I run https://gravitywell.xyz/
I think thats a good position to have, if librewolf works for you i hope it continues to do so.
I used to be more of an open source purist but recent and not so recent events have shifted my thinking, it seems to be one of the four freedoms is regularly taken advantage of by corporations and should be reconsidered. Not that we as individuals shouldnt have those freedoms, but for-profit corps specifically have proven time and time again that they will only take and never give back.
Its just as open source as the other chromium based browsers
They also have very valid reasons for keeping the features that make the UI unique closed, seeing how many open source projects like ffmpeg get completely taken advantage of its a smart move.
Youll find that parts of brave arent actually open source either, such as their built in AI or the build in crypto wallet.
At some point you gotta ask if its worth having open source purity tests when even the flagship products are shoveling AI and other garbage no one wants into their browser.
Librewolf might pass that purity test for now, but without mozilla librewolf likely would not continue, vivaldi does not have this problem.
Its just as open source as the other chromium based browsers
They also have very valid reasons for keeping the features that make the UI unique closed, seeing how many open source projects like ffmpeg get completely taken advantage of its a smart move.
Youll find that parts of brave arent actually open source either, such as their built in AI or the build in crypto wallet.
At some point you gotta ask if its worth having open source purity tests when even the flagship products are shoveling AI and other garbage no one wants into their browser.
Librewolf might pass that purity test for now, but without mozilla librewolf likely would not continue, vivaldi does not have this problem.
Give vivaldi a try, not because brave is bad, but because vivaldi is better in every way.
The proper way to do it is connect your router to the vpn, most routers have support for it these days.
If you want to do it the harder way, connect one machine to your vpn provide on one wg network and create a second wg network for your local devices which routes all traffic (not just http) through the one device thats connected to your VPN provider. Basically make youe own home vpn server and connect to that.
Using just squid for http to relay the vpn in addition to being fragile and breaking sometimes is also just not really giving you the full vpn coverage, your ip is going to be leaking all over the place.
Im not sure if this is the same thing but i noticed a similar problem in vivaldi but its specific to youtube, or at least it doesnt affect peertube the same way. It seems to be based on the volume of the video, my guess its a “feature” that tries to normalize volume between different videos, but ive never figured out how to disable it.
You could do most of it with a website like craigslist, the hard part is managing reputations/feedback.
I really hate to say it but i suppose you could use some blockchain based system for tracking reputations… That or pgp, but realistically it seems to be a billion times easier to convince people to “use blockchain” than it is to get them to use pgp.
Im not taking any revenue by mirroring channels, video and channel descriptions always include links to Patreon or whatever the original creators have for donations. Its no different from watching on invidius or revanced, except that google isnt hosting the content, i am.
Youtube is the the one robbing creators by giving them fractions of a cent for every dollar they make in ad-revenue and using their power to control what content can and cant earn revenue.
If a creator asked me to stop i would but i dont see that happening when its literally just my own private archive that might get maybe a dozen views on a good day.
This page has a pretty good video tutorial: https://fedihost.co/blog/slug/automatically-syncing-youtube-to-peertube
The official documentation is a bit more short and to the point: https://docs.joinpeertube.org/use/channel-sync
Ive been running my own instance for just over a year now, mostly to mirror youtube channels i like and for my own live streaming. I also try to upload the occasional full movie just because whos gonna stop me.
I think uploading content is what will help the most. Its really easy to setup a syncronized channel connected to youtube, anyone can do it for any channel they want. If everyone just setup a sync for 1 or 2 of their favorite yt channels it would make peoples complaints of nothing being available on peertube go away. Dont worry about subs or views right now, just focus on adding content so its available when the users do come.
Youtube gets worse all the time, the other corporate for profit alternatives all suck. If we can just have content waiting for people, esp content they are already familiar with from yt (but without ads) the users will evenrually star to stick around and grow more.
When I last needed to get on IRC I used pidgin, because it’s what worked.
Wouldn’t that just make a file full of zeros?
I think the proper (joke) command here would be
rm -rf /var/*
Okay I don’t drive so im a bit out of the loop on this but last time i rented a car some 15-20 years ago it had GPS built in that didn’t require connecting, it was a tablet sized interface on the console… is that not a thing anymore? Like do cars in 2025 not have functioning GPS without a phone connected to them? Thats wild if so. A 2008 Toyota Prius could have a built in console navigation system, it ran off a DVD or USB key that you got updates for by mail, and here we are in 2025 you need a phone just to power the cars computer for navigation.
It was not that common 10 years ago, it was only JUST being fully rolled out in the US in 2015 when they finally made it mandatory for cards to have chips in them. I guess I’m just an old man yelling at clouds here, but i just never really felt like using cash or a card was that inconvenient.
I suppose for you tap2pay is as essential as being able to run custom software on my devices is to me, I have been using custom roms since 2009 and I wouldn’t be willing to sacrifice my ability to use GrapheneOS just so i can carry one less card that i can literally fit in my phone case, but hey, different strokes ig.
And what did you do five years ago or ten years ago? At what point did Tap to Pay become so convenient and so essential to your life that you’re willing to give up your ability to have complete ownership and control over what’s installed on your phone rather than go back to having a card on you?
It just doesnt seem like that big of a deal to me, but then i never was able to use it anyway because ive been running grapheneOS or another custom rom since before tap2pay even existed.
So you sacrafice your ability to use a more free device because youd rather leave your credit card at home, but thats A choice that you made. If you wanted you could bring a card with you or cast with you or a wallet full of things. Do you not carry ID with you either?
Honestly tap2pay seems like very little advantage over a credit card for having to sacrafice privacy and the ability to control the software on my phone, but thats just me.
Im not saying its a problem to want features, just saying its sacraficing freedom for convience, its a choice.
If you really wanted to use a Linux phone, there are options. You would have to adapt, you would have to use non-standard solutions, but in the long run you’d have more freedom because of those sacrifices in convenience.
None of the 3 things you mention was common place 10 years ago, its not that much of a setback to carry cash or a card, or to use a dedicated device for navigation. Its fine if you dont want to do that but dont act like you can’t live without tap2pay or a voice assistant if you really wanted to.
So what happens if your phone is lost or stolen or damaged? How would you pay for a new phone?
How old are you that you “need” these things.
Is not being able to use tap to pay, or having to plug in an aux cable really that big of an inconvenience?
You can install them wherever you want.