on moving to atomic fedora eventually, but I use a bunch of niche things because i'm an early adopter
i'll switch to fedora atomic when pwvucontrol, tofi, hyprland, hyprland-autoname-workspaces, citrix workspace (work necessary), notiflut-land, bato, wljoywake, wayland-pipewire-idle-inhibit, ananicy-cpp, easyeffects, wl-mirror, gtk3-classic, keyd, iwgtk, qtalarm, kvantum and subliminal are all available, haven't checked which are yet
couple of those (pwvucontrol and notiflut-land) aren't even in the AUR yet so it'll be a while.
All FOSS except Nvidia drivers and processor microcode!
next graphics card will definitely be an AMD
UEFI?
damn you got me
Increasingly so over time. Will try to install coreboot on my laptop soon. I avoid proprietary blobs where possible too but for stuff like the kernel, proprietary blobs are kinda unavoidable if you want a fully functional system. Tbf I've not tried linux-libre but I just assume it won't agree with some of my tower PC's hardware.
Aside from low-level stuff, I do still use Steam (and the proprietary games on there) and Discord—Steam cause all my games are there and it's convenient, and Discord cause a few of my friend groups primarily talk over Discord. Been considering setting up a Matrix bridge for Discord but I don't think that meaningfully achieves anything since it'll still all be on Discord's servers which are proprietary. I also occasionally install proprietary software to read proprietary file formats and would usually uninstall once I'm done reading the file.
On my home PC everything is FOSS. I'm a serious hobby user of Inkscape and GIMP. No advantage to using commercial alternatives.
Work PC is all commercial software. For me FOSS CAD doesn't come close.
Laptop is foss except bios. Desktop has apu and wifi firmware.
Linux desktop with an Nvidia GPU, two Linux laptops, android phone. I'm struggling to think of any closed source productivity apps I still use, and I play games from Steam. NAS is running whatever Synology crap it came with, I haven't tried fucking with the firmware on my Epson, my 3D printer runs Marlin and my laser engraver runs GRBL.
Like sub 10% maybe.
Phone 1: iPhone
Phone 2: Android (pixel 4, stock rom)
Desktop 1: Windows
Desktop 2: Mac OS
Laptop 1: Windows
Laptop 2: Mac OS.
Laptop 3: Windows/KDE Neon, no attention paid to whether or not the drivers are foss.
Server: Proxmox with Debian and Truenas VMs.
Router: pfSense.
I just use what works for me, and what license the software uses is not at all a factor in that choice.
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I run bone stock default Fedora.
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