I’m not that interested to find out what exactly it’s doing. it suffices that I was explicit about fuck no don’t do none of that and it’s still outbound.

like the latest one I blocked is QownNotes. everything related to online is turned off yet it still wants to connect to api.qownnotes.com.

I’m gonna piggyback off of this to remind everyone to install OpenSnitch and go through the iinitial and super-tedious approve/deny outgoing connections.

there’s stuff on linux that, despite being perfectly offline capable and having turned off everything related to clown sync and remote check this and that, still phones home.

the issue is not the presence or absence of any one json field. the issue is this random bootlicker with a history of foss-antithetical “contributions” being let anywhere near the decision tree in the first place., poettering the benevolent dictator adopting this idiocy and then, faced with a fucking tsunami of push-back and negative sentiment along every step of the process, doubling down on the decision to include it anyway because fuck you that’s why. unnecessarily, as it turned out but that is beside the point.

point is, none of the things above indicate there’s a healthy system in place for something that’s becoming an integral part of what we consider linux and can’t so easily be ripped out no more.

ixnay on anything but the vanillaest of the vanillas and that goes triple for bazzite and friends. you don’t want “intriguing” shit left behind to take care of pops, that’s a thing for you to play and experiment with.

your solution is already staring you in the face: the ubuntu you left behind persevered even under those circumstances. either fix it and update it or install a fresh one, with a tweak here and there. and don’t touch nothing else…

I’m sure you’ve looked it up by now, but in broad strokes: install intel-undervolt, edit the corresponding config file in /etc, start with something conservative, like -50 and bump it up about 25 mV at a time until it starts freezing/breaking, then back off a step and make it permanent by enabling the service.

you should hold off on that for the first week or so, until you’re sure you got everything set up and working correctly.

well, you got it right. you want either gnome or plasma as they’re wayland based and that’s a prerequisite for a seamless laptop experience nowadays, wrt llibinput and HiDPI (like, if you use an external monitor). try out both, see which you like better. good job on scoring the 8 GB version. those are also the last models produced (2017 are identical, save for 5% faster CPUs). you can use a lot of used parts, 2013-2017 are parts-compatible, and also some things from the 2011/2012.

with those airs you need to sort out the closed-source wifi drivers, the method varies from distro to distro. also, they won’t go to sleep with the screen open, so you either remember to close them when you’re done or disable LID0 wakeup events (wakes on keypress then).

they are also very tolerant to undervolts, -100 mV is about standard, more if you’re lucky. doesn’t sound like much, but that’s 10+% less power consumption, cooler and quieter laptop, etc. is plenty noticeable.

finally, as long as you got it open, stick some heat pads on the cooling pipe so it makes contact with the cover; you increase your thermal mass which nets you even less fanspin and longer boosts.