I use Firefox with Ublock Origin on Android, and if I watch youtube in the browser, it filters pretty much all ads. Sometimes I get one at the start of a video, but closing the tab and starting again has got rid of them so far 👍

I have got a mental picture of a Linux super nerd trying to browse through a text only browser on their oven’s display now though 😁

What? Nobody’s using their browser on an appliance (except for a handful of masochists with Samsung fridges). I said to most people their browser is on an appliance, as in they treat computers, phones, and laptops like appliances, in that they’re mysterious boxes that do a particular job.

Hardly anyone is trying to hack their appliances, and the majority of people just lump their computing devices into the same category - it does what it was designed for and nothing else

Don’t forget that most people don’t know that blocking ads is possible. To most people, their browser is on an appliance, like a washing machine or fridge. They know how to do the basics, but that’s about it.

It depends on what you’re doing. I’ve got Mint on my laptop and main PC, and the experience is different on both. On the laptop I tend to play Minecraft and do some basic tasks like taking notes and browsing the web. There’s nothing in Mint that really affects that, so it doesn’t hold me back at all.

On the PC though, I’ve got all of my important software, and some of it has had to be installed manually because the Mint repos are outdated. It’s nothing that’s particularly difficult to fix, but I know my way around computers. For your average user, it would be too much.

I did look at changing the DE, but apparently KDE doesn’t work well with Mint. I want to change distros anyway though, as some of the problems I’m having are from the outdated repos. I’ve only been on Mint properly for a few months, but have had to manually install a few programs already

Thanks for replying, it looks like I’ve got some homework to do :D

I did look at the fstab page, but I didn’t understand enough to get an answer. I’ll look at the mount page tonight, thank you :)

I thought that might be the case, but do you know if changing the group would help at all?

That could work really well then, especially as I’m looking to change distros. Mint is great, but it’s got a few issues that are getting in my way now.

Thank you :)

That could work then. I tend to have to use the same sites for the various sites, like Facebook for example, but it’s rare that I need to use the same site for different accounts on the same site. Most of the sites use Gmail for now, but that does work well with multiple accounts.

I’ll have a proper look when I get home later. Thank you :)

Unfortunately that won’t work for me, I need them to be completely separate. I’ve got physical and mental issues that mean I get brain fog, and then get things muddled up. If the tab groups share things like bookmarks or saved logins, there’s a chance that I’ll open the wrong link, or log in to the wrong email.

That’s interesting. I knew that Firefox had options for different profiles, but last time I tried I couldn’t get it working the way I wanted. I’ll have another look, thanks :)

Thanks for replying :)

I think there’s some confusion though, none of the sites are hosted locally, PortableApps just lets me use a separate browser and email client for each website, effectively sandboxed from each other so that there’s no chance of accidentally editing the wrong site or posting from the wrong account. Each PortableApps instance has its own set of logins and bookmarks etc. to manage one website and the associated emails.

I essentially just want to run a program in a Windows 10 VM that’s stored on the Linux host but on an NTFS drive. As far as I can tell, the permissions on the NTFS drive are interfering with that, as the files are in the root group on Mint, whereas I’m in the tippon and vboxuser groups. I’m not sure how to change that without risking breaking something, but the way the NTFS drive is mounted through fstab seems to be the answer.

I think that changing fstab so that the drive is mounted under my user and group will fix it, but I don’t know how that will affect anything else on the drive, or any Linux programs that access those files. I’m stuck with NTFS for now as I occasionally need to dual boot, and need these programs available while I’m in Windows too.

Ideally I’m going to move away from using PortableApps to manage the sites, but I haven’t found a better way yet.

The latest DeDRM uses a key from the installed version of the Kindle program, which is for Windows. I think you can use a key from the Android or Amazon tablet versions too, but I’ve never been able to get it to accept those keys

You’re being downvoted, but you’re right.

People want something simple. Something that just runs the basics and automatically backs up online and invisibly.

The vast majority of people don’t need to have the choice of 17 different browsers, or 43 office suites, and they certainly don’t need the terminal or Powershell, or anything else. They just need a browser and a way to maybe write a letter and view photos. Maybe a way for the kids to do their homework. If their laptop spontaneously combusts, they want to be able to sign into a new one and have everything put back as it was automatically.

ChromeOS is perfect for them, apart from being a Google product. It’s something we tend to miss because we’re technically minded, but most people don’t care about computers, and don’t want what we want. They want an appliance. If someone created that system with privacy built in, it could be great :)