The sad part is that the upcoming administration might be stupid enough to try and implement this.

Also why I invested in the hardware and software for Blu-ray ripping. I now have a Pioneer drive in a USB enclosure, and can now rip even 4K Blu-rays from any region. So many special features I was missing out on, though a lot of disc releases are cheaping out on them these days.

Only annoying part about ripping is the freaking maze of playlists on many Blu-rays, especially for Special Features, and none of the player software I’ve tried yet has a feature to tell you what playlist and video file you’re currently watching. So you basically have to rip everything and then check each video file afterwards.

Pretty much. Give me a screen for Android Auto so I can interact with my preferred navigation and media apps, and then just let me control the car.

Like, if you want to add a menu for low-level tweaking of stuff I don’t need(or shouldn’t change) while driving, sure(like suspension settings). But for everything else, AC, seat warmers, forward/reverse, windshield wipers, headlights, etc, I want a button or knob.

So far all the Roku TVs I’ve tried will let you skip setting up Internet on them and then default to a dumbed down mode where the Homescreen is just TV inputs, and you can access the settings menu. Haven’t had a chance to test a recent Android/Google TV.

Update: Seems Sony, TCL, and maybe some other Android/Google TV makers allow using the TV without linking a Google Account.

https://www.sony.com/electronics/support/articles/00115361

https://support.tcl.com/us-androidtv-common-questions/do-i-need-to-have-a-google-account-to-enjoy-android-tv-58

https://support.tcl.com/can-i-just-use-basic-tv-on-a-tcl-google-tv

Update 2: Samsung seems to let you skip logging into their TVs during setup via a Skip button in the top-right corner, but it’s unclear if you can skip connecting to the Internet at all.

That tip of a handle bar that makes you wonder if that square counts or not.

Yep, had basically a throw away account for the occasional thing that basically required a Facebook account, and then I guess because I never posted anything they locked my account and demanded ID. Hell no.

I’m wondering the same thing for Valve and Gabe Newell.

MSF2020 runs offline too, it’s even sold on discs in certain regions. You just don’t get any of the satellite imagery or live weather. Obviously that means a degraded experience, but it still works.

I mean, if this is basically Twitter’s Community Notes feature, but for YouTube, I’m all for it. Bit of a balancing act, but it’s the last thing that hasn’t been completely wrecked now that Twitter became Xitter.

Let’s Play Wack-A-Mole! Select Game:

1. Sue Hosters -> Found New Hosts
2. Sue Domains -> Found New Domains
3. Sue DNS -> Found New DNS
4. ???

Another issue I’ve had with Snaps is just increased boot times. Something to do with mounting all the virtual images involved or something, makes boot take noticeably longer. I’ve tested having an Ubuntu install with Snaps, and then removed the snaps and snapd while installing the same software via Flatpak, and had a noticeable boot time improvement. Hopefully they’ve been working to improve this, but it just soured me on them even more.

As for another install method, mostly for CLI tools, but working with a lot of GUI apps too now, there’s Distrobox. It has a bit of a bloat issue, because you’re basically installing an entire extra headless Linux Distro with it, but it for example allows you to run AUR inside an Arch based Box, and then you can integrate the app you installed with AUR into the host OS, running it near seamlessly, while keeping its dependencies contained in the Box which you can easily remove. By default apps in the Box will have access to the host’s filesystem but you can mitigate this if you want. Distrobox is especially great on atomic read-only Distros, where you can’t directly touch system directories, by allowing you to install apps that expect such access from things like AUR.

In the past yeah. I still had formatting break in some cases.

I just wish compatibility was better. Even if I save in ODT format in either Word or Writer, opening the file in the other program almost always results in formatting errors. Not to mention using DOC/DOCX.

The BOOX Tab Ultra C Pro is probably closest to what you’re looking for. It’s basically a full fledged Android Tablet, just with an eInk screen. It even has a camera you can use for document scanning and such, and a pressure sensitive stylus powered by WACOM tech. Of course, this hinges on if you can find the apps you need on Android. I love Android, but Apple definitely has a leg up when it comes to proprietary productivity and creative apps.

I personally have a BOOX Nova Air C which is a 7.8in model from a couple years ago, which has a color eInk screen, Bluetooth, Mic, Speakers, Stylus, Android 11, and the full Google Play Store. I personally use it mostly for reading, but the stylus works really well for taking notes, and I’ve even played games on it (GameBoy Tetris for the win).

As far as I can tell, it’s always used ActivityPub for instances to communicate with each other, with video streaming mainly facilitated using WebTorrent on the backend to keep use of the host low.

You mean Peertube?