C’est la vie, especially these days. All you can do is come to terms with knowing we each have an expiration date and just live it up until that inevitable day.

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!

Exactly! This is a big reason why all corporate media still endlessly states Hamas killed 1200 Israelis 10/7, while it’s now known Israel used the Hannibal Directive and were responsible for at least a few hundred of the deaths. This was even stated by the man in change of the Israeli military at the time too…

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.

I was pretty suprised not to see Wells Fargo in the mix, but I’d bet they’re in the top 10. Regardless, they’re in the top 4 for oil funding, so that alone earns them none of my business!

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

Sure, maybe on paper…but check this out: https://scheerpost.com/2025/02/01/did-a-trump-executive-order-just-cripple-the-global-us-regime-change-network/

Regardless, why is the only aspect of USAID which was “forked” into a Trump approved department specific for coup’s? Makes you think which, with nothing but love, is something it seems you should do more of when it comes to US policy.

The fact USAID is supposed to provide aid to people around world in need of help, yet this aid is just a smoke screen to cover for the funding of coup’s on governments which oppose the US empire…

It’s not just USAID. The BBC is actually funded by two branches of the US government.

Last year, the US State Department gave BBC Media Action £280,000.

The group says it used the $$$ to reach 100 million people in 24 countries with its programmes.

After covering the BBC’s public relations response, the article then goes on to say:

That sounds nice, of course. But when you’re aware of the role USAID has played as the ‘friendly face’ of US imperialism, more scrutiny of BBC Media Action is essential.

What I took away from it is that since the BBC is affiliated with this blatant US corruption, regardless of directly or indirectly, the specifics regarding the association needs to be known by the public.

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 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!