for uploading, absolutely use syncthing. you can set it up so that it works in only one direction, i.e. phone to server, so any file that appears on the phone’s download folder gets sent to the server. the one you want is syncthing-fork on fdroid.
as to listening to the music via youtube check out innertune, also on fdroid.
As of right now, Plasma Bigscreen isn’t available for public use yet.
I disagree on both them counts. for an intermediate user, sure. for a try-to-dip-their-toes first-time user, absolutely not.
VMs are OK for one-off or compartmentalised tasks. running linux on anything but bare metal is a sub-optimal experience and off-putting. it’s essential for the user to get the feedback in snappy and satisfying response to their actions, which is easily accomplished even on 10-year old hardware, while being a tall order for any VM deployment. not to mention, any intense graphic use (an important part of OP’s spec) is nothing but crap in that scenario.
dual-boot scenarios are not for beginners. a) you can fuck something up and thus relieve you of a safe fall-back and b) you can’t switch between workstation #1 and #2 concurrently, reboots are jarring focus breakers.
the list of things you’d like to be able to seamlessly transition over is kinda… well, that’s a lot of stuff. anyone claiming you can pull this off whilst maintaining any semblance of productivity is deluded.
my advice would be, get yourself a second machine. powerful hardware is stupid cheap nowadays and you can get a semi-competent laptop in the $100 region. take your time setting it up, always having the option to tear everything down and start over as it’s not your primary rig. start with a beginner friendly distro, Mint or Ubuntu, try 'em both and see which you like better.
then, just start doing the things from the list. item 1, easy-peasy. item 7 next, huh that was easy. next item 4, then 5… you’re gradually transitioning, without any downtime and always having the fallback option of your existing setup. before you know it, you’re a Linux user!
by the time you figure all this stuff out, you’ll have the knowledge and confidence to nuke windows for good and jump in both feet, not to mention - your laptop as a fallback.
for games that fell off a truck or something, maybe look here. I’ve found almost all of those I’ve found in the mentioned way to work without issues with lutris.
as to upgrading the games, hadn’t tried that. I know there are periodic updates for popular titles (like Cyberpunk 2077) released and you can find them in the same place you found the game, but seems too much hassle.
I haven’t flashed my T480s yet, as it’s my daily, and I’m waiting for a couple versions to bring additional functionality. anyhow, I was hesitant for the longest time about dicking around with this sorta activity, on the basis that if it’s not software flashable/moddable, I’m out. but the total cost of the hardware (raspberry pico, SOIC clamp, some wires) is under $10 in total and the procedure couldn’t be any more straightforward; also it has a multitude of uses after you’re done. my point, if you were similarly hesitant, take another look, it’s easy and this post is very detailed.
which ones?
all-AMD system and don’t buy new stuff, go a gen or two back; new keyboards and mice and case.
can’t help with the mentioned games. weening them off that corpo spyware is good in the long run but it’s detrimental to their social life.
dios mio, with the “sign petition” and “vote harder”, a waste of energy and dulling the blade of revolt.
like a commercially available one? negative, you have to tinker and make it such.
if you have linux on the player (like with said PC or Raspberry) you have full control and can set it up to boot directly into jellyfin-media-player in fullscreen TV mode (that’s the one where remotes work).
if you want a hassle-free experience, go for a used Thinkpad a generation or two back, especially if you want Debian. if you buy a new Thinkpad, a) the software support isn’t there yet and b) you’re paying the corpo extortion tax for stuff you don’t need (IME and friends).
as to Intel vs AMD, whatever you choose will do fine for the vast majority of use cases; even the 1st gen T14 meets your specs (6-core, 16 GB on-board) and those can be had for $200ish; even less if you’re willing to tinker.
Raspberry Pi with a cute case then, and/or glued/velcroed to the back of the TV. they also support HDMI-CEC so your TV’s remote can work.
stove them out of sight? well, you can go for a mini-PC if price isn’t an issue. but these things can be had for ultra-cheap, especially if you have one laying around or get one with a busted screen or sumsuch. an android box is a hit or miss, maybe it’s good, maybe it’s crap, maybe it’s loaded with malware… the middle ground would be a Raspberry Pi, there are unofficial LineageOS Android TV builds.
an old laptop/desktop (like 6th-gen Intel or newer) that boots directly into jellyfin-media-player in TV fullscreen mode. it supports any remote that can emmit up-down-left-right, enter, esc (like, via InputRemapper). disable transcoding on the server and play anything you want via direct stream.
1- linux 10 years ago and now are completely different beasts; I’m mainly referring to issues with making drivers work. if you have vanilla hardware, boot off a liveUSB stick and the vast majority of stuff just works.
2- you are absolutely on point on linux being noob-adverse and its users (although predominantly well-intentioned) can’t relate to people who aren’t into complex setup, shell commands and such.
3- you’d do well to steer clear of unconventional distros and stick to the middle of the road solutions, which is, and for the foreseeable future will be, Ubuntu. once everything works and you’re satisfied with the functionality, you’re free to distro-hop and switch DEs and whatnot.
4- steer clear from multi-booting different OS, that’s an advanced user scenario, and like with choosing your distro you need the vanillaest possible scenario - one disk, whole disk, nothing else.
I appreciate that funds might be tight, but a new SSD is under $20, used ones even less than that. disconnect all your existing drives (so you have a fallback solution), connect the new drive, install to it using the whole drive. your experience will change dramatically, we’re talking like 20x faster; making stuff work on a slow-as-molasses USB stick is just a horror scenario.
5- if you want concrete advice, instead of general observations, include your hardware - CPU, graphics, storage; some things are easier, some not, some are not even worth trying.
hang in there.
I do. I have a daily folder, weekly and reread, apart from the usual categories for long-term storage. “daily” gets the current stuff, “weekly” gets opened once a week, and “reread” is for stuff I read but didn’t really absorb. thanks to firefox sync I can read all of that form tablet or desktop or whatever.
stole it from Cory Doctorow: https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/25/today-in-tabs/
in the morning I middle-click on “daily” and it opens em all up - lemmy, mastodon, weather, stuff I’d like to buy, etc. and you go through them; got way easier with the new vertical bar + middle click for close the ones you done with.
look for docker-compose + whatyouwant specifically, it’s way more straightforward. once you have one set up, it get easier adding on different software.
they are widely available and cheap.
yeah, those are too big. was hoping to score an ITX-sized abandonware for cheap and retrofit it with a 10 TB or so drive. I had this thing many moons ago:
it could fit a drive, with some wiggling and swearing. so I figured maybe something similar exists. building it from new parts is way, way out of budget.
edit: this is how it ran for close to a year.
doing WHAT the fuck now?!?
on a more serious note, can you elaborate on the thing where you, a call receiver, have access to the GPS on the caller’s phone? like, how?asked and answered, still don’t understand how that happens.