If you do, adding the line ‘FEATURES=“getbinpkg”’ to your make.conf will automatically make it search for binary packages that match your USE flags, and they do pick ones that are pretty sensible for the binaries, so it’s very likely. I think I have maybe 3-4 packages that have binaries that I can’t use because of my flags, and they’re all pretty quick to install.
Not sure how much the internet will affect it, I’ve only tested it on my current network, which is pretty fast
Gentoo is on the Latitude; it’s slightly more powerful, but it’s still an eight year old laptop. The big thing that’s cut down on compile time is using binary packages by default, only compiling when I either need to because my USE flags are different, or because there’s no binary package available. I don’t have that many packages installed that take hours/days (and I do mean days, I gave up on the source package for qtwebengine after 3 days of compiling) anymore. Average update takes maybe 30 minutes now, updating weekly.
For a more direct comparison: Same PC, installed Gentoo twice (I managed to bork my install), the source install took 3 days to actually get a GUI, binary install took 3 hours, and there is essentially no difference
I will also say: You can absolutely use your computer while the upgrades are going. Gaming won’t be great, but doing office/coding stuff, and watching videos is usually fine
Admittedly a lot of my audio stuff is either wireless or built-in now. Either laptop speakers, or bone conduction headphones since I want to hear what’s happening around me when I’m walking on the roadside. Not clear on what you mean by pre-enshittification tech, but here’s the stuff people either need explained, or look at me weird for:
We’ll be moving into an owned home soon, and I have some plans for tech, and non-tech stuff. Can’t wait to see how many comments we get about having awnings in 2026.
If you want something similar to WordPress, but serves webpages like Hugo, Publii is also nice from what I’ve heard. Has a GUI editor, but makes static files that you just drop on a server
I kinda think that if MS tried Palladium today, they could succeed. Their power grab just came too early.
Honestly it’s that way with a lot of tech from back then. Bonzi Buddy got sued into bankruptcy for doing less than Facebook
Arch’s recent stance on age verification, and specifically how they said it, has made me switch off of Arch for good, which is… Unfortunate, since it was the first distro I truly loved. Gentoo is what I use now, but that’s a bit farther down the line. I don’t know a good rolling release distro that’s not super inconvenient, unfortunately.
Brave is… Not great. Bad, even. I prefer Vivaldi for my Chromium fork. Mullvad browser for my Firefox fork (I also just. Refuse to use Firefox proper anymore because of their AUP). Note that one of Mullvad’s CEOs donated to a Swedish far right party, so… Make that decision how you will. It’s a free browser, so… Meh.
My default search engine is Wikipedia. When I want to use a general search engine, order of operations is Marginalia, then Startpage, but SearXNG is a good one. I just found it a bit more inconsistent.
Tuta’s a good provider, I just needed a client because I don’t check my email otherwise. I’m on mailbox.org now because of that. They’re cheaper, and private email is kind of a farce anyway. Also mailbox is cheaper, assuming Tuta doesn’t have a free plan now. Given you said you’re not using paid apps, they might?
Element/Element X on mobile both seem to be missing that, and I’m predominantly on mobile for… Most chat apps now. Only exception is I do usually do discord voice calls on desktop because of push to talk. Do you know of any mobile clients that’ll do that?
Here is legitimately how I did it, no exaggeration. I sent the following message to all of the contacts I wanted to keep (or something similar, I don’t have access to the message anymore):
“Hey, I’m leaving Facebook permanently. I only use the chat function anyway, and I don’t want to use it given their business practices. Here’s my phone number, email, signal, and XMPP. Pick one, I don’t care which.”
And then I logged off for a month, logged back on, and deleted my account. I wasn’t sure if they’d still get the message if I deleted my account after, plus I have ADHD and wanted to give myself a chance to remember anyone else I wanted to keep in touch with. I lost one person in the move, and they weren’t someone I talked to that often anyway.