The few times I’ve needed to man [app name] on a system without internet access or on an obscure utility, I’ve always been able to find what I need in the included docs

I hope the dev eventually gets sponsored, this is one of those utilities that you don’t think you need until --help doesn’t cut it

I use OSMand alongside GMaps WV (a webview for Google Maps, wipes all data automatically after closing). Works well enough for me, but in GMaps you can’t rotate the map or provide your location

I use “Automation” (on fdroid) - the UX could do with some improving but it thoroughly covers the basics.

Newer versions of Android make it difficult to automate certain things though, I find root helps to get around that in some cases

I was looking for Sleep As Android too!! Separately to this I saw a comment on R a while ago asking for FOSS alternatives, and to say the dev’s response was out-of-touch would be an understatement. They just complained about not being able to make a living from a FOSS app…

Regarding Gadgetbridge though, those devs and contributors are running into more and more accessories using encrypted protocols which is a bit worrying. Right now I’ve settled on the BangleJS which has official support, just wish it had a more accurate heart rate sensor!

My dream FOSS health app would be some concoction of OpenScale and Gadgetbridge 😂

Haven’t watched the video - just my thoughts…

Minetest (specifically Mineclone2) is an impressive feat, and a very faithful reproduction of the original. I pretty much used the Minecraft fandom wiki to progress through the game. Hours of fun was had without handing money to M$.

I only really stopped because the redstone functionality wasn’t fully implemented.

Hats off to the devs on that project regardless

AFAIK on Windows the physical disk containing the partition needs to be marked offline in Disk Management, and the disk or a partition given exclusively to VirtualBox running as administrator, otherwise access is limited to read-only

I would suggest checking some other sources as well, just in case this has changed over the years. If you do successfully pass the physical partition into VirtualBox read-write, you might need to set up a virtual disk with grub to boot into your physical Linux partition

Windows 7 being discontinued.

I migrated my HTPC to Linux several years ago, and since then just transitioned more and more of my machines over.

My desktop is the only machine left running Windows at this point due to there being no Freetrack implementation on Linux for sim games

That sounds horrible, literally couldn’t own anything nice without it getting stolen and your personal space getting trashed…

To combine a bunch of explanations I’ve seen in the comments here:

A bourgeois philanthropist game show producer who dabbles in poverty porn.

That said, I do occasionally burn time watching some of his videos, however some of the content (especially the more recent game show ones which feel a bit like toying with people) rub me the wrong way.

I have no idea if his philanthropy efforts are genuine or not - he’s barely visible in those videos (he has another individual hosting those videos) although I do appreciate the efforts they appear to go to when assisting communities desperately in need, and careful implementation of solutions that are sustainable, and can actually be maintained and fixed with local knowledge.

I’ve seen way too many “gimmicky” charity contributions by other organizations that become worthless as soon as they break because nobody fixes them, as well as other solutions that seemingly make sense from a western cultural lens but aren’t really understood by the local people… worst one being a “merry-go-round” water pump mechanism where senior locals are forced to “play” just to pump water for survival. It was originally intended as a kids toy, but they of course don’t have any attachment to such a foreign device, thus don’t use it.

Ehhh apologies for the mini rant there 😅

Curious about this one too

The Grayjay app includes an entire development environment for plugins.

No idea why the keyboard app is “large”. Could it be for support on obsolete Android devices where they’ve needed to re-implement missing APIs and features entirely themselves (like Firefox/Fennec and the Share menu)?

They could also be using completely different local AI tooling, or a custom trained model that has a higher space footprint compared to other similar apps. As always the true answer lies in the available code…

Edit: Grayjay’s = The Grayjay

This looks like one of those low cost netbooks from the time where “EPad” and “MID” tablets were a thing. There is an edition of Windows CE floating around for these - but WiFi will not work, neither the modem if this has one built in.

No idea about Linux - there is a kernel so you’re technically half way there, but considering most of these had a slow single core ARM CPU and 256MB of RAM on a good day, practical use is limited IMO

Chromium… I’m so getting downvoted with this one.

Why? Anyone is free to use whatever browser floats their boat 🤷‍♂️

Firefox itself is quite sluggish and slow to open on that piece of hardware

Do you get the same issues on an older version of Firefox for that device? If yes, proceed with caution - your device’s internal EMMC might be nearing EOL considering how old Android 6 is

But the problem is they all do not support modern arm64 apps that most Android phones use nowadays. Instead they need this other type called armeabi-v7a

They probably just stopped building for Android 6 devices. The SDK and various third party libraries continue to add new features all the time, and unlike Firefox, the majority of devs do not have the time or resources to manually code-in the missing bits to retain compatibility with old versions of Android. As a side effect, these custom implementations may have bugs or issues that go unnoticed due to the shrinking install base.

One of the more noticeable bits that changed is the Share API, which is why Firefox’s one looks so different vs every other app. There are other things like enhanced battery optimization and the storage API, which have changed a lot since Android 6.

IMO your best option is an older version of FF, or install Lineage (etc) on that device and use another browser

Edit: change “age of device” to “shrinking install base”

IIRC Beehaw doesn’t federate downvotes. The OP has been pretty heavily downvoted for no valid reason

I’ve tried both on my low powered HTPC and came to the same conclusion - especially noticeable where video acceleration is concerned

Something about that channel feels “off”, don’t know what it is. Maybe all the rants and abundance of negative opinions?? Perhaps it’s the culture difference in how he communicates on camera?

The only positive videos I’ve seen are him moving to macOS, the dell laptop one, and i guess the keyboard one, the other ones seem to be mostly opinion pieces & rants. There are other channels that do a better, more balanced job of this I think

Explains why I was having issues with this in Gnome on my HTPC…

Ended up making a remote button shortcut to maximise and restore apps

I used to have only 4GB in my old Linux HTPC, didn’t take much for it to choke when using the browser. Upgraded to 16GB and no issues since

Got to really wonder what’s going on at Mozilla. Between the previous CEO milking it for cash, the purchase of an ad company, and now this?

Absolutely love the ability to share links from my android and have them open automagically on my linux HTPC. Also made a command shortcut for my laptop so I can unlock it from my android. Really versatile