This is FUD. It definitely is not a “critical” security feature. Firefox flatpak can’t currently do its own internal sandboxing of subprocesses via namespaces, but it does do seccomp bpf filtering. That’s in addition to the standard sandboxing of flatpak itself, which is implemented using namespaces anyways.

If you are extra paranoid, you can tweak the flatpak’s permissions to harden the sandboxing via your distro’s flatpak settings app.

Flatpaks are containerized, making them both more reliable and more secure (in general… but it’s always possible to fuck things up).

Besides the benefits to users, there are also huge benefits to developers: they can publish a single package and support nearly every distro with it.

It’s often impossible for a dev to publish and maintain packages for all Linux distros out there, so stuff on AUR is built and packaged by well-meaning, but random people who are not the original developer. This very often leads to the app having bugs and compatibility issues which the developer ends up wasting time debugging and trying to fix even though it’s not their fault. (although downstream packagers can fuck this up too by publishing their own unofficial Flatpaks, like Fedora’s recent OBS shenanigans)

I tend to go with Flathub before the AUR, if available.

This is the correct way to Linux in 2025

I actually love the name “techno mechanicus”. The others are just weird, but I find that one laugh out loud hilarious.

That doesn’t fix anything due to federation. Dog piling discourages people from critical discussion or from asking questions from fear of having the angry mob turn on them too. It leads to shallow and one sided discussions, especially in posts with a lot of participation. The only productive discussions I’ve ever had either on Lemmy or on Reddit have been one-on-one comment threads in small subs/buried posts.

But Lemmy knows what it wants to be, and I’m not saying it should change. It just isn’t really for me.

It’s not just the tankie stuff. Tbf this place at times feels like the far left version of 4chan, and I say that as a very left person. Reddit’s upvote system has always had an issue with brigading/dog piling leading to hostile discussions and echo chambers. In Lemmy, the issue is worse because it feels like most of the people who were drawn here are deeply tied to that culture from Reddit. By contrast, Reddit has a lot more young and innocent people to soften things.

I quit/deleted my Reddit account many years ago, before Lemmy’s rise in popularity. I just come here every once in a while because I like decentralized/fediverse stuff, but the Reddit formula really does turn me off. I can’t imagine the average person having the stomach for this brand of internet discussions, regardless of political leaning. It’s quite hostile and combative.

I use MXRoute, which is a similar tiny/one-person email service. Also great so far. I use it for personal stuff + a client’s professional business emails, and haven’t had any issues with either.

Supporting small businesses like these feels great!

Also the Android TV app is AWESOME!

What do you run Android TV on? Raspberry Pi? My cheapo solution has been to use an old Android phone that supports DP alt mode (USB-C to HDMI adapter) combined with a USB hub + generic air mouse/remote + customized launcher.

It actually works surprisingly well. I installed FCast on it, so it even works like a Chromecast. If I’m watching a video on my phone using Grayjay, I can just cast it to the phone and it will start playing automatically. The only thing stopping it from being perfect is that it can’t turn the TV on automatically. As a plus, since the phone has a battery, it’s always powered on so I don’t have to wait for stuff to boot, and it uses relatively little power.

… but overall it’s janky and finicky, and the OEM bloatware is probably spying on me, so I’ve been looking for alternatives that can match the good parts of this setup.

I don’t like Raspberry Pis for this because they’re overpriced. I have a couple that I could use for this, but I’m hoping to find a cheaper solution, and one that I can recommend to friends/family when they ask. (the Android phone I’m using cost me a total of $15 on ebay)