Recent comments in /f/Linux

Kalchaya wrote

Reply to comment by Rambler in Whats your Linux flavor of choice? by Rambler

Used OptiPlex PCs with XP Pro pre-installed and pre-activated are still available on eBay. Got my last/current one over three years ago, and it's still going strong. Unfortunately it's use for surfing is very limited by the last three remaining browsers, which is the only reason I'm in process of moving on to Win 7 Pro.

I am not a fan of Win 7, but I can put up with it for a year or two, til I teach myself Linux. My 'new' used PC is Dell Optiplex 7010 Mini-Tower, Quad Core i7 3770 (3.4GHz), 16GB DDR3 SDRAM, 1TB Hard Drive: Windows 7 Pro 64-bit. I had computer shop modify it. Mobile rack in the spare 5.25 bay which holds a SSD for MX Linux, and a regular hard disk for bare-metal/clone backups of Win 7.

AntiX is more on par with Linux Mint, both being slightly less intuitive than MX Linux, but I think AntiX is a smaller install than MX, so might be better for a laptop.

https://embeddedinventor.com/mx-linux-vs-antix-similarities-differences/

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Rambler OP wrote

Reply to comment by Kalchaya in Whats your Linux flavor of choice? by Rambler

XP Pro was the last MS OS I ran at home and honestly, loved it. I still probably have an old XP SP3 disk somewhere. Didn't know installs were still in use outside of POS systems and purpose built use cases in factories and industry running software that requires it.

May try MX Linux on an older laptop that I'd like to breathe new life into. I've heard good things about AntiX as well.

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Kalchaya wrote

Reply to Whats your Linux flavor of choice? by Rambler

I gave a test drive to around 20+ distros over the last couple years. Only ones I found usable for an XP Pro expat was MX Linux, Linux Mint, AntiX, Kodachi Linux, and Tails. My pick of the litter was MX Linux for install. Linux Mint, Kodachi and Tails for LiveCD use.

My upcoming move from XP Pro to a Win 7 Pro rig will have MX Linux on separate SSD. I will continue to use Linux Mint for online banking/shopping, and Kodachi or Tails to safari into the darkest darkness of the Darknet. MX Linux and Kodachi impresses me the most!

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boobs wrote

Reply to comment by DcscZx5idox in qutebrowser - All the Cool Kids should try it! by Wahaha

Tech Literacy Watchdog rates spyware watchdog as: "mentally fucking retarded"

TechLit Level: mentally fucking retarded

Spyware watchdog is retarded and all associated ratings are fucking stupid. The site states and omits facts and context while framing themselves as an authority. It's at best a good troll but at worst a misinformed opinion with a very politically aligned definition of what is spyware and what is not.

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DcscZx5idox wrote (edited )

Reply to qutebrowser - All the Cool Kids should try it! by Wahaha

Spyware Watchdog rated this browser, "Spyware Level: Not Spyware".
Clearnet, Tor, I2P

Spyware Level: Not Spyware

Qutebrowser makes no unsolicited requests at all. It is also libre software. This web browser is a great choice to use, and there is nothing to complain about from a privacy standpoint. (although I don't really know how to use the User Interface that well...) So far this browser looks like it can stand tall in the ranks of the other privacy-respecting web browsers out there.

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Rambler wrote

Reply to comment by Wahaha in qutebrowser - All the Cool Kids should try it! by Wahaha

Thanks for the response. I may take it for a test drive in a VM and see how I like it. As far as ad-blocking goes, can always use an ad-blocking VPN... I know a guy offering just that. Ha!

I've added to my list of "things to check out" so I'll try to get around to it this week.

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Wahaha OP wrote

Reply to comment by Rambler in qutebrowser - All the Cool Kids should try it! by Wahaha

Biggest issue is that there isn't a feature rich adblocker. A basic one is included, but that's it. Other than that, it takes a different mindset. For example there is no build-in password manager. You're supposed to integrate your preferred tools yourself. I like that customization aspect of it. For example opening video links directly in mpv or even downloading videos directly.

Entering text is somewhat cumbersome because of different muscle memory I have from previous browsers. You need to be in 'insert mode', just like in vim, to enter text. Or set up an external editor for that. Clicking inside a textbox brings up a cursor, but you need to press 'i' to start 'insert mode'. Clicking inside the same textbox while being in 'insert mode' takes you out of it again, which makes copy/paste a little annoying.

I'd completely move over to it, if it wasn't for heavy lifting adblocking having become a necessary, though. Last time I checked, extension support was something planned for the future. Not sure how far this has gotten. I'm on an LTS distribution that doesn't have up to date versions of qutebrowser. I meant to switch to a rolling-release one, but haven't done so, yet.

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Wahaha wrote

Reply to A Brief Review of the Q4OS Linux Distribution by HMTg927

according to Mozilla, Firefox 85.0.1 32-bit requires 512 MB of RAM.

Well, Firefox is currently using 800MB of RAM for me and 5GB of virtual RAM. It's the most memory hungry process I'm running. I don't even have that many tabs open. Only about 20.

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Rambler wrote

Reply to A Brief Review of the Q4OS Linux Distribution by HMTg927

Good read, though found a typo, which is easy to do when you're used to dealing with GBs and not MBs:

I found Q4OS to be a very stripped-down distribution of Linux that worked reasonably well on my old PC with 256 GB of RAM a

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Rambler OP wrote

Reply to comment by CyberKat in Best method of converting PDF files to HTML files? by Rambler

Thanks for the resposne. I actually ended up using Calibre to convert to html with some limited success. I think I need to adjust the settings more, as some of the pages had some weird formatting issues with the embedded images and text overlapping them, or in some cases lines not wrapping to the page causing horizontal scroll in the browser.

It's still something I want to get working as I have some great ebooks on alternative construction, gardening, and a lot of homestead and off-grid living stuff that I want to share. Maybe some day soon...

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CyberKat wrote

Reply to Best method of converting PDF files to HTML files? by Rambler

First time posting so take it easy on me please... I use Linux Mint and have found a program back when I was a windows user called Calibre which is an ebook management program. It is a Linux program that normally is in your Software Manager. Among it's features is the ability to convert ebooks to different formats. HTML is one format, I personally use it to convert them to .txt and then use text2wav and Lame to convert them to mp3 as I am an OLD computer user (53) and am slowly going blind. Hope this helps! if you want me to send you my .sh I wrote to handle the .txt to .mp3 process let me know via email fu.killme @ gmail.com

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