It’s basically what the steam deck does, and that’s very much for Linux noobs!

I’ve only been a Linux user for a couple of years though so I’ve got no excuse!

XFCE is fine, it seems to largely behave and while it doesn’t have any bells and whistles it can do everything it tries to do fine. Gnome on the other hand… everything I wanted it to do required a plugin which had since been broken by a new version. Plasma seems great so far!

I just moved to Plasma from XFCE and my first thought was wow, this runs fine on old hardware, why have I been suffering through the 2010 experience when I could have had features all this time!?

Mmm, creamy

Maybe they’d only ever used it headless?

I did my first fedora atomic install yesterday. I’m doing my part!

I set up Mint for a non-techy relative on their old desktop.

• Their use-case is almost entirely web browser, so there was no need to cover installing programs. Click the same browser icon and it should behave basically the same way.
• No need to explain the terminal beyond “this is where you can type advanced commands, you don’t need to worry about it”.
• If there’s an error message, read it and try to understand what it’s actually saying rather than just dismissing it. Do a web search if you’re feeling confident, send me a photo of the screen if you’re not.
• Explain how to install updates (or just configure automatic backups and updates for them).
• Explain when and why the computer will ask for a password (e.g. login and updates) and how that password is for the computer, not for their email or whatever.
• Explain the basics of folders. This is your home directory, here’s where downloads go, here’s how to create a folder and drag your files into it.
• Tell them not to panic. I’ve seen a lot of older people terrified of pressing the wrong button, make sure they know how to understand what they’re doing and undo their mistakes.
• Be patient!

While it does have a paid tier it’s fully useable for free, and I’m pretty sure you can import from keepass

Whose legs does Linus have on his desk? They definitely don’t look to be attached to his body…

I think this has fixed it! You’re a wizard!

No games seem to work

FYI there’s !linuxphones@lemmy.ml and !linuxphones@lemmy.ca if you’re looking for more enthusiasts

Any beginner’s guides for this? I hadn’t thought about it until now but my fans do seem louder since I switched from Windows!

It’s basically an Android TV box (which as far as I can tell is just an Android device specifically for use as a smart TV) in the shape of a Chromecast dongle. I think you can probably use it almost exactly the same way you do with an old Chromecast and ignore all the apps (or at least install them once and then forget about them).

The hard part might be finding one, they’ve replaced it with a newer, more expensive 4K one so you might not still be able to buy the old (1080p) one from official sources anymore, but have a look and you might get lucky.

I was in a similar situation and asked Lemmy a couple of years ago, the TLDR is that I got a cheap (and confusingly-named) “Chromecast with Google TV” which you can install custom apps like SmartTube on and keep casting

They are apparently looking to partner with an OEM to build them their own devices, I wonder if that would mean they can hire a full time media person who can do all the public communications so the security guys can focus on what they do best.

As a GrapheneOS user that’s my take too. The paranoid security-obsessed developer who is focused on making the best software to the point of being rude and isolationist is not the kind of person I’d want to hang out with but kind of is the person I want doing security work for the device I have all my personal info on. Sure it would be nicer if they weren’t so abrasive but I’d rather they channel an angry Linus Torvalds than some slick weasel-wordy Steve Jobs.

Ah, I thought I’d seen this story already:

There is one potential downside to the Risk-Based Update System, as highlighted by the folks behind GrapheneOS, a privacy and security-oriented fork of AOSP. In the past, Google gave OEMs a one-month heads-up. Now, they receive several months of advance notice for the larger quarterly updates. This longer window could be problematic, as it gives bad actors more time to potentially find leaked vulnerability details and develop exploits before patches are widely available. While the private ASB is shared securely, it’s accessible to tens of thousands of engineers across dozens of companies, making it conceivable that details could leak to malicious third parties. This remains a hypothetical risk, though, as it would require bad actors to leverage the right exploit on the right devices before they’re patched.

Wow, a plan with no possible drawbacks! Even in a world with perfect cybersecurity I love it when my car key battery runs out and I can’t get home.