Spiracle

I’ve had issues since kernel 6.4. Since early December, one pair of Bluetooth headphones works again (mostly, with occasional connection issues), but the AirPods still fail to pair at all.

It’s a microphone box which can send an alert if the sound of chainsaws is heard.

Seems like a good idea, but I’m pretty sure “AI” is only used to describe it because that is the latest buzzword…

Really depends on distro/use case/luck. I’ve had quite a few years without any issues, more with minimal and very rare irritations. The day-to-day experience continues is pleasant.

The few months have been somewhat more frustrating for me, and once I have a bit more leisure time I’ll switch distro to something that hopefully works better for me.

I’ve used KDE (including Plasma) on 8 GB RAM for years. Never had an issue, though I did only play old/indie games. On old hardware like this, I’d probably try it and maybe switch later if I notice that RAM is the bottleneck.

KDE Plasma (love the looks of it, though is my hardware enough?)

With 8 GB RAM and SSD, it should be plenty. Otherwise, I’d go with something else. XFCE is quite a solid experience, as I recall. No strong recommendations there, though. I’ve mostly used Cinnamon and KDE over the years.

Linux Mint is a classic choice. Positive: It has been recommended to newbies so much over so many years that there are tons of entry-level how-tos. Downside: Many of them are old and might be outdated by now. Be sure to always check whether the guide you are following is from 2010 or something…

Same really for all the Ubuntu distros. Kubuntu (=KDE+Ubuntu) worked fine for me.

I’ve read many people being very satisfied with Pop!_OS as well. Apparently, it’s a good distribution if you want everything to already be set up for gaming for you. Haven’t used it myself, though.

EndeavourOS is the one I’m personally planning to use whenever I next install an OS. The distro and the surrounding community have a great reputation for being user-friendly and reliable.

It did. I must have mixed them up. Not sure about the desktop/gaming divide, I mostly get my info from random articles.

Based on a brief search, you may be correct on both counts. I’ll fix my post. Thanks for pointing it out.

If Windows works fine for you and does not annoy you, there is no need to migrate.

Personally, I’ve been mostly happy using Linux as my sole desktop OS for ~15 years. However, I only switched because Windows kept breaking and reinstalling no longer fixed it. I couldn’t imagine going back now, but a big part is probably being used to it.

These days most major Linux distributions should be fine for desktop use.

Linux Mint Cinnamon use to be the go-to beginner distribution. Its design is apparently somewhat similar to Windows, giving you some initial familiarity. Linux Mint is also based on Ubuntu, which used to be so widespread that many support pages and simple how-to instruction still default to explaining it for Ubuntu.
(This can still lead to confusion if you search for “install [Windows program] Linux” and the instructions work for Ubuntu based distribution only, not for any other distros.)

The last few years, I’ve seen a switch to Arch-based distributions around. Valve itself switched away from Ubuntu to Arch in some ways. (On Steam, the system requirements still use Ubuntu as default.) SteamOS used to be based on Debian, which Ubuntu is related to, until the Steam Deck. Now it is based on Arch. More specifically, Valve seems to default to:

Base: Arch
Desktop environment: KDE Plasma (more powerful/options than Cinnamon)
Compositor base: Wayland for gaming, old X11 for Steam Deck’s desktop. (Apparently Wayland isn’t quite ready yet for that in their opinion.)

EDIT: Fixed thanks to feedback.

Arch itself is seen as a more technical distribution. There are extremely many support pages for every issue or question you may have, similar to Ubuntu, but some may be more difficult to understand. Still, support systems improve as the user base grows and Arch is growing.

For specific distributions, EndeavourOS is the one I’ve heard about being the most friendly. Manjaro is also beginner-friendly, but the folks who maintain it have some serious issues with seriously fucking things up sometimes.

https://itsfoss.com/arch-based-linux-distros/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVlD17OjFAc (Video compiling Manjaro fuckups.)

Super simple ELI5:

• Electronics (computers/phones/laptops etc) work by running electricity through stuff (“conductors”).

• While moving, the electricity “bumps” into stuff on the way. That’s bad, and only the reason electronics get warm. Electric energy is turned into heat instead of doing its job.

• In a _super_conductor, electricity does not bump into stuff. Everything works smoothly, no waste heat. Batteries would last longer. Heat damage would no longer be (as much) a concern. Basically, all-around better.

The warmest current conductor I’ve read about only worked at below -27 °C, I think, and needed huge pressure, like on the ocean floor. Others work at surface pressure but require even lower temps.

Benefits of safe, cheaply mass-produced, room-temperature, [EDIT: and workable] surface-pressure superconductors:

• Massively better battery life of everything.

• Much, much more efficient use of anything that needs electricity, reducing cost of everything that needs electricity.

• Extremely efficient energy transfer (power lines etc can lose a lot of energy on the way), making electricity itself cheaper.

• Some inventions are suddenly much more feasible (Maglev trains and hoverboards are examples I’ve seen mentioned, but don’t ask me about the science behind that.)

• Electronics can become smaller, yet again. It would probably make Smartwatches and “Spatial Computing” devices more feasible.

EDIT: Based on one YT video, I’ll add that the material also needs to be able to worked into various forms and solid/stable enough not to crumble over time. Apparently, there are some technically great superconductors already, but they crumble apart or lose their superconductor status if electricity flows through them the wrong way, or something, making them useless.

Isn’t fresher always better?

Due to the nature as a community of tech enthusiasts, normal end-users can easily get software that is a bit too fresh. You probably don’t want to be a beta-tester unless you don’t mind updates frequently breaking your system.

Usually, default settings put you a few levels down from that, depending on which distro you go for. This doesn’t keep you completely save from some developers doing stupid shit (Manjaro), but this shouldn’t be a concern for any distro I’ve seen recommended here.

Based on the ~2 videos I’ve seen, the newly released Debian 12 stable might actually be good for newbies without being noticeably out-of-date. Thanks to Flatpak etc, new software versions can be installed / updated easily without compromising stability.

OsmAnd is my family’s go-to app for navigation. I didn’t notice it missing information compared to Google Maps. The opposite really, with several hiking trails or small side-roads not being on Google some years ago. The only issue it has is navigation for more than ~200km at a time. Often, it just times out if you try that. That’s why Google Maps is still installed on some devices.

I haven’t added anything actively. I think I might have enabled an option to send location data to improve the accuracy of the streets or something at some point, but I’m very unsure about that one.

Exactly. Difference is, you may also create fully NSFW models or pictures, if you figure out how. There’s a topless woman in the top community creations right now. They just don’t seem to want straight up porn, and this makes it difficult enough to keep it from being flooded by that.

Yes. Various, with various limitations.

The simplest is Stable Horde/AI horde. Volunteers donate GPU time to the public. Please do not abuse this trust by overusing it without giving back! Great for quick experiments, though, since it requires no sign-up. Also includes a “get probable description from uploaded image” function, I’ve just noticed:

https://aqualxx.github.io/stable-ui/about

Personally, I’ve been playing around with leonardo.ai. It has a payment structure, but the free tier is very generous, in my opinion. You get 150 free daily token. Images cost between 1-4 token. It has a prompt generator, and you can even train your own model for free. There are also a lot of community models, since every model is set to public by default. You can even browse public images and directly copy all settings/prompts into the generator or use them for image-to-image stuff.

The company is very much focussing on building an active community, which can be both good and bad. You are first put on a waiting list, but your account is automatically activated if you join the discord and write some comments. There are also constant community contests/challenges to earn more token.

https://leonardo.ai/

Edit: leonardo.ai techncally allows nsfw generations, but heavily discourages them. It has an automatic filter for any terms deemed nsfw. You may also not discuss how to circumvent that filter in the discord. (You may discuss how to bypass the filter to prompt safe for work images. E.g. you may discuss how to create Charles Dickens characters despite Dickens being filtered out.)

Here are few more, but I haven’t tried any of them:
https://stable-diffusion-art.com/free-ai-image-generator-sites/

Not to dunk on you too hard, but this question is on the same level as “Do people actually use OnlyFans” and “Do people actually pay money on scummy gambling sites?”

Of course they do. The reasons vary from charity towards poor creatives to paying for access to exclusive content to simping for your favourite thirst trap to simply wanting to support a creator you like for a month or two.

I don’t fully understand what people get out of it in many cases like supporters of creators who get 50k+ every month but only release a bit of content once per year, but in general it makes a ton of sense.