GTP
Well-Known Member
- Reaction score
- 9,872
- Location
- Adelaide, Australia
Well, I’m thrilled to report that being 100% fully Linux on everything feels great!. Yes, completely Microsoft-free, and let me tell you, it’s easily the best decision I’ve made in decades. Freedom tastes that good.
Of course, I can’t forget to thank Paul Allen, Bill Gates, and the rest of the early gang. You folks built a revenue stream that supported my way of life for 20+ years, and for that, I am genuinely grateful… even if I’ve now happily jumped ship.
Linux is pure magic: elegant, powerful, and shockingly uncomplicated. And thanks to Steam’s “Proton Compatibility Layer,” I can run all my Windows-only games like they were born here. Spoiler alert: they run better on Linux than they ever did under Windows!
My setup has grown a little… elaborate. I now run six dedicated Conky monitors that pull data from my BOINC pool of 17 PC's (via ssh + scripts on each PC) and display everything from CPU usage on each machine, active tasks per BOINC instance, CPU and Ram % per task, per PC, online/offline status, overall pool health, total accumulated work units, daily GRC generation and a lot more. It’s like having a NASA control center for my Boinc Pool with all the pretty colours, flashing lights and colour changing progress bars!
And that’s just the start. I have, among others, a dedicated Conky setup for Left4Dead2, tracking game stats like ping to official servers, playtime, network usage, CPU/GPU/RAM usage, temps, and even my AIO pump and fan speeds. As a cherry on top, I’ve recreated the iconic “heartbeat” from the game’s start menu, plus the official logos, all in real time. Yes, it’s as nerdy and beautiful as it sounds.
I even made my own Conky Manager (with a GUI) using yad, that starts/stops each Conky either individually or all, allows me to edit configs and more.
I'm currently working on the small "Backup System" Conky that allows me to backup my /home folder to a backup drive in an unencrypted state to store offline. The backup starts upon drive insertion and shows an animated "digital rain" of 0's and 1's falling onto the the drive. But I cant seem to get the animation right. Thinking of dumping that for a pinwheel or spiral animation instead.
Timeshift takes hourly/daily/weekly and monthly backups in encrypted state. My PC is encrypted using LUKS and although Timeshift is pretty much bullet proof at restoring, I would still like a copy of my data in an unencrypted state.
Now that Microsoft is ramping up its “telemetry” - or, let’s be honest, its full-time spying - I couldn’t be happier to be outside that ecosystem. No more sneaky data collection, no more forced updates, no more BS privacy statements that aren't worth the electrons used to generate them, just smooth, elegant, and fully under-my-control computing. My computer - my way!
The two icons on the right are simple utilities to play my favourite interne radio station and a one click moniter sleep button that puts all 4 monitors to sleep when I finish for the day. And I have a 200GB VeraCrypt container for all the sensitive stuff - JIC!
Of course, I can’t forget to thank Paul Allen, Bill Gates, and the rest of the early gang. You folks built a revenue stream that supported my way of life for 20+ years, and for that, I am genuinely grateful… even if I’ve now happily jumped ship.
Linux is pure magic: elegant, powerful, and shockingly uncomplicated. And thanks to Steam’s “Proton Compatibility Layer,” I can run all my Windows-only games like they were born here. Spoiler alert: they run better on Linux than they ever did under Windows!
My setup has grown a little… elaborate. I now run six dedicated Conky monitors that pull data from my BOINC pool of 17 PC's (via ssh + scripts on each PC) and display everything from CPU usage on each machine, active tasks per BOINC instance, CPU and Ram % per task, per PC, online/offline status, overall pool health, total accumulated work units, daily GRC generation and a lot more. It’s like having a NASA control center for my Boinc Pool with all the pretty colours, flashing lights and colour changing progress bars!
And that’s just the start. I have, among others, a dedicated Conky setup for Left4Dead2, tracking game stats like ping to official servers, playtime, network usage, CPU/GPU/RAM usage, temps, and even my AIO pump and fan speeds. As a cherry on top, I’ve recreated the iconic “heartbeat” from the game’s start menu, plus the official logos, all in real time. Yes, it’s as nerdy and beautiful as it sounds.
I even made my own Conky Manager (with a GUI) using yad, that starts/stops each Conky either individually or all, allows me to edit configs and more.
I'm currently working on the small "Backup System" Conky that allows me to backup my /home folder to a backup drive in an unencrypted state to store offline. The backup starts upon drive insertion and shows an animated "digital rain" of 0's and 1's falling onto the the drive. But I cant seem to get the animation right. Thinking of dumping that for a pinwheel or spiral animation instead.
Timeshift takes hourly/daily/weekly and monthly backups in encrypted state. My PC is encrypted using LUKS and although Timeshift is pretty much bullet proof at restoring, I would still like a copy of my data in an unencrypted state.
Now that Microsoft is ramping up its “telemetry” - or, let’s be honest, its full-time spying - I couldn’t be happier to be outside that ecosystem. No more sneaky data collection, no more forced updates, no more BS privacy statements that aren't worth the electrons used to generate them, just smooth, elegant, and fully under-my-control computing. My computer - my way!
The two icons on the right are simple utilities to play my favourite interne radio station and a one click moniter sleep button that puts all 4 monitors to sleep when I finish for the day. And I have a 200GB VeraCrypt container for all the sensitive stuff - JIC!
