it just depends on how much resources the app needs. some need more CPU cores, RAM, or storage than others.

the main selling point with PikaPods is having them manage app installs and the server for you, so youre paying a bit more for that convenience but there are other options that would work out cheaper if you dont mind doing a bit more of the work yourself.

the Zimaboard for example, is a small and cheap SBC similar to something like a Raspberry Pi that has ports to attach an SSD or HDD drive. it comes preinstalled with CasaOS which is a simplified Linux OS that makes it easy to set up drives and it has a similar 1-click install app store to PikaPods.

theres other options like renting servers online from the likes of Hetzner or Netcup and then installing CasaOS yourself, or there are other things that manage app installs like YunoHost or Cloudron. theres almost too many options in a way!

i started out years ago with Synology NAS, which was very expensive up front but also very easy to set up and they have a good selection of web apps that they make themselves with mobile apps that are decent enough. i used that for years and then just gradually learned more about self-hosting over the years, so thats not a bad route to take either if youre interested.

just a FYI, Synology is based in Taiwan, and the Zimaboard company is based in Hong Kong/China. i havnt done much research into EU alternatives yet

dam it anyway, where did you find this out? i switched to their aquafresh toothpaste recently because they were the only other option apart from colegate in the tesco i shop at, and i also read an article from last year that they were relocating the toothpaste manufacturing from somewhere in the uk to slovakia, so i thought i was sorted but maybe not

im counting 4 now, maybe there are more? seems a bit odd to have so much work done on creating the same thing, and relying on people emailing things that are missing and just hoping someone will update their sites. at least isthisfrom.eu has their data on github so you can update it yourself

can anyone comment on how the files are actually stored? is everything imported into a database or can it just work with any sort of folder structure you have already?

very underrated piece of software! its been a total game changer in how i have my computers set up.

also great for some apps too. things like keepass or newsboat (terminal RSS reader) or anything that stores its data in a single file or folder. its really great not having to rely on a connection to a server

KDE Connect. its an app that lets you share lots of different things between your devices, and it does this over your home network without needing any “cloud”

• send files from one device to another
• share the clipboard. handy for copying text or a link to your phone
• get notifications from your phone on your laptop
• have music playing on your laptop and pause or change the track from your phone
• control your laptop from your phone, move the cursor around, left/right click etc

being able to store things would be a great help. like being able to have all the different flyers that people are making in one place so others can pick and choose what they want, or even have the original .svg or .xcf files if people want to modify them or make a translated version

“We don’t have some kind of platform where we can organise stuff without the algorithm just hiding it after a day”

theres a server/forum on Revolt called “EU Vibes” that would be a bit better for organising things than here or on mastodon. https://rvlt.gg/eSHZgSP9

they mention BuyEuropean and BuyFromEU in their description so im guessing it was set up recently enough.

Revolt is a Discord alternative if anyone isnt familar. its based in the UK but beggers cant be choosers eh!

one of my favourite things when i switched to linux first was using the meta+Q hotkey to shutdown a program (this was with PopOS i think). with windows there is alt+F4 but some programs only use shift+alt+F4 which makes it a lot more confusing. on top of all that if youre using a laptop then its another keypress for the Fn key in some cases

just in case you dont know, Distrosea lets you try various distros online which is handy just for getting a quick idea what the UI is like

for trying out different distros using the live USB method, Ventoy is a good option since it lets you have multiple ISO files on your USB drive at once, instead of having to reformat your USB each time