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#GrapheneOS install went ok.

my experience:

- used the command line tools - didn't want to install chrome (firefox/safari/incognito modes not supported)

- @GrapheneOS online instructions are clear - except for the weird bit about `signify` which I ignored

- could inform you of "silent waits" to avoid thinking something is wrong when it isn't

- instructions could set out overall plan 1. unlock, 2. flash, 3. re-lock

- confused about graphene App Store

- competing apps confusion eg contacts

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in reply to Tariq

The part about signify is for people to verify the OpenSSH public key with the previous signify public key we used before switching to OpenSSH signing, that's all. It was a while ago and we could remove it from the instructions now.
in reply to GrapheneOS

I think a newcomer like myself would stumble at that point and some might give up - I almost did.

re the Graphene App Store - is it an App Store? I can't seem to explore any apps in it.

in reply to Tariq

It's an app store but it has a small selection of apps at the moment. It's mainly used to update packages included in the OS and to provide a way to securely install sandboxed Google Play. It also provides the third party Accrescent app store for obtaining developer builds of their own apps securely.
in reply to GrapheneOS

ok - that's clear.

might be worth making it clear on the website - again to help newcomers who don't already know.

in reply to Tariq

- banking apps also work - ( for now )

- stock Photos app seemed to have a less good "preview" so installed one from sandboxed Playstore which has a better preview, haven't tested photos yet - this is assessment is not scientific.

- need help with "storage profiles" to isolate photos app

- phone seems faster, probably less background code running

- stock alarm app has weird blue background

This entry was edited (1 week ago)
in reply to Tariq

We're in the process of overhauling the AOSP apps. Our current focus is overhauling the AOSP Messaging app for SMS/MMS support. We're currently working on modernizing how it does notifications. Clock app will get an overhaul too aligning it with Material 3 and Material You so it won't have that blue background anymore. It's currently barely modified from the standard AOSP Clock app and that's just how it has always looked. Like several other AOSP apps they stopped improving it years ago.
in reply to GrapheneOS

thanks for the clarification

and thank you also for the amazing work you do on this opens source project

in reply to Tariq

a few hours later....

What's a good keyboard for #GrapheneOS that has

1. swipe/draw to type where you don't press individual characters

2. GIFs/symbols/emojis/unicode would be nice

The stock grapheneos doesn't do (1) and my typing is suddenly very very slow now.

in reply to Tariq

next day

* swiping up to see all apps actually causes the clock/alarm app to launch because its on the main screen - didn't happen before

* I still haven't found any online guide to the "storage profiles" to limit what apps like google photos can see.

* I've installed gboard with network permissions denied - not sure how effective that actually is. Because the accuracy of the heliboard swipe thyping was significantly worse.

in reply to Tariq

> swiping up to see all apps actually causes the clock/alarm app to launch because its on the main screen - didn't happen before

This seems like it might be a misunderstanding. Have you read grapheneos.org/usage#gesture-n…?

> I still haven't found any online guide to the "storage profiles" to limit

Just don't grant the storage/media permissions it asks for. Turn them off and turn on Storage Scopes instead, and you're nearly done. It will work and think it has full access to everything.

in reply to GrapheneOS

If you want it to see specific files from other apps such as photos from the Camera app, add that directory (or file) as a storage scope with the menu for that. You don't NEED to add any scopes though. Adding scopes is only for letting it access files from other apps. It can store files and access files it stored without adding scopes.

See grapheneos.org/usage#storage-a… for more information.

in reply to GrapheneOS

I used to be able to swipe up on. the google OS to see all the apps - and have been doing that for years

is a different part of the scene used for that gesture in grapheneOS?

in reply to Tariq

It works the same on GrapheneOS as the stock Pixel OS. From anywhere other than the home screen, swiping up from the navigation bar and releasing goes to the home screen. On the home screen, it opens the app drawer. Swiping up and holding opens recent apps. That's how gesture navigation works on the stock Pixel OS too. It's identical. Need a clearer description of the issue you're having.
in reply to Tariq

one more thing:

I can't seem to turn off/on bluetooth or the torch from the "control panel" while swiping down on a **locked screen**

I could do this under google's os

in graphene it asks me to unlock before proceeding

is this a setting I need to enable?

in reply to Tariq

Several quick tiles for toggling on things adding attack surface aren't allowed when locked on GrapheneOS. We could make it into toggles but haven't done that.

slowmart reshared this.


I see central London has been clogged again by the tractors of farmers protesting at inheritance tax on farms.

things I haven't seen:

The police kettling tractors in London Squares;

Right wing papers claiming the clogging of London's streets has impeded ambulances getting to hospital with patients;

The police using mobile facial recognition units to identify militant farmers to add to terrorism databases...

which is not to say the above are not happening (or maybe it is?)

#Famers #protest

This entry was edited (1 week ago)
in reply to Emeritus Prof Christopher May

Just yet another example of the elite control perception. Farmers? Honest workers juts looking after their own, guv. Environmental activists? Filthy terrorists.

Media (social and traditional) controls the narrative that the masses believe.

Unknown parent

mastodon - Link to source
HarriettMB
@Jeffrey I know people who do that with lambs. No wonder there’s an issue with antibiotic and antimicrobials resistance……

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#Help


I am new to friendica…migrated from fb. An elder and still learning. How do I find a community for a particular interest like ballet or gardening? Thanks

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in reply to LillyFinch6

I have now no time but if nobody has helpt you I will look at it tomorrow ....technically today
in reply to LillyFinch6

@Ruud
This entry was edited (2 weeks ago)
in reply to Walter Vermeir

Wow, this is a very useful text (and also clearly shows why right now only users that are either nerds and/or pretty devoted to the fediverse use it: so much of it doesn't really work (yet) or only in a roundabout way)! Thank you so much, Walter!
in reply to Walter Vermeir

Again thank you. I think I will stick with Mastidon. It also has ALT Text for those with visual impairments.

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I've started a Friendica howto page, for new Friendica users to find help using the site.
For now, there's only 1 article yet, the next ones will be about the Bluesky plugin (thanks to @Walter Vermeir for writing that up) and creating/using groups.

Check here: help.friendica.onl

Edit 04-02-2025: I changed the URL because there were issues with the wildcard domain name used for the Bluesky connector.

This entry was edited (2 weeks ago)
in reply to Ruud

It has to do with the wildcard domain I use for the Bluesky connector.

Don't want to troubleshoot this, I'll just change the domain name for the help page. Hang on.


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He doesn't know what he's doing (but we already knew that)


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ALT Text on Friendica Images


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in reply to Petra

When an image is inserted into a post it usually also has a link to the image wrapped around it. It sounds like you're putting the alt text inside the link code but not the image code:

[url=https://link-to-image]Text here would become a link above picture[img=https://image-address]Text HERE becomes Alt-Text[/img]Text here would become a link after picture[/url]

So always look for the [/img] and put the alt-text right before it.

in reply to Kristi H.

Thank you so much, I really should have known that, having done a bit of HTML, but that was years and years ago.


I wanted to pin Janet's (@cyberlyra@hachyderm.io) post to my timeline but can't seem to do that(yet) so trying this: hachyderm.io/@cyberlyra/113756…


New Year, New Digital You! I'm leading a 21-day CYBER-CLEANSE to teach you and your friends how to clean up your digital footprint.

Looking to change your habits online in 2025? Follow along and by January 21, you'll be in a far better place!

optoutproject.net/the-cyber-cl…

Please forward, boost, and re-post!



slowmart reshared this.


New Year, New Digital You! I'm leading a 21-day CYBER-CLEANSE to teach you and your friends how to clean up your digital footprint.

Looking to change your habits online in 2025? Follow along and by January 21, you'll be in a far better place!

optoutproject.net/the-cyber-cl…

Please forward, boost, and re-post!

This entry was edited (1 month ago)
in reply to Janet Vertesi

how many email aliases do you have, for how many saved accounts/passwords?
Because my dump is 800+ accounts.
And how many of yours did you leave your real Name in?
webseitz.fluxent.com/wiki/2025…
in reply to Janet Vertesi

Interesting challenge!

A 'hint' for day 1, wouldn't it be better *not* to suggest #Amazon as a got-to shopping place? Shouldn't Amazon be one of the 'services' we ought to be opting out of?


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This entry was edited (2 weeks ago)

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For people looking for us on Bluesky, we have an account which mirrors this one: bsky.app/profile/distrowatch.m…

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in reply to Tommi 🤯

The @marginalia search engine has been my main daily driving search engine for years now.

slowmart reshared this.


Crazy.

I never would have thought how important the #Fediverse would become as one of the last communication networks that are not controlled by governments, directly or indirectly

Especially in times like now when almost all other ones are kissing the ring

Billionaires who are in control of most of our daily communication should not be trusted, our most valued digital forms of connection should be in control of the people like you and me

Thank you for being part of this❤️

in reply to stux⚡

Sensitive content



I really came here to see if I can get my family and friends away from fb (reader: they're not keen), I hadn't realised how much friendica can do though so I might make a bit more effort.
in reply to slowmart

My current plan is to "familiarise" (is that the word?) myself around here, to then "lure" over at least some of my friends & acquaintances and to then be able to help them out with "onboarding".

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in reply to Chris Trottier

It is why I left. I got restricted for just saying that there is no best distro, just the distro that is best for you in a Linux group. Then I started seeing the other censorship that Meta is doing and said to hell with them.

Censorship Gone Wild

in reply to Chris Trottier

My hunch is that this is a mistake, and not done intentionally. To be clear - Facebook bad, but this makes no sense.
in reply to Alexander Dyas

@alexanderdyas Meta is big enough and rich enough to hire the necessary people to triple-check that they are not making this kind of basic mistake.
in reply to Alexander Dyas

That is what I thought, the first three times it happened and the denied every review I requested. Insisting that mentioning Distro Watch or just using the word distro constituted a 'CyberSecurity Threat'. Apparently it has gotten worse. I guess they feel they do not care how many users they lose. They have them to spare.

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On Holocaust Remembrance Day, I'd like to share this clip of Sir Nicholas Winton getting to meet the grown-up children he rescued from the Nazis four decades earlier.

Many of you have probably seen this before. But I feel it's worth reminding ourselves that one person can make a huge difference, even in the darkest times.
#AureFreePress #News #press #headline

in reply to Aure Free Press

I'm crying. Because he was so incredible and I look around at my country and realized that our current government would have turned him over to the Nazis.

in reply to jonny (good kind)

Zuck can;t remember what his daughters like by himself, like parents have done for millennia?

Its oh so true that capitalism invents things no one needed and pishes them on you in order to make a profit.

in reply to jonny (good kind)

Here you go, Zuck:

There once was a mermaid. Her father told the fishermen where to find schools of fish, because it was profitable. All of her friends died. The father never understood what he did was wrong.

See Mark? It's called using the meat between your ears.


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I've had a lot of people ask how BlueSky compares to Mastodon and the Fediverse. I've tried to make the answer as simple and easy to understand as possible:

🦋 BlueSky is designed to give corporations and wealthy people full control of the network. All of its traffic has to flow through expensive-to-run corporate relays.

:Fediverse: The Fediverse is designed to give ordinary people control of the network. All of its traffic flows directly from one cheap-to-run server to another.

#FediTips

This entry was edited (3 weeks ago)
in reply to Fedi.Tips

Nice diagram! How many other servers does a typical fediverse server connect to? Is there a min/max/mean? When two servers connect, is it an asymmetric flow or a symmetric flow? 🤔
in reply to Valdis Krebs

There's no typical amount on the Fediverse AFAIK, and the connections aren't to entire servers but specific accounts on other servers.

If you want exact details on what Fediverse servers notice there's a list here:

fedi.tips/which-posts-and-acco…

This entry was edited (4 days ago)

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in reply to Georgiana Brummell

@Georgiana Brummell
He is the lead developer of Friendica, bearing the main responsibility. However, it is not correct to say that he is the only one continuing the development of Friendica. It would be unfair to disregard the contributions of countless other individuals who provide input, conduct code reviews, or maintain the stable versions.

In fact, the web UI has received little attention in recent years. Engaging UX/UI experts for a FOSS project is always a challenge. However, there is currently a development in this area that is quite interesting.