Software Endorsements

  • 🐕 I am attempting to get the site runnning as fast as possible. If you are experiencing slow page load times, please report it.

Did you like the App?

  • yes

  • no

  • Stop waisting our time

Results are only viewable after voting.
KittyGremlin said:
I am a bit retarded when it comes to dealing with BIOS shit and I eyeballed through the first 10 pages but has anyone found a good OS alternative to Windows that's essentially the same thing but un-pozzed? Simply stripped down to bare essentials without the globohomo shit?
Click to expand...
Without going to Linux, you can always install Windows 10 LTSC. It's not for sale by Microsoft to consumers, but you can download the ISO from Microsoft, and then run MAS (Microsoft Activation Scripts) to activate it. You can find the link to official ISOs from the previous link. It removes all the shit that Microsoft has on their regular images. No xbox game center, windows store, edge, etc, etc.

It's my go to install for family and friends that just want Windows. I also use it for myself when I need to run Windows for various programs.
 
  • Winner
  • Informative
  • Like
Reactions: Lowlife Adventures, Activelo, Kazuma and 7 others
Honestly if it wasn't for edgecase programs that require Windows that I use for my work I'd probably still be on Debian right now. It runs lean as hell, LibreOffice is actually a competent Office suite nowadays, Firefox and Thunderbird are decent IE/Outlook alternatives, GIMP sucks for advanced editing but is a semi-decent free photoshop equivalent, VLC works well as a general swiss army knife media player and you have native versions of things like Steam and Plex that make integrating easier than ever. For basic consumption / productivity I can't think of anything I'd use on a day to day basis (other than my work programs) that stray further than that.

The big issue though is that if something breaks, typically you don't even know where to begin to ask what's going wrong, which means you'll deal with the most condescending shitheads on tech forums until you inevitably reinstall Windows 11 and pray that every Linux provider gets bought by some Chink company and turned into malware central.
 
  • Like
  • Feels
Reactions: RGBCube, baws man jack, Prokhor Zakharov and 1 other person
Yandex Captcha Solver said:
Without going to Linux, you can always install Windows 10 LTSC. It's not for sale by Microsoft to consumers, but you can download the ISO from Microsoft, and then run MAS (Microsoft Activation Scripts) to activate it. You can find the link to official ISOs from the previous link. It removes all the shit that Microsoft has on their regular images. No xbox game center, windows store, edge, etc, etc.

It's my go to install for family and friends that just want Windows. I also use it for myself when I need to run Windows for various programs.
Click to expand...

You are my most based nerd right now, thanks
 
  • Like
  • Feels
Reactions: RGBCube, Prokhor Zakharov, I Do Not Post and 2 others
KittyGremlin said:
Also, Linux can run Windows apps? (pardon my complete dimwittedness)
Click to expand...
depends on the application, if its a game then chances are it'll just work. if it isn't then you're on your own.
I've run into many problems running normal windows applications with either wine or proton. games don't tend to access most windows subsystems and api's, applications do.
if you need to use a windows application and there is no linux alternative or version. then your best bet is to run windows in a vm with the software you need.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Mister Uno and KittyGremlin
Tom Nook's Gloryhole said:
Any recommendations for a NAS OS that's retard proof? Been toying around with TrueNAS but the permissions situation is genuinely retarded: Apps can't grasp that there's any directories apart from their specific ones and it's a constant fight between whether I or my apps have permission to write to a directory.

I'm sure I'd probably crack it if forced but already I'm getting tired of it.
Click to expand...

You could always give Unraid a try. It costs but there is a free trial to see if it’s suitable. Give the YouTube channel SpaceInvaderOne a look for tutorials/tips.
 
Tom Nook's Gloryhole said:
Any recommendations for a NAS OS that's retard proof? Been toying around with TrueNAS but the permissions situation is genuinely retarded: Apps can't grasp that there's any directories apart from their specific ones and it's a constant fight between whether I or my apps have permission to write to a directory.

I'm sure I'd probably crack it if forced but already I'm getting tired of it.
Click to expand...
Generally with TrueNAS I just give root:wheel ownership, open share permissions to everyone and then use filesystem permissions to do fine-grained control (with inheritance flags always on). Using jails or their ghetto VM solution never seems to work well, so I just run VMs on other machines and mount CIFS shares for when they have to access NAS resources.

My authentication source is Active Directory so I just use groups in there to handle access and TrueNAS syncs them so they show up in the group picker. If you're using built-in authentication, then create groups for handling access instead of giving it out on a per-user basis.

I used to use OpenMediaVault with Linux's software RAID (md) before I took the ZFS pill and that works fine. Its UI is 100x easier than TrueNAS which shits me to no end every time I have to touch it. Though with OMV, I had my shares completely open with no password protection so I don't know how well the auth works. I tightened things up a lot with the move to TrueNAS.
 
If anyone didn't know and wants a clean HTPC interface, there is Plasma Bigscreen. I've been using it for the last yearish on Debian. Runs great on an old Thinkpad I got for chump change and a wireless keyboard. Destroys the Pi4 I had temporarily setup for Kodi only in speed, while being cheaper.

I use Kodi with POV previously Fen addon and alldebrid, watch all the media I want for a few bucks a month without having to predownload all content. Then use Librewolf and SponsorBlock for YouTube, Rumble, Kick, etc. The Youtube addon for Kodi is cancer and should be thrown in the trash. If you have an old computer that you want to use for an HTPC I would suggest this setup.

I'm thinking of downsizing my NAS due to the HTPC setup, as I don't need every TV show or movie downloaded. Just stuff I want to archive, is hard to find, or maybe a movie or two to watch while my interent is down.
 
  • Informative
Reactions: Flaming Dumpster
Yandex Captcha Solver said:
as I don't need every TV show or movie downloaded. Just stuff I want to archive
Click to expand...
The big issue is that right now, it is very easy to find what you want to download if you want to watch it so it doesn't seem like it's THAT worthwhile to hoard movies and shows. However with PTP going down for nearly 6 months last year it spooked me into realising this might be it, the era of solid private trackers always being around might not exist for much longer.

If you're comfortable with knowing that one day you might want to track down the restored version of Daria or some niche comedy show like 'Get a Life' or an album mastered in the early 90s before it got massacred in the loudness war or a 4k remastered version of The Bicycle Thieves then it's probably not a big deal, but for me I need to know that I have at least a decent chunk of content to keep forever.

This might sound like schizoid rambling, but if you've seen the lengths people have gone to shut us down and the redditification of the entire internet it feels like only a matter of time until web hosts go one step further.

EDIT: As for the NAS thing, I think I've finally clicked with TrueNAS. It's made me realise that in a few years time I'm going to want to massively upgrade my setup but by tinkering around now I should be in a good state to set everything up perfectly on the first go.
 
  • Like
  • Feels
Reactions: Fabio Socialist, ⠠⠠⠅⠑⠋⠋⠁⠇⠎ ⠠⠠⠊⠎ ⠠⠠⠁ ⠠⠠⠋⠁⠛ and anustart76
Tom Nook's Gloryhole said:
The big issue is that right now, it is very easy to find what you want to download if you want to watch it so it doesn't seem like it's THAT worthwhile to hoard movies and shows. However with PTP going down for nearly 6 months last year it spooked me into realising this might be it, the era of solid private trackers always being around might not exist for much longer.
Click to expand...
I never understood the point for private movie or TV trackers for popular content. Obscure stuff, sure. One can find most movies or TV shows in 4k, straight blu-ray rips off public trackers. You also have Usenet where it is even easier to find quality content.
Tom Nook's Gloryhole said:
This might sound like schizoid rambling, but if you've seen the lengths people have gone to shut us down and the redditification of the entire internet it feels like only a matter of time until web hosts go one step further.
Click to expand...
Piracy is never going anywhere. It's been with us since the start of the internet, it'll be with us till the end. Torrents, Usenet, DDLs, will be with us forever. Hell the PirateBay is still somehow up after being deplatformed for the 'teenth time, though not in it's full glory. There is nothing more than media corporations want than to kill piracy. Yet it is still around and in a healthier state than it was a decade ago.
 
  • Informative
  • Like
Reactions: AnOminous and Gatdam Animal Person
Slav Power said:
The creator of Ventoy has his own answer for PXE booting btw
Click to expand...
The Ventoy version seems to expect you to maintain your own server of the ISOs and honestly I don't see the draw. Netboot.xyz maintains their own GitHub repository that the netboot.xyz.iso booter downloads directly from. It doesn't have every single os in existence (and doesn't directly provide Windows ISOs) but literally all you need to do is format a usb drive with a iso that's only a few dozen megabytes in size and that drive will still work for as long as their server is up.

It is annoying that they don't keep a list, but they have netinstallers for the most common server distros and live CDs for the most common desktop distros, and bootable tools like Rescatux or dban
 
  • Informative
Reactions: Slav Power
I need a program that will let me convert mp4s and webms into mp3s. Some video editing ability would be nice but isn't needed, I just want to convert a bunch of files so I can listen to them on the go.
 
Betonhaus said:
This is an all-in-one netbooter for most common linux and bsd OSs, along with bootable recovery tools and simplifying booting a windows iso from your network. Good to add the iso to Ventoy along with your commonly used installers
Click to expand...
I appreciate its small footprint and it's saved me a lot of hassles in the past but I absolutely hate how poorly it handles any situation where there's no DHCP or multiple NICs. The Debian images for instance just DHCP the first NIC no matter what settings were provided to netboot and won't even ask you for config if it fails, just crashes out to initramfs with a timeout trying to reach github.com.

If GitHub is anything less than fast or randomly bans your IP, it's totally unusable too.

Its Windows booting can be described as anything but simple in my opinion. The best way to coexist Windows with netboot is to chainload WDS in my opinion.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back