Not necessarily. That depends on personal preference. And IMHO you should enable some language specific filter if you visit sites in other languages than English. And the third party tracking and annoyance filters. Other than that I think the default settings are pretty good as is. But I just see no reason why someone should configure their Android uBlock differnetly than on the desktop… Just use the same settings?!
I didn’t even try. As far as I know there are a few well maintained lists that also are fairly complete. They’re even split into sub-categories so you can choose to visit facebook or have mildly annoying things, or not.
Those happen to be the lists that are enabled per default in most adblockers.
And there are lists that haven’t been maintained in months or years. And lists that are known to break websites because the filtering rules aren’t that well programmed.
I don’t see any reason for me to enable those. I mean your mileage may vary and they might not do you any harm or break the specific sites you like to frequent.
I trust my computer and operating system. And there are several other keys and credentials stored on that laptop. I think it’s better for me to have a file that I can backup and understand how the encryption works, than to do some trickery to hide it mostly from me and maybe a bit from malware, or tie it to some hardware TPM device or something. I’m always not sure if I should rely on those too much.
I don’t think enabling every filter is how it’s supposed to be configured. That’s just going to make your experience browsing worse. The defaults are pretty sane. I think that’s like 2 of the big (and good) lists. You’re supposed to enable your language specific list (with the same base name as the already activated one) along with that. And maybe the speficic ones like “Annoyances” etc. But that’s it. If you also go ahead and enable all the not so good lists, that’s not making it better.
Same as for desktop.
Uh, that really depends on the use-case.
I like to follow the recommendations of the German PC magazine c’t: https://www.heise.de/ratgeber/Bauvorschlag-fuer-einen-sparsamen-Heimserver-aus-c-t-3-2024-9587594.html
Other than that: An Intel NUC, one of those cheap chinese Mini-PCs from Amazon where you get 16GB of RAM, a fairly recent processor generation and 512GB SSD for like $250 or my advice: get a refurbished laptop for $250. That’s energy efficient by design and has everything on board. And available in abundance.
Downsides of these approaches: You don’t get a lot of SATA ports for harddisks, if at all… So for storage, I wouldn’t consider those. So it’s gonna be an old PC, Server or NAS. Comparing mainboards and energy efficiency isn’t easy. That’s why I rely on PC magazines. But that’s for new stuff… Not used components. So tipps from the internet are probably your best bet.
If you’re not from a country where electricity is that expensive, you might want to have a look at some of those refurbished PC shops. An server or a Dell Workstation from 5 years ago should be affordable.
They’re pretty slow, come with less RAM and replacement parts have become more expensive, because they’re not as available as ones for modern computers. Also my N54l consumes like 45W in idle…
I wouldn’t spend money on one, today. You can probably get something way faster and more capable for less money. Security isn’t an issue though. That mostly depends on the operating system you put on it, not the hardware. The security issues in the processor and such, should have been fixed by microcode and software updates.
So I still have one from back in the days. But I wouldn’t run it 24/7. I’ve built a small server like 8 years ago that consumes a third of the power and is far better in every regard. I use the Microserver to store backups and just turn it on every few weeks. But interacting with it feels sluggish and copying files over USB 2.0 takes hours and hours. It doesn’t feel like it can make use of the Gigabit ethernet, and it took me some effort to install because you need to do additional things, patch the BIOS to unlock full SATA speed.
Get one if it’s free and electricity is cheap whereever you are. But don’t spend too much money on an really old computer. The sweetspot of buying used computers is somewhere around 5 years, not 15.
I add such stuff to my password manager. It supports files. But not all password managers do. I have a category for admin stuff where I also save passwords to servers, database credentials, service logins and the exported LUKS keys of the harddrives. I’d add backup keys there, too, but I currently keep them unencrypted on an encrypted harddisk.
I’ve been using YunoHost for some time. Cosmos seems good, too. Both do most of the stuff for you and should come with documentation. I think that’s the way to go if you can’t set it all up yourself, or lack time to maintain it.
I’ve also used Docker containers and plain Debian. I use NGinx as a reverse proxy.
I document things in text files (markdown). At some point it’d like to upload them with something like mkdocs or to a wiki. But since it’s just me, having them just sitting in a directory on my laptop is fine.
Use something that’s super accessible so you’ll actually use it. I often just dump random thoughts or commands I executed into the textfiles and I have my text editor open all the time anyways. And then on the server I eiter use Ctrl+R and search through the shell history, or search in my documents. Doesn’t need to be fancy, grep -rni "keyword" does it for me.
Nice. I think we simultaneously wrote very similar comments. But I don’t use my Jellifin to mimick live TV. Either I choose some movie or the next episode of my new favorite TV show, or I just waste my time on YouTube. I also used to watch Netflix, but I think they removed most of the interesting content.
Wow, MythTV is still around? I used that like 12 years ago. I’ve stopped watching live TV since. Except for some of the regional program and news that’s part of public broadcasting.
Yeah, I’ve been using Debian, Arch and NixOS in the past. And at least those 3 didn’t need any Snaps or Flatpaks. It’s in deb-multimedia.org or the AUR and Nix has it per default (like it should be anyways, if you ask me.)
I remember fighting with the browser source. Nowadays you can just install a full build of OBS from some (third party) repositories. At least that’s what I’ve done. Good reminder not to use Snap. As far as I know it’s just causing problems for lots of people.
Btw I don’t find the language that offensive. Sure it’s not meant for kids. But I think fairly acceptable for a rant.
Apache isn’t a copyleft license. I guess they (and everyone) can just copy or compile it, make it a derivative work and say it’s now non-free and terms and conditions apply.
I mean the GitHub repo has a license file which says it’s Apache 2.0. And 3h) of the EULA says it doesn’t apply to open source components. So it kinda doesn’t apply to itself. I think you’re right, it’s Free Software after all and them saying “Some builds […]” means it’s the binaries distributed by them. IANAL and it kinda contradicts the Apache license which explicitly states I am allowed to redistribute copies both modified and not modified and both in object and source form. I’m not sure why they do it and if there are components missing in the GitHub repo.
Hmm. I guess that works, too. I’m just a nerd and really like Free Software. Almost exclusively use it. My phone runs a custom ROM with just a few unfree apps and without Google services, all my computers run Linux. Even the internet router does, and my IoT smart sockets run Tasmota or ESPHome. I like the 4 freedoms and the culture behind it. I participate and regularly contribute. All of that is mostly personal preference. I guess I could as well live comfortably with using Google Drive, but I choose not to. Source-available software would allow me to look at the code, something proprietary software doesn’t allow. But that’s pretty much it. I often can’t remix and share it as I like. I don’t have the freedom to decide to use it as it pleases me. And depending on the exact license, I can’t even invite my friends and family to use the services I set up…
It’s just the line I draw. And with the software I really rely on and use daily, I’m pretty strict. Either it provides me with the Four Essential Freedoms of Free Software as lined out by RMS in the eighties, or I don’t volunteer to use it. I have no issues though with other people making different choices.
Is it Free Software? In the repo is a LICENSE file, saying it’s Apache licensed. But I also found an EULA saying it’s not Free Software…
Since you got your data off that drive, there is no way to make it worse. So sure, go ahead and open it up and learn something. But I think you’re underestimating the flimsiness of the mechanics inside. It’s like nanometers clearance between the read heads and the surface of the platters. You won’t get it right without expensive equipment. And changing the PCBs is probably not going to change anything if it’s a mechanical failure.
Hmm. I had another look on my laptop. I might have to revise my answer: I have all the 5 uBlock lists, EasyList plus EasyList Germany and EasyPrivacy… And a few smaller ones are enabled, too. BUT I don’t think those unmaintained lists I mentioned show up in uBlock anyways. So you might be fine enabling all of them.
I still think it doesn’t helps after some point… But it’s definitely not as bad as I said earlier… At some point I’ll have to brush up my knowledge.