djdarren
@djdarren@piefed.social
- Comment on The Setapp Mobile iOS store is shutting down on February 16th 1 day ago:
Setapp Mobile seemed like one of the many alternative app markets with promise that launched in the wake of the EU’s Digital Markets Act. While the law may have forced Apple to allow third-party app stores on its devices, it couldn’t make users actually embrace them.
With the exception of Riley Testut, not a single iPhone user was clamouring to be able to install a third party app store on their phone. What they wanted then - and still want now - is the ability to install software in the same way they can on their computers (be that Mac or Windows).
Apple knowingly made the process as awkward and convoluted as possible and it’s worked out exactly as they wanted it to.
I have an iPad mini which I don’t really use for much these days, not since I tentatively walked away from Apple products into the world of Linux, and FOSS, and have subsequently discovered that, while my MacBook works pretty well with most of the things I have running on my Linux machine, my iPad does not. In fact, at this stage I can get more cross-platform utility from a ten year old Galaxay Tab running LineageOS. If I could install software from any location without having to fuck about with a third part app store (though I can’t even do that because I’m in the UK, not EU), then I’d have half a chance of finding other, more useful software.
- Comment on [deleted] 2 days ago:
Oh, I send that to my kid quite a lot.
- Comment on dating 4 days ago:
me_irl
- Comment on FFFFFUUUU 1 week ago:
This is art. Glorious, beautiful art.
- Comment on MFW I wake up to find Lemmy feeds full of USA stuff 1 week ago:
People are dying
There is literally nothing I can do about this.
rights are being lost
There is literally nothing I can do about this.
the planet’s fucked
All I can do about this is be mindful of my own carbon footprint, and recycle as much as possible.
genocide is going on
There is literally nothing I can do about this.
- Comment on The shrinkflation 2 weeks ago:
I think I’ve gotten too old for a large. The spud, coupled with a beers leaves me feeling uncomfortably bloated.
- Comment on The shrinkflation 2 weeks ago:
Similarly, any chip shop in the UK outside of greater London. I’ve taken to ordering a medium chips for my wife and I, because a large is just Too Many Chips.
In London, however, they serve a tragically small amount of chips in many chippies. Fuck London.
- Comment on How Are You Guys Handling This? 2 weeks ago:
Ultimately, I don’t really use my Mac for gaming these days because it’s a bit of a headache compared to just firing up my wife’s old PC that I’ve put Linux on. But I recognise I’m lucky enough to have that option.
- Comment on How Are You Guys Handling This? 2 weeks ago:
As you already have a Mac, have you looked into Crossover?
So far as I understand, the work that CodeWeavers do with it is the basis for what Valve have done with Proton, so it’s the closest you’ll get to Proton on macOS. I’ve seen people running RDR2 on Macs with it. It’s a reasonable outlay, but it could be a useful tool for running a whole bunch of Windows-only titles via Steam.
There is also Whisky, which is to all intents and purposes, a free version of Crossover, albeit (intentionally) a couple of Wine versions behind so as to not detract from what Crossover does. I’ve used Whisky a bunch to play Windows games on my M2 Macbook, and while it’s not been perfect, and will likely struggle with brand new, AAA games, older titles should work nicely.
- Comment on How Are You Guys Handling This? 2 weeks ago:
Fairly certain that Asahi doesn’t yet work with M4 chips, such as in the new mini. Or if it does, it’s not officially supported, so will be a generally poor experience. I mean, my M2 Macbook supports Asahi, and while it’s generally incredible what theyve been able to achieve, it’s still kinda stunted given how much software simply won’t run on that architecture.
- Comment on Internet picture of a monkey 2 weeks ago:
All my apes… Gone…
- Comment on Please the Beans 2 weeks ago:
So the beans are segregationists?
/me Sadly boycotts beans
- Comment on 94.3° F 2 weeks ago:
- Comment on Tip yer driver! 3 weeks ago:
It’s a pizza, Harry.
- Comment on When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child 3 weeks ago:
45yo here, and yeah, kinda.
I’m happily married (for the second time), and have a decent job that no longer requires back breaking manual labour that enables me to clock off at 4pm and fuck off home where I don’t have to think about. I have a grown up kid who’s just graduated with a law degree and is forging his own path in life. All things considered, I’m pretty chill. I try to take a more adult, considered view on things that affect me.
I don’t own my home, because my wife isn’t able to earn as much, so we can’t get a mortgage, but I’ve kind of made peace with that.
And I’ve accrued some of the toys I couldn’t afford when I was younger. I have a collection of computers that I can tinker with, an an iPod that I love.
- Comment on LibreWolf remains AI-free! 4 weeks ago:
Yep. It’s off by default, but is the first thing I switch on when I first install Libewolf on any machines.
You end up with a classic FF experience without any of the bullshit.
- Comment on Word. 4 weeks ago:
Word is the proof that God exists and he’s still real fuckin’ pissy about that apple.
- Comment on LibreWolf remains AI-free! 4 weeks ago:
In settings, turn on Firefox syncing, and boom! you have password saving.
- Comment on LibreWolf remains AI-free! 4 weeks ago:
Yeah, it’s literally one button and cookies remain.
Personally I’ve left that setting on, but click the one in the address bar on every site that I want to retain cookies. There aren’t that many of those.
Also, turn on Firefox syncing and it’s just like using regular Firefox, but without the nonsense.
- Comment on Actual theft 5 weeks ago:
I’m not fundamentally opposed to YT Premium, I just think it’s hilariously overpriced.
I’d need a family plan. That would cost me £20 a month, just so I can watch YT videos. I baulked at paying Netflix whatever the fuck they started charging a few years ago, but at least they’re producing multi-million pound shows.
I used to have Premium from Ukraine via VPN. It was great. I spent a year or so paying them five quid a month. Then they closed that loophole and now I pay them nothing, and download all the videos I want with yt-dlp into my Jellyfin server.
- Comment on corn 5 weeks ago:
It’s got the juice.
- Comment on Insulin 1 month ago:
Free on the NHS in the UK. In fact, diabetes is one of the conditions that qualifies people for free prescriptions across the board.
- Comment on Settings you believe ANY game should have? (This is me advocating for a restart/reboot button on ALL games) 1 month ago:
I recently started another play through of RDR2, while figuring out the settings on my old Linux gaming PC. I’d forgotten how long it is between save points during that oh-so-long first segment up in the mountains. Christ. Having to play for half an hour just to get to a point where I could save up.
- Comment on Why do some people make such a big deal over ages of someone's account on here? 1 month ago:
I use Voyager to access Lemmy, which is heavily based on Apollo for Reddit. And one of the very best things they kept in Voyager is the “New Account Highlightenator”, which adds a baby emoji next to a username, with how many days the account has been active. This disappears after a month (I think it is), but it’s really, really handy for quickly highlighting whether it’s worth paying attention to the shitty opinions being spouted.
Chances are, if it’s a bot or a troll, they’ll be using a new account. If I see shitty opinion + baby emoji, I’ll block and move on.
Other than that, I personally don’t really give a shit how long someone’s been on here. This is my third account on a third server since I first discovered Lemmy a couple of years ago, and I’ve only had this one for a couple of months.
- Comment on [deleted] 1 month ago:
When cucumbers are so cheap, and re-usable.
- Comment on Steam Hardware [new Steam Controller, Steam Machine, and VR headset Steam Frame, coming in 2026] 2 months ago:
ouch!
- Comment on On new installations, Android rebinds the power button to open up Google Assistant 2 months ago:
It’s mad that I have to search for how to turn my iPad off every bloody time.
- Comment on Linux gamers on Steam finally cross over the 3% mark 2 months ago:
Also, Apple don’t seem to have an appetite for supporting gaming on macOS, beyond a few big name titles announced once a year to reig ite interest.
- Comment on Linux gamers on Steam finally cross over the 3% mark 2 months ago:
I tried to go with Bazzite on my wife’s old PC. Fuck knows what happened, but I could not get it to recognise that I’d downloaded the image with the Nvidia drivers built in.
Ended up giving up and rolling Kubuntu. I know Kubuntu and like it. And it works beautifully. Back in the world of RDR2 now, and loving it.
- Comment on Linux gamers on Steam finally cross over the 3% mark 2 months ago:
Its become abundantly clear to me over the past few years that Linux is in place where, to get significant share it needs to have a major figurehead. Imagine if all ThinkPads suddenly were only available with Lenovo’s own fork. That kind of thing.
Unfortunateoy, that’s kinda the opposite of Linux ethos, and not necessarily likely to make Lenovo much money.
So the best we can really hope for at this point is a company with the brand awareness of Valve pushing SteamOS into the mainstream. People who play games know and generally trust Valve, so people (like my wife) who are on the fence, or who just need their computer to work without needing too much faffing, could likely trust SteamOS in a way they wouldn’t necessarily trust Bazzite or CachyOS.