Happy to be part of the top 1% in this case.

No, I setup a MacOS VM on my home Linux server using docker-osx which runs a bluebubbles server. It doesn’t use Matrix.

This is cool but I’m happy self hosting bluebubbles.

I didn’t like Voyager initially, mostly because it felt weird having iOS style on my Android device. The Android theme didn’t seem that different too me either. But I’m actually using it now and think it works great and don’t even mind the iOS styling anymore either!

I installed nameless on my 8t. It works well but Google Pay breaks occasionally with a “Device doesn’t meet security requirements”. On both instances, was able to fix with using a play integrity module but kinda annoying knowing it may not always be reliable.

Might regret it but I just ordered an S23 after trying it out at BestBuy. I saw that Samsung had a Black Friday deal for $200 off with trade-in of an old device. I have an old Galaxy S7 just sitting in a drawer and was amazed to see it on the list of accepted devices.

I’ve really been wanting a smaller phone as my OnePlus 8T gets really uncomfortable to hold after a while. Love everything about it except the size.

I also looked at the Pixel 8 but the S23 felt like the better choice with less compromises. Pixel 8 Pro is even bigger than my 8t, so no-go there.

Really wish the S23 was rootable (in US at least). That’s prob the biggest drawback for me. Will see if I can live without that.

Might as well make it a burst of 9 presses, wait, and then 2 single presses /s

For the technically skilled, there is BlueBubbles to get iMessage on Android. I set this up recently and it works quite well. I’m running a MacOS Ventura virtual machine using docker-osx on one of my personal servers and pretty much all iMessage functionality is available. I modified the Android (flutter) project locally to get my own push notifications working using my self-hosted ntfy instance as a UnifiedPush provider instead of needing to use Firebase.

There is also Beeper which bridges iMessage and many other chat services in one app, but I wanted something fully open source that I can manage myself, plus I think there’s still a wait-list and I didn’t want to hand over my Apple ID to a third party.

It’s hard trying to convince people (esp. iPhone users) to use a cross platform solution because they perceive us Android users as the problem and they know iMesssge just works. And for the non- technical, that’s understandable even if frustrating. So as a software engineer, I am the one making accomodations so they can still use iMessage. But it also made for a fun project for me to learn about.

Dang had no idea this was a thing, but this looks very useful! I’ve been meaning to troubleshoot slow startup on one of my servers.

That would be more than capable. Retro emulation can run on very low end hardware.

But here’s an ebay listing for same model that I bought earlier. It doesn’t include an SSD but you can buy M.2 SSDs for very cheap which I also did. Plus they’re much faster and more reliable than micro SD cards.

It’s very easy to open the machine up which I liked.

RAM upgrades are cheap too but 8GB is a lot for most cases.

A lot of corporate environments use these so when they upgrade you can find them used for dirt cheap, if you don’t mind some possible cosmetic defects. Mine are just stacked on a shelf and I just use them as servers for docker and whatnot.

While I love Raspberry Pis and have a few older ones, it’s a shame that the latest ones were very hard to come by and far exceeded the $35 price point.

I was looking to upgrade to a Pi 4 a while back but prices were outrageous or it was sold out completely. I eventually discovered tiny form factor PCs.

I bought some used Lenovo Tiny ThinkCentres (which are about 10x more powerful than a Pi 4), off eBay for ~ $70. I upgraded the Ram and SSDs and they are quite capable, low power units!

So to anyone looking for a low power computer to run Linux, consider buying used off eBay. You can get some pretty good deals on used hardware that’s more capable.

I def agree that there needs to be major interoperability improvements between platforms. Though I do not want to be locked into using Google Messages to get RCS. I wish they’d open their API to other apps and even more so allow self-hosting your own RCS server but I don’t foresee the latter ever happening.

Ya there’s Matrix and whatnot which I use with some people, but most everyone just wants what works by default. I like to tinker and have options, but most people don’t.

Till then, I’ll enjoy postage stamp resolution videos from my Apple friends /s

Part of their Zenfone marketing is keeping “legacy” features like headphone jack and small form factor, they should allow unlocking. Hopefully they’ll follow through and allow you to modify the device that you purchased.

I should rephrase. It works, but as of now the Android mode doesn’t look all that different. I notice some minor changes, but still feels mostly like an iOS app.

Ya that would be my main complaint. Awesome app for iOS users, but Android here. Doesn’t seem the Android mode works ATM but I’ll keep an eye on the progress! Good efforts from devs regardless!

Yay! My first comment from Infinity! Been using Jerboa so far but great to have multiple options!

OnePlus 8T - Rooted & running HavocOS. Performance is great, battery is really good and charges quickly, and 120hz display is nice. I have Termux-X11 installed so I can have a whole Linux desktop on external monitor using HDMI out over USB.

My only gripe is the device is large and uncomfortable for one-handed use. I would ideally want the Asus Zenfone 9/10 mainly because of the smaller size but it doesn’t support HDMI out :(

Ya my paranoia only allows me to expose Wireguard to access everything. I sleep better at night knowing that’s the only thing exposed. Too many instances of major companies getting hacked who have dedicated security teams to manage that. I am one person, learning to manage my own stuff in my free time.

DHARMA stations (from the show LOST)

Arrow, Swan, Flame, and Pearl so far :)

Edit: also funny to see there’s 108 comments as of now