dontwakethetrees (she/her)

Also as a Mac user who went from Safari, ended up using Orion up til recent Kagi drama, and found LibreWolf. It works well and I’ve found it to have better compatibility versus Orion. I’ve used that with Searxng for more private searches.

People (rightfully) shitting on Elon were forcefully given blue checkmarks and now they can’t hide that mark so that it looks hypocritical.

Stainless Steel Debian is good enough for me.

For some games yes. It works alright for some older video games but wouldn’t recommend for something modern. Use Crossover for that. However Parallels works well IMO for windows exclusive software outside of gaming.

It 100% is possible. You can’t bootcamp on Apple Silicon but Parallels is virtualized. It’s my goto for if Crossover isn’t playing nice with certain software.

If half your library is 32-bit Valve games sure but just because Steam warns you, doesn’t mean it’s broke. As I don’t play any Valve games (CSGO, TF2, etc), the 32-bit games I do have will run just fine on apple silicon. Haven’t found one game in my library that won’t work due to 32-bit.

So I had been using Orion for about a year with good results. It’s modified webkit so it feels like Safari but supports Chrome and Firefox plugins and has anti-fingerprinting/privacy measures.

I switched away after the situation a month or so ago with Kagi (same dev) adding Brave to their search and being a general ass to the people that raised concerns.

Currently I am using Librewolf, a privacy focused fork of Firefox, which has preformed really well. The only real issue I have is not being able to auto-fill sms 2FA codes like Safari.

Only if you’re using an x86 version of Java. I have quite a few modpacks and realistic shaders and get 100+ fps using Azul’s Zulu JDK on a M2.

They really need to ship with the optional “bottom right corner is right click” as default, especially when I believe most people are conditioned to that. Fixes the accidental force-click pop ups imo.

I really don’t see touchscreens on laptops to be something to judge a company’s innovation on. I work in communications and I can really only think of two coworkers that personally own touchscreen laptops.

If anyone is using an apple device, NetNewsWire is open source and is dead simple. No extra features, no premium tier, can sync with iCloud or self hosted servers, and the reader mode can be applied source-wide.

Technically won’t be able to download from the app store but using applications like imazing to download it and as long as you previously owned it, Apple will restore your purchases.

I’ve been using a manga reader that got taken off the store around 2017, still use it and transfer it to each new device (works for both phone and iPad). The ad-free in-app purchase restores just fine too.

I’m surprised you’re only at medium settings, my M2 Pro is handling 1440p at mostly maxed settings (disabled DOF as it’s too aggressive and only double buffered vsync. I don’t have an FOS readout but it’s pretty good compared to before with Crossover and medium settings.

Edit: followed the terminal command to show the Metal info and BG3 floats around 45-50fps ingame. Haven’t gone back to Act 3 yet so still not sure how it’d handle it. The FPS is stable enough that as a turn based RPG it’s quite playable.

Honestly the first android phone in years that’s caught my attention and if I hadn’t just gotten a new battery for my 12 mini I would’ve greatly considered the Zenfone.

I’d vouch for just getting a new SE. As others stated, support is incremental and a Series 4 is already dated in terms of support. And compared to the newer watches, the SE is a great value. It only misses out on some less important features and always on display.

At first I thought I’d dislike not having always on display but I normally have to rotate my wrist anyways to check my watch which ends up waking the display anyways.

Another +1 for Rectangle.

For me, a semi-recent convert from Windows, a fresh install of macOS includes:

• Dropover, it has a limited free version (3 second wait time) or $5 for a one time ‘Pro’ version. It worked way better for me than Dropzone for copying files around and temporarily grabbing web images for Messages and Discord.

• Top Notch, its free to use and cleanly hides the notch and just provides a clean black space for the menu bar.

• SoundSource, yes its $40 and thats expensive af. However FOSS alternatives like Background Music kept crashing due to my external DAC. It’s a volume mixer, EQ tool, and audio IO selector.

And finally if I need to run Windows tools or applications for some of my hobbies, I have Parallels on an external drive. That way Windows isn’t hogging space and is isolated when I don’t need it.

They are currently closed source like Brave for now but it’s a relatively new browser and still technically open beta (I’m on 0.99.124.4.1).

They say they are working on going open source. However their Github seems to currently get infrequent updates.

For iOS there is the Orion Browser. Its a privacy based fork of Safari for iOS and macOS, with built in ad-block, anti-fingerprinting, and supports background and PiP youtube. I use it as my default browser on iOS and Mac.

Its built on webkit, just like Firefox on iOS, but supports both Firefox and Chrome extensions. And their CEO isn’t a crypto shill or anti-lgbtq.

Up until recently, and still applies to many, chromebooks had a rather short shelf life before “expiring”. You could buy a new Chrombook with like 2 or less years of support before it became e-waste. Like wouldn’t even support video streaming and no security updates.

Even on previous macOS versions they still receive security updates for a while as does Windows. Plus the lifespan is rather large with a 5-6yo intel Macbook receiving the upcoming OS release later this year.

Its not just a $199 vs $1999 laptop issue, its an ecosystem issue as well.

https://www.pcworld.com/article/393324/77-chromebooks-you-shouldnt-buy-why-googles-expiration-dates-matter.html

While I love Logitech for their mice, I won’t touch their other devices with a ten foot pole. Keyboards especially. When theres such a wide open world out there of keyboard options from compact low profile to fully DIY and soldered mechanical keyboards, there no reason to be subjected to Logitech software and hardware.