Is a VPN needed to keep your ip from being exposed ?

No more so than using any search engine directly, it’s a nice to have. Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good enough.

Is just using an existing searxng instance just less secure then?

By the time you’ve investigated it, you could have stood up your own instance…

Sounds like a them problem then.

podman exists and doesn’t force root…

It’s yours, no issues trusting a public instance with your searches. Pages full of settings to tweak as you like. Less problems with an algorithm ‘helping’ you. It averages searches over multiple search engines that you choose, you can set up your own (or a curated) block list of crappy AI slop sites, don’t like fandom.com or something, gone. Manage your own bangs, e.g. !aa for annas-archive. Pipe it through a VPN with gluetun for better isolation. If you have your head around docker already it’s more like half an hour to set up, so why not?

Can hook it up to perplexica and a local LLM for a fully local AI search that you define, use it as a MCP server, do deep research with it…

Cheers, up and running.

Had trouble installing that, but https://github.com/ryosoftware/GPhotosShim via obtainium worked perfectly. Hooks it up to gOS Gallery.

Cool (you’'re sure no Play Services not just no Play Store? what about GMSCompatConfig?, it’s reasonably innocuous, I’m just curious), in that case kill its network and profit. I couldn’t do that a couple of years back, might have to re-evaluate…

As far as I know it needs Play store, Play services and GMSCompatConfig so you’ll be right back where you started. You can deny those things network permissions as well, but things tend to go awry when they can’t phone home, you end up having to enable and disable network on things to get other things to work. Personally I don’t trust it, good as the GrapheneOS devs are, it’s always a moving target.

It’s pretty quick to switch users, swipe down, swipe down, tap users, tap user, enter passcode (make it short) and you’re there.

Just set up a user for google crap, when you absolutely positively need it, go use camera ( or maps or whatever), when you’re done, shut it down. Over time it happens less and less…

Yarr !, my experience has been stellar ;) (Gaben: It’s a service problem…)

know truth from fiction.

You jest, but…

You are aware that Netflix et.al. put compression on their streams (usually quite a bit in regards to bitrate) ? It is often the case that BluRay rips etc. are available better on the high seas…

While I generally agree and consider this insightful, it behooves us to remember the (actual, 1930s) Nazis did it with newspapers, radio and rallies (… in a cave, with a box of scraps).

Not sure I’d use either, but may I suggest both, with a clear caveat that one or both may disappear or change ? Throw stuff at the wall, see what sticks…

Thing about windows is you can shatter them. Time to defenestrate neoliberalism right through the Overton Window.

I say go for the desktop for grunty work and pick up an older thinkpad for the mobile use case or just remote in with your macbook. I have a T580 (last of the dual batteries, infinite battery life baby), works an absolute treat on linux and next best build quality to a macbook but with a repair manual and massive upgradeability.

Would’ve sworn Potatohead/Voldemort was a caretaker and they’d switch for the election. Instead the shit stain is neck and neck (according to Murdoch polls). Wtf is wrong with this country, we see Trump and go ‘hold my beer’. May not be the worst timeline, but it ain’t good.

Don’t sleep on switching to nvme.

You’ll be wanting sudo ostree admin pin 1 seeing as 0 was broken. Double check with rpm-ostree status.

Proceed to rpm-ostree update, if that does nothing it means 0 is up to date, personally I’d just wait for a new update using the working deployment, but you can blow away 0 and get it again if you’re keen.

Hanlon’s razor: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity (or incompetence).

This works for individuals, but when it comes to corporations, you really have to ask, why not both?