FOSS Is Fun

Linux Mint nowadays supports release upgrades, but you have to follow their blog to know when a new major Mint release is out and you have to manually install mintupgrade and do the upgrade.

So it is definitely not caused by technical constraints, as Mint has implemented the difficult part (providing and testing an upgrade path) already. Notifying the user about a new release upgrade shouldn't be too difficult? E. g. in the most simple form you could probably preinstall a package that does nothing at first, but receives an update once the next Mint release is out to send a notification to the user to inform about a new Mint release.

When it comes to elementary OS, I think they could support in-place upgrades, as they properly use metapackages (unlike Mint, which marks most packages as manually installed and doesn't really utilise automatically installed packages and metapackages in a way that you would expect on a Ubuntu-based distro), but they probably don't want to allocate / don't have the resources to test an official upgrade path.

But again, I don't understand why it is so difficult for elementary OS to at least provide a simple notification to the user that a new version is out. Even if the users have to reinstall, it is critical to inform them that their OS is about to become end of life. You know, people do things like online banking on their computers ...

It's the first thing I check with every distribution and if it doesn't have an EOL / upgrade notification, it is immediately out.

It misses one important choice: "I want to get notified of new releases of the operating system and want to have a graphical upgrade path."

Otherwise people just run their no longer supported OS until something stops working (I've seen this countless times ...), as very few people follow blog posts or social media feeds of their operating system.

This rules out lots of supposedly "beginner friendly" distributions, such as elementary OS or Linux Mint, as they don't notify users about the availability of a new distribution release. Elementary OS doesn't even offer in-place upgrades and requires a reinstallation.

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I was in a similar situation not too long ago.

My criteria for another scripting language included that it should be preinstalled on all target systems (i. e. Debian and Fedora), it should be an interpreted language and it needs to have type safety.

Afterall I settled with Python due to its popularity, its syntax and features (type safety since v3.6, etc.) and the fact that it is preinstalled on many Linux distributions. System components often use Python as well, which means that libraries to interact with the system tend to be included by default.

For text-based notes I use Obsidian.

It isn't open source, but it writes standard markdown files to disk, so I can switch programs whenever I like and I am not locked into the Obsidian ecosystem with my notes. That was the main reason why I decided against using Joplin, especially after my experience with converting recipes from Nextcloud Cookbook to markdown ...

In general I am always trying to find a simple file-based solution for whatever I need to do. I want to be able to sync it with Syncthing instead of something fancier that requires a centralised web server or even relies on a cloud service.

I am surprised that no one has mentioned Rnote yet.

It is my favourite newly-created program for Linux. It is a relatively new app which supports annotating files and taking handwritten notes. You can import PDFs, set the page size to infinite or a fixed size (something OneNote can't do), adjust the background to display grids or lines or dots or nothing with any spacing you like, input text with your keyboard, .... It is available on Flathub for easy installation.

The only major downside is the following: Disclaimer: The file format is still unstable. It might change and break compatibility between versions.

(Hopefully) obviously /s

Thanks for fixing this issue! I didn't even know until today that it affected non-Linux systems as well.

Oh no, I thought that was a feature. I came to rely on it to transcribe long tab titles into my text editor. Is there any way to restore the old behaviour in Firefox? Otherwise I'll have to stick with Firefox 118 or switch web browsers, since Firefox 119 seems to break my longstanding workflow. :(

Any ideas?

This is a Yoga exclusive problem due to its non conventional form and function.

That's the only form factor that's relevant to me, so that's what I evaluate. Other ThinkPads and laptops don't matter to me.

The Linux hardware support for Bluetooth, WiFi and other stuff is far superior to any other mainstream laptop maker.

How? They use the same Intel/Broadcom/Realtek chips as everyone else.

MILSPEC-810G certification

If this is something you require, ok. But that's not something I value at all. I haven't dropped a laptop yet and don't need any certifications.

What I see is a lot of plastic cracking and breaking off with the X-series tablets (own an X201t and owned multiple X230t in the past) and new laptops starting to creak after mostly sitting on a desk for a couple of months. So overall I don't think the build quality is anything special and I believe there are laptops for the same price that hold up as well or better over time. But it isn't terrible either, it is just ok in my opinion.

Edit: I have figured you out, you donkey, downvoting every comment I make on my account. Go touch grass and snip your internet cable with a scissor. And maybe eat some shit and get diarrhea too.

I don't think I have downvoted a single comment from you, at least not in this thread.

the TrackPoint

is nice and I prefer it to touchpads. But I don't value it enough to still prioritise ThinkPads over other brands.

the keyboard

is no longer replaceable without disassembling the entire laptop (since the L13 Yoga Gen2). One of the things that made me prefer ThinkPads over the rest.

The typing experience is decent, but I could type just fine on other laptops as well.

Linux friendliness

In which way is a ThinkPad more Linux-friendly than others?

I mean, I can't even use all the hardware I bought on Linux, as the fingerprint reader doesn't have any Linux support, whereas older ThinkPads (up to the Yoga 460) had a fingerprint reader that worked great on Linux. I also haven't received a single UEFI update on Linux through fwupd (I use Fedora if that matters).

I had an inexpensive Acer non-convertible laptop (bought without an OS from the factory) and a HP ENVY x360 (bought for its beefier AMD hardware, but eventually returned after attempts to fix the faulty digitizer failed multiple times) and Linux ran just fine on them as well.

officially allowed user repairability

I agree that it still is an advantage that Lenovo offers HMMs and spare parts.

But if I need to disassemble the entire laptop (which is something I really want to avoid) to replace a keyboard or most components are soldered, a hardware maintenance manual for ThinkPads is of much less value to me than it used to be.

durability superior quality

In which way are ThinkPads "superior quality" or "durable"?

As far as I know, companies don't have to comply yet with the Digital Markets Act. That's most likely the reason why the WebKit restriction is still in place.

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ThinkPad under Lenovo has also gotten much worse to the point that I don't really consider them anymore ...

Last time I looked you couldn't even buy a 2-in-1 with upgradeable memory (or RAM > 16 GB) anymore and for replacing the keyboard you now have to disassemble the entire ThinkPad. Unlike my L390 Yoga and X201 Tablet, where the RAM is slotted and where the keyboard can easily be changed by removing three screws (which is important to me, as I prefer US International over my local layout and I also value a clean keyboard when buying used). In my experience ThinkPad batteries also tend to loose capacity rather quickly? In addition we already have the second X1 Yoga with a broken hinge within three years of normal usage in my family (luckily this device has a five year warranty, so we'll see if the warranty covers it) ...

Maybe this has changed since the first L13 Yoga (haven't read about any new hardware from Lenovo since then), but these were the main reasons why I decided to buy one of the last new L390 Yogas instead of its successor and why I no longer consider ThinkPads to be more desirable than any other laptop.

You can select a local folder in Obsidian for Android and sync the folder with Syncthing. You can even revoke network permissions for Obsidian and it all works completely offline (Flatpak override: --unshare=network / GrapheneOS: don't allow the network permission).

This is my current setup, even though Obsidian is not FOSS. I like that it stores standard Markdown files in a traditional filesystem hierarchy, instead of what Joplin does with using Markdown files as a database. This means that with Obsidian I can use any text editor or any other Markdown app to access and edit my notes, whereas with Joplin I would have to export them first to standard Markdown and then potentially rename and reorganise all the files and their attachments.

You don't need your own server to use Joplin. You can select a local directory to store your notes and sync this directory with Syncthing between devices.

I am not sure if this works with iOS though.

My recommendation is F-Droid Basic. It's a more modern official client that supports automatic unattended updates on Android 12 and newer.