I’ve tried just about every distro over the past decade, and I always come back to Ubuntu. It commands the largest share of the Linux market by a large margin, especially when you consider its derivative distributions like Mint and PopOS. It also has excellent support from hardware vendors, specifically NVIDIA in my case.

Assuming you’re running Linux and don’t need any advanced features, Apostrophe works well. Obsidian is also a great cross-platform option.

Star Labs is a European company that sells laptops and two-in-one tablets with excellent Linux support. They don’t meet all the criteria you listed, but they’re good to mention

I don’t disagree with you, but sending and receiving emails requires transmission of unencrypted metadata. There’s no easy way around it

Proton’s privacy policies state that they retain unencrypted metadata (addresses, timestamps, etc.) which are required to provide the service. This information may be disclosed to law enforcement. However, the actual content in your account is largely end-to-end encrypted. Law enforcement might request it, but without the keys to decrypt it they won’t be able to read your data.

When I was in grad school, I had a Light Phone II as my primary device. It was more than sufficient for texting and calling, and I could even listen to podcasts. It had a GPS, but it was pretty bad. After graduation I moved to a new area and ended up getting an iPhone. I average around 3-5 hours of screen time per day, but that doesn’t include my computer (8 hours a day at work as a computer engineer) or TV. Eventually I would like to return to my Light Phone, or even upgrade to the new third-generation model.

What file format are you outputting from HandBrake? Some like MP4 have limited support for subtitle tracks.

If by “privacy settings” you mean controlling what system permissions the Home app has, you’re out of luck. It’s a semi-default app and may be more deeply embedded into iOS than is apparent.

If you’re trying to control what other apps have access to HomeKit data, you can find that in Privacy & Security.

You’ll get an email from Framework when the order is preparing to ship, and you’ll get another email with a tracking number when it is on the way.

This is how I do it. I followed this guide to get it set up, and this one to make it work behind a VPN (Tailscale)

It’s required by US law for organizations to collect this data on donors. It’s also to your own benefit, as most charitable donations are taxed deductible 

I share this pipe dream. Increased awareness of and access to self-hosted services encourages decentralization, reduces our reliance on massive data centers, and empowers the public to own their data. For the hobbyist, I think this is already in reach.

However, in order for such a system to succeed in the wider market, it needs to also be cheap and convenient. Even a Raspberry Pi goes for around $80 these days, and storage is becoming more expensive by the day thanks to AI companies. iCloud storage is only 99 cents a month. If, for example, ISPs were to bundle this software and storage with their modem hardware, it could happen. Hell, they could even charge a small fee to provide you with a publicly accesible domain.

I’d argue this is nothing new. I recall coming across some truly horrendous stuff on LiveLeak, Reddit, and even YouTube when I was a child. Most of the time, I was not looking for it. The Internet is no place for the developing mind…

Anyone who read the thread will see that the OP pretty much dropped it after Nirav’s response. Framework is a tiny company without a PR machine for these occasions, and I doubt they knowingly sponsored a project based on the developers’ political ideologies. Let’s all take some deep breaths.

Very cool. Reminds me of the Madness markdown server.

According to W3Techs, Cloudflare is used for 80.9% of all known reverse proxy endpoints which account for 19.8% of the entire Internet. It’s safe to say it’s used to host both legal and illegal content with that broad of a scope.

They are an American company and must cooperate with law enforcement when abuse is reported. If you’re planning on hosting pirated content, that most definitely violates their terms of service and will get you in trouble.

The Music app (also called Apple Music, formerly iTunes) is a library manager at its core. You don’t need an Apple Music subscription to use it. It runs on macOS and Windows.

If you’re an Apple household, Apple Music (iTunes) is still great. I don’t pay for streaming services; I buy music on iTunes/Bandcamp and rip CDs.

Apple Music has a fantastic interface for managing metadata, creating playlists, and performing complex batch jobs with AppleScript. I sync my iPhone and iPod Nano every time I add a new album, and I host my media folder on NextCloud for listening on other devices.

Thanks! What kinds of things do you intend to do with your lab? I felt that the Pi was suitable for most everything except media pipelines.

Love the evolution! How are you measuring the power consumption of your devices? I’d be interested in profiling my build as well.