wwwgem

wwwgem, 1 year ago

It’s not user friendly at first and that’s certainly why it doesn’t get the love it deserved. But once you figure it out, you can build the launcher you want and never have to go back to the config anymore.

wwwgem, 1 year ago

Have you looked at KISS? Extremely lightweight and customizable. You can go from the most minimalist approach with text only and selection of apps to show to crash things like visual effects and icons for every single installed app.

wwwgem, 1 year ago

Both iosevka and fira look nice.

wwwgem, 1 year ago (edited 5 months ago)

We’re exactly on the same page: “the tool is not the goal”. The only difference may be that I see chosing options for an app as options for a tool. If I want to cut wood or metal I need a different saw. Even though the tool is basically the same it doesn’t serve the same purpose. Hence I configure options once and for all, like I would consider which hardware I need exactly in terms of use, ergonomic, power… before buying it.
I don’t spend time tweaking the look of a tool because it’s doesn’t fit my approach of things anymore. As such I don’t even use a DE. But I feel the need to build the right tool (i.e. system app) I need to perform a job as efficiently as possible while keeping the tool itself minimalist and as invisible as possible. On my daily use I have tools that I couldn’t live without anymore but if you ask me a list I will either forgot them or put them at the bottom because I will not think about them right away since they became a second nature.

I certainly see the comfort of the out of the box approach and it can serve a lot of people. In my use case I just realize that - using the example above - it could be like using a wood saw on metal in some cases. It may work but not as good as you would expect to have the job done properly. Also, the fit them all approach means building an app with tons of options activated and I prefer to have available to me only the options I really need. The philosophy feels less bloated to me and I’m not overloading my system with stuff I’ll never use. It’s more time consuming at first to chose the right app but with time it became quick enough and it definitely save me way more time in the long run when I use my system.

wwwgem, 1 year ago

There’s a hype around floorp right now. Certainly because it’s new and it offers a high level of aesthetic customization.

Unfortunately it doesn’t work for me because:

1. it takes up too much RAM compared to others. Even though people don’t really care about that on modern machine it goes against my philosophy.
2. I’ve been tweaking Firefox for a long time to get the highest privacy possible but it was extremely painful and I don’t want to redo that with floorp.
3. my system look is extremely minimalist and I remove any visual effects in apps I use which would go against the point of floorp.

These are some reasons why I went with librewolf since it was released in 2020. It’s efficient, well maintained, kept up to date with the latest Firefox version, and most importantly to me: deeply respectful of your privacy. Their privacy approach is very well explained in the FAQ It passed all the EFF tests better than any browser I’ve tested after hours of tweaks.

This is only my personal experience and preference. Per the Floorp developer himself privacy is not given the utmost care and users should prefer librewolf in that regard. If you want to use normal privacy and excellent Firefox derivatives, with no doubts, floorp will fit your needs.

wwwgem, 1 year ago (edited 5 months ago)

Oh you mean mullvad! They’re two different apps.

wwwgem, 1 year ago (edited 5 months ago)

I use mull on my phone but I can’t find it in arch, that would be nice. Do you have a link?

wwwgem, 1 year ago

Thanks for sharing. I’ve not been sold by the info on their website. Too many details are missing. At a glance, privacy concerns seem better addressed by librewolf. Also there have been some issues in update history cycles and some reviews (which I won’t cite here with respect to project) didn’t help in building confidence.

wwwgem, 1 year ago (edited 4 months ago)

Don’t know if you plan to use another Arch-based distro on this laptop in the future but I came across this page which has some tips to adjust the Framework 13 including one that may be related to what you mention. They recommend to use 1,5 scaling factor. More details can be found here.

wwwgem, 1 year ago

Thanks. That does not not really address my question but I certainly share your view as to not be married to a brand. My personal history and this post question are actually going that route.

wwwgem, 1 year ago

Can you expand on that?

wwwgem, 1 year ago

Thank you for taking time to share this detailed feedback. Very useful!

wwwgem, 1 year ago

Thanks for the feedback.

wwwgem, 1 year ago

Thanks for a nice feedback. One more vote for Framework ;)
I don’t use a DE, so this would not make me go with them. Also, I’ll use Arch anyway, not PopOS.

wwwgem, 1 year ago

Framework also has an outlet, just in case you want to take a look ;)

wwwgem, 1 year ago

Wow that’s quite impressive. Serious customer service definitely.

wwwgem, 1 year ago

Any more details to share?

wwwgem, 1 year ago

Thanks for the tip. I know a lot of people are going for Thinkpads and you’re specific recommendation may seem interesting but I’d like to support other companies like the ones I bought from so far (Toshiba, Lenovo, Dell, Vaio, Acer, PB, Razer) and I’d also like to build my own laptop from the start.

wwwgem, 1 year ago

I agree. Have you ever owned one?

wwwgem, 1 year ago

Wonderful to hear! Thanks for bringing one more vote to Framework :)

wwwgem, 1 year ago

Thanks for sharing this feedback. One more point for Framework :)

wwwgem, 1 year ago (edited 4 months ago)

Influence is a curse in today’s world. I’ve made this final selection of brands based on personal choice and for reasons exposed in this post. But it’s all personal so you may disagree with some/all candidates and that’s perfectly fine. I’ve posted here to actually collect as much opinions as possible so thanks for sharing yours.

Companies always find a way to justify for higher price to sell you not that good hardware or to overprice their stuff for non sense reasons. As anyone else (except fan boys of any given brand) I’m running away from that. In my personal views, companies on this list have reasonable offers considering their history, clients pool, philosophy…

Framework is maybe the best deal here because it has good price and all parts of their machines are replaceable. And again, prices for the parts are fair. So in the long run, users may be winners if the company doesn’t crash. If it does then it won’t be worth than having bought from another company. With all the options to build the laptop you want for your needs it really make me feel like customizing my Linux system but from a hardware standpoint. It’s a big plus for me to pay only for what I want/need and with them you can go even further by physically positioning your ports on the fly. That’s an unseen degree of freedom and it has real world applications.

wwwgem, 1 year ago

Thanks very much for this important feedback. Framework is definitely taking the lead in responses to this post.

wwwgem, 1 year ago

Very nice to read this feedback. I’m very sold to Framework after all the great things posted here. An impeccable customer support like the one you describe means a lot about a company.