There are a lot of comments here about which launchers are "close enough" to the Nova feature set, but very few people are talking about specific features and the alternatives that support them. I really just use two, and everything else is a cherry on top that I can do without if push comes to shove.

1. Icons that open a folder if you swipe them, but launch the first app in the folder if you tap them. That way my apps all pull double-duty as both the one-tap app AND the list of alternatives I use less often.
2. Google Now integration that swipes in from the left.

Action Launcher used to be my go-to, and it's still the best implementation of #1 because of the little indicators it adds to let you know if something is a "cover" (folder when you swipe) or "shutter" (widget when you swipe). Sadly it's gotten rather bloated over the years and spends more time force-closing from one glitch or another than it does actually running properly. Nova was my backup because it added "covers" a few years ago and I remembered enjoying the app about a decade ago. Now what?

Look, I get where you're coming from, but there's a difference between a $965B corporation whose sole purpose is to harvest your personal info for ads, and a solo dev who just wants to make their (and your) Lemmy browsing a bit less painful. They're putting in a hellofa lot of time and effort into this thing, which means a hellofa lot of time not spent making money at a regular job. I'm more than happy to kick a few bucks here and there to keep something like that afloat, especially given how apps like Boost and Sync make me actually want to spend time on Lemmy. Encouraging fediverse adoption is a win for the whole ecosystem. You don't have to use Boost, and if you do choose to install it, you don't have to pay. There's an inexpensive ad-free version alongside the ad-supported one for exactly that reason. But complaining about Boost because you hate "social media apps" is like yelling "Fuck Nestle" at the 12-year-old selling lemonade from their driveway. Different scale, different purpose.

It's fine to not pay, but I'm glad that some people do support indie devs when they can. The world would be a lot bleaker without little passion projects like this dotting the landscape and filling in the gaps to help bigger projects like Lemmy take off.

They're technically correct. The best kind of correct. /s

edit: wow, y'all hate Futurama memes almost as much as ads 😂

It's a good way to frame things. As an outsider, the subjectivity of the IDF's target is why I wonder if people are choosing one term for the war over another. Some see the intentional bombing of refugee camps, ambulances, and aid convoys as targeting the civilians of Gaza in what amounts to a systematic extermination of Palestinians. The casualty numbers seem to heavily favor that interpretation. So could this be one reason for some news outlets to frame the conflict as Israel vs Gaza itself? Or is the word choice more nuanced than that, given how it seems as though the two names are being used interchangeably on both sides of the line?

I absolutely loved NixOS on paper, and it's undoubtedly the best way to combat updates that break my dependency trees, but I still found myself spending a majority of my time attempting to hard-code various app configuration files into my convoluted configuration.nix with its esoteric syntax rather than actually using my computer. Am I missing something, or does a good install script covering my favorite packages and a git bare repo storing my dot-files get me 90% of the way there without the hassle of bending my whole OS around a single nix config monstrosity?

How would you define "independent"? Typically, it refers to whether or not the organization has direct ties to an outside source that it allows to alter the ethical standards of fairness or impartiality. No news outlet is truly unbiased, and The NYT might be center-left, but they still do a damn good job at reporting facts, issuing corrections when they get things wrong, and maintaining reliable credibility for the majority of topics over the years. They've got an editorial section, and that part of the paper is biased (which is kind of the whole point of editorials), but it's also clearly labeled as editorial and not news. They are not state sponsored, they do not rewrite facts in exchange for payment, and they generally strive for truth. Might not nail it every time (because no one can), but they largely fess up when they make a mistake. That's the definition of independent.

For reference, this is the Media Bias Fact Check summary:

Overall, we rate the New York Times Left-Center biased based on wording and story selection that moderately favors the left. They are considered one of the most reliable sources for news information due to proper sourcing and well-respected journalists/editors. The failed fact checks were on Op-Eds and not straight news reporting.

And when defining Center-Left bias:

These media sources have a slight to moderate liberal bias. They often publish factual information that utilizes loaded words (wording that attempts to influence an audience by appeals to emotion or stereotypes) to favor liberal causes. These sources are generally trustworthy for information but may require further investigation.

I'm with you on their lack of criticality when it comes to the NYPD. I wish that reporting was better as well. I'm also with you on wanting to see them take more chances with their reporting rather than stay within the narrow realm of beltway politics. But the latter has nothing to do with independence, and you're going to need specific examples and critiques if you want to build your case around the former. It's a discussion I'd honestly welcome. But "establishment vs anti-establishment" and "independence" are two wildly different discussions.

I don't think he's encouraging Republicans to reproduce so much as he's trying to justify forcing all the other women to give birth against their will. All of those children of rape and incest, those kids whose parents aren't emotionally or financially equipped to raise them, those kids whose high-risk births might cause their moms to die in labor, those kids who have congenital heart defects, or who will be DOA when they're born. Moms aren't allowed to speak for those fetuses, or have a say over their own health and safety. Because every baby that Republicans can force to be born is another new taxpayer to fill our coffers. Obviously.

Everyone here keeps talking about how the UI is amazing, so maybe this is the right place to ask: is there an FOSS office suite that has a command pallet like coding editors and GSuite do, where you can tap a hotkey and type the tool name without having to dig through menus?

Also remember that American homes are quite literally wired different, and kettles aren't as ~~efficient~~ fast as they are on the UK's electric grid. They're still far better than the stovetop, but the combined one-two punch of less need and stoves being "good enough" for most people most of the time just kills the idea in its tracks.

I swear half the users here are running NixOS these days (with the other half on Arch). Redditors like Linux, but Lemmings take it to an whole new level.

I'm on KDE as well, but you've got to admit that the way Gnome's overview, virtual desktops, app menu, and search interface all work so seamlessly and logically together is a thing of beauty. Tap "Meta" one time and you can see all of your running programs, drag them between desktops, scroll to switch desktops, start typing to open apps and files... it just works. Meanwhile on KDE, it's a relative pain to remap the "Meta" key and moving windows between desktops still feels clunky even in the overview.

All of that said, I still prefer KDE. Plasma 6 is set to integrate many of the Gnome features above, and KDE's design philosophy as a whole is much more flexible. For example, I use two side-by-side monitors and it makes logical sense to imagine my virtual desktops as being sets of monitors directly above/below my physical ones that I can vertically scroll between. On KDE, it's easy to set my grid of virtual spaces to be one column with many rows and be done with it, or for someone else to pick the opposite, or for them to go with a full grid of spaces if they so choose. But on Gnome, even though the vertical layout used to be the default, their newly dogmatic insistence that we only slide sideways means I'm dealing with multiple plugins that often glitch or conflict with other parts of the UI.

Both systems have their merits and deserve a place. (But I'll gladly fight with anyone who denies that KDE is the obvious king)

Friendly reminder that, on the whole, there's nothing "friendly" about the frankly horrifying Chinese and Russian human rights records, so "friendly" Lemmings begging us to focus on the single cherry-picked tree instead of the forest of atrocities might not be as "friendly" as they claim.

There are many shortcomings and worrying trends in the EU and the United States, but let's hold off on the false equivalencies to countries that engage in genocide, jail or "disappear" dissent, and (until recently) engaged in forced sterilization and/or abortion for women against their will as part of the One-Child policy. So yes, China is very "friendly" and "progressive" /s. As for modern Russia (since you're only mentioning the USSR), abortion is only legal as an elective procedure through the 12th week, requires a 2 to 7 day waiting period, and can be refused by the doctor against the patient's wishes. When you talk smack about countries in the EU despite praising Russia for the exact same thing, it doesn't exactly feel like you're conversing in good faith.