@cassidy@blaede.family cover
@cassidy@blaede.family avatar

cassidy

@[email protected]

Building open communities and useful, usable tech for good.

:roost: https://ROOST.tools OSS Community Manager
:gnome: @gnome Foundation Director
:flathub: @flathub contributor

Previously: partners & community @EndlessAccess, co-founder & CXO at @elementary; UX & web at @system76.

Still an emo kid at heart 🖤

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@cassidy@blaede.family avatar cassidy , to random

Have I gone too far down the path of nerdery with my birthday party? Quite possibly. But why just send an invite when some hand-coded HTML and CSS will do? 🤌

https://cantina.blaede.family/

Shout out to @louie and @crown for the heading fonts. You can buy your own licenses at https://crowntype.com! And shout out to @rsms for the body font; it’s sneakily Inter with a whole bunch of stylistic alternates to make it feel funky but legible. 😎

cassidy OP ,
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@louie 😊 I even just… hand wrote a goddamn website in HTML. It was refreshing!

@cassidy@blaede.family avatar cassidy , to random

On my way to Brussels!

cassidy OP ,
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I stopped by Wolf Food Market for a bite on the way over to some meetings. I'm sitting by the Greek place!

Rue du Fossé aux Loups 50, 1000 Bruxelles, Belgium

https://maps.app.goo.gl/fcoRvkBYfwJZVoWV9

/

cassidy OP ,
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Heading to Wolf Food Market again in about 30 mins with GNOMies!

cassidy OP ,
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We're behind the pizza place!

cassidy OP ,
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Proof of GNOMies

cassidy OP ,
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GNOME designers inspired by the best font when choosing a bar at FOSDEM…

@cassidy@blaede.family avatar cassidy , to random

Friendly reminder that Signal—while maybe not perfect—is a much better choice for communication than RCS, especially if you are communicating anything sensitive. Doubly true if you are on iOS or communicating with anyone who is, as Apple still does not even use end-to-end encryption like Google does on Android.

https://signal.org/download/

@cassidy@blaede.family avatar cassidy , to random

TIL Inkscape has built-in zine templates! You can design the individual pages and then it lays out the print layout automatically. Neat!

Screenshot of Inkscape with a zine template. Across the top are individually-labeled pages (like Adobe Illustrator artboards) laid out with the covers and then six pages, then at the bottom is a print layout which arranges the designs for a printable and foldable zine.
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@cassidy@blaede.family avatar cassidy , to random

Mastodon/fediverse peeps who come across Bluesky accounts that are bridged (i.e. using Bridgy Fed), how do you feel about them and their posts?

Please boost widely, I’m trying to get input from more than just my followers. 🙏

@cassidy@blaede.family avatar cassidy , to random

The late night temptation to stay up “just a little bit longer” because the European folks are starting to wake up… 😬

@cassidy@blaede.family avatar cassidy , to random

It has been an exceptional 2025 when it comes to what GNOME has delivered. Let’s help the Foundation reach 1,500 Friends of GNOME by the end of the year to be able to deliver even more in 2026!

https://cassidyjames.com/blog/looking-back-gnome-2025-looking-forward-2026/

@thibaultamartin@mamot.fr avatar thibaultamartin , to random

After a few days (weeks?) of using Linux again, I’m happy to report that some of my fears turned out to be outdated.

On my T470, suspend works perfectly, and the battery life is more than decent!

My main problem is that the screen has a crappy resolution, that I apparently can’t hardware-upgrade.

But looking at laptops on the market, none seem to have a screen that makes @cassidy ’s dippi happy

https://cassidyjames.com/dippi/

cassidy ,
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@thibaultamartin @bugaevc fractional scaling does not change the fact that fractions of a pixel do not exist, and therefore will introduce blurriness/jitter in places that you wouldn't get it with integer scaling. That said, yes, the fractional situation is far better these days than in the past.

I still get frustrated with blurry icons and jittery UI across different apps and toolkits that I don't get on a true 2× HiDPI display, but modern GNOME does about as well as you can.

cassidy ,
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@bugaevc @thibaultamartin scalable icons are still designed to fit to a pixel grid. Lines in those icons that are two pixels wide will occasionally wind up being rendered over a half pixel, meaning it gets antialiased—which means a blurry line instead of a crisp one that you would get with an integer scale. You can see this frequently with the menu (≡) icon where one of the bars is blurry but the others are crisp.

cassidy ,
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@bugaevc @thibaultamartin again, it's about as good as you can get with fractional scaling but ultimately you are still dealing with physical constraints of pixels. An integer scale will always be more crisp since things like strokes and icons are defined in pixel values and are optimized to be aligned to a pixel grid, even when scalable.

cassidy ,
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@YaLTeR @bugaevc @thibaultamartin lol yeah I guess if you make things look worse at integer scales, then it makes fractional scales look better. 😜 But GNOME designers still care about the pixel grid at least.

@cassidy@blaede.family avatar cassidy , to random

Shout out to @thelinuxEXP for his consistently great Linux and open source news videos!

https://www.youtube.com/thelinuxexperiment

I became a channel member a while back to support him, and have really been enjoying the daily audio-only episodes on my commute after dropping kids off in the mornings. Nick always has a sensible, factual approach while not being afraid to share his (very reasonable!) opinions and thoughts.

cassidy OP ,
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@Tommy @thelinuxEXP yeah I find that really strange, especially when I'm supporting the channel AND have YouTube Premium… I just pop them into picture-in-picture mode on Android which works but is annoying.

@grumpygamer@mastodon.gamedev.place avatar grumpygamer , to random

I wish there were more seasons of Corner Gas.

cassidy ,
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@grumpygamer YES. Have you seen the animated series?

@kde@floss.social avatar kde , (edited ) to random

announces desktop machine and goggles powered by KDE's desktop.

https://store.steampowered.com/sale/steammachine

https://store.steampowered.com/sale/steamframe

But this is. A cool looking set of black VR goggles with two futuristic looking controllers lay on a beige surface.
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cassidy ,
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@kde ooooooooooooh now this is a gaming PC I might actually consider buying…

@cassidy@blaede.family avatar cassidy , to random

Aurora, Colorado finally living up to its name! Straight out of the camera, no edits. 🤩

image/jpeg
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@omgubuntu@floss.social avatar omgubuntu , to random

Firefox has a new mascot, who Mozilla say will act as a "companion through an internet that’s private, open and actually yours".

https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2025/11/firefox-new-mascot-brand-refresh?v2

cassidy ,
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@omgubuntu very cute!

@cassidy@blaede.family avatar cassidy , to random

I was admittedly bearish about Bazaar early on; I was confused by the design that was trying to reinvent a lot of things, plus I didn’t know how I felt about diverging efforts from GNOME Software.

Now that the Bazaar team has decide to clone the Flathub web UI whenever it makes sense (and improve on it in cool ways!), I’ll admit it: it’s pretty rad.

Huge props to the designers and developers making Bazaar. It’s the Flathub app store @tbernard always wanted.

Screenshot of Bazaar, an app store, with a listing for the game ROTA. It shows all of the app store things how you would expect, including a big icon, a verified developer name, a button to support the developer, a big install button, install size, age rating, big screenshots, and a nicely formatted description. On the left is a sidebar for the search with other results for the search "rota".
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cassidy OP ,
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This sort of demonstrates a super power of open source: you can contribute to and improve a project (like I know @tbernard did a lot with GNOME Software!), but if at some point you realize what you want is something fundamentally different—in this case, an app store client not beholden to all the distros' different packaging formats and multiple Flatpak remotes—you can take what you've learned and build or contribute to something else that does what you want. And the whole ecosystem improves!

cassidy OP ,
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Don’t get me wrong: I know there's been a ton of effort poured into GNOME Software and I deeply respect the tireless and thankless work that folks like @pwithnall have been doing to maintain and consistently improve it. But I hope Bazaar helps ignite a bit of “coopertition” that drives GNOME Software to improve its UI and performance even more. :)

If I was making a Linux distro today, though, I think I’d push for Bazaar plus OS updates in GNOME Settings, though. 🤔

@JessTheUnstill@infosec.exchange avatar JessTheUnstill , to random

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    cassidy ,
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    @JessTheUnstill Luckily I am able to spend a lot of time with my kids already, so I’d probably contribute to GNOME and Flathub pretty close to full time; it always comes down to time (which is less available due to the need to work for money!).

    @cassidy@blaede.family avatar cassidy , to random

    Flock is the most late-stage American capitalism spin on 1984. It’s not the government who puts up cameras to keep an eye on the public; it’s a for-profit company who charges the gov't for their services, and works with other massive for-profit companies to convince people to put up their own cameras to spy on themselves and their neighbors.

    Every time I tell someone about Flock, I feel like a conspiracy theorist except it’s true, and they’re not hiding it.

    https://www.404media.co/tag/flock/

    @cassidy@blaede.family avatar cassidy , to random

    I gave a short talk at the about funding @gnome ! Watch it to learn about how GNOME is actually funded, and what we’re doing to help ensure it stays sustainable. 👀

    https://www.youtube.com/live/bEEamxJ60aI?t=7h47m29s

    @cassidy@blaede.family avatar cassidy , to random

    Hot take, git shouldn't call it the master or main branch; it should be called bough.

    @sri@floss.social avatar sri , to random

    Read this about the by the . It's a great effort but as someone who has been involved in at least 3 different phone efforts - it's a daunting task.

    The biggest problem is the modem which is a black box and trying to reverse engineer that is going to be quite the effort but there is also convincing the cell phone tower operators to accept it as well.

    Without creating your own network of sorts - you're only going to have limited success. This project also needs to work with govts

    cassidy ,
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    @sri I wonder if there is any market whatsoever for a phone-shaped device that isn't technically a phone. Basically, iPod Touch. It seems like that would be a better starting point than a phone for an actual fully libre stack. Focus on high quality media playback and freeing yourself from big tech first but with a familiar form factor.

    Combined with efforts for keeping Android phones out of landfills like postmarketOS, I feel like if anything was going to work, that would be it.

    cassidy ,
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    @sri oh, I wasn't thinking from a mass market perspective, but more as a product that allows you to work on the rest of the stack (like GNOME and the app ecosystem). Like I honestly would be more likely to buy a decent digital music player thing that doesn't have a modem if it was focused on music, local first apps, and of course continuity with my GNOME computer in some way. Basically: iPod Touch. Heck, I would give one to my kid long before I would get them a phone.

    cassidy ,
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    @sri I'm probably weird, but then again so is everyone else running Linux on a phone. 🤣

    cassidy ,
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    @pojntfx @sri yeah I mean this is certainly possible! But my point is that I think a device that is phone-shaped but explicitly not an always-connected phone would still be a super interesting gadget that could lower the complexity of testing and developing this stuff. Like yeah, ultimately the goal should be to get people off of an Android phone or iPhone and onto Linux—but maybe an earlier step is to develop a really nice experience for people who don't want or need the phone part.

    @thelinuxEXP@mastodon.social avatar thelinuxEXP , to random

    It's been brought to my attention that my coverage of GNOME 49 was sub-par in some areas, notably the papers PDF viewer, and the Calendar changes.

    One of these issues seems to stem from a naming issue: what I call "annotating" a PDF is adding inline text zones. A pop-up note that you click on isn't an "annotation", at least it isn't in the French sense of the word. But yes, paper does have "annotations"s as a sticky note on top of a PDF.

    As per Calendar, I missed a bunch of changes in there.

    cassidy ,
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    @thelinuxEXP I can point you to the work in progress release notes before the release; they're a branch on an open source repository, after all. 😁

    cassidy ,
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    @thelinuxEXP this is the repo you want to keep an eye on; I can try to explicitly reach out for the next release as well 😁

    https://gitlab.gnome.org/Teams/Websites/release.gnome.org

    @cassidy@blaede.family avatar cassidy , to random

    I am looking forward to the big @moshidon update!

    Custom timelines specifically is how I genuinely feel like social media should be designed; I am surprised the official @Mastodon app hasn’t aped that and leaned into it especially with both Threads and Bluesky shipping something similar.

    Eventually I’d love to see some UX iteration on the feature from either Moshidon or Mastodon proper, too; I think there could be some really nice, natural interactions around curating your feeds.

    @moshidon@floss.social avatar moshidon , to random

    I am gonna make the rewrite branch the default branch in Moshidon's repo as soon as I finish some tidying up, because I feel like it can be mostly usable (though there are some major things still missing, namely emoji reactions, announcements, and themes). There are also a bunch of missing small settings, but the timeline management is working alright, so it should be at least usable.

    I will keep y'all updated, and thank you for using Moshidon :moshidon: 😁

    cassidy ,
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    @moshidon I'm so excited!

    @cassidy@blaede.family avatar cassidy , to random

    I’m looking for my next challenge in some intersection of open source, community, and developer advocacy! I am passionate about helping others and doing good with technology, in particular—thus I’m especially interested in working with a non-profit or strongly value-aligned organization.

    I’ve loved my work with @EndlessAccess , but unfortunately due to strategic decisions, my particular role won’t exist in the coming months.

    https://cassidyjames.com/resume

    @cassidy@blaede.family avatar cassidy , to random

    Today I got Plushtodon a boyfriend: Turnip Boy! 🫜 Apparently one of just 539 ever produced.

    Shout out to everyone I met from Snoozy Kazoo at GodotCon Boston; you were all such wonderful human beings that I literally ordered this on the spot. And he’s finally here! 🙌

    Big cubified Turnip Boy plushie next to Plushtodon, the Mastodon plushie
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    @cassidy@blaede.family avatar cassidy , to random

    If you’re on Linux, there’s a good chance you use GNOME: it’s the default experience across Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora Workstation, Endless OS, and more. If you’re on another desktop, you still likely use components developed by GNOME contributors—or maybe you get apps from Flathub.

    Want to become more than just a user? How about… a friend? 🥺 Become a Friend of GNOME to support GNOME, Flathub, and the work we do!

    https://donate.gnome.org/

    @cassidy@blaede.family avatar cassidy , to random

    I’m looking for anyone in my circles who:

    • is a front-end web developer
    • has some design sense
    • understands the allure of buying a Linux computer
    • is open to paid work

    A Linux computer company reached out asking if I was available for paid work on their website and while I would love to, I’m just not able to find the time right now. But they’re a great company and I would love to connect them with someone!

    @cassidy@blaede.family avatar cassidy , to random

    The Godot Community Poll for 2025 is live!

    If you use Godot Engine or interact in the wider Godot community in any way, please consider taking 5 mins to fill it out and help the project. :)

    https://godotengine.org/article/godot-community-poll-2025/

    @cassidy@blaede.family avatar cassidy , to random

    Game design friends, is there a widely accepted term similar to “progressive disclosure” in UX but for introducing mechanics, abilities, etc.? E.g. in a platformer where you can jump, push blocks, wall jump, etc. the level design basically forces you to learn the abilities as you go, “just in time” to complete the new challenges instead of all up front.

    Maybe progressive disclosure isn't a perfect UX equivalent, either—it might be more like “guided discovery” or something.

    cassidy OP ,
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    @jntesteves but like… not an obvious/explicit tutorial. Like, on level 5 you see a new type of block or enemy, and you have to intuit (or maybe be gently guided) how to interact with it to complete this level. You can't complete the level without figuring out the new mechanic, and then that mechanic will be start to be used in future levels.

    It's not really a novel concept (it's just… good game design?) but I am trying to figure out the right verbiage to talk about this specific aspect. :)

    @cassidy@blaede.family avatar cassidy , to random

    I maintain that we need a "fall guy" group in the Linux desktop space to fund, develop, and openly release stuff that would get the Internet mad at existing players, so they typically avoid doing them.

    Keeping in mind the intent is to push things forward while not caring about peoples' gut reactions (because technology is more nuanced than a gut reaction!), this could include…

    cassidy OP ,
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    Maybe Future Advancements Libre/Linux Team. FAL/L Team. Or the Foundation for Advancing Libre Linux. FALL.

    Foundation for Advancing Interoperable Linux (FAIL) is funny but doesn't fit the “fall guy” metaphor. 😅

    cassidy OP ,
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    @AdrianVovk yeah there would definitely need to be work on the sort of community relations/communication side for implementors. IMHO Fedora handled the metrics conversation about as poorly as humanly possible, even though the tech was there. Maybe it's half about developing the tech and half about communicating it. 😅 I think the end goal would be that the libraries or whatever that the fall team develop would be things that are obvious wins UX and privacy wise once they're actually finished…

    cassidy OP ,
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    @AdrianVovk It's the planning and development itself that would normally be avoided due to pushback, IMHO. Like, if FALL showed up with an implementation of Google Fast Pair for GNOME that was as open as possible and well documented, it would almost be a no-brainer to include it in GNOME distros. But Fedora or GNOME themselves are unlikely to kick off or develop that feature independently.

    Idk, maybe it doesn't actually make sense and play out how I imagine it, but I like dreaming. 😅

    cassidy OP ,
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    @AdrianVovk so maybe FALL maintains a GNOME OS image or something as a proof of concept, but the end goal would definitely be to make the work usable upstream/in distributions.