This may seem unimportant, but I’ve stumbled upon https://github.com/Aris-t2/CustomCSSforFx and my FF is much more usable than before.

Self hosted a lemmy server for myself

Switched to Firefox

Got a VPN

Using said vpn to share my dad’s YouTube TV(only works on my TV though, not mobile)

Started using copilot which improved my productivity at work

I got married, so now im sharing more online accounts

• Started renting a VPS and a domain. Now I have my own silly blog, a few services and a proxy to go to blocked sites (with the possibility to upgrade to censorship-resistant protocols if needed!)
• Among other things got an IRC bouncer, so started hanging out on IRC a lot more.
• Deleted my Twitter, Reddit and Insta (which were almost dead anyway but still).
• Went from hating IT and thinking it’s just not for me to studying it in uni, as well as learning some topics myself.
• Degoogled my smartphone as much as I could with ADB (although barely noticed a difference, everything was from F-Droid anyway).

• Left Reddit for Lemmy, only came back several times to seek for specific information in a couple of niche communities
• Started using Firefox again, both in desktop and mobile
• Opened a nextcloud account, with plans to host our own when we have a little more free time
• Autohosted FreshRSS
• Started with Sonarr, Radarr, jellyfin and so on (you can guess what for)
• Mastodon is now my main social network
• Stopped using Windows. If I have to use some applications to interact with my clients I prefer to do it via cloud.

I finally deleted my corporate accounts (twitter, reddit) because the alternatives were finally good enough to use. Still on Facebook and WhatsApp though because of some stubborn friends and family

1. A slow diversion from Chrome. I used to use Chrome for 30% of my web browsing and games, but have switched that to Firefox and Vivaldi.

2. I almost completely stopped using Reddit, and instead, switched to Lemmy.

3. A big shift to majority of headphone usage being wireless, mostly due to the BT600ANC headphones I have with excellent noise cancelling.

4. A renewed push to seriously consider dailying Linux. Windows 11 was just Windows 10 but with some UI changes running at 0.3x the speed. But MS keeps making Windows worse, and I’m scared of Windows 12.

5. Considering Third Party Apps for existing software, whenever I could. Most recently, Steam has been super slow so I really wanted a third party launcher to bypass Steam. Same for EGS, except Heroic fulfills that duty, until it fails to work.

6. Due to YT being especially greedy this year, I’ve soured on it enough to sometimes adblock it, use it less, and most recently and hopefully most devastatingly for YT, purchasing a year of Nebula to watch many creators videos there (ad-free) instead of YT. As a creator myself, I empathize with creators of all sizes.

7. Oh, almost forgot. I stopped listening to the Linux podcasts I was previously listening to. I just find it more enjoyable to listen to music at the moment.

Wait, actually forgot these:

8. Purchased my friend’s old PC for cheap. He likes to be on the bleeding edge and I’m perfectly happy with a water cooled 3900X + 32GB RAM + 2.5TB storage + everything except GPU for $400.

9. And now the most unfortunate thing. My Facebook usage increased from basically zero to occasional use of the marketplace. It was how I found my GPU replacement for the PC, and my first motorcycle. I still adblock it hard whenever I can.

Wait, how can I forget this one!

10. Use of AI as a debugging tool has skyrocketed. I now default to ChatGPT before StackOverflow because on average it’s way faster with ChatGPT.

• Started using Mastodon and Lemmy
  • Deleted Reddit account
• Changed a lot of my apps to FOSS alternatives using NeoStore
• Got a text-based launcher (Lunar Launcher)
• Started contributing to community projects
• Set up a JellyFin server

Probably some more but I forgot. My case fans are really loud though when I keep my pc on at night to keep running the JF server for my users. Perhaps I should have bought a P600S case with the dampening foam. Looking into buying a Pi 4 this year to run services on instead of my main rig.

Really am enjoying using FOSS software, even though it can be a little limiting in some ways. AAAAXY is a really fun game btw!

• I started using Lemmy
• Got back on Mastodon when it got rolling a bit more. I follow more accounts now and it’s actually fun.
• Got back on linux after a 5 year hiatus. I should have done it a whole lot sooner, I enjoy using my computer more.
• Needed a laptop and instead of buying a new one, I got a secondhand laptop from a local system administrator who put linux on it. Debian is great and I love the old Thinkpad.
• I’ve applied to a learn/work program in web development. I haven’t started yet, but I will soon. I’m so excited for that.

I switched from Chrome to Firefox completely and from Reddit to Lemmy like 80% of the time, for me that is a huge upgrade.

I’ve switched to the Arc web browser, where tabs behave more like bookmarks (and they replace bookmarks as well). It’s been a game changer for me - my favourite feature is the ability to close a window and it doesn’t remove any of your tabs. Just open a new browser window and they’re back. My tabs are also more organised than ever.

Large Language Models, specifically ChatGPT+, are now part of my daily life and I’m not just talking tech. For example I use it in the kitchen every time I cook a meal I haven’t made a thousand times before and I’ve been cooking better than ever. Unlike a recipe website, you can tell it you don’t have (or don’t like) a particular ingredient and chat about alternatives, then it will update the cooking instructions. Love it.

I’ve given up on streaming music services, and gone back to occasionally buying a new DRM free albums. This has been part of a general cost cutting theme to my year - especially monthly bills.

• I’ve did some distrohopping and in effect switched from Fedora to Fedora Silverblue (very enjoyable)
• I’ve completely removed all centralized social media apart from YouTube (I’ll have to invest some more time in PeerTube before I can make the switch) from my life
• In general I spend less time doom-scrolling and way more time actually reading interesting stuff (I’ve found LessWrong, a forum about the art of rationality/more rational thinking)
• I have replaced all remaining proprietary software components on my desktop with open source ones (e.g. I now use FOSS frontends for Discord and Spotify, namely gtkcord4 and Spot), the only exceptions being the Nvidia driver (I hope that will change in 2024 with NVK) and some games (although 80% of my very limited gaming time is now spent in open source games like Beyond All Reason)
• I got a tablet/ChromeBook convertible (Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 5 8GB) which I installed PostmarketOS on and am now daily driving Linux in school where everybody else is using iPads
• I am in the process of finally building my own NAS/homeserver
• On the negative side I spent way less of my free time programming than I would have liked to

I do also have some goals and ambitions for this year:

• Host all my stuff on my own server, this includes files (documents, photos, backups, media) as well as services like my website and automations
• Write audio and camera drivers for my tablet
• Learn some more Nim
• Write more code than last year
• Finally make the switch to Vim/NeoVim
• Become independent from YouTube
• If my iPhone happens to break, get a Linux phone as a daily driver
• Gradually unsubscribe from (streaming) services like Spotify

Got rid of all of my centralized social media accounts apart from YouTube, moved from Proton to Migadu on my own domain (unlimited aliases! when signing up for a service I can just make up a new username and it gets organized into a folder in my inbox!), and moved my homelab and laptop to NixOS

I quit Facebook for good, almost quit Reddit and am enjoying reading more books and exploring fediverse a bit.

Also protectively try to get less and less screen time, using the morning time which usually was lost to doomscrolling to do zazen.

Dropped Reddit, Twitter, Spotify. Still have never been on Facebook, still have an Instagram account to stay in touch with old friends. Tubi and YouTube for entertainment

• Switched to Lemmy
• Set up DNS blocking for tracking cookies / ADs
• Set up Proxmox
• Set up Pfsense
• Upgraded to gigabit fibre!
• Set up Invidious
• Quit using Youtube
• Quit using Twitter
• Quit using Reddit
• Upgraded Wifi to TPLink to cover whole house and to replace consumer level Mesh networking
• Setup multiple VLANs on my network
• Put IoT devices on IoT WiFi
• Put home automation and IoT crap on my Kubernetes cluster