As I’ve been working on an install script for making my setup more portable, this is handy and timely. Thanks for sharing!

PS I hate to be the UUOC person. I’m sure you’re already aware and it was a deliberate choice.

Not that I have it all figured out, but it sounds like it would help to decouple backup from sync. I have syncthing keep a two-way sync, including deletes, but have syncthing’s trash as a “backup” (items deleted after n-days) on each device in case I accidentally delete something. Then I have a nightly, encrypted backups with versions stored offsite (eg borg) which is only meant to be used if there’s major failure like a flood or fire. HDD failure is covered by RAID10 NAS. Somewhere in there I have or need a data integrity/hash check, but at least it’s a start.

Thanks for the rec! The anonymous branches and working-copy-as-commit subsuming git stashes is intriguing. I’ll give it a closer look when I have a chance.

Great topic. I’m going to have to investigate some of these suggestions later.

Since my first pick, helix, was already mentioned here and i commented on it, I’ll add gitui. Git can be very overwhelming for me. Gitui arranges frequently used git commands in a sensible, visual layout and makes it easy for me to understand and interact with git.

+1 for helix. I was new to linux and TUI editors. The vim tutor was a good intro to the concept of modal editors, but needed lsp and syntax highlighting. At the time I struggled a lot with configs, so neovim was out. Helix is just a fantastic, batteries included experience. Approachable for beginners, but feature rich for novices.

Edit: typo, grammer

Thanks for the info! All good points. I’ll keep snikket bookmarked for when I’m more competent in my server/self-hosting abilities and revisit how I chat.

Understood. Thank you. It’d been some time since I’ve scrutinized Signal. It was a set-it and forget-it type situation.

Out of curiosity, what’s wrong with signal?

Funny. I was thinking the ai post leaned towards Don Hertzfeldt’s style, then saw the “original” and it look even more like Hertzfeldt (see hands), which means ai even manages to fuck up stick-figure fingers!

Edit: btw, good eye/attention to detail!

I was actually unaware of those features and thinking of an over engineered solution. Good lookin out!

Agreed. Would be great if we could save old backups on a server and search it from a client, instead of the current option of keeping everything in one local backup. The latter is a real problem after a while if you have contacts that like sending videos.

Is a server a requirement? I haven’t tried myself but localsend (p2p) comes to mind.

Signal backups are an issue. They keep growing. I need to look into a solution sooner or later that isn’t just buying a phone with more space. I’d like to find ways to reduce the size and keep managing the backups myself, but that’s gonna take time. If they offer a secure, private, and affordable service, I’d prolly just redirect my donations to that.

Also, many proprietary softwares rely on open source libraries. So unless they catch, patch, and do not contribute those fixes, proprietary will be at least as vulnerable as the oss they depend on.

Pop’s the distro that made me go full linux. It let me tinker and have the linux experience without a lot of setup or preexisting knowledge.

Shoot. Sorry I couldn’t help then. Good luck with your troubleshooting. I know it can be a very frustrating issue.

Had a similar problem on Pop_OS. Seemed to be an nvidia diver issue. Suspend would stop working after a driver update and sometimes go away after another update. This happened 2 or 3 times. There were also some logs about nvidia suspend issues. My troubleshooting was unsuccessful and iirc, it was complicated to keep pop from updating so I eventually swapped nvidia for amd and it stopped being an issue.

How likely are you to recommend Arch to a friend or colleague? 1, not likely, to 5, extremely likely.

Yup! If you have it on steam you can unzip the exe and take a peak at his code.

The future is not evenly distributed.

Were you working with data back then? Marketing? You want to argue that there was the same public knowledge around digital data in 2005 (when web 2.0 was in its infancy) as there is now in 2025? Most books I’ve read on the topic weren’t even published till the late 2010’s. Surely there was a moment or experience that woke you up to the importance of privacy and the capabilities of data. Not everyone has had experiences like that, even today.

I’m not dismissing personal responsibility, I was just shocked that the dominant, first reaction was “morons” and not “these companies are immoral, and don’t deserve our trust.” I want privacy as the default and not an overwhelmingly individual arms race against corporations and professionals. The latter is going to lose, and that will hurt the rest of us. If we want the former, as a community we have to get off our high horse, get on the ground, and grow by welcoming those that got burned into the fold. edit: grammer