#deshittification

[chrysocomae]

on the onion buying infowars

[feline17ff]

found a few cool itch.io's and it's like i'm in the old internet with the unique cursors and chunky pixel text, bright colors, animated wallpaper, free game(?), free fiction and what else!

hyg, open them on desktop for the whole experience, and go in order!

https://alienmelon.itch.io/electric-zine-maker

https://jeremyoduber.itch.io/js-zine

https://outgrabe.itch.io/impossible-mushroom-story-vol-i

https://alienmelon.itch.io/shovelware

Bonus: How to make a paper zine / booklet (aka how i got to the first link and so on)

[corbindavenport]

Introducing Just the Browser

Modern web browsers are increasingly focused on features beyond the core browsing experience, many of which just end up as distractions. Chrome gives you coupon codes while shopping. Microsoft Edge fills the New Tab page with clickbait garbage articles from MSN, and previously tried to sell you loans.

The generative AI era has made this even worse. Google's Gemini AI is now everywhere in Chrome, and the AI Search mode that told people to eat rocks and cook with glue is now prominently featured in the address bar. Edge also has countless Copilot AI integrations, and Firefox is getting an AI browsing mode. When these features aren't using cloud AI services, Chrome, Edge, and Firefox have their own local AI models that eat up system resources.

Call me old fashioned, but I want my web browser to be just be a browser. I don't want shopping integrations, or AI agents taking over my cursor, or local AI models running constantly in the background just to reshuffle my tabs. I shouldn't have to resort to Safari or half-working Firefox forks for that.

My solution is Just the Browser.

Making a better browser

Just the Browser helps you remove AI features, telemetry data reporting, sponsored content, product integrations, and other annoyances from desktop web browsers. It accomplishes this with group policy configurations—hidden settings provided by Google, Mozilla, and Microsoft for businesses and other large organizations. Those options are how IT departments can lock down certain features for computers at work or school, but now they can be a force for good.

You know that "AI kill switch" that Firefox will eventually add? It's already a hidden setting that Just the Browser can enable for you. It will also turn off all Gemini and AI Mode features in Chrome. In Microsoft Edge, it turns off all Copilot features, advertisements for Adobe Reader, articles and ads on the New Tab page, automatic data import from other browsers, and much more.

Importantly, all that functionality remains disabled, which isn't always the case with user-accessible settings. For example, Microsoft Edge likes to revert your New Tab page settings after a while, so you see those garbage MSN articles again. That does not happen with group policy settings.

Everyone has their own definition of "bloatware" and "spyware," so the default configurations are limited in scope. They don't go full minimalist, nor do they install extensions to boost privacy and security.

Just the Browser includes browser configurations for Windows, Linux, and macOS, along with guides for installing them. The documentation also explains each setting that is changed. The best part is the setup script, which can install or delete the configuration files for you in just a few clicks. They are regular Bash and PowerShell scripts, so they work on everything from x86 Fedora Linux to ARM Windows 11.

The entire project is open-source on GitHub, including the configuration files, documentation, scripts, and website. The configuration settings used by web browsers will change over time, and I'm hoping others will help me stay on top of changes and add support for more browsers.

Why not alternative browsers?

I know the most common response to this project will be "why not switch to [x] browser?" It's true that LibreWolf, SeaMonkey, fresh Chromium builds, and various other Firefox forks are closer to a minimal browsing experience. Vivaldi would also fit the bill after changing a few settings—as far as I know, it doesn't quietly turn features back on like Edge does.

However, most of those browsers have downsides. LibreWolf is one of the popular Firefox forks at the moment, but the project's own FAQ promises "no expectations" of continued support, and it doesn't have signed macOS builds. They don't always offer data synchronization with accounts or DRM support. When a zero-day security vulnerability is found in Chromium or Firefox, it can sometimes take a while to trickle down to the various forked browsers.

With the custom configurations in Just the Browser, you can keep using mainstream web browsers with all of their upsides—like fast updates, robust platform support, account synchronization support, and DRM video playback—but without many of the usual annoyances. The best of both worlds.

Try it out

You can visit justthebrowser.com to run the setup script, read through the documentation, and download the configuration files. I hope this will be a useful resource for years to come.

[medievalkyrie]

I have figured out how to hide the ai mode on Firefox with Ublock Origin! Don't worry, I won't gatekeep.

Click on the Ublock Origin Extension and go click the gears icon (should say "open the dashboard" when you hover on it). Go to "My Filters" and type in these two codes in the box:

google.com##.olrp5b (Hides "AI Mode" at the top of your search bar; Makes "All" the first thing that pops up)

google.com##.hdzaWe (Hides the "AI Overview" that pops up when you search for literally anything)

It should look like this in your box (plus whatever other filters you've got):

Now when you search for things you will have a normal search function again. Keep in mind, the AI Overview still shows up under the "People Also Ask" section; I have yet to find a code for this.

Feel free to add to this if you find any other codes!

[thinkandbuild]

Tired of Windows 11? Linux Mint guide

I love Satya, I would sell my dog for Windows!1 Well, I put some reasons against it in the comments and you can ask for more. There’s...a lot. The biggest issues I hear are it's hard and it's a third world OS. Both untrue (finally). Linux Mint Cinnamon comes in Ubuntu or Debian Linux flavors and it works like Windows out of the box, is popular, and free.

And it's increasingly supported. Steam has Proton to run Linux games, you can dual boot for Fortnite, and use WINE to run windows apps ⚠️ If you need to dual boot, keep or install a clean Windows first, and only then install Linux. Because Windows thinks it's god and clears the boot sequence. Still here? How about you... Get and download Linux Mint Cinnamon here (full guide here) Get and download Etcher here Plug a 4GB+ USB into your computer and run Etcher: - Click Select image and select your ISO file - Click Select drive and select your USB stick - Click Flash! Restart the computer, it should boot from USB depending on the boot load order and it'll have the option to press enter on linux mint to boot it, or it'll just auto-boot depending. If it does neither, check here When Linux starts, it's running off USB. Double click the "Install Linux Mint" icon and you're golden!

How to install apps Click Start and type “Software Manager” for a streamlined experience. Or grab stuff online and follow their install instructions for executables. Those end in .appimage and .deb, but you can’t double-click to run it until you right click → Properties → “Allow executing file as program” (true). You can make a start menu entry too.

Using Terminal – uncommon apps or programs for power users might ask you to paste lines in Terminal (equivalent of Command Prompt). Paste them one at a time in order via right click → Paste or Shift+Insert, then press enter after each one. If it starts with “sudo” it’ll run as admin and ask your login password. If it ends with (Y/N) it’s a yes or no question and expects you to type y for yes or n for no. Don’t get overwhelmed, you’ve got this <3

Valuable keyboard shortcuts - Lock is Ctrl+Alt+L now - Run is Alt+F2 now - Crop screenshot to clipboard is Ctrl+Shift+Printscreen Valuable tweaks Desktop icons can’t be dragged right click desktop → Customize → Auto-arrange (off).

For recycle bin right click Desktop → Customize → Desktop Settings → Trash (on).

To display time on a 12-hour clock press Super, type Date & Time → Use 24h clock (off).

For create shortcuts in right-click menu (as "make link") press Super, type Files → Edit → Preferences → Context Menus → Make Links (on). Adding a custom keyboard shortcut “Ctrl+Shift+Esc” to open Process Monitor

I'm used to Task Manager in Windows and Process Monitor is basically that, but it doesn't have a shortcut by default. You can give it one. Start by making a file containing your script, the first line is always needed:

#!/bin/bash gnome-system-mon­itor

Then save it to a stable location with filename ending in .sh Then press Super, type Keyboard → click Add Custom Shortcut, and give it a good name. Browse to the file you made, click add, and click the keyboard binding then press whatever sequence you want.

Adding a custom action “Convert File” to Files Press Super, type Actions → click Download tab → click Convert Files and click the download button to the right of it, then open Terminal, type this, press enter and give your login pass as needed:

sudo apt install ffmpeg imagemagick

I got that from the forum linked by the info button ( i ) for the action. It's a little..."open source" here. Anyway, go to Manage tab and enable it. Now in Files, you can right-click a file to convert it to related formats.

For power users! Disable alt+click to drag windows around Alt+click is used to select multiple lines in programs like VS Code, but window drag interferes with it. Press Super, type Windows → Behavior tab at top → “Special key to move and resize windows” (off)

For power users! Paste paths in filesystem This makes it possible to invoke Run (Alt+F2) and paste any path to open the folder or file, which is a really fast shortcut. Right click start (bottom left) → Customize → Menu tab → “Enable filesystem path entry in search box” (on)

How to run Windows apps in WINE VirtualBox and WinBoat are emulators but WINE isn’t an emulator so it’s faster, when it works. And it tends to work for me. Tutorial to install WINE is here After installing WINE, get WineGUI here

Add WINE programs to start menu searches Use WineGUI to load .exe files to register with WINE. Launchers are scripts displayed like files on your desktop that run on double-click, and we'll use that to run apps through WINE. Right click desktop -> "Create a new launcher here..." -> use any name you want, and this command:

wine "the full path to the windows exe file"

Put it in ~/.local/share/applications to see it in start menu searches.

There are still some rough edges

Files app:

Restricted actions when opened from some apps (can't rename, move files, etc.)

No easy way to copy/paste the address or open an unrestricted version of the Files app from a restricted one, which can get really in the way

Typing defaults to searching the current folder even when Files opens just to save a file (it should default to naming it, then)

Few/no integrations with filetypes e.g. no mp3 tags in properties

There is no search indexer, so you can't search all files. It just tracks recently-opened ones and even that gets wily for me.

[kayla-denker]

Oh yeah, another reason to dump the tumblr app and switch to instead using firefox mobile to scroll tumblr is that you can use shinigami eyes.

It also has this cool feature where you can easily add any webpage to your homescreen as a shortcut.

And then when you open it this way it looks just like an app. There's no searchbar at the top or anything.

So not only do you get no ads (if you also add the ublock origin extension), but you get shinigami eyes, and a much better UI. Like, there's zero reason to keep using the god awful tumblr app. Dump that shit.

[dulledtalons]

it sucks that many free, independent, privacy-focused browser alternatives are primarily restricted to PC ports, usually leaving mobile users to depend on other corporate alternatives that are still very prone to acting in their own profit-seeking interests. it also sucks that you can't just get add-ons for mobile apps. firefox focus has been for the most part a sigh of relief, but its ad-blocking ability isn't as reliable as adblocker add-ons on PC