Best Rolling Release Linux Distros for Every Kind of User “Every Ubuntu or Fedora user eventually hits the same wall. The six-month update cycle stops feeling exciting and starts feeling like a chore, or worse, a two-year LTS jump breaks half your configuration in one sitting. Rolling release distributions exist because a lot of Linux users got tired of that rhythm and wanted their system to just stay current, indefinitely, without the ceremony of a version upgrade.” “A rolling release distribution doesn’t have version numbers the way Ubuntu 24.04 or Fedora 41 do. You install it once, and from that point on, your system receives a continuous stream of package updates instead of being frozen at a snapshot and later replaced by a new one. There’s no scheduled jump from one version to the next. There’s just the same installation, continuously updated, for as long as you keep it around.” In the beginning, there was Arch as a rolling distro. Yes Arch was not at all noob user-friendly, as sadly neither were its users. Arch has got quite a bit better in two ways. Firstly, the installer is a bit better now to use, and there are also alternative rolling distros that are a lot more friendly from the installation through to package support. Many says too, that the users of these alternative rolling distros are much friendlier as well. Now, whilst that is true of the users, actual Arch users are also a shade friendlier to new users. Despite all of that though, the Linux kernel, is the Linux kernel, no matter what the distro is. Something that installs on distro A, can be got to install on distro J too. So no-one should break their heads over the endless choices. Linux users just love to have options and choices. The only thing to watch out for with Linux, is using bleeding edge GIT packages from the AUR. The reason I say this is, not only have they got very new features in, they also sometimes expect the dependency packages to be just as new. This is often the case on pure Arch, but rolling distros like Manjaro, hold back the core packages for more testing, and then you may find that GIT package breaks on updating as it is being paired with “older” dependencies. Which is why I moved (very easily I may add) from Manjaro to EndeavourOS. Endeavour lets things roll much the same way as Arch itself does. A rolling distro is still fine, and very stable to use, if you stay away from those Git packages. An alternative is to install a Flatpak or AppImage version of an application. These install on any Linux distro, and they include all their own dependencies, so nothing can break. They use a bit more space because of that, but storage today is no longer such an issue. Think of a Flatpak or AppImage file like a Windows EXE but with the DLL and drivers all rolled inside of one file. Usually KDE is the easiest desktop flavour to recommend as it is most similar for ex-Windows users. It sounds confusing, but Linux has a kernel at the bottom (OK, near bottom) of every distro stack. Then comes the operating system which is often differentiated by the type of package manager it uses to get package updates (the update command to run, to be blunt), and at the top is the desktop presentation layer (the GUI look and feel and how windows and menus work). Distros are merely different mixes and combinations of these. Which is why Flatpaks and AppImages work across any distro. And also why if you have KDE as the desktop, you can even install a different desktop like GNOME, and switch between them. Rolling distros are actually perfectly safe for new users if the installer app is friendly, if one sticks to a stable version, and one stays away from Git packages. Rolling distros are getting more popular, and back when I started on them, Manjaro was the flavour of the day as it had an easy installation process. Today the ones I hear the most about are: NixOS, CachyOS, and Garuda Linux. The last two are especially popular with gamers. See

GadgeteerZA

Best Rolling Release Linux Distros For Every Kind Of User

“Every Ubuntu or Fedora user eventually hits the same wall. The six-month update cycle stops feeling exciting and starts feeling like a chore, or...

#linux #opensource #technology

Someone Vibe Coded a Free and Open Source Knockoff of Adobe Creative Suite “Using Claude Opus 5.5 and the programming language Rust, the creator of these apps, Atlanta-based Brandon Thomas, says he recreated Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere, Lightroom, Acrobat Pro, After Effects, and InDesign, and made them free to use. The new versions are technically called Photocraft, Vectorcraft, Filmcraft, Lightcraft, Printcraft, Effectcraft, and Designcraft. The overarching umbrella project is titled Artcraft.” The Photocraft app (alternative to Adobe Photoshop) is a few days old on GitHub, and has been starred 23k times already. I know there is GIMP, which probably still does more than this app does, but many want a friendly and intuitive type interface. It certainly does not (yet) match Photoshop feature for feature, but it likely already has most of what any ordinary user would want to use. It is fully compatible with Adobe's public specification for the PSD format (read that like Microsoft sticks to their own OOXML published format…). Another plus, is that it is ready for AI agent use, having an MCP server. What this means is that a graphics challenged type of user, like me, could ask my local AI agent to use that MCP server and do things for me in Photocraft. It installs easily on Windows, macOS, and Linux. Linux has various distro version, but also Flatpak and AppImage binaries. This is going to be very interesting… See

GadgeteerZA

Someone Vibe Coded A Free And Open Source Knockoff Of Adobe Creative Suite

“Using Claude Opus 5.5 and the programming language Rust, the creator of these apps, Atlanta-based Brandon Thomas, says he recreated Photoshop, I...

#alternativeto #graphics #opensource #technology

Dutch tax office ditches Microsoft 365 cloud for on-premises alternative “The Netherlands Tax and Customs Administration has abandoned its planned Microsoft 365 cloud migration in favour of services hosted on infrastructure it controls, alongside European open source alternatives. Email and calendars will move on-premises in 2027, followed by storage and collaboration services later that year and in 2028.” Yes it is not just for the technical security reasons mentioned in the linked article, as those were Microsoft decisions. Once in such a cloud service, it is very difficult to exit it again, not to mention of course there is the digital sovereignty issue that should concern every government around the world. Be wary of market-speak that sells convenience, reduced need for own IT personnel and hardware, etc. The truth is, the cost goes up, you have less to fall back on, and your data is no longer under your (and often your country's) control. It is a bit like drugs, just don't do it at all, as it will seem nice, but it will be very difficult to get away from. Most countries have potentially good skills they can develop, and help grow local businesses. Those investments pay off far better in the medium to longer term. These skills and businesses, in turn, help drive further growth within the country through consulting, training, etc. See

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Dutch Tax Office Ditches Microsoft 365 Cloud For On-premises Alternative

“The Netherlands Tax and Customs Administration has abandoned its planned Microsoft 365 cloud migration in favour of services hosted on infrastru...

Voicebox can clone your voice from a few seconds of audio on your own PC “Voicebox is an open-source and free-to-use voice studio created by Jamie Pine, who is the founder of Spacedrive Technology Inc. It is distributed under the MIT license, pitched as a local replacement for two paid services, including ElevenLabs for voice cloning and text-to-speech, and WisprFlow for dictation. Since it's open-source and everything runs on the hardware you own, using it doesn't require an account.” This does a lot more than just voice cloning though, and the author describes a few other uses as well. Voice diction may also be on interest. Linux users will have to build the software as it seems there is still no Linux binary for installation. Make sure you follow the download link from the main Voicebox webpage, as I see the linked article for some reason points to a fork which is not maintained. See

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Voicebox Can Clone Your Voice From A Few Seconds Of Audio On Your Own PC

“Voicebox is an open-source and free-to-use voice studio created by Jamie Pine, who is the founder of Spacedrive Technology Inc. It is distribute...

#ai #audio #opensource #technology

Map Animator makes animated route maps for travel and adventure videos, right in your browser “It's made for people who film their trips: motorcycle tours, cycling, hiking, road trips and sailing. Draw the route or use your GPX recording, give it a look, and get a video clip that shows where you went. Everything happens on your own computer. Your projects are stored in your browser and your videos are made in your browser, so nothing about your trips is sent to us.” A while back when I was looking at doing some travel map animations, I noticed all the reasonably good ones seemed to be paid versions. And if you did not pay, you got very restricted features or limited resolution video output. This does not yet do “everything” but it is pretty good and usable already, and it has received quite a few updates already. I especially like that you can add your own photos to signs, as that was something I was wanting to do. Whilst it is not open source, it is free, no account needed, has no adverts, and runs offline in your own browser. See the website at or the dev's video demo at See

GadgeteerZA

Map Animator Makes Animated Route Maps For Travel And Adventure Videos, Right In Your Browser

“It's made for people who film their trips: motorcycle tours, cycling, hiking, road trips and sailing. Draw the route or use your GPX record...

#technology #travel #travelanimation #videos

Honor’s Magic 9 Pro Max Has a Shotgun Mic and a 500mm Lens Mount “The Honor Magic 9 Pro Max launches in China on September 28 with a directional “shotgun” microphone, ARRI cinema color, and a lens mount that takes a 500mm teleconverter. If you shoot video on your phone, the mic may matter more than its two 200MP cameras, and it hints at where flagships go next.” Very interesting, as my last few phone decisions rested very much around the camera abilities. Most of the other stuff is pretty much the same, or there is enough of it anyway. A 200MP 1/1.28-inch sensor, with proper stabilisation, is also very appealing. I was just saying again, the other day, that we really need standard lens mounts across different phones, especially in the Android ecosystem. I'm not going to splash money out on a lens that only works with one phone brand. This would allow an ecosystem of 3rd party suppliers to produce lenses, and make it more worth their while. Even my last camera I bought, was a brand change from Minolta to Sony I think, because the Sony mounted the same lenses. See

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Honor's Magic 9 Pro Max Has A Shotgun Mic And A 500mm Lens Mount

“The Honor Magic 9 Pro Max launches in China on September 28 with a directional “shotgun” microphone, ARRI cinema color, and a lens mount tha...

#photography #technology

Veilamp is an open source music player that also streams your music to friends You really have to see this cross-platform player to believe everything it does. Apart from all sorts of technical music listening tweaks, it can act as a headless music server on your own network, or you can let friends listen by sharing your friend code with them. It will also scan your network for any mDNS discovery. It seems to use peer-to-peer connections, but bootstrapping through the Veilid network, so you don't give out any IP address. Your node joins Veilid's distributed hash table (DHT), which is spread across thousands of ordinary nodes. It's a decentralised phone book with no owner. Your node builds a private route: a chain of relay hops through other Veilid nodes that ends at you. It then gets an encrypted "route blob" describing how to enter that chain. The blob doesn't reveal your IP address. But that's not all by a long shot: It also finds lyrics, radio stations, and podcasts. It looks amazing by default, and has plenty of skins that can also be loaded, but what I really love, are the stereo analogue VU meters. That just reminds me of my old Hi-Fi system from way back. It's a Winamp-inspired player with a private, peer-to-peer sharing layer where access is limited to the friends you explicitly trust. See

GadgeteerZA

Veilamp Is An Open Source Music Player That Also Streams Your Music To Friends

You really have to see this cross-platform player to believe everything it does. Apart from all sorts of technical music listening tweaks, it can a...

#music #opensource #privacy #technology

First for South Africa as robotic exoskeleton aids Table Mountain rescue I can really sympathise with this situation as it happened to me as well a few years ago. We hiked up the mountain and planned to come down with the cable car. But many hours later by the time we reached the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway at about 4pm, it was closed (due to high winds I think). The only way down, was down Platteklip George, and that is a very steep descent. If you are over 50 or so, it hammers your knees and ankles. We only got down by 8pm, long after it was dark. An exoskeleton could certainly make things easier. But regardless, the WSAR (Wilderness Search and Rescue) are a group of volunteers who do a tremendous job. Contact WSAR in case of emergencies on 021 937 0300. See

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First For South Africa As Robotic Exoskeleton Aids Table Mountain Rescue

I can really sympathise with this situation as it happened to me as well a few years ago. We hiked up the mountain and planned to come down with th...

#capetown #southafrica #technology

Microsoft going back to its roots and breaking spreadsheet compatibility “Microsoft has ended 40 years of single-occupancy for Excel cells and is now allowing multiple values to inhabit the same home. For the time being, this capability is only available in Microsoft Excel for Windows and Mac Beta Channels. And it is opt-in.” Which is exactly what Microsoft was accused of doing many years ago when they brought out their OOXML standard and punted it as a global standard. Very few fell for that as ODF was already the open document standard, and not owned by any corporation. But they would keep tinkering with things behind the scenes so that if anyone tried to use OOXML, it would still break in practice as features were not supported. This would happen a lot with MS Word where especially all the formatting and layout would often not be the same. I remember this happening with a South African charity who had to provide business plans to a Department of Social Development. Being a charity, and not having unlimited taxpayer funds, that charity was using a free alternative called OpenOffice, and working in ODF format (which by the way, was the only officially approved document format for that government), but the business plan's template did not load as the Department had designed it using MS Word. Did the Department redesign it into the compliant standard? No, they told the charity to go and buy MS Word! This was why open document standards were created, and also approved by many governments around the world. It was to reduce the cost of ownership (can use the free software), and to improve interoperability and freedoms of choice. The correct way to do it, is to propose the change to the standards body, and get it voted on or amended, and then it goes live after approval, giving all other providers a chance to implement it as well so that compatibility works. It just goes to show that Microsoft still acts the same underneath, despite the PR. It is probably not going to bother me really in 2026, as I'd just respond that the spreadsheet is broken. What bothers me more is Microsoft's attitude and approach to changes like this. Certainly, there could be some good reason for going with this change, but then let's do that process correctly and be good neighbours to each other. See

GadgeteerZA

Microsoft Going Back To Its Roots And Breaking Spreadsheet Compatibility

“Microsoft has ended 40 years of single-occupancy for Excel cells and is now allowing multiple values to inhabit the same home. For the time bein...

#microsoft #openstandards #technology

F-Droid’s Android open-source app store has been rebuilt from the ground up “Virtually every Android device comes with the Play Store preloaded, but there are other ways to get apps. F-Droid bills itself as a community-driven source for free and open source Android apps, but its official app store has gone 10 years without a major update. That’s finally changing: After a multiyear effort, the team has just announced F-Droid 2.0 is rolling out. The new F-Droid client was redesigned from scratch in Kotlin Compose, which is the standard for modern Android apps. This makes the store much more responsive, and there’s optional support for Android’s Material theming. The interface has also been cleaned up considerably, making the most important functions easier to access and hiding some others in overflow menus.” I've been using F-Droid, along with Obtainium, for a long time. Many open-source apps are not at all on the official Android play store. F-Droid fetches the public git/mercurial source code for an app, strips out non-free dependencies (like proprietary tracking, ads, or Google Play Services binaries), and compiles the APK on its build servers. Because F-Droid compiles the binaries itself, the resulting APKs are typically signed with F-Droid's cryptographic key rather than the app developer's key. But this does guarantee that the app you download and install, is true to the published source code. Nothing of course is perfect, but we have seen numerous times that problematic apps have even appeared on both the Android and Apple play stores. So let no-one cast stones from their glass houses. The reason I have returned twice to Android, is because of the freedoms of being able to install open source software without limitations. It bugs me that both Apple and Google go out of their way to control and monetise apps for the platforms. Imagine if Linux imposed such restrictions? Basically everything installed on Linux is “sideloaded” and guess what, my Linux has been working fine for decades (Better than my wife's Windows has been struggling along). See

GadgeteerZA

F-Droid’s Android Open-source App Store Has Been Rebuilt From The Ground Up

“Virtually every Android device comes with the Play Store preloaded, but there are other ways to get apps. F-Droid bills itself as a community-dr...

#android #fdroid #opensource #technology

OSS Document Scanner is an open source mobile app to scan documents to PDF This mobile app does largely what Adobe PDF Scan or similar apps do, but your scans stay private and offline. It runs on Android and iOS, with the Android app being available from a variety of sources. It is open source without ads or tracking. It has been translated into 40 languages already. Features include scanning, document enhancement functions, PDF export, auto edge detection and OCR support. Not only that, but it can also optionally sync via WebDAV to your own cloud storage such as Nextcloud. See

GadgeteerZA

OSS Document Scanner Is An Open Source Mobile App To Scan Documents To PDF

This mobile app does largely what Adobe PDF Scan or similar apps do, but your scans stay private and offline.

#documents #opensource #privacy #technology

Grist is an open source self-hosted spreadsheet with a database hiding underneath “Grist is a relational spreadsheet-database app that I can host on my own server. When I first tried it, it felt familiar because the basic idea is still the same: I get rows, columns, cells, and tables that I can use to organise information. I came across Grist while looking for something that could replace the spreadsheets I use for everyday work. I mainly wanted a simple way to create tables, organise information, and keep track of things without dealing with a complicated interface. The first thing I noticed was that Grist doesn't try to make spreadsheets feel completely different. I can start with a blank document, add columns, enter information, and use formulas just like I would in a regular spreadsheet.” I remember way back when the first spreadsheets appeared, many would try to make them work like databases. But the fact is if you have a lot of data, and it needs to reference other data (relational) and be updated, an actual database was usually more robust. Sorting partial columns by mistake in a spreadsheet can completely mess up your data (versus using proper indexes). So this looks like a pretty good idea. Apart from the database aspect, this can always be available as it does not depend on access to some else's cloud, and it stays private. It is also accessed via a browser so you need not install anything on your devices, and can work on it from anywhere. See or See

GadgeteerZA

Grist Is An Open Source Self-hosted Spreadsheet With A Database Hiding Underneath

“Grist is a relational spreadsheet-database app that I can host on my own server. When I first tried it, it felt familiar because the basic idea ...

#opensource #privacy #selfhosting #spreadsheets #technology

OpenCode is an open source alternative to Claude Code OpenCode is an open source agent that helps you write and run code with any AI model, including free (for now although the free tier uses a limited subset of backend models including Big Pickle) use of its own OpenCode Zen model. It's available as a terminal-based interface, desktop app, or IDE extension. So OpenCode is similar to Claude Code in that it has agentic abilities, MCP servers, etc. Their Zen model is interesting. You connect to it (so no download or local GPU really required) and it is a curated set of AI models tested and benchmarked for coding agents created by the team behind OpenCode. OpenCode passes whatever costs are involved in using Zen, straight through without any markup. However, to cover costs, OpenCode adds only a small payment processing fee of $1.23 per $20 balance top-up. The models being used are optimised for coding ability. What Zen's real offering is, you are paying this one entity, to pool funds, and get access to various backend models, which would normally be separate subscriptions on their own. You could also connect your own front end AI to the Zen service as well. With over 195,000 GitHub stars, 950 contributors, and over 13,000 commits, OpenCode is used and trusted by over 16 million developers every month. So this is no small project. That said, it is really for coding and technical troubleshooting, and not really for use as a chat service. See or See

GadgeteerZA

OpenCode Is An Open Source Alternative To Claude Code

OpenCode is an open source agent that helps you write and run code with any AI model, including free (for now although the free tier uses a limited...

#ai #opensource #programming #technology

AI Efficiency Could Cost Us the Next Generation of Experts This is a very though-provoking that applies much wider than just AI. In fact, its origins go back to long before AI was even around. It is applicable to whenever automation is involved with humans. The problem with humans is they get lazy, and they lose muscle memory over time, and it is even worse if they never gained the muscle memory in the first place. Examples given are a nuclear power station where, despite the possibility of fully automated processes, humans are deliberately kept in the loop to perform approval and manual processes. This was to keep them current and to practice what they need to do. The other example was the Air France flight 447 accident which could have been prevented if the humans in the cockpit were not so accustomed to flying on autopilot for years, and they could have still assessed what went wrong using their manual flight skills. It really brings to the foreground some of the inherent issues we have with humans, and how these can manifest themselves when humans work with, or let AI do their work for them. The real meat of the article though, is the long term effects, and how junior engineers become senior engineers through hard effort, diagnosing and understanding problems, and struggling for hours to fix something. Most of today's senior engineers and designers went through these stages when they started out as junior engineers. This learning process is vital to later growth and success in most field. What I learnt this way in the 1990s, I still applied many decades later, even with newer technology, as I understood how the fundamentals fitted together and interacted together. We've already seen signs of this reality with studies about students using AI and where, without the AI in exams, they actually score lower than students who did their studying without AI. Of course there are always exceptions to this, and it is certainly not that AI is just all bad, but it is how we use AI with humans that is important. Another study I have quoted before, also showed that organisations fared economically better when AI was overseen by humans using it, versus organisations trying to just replace humans with AI. What is becoming clear, is there is nothing wrong with AI, and it will be part of our future just like telephones are, but we need to think about AI's usage alongside humans to ensure a good future for both. It is no good, in 20 years time when today's senior engineers are due to retire, to then wake up and realise we don't have any suitable senior engineers to replace them. It also brings home what I have preached before about just outsourcing everything to an external cloud provider. The organisation loses all its ability to deeply evaluate and quality assure any cloud provider because they have lost their own internal skills. If you ever want to withdraw from that external cloud provider, they have nothing to fall back on. It all comes down to the same final argument in the linked article: “Deliberate inefficiency is not waste. In safety-critical engineering we have always known it as insurance, and we buy it on purpose”. The linked article is really well worth reading, and should be part of any AI awareness training for senior management. Just looking too at some humans who have committed suicide based on “advice from their AI therapists” we humans have our own failings, and we need to consider how we use and interact with AI to harness it successfully into the future. This is probably going to be really fertile ground for doctoral thesis in the coming years. See

GadgeteerZA

AI Efficiency Could Cost Us The Next Generation Of Experts

This is a very though-provoking that applies much wider than just AI. In fact, its origins go back to long before AI was even around. It is applica...

#ai #skills #technology

Immurok Fingerprint Key Unlocks Linux, Approves SSH and AI Agents “It is a tiny wireless box that can unlock your desktop session, approve a sudo command, authenticate via polkit, log you into a server over SSH, generate TOTP codes for 2FA, and put a physical touch in front of an AI coding agent. And it does all of that with the same finger, over Bluetooth. The good news is that the core features work. The less good news is that on Linux, getting there was not as simple as touching a sensor.” So, yes no ready to use graphical interface like Windows, and macOS users get, but it can be setup and got to work, and after that it seems pretty seamless. You always have your passwords to fall back to, if you leave your finger behind or lose it somewhere. It is a Kickstarter project, but good to see there is a working review unit, so it is not vaporware. See

GadgeteerZA

Immurok Fingerprint Key Unlocks Linux, Approves SSH And AI Agents

“It is a tiny wireless box that can unlock your desktop session, approve a sudo command, authenticate via polkit, log you into a server over SSH,...

#linux #security #technology

Australians Could Soon Opt Out of Social Media Algorithms Altogether “The Australian government is proposing to give social media users the option to switch off the default algorithmic feed, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced on Tuesday. Under the draft legislation, “Digital Duty of Care”, users could opt to see only posts from the people they follow on platforms like Instagram or TikTok, instead of what the algorithm curates for them personally.” Now this really does make sense for quite a few reasons: It would go a long way to cutting down on the social media “doom-scrolling” addition that many users have. It is a cleaner feed which is more relevant to users wanting to follow family or friends. It is an easy measure to hold Big Tech accountable for. Most importantly too it should cut down on many viral posts with misinformation etc, as the user should actually not see those being inserted into the feed. This indirectly also reduces the spread of viral misinformation, as they can't take root across all users' feeds anymore. It's not going to stop adverts being served, nor metadata being harvested by Big Tech (nor the sharing of that data to data brokers or “partners”). For this, you still want to rather move off to decentralised and federated types of social media. See

GadgeteerZA

Australians Could Soon Opt Out Of Social Media Algorithms Altogether

“The Australian government is proposing to give social media users the option to switch off the default algorithmic feed, Australian Prime Minist...

#doomscrolling #socialmedia #technology

I discovered KDE’s hidden superpowers after installing these 3 open-source utilities “If you've been in the Linux space for a while, you know just how customisable KDE Plasma can be. However, a lot of us only limit that customisation to picking the theme or moving the panel. What surprises me is how many plug-in surfaces Plasma exposes that I barely even touched. On top of that, they sit right next to the Plasma features you probably use daily. Well, the timing is perfect because Plasma 6.7 just arrived back in June 2026. When 6.8 comes out, it's going to drop support for X11 and become Wayland-exclusive. So, all the tools I've picked for this work on Wayland.” I've been on Plasma KDE for a long time now, because I'm very happy with it, and love the customisation as well as some of the power apps that come with KDE. But even I forget that things progress and newer apps and features come along. What quite impressed me in this article, was the Panel Colorizer. It really overlays and skins your existing panel so you don't need to configure anything new. You just get to make it look quite stunning and visually appealing. As oner commenter said, Plasma is a never ending journey of discovery. There is always more you can explore and do with it. See

GadgeteerZA

I Discovered KDE’s Hidden Superpowers After Installing These 3 Open-source Utilities

“If you've been in the Linux space for a while, you know just how customisable KDE Plasma can be. However, a lot of us only limit that custo...

#kde #opensource #plasma #technology

Kept is an open-source self-hosted alternative to Google Keep notes It looks and feels like Google Keep notes, but is private and tracker-free. It has some extra features too, such as location notifications, CalDAV integrations, collaborative editing, file attachments, etc. Kept is designed for people who love fast, low-friction note capture. Whether you need a quick checklist, a drawing, or a simple text note, Kept makes it effortless to jot things down and organise them visually with colours and labels. I imported over 500 of my notes form Google Keep, using Kept's import tool, and they came across exactly as I used them in Keep with same colours, labels, images, and pinned status. You can host it in Docker on a virtual private server or your desktop, or using the Railway hosting service. Mobile apps are available on iOS and Android, or as a Progressive Web App (PWA). Watch my video at See

GadgeteerZA

Kept Is An Open-source Self-hosted Alternative To Google Keep Notes

It looks and feels like Google Keep notes, but is private and tracker-free. It has some extra features too, such as location notifications, CalDAV

#notes #opensource #selfhosting #technology

“I’m Not Dead Yet!” Reverse Polish Notation Calculators You Can Still Buy “RPN isn’t exactly the way people calculate with pencil and paper, and it certainly wasn’t derived from the slide rule, but there is a similarity in the way you work. With a slide rule, you generally establish some value, operate on it, and continue from the result. When doing a long-hand calculation, you often calculate a subexpression, write down the answer, and use that answer in the next step. You will probably start with the inner parenthesis and work outward, just like someone with an RPN calculator does. RPN formalises that process with a stack.” I still have my HP41CV, and it still works well 40 years on. RPN is actually a highly effective way of doing complex calculations. Once it is understood, it is quite intuitive. My HP41CV was RPN-only, so I got very used to using it. It is good to see there are still options available to buy, and I did not know about the Linux AppImage for HP Prime Virtual Calculator. Neither had I seen the CalcTastic Android app — must say it works very nicely, and I do love the many theme options. See

GadgeteerZA

“I’m Not Dead Yet!” Reverse Polish Notation Calculators You Can Still Buy

“RPN isn’t exactly the way people calculate with pencil and paper, and it certainly wasn’t derived from the slide rule, but there is a simila...

#calculators #rpn #technology

Tether Brings the Apple Continuity Experience to Linux “Continuity. That is Apple's catch-all term for how iPhone, iPad, and Mac talk to each other. It covers a wide range of small conveniences. Copy something on the iPhone and paste it on the Mac. Start an email on one device and finish it on another. Take a call from the Mac even when the phone is across the room. But, to no one's surprise, there's a gap in its support. It doesn't officially work on Linux. So Zack built Tether, an open source project that replicates pieces of that experience on Linux without requiring a Mac device.” Yes there is KDE Connect, but apparently Tether goes a bit deeper than that for Apple. So this may be interesting for Apple users to try out with Linux. See

GadgeteerZA

Tether Brings The Apple Continuity Experience To Linux

“Continuity. That is Apple's catch-all term for how iPhone, iPad, and Mac talk to each other. It covers a wide range of small conveniences. ...

#ios #opensource #technology