Yes, it was Munich. And all things considered it worked quite well for a while.

After a while AFAIK the then new mayor called himself a “Microsoft fan” and tried to get Microsoft to build their new German HQ in Munich. So I am pretty sure there is no connection whatsoever between canceling Limux and switching back to Windows and Microsoft building a huge campus in Munich Freimann…

https://www.tunemymusic.com is a great service for migrating libraries.

Hi!

Evidently, [loops and goldfish] are intended to be compatible with one another, as well as other video platforms in the Fediverse, such as PeerTube or Vidzy.

From the article. So yes, they should be cross compatible at some point.

Oh, so THAT is the real stop sign they put in front of FOSS marketplaces. Thanks for the link!

So, the .5 per annual install for alternative marketplaces seems to be the stop gap, right? A popular FOSS store like f-droid would have to cough up thousands of Euros.

Would it be possible to sell an alternative marketplace for 1 Euro on the app store, pay Apple’s purchase commission and use the rest for the annual install fee?

AFAIK is the basic configuration for the new M3 MacBook Pro a meager 8gb shared RAM with 512gb SSD for 1999 Euros (in Germany so ymmv).

I honestly just made a double pun regarding the new MB Pro with 8gb in the basic configuration and the coming Windows with the 16gb requirement - which both seem strange product decisions with lots of negative customer feedback.

Oh no! I won’t be able to run Windows on my new MacBook Pro!

In a way yes, we are running from company to company. For myself I accepted a few compromises along the way because I don’t have the time and energy to do everything myself. So this is where I am at.

Hosting email yourself is a nightmare and is getting basically impossible more and more (see here). So I accepted my fate and looked for a solution that fits my needs.

For cloud storage I used to self host Nextcloud and / or Syncthing for years. While it was fun in the beginning I loathed it at the end. Even with good hardware and Docker and 25 years of experience there was always something that stopped to work after a while - especially with Nextcloud. For Syncthing (which I really like) there is no real client for iOS (wife’s phone). Also exposing anything to the internet can turn into a nightmare pretty quickly. But my work blocks my VPN… You see what I mean? There certainly are solutions for all that but I was tired of looking.

Hetzner is a large German hoster with a quite good reputation. They need to follow GDPR regulations and because they provide closely monitored solutions for my work I know they do as much as possible. The Nextcloud instance is super reliable ever since I started.

I use Nextcloud tools for encryption at rest which is enough for me. They even let you perform cli commands (a few from a web UI, other through support mail). Support is fast and well informed.

It is certainly not for everyone! But for my scenario it is the currently best compromise.

If you aren’t too tech savvy I would recommend against self hosted services. There are amazing solutions out there but they will cost a few bucks.

For cloud storage I use Hetzner’s https://www.your-storageshare.de. It’s a hosted Nextcloud with pretty much all the freedom you can get. Currently it costs about 5 Euros per month for 1TB of storage. You can even share it with your family and friends because you can create more users on your instance. While I self hosted Nextcloud and Syncthing in the past this is just way less work.

Your-storageshare replaced Dropbox/Google Drive, Google Calendar, Google Contacts and Google Photos for me. That’s a pretty huge chunk of the services I use passively all the time. With Nextcloud’s encryption enabled and GDPR regulations in place it is IMHO as save as you can get without self hosting.

For mails I am quite happy with https://mailbox.org - it starts at 1 Euro per month but I recommend the 3 Euros tier. It’s no Proton Mail but somehow to me it seems more trustworthy. They don’t overpromise on features but provide a solid secure service. Most of the time I send unencrypted mails (due to various reasons) but you could use SMIME with it. Since it provides IMAP you could even integrate it with your-storageshare using the Nextcloud Mail app.

Both services support your own domains so if you fancy it you could set up www.IHadTwoCows.com for cloud and mail. Hetzner has you covered for domains too. Not the cheapest but reliable.

For search I use https://startpage.com. It uses Google results but anonymized. I am very happy with it.

And that, kids, is the story of how I banned Google from my digital life. (okay, Maps is still there but all the alternatives where just not good enough with traffic jams in my city)

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I found all of the IKEA buttons quite good and they are really affordable. They are not FOSS like you requested but they use ZigBee and they work really well with HA. The light bulbs are good, too.

I still use a ConBee II for the ZigBee connection but I think there are better options available now. I bought it years ago.

You see, it grows inverted exponentially. 6 GB equals about 22 GB. Your best option will be the 2 GB model which performs like 64 GB. If that still doesn’t fit your needs you could always download additional RAM.

I currently lease a 2 years old Renault Zoe (very compact car) for 200€ a month (0€ upfront). It was a special deal in Germany for a few months. I charge at home with solar panels and rarely drive more than the 300-350km range.

It honestly feels like the holy grail of electro mobility.

Shout out to startpage! I use it almost exclusively and it is great.

I’ll just say it: PHP. I mean the language itself is not really pretty (but came a long way).

But I’ve got a nice side gig running where I help small businesses and schools to keep their old PHP based websites running and secure until they can afford a new system. In that area money is often very tight and there are no “content managers” but a few people maintaining content with next to no technological knowledge and in their spare time. So changing systems is a hard task. Being the really decently priced guy who keeps their PHP ship afloat is pretty rewarding (not really monetarily but personally).

So working with PHP I have a very nice group of customers who are grateful for every bit of help. I love that.