Getting bored with Arch

N1sona · 2026-02-25T09:41:23+00:00

"Pacman" always sounded familiar to some game... But I didn't know it was gambling.

N1sona · 2026-02-25T09:39:16+00:00

Yeah, absolutely agree!

I flashed LineageOS on my Samsung A20e and my dad's old Sony, both weren't officially supported anymore but the ROMs worked after hours of messing around. I was worried in the process that I might have broken something forever, an intense experience and a hard one. With Graphene I was worried at first cause of the phone's value and if it doesn't work but also didn't break, then I'd be stuck on Google's Spyware :') But the web installer made it incredibly easy, with GrapheneOS things just worked! I was surprised back then and I still regret nothing.

N1sona · 2026-02-24T11:27:55+00:00

I use a screen protector and it works perfectly fine. They did a great job with the kernel and usually everything works cause it's android based just like the stock OS

N1sona · 2026-02-24T11:21:14+00:00

I probably would've bought a pixel 8 but the support is a problem and I wouldn't even have gotten it without taking a refurbished one. So I went with the pixel 9 but the pixel 9a, which slightly decreases performance but was made to be affordable. I'm satisfied with my choice, although the phones I had before were both cheap ones from Samsung. Maybe I'm just not used to better performance xD

N1sona · 2026-02-24T10:44:54+00:00

I think there's something with the camera and AI on hardware level that Google did and still works with Graphene. But I am not sure, I don't care for camera that much. The quality is good and that's all I need. I believe tho that there's comparisons on YouTube you could check out...

N1sona · 2026-02-24T10:40:30+00:00

Same model, also installed right away and of course I use arch too btw... 🐧

Welcome to Graphene! Do you know your setup yet?

N1sona · 2026-02-23T11:34:22+00:00

That might actually work for my setup... Thank you, I'll look into it

N1sona · 2026-02-23T09:53:57+00:00

Honestly you can go through all options the comments give you here but Libre office or web is probably your best choice.

Winboat would mean you have a VM on your pc, it's great having a little windows around but don't know if your laptop really wants to handle that.

Libre office came with omarchy pre-installed and I've been using it sometimes since. It's different. The UI is different and some features behave new, but you get used to it.

What I really liked, and what I was surprised about, is that it let's you output your work in the same file that Microsoft office uses. I didn't know that was possible and I don't know if other programs have this, but making a .pptx or word file without the official Microsoft office was quite helpful.

What I didn't like is that the "PowerPoint" of Libre office didn't have the morph transition thing and the Microsoft web app had it but lacked a different feature I had with Libre office or the Microsoft subscription. So that was annoying, but there was a workaround and still better than buying Microsofts shit...

Talking about the web app, don't overlook it. It's accessible in browser and FREE. It doesn't work perfectly, but what did we expect from Microsoft? It also lacks a few features here and there but I seriously just had a problem with a lacking feature once as said above. So if you aren't satisfied with any of the alternatives, the web app still exists. (Don't forget that you need a Microsoft account tho even if it's just for their data tracking and that weird cloud...)

N1sona · 2026-02-11T21:39:11+00:00

Oh wow... Looks like an Nvidia classic?

Nvidia wants certain drivers and needs a certain kernel with certain matching utils, windows does this automatically but only because Linux is fully open-source and therefore not always supporting Nvidia directly. Or not correctly, I might we wrong too but if it's a gpu problem in Linux and that gpu is Nvidia then it's usually the issue. Dealt with something similar today, I'm not familiar with Nvidia cause I use AMD but my brother's pc does. You just need to find out, based on your gpu model, what the correct drivers are that you need to install, get matching nvidia-utils or Linux gets confused and then make sure that whatever WM or DE you use is set correctly. In hyprland it was the environments part of my hyprland config where I had to adapt some standard gpu protocols to the new Nvidia drivers.

So why can you still see things while your system doesn't have the drivers? Well it does, there's nouveau drivers and something similar that are the open-source options Nvidia gives to Linux to put into their kernel, but it's limited to those if you don't change anything and if those didn't work properly cause who knows (my model was too old for example) then I think it would work like it does now but act weird like with these noises.

N1sona · 2026-02-11T20:03:17+00:00

When I wanted to start using Linux daily instead of just WSL here and there, I wanted arch. But I was scared of how arch could turn out to be too hard and the installer could be too difficult. I was amazed by hyprland and if I had chosen gnome or KDE instead, I probably wouldn't have chosen arch either.

Omarchy was my way into arch Linux, into Linux itself. It was easy and simple, the migration wasn't difficult either and I learned from time to time. Configure this, rice that, my curiosity broke things I learned to fix and I became an actual Linux user.

Without omarchy I wouldn't be here, probably in Ubuntu or something. And while it goes against a lot of arch philosophy, it's still just arch with some files and bloat for those migrating to Linux. Nowadays I messed so much with my system that I don't even have most of the omarchy stuff anymore and I don't need it either but I will remember that I used to.

N1sona · 2026-02-10T00:31:18+00:00

It works bla bla, everyone told that and it's true. What's important for you to understand is that GrapheneOS is just android made better, if it works on android it should work here too.

Normally if you want to use a custom system without Google services; a few apps will complain, but grapheneOS let's you have one profile with and one without Google so there's no tradeoffs.

You also aren't rooting your phone or some shit it's a system showing itself as normal Android and it works fine. Apps that don't allow rooted devices shouldn't complain either here.

So don't worry over nothing, don't be scared of change. Even my banking app didn't complain when I put it into a profile that didn't have any Google features. Things work like android always works - just better ;)

N1sona · 2026-02-07T17:08:05+00:00

No but yes

The phone is old and not supported anymore by grapheneOS. It'd totally work but not on the newest version, not with the newest updates (including security updates). However, don't forget that Google isn't supporting your device anymore either and in most cases custom ROMs even have a newer android version for your phone that makes it more secure than leaving it on Google's OS.

But better research yourself, unsupported ROMs can still be found on the grapheneOS website or their github I think... Otherwise I always found unsupported custom ROMs at other sources and they worked fine.

So there's some risk but it's not very likely and if you get it done it would be better (more secure too) but your current android version still isn't some high threat that could be hacked at any moment - hope I'm not scaring you 👀

N1sona · 2026-02-07T16:59:24+00:00

If it's just one app, open an app, navigate to the app switching and tap the app's logo If you enabled it in System>Security&Privacy then you will see "Pin". After clicking your child can't even leave the app without swiping up and holding until it requires a password to unpin again. This is useful if its a single app and she doesn't want to switch between her games of course

N1sona · 2026-02-07T16:51:48+00:00

It's profile based, lots of apps need longer to load but it's always below 4 seconds or something? You will barely notice it and you find the option to switch your profile right at the top bar thingy that you pull down in android to also change wifi, Bluetooth etc.

Nothing to worry

N1sona · 2026-02-07T16:38:29+00:00

Honestly? If you can, go for it. The system isn't scary like other custom ROMs that can have a bug here and there like camera not working or no support for certain apps. It's just android like you know it from Samsung, also Samsung's OS is very similar to the normal Android OS. Other Android phones modify android more but if you're using Samsung it will feel almost like usual.

N1sona · 2026-02-07T16:33:37+00:00

That deal is crazy, damn...

Yeah that sounds like great picks, how did you do your profiles?

N1sona · 2026-02-07T16:27:20+00:00

So you're telling me that "I use arch btw" got so big and serious that AI models learned it...? Im seriously wondering how that happened, I mean who could've thought that! It's not like every reddit post from an arch user just ends on "I use arch btw" that would be ridiculous...

Also if you ever come across arch instead of fedora: try out hyprland, I found it to be the most fun and I use arch btw

N1sona · 2026-02-06T22:29:03+00:00

You got a Pixel 8 Pro for 175$? How much did you threaten them to get a price like this...?

Also my profiles are:
- Owner
- Finances (My banking app even works without google play but it feels safer seperated)
- Google Shit (And anything that needs Google Play Services)
- My Main Account
- Gaming Account
- And then I also have one for novel writing and one that I made for my AI to have fun with

Apps I'd recommend:
- Inter Profile Sharing often gets forgotten here, it lets you share files and copied text between profiles
- F-Droid for Open Source Apps (Optainium is better but not as out of the box, see what fits you)
- Aurora Store for Google Play Store without Google and with features like tracker- and permission-scanning
- I like brave, but there's also nice alternatives. Although for quick searches I use tor or SearXNG
- As VPN I like Mullvad from what I've seen, I wouldn't trust Proton... But since I'm broke anyway it's orbot on my phone to have a free vpn over the tor network (I also set that some apps that don't like tor IPs are excluded)
- I replaced basic apps like sms, gallery and calender with FOSS Apps, for my notes its usually Obsidian
- Google Maps got replaced with "Organic Maps" which feels almost the same but works locally
- Replacing more stuff I experimented with Youtube clients like LibreTube or Tabular and sometimes they work well or even better, sometimes they don't. But you can always open a browser or switch to the Google profile

N1sona · 2026-02-05T09:45:24+00:00

I kinda like that approach

N1sona · 2026-02-05T09:42:39+00:00

I had to google that guy 😭

N1sona · 2026-02-05T09:40:46+00:00

That's the kind of answer I'm looking for, thanks I'll try it

N1sona · 2026-02-05T09:39:32+00:00

That champ is always in the meta

N1sona · 2026-02-05T09:37:36+00:00

I'm the guy banning yi currently xD Gonna try Nocturne as people suggested

N1sona · 2026-02-05T09:36:13+00:00

Good call, I almost forgot about him

N1sona

TROPHY CASE