Which compositor would I be using through KDE Plasma 6?

KDE uses KWin by default, which can do both X11 and Wayland currently.

Another issue I’ve had with Snaps is just increased boot times. Something to do with mounting all the virtual images involved or something, makes boot take noticeably longer. I’ve tested having an Ubuntu install with Snaps, and then removed the snaps and snapd while installing the same software via Flatpak, and had a noticeable boot time improvement. Hopefully they’ve been working to improve this, but it just soured me on them even more.

As for another install method, mostly for CLI tools, but working with a lot of GUI apps too now, there’s Distrobox. It has a bit of a bloat issue, because you’re basically installing an entire extra headless Linux Distro with it, but it for example allows you to run AUR inside an Arch based Box, and then you can integrate the app you installed with AUR into the host OS, running it near seamlessly, while keeping its dependencies contained in the Box which you can easily remove. By default apps in the Box will have access to the host’s filesystem but you can mitigate this if you want. Distrobox is especially great on atomic read-only Distros, where you can’t directly touch system directories, by allowing you to install apps that expect such access from things like AUR.

Yep. Google Voice is the forgotten step-child that Google only remembers exists once every few years, randomly pushing a wave of updates, and then nothing(don’t let the bi-weekly bug fix updates fool you).

Though in a way I don’t mind, since they’re still providing the service for free, with zero ads, for over a decade. I’m convinced at this point that it’s the pet project of some higher up that likes the service and manages to sweep any maintenance costs under the rug so the bean counters never try to kill it.

Seriously, I put an SSD in a Netbook(remember those?) for a friend and the performance increased noticeably, even with it running Windows 10. I bet it would’ve been even better if it was using something less bloated than Windows, but that’s what my friend wanted.

Personally, I transitioned my entire family and friends to use my Google Voice number years ago. GV doesn’t support RCS still, which is annoying, but otherwise it works great. When my phone broke at the beginning of this year I was still able to send and receive texts from everyone.

Obviously, if you don’t trust Google this would be a non-starter though.

I don’t know what it’s like in Canada, but in the US tons of people use MVNOs instead of straight subscribing to one of the big 3 carriers, so guessing what the domain name for each one, or getting everybody to text your email so you can find out, is just tedious.

It’s not stupidity. You need to invent the tools that are needed to make the tools that make the tools that make the tools that make the thing. China still hasn’t independently invented most of those tools yet, so they’ve been relying on finished tools from other countries. Being smart doesn’t wipe away the decades of research needed to make something. We all expect China to eventually be able to make an equivalent tool, but they’re working with a handicap of inexperience which was expected to take years of dedication to overcome. Which is why everybody is skeptical that China made this independently without outside help or knowledge.

It would probably involve needing to make a custom firmware for the controller in order to redirect it to a different server, and to reimplement its Wifi pairing.

If they’re still working on ROG Phones, then they’ll still have the software engineers to put out software updates for the Zenfones.

It does suck that they seem to be killing the Zenfone line right when it got really good though.

Also, if you’re dual booting, Disable Fast Start in Windows! That’ll prevent drives from being mounted on Linux since Windows never technically “shutsdown” when Fast Boot is enabled.

Recently at work they replaced the AEDs with new models that support Children, and have a Spanish guide mode, super nice. But they also are now connected to the Internet so that they report any usage and order a new set of pads automatically, plus it has a bright screen constantly cycling through advertisement of what the device is. Also for some reason the power button isn’t actually a power button, and just triggers the start-up process while calling back to base, just like touching the on-screen buttons or pulling out the pads will do.

What could go wrong?

HDMI came from the TV manufacturers and was earlier than DP. While DP came from VESA and Computer OEMs.

HDMI being in TVs gave it a far wider penetration in the consumer market, and so when people wanted to hookup their laptops and other devices to TVs, they’d need HDMI.

Ironically, as ports have been simplified to almost just USB-C on many devices, DP’s market share actually grows as it’s cheaper and easier to include for OEMs, and if the consumer has to buy an adapter anyway, it might as well be on their dime to pay for HDMI, rather than the phone or laptop maker.

Wholesalers get them from the devs and publishers, like I said. But they’re not the key sites.

Key Resell Sites, like G2A, don’t often get them from wholesalers. They operate like eBay. The sellers buy them from whatever legitimate source they can use their stolen credit card info at, and then they slap their essentially free key on the Resell Site for pure profit. Some sellers on sites like G2A might be legitimate, buying keys from wholesalers, but too often they aren’t. With a site system like that it’s near impossible to police for stolen goods, as there is no way to verify a key’s origin. Sites like Swappa, which facilitate selling mobile devices, can use things like a phone’s IMEI to check if it’s marked stolen or not. But Valve, for example, provides no way to check a key without redeeming it, and hence there’s also no mechanism for anybody to report a stolen key short of telling the dev/publisher and having them revoke the key which has likely already been used by some unwitting consumer.

They buy keys from the devs/publishers directly or legit wholesalers who are known to get the keys from the devs/publishers. Wholesalers themselves don’t popup on consumers’ radar since they only buy and sell in bulk.

In their mind Piracy might kinda maybe theoretically sorta be a lost sale, but keys bought with stolen credit cards literally cost them money because of the fees from all the middleman payment providers. So not only does their bank account not go up, it goes down.

And Developer Tools! :D

I guess mobile clients screw with their fingerprinting method. Also doesn’t work on Slide.

Seal is another option, and it uses YT-DLP on the backend, a fork of Youtube-DL.

Flatpak includes all the libraries Steam, proton, and games need to run, sandboxed and without having to mess with the ones installed more generally on your system. Can help prevent headaches and compatibility issues.

The stickers are that folded white slip behind the disc in the picture. I forgot to take a picture of them, but they don’t look great since they were transparent and the adhesive has degraded into a patchy yellow/orange mess. A bit of a shame, but time marches on.