For anyone new to the Linux world, I can’t recommend Learn Linux TV enough. He has a video walking through this exact process, here’s an Invidious and YouTube link for it.

As far as dual booting goes, issues can arise after updates. I recall this happening a few months back due to a Windows update. So just be aware of this possibly happening down the road. I need Windows for work at times too, but I strictly use a VM. I’ve hated Microsoft since Windows 8, their amount of user tracking is bonkers and a big part of why I just use a VM. This is just food for thought though.

JMP Chat works in the US even though they’re based in Canada. I highly recommend the service, it’s absolutely fantastic!

Definitely checkout JMP Chat, they’re actually based in Canada and offer super affordable alternative phone numbers. Using their Cheogram app even lets you incorporate it fully into your phone, so when you call, it’ll ask which number you’d like to use for the call. Calling has limited minutes each month, but the overage charges are very reasonable. It comes with unlimited texting as well. They encrypt everything on their end and it’s fully open source!

The add-on’s are solid. They have an elaborate curated list, plus you can access any of the mobile extentions by just searching for em.

Obsidian isn’t FOSS, but two fantastic replacements are Standard Notes and Notesnook.

A great paint option I don’t see listed is KolourPaint, plus Kdenlive for video editing. For audio editing, Tenacity is the better choice over Audacity. It’s an Audacity fork made after some questionable privacy policy changes.

CryptPad is an awesome Google Doc’s replacement, but Libre Office is actively working on their version too.

For your security section, adding some encryption software would be smart. Both VeraCrypt and Cryptomator are amazing. Also, Bitwarden/Vaultwarden are solid password manager alts for KeePassXC, with Vaultwarden being self hosted.

Here’s a great site for all sorts of Lemmy clients.

As far as Linux laptops go, System 76’s Darter Pro is also a solid choice. Tuxedo is probably System 76’s biggest competition, as they offer very comparable laptops. Their InfinityBook Pro is a great computer. Frameworks, Slimbook, and Star Labs are all also worth a mention.

Definitely recommend replacing Fennec with IronFox on mobile, it’s a fork of Mull, so it’ll be a solid privacy upgrade!

I ended that last chunck of text with /s. But at the same time, it wouldn’t suprise me at all if this was the case.

A virtual machine is the move, I’ve had a great experience with virt-manager. Strongly recommend debloating the windows VM if Microsoft is getting on your nerves. Here’s my go to software: https://github.com/raphire/win11debloat

Worksorks on both windows 10 & 11. It’ll allow you to remove telemetry, tracking, and even software Microsoft prevents you from uninstalling. I just can’t get it to remove Edge. But MentalOutlaw has a fantastic walk through of the process on his YT channel if you want some guidance with the debloating process.

Baby

NextDNS is the move, the clients are open sourced and they encrypt everything. Plus their free option covers all my devices, no problem. Highly recommended!

I’ve been really liking the KISS Launcher, it’s power is in it’s simplicity. It also looks relatively comparable with Smart Launcher. What’s super impressive about the KISS Launcher is that 93% of users that try it for a week are still active users after 3 years! So definitely worth a gander for sure.

You’re server’s #3 when it comes to monthly active users too!

When you sort by monthly active users, this is what you get:

What really jumps out to me is the fact .ml’s active users equals the total users. Not too sure what to make of it. I’d assume the mod’s delete nonactive accounts after a set amount of time or it’s just relatively small based on total users but everyone’s visiting at least once a month.

I hear what you’re saying, but I wanted to point out that any living organism is built from the same 20 amino acids, which are put together based on a blueprint (aka DNA). A string of amino acids is called a polypeptide, which is also known as a protein. But both dogs and wolves are omnivores, it’s a common misconception to think they’re carnivorous. Cats on the other hand are carnivorous creatures.

Additionally, it is not necessarily true that carnivores are more intelligent than omnivores or herbivores as a result of their diet. Instead, predators and prey are in a contest of brain size relative to body size. While carnivores and omnivores have more potential opportunity to develop intelligence, they’d have to be a social species for that to occur. So relative brain size and intelligence aren’t directly associated with diet, but more so a result of social structures and genetics.

Not exactly, Homo erectus and Neanderthal’s both ate meat. The consumption of meat by Homo erectus was associated with a reduction in the size of the gut area due to consistently incorporating animal foods into their diet. Neanderthals were known to be skilled hunters as well. The biggest difference between us and our more recent ancestors is the truncation of a GTPase gene in our DNA, which led to the ability to have neurons grow on top of one another. Previously, neuron growth would be stopped when a neuron came into contact with another. So that’s without question the biggest genetic feature that sets us apart.

I just learned the dev of Phoenix forked Mull! It’s called IronFox (https://gitlab.com/ironfox-oss/IronFox) and has a F-Droid repo. I’m pumped on this, thanks a bunch for highlighting all this and to the original commenter for providing the link to Phoenix!

Well, since SearXNG aggregates results from more than 70 search engines and not solely Google, it’s a safe bet they’ll be fine regardless of Googles moves. However, sourcing results from Google may be impacted, but they still have many other options built in aside from Google. Whoogle being a proxy only for Google makes it reliant on Google, so their upstream changes will be very noticeable. This being the case, I’d say switching to SearXNG is going to be the best move as it has redundancy built in making it not dependent on any one engine.

Right! But, if you zoom out, it’s not exactly too wild. Ground squirrels have voles beat in size and they have habitat overlap with both living underground. Additionally, dietary shifts give animals the flexibly to respond to changes in the environment plus foraging risks and opportunities. It’s been known since the early 2000’s that squirrels can supplement some of their diet with insects or bird eggs/baby birds. Knowing this, it starts to make a lot more sense ground squirrels would hunt voles, as the environment is rapidly changing, they’re known to already hunt a bit, and voles could be their annoying neighbor.

The image at the top of the page is from one of the figures provided in the research paper this article discusses. But the reason it’s difficult to imagine is because the concept isn’t as straightforward as it sounds. Here’s one of the helpful figures:

This does a great job showing how they’re both antiparallel and rotating in different directions, as well as how it looks when scaled up.

Dark Reader is the best extention for this, pretty sure it’s open sourced too!