Can someone point me to a helpful beginners resource explaining some Linux basics? Like what is the difference between "distro", which is what, like Ubuntu, fedora, Debian (? Or is that a category of distro?) And desktop environment which is what, KDE, Lubuntu, gnome? Like I don't even know I have these categories right let alone understand why I'd pick one over another and what practical effects it will have- which apps will I/won't I be able to install, etc...

I'm not expecting anyone to answer these questions for me, but if you could point me to something already written, I'd appreciate it.

So I have a Synology server that I have a good deal of experience with, so this post will be through that lens.

What I'd like to do is set up a Raspberry Pi exclusively for pirating. So Qbittorrent and Proton VPN to get started, later Radarr, Lidarr, etc. I don't think I'll have a problem getting the Pi up and running, but I'd like to run it like my server, tucked away somewhere without a monitor or peripherals.

How do I access it? For my Synology box, I just put in a browser the local ip port 5000 and I have a whole desktop right there. But when I google about how I'd access a Pi, everything points to using SSH. I know a lot of people have Pis set up like this and surely they can't be administering the whole thing through CLI, right? How do I get a similar setup to my Synology such that I can just get a desktop interface in a browser?

I just found out that Pass has offline mode from a recent email they sent and found language saying the same in the browser extension (see below). Proton is blocked on my work's network for some reason so as far as Proton is concerned I'm "offline", but I still can't access the credentials stored in the browser extension when I'm at work.

Can someone help explain?

• Quick offline access to your login data: Access your stored passwords and notes in Pass from wherever you are, even when you don’t have internet connection. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/proton-pass/

And this is from their recent email !

My (first?) 3d printer arrives tomorrow. I've been researching for months. One category I've been looking into is 3d modeling software. They all have drawbacks (too expensive, too hard to learn, save files in the cloud, etc) but the one that seems to fit the best is this apparently new one called Plasticity. I'd be willing to spend the $150 and then decide after a year if I want to re-up or just keep the current version. Or maybe I'd upgrade every few years or something.

Anyway, there are a bunch of great reviews and tutorials but they're all over a year old, from when looks like the software was first released.

I'm wondering if anyone here has experience with it and could advise if it's worth the $150.

I pre-ordered a Pebblebee and finally received it in June. It's now September and it's just as useless when it's farther away from me than I can throw it as it was back in June.

Are there plans to improve the network? Is it happening anytime soon or will my trackers remain worthless?

I'd like to get a Bambu Labs A1 with the AMS but I'll want a sturdy surface to put it on. I'm shopping around for tables with drawers and I'd like to know how big it needs to be. There are dimensions for the printer itself but it's hard to know how much more space I need to accommodate the AMS.

I know Pass is new and growing, but I always thought that maybe it doesn't auto-fill credit card info because expanding the field types that get auto-filled past Username and password is difficult. But now that we have identities (which I'm super happy about), I'm thinking cc auto fill is being withheld for security reasons or something instead of technical ones.

What do you think?

Most of my tomato plants are doing really well. But the one in the cage highlighted in red started failing a few weeks ago. I fertilized with some Miracle grow I had lying around and it didn't improve. Then I got some Tomato Tone. That did nothing. The plant kept getting worse and worse and now it's just a husk. I'm afraid blue is following next and I'm concerned about purple. Here's another angle for some more context. !.

Any thoughts?

What percentage of Android phones are actually running it? I get that it's brand new and over time more and more phones will report the location of trackers, but are there any metrics on current "market saturation" (for lack of a better word)?

I just got my Pebblebee clips yesterday that I pre-ordered a few months ago. I wanted to test them out so I sent one in my kid's backpack to daycare today (which is a legit use case I had in mind when buying these, particularly when we leave him with a babysitter).

When I try to check on the location, it says "last seen at 7:45" which is when I dropped him off, implying that my phone was the last to ping the tracker. So that means none of the teachers' phones, nor any of the other parents' phones have pinged the tracker. It's not a big daycare but he's one of the first to arrive. There should have been at least 2 dozen other phones near his backpack since then. This brings me back to my question about how many phones would you expect to report the location of a tracker.

I have an ancient Pixel 3 that still works. I'd like to install a new, third-party OS. Which would you recommend?

I can see that there are many: Lineage, Calyx, /e/, Graphene, .... How do I make the decision? Can all of them work on a phone as old as my Pixel 3?

Edit: holy shit, I just installed Lineage OS on my lunch break! I've installed "alternative" OSes before on computers but never on a phone. I just followed the instructions (which were a little confusing as there were nested steps) and it's up and running!

I didn't plant it (intentionally) but it's definitely more than a weed. I'm letting it grow just to see what it wants to grow up to be.

There's a button to "sort" folders in the settings which sorts the currently existing folders alphabetically. Then when you create a new folder it gets put at the bottom. Can we just have them sort alphabetically automatically?

Also when you click sort, it only sorts the top-level folders. The subfolders don't get sorted at all.

This is the kind of rough-around-the-edges stuff that Proton really needs to sort out before adding more and more services.

That the labels for the apps get truncated so you can only read "Proton" plus the first letter of the app. I'm only able to distinguish based on the icons which isn't great because Pass and Drive are similar colors, and Pass and VPN, and Drive and Calendar are similar shapes.

I'm signed into Firefox on 4 devices. I can send tabs between all of them except from my work computer to my phone (other direction works). I can see the tabs open on my computer from my phone and tap to open it on my phone, but if I "send tab" from computer to phone, it never arrives.

I tried signing out on my phone and back in. Didn't work.

What else can I do to troubleshoot?

My wife is in the market for a new phone. Her highest priority is that it's small. She has it narrowed down to a Galaxy S23 or a Zenphone 10. The Samsung is the safe bet, especially since she's upgrading from an S10e. And even so, we can just got to T-mobile and play with one. The Zenphone is a bit riskier as it's unfamiliar. But it's small and gets great reviews. All of the options under "where to buy" have you buy it through, say, Target or Walmart, but it's online only. So she wouldn't be able to play with it until after unboxing and setting it up.

Everyone's been complaining about having access to passwords offline. While you could always do that with the Android app (and I assume iOS), you can now do it in Windows.

Direct link to install file from the screenshot email

Proton has been killing it lately. I feel like the speed at which they're rolling out new features and products has really picked up over the last year or so.

First off, I'd normally ask this question on a datahoarding forum, but this one is way more active than those and I'm sure there's considerable overlap.

So I have a Synology DS218+ that I got in 2020. So it's a 6 year old model by now but only 4 into its service. There's absolutely no reason to believe it'll start failing anytime soon, and it's completely reliable. I'm just succession planning.

I'm looking forward to my next NAS, wondering if I should get the new version of the same model again (whenever that is) or expand to a 4 bay.

The drives are 14 TB shucked easy stores, for what it's worth, and not even half full.

What are your thoughts?