Thom Holwerda

osnews.com managing editor. Dutchman living in Sweden. Dumb fuck.

You can support OSNews and my work through our Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/osnews), Ko-Fi (https://ko-fi.com/thomholwerda), and now also our merch store (https://www.bonfire.com/store/osnews/).

Trans rights are human rights. He/him.

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Last Notes

2024-08-06 00:48:10

My concerns about the future of Firefox keep becoming reality and yet nobody who relies on Firefox - Canonical, Fedora, KDE, GNOME, etc. - seem to give a shit.
Y'all realise Mozilla is about to lose 80% of its revenue, right? And y'all do understand what this will mean for Firefox, right? Why aren't you taking any steps or making any plans to prepare for what this will inevitably mean for the most important and crucial desktop Linux application?
I feel like Kassandra over here.

2024-07-31 13:29:05

the idea of people using multiple languages in their day-to-day lives confuses the silicon valley techbro
one day i will write a massive articles detailing all the broken things you run into when trying to use computers as a daily multilingual user

2024-07-29 17:03:14

I love how everyone in Europe is reflexively blaming Americans for the nonsense outrage at the opening of the Games, when it all started with French Catholics, followed by European fascists like Wilders and the like.
¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

2024-07-26 23:18:42

Since the instance linuxrocks.online is openly, knowingly, and willingly hosting nazis, I'm going to block the whole instance. If you're a follower on said nazi instance, I suggest you reconsider your choice of instance.
No quarter for nazis. The only good nazi is a dead nazi. :fuckNazis:

2024-07-26 13:52:35

Hey linuxrocks.online, you have a nazi infestation. Considering your instance seems to use only approved registrations, this surely raises about a million red flags.
@npub1wd9…9jrd
https://exquisite.social/system/media_attachments/files/112/852/638/829/322/660/original/4b99d858ef26d7ef.png

2024-07-24 13:28:20

Good on GNOME for not allowing anyone to link to nazis on their forums, even if the person doing it is the maintainer of GNOME on Manjaro. The immediate deletion is an excellent response.
...especially since the dude then went on to the nazi in question to complain and whine about it.

2024-07-24 07:16:10

Jesus Christ this sure was a read.
https://discourse.gnome.org/t/updates-to-the-gnome-foundation-board-of-directors-roster/22201/21
It gets to the point where the maintainer of GNOME on Manjaro was utterly deleted for sharing articles from nazi Lunduke? I mean, good decision of course, but absolutely wild.

2024-07-22 21:10:35

yo anybody in culemborg, netherlands, need their laundry done?
their payment terminal has a vnc server open so
https://exquisite.social/system/media_attachments/files/112/831/719/578/282/257/original/e52c87235918d13a.png

2024-07-22 12:51:41

I'm actually finally writing the /e/OS review. If anyone has any questions about degoogled Android, built by the amazing people at @npub1vts…9jkh, hit me up! If you have some favorite app or whatever you want me to test with microG, for instance, I can do that.
Murena sent me a Fairphone 5, so we can talk about that too!

2024-07-21 13:47:46

No-fly zone over Ukraine should be the bare fucking minimum we should be doing.
Jesus fucking Christ I hate this fucking timeline so fucking much. We're all fucking cowards.

2024-07-20 16:11:35

Jesus fuck American media are really already starting to eat Trump's ass, aren't they?
Corporatists and fascists are two sides of the same coin, and US media most definitely are corporations.

2024-07-19 11:29:55

Told you OS/2 is the only right answer.

2024-07-18 16:46:04

As an EU citizen, I can confidently say nobody here gives a single flying fucking shit about Facebook not releasing their plagiarism machine here.
We're too busy enjoying our large number of vacation days, free healthcare, and not having to put Disney-themed bulletproof vests on our kids when sending them to elementary school.

2024-07-18 13:29:00

I try to be tolerant and accepting and all, but if you watch anime you get an automatic -10 to charisma.
I don't make the rules.

2024-07-17 17:11:36

Airconditioning: we rent, too expensive, loud.
Fans: shitty quality, often also loud, don't cool properly.
what's the solution fedi

2024-07-17 10:21:12

Exactly ten years ago, Russia declared war on The Netherlands by slaughtering almost 200 innocent Dutch civilians, and more than 100 people of other nationalities. Per capita, this was a larger loss of life than 9/11. The murderers are still free in Russia.
It's minute compared to what Ukraine goes through, but it does create a bond between our two nations. Putin and his nazi war criminals will face justice in The Hague.

2024-07-16 20:08:02

Whelp good luck, Safari has the same ad tracking thing Firefox has now, and Safari is even making it work in private browsing mode.
Apple cares about your privacy, folks.
https://webkit.org/blog/15697/private-browsing-2-0/
https://exquisite.social/system/media_attachments/files/112/797/493/329/287/905/original/cc181126e73a2f6d.png

2024-07-16 11:21:02

In case you're using Firefox on mobile - so myself and like four others - disabling Firefox' new Facebook data collection feature is quite a bit harder than on desktop, but it can be done:
Go to chrome://geckoview/content/config.xhtml
Use the search field to find the entry for aboutConfig and enable it
Go to about:config
Search for dom.private-attribution.submission.enabled and set it to false
Done. This only works on Android, because Firefox on iOS is just a Safari skin.

2024-07-11 20:50:27

Auto Shenanigans is the single-best way to get to know the UK without actually going to the UK. His dry British humour makes my week, every time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgbe3YtALRw

2024-07-09 21:29:53

KDE's most important feature to me is the ability it gives me to edit virtually every single toolbar to my exact specifications - from hiding them, all the way to adding whatever buttons I want, whether I want labels or not, and so on. All my KDE applications look very different from the default because of it, and it really allows me to tailor KDE and my applications to be a perfect fit for my experience.
It's such an godsend, and I just can't live without it. Whomever thought "one toolbar to fit everyone" is even an attainable goal has never dealt with users.

2024-07-05 01:18:39

As always, the right wing fucks up the economy, the left needs to fix it, but also gets the blame, while the right keeps claiming to be fiscally responsible.
The political right is the cause of virtually every single problem in the world.

2024-07-05 00:23:00

Unpopular opinion: the tech media's focus on battery life for laptops is entirely misguided and disconnected from reality. The vast majority of laptops spend 95% of their lifetime plugged in. The other 5% is when they're moved from one room to the next.
Don't @ me.

2024-07-04 18:01:16

Jesus fucking Christ the total collapse of the country is complete. What a fucking shitshow. A clown car full of fascists, driven by the modern-day Franz von Papen, our new prime-minister.
I'm so fucking embarassed to be Dutch right now.

2024-07-02 16:05:00

Whelp unless we get some sort of apology and change of mind from Kling, I guess that's the end of @npub1wyu…58gh reporting on Ladybird.

2024-07-02 15:13:31

I use the KDE logo emoji in my username now, because I use KDE. Is that perhaps bad form since such logos are also used to let people know you work on KDE?

2024-07-02 13:55:31

Well this surely didn't age well.
Makes me wonder about Kling preferring and staying on Twitter.
https://github.com/SerenityOS/serenity/pull/6814

2024-07-02 01:09:47

Fedi just isn't doom scrolling for me. It's mostly just cool tech stuff and fun weird people that I don't understand but am happy for.
Fedi's what you make of it. ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

2024-07-01 17:24:44

Retracting car door handles seem like a suboptimal idea in my Arctic climate where entire cars just... Freeze. Like, doors hard frozen shut, car won't even think about starting unless plugged into the external heater, etc.
I don't know man.

2024-07-01 17:07:51

Burn down the SCOTUS building.
Literally. Burn it down.

2024-06-29 13:15:28

If your response to Flatpak applications regularly requiring arcane, obscure terminal commands to make them usable is "it's just a terminal command, way less bad than systemd so who cares", you're basically admitting Flatpak was never designed for users to begin with.

2024-06-25 14:19:50

Apropos of nothing, I'd like to once again mention that I've been writing about my worries regarding the future of Firefox for a long time now, and that I've been advocating a fork of either Firefox or one of the browser engines, maintained by KDE and GNOME people, focused entirely on Linux, with proper Qt and GTK frontends.
The lack of worry about this is irresponsible. Firefox is either going away or becoming deeply shit, and there's zero plan B for the Linux world.

2024-06-23 17:23:49

Wait, let me get this straight - Apple is willing to partner with Facebook on AI, but not make their products privacy compliant in the EU?
Kind of makes sense though, doesn't it? Privacy compliance and Facebook don't exactly go well together.
I'm glad that after more than ten years, people are finally opening their eyes to just how much of a scam Apple's privacy talk has been.
https://www.neowin.net/news/apple-and-meta-have-discussed-an-ai-partnership-according-to-reports/

2024-06-21 20:52:31

I'm going to wallow in my free healthcare and lack of school shootings now that I can't have Apple AI :(

2024-06-21 20:38:22

- reply

I also think I'm the only one using an accurate headline for this one:
"Apple’s won’t release its new AI features in the EU because they don’t comply with EU privacy and competition laws"

2024-06-21 20:35:24

"Apple is throwing its users under the bus because Tim Cook is big mad that someone told him no. As I keep reiterating, consent is something Silicon Valley simply does not understand."
https://www.osnews.com/story/140034/apples-wont-release-its-new-ai-features-in-the-eu-because-they-dont-comply-with-eu-privacy-and-competition-laws/

2024-06-20 23:53:55

i can finally go back to a normal operating system
the things i do for you fuckers
https://www.osnews.com/story/139987/is-2024-the-year-of-windows-on-the-desktop/

2024-06-16 23:39:06

Valve exists in that weird superposition where I'm supposed to dislike them for their monopolistic power, shitty client, DRM, and just general fuck capitalism, but at the same time, they're the only thing standing between us and the end of PC gaming as we know it because they actually seem to give a gram of shit about us.
Like, how's an anti-corp dude supposed to feel, man?

2024-06-13 14:39:18

- reply

@npub1mpw…4h3u Northwest of Luleå!

2024-06-13 08:37:58

And here's my occasional Fedi outreach about my dream retrocomputer - does anyone have a Sun Ultra 45 they are willing to part with? I'm just a sad, pathetic person living in Arctic Sweden who has been trying for more than two decades (!!) to get his hands on one.
Boosts are definitely love.
#retrocomputing #unix #sun #solaris

2024-06-13 07:56:06

- reply

@npub1wyu…58gh As far as I know, I was the only one reporting this story, so they must've discovered this through my work... And yet, no mention.
That's just shitty.

2024-06-13 07:38:11

And now the big publications are starting to pick up the Mozilla/Russia story, long after I broke the story. Sadly, @npub1wyu…58gh is too small so we don't even get a mention.
It is what it is.

2024-06-10 20:37:15

Every day these megacorps show off more of their plagiarism and theft machines I feel vindicated in my choice to go full Linux years ago.

2024-06-04 19:51:39

Oh lord the BBC website automatically redirects non-UK visitors to bbc.com now instead of allowing you to go to .co.uk. I see a quick glimpse of the milksake before the redirect happens.
The BBC is so embarrassed of the state of the UK they're like "let's not show them the real BBC news".

2024-06-04 15:59:44

My 4K workstation monitor is only 60Hz and it fucking kills me.
I wish 4K/144Hz was affordable.

2024-06-04 13:08:10

OpenBSD has one glaring problem that's starting to annoy me enough I'm replacing it.
Lag. Input lag. UI lag. Random lag. Stutter lag.
It's what happens when you shoehorn a hardened server operating system into a desktop.

2024-06-02 23:14:59

- reply

@npub1t7d…pqpp Brave is shady crypto trash run by a homophobe.
Never, ever use Brave.
https://www.spacebar.news/stop-using-brave-browser/

2024-06-02 23:07:22

I mean, Vivaldi on Android seems quite nice. I haven't used desktop Vivaldi in ages, but I can be convinced to take a peek again, see how Vivaldi integrates with KDE - if at all.

2024-05-31 19:30:22

I think I threw up in my mouth a little.
https://blog.kagi.com/what-is-next-for-kagi

2024-05-30 23:29:31

This is what Dell's FreeBSD first-run experience is like. Dell has a product called ThinOS that's FreeBSD with a proprietary GUI on top, used exclusively for some of its thin clients.
I decided to buy one. The installation looks like an automated FreeBSD install, and upon reboot it loads this OOBE.
This is wild.
https://exquisite.social/system/media_attachments/files/112/532/160/967/674/466/original/a772d3d30942abcc.jpg

2024-05-27 19:25:41

With Qualcomm taking Linux support for its new Snapdragon X Elite/Pro chips very seriously, I really, really need a laptop with one of these chips.
I've got some serious desires here, boys and girls.

2024-05-25 15:12:00

Attention all #Linux, #Wayland, Intel graphics driver, and #Fedora experts - if you have any free time, please take a look at this issue we're facing:
https://github.com/sonnyp/linux-minibook-x/issues/7
Loading the edid should've worked in enabling 90Hz, but it did not. Any help or insight would be so, so appreciated.

2024-05-22 12:25:19

Let me make it very clear that any American on my timeline who does not go out and vote for Biden in November (barring legitimate reasons like sickness etc.) will be instantly blocked. This includes people who don't vote, and people who vote third party or who do similar things that help fascist Trump get elected.
Anyone who does not vote for Biden is complicit in more dead Palestinians, more dead Ukrainians, more dead LGBTQ people, more dead pregnant women, more dead babies.

2024-05-22 09:31:17

Me when Linux on Apple M chips comes up.
https://exquisite.social/system/media_attachments/files/112/483/569/685/971/489/original/353121dd84cb1ae9.mp4

2024-05-20 23:26:52

Holy smokes does this website bring Firefox on #OpenBSD to its knees. Even two Xeons and Radeon Pro w5700 can't carry this.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/devices/surface-pro-11th-edition

2024-05-15 19:51:54

Many of the major, popular distributions will move to OSTree/systemd-sysupdate in the coming ~5 years and if you thought the anti-Wayland and anti-systemd trolls were bad... Boy, you ain't seen nothin' yet.

2024-05-14 00:39:48

Do any #IBM employees follow me here on Fedi? I will do pretty much anything - anything... - to be able to use and possibly review the new IBM Power S1012 in its tower configuration. I even have two POWER9 machines to compare it to!
Please. I will do anything.
https://www.osnews.com/story/139669/ibm-introduces-entry-level-power10-server-and-tower/

2024-05-09 01:54:34

if github copilot is not industrialised copyright and license infringement
why wont microsoft train copilot on its own closed code?
we all know the fucking answer
https://www.osnews.com/story/139622/did-github-copilot-really-increase-my-productivity/

2024-05-06 19:24:24

Is anyone following me a #wayland expert? My Chuwi MiniBook X can only do 50Hz, but users on Windows have managed to crank that up to 60 or even 90. I've tried to use this method to do set a custom resolution/refresh rate on wayland:
https://www.davejansen.com/add-custom-resolution-and-refresh-rate-when-using-wayland-gnome/
But it didn't work. Any suggestions on how to force wayland to use a refresh rate the display wrongly claims it doesn't support?

2024-05-02 10:38:19

This might be the single most frustrating bug report thread I've ever read.
GNOME, why are you like this?
https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/adwaita-icon-theme/-/issues/288

2024-04-28 18:40:56

I would be religious if we still worshipped the ancient Greek pantheon.
Those people were fucking cuckoo for coco puffs. Who says religion has to be boring?

2024-04-23 14:27:40

I'll keep repeating that if we do not start taking nazi Russia seriously, half of Europe will be overrun. We can properly defend Ukraine now on our own terms- air superiority, grounds troops, naval blockade - or we will be forced to join the war on nazi Russia's terms a few years from now.
We can end this war in weeks. We choose not to, so we can let innocent Ukrainian men, women, and children suffer and die. It's another Rwanda, another Yugoslavia, another Gaza.
People claiming we should not actively defend Ukraine today are traitors.

2024-04-22 16:31:27

Because I can't easily rely on my paid Play Store applications, /e/OS is making me discover new applications.
Pretty cool.

2024-04-21 19:01:48

The ads DuckDuckGo shows when I search for "Play Store".
Two obviously misleading or downright malicious links.
There is no more good search engine. If you mention Brave or Kagi I will burn your house down.
https://exquisite.social/system/media_attachments/files/112/310/280/418/985/430/original/751facbd4fcbc142.png

2024-04-12 22:33:40

Oof the Kagistans give off some serious cryptobro vibes.

2024-04-12 02:28:36

It's time to talk about Kagi on @npub1wyu…58gh soon.
"Fuck Kagi" is the short version.

2024-04-08 01:38:27

Oh hell no you nazi fuckface.
https://exquisite.social/system/media_attachments/files/112/232/564/839/700/958/original/8b021901d3e818a8.png

2024-03-30 13:56:27

Extremely unusual: a hostage situation in The Netherlands this morning. A guy held several people hostage in a cafe. Police handled the situation perfectly - all hostages let go, hostage taker arrested. They talked to the hostage taker all morning.
No deaths, no guns, no massive shootouts. This is policing done right. Such a blessing to live in countries where, no, not all cops are bastards. Keep your American bullshit where it belongs - in your dystopia.

2024-03-28 20:26:15

@npub1wyu…58gh is Fediverse-only when it comes to social media. We have old automated accounts on Twitter and Facebook, but I don't even have access to them, nor do I care to get it. They are, at this point, unofficial vestigial accounts that only exist because I can't even be arsed to figure out how to disable them.

2024-03-28 17:30:43

Can anyone who knows Gemini, agate, and general networking stuff help me address why gemini.osnews.com isn't working? Everything should be configured properly but it's just not loading. I don't get it.
https://exquisite.social/system/media_attachments/files/112/174/258/534/749/279/original/a7653188b10e2047.png

2024-03-24 17:00:20

Jesus the number of new @npub1wyu…58gh Patreons is kind of crazy. Thanks all of you who are also on Fedi! :blob_cat_heart:

2024-03-03 20:08:56

One thing you'll learn when you have kids is that sometimes, they just go fucking nuts crying and screaming for no reason.
Like they're having a kernel panic, and you need to figure out the reboot button on an angry 80cm spider.

2024-02-21 10:45:49

What's the best way to install Solaris on an x86 workstation these days? Is it viable?

2024-02-20 08:46:42

My greatest contribution to Fedi is letting y'all know The Verge claims Mastodon has no women. 🙃
https://social.tchncs.de/@thomholwerda/110613409023814819

2024-02-01 00:36:42

- reply

@npub1eee…e209 @npub1n3v…yvsf What Apple wants is irrelevant.
Apple has to comply, end of story, and all indications are that this proposal does not comply. All it does is anger the very people who will consider this proposal, which I'm sure will work out *great* for Apple.

2024-01-31 20:16:56

- reply

@npub1n3v…yvsf @npub1eee…e209 Perhaps because - and I'm just spitballing here - there are no payments involved in free apps?

2024-01-18 07:25:35

"Engadget and The Verge have both gone hands-on again with the Apple Vision Pro, but this time with the production ready units set to ship to early adopters next month. The response from both sites was mixed. Engadget's Cherlynn Low complained that within 15 minutes she “started to feel weighed down by the device,” and just five minutes later she was “in pain.” The Verge’s Victoria Song also said that by the end of the 30-minute demo, she “started to feel the weight of the headset…and the beginnings of a mild headache.”"
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Apple-Vision-Pro-launch-pre-view-testers-complain-about-weight-comfort-even-headaches.793754.0.html

2024-01-10 01:40:46

Real nerds use Itanium®.

2024-01-08 23:50:22

Adélie Linux really calls out to me. Everything about the project just seems... Nice? Calm? Rational?
They haven't been milkshake-ducked, have they?

2023-12-21 23:31:27

If you like me or @npub1wyu…58gh, you can support me and my work through Patreon, Ko-Fi, Liberapay, and our merch store.
OSNews is a lot of work every day, and while it's all free to read for everyone and I don't care if you adblock - your computer, your rules - any little bit of help is always welcome.
Fedi disclaimer: donating does not grant you favours, especially not of the dubious kind. 🙃

2023-12-21 10:03:21

Extremely unpopular opinion on Fedi: migration is not a universal yes/no question. I am not in favour of unrestricted, anything goes migration, especially not in a small, densely populated country like The Netherlands. We have a housing shortage of like 350000 homes; there simply isn't any room, and I think it's entirely understandable for people to be worried about that.
However, for me, this does not apply to anyone fleeing war, persecution, or similar horrible things. Refugees should always be welcomed, cared for, and aided in whatever way necessary, not in the least because chances are that whatever they're fleeing from, us westerners probably had a hand in sowing the seeds for it.

2023-12-13 19:01:08

Did you know there are people who use wireless keyboards and mice??
like wtf is wrong with the world man