Staying with irc is a reasonable choice because of minimal friction, and moving to matrix is also a reasonable choice because of superior features. Some communities will make the switch early, some only after the new thing has matured more, and some maybe never. Transition periods are often like this.

It's worth noting that a matrix/libera bridge is coming soon:

"We're still continuing to rapidly work on the bridge, with a release expected on Monday . For any of you who aren't in the know yet, you can start bridging to libera.chat by simply joining a channel like #libera-matrix:libera.chat or by searching the libera.chat room directory."

I currently use both, but I look forward to more communities moving to matrix in the years ahead. Even public chats that don't need encryption can benefit from things like easy access to chat history (no need for an irc bouncer) and offline messaging.

You're not the only one. Instructions here:

https://askubuntu.com/question...

For practical, general-purpose privacy software recommendations, this site is hard to beat:

https://www.privacytools.io/

Excessive disk writes have been a problem in firefox for quite a while. Last time I looked, a major contributor was that it saved a enormous amount of session information to disk every few seconds, regardless of whether you were interacting with any of the open pages.

I don't know how it has changed in recent versions. What directories it's writing to? Maybe we can reduce the SSD abuse by mounting a ramdisk in the right place? In any case, getting these wasteful writes documented and reported would be helpful.

Using Google's repo would require trusting code from a new party, thereby increasing your attack surface. Using Debian's repo does not, because Ubuntu & derivatives already pull most of their packages from Debian.

Google in particular would make some of us uneasy, because Google has both the motivation to quietly slip things on to people's systems, and a track record of doing so.

Come to think of it, I don't think Google offers a Chromium repo at all. As far as I know, they only offer Chrome, which is not equivalent to anyone who cares about privacy.

I dislike Snap, too, but don't want to leave behind the things I like about Ubuntu, so I configured apt to get Chromium packages (including timely updates) from the Debian repo. Here's how.

Why two spaces after a period isn’t wrong (or, the lies typographers tell about history)

(Thanks, Internet Arcive.)

What is his page missing

A margin.

No, a margin is not missing. This page uses the browser's default margin, which is 8px on Firefox and Chrom(ium). The text also wraps and unwraps to fit my browser window. Thankfully, he is not among the many misguided web developers who waste my screen space with their infernally wide margins and sidebars. Some of us actually use our multitasking operating systems for multiple tasks, and do not run our browsers full-screen.

This patent filing looks quite a bit like a new controller design from Valve, and the Steam Input SDK files contain references to a SteamController V2. This suggests that Valve might not be abandoning Steam Controllers, but instead making way for a successor.

To be fair, some of us remained anonymous cowards for quite a long time before finally giving in. I can't say that having yet another web registration has made my life any better.

If the people behind some piece of software have a history of spying or an incentive to do so, and the software is sufficiently complex, there's a very good chance that they will find a way to spy even if it is open source.

Want an example? Look at Google. Being open source didn't stop Chromium from quietly downloading an executable blob designed for listening to you (and who knows what else).

This should be tattooed on every single person who works in tech as a profession.

Compulsory tattoos. Now, where in history have we heard that idea before? (You're probably just using hyperbole to make a point, but a comment like that is nevertheless revealing of the... overzealous ...frame of mind behind it.)

I've seen way, way, way too many people who cling to shit and not move on. The tech industry has taught me one thing, it's the largest source of Luddites of any industry.

Luddites, really? I'm skeptical of a broad generalization like that. I wonder if you're truly surrounded by technologists who resist all new technologies, or if you're actually surrounded by a people with a variety of perspectives and experiences, and you have simply failed to see value in their needs when they don't match your own agenda and limited experience.

By the way, text logs are much easier to work with when you have to do post-crash forensics with limited tools, and enabling both binary and text logs needlessly increases wear on flash storage. Both involve tradeoffs. When I see someone claim that a binary journal is a universal improvement, I know that they are either making pronouncements from a position of ignorance, or trying to sell something, or both. Either way, they lose credibility.

The answer probably lies in a combination of factors, but one that leaps to mind is that the people who make the decisions and approve the paychecks are not the people likely to think of improvements like those you describe, let alone see much value in them. Managers are often focused on whatever deliverables they have been asked for, and developers are often kept on a short leash.

Considering how poorly this event has been explained and how buggy the web app has been in the first couple of days, it's likely that most people do not understand this. I consider this entirely Valve's fault; it would have been easily avoided with just a little thought put into communication and a little effort into testing. Thank goodness it's just a silly web game and not another bug that nukes all the user's files.

"If you choose to disable telemetry, you have no right to complain when your favorite feature gets deprecated and removed for lack of use."

That statement demonstrates either deep ignorance, or disturbing arrogance. Compulsory spyware has never been necessary for learning what features our users depend on. We have been doing just fine without it for decades.

Now, dear users, whenever someone pushes you to accept their "telemetry", you ought to consider whether their actions demonstrate concern for your privacy.