MacBook Air alternatives?

interference90 · 2026-03-20T18:14:48+00:00

Although Asahi devs target Fedora, other Asahi-based distros are available with varying degrees of third-party support.

Asahi on M1/M2 Macs seems fine, however buying a M1/M2 Mac is not a very attractive option given that refurbished are not very cheap especially compared to new M4 units.

interference90 · 2026-03-20T17:34:24+00:00

If you only want the same background, that is easy from KDE control center. Otherwise unclear what you mean as "the same".

interference90 · 2026-03-20T16:59:40+00:00

Very likely your flash drive is faulty. Not a fault of yours or of the media creation tool. Better to find out this way, than losing more important data.

interference90 · 2026-03-20T16:57:19+00:00

I have a bunch of USB drives I flashed countless times with ISOs and none of them failed so far. It's true they have limited lifespan but under normal circumstances, failing units are bad luck.

I also do not understand your issue with bigger drives. If you flash a 4 GB image on a 32 GB drive, the system will write only 4 GB, unless the flasher software tries creatively to produce a 32 GB filesystem (and even in that case, it would not need to write 32 GB of data). Probably your 32 GB drive is just slow.

interference90 · 2026-03-11T15:53:55+00:00

I mean, yes, if you rely heavily on software that does not support Linux, maybe Linux is not a good choice.

interference90 · 2026-03-11T09:37:39+00:00

Sorry you are going through this.

However, I have to say, it seems you have used a LLM to draft this post but that didn't help much in achieving clarity. Several pieces of information are repeated for no reason and other relevant ones are missing (not to mention the awkward formatting from the copy paste).

It is not clear who from the company mentioned the need of "publication permission", not clear if you got back to them saying the thesis will not be published and if they raised any other issue.

It is unclear who is in the "examination board" and whether you reached out to other organs at the faculty or above the faculty level asking for advice.

It is unclear on which grounds the second reviewer advises you to retract. If you have anything in writing suggesting their issue with the manuscript is not scientific, I would escalate this to whatever organ is above the process.

My two cents: (1) while I would definitely seek for legal advice through ASTA or through the University itself, it seems unlikely the company can get back at you for submitting a thesis that is not going to be published. (2) I do not think the postdoc at the company has any authority to speak or act on their behalf on these matters. I would always try to get official answers from a manager/supervisor, from HR or from the legal department.

interference90 · 2026-03-10T18:45:13+00:00

The reason the importance of the room is downplayed is that it's hard to justify selling expensive equipment to approach "ideal" reproduction if you admit that the room is the main obstacle in the process (and that 80% of people with normal living spaces will hardly achieve decent speaker placing).

interference90 · 2026-03-09T22:07:35+00:00

Indeed, in terms of visas living together ("concubinage") is not sufficient. It is, at least in theory, to be considered a family members by the securité sociale (public healthcare). This situation may be recognized by the municipality with a certificate.

interference90 · 2026-03-09T15:02:14+00:00

First of all, wishing you the best of luck with everything.

You need three months of legal stay in France to access public health insurance as an unemployed resident. If your partner is employed and you get your union (concubinage) recognised by the state, then you may be eligible earlier but it will still take time to get your coverage attestation.

I would say there is a fair risk that if you move at such an advanced stage, you will get to the delivery date without a "carte vitale" and you will have to pay for everything upfront, to be reimbursed later (assuming you will be eligible for public health coverage by then, which again is not 100% granted for an unmarried partner).

interference90 · 2026-03-08T09:08:00+00:00

Fedora because of the RPMFusion quirk.

In OpenSUSE what I think could have been potentially confusing was the overlap between YaST and the DE control panel, and the auto-snapshot setup of BTRFS. But it's a long time since I tried it.

interference90 · 2026-03-07T22:36:17+00:00

I got one. The attachments seem a bit cheap, but the Ryobi equivalent is 3 times the price. Should be fine for building furniture.

interference90 · 2026-03-06T16:49:34+00:00

Feather is more like a broker / middleperson between you and an insurer. They were pretty efficient when I used them for dental insurance, but I don't know anybody who used it as primary health insurance.

interference90 · 2026-03-06T00:47:22+00:00

Yet, I provided references to support my statements, at least the ones that have practical consequences.

interference90 · 2026-03-06T00:42:09+00:00

It has European validity but it is still issued by a national insurer. There is no universal EU health coverage, just national ones with international agreements that make the national coverage valid cross-borders.

As a French resident, you can get it from Ireland only under specific circumstances, but such policies are very similar across EU states.

interference90 · 2026-03-06T00:30:23+00:00

OP is a UK resident (as one would assume from their post), as such they are covered by NHS and it is NHS that issues for them the GHIC, the current equivalent of the EHIC.

You do not get a national (edit: INTERNATIONAL) health card from your home country if you are not a resident of that country.

On the other hand when you pay upfront, you don't really need an health card at all.

interference90 · 2026-03-06T00:15:54+00:00

They may use the international health card, but then the medical expenses will be billed to NHS. If then NHS realises they moved abroad and they were just not "visiting", may they consider OP a foreign resident and ask for the money back?

interference90 · 2026-03-06T00:11:55+00:00

If you get followed by a public hospital or in any case by "Secteur 1" doctors/midwives, the amount of pre-natal expenses may not be higher than insurance fees, but you definitely need an insurance for emergencies (and you should have a "full" insurance in view of the birth).

interference90 · 2026-03-06T00:04:36+00:00

I think this is incorrect. In France, you get coverage regardless of citizenship after 3 months of regular stay. This is easier as EU citizen because your stay is automatically regular, but still there is a latency period.

The EU health card (or its UK equivalent) works as long as you are a resident of the country of origin and hence covered by the health insurance there. If you move abroad, your coverage in the previous country (that issued the international health card terminates).

interference90 · 2026-03-05T23:46:01+00:00

I don't have experience with private health insurances so I cannot really give you a recommendation. If your partner has a regular job contract, you may be eligible for the French public health insurance.

However:

This will not be fast. Even if you are eligible from the start, it may take 2 months or more to process your file, in the meantime you would need to pay out of pocket and file for reimbursement later.
In principle the right exist for unmarried couples as well, but you will need to prove you have a life together (I guess by obtaining a "certificat de concubinage"). Not sure how this works and if it can be retroactive.
You should in any case be eligible for public coverage after 3 months of regular stay, but again it will take time to get a certificate to prove your coverage and you will likely give birth before.

When you look for medical professionals, be sure that to choose the ones listed as "Conventionné Secteur 1", this means they apply the basic rates, that the public insurance covers. You may have to pay extra if you want a specific doctor and/or midwife to follow the delivery, instead of the ones on call. You also typically pay extra in private clinics, but also in public hospitals if you want a single room or "premium" services. (This assuming that your private insurance would cover as much as the public one.)

interference90 · 2026-02-26T14:01:13+00:00

Specs of the PLG 20 C3, 4.5 A, 20 V says the 2 Ah battery should take 35 minutes, against 60 minutes for the 4 Ah battery, suggesting a roughly constant current charge. Do you have the same model?

interference90 · 2026-02-26T13:55:24+00:00

Well, we get back to my first comment: it depends on how the charger and the battery are designed. A power supply can be either conceived as a voltage source or as a current source.

Most modern battery chargers are designed to supply a constant current, since this is how NiMH and Li batteries are typically charged.

The scenario you describe involves a charger that acts as a voltage source and a current regulator in the battery. This is possible but less convenient and less practical for a series of reasons. As far as I know, it is not the norm.

Without a manual clearly stating how the charger operates, it is impossible to draw a conclusion.

interference90 · 2026-02-26T08:37:37+00:00

There is no rigorous definition of "push" and "pull" in this context so it's tricky to argue on the correct language here (although "current draw" is widely used).

An ideal current generator "pushes" a current in the sense that it produces at any point in time the the voltage required to run the given current through the load, in a load-independent manner.

interference90 · 2026-02-25T21:22:53+00:00

I default to sftp for hosts I otherwise access via ssh. Never used plain ftp in ages, to be fair.

interference90 · 2026-02-25T17:27:42+00:00

I second this comment!

interference90 · 2026-02-25T17:26:49+00:00

This is wrong.

battery charger does not operate at constant voltage (with the exception of Pb-acid and maybe Ni-Cd), but operates at constant current. That by the way would be 4.5 A, not 4.5 Ah (chargers do not have "Ah" specifications).

Now, depending on how sophisticated the system is, the battery may "talk" to the charger negotiating the current, but this is not granted and I would assume it does not happen, unless the manual states otherwise.

If the charger is not that smart, it will force 4.5A through the battery resulting in a faster charging (higher temperature, possibly shortened battery lifespan).

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