You're buying this stuff because you're a technology hobbyist?
I'm not sure that I am, though. I don't actually like the stuff, but it's the world I know (I make a living in the weeds of it), and I keep trying to figure out if there exists a safe and sane way to use a modern computer on the modern internet (and that's separate from the ethics of it, see earlier). I have two "smart" things in the house (a Roomba, which is a pain in the ass but my wife likes it, and a Nest purchased 6 years ago, back when they'd not merged into Google and started accumulating more data). I wouldn't mind getting rid of both, but the Hestia Pi project doesn't seem to have enough relays on their board for my HVAC system (standard US heat pump, I need heat, cool, blower, and emergency heat/coils, they seem to have two relays - and the relays are EOL as far as I can tell, so I'd have to redesign the boards anyway). Much less controlling a water heater, though that should be replaced with a heat pump unit.
I've started trying to keep track of how much time I spend "working on computers to try and make them less toxic, so I can use them." Lately, this has been... a lot. I spent my evening adding a third boot option to the house PC, having spent time over the weekend moving an OS install from a larger to smaller SSD to free up an install for this machine, so I now have Qubes on a small scratch SSD, and can then nuke the Windows/Linux installs and clean them out - I don't think I want my server admin creds sharing system images with browsers and such anymore. That means that single system image machines, even the ARM boxes, are somewhat less useful, though aggressive removal of Javascript from my life except on a few sites I trust does seem to reduce some of the risk factors. And at least the ARM boxes aren't the standard x86 targets, but... still. I should probably work with Xen on them and see if I can get some split SSH going. Or simply not spend the time. The Rock5s, I'd like to port Qubes to, but... also a huge time commitment down in technical weeds. I think if I stopped using computers entirely outside work, and brief periods of use on "safer" OS configurations, I'd save an awful lot of time in my life. But that still presupposes there exists a safe, sane, ethical way to use a modern computer. And that's an awfully strong claim I can't begin to back.
Syonyk couldn't have know that Apple was going to go full big brother, for example.
No, but as they were the most privacy-focused of the tech companies in a number of ways (mostly in that they used to sell hardware, not data, although now they're all about those subscriptions), it would have been a good bet that they'd change direction at some point. Such heel-turns are common among the trusted tech companies, sadly. I timed things wrong.
...and better at packaging an entire ARM Linux FS with custom kernel at my house (but who has time for that)?
If such things are the only way one can somewhat sanely use a modern computer, such things then should be done. If hacking together your own OS images to gain a bit more performance let things work on weaker hardware, then one ought do such things. Maybe. I'm not sure anymore. Perhaps one ought simply "Go Galt" and let the whole tech ecosystems crumble. Does one person matter? No idea.
For those considering a new laptop, a quick plug for Framework. I was in the market last year for a laptop and decided to take a risk on these guys. It's not the cheapest hardware, nor is it the most performant. [Sorry Syonyk, Intel only at this point.] But I love the concept and really hope they succeed long-term.
If I had to buy a new Intel laptop, it would be a tossup between them and a Purism. Neither one works well, from what I understand, in terms of having basic stuff like sleep and wifi reliable, which suits me just fine.
I like the concept of repairable, upgradable laptops like the Framework. The acid test, to me, is "Will they release another board that's a significant upgrade?" When that happens, I'll be sold on the concept, but for now, until that's been done, it's a good concept awaiting proving. Pine64 is the same, I like their stuff, but if they release a RK3588 upgrade board or something, well, that would be amazing.
I'm running Catalina on a 2009 Macbook with no issues thanks to this patch.
Can you explain
how it works? Not a "I run it, and can install the OS on unsupported hardware" - but what it's actually doing under the hood? The source is available, and I've not felt the desire to chew through all of it to understand what it's actually doing. I played with it briefly, but then decided it wasn't worth making all sorts of rather undocumented changes, via a random binary application, to the core of the OS I was planning to trust.
It's a neat trick, certainly, but I'm not convinced it's a
good one.
Speaking of EOL hardware and unsupported OSes, October 14, 2025 is gonna be a rough day in this house.
The sooner you free yourself from that anchor, the better.
That said, Manjaro+KDE isn't even enough to keep me booting back into Windows anymore. Either Linux as a whole has lost its way, or I'm no longer a marginally catered demographic. It doesn't help that Serif Affinity has completely ruined using GIMP/Inkscape/Scribus for me, either, and Affinity + WINE == U+1F4A9
I expect less and less out of computers, and am usually pleased with the results. At this point, I no longer consider anything but a software framebuffer to be required. If my systems can't play videos, oh well. Such is life.
My attitude has changed to be, "If I can't do it within a system/OS framework I don't yet object to, it's not worth doing." It's limiting, certainly... but I'm also not convinced it's wrong, in the approach to computing. I do still keep Windows around for some gaming, but I'm trying to get off that, and Steam/Proton seems to be worth something there, as is the fact that Minecraft and KSP can run on Linux tolerably (just not Qubes - no GPU acceleration to be found there). I can't get a new GPU? Ok, I just won't do things that require one. I'm still strongly considering de-Inteling the house desktop, but it's a chunk of change I don't know I need to spend.
Anyway. Sorry. Rant about the horrid state of modern computing over. I think most of my new Qubes install is updated, so I'll let it sync mail down. Thunderbird beats gmail, anymore... though I've not migrated my email hosting off Google yet.