JMP Chat works in the US even though they’re based in Canada. I highly recommend the service, it’s absolutely fantastic!

Definitely checkout JMP Chat, they’re actually based in Canada and offer super affordable alternative phone numbers. Using their Cheogram app even lets you incorporate it fully into your phone, so when you call, it’ll ask which number you’d like to use for the call. Calling has limited minutes each month, but the overage charges are very reasonable. It comes with unlimited texting as well. They encrypt everything on their end and it’s fully open source!

Obsidian isn’t FOSS, but two fantastic replacements are Standard Notes and Notesnook.

A great paint option I don’t see listed is KolourPaint, plus Kdenlive for video editing. For audio editing, Tenacity is the better choice over Audacity. It’s an Audacity fork made after some questionable privacy policy changes.

CryptPad is an awesome Google Doc’s replacement, but Libre Office is actively working on their version too.

For your security section, adding some encryption software would be smart. Both VeraCrypt and Cryptomator are amazing. Also, Bitwarden/Vaultwarden are solid password manager alts for KeePassXC, with Vaultwarden being self hosted.

Here’s a great site for all sorts of Lemmy clients.

As far as Linux laptops go, System 76’s Darter Pro is also a solid choice. Tuxedo is probably System 76’s biggest competition, as they offer very comparable laptops. Their InfinityBook Pro is a great computer. Frameworks, Slimbook, and Star Labs are all also worth a mention.

I ended that last chunck of text with /s. But at the same time, it wouldn’t suprise me at all if this was the case.

A virtual machine is the move, I’ve had a great experience with virt-manager. Strongly recommend debloating the windows VM if Microsoft is getting on your nerves. Here’s my go to software: https://github.com/raphire/win11debloat

Worksorks on both windows 10 & 11. It’ll allow you to remove telemetry, tracking, and even software Microsoft prevents you from uninstalling. I just can’t get it to remove Edge. But MentalOutlaw has a fantastic walk through of the process on his YT channel if you want some guidance with the debloating process.

Baby

NextDNS is the move, the clients are open sourced and they encrypt everything. Plus their free option covers all my devices, no problem. Highly recommended!

I’ve been really liking the KISS Launcher, it’s power is in it’s simplicity. It also looks relatively comparable with Smart Launcher. What’s super impressive about the KISS Launcher is that 93% of users that try it for a week are still active users after 3 years! So definitely worth a gander for sure.

Playing with DeepSeek-R1 in LM Studio helps to show why this is the case. Reading it’s “thought” process is intriguing and helps to show where possible errors occurred in the provided answers. Now, if DeepSeek could take the Perplexity feature of providing links to the sourced information, it’d be damn near perfect!

I just learned the dev of Phoenix forked Mull! It’s called IronFox (https://gitlab.com/ironfox-oss/IronFox) and has a F-Droid repo. I’m pumped on this, thanks a bunch for highlighting all this and to the original commenter for providing the link to Phoenix!

When I did 4+ months of research into avian influenza a year ago, most the literature I sourced used variants as the term, but I don’t see why strain wouldn’t work as well. Also, you’re comment about if H5N1 or H3N2 doesn’t cover the fact that the H5N1 variant would likely uptake aspects of H3N2 genome (or whatever was the prior most common variant) into it’s genetic makeup.

Virology is an insanely intricate field as no two viral families have much in common at all. Viruses are fascinating as while they are truly as simplistic as it gets, they still have highly specific task they each evolve to ensure their future reproduction.

Fun fact about viral infections, both the human placenta and myelin sheath are results of an ancient ancestor of ours having a retroviral infection!

For sure, that’s what I said off the rip. But the flu variant which takes over isn’t the initial variant, as the high mortality rate coincides with low transmissibility. It’s the result of various point mutations and genetic reassortments to the first version which humans were susceptible to. But ya, potato potatoe, I’m just a nerd when it comes micro.

While this isn’t incorrect, it’s also not the full story. Influenza is an intricate virus, with mutations and obfuscation built into it’s reproduction cycle. A virus that kills it’s host is not a good virus, as a virus relies on it’s host to reproduce. This is why the flu is the most deadly when it initially gains a new host species. But over time, it will mutate to become less deadly for the host, allowing it to spread more effectively. Additionally, whenever an organism is infected with two different flu viruses, they can conduct reassortment and generate novel flu variations. So overtime, the flu will become less lethal via mutations, making it different from the orginal. Most flu variations stem from bird flu’s due to the migratory patterns of birds. But they then mutate substantially, otherwise they’ll be unable to infect more host. Meaning, it’s not the same flu, but more so the jumping off point of new variations which can combine with others or mutate by themselves just depending on the specific environment.

As a scientist who put the work in and took longer than most to find my niche, this dude’s a punk for cosplaying as a scientist. Technically, having an OChem/Microbio/Any science degree doesn’t make someone a scientist. It requires actively applying the principles and knowledge gained in education as ones profession.

Similar to oil and water, like attracts like when it comes to people. So Vivek being a well-known conman just makes being picked by Trump logical.

In 2019, the advertising/data science company System1 became the majority owner of Startpage. Based on this, I’d say it’s worth finding an alternative to Startpage.

Anyone of the many SearXNG instances is your best choice for balancing privacy and quality results. It’s open source, sources multiple search engines which you can control, is anonymous, and provides solid results. Here’s a list of active SearXNG instances: https://searx.space/

I’m pretty sure just using the “sudo dnf update --refresh” command in terminal will fix this problem. It will ask you verify those packages new repositories. After that, you should be good using the store again for updates. This is assuming you upgraded from Fedora 40 before these errors occurred.

I love the KDE plasma theme Underworld. It’s definitely black and pairs well with a ton of stuff. I like Breeze Dark as the global theme, Ball10050’s Black color, and Underworld for the plasma style. This makes it all primarily black.

I trust the DivestOS team while I have no clue who runs Cromite. Plus, Bromite being abandoned made me look into other options, which makes me trust Divest to keep Mulch running longer than the Cromite team I guess.

Mulch is a mobile chromium browser made by DivestOS (same folks who make Mull). Maybe worth checking out over Cromite.