First day of the Old Computer Challenge 2024
============================================
Today is the first day of the 2024 edition of the Old Computer
Challenge.
Just like last year, my intention is to post day to day on
Gohher, and write a recap in my blog after the challenge.
Motivation
----------
The enshittifacation is everywhere. The siren call of ads and
influencers tries to lure us in. The soul-sucking algorithms and dark
patterns of big tech steal our most private details, which are then
sold to the highest bidder and used to trick us into purchasing
planet-destroying meaningless stuff.
We'll fight back. Like Gandalf, we will put our cane firmly into the
ground and tell big tech they Shall Not Pass. Let them eat their own
solyent green, because we are not going to do that anymore.
We don't need flashy new computers and bloated software. A machine and
some software that does the most essential is enough. This wisdom can
not be obtained by reading some articles. It must be experienced. That
is why we do the challenge.
During the Old Computer Challenge we will take a step back, and see
things from a new perspective.
Text-only environment
---------------------
This years edition of the Old Computer Challenge I will use a
non-graphical environment. No Xorg, no X11.
It helps to see things from a different perspective. Besides
that, thare are some other reasons:
* By choosing a text-only environment, it is probably easier to keep
the enshittifacation at bay. The coming days will show if this
indeed is the case.
* A text-only environment brings us closer to the original Unix
computing experience.
* It totally takes me out of my comfort-zone :)
Not running X is easy on FreeBSD, because the default install is text
only. One has to install Xorg c.s., which I didn't do on this laptop.
Below, I'll first discus some technicalities, and than go into the
experiences.
System configuration
--------------------
Yesterday evening prahou helped me in an IRC-session to get a better
screen, by loading the appropriate kernel module and pointing to a way
to use the mouse.
Display
......
To get a much better image, I added the following line to
`/etc/rc.conf':
kld_list=radeonkms
The difference is wonderful and totally changes the experience of
working on the console.
Mouse
....
Prior to yesterday, I would have never expected to bother to set up
the mouse :) But during some debugging together with prahou, it was
great to be able to copy and paste to the IRC buffer. (Normally I
would use tmux for that, but to prevent losing the IRC connection,
I had switched console with Alt-Ctrl-F2.)
The mouse can be put out of view, so when not in use it doesn't
clutter the screen.
The following lines in `/etc/rc.conf' make it possible to use
the mouse and to paste without a third mouse button:
Screenshots
..........
Currently, I have not been able to make screenshots from the terminal.
According to the manual, `vidcontrol' is able to do so, with the flag
`-p', but it requires sysconsole. When I load sysconsole through
`/boot/loader.conf', the boot messages are shown in yellow, until the
message that the kernel modules are going to be loaded. Then the
screen becomes black and stays black.
Switching between terminals
..........................
I use the old fashioned way, Alt-Ctrl-F1, Alt-Ctrl-F2, and so
on to use of a few terminals at the same time.
Tmux is of course a good solution for this, but it uses the two
bottom rows of the screen real estate.
Using the Acer Aspire One
-------------------------
Don't tell my X201, but I think this small laptop is nice to use. It
is small and its weight is reasonable light. It is not as lightweight
as my old Acer Aspire zg5, probably because the display and the
battery are a bit larger and the spinning disk adds some weight.
The keyboard is not terrific, but usable. The key travel is good.
The key caps are totally flat, no indention or any other shaping. The
arrow keys are very tiny, but that helps to keep up the muscle memory
for not using them :)
The mouse works. As far as I can tell from having copied some text,
the mousepad is OK.
For longer typing sessions I still prefer the wonderful keyboard
of my X201, but during the Old Computer Challenge this is limited
to professional use only.
Doing stuff
-----------
IRC
..
I use `rcirc', which is an IRC client that comes with Emacs. It works
fine, I use it with the ZNC bouncer, to prevent some FOMO. The only
downside is that I haven't found out how to use the rcirc/ZNC combo
with multiple IRC networks.
So, for now I either confine to Libera.Chat, or switch to a different
user.
The smol web
...........
`elpher' is a wonderful Gemini- and Gopher client for Emacs.
Sometimes I use lynx to quickly open a Gopher URL.
`eww' is the default web browser in Emacs. I have also installed lynx
and links. The user experience is not that much different, apart from
the key bindings.
Of course, there is only text, no images or videos. Which is mostly
good, it keeps out a lot of the enshittifcation. On IRC somebody
posted a link to a screenshot. Viewing this of course, is now off
limits.
Given the small height of the display, reading gopher- , gemini-, and
web pages require more scrolling than I'm used to.
Jump table
.........
I make use of the `webjump' package in Emacs. This is a rather old
package, but it still does its job fine.
In the jump table --actually, it's a list-- I have a number of
favorite places that I like to visit daily.
One great aspect of it, it that it doesn't care what kind of URL you
put in it, it can be a gopher link, gemini link, or a web link.
I freely mix all three the three types in it.
RSS feeds
........
RSS feeds are wonderful to keep up with your favorite blogs.
I use the RSS-to-nntp service from gwene.org to follow a number
of feeds. To get some different experience, I installed Elfeed
on this laptop. Elfeed is a fine RSS reader for Emacs.
Both methods works fine.
Gopher
.....
I love to hang out in Gopher space. I love the format, and the
content/noise ratio is very good.
To keep up with blogs there are RSS feeds, to keep up with phlogs
there are aggregators. Bongusta and moku-puna are some great
aggregators. When I don't have much time, I just visit my own, called
`phlog roll', that only follows a few phlogs.
Gemini
.....
I haven't visited the Gemini-verse for some time. Recently I have
added Antenna to my jump table, and visit it at least once a day.
The reading experience is the same as with Gopher, and again the
content/noise ratio is good.
Jabber
------
I have installed the Emacs jabber mode, and could connect to
the Jabber server of SDF. My contacts were all not available.
Perhaps later in the week I can actually chat with it.
Mastodon
--------
On my X201 I use mastodon mode in Emacs to access the Mastodon server.
Unfortunately it won't start when using Emacs on the console, because
it wants to render images.
So I'll have to revert to a TUI solution like `toot'.
