amphy

joined 2 years ago
[–] amphy 10 points 1 week ago (6 children)

As long as you're running Windows 10 without an Internet connection, that's totally fine! Have a good time my dude. But if you are using an Internet connection, security updates are foundational, especially on Windows. I know XP is ancient but this was eye-opening for me: https://youtu.be/6uSVVCmOH5w?t=10m32s

[–] amphy 19 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Been a Windows user all my life. As Windows has been tanking over the years, I've finally started making the switch as of a few months ago. First was our home theater PC, which was shockingly easy - next was my desktop, which hasn't been as easy but it's been a joy to learn about and make it my own.

I'm happy to pay for a license for anything I use. That included Windows. But, sometimes, the free & open-source route is better - I'm no longer "locked in" to any one solution and it's a fantastic feeling.

[–] amphy 5 points 1 week ago

There's a few ways to turn it off, but they require registry editing or using the Group Policy editor if you have a Pro license

https://www.ghacks.net/2021/11/26/how-to-turn-off-search-the-web-results-in-windows-11/

[–] amphy 25 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

I love the idea but not the messaging. Older folks & non-nerd people - a vast majority of the demographic of people who would benefit from this campaign, if I had to guess - aren't going to want Linux or "fresh new software". They want a computer with a web browser, an Office suite, and an OS/layout that functions exactly the way they expect it to.

If you tout so much change, they're going to lose interest. I'd argue they'd lose interest seeing technical words like "software", since all they know on phones and computers are "apps".

However, If you instead show them side-by-side how they can do the exact same tasks with nearly identical steps and also emphasize the benefits like cost effectiveness and speed... they'll just say "okay great, can you do it for me?"

[–] amphy 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

I had this issue on my desktop in Windows. Haven't tested to see if it's an issue on Linux (I just recently set up dual-booting with Kubuntu). I know your request is for Nobara but this may be helpful for troubleshooting.

The fix for me on Windows was always to power off my audio interface. Using powercfg /requests would show Firefox kept the audio device active once a YouTube video started playing. The software fix was arbitrary... sometimes closing the YouTube tab would work, sometimes I had to close the window, and sometimes none of those would work. What *always" worked was physically powering off my interface, waiting about 2 seconds, and turning it back on.

[–] amphy 1 points 1 month ago

Thanks for the idea, I might try that. A friend recommended switching to Plasma and creating a folder menu on the main bar that contains the groups (folders) and pins (shortcuts) that I want. I'm considering going that route. Guess I'm just surprised to see a convenient app menu solution (ArcMenu) with a whole world of customization, but no way to group pinned items together.

[–] amphy 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

I think I did a poor job of explaining things, sorry!

So here's what I could do on Windows:

  1. Right-click and app in the All Apps list, pin to Start

  2. Drag & drop pinned apps on top of one another, which creates a group

The result I was able to accomplish on Windows looks like this (note the top row, all groups with app pins inside): https://i.imgur.com/Y9PmYoG.png

On Linux, using Gnome and ArcMenu, I can get close to accomplishing a similar result using the Enterprise layout: https://i.imgur.com/btNKjtj.png

I can edit those categories on the left of the menu using Alacarte, so I have the grouping I want and the pins inside that I want... but I can't just drag & drop app commands, or even copy & paste them. So for every app I want in a specific category, the process is:

  1. Create the category, if it doesn't exist already

  2. Name the category

  3. Give the category a description

  4. Give the category an icon (required) and save it

  5. Create a new item in the category

  6. Either figure out the launch command or copy it from an existing entry elsewhere

  7. Give it a unique name (required)

  8. Give it an icon (required), which means hunting for it if I don't already know where it is

And then it'll work. But, steps 5-8 are required for every single app... so if I want to put an app in a category, I have to perform those 4 steps every time. It's a solution but it requires a notable amount of time and effort.

[–] amphy 1 points 1 month ago (4 children)

Thanks for the info! I'm already using ArcMenu, which is great - but as mentioned, it lacks app grouping support of any kind... not unless I want to go through the effort of editing categories. Doing that is a solution, but requires so much time and effort that it isn't really the solution.

A friend is recommending switching DEs or distros, would Plasma get the job done?

9
submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by amphy to c/[email protected]
 

Edit: This worked for me in Zorin! Thanks for the ideas & discussion in the replies! https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-to-create-folders-in-gnome-44-to-declutter-the-application-overview


Hi, I'm looking to switch to Linux full-time on my desktop. Aside from my NAS, I'm pretty unfamiliar with Linux in general.

On Windows, I have apps pinned to the Start menu grid, with apps in groups/folders for easy access. I don't pin anything to the taskbar or leave icons on the desktop. For the apps I care about most - and there's around 40 of them - they're available with just 3 clicks maximum. I can reorder them and put them in groups (or pull them out of groups) anytime.

Here's what that looked like (note the top row): https://i.imgur.com/Y9PmYoG.png

On Zorin OS (Ubuntu-based) via Gnome, I haven't had any such luck. ArcMenu is great but offers no app group support. This also a feature that doesn't seem to be in very strong demand in general. I can use the Gnome menu editor (Alacarte, rebranded as "Main Menu" in Zorin) to hide the default categories & make my own. This would be a perfectly suitable solution... but doing so requires multiple steps per app - no copying & pasting, no drag & drop, each one has to be created on a per-category basis. The amount of effort is considerable. I don't mind doing it once of course, but if I decide to reorganize, it'll require all of that effort all over again.

I'm fully happy with Gnome, I'm looking for a productivity-first DE and the only issue is this app menu situation which is a hard deal breaker. I guess I just have three questions:

  1. Are there alternative menus I can check out which might be able to solve this?

  2. I doubt this, but: Is there an easier menu-category editor I could use? Something that allows for at least moving/copying between categories, so I can grab an app from All Apps or something and put it where I want it. Choosing a unique name, finding an icon, copying the terminal command, etc. is a ton of work just to stay organized.

  3. Would using a different DE offer the flexibility I'm looking for in this situation? I'm willing to switch DEs or even distros to fix this - it's seriously the crux of my workflow.

If this is the wrong community to post this, please point me in the right direction and I'll post there. Thanks in advance, I've been trying to find a fix for this for several hours and I'm not sure where to look for an answer.

[–] amphy 10 points 1 month ago

And for when switching user agents doesn't work: ungoogled chromium saves the day

[–] amphy -3 points 1 month ago (3 children)

My approach: A single data point is "dah-ta" Some quantity of data is "day-ta"

For example: "I back up my game's save dah-ta in case my hard drive's day-ta gets corrupted"

[–] amphy 2 points 2 months ago

5 points, not bad

[–] amphy 3 points 2 months ago (7 children)

What you recommend in terms of offline open-source converters?

1
r/citypop (self.requests)
submitted 2 years ago by amphy to c/[email protected]
 

hey! I love nu-disco as a genre and couldn't find it on lemmy anywhere. any help would be appreciated, thanks!

 

hey! I really enjoy citypop and wanted to find a community on lemmy for it. thanks in advance for any recommendations!

7
/r/actuallesbians (self.requests)
submitted 2 years ago by amphy to c/[email protected]
-1
/r/linustechtips (self.requests)
submitted 2 years ago by amphy to c/[email protected]
 

as much as I want to move this over to mastodon, there isn't really visibility on twitter as-is, but I'm open to the idea!

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