I’m celebrating!

As a linux phone guy this is good news. Any more pushing towards a more solid linux phone environment is a big plus.

Completely automatic should be one of the options. Not just ‘reminders’ and ‘don’t check’. I know that I used to use several years ago.

Thank you!! That is exactly what I was looking for.

That is a big help. I was stuck on the idea that that option wasn’t available when making a new doc and didn’t think to look under the change mode menu.

Yep. Even have this problem with people who agree that it is a bad idea and that google/etc is tracking them. I struggle to admit it, but I think many people are just sheep. Or probably lemmings. I think the last few years have shown that many people really will walk off that cliff if they think “everyone” else is, even if they know the cliff is there and the bottom is way way down there. It looks like they can’t help themselves.

Curious about what wasn’t working with matrix? and how XMPP is comparing? I haven’t used XMPP in like over a decade. Is it still about the same? Better? I don’t think I was that aware of its group abilities. Mostly used it with one friend back in the N900 days where it was built in. How does the excryption compare? about the same if you choose the right option? You got a favorite linux client?

(I know I am pestering you with too many questions, feel free to ignore)

Not haunted by legacy identifiers like phone numbers,

That is a very solid point that all too few people consider. (I’m looking at you telegram!)

I think that as a photo editor, GIMP is the best option for open source. But as a print designer the lack of being able to work in CMYK and 1 bit images is a big problem.

Fortunately Krita does the CMYK thing extremely well, but it also lacks the ability to handle 1 bit images.

Wondering if anyone out there has discovered a lesser known open source app that works with 1 bit images well? Maybe something made for old school pixel art?

It seems strange to me, since even a more modern format like png supports 1 bit.

To be fair… that is more of a MS Paint kind of tool. I’ve been using Photoshop professionally for over 3 decades and I don’t think I have ever used it. It took me a bit just to find it just now. Don’t think I’ve ever used the rectangle tool either. A vector editing program like inkscape/illustrator or scribus/indesign are better tools for that kind of thing.

With that said. GIMP does have an ellipse selection tool, and that is something that I use often enough. And if you really wanted to draw a circle in a pixel pusher program you could just use that tool, invert it and delete on a separate layer.

I found this to be the most interesting part:

You might think this sounds like it violates the Fourth Amendment, which protects American citizens from unreasonable searches and seizures without probable cause. Well, so does the American Civil Liberties Union. Norfolk, Virginia Judge Jamilah LeCruise also agrees, and in 2024 she ruled that plate-reader data obtained without a search warrant couldn’t be used against a defendant in a robbery case.

Last time I read about this issue was before this happened. Finally the ball is bouncing back a little. Hope to see more of it.

Most Democrats will and have said the same thing.

Oddly… Trump admin people know better than that… but I’m not expecting them to actually do anything differently than what you suggest. Probably both are already captured by whatever data has already been found on them.

several reasons:

they both think they’re in control of it… but mostly because the people funding most of them (same people) are telling them not to… often in the form of police unions and relevant organizations

any party large enough to win anything is going to be mostly co-opted… you gotta vote for individuals… not parties.

same reason most democrats don’t

Ugg… I suspected when I kept seeing more of these things in parking lots and roads. Guess, now I know for sure.

Adobe used to make a linux version of acrobat reader that will probably do the trick. You’re not going to find it on adobe’s download site, but it is still there at the link this tutorial uses. I just checked.

Not what you are looking for… but I work in print and often need to edit pdfs in a much more base level. Inkscape can be a pretty powerful program for that.

‘PDF Arranger’ is a good program if all you need to do is rearrange or combine pages in one or more pdf files.

Fair question.

It is something I turn off so I don’t remember for sure. Typically it comes up during the installation process. If your distro is using “Software Updater” it should be an option in it’s settings called “automatically check for updates”. This is on Ubuntu 25.04. Although it has been updated a few times from the version it was originally.

But whatever program is being used for updates should have options that will probably get you there.

Agreed. Krita is a better program for print design. The fact that it has a full range of color models built in is powerful stuff. Not just CMYK, but LAB and many others. But GIMP has its advantages for some tasks if you never leave the realm of RGB.

typically the default is autoupdate to be activated…

Cause ‘muh freedom’

The younger users may not be aware of this… but privacy and freedom were big concerns about the internet since at least the early nineties. We knew that the moment of being ignored was only going to last a little while and it was commonly discussed. And it was already discussed about how insecure windows was and rumors of their back doors and the like.

In that light… when I first heard about linux in 1995 and gave slackware a try one weekend I knew that eventually I was going to switch. But I was/am a graphics artist and 1995 was too soon for doing that kind of stuff at the professional level on linux. But I knew the day would come, so I consciously started switching to open source apps instead of cracked proprietary apps.

Around 2006-2007 there was a lot of talk about projects like Ubuntu making linux highly functional for a graphics person and relatively “easy” to get running. By that time the only proprietary software I was using was Adobe, which I only cared about using while at work and a couple games. And even then, running adobe inside of virtualbox was an option. I dual booted and after about 1-2 months I reached the point where I finally was comfortable enough to not ever go back. After about a year and realizing I hadn’t booted into windows for about 4 months, I erased that partition. I’ve never looked back.

Ubuntu phones were already miles better

Unfortunately none of them shipped with a modem that worked on american networks. ;[

I would have loved to have given one of those a chance.

I was using the nokia N900 since it was first released and then I’d buy new or used ones every couple years when it broke. Apparently some factory in China made a bunch of extras. That lasted about a decade.

Then when the librem5 was first announced I sent them some money. Funny enough that after that Pine64 both announced and finished developing their pinephone before the librem5 got released. So I got one of those and then one of the pinephone pros.

Eventually the librem5 came out and I’ve been using that since then. The functionality of the switches makes all the difference for me. That, and the extra thickness makes it more portable and easier to use and handle than the pinephones.

Nothing has come close to competing with the N900. That has been the best cell phone I have ever had by a lot… since I got my first winmobile phone back in 2002. It was the perfect size and the keyboard was extremely functional. The stylus was super handy as well, although you typically never needed it, but it did make using more desktop type software on a small touch screen a lot more handy.

The impression that I get from modern linux smartphone developers is that almost none of them have any experience outside of the limited design model of iphone and android phones. So even if they are aware of the N900 and what they are, they don’t have an understanding of what has been lost when Steve Jobs insisted that not having a keyboard was a “good thing” just because they wanted to cut manufacturing costs. Remember, this is the guy that use to insist that mice should only have 1 button. I’m an artist, I like aesthetics too, but functionality comes first when you are developing tools.

To summarize the strengths of the N900 outside of running linux: the small overall pocket friendly size, the fold out keyboard was easy to use when needed and out of the way when not needed. The stylus wasn’t needed for software designed for the mobile platform, but it made all the difference when using software not made for the mobile platform. That and the hardware keyboard. When you got all that functionality built in, you don’t have to fake it on an overly large screen that barely fits in your pocket. And that screen does a crap job of it.

Sorry about the rant. I’ve developed strong opinions on this topic over the last couple decades.

As for my current use… mostly I’ve moved away from using a smartphone as much. Its not healthy and isn’t an efficient tool for doing computer stuff. And as I mentioned, they aren’t that portable since they’re so damn big now. They make them thin now, but that just makes them harder to use/hold and doesn’t increase the room in your pocket any. I now find doing phone calls with a voip setup to be easier. I got everything routed through my email inbox and find that to be easiest.

Most people aren’t going to agree with me on this. Most people first learned the iphone/droid model and they base their opinions on that.