• 1 Post
  • 104 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
cake
Cake day: March 30th, 2024

help-circle
  • The clarify, they said to get rid of all that stuff from OTHER peoples devices. The point being that you’re not the weakest link in this chain.

    To illustrate, I have a phone number for less than a year that maybe 20 people have. All friends and family. I still had a sales call on it who was targeted and addressed me by name.



  • I’m going to second the comment to leave well enough alone. Do NOT mess with your machine if its what makes you money.

    I know you commented you don’t have funds for a second computer to test with but that really is the best step for you.

    This is especially regarding some of your other details. You are not in for a quick and smooth transition (sorry to say).

    VSTs are “sort of” supported on Linux. Basically they’re not and there are work arounds that I haven’t done using wine for compatibility.

    I run a virtual machine for the windows software I am reliant on. So basically my Photoshop etc I use Affinity in a windows VM and it works fine. Depending if you get intensive with your work you might need a lot of resources or experience lag. But for the most part it should be fine. Look into virt-manager for your VM if you want to go that route.

    Besides the VST issue, audio recording will probably give you additiinal problems. I haven’t delved into it because he rabbit hole went too deep for me, but from what I’ve read there tends to be issues with audio in VMs (tremendous lag for one).

    But all that being said, there should be a solution for all of your needs. It probably won’t be straight forward though given your use cases. I don’t want to sound negative with my warnings, I just want to make sure you don’t shoot yourself in the foot with your work.





  • I would highly recommend this as I did something similar. I ran Linux on an older machine separate from my main machine. I did so for about 10 months. Plus I built out a gaming machine for somebody and set up another old machine as a media center, both with Linux.

    I finally made the 100% switch just a few months ago. I bought a new M.2 drive and swapped out just like you are planning. I really needed to make sure I had no hitches for work purposes. I haven’t even considered swapping back (though in full transparency I have Windows running on a VM for some apps that I can’t get in Linux)


  • I’ve had the same thing happen for my own personal domain that I run through Addy. Its frustrating because people can’t tell what a “good” domain is, so how can you have any rules about it? And if you do, then have a verification system with your customer service team.

    But I’ve always said to myself, if this service won’t take my email then I don’t really want to be their customer. What else are they going to screw up when I give them my data?



  • I would probably argue they are the same in terms of security and privacy. Privacy communities tend to disfavor Proton because its all eggs in one basket, and also for political reasons. Both of those are subjective to your personal threat/privacy profile.

    Its true that a single point of failure is more risk than separate services, but that fact doesn’t undermine their security on a technical level, and has nothing to do with privacy. As for the political, yes it’s something to watch but nothing wrong has been done. They are set up as a non profit with checks and measures in place to prevent corruption from happening. I’m OK with different points of view and having different points of view on a board is a good thing.



  • I’m no ghost, not even close. Be careful though, “what’s the point?” Is essentially the question everybody asks at every phase of that iceberg diagram.

    A possible answer to your question though, is that even if the state doesn’t know or care about him today that might change tomorrow.

    That’s not my threat profile but it’s a valid one.


  • I’m fully in support of LibreOffice and the fact that it can do a lot for free. However it is far from an enterprise product.

    I’m still waiting for anybody to make a true competitor to Excel. There’s some decrnt spreadsheet software but there’s really no comparison to the functionality of Excel. Even Google sheets is a distant second.

    My point is, when there are power users involved LibreOffice just won’t cut it.







  • There’s something about simplicity that is underated.

    Technically my first ditro was SuSE a loooong time ago but I didn’t stick with it. Then back when Ubuntu became he new hit thing I tried that, but again didn’t stick with it.

    I have now loaded up Mint and that’s the one I’m running with. Mind you, all distros have come a long way since my prior Linux dealings but Mint is the one to make me permanently switch.


  • I agree with you, but there’s two sides of the coin.

    I would rather pay for a finished product that is good. Sure I can download Linux for free, but I’d rather pay for it. I’d rather support teams that are putting out a product to ensure it is the best it can be and be continually maintained.

    FOSS doesn’t have to be free. Nor should it be.

    However when projects get organized like that they become organizations. Organizations become businesses. And that’s fine. Let’s support them so they can eat and feed their kids.

    So it begs the question, if I feel that way about them is it fine to support non open source orgs and software? Of course it is.

    So it basically comes down to the complaining that the software is not good enough.

    Of course “good enough” isn’t binary, so if its on the threshold of usability I use it and if its severely lacking then I don’t. No big deal.

    If its free, then there is no reason to complain regardless. If you’re paying for it, I think your opinion has a bit more weight. Of course there’s still a scale. If it’s so far removed from usability then I just don’t buy it. Windows is a good example of that. But if its close, voicing your opinion that you want certain features is more than fine. It doesn’t remove your support. Wanting Affinity on Linux is a fine desire. If they haven’t said they aren’t going to then asking isn’t a complaint. It’s a want.

    I use Affinity because its the best solution I can find. I would love to have it on Linux. Maybe one day it will happen, but I’m not holding my breath. Supporting Affinity in hopes that they make it better for me (for my preferred platform) is OK, because I’m finding a way to use the product that suits me today. If that way becomes too much hassle tomorrow, I’ll move on. But if they make it easy for me to stay with them then I won’t. But either way, supporting Gimp won’t make it Affinity. It’ll just make Gimp a better Gimp.

    I guess it boils down to, do you support something that isn’t what you want in hopes it becomes what you want it to be or do you support something that is exactly what you want, hoping it will go to where you want it?

    Sorry I rambled on there (I’m tired). I do agree with you but there’s a counter point I also agree with. I don’t think they are exclusive.