I don’t know about you but I was just waiting for an excuse. I ain’t ever going back. It’s a brave new world for me, part of shifting my whole suite to FOSS. Leaving the old internet behind me.
In 2022 I was Windows + Twitter + Reddit. In 2023 I’m full-time Linux + Mastodon + Lemmy.
I’ve rid myself of reddit (never used Twitter thank God) but I’m still on windows. I just got a steam deck though and I’m loving the Linux desktop mode. What branch of Linux does the deck use? I know I could do a quick Google to find out but damn I love how well it runs. Linux isn’t nearly as scary as I thought
I’ll disagree with Taiyang about Manjaro; I think it diverges too much form Arch and much prefer EndeavourOS (which is what I’m using at the moment).
With that said, I wouldn’t recommend anything Arch-based for a first timer. Quick sidebar: in Linux the “distribution” (the OS, basically - the variant of Linux) is separate from the desktop environment (the GUI). SteamOS uses the KDE desktop. If you like that, I think I’d recommend Kubuntu as a good Linux distro to start with. It’s Ubuntu with KDE instead of the default Ubuntu desktop, so there’s a ton of documentation and pretty much every app will work on it.
!linux@lemmy.ml is very active and a great place to ask questions and/or read up, or feel free to DM me!
I would absolutely recommend KDE Neon distribution as it comes with current, stable KDE. https://neon.kde.org . It is a Ubuntu LTS as well.
I personally wouldn’t push anyone away from Arch towards Ubuntu. Ubuntu broke with every major update and you always are running older “stable” versions of software unless you add a bunch of PPAs that are disabled on major updates and left to the user to sort out. And I’m not even going to get into the joy of Snaps. =(
IMHO something like EndeavorOS or CachyOS would far and away be both more stable, and a better noob experience. Or if you’re just gaming, install SteamOS, because if you haven’t broken it on your deck you probably wouldn’t be breaking on your desktop either.
I love EOS, but it would be a lot to take in at once for someone new to Linux - learning KDE, the terminal, plus everything else (flatpaks, the AUR, and so on) is a lot. At least Kubuntu still has the familiar (to them) KDE but has a GUI app store and never needs to use the terminal. It depends how generally tech-savvy the person is I guess.
That is why I see Ubuntu as a non-starter unless you are prepared to deal with it’s crippled usage by default, because adding anything is a surefire way to have it implode on version upgrade. Meanwhile, on a rolling release, baring things that break for most everyone, you just upgrade when convenient and go about your day. I just don’t see Ubuntu as anything that should be suggested to anyone w/out command line knowledge and strong Google-fu, because it’s not if - but when will your system implode with Ubuntu.
Like taiyang said, SteamOS is based on Arch which is super not newbie friendly, but the desktop modes “desktop environment” is KDE which available on pretty much any Linux distro, including beginner friendly ones like (K)Ubuntu and Fedora (although I’m not sure how beginner friendly Fedora is, regarding proprietary drivers and codecs)
Oh, you’re like me! I did the dive into Linux, SteamOS is a fork of Arch Linux which is super not newbie friendly.
Manjaro is a good Arch Linux fork that works well for gamers, though. Still not idiot proof, as I can atest to breaking it several times, but that’s the deal when you remove the training wheels off your OS.
Lucky it’s easy to reinstall from a USB. A little less if you insist on a duel boot like me, but that’s mostly Windows being a jerk.
It is SteamOS based on Gentoo.
Steamos 3 (the steam deck) is based on arch. They moved off of gentoo
Steam deck runs SteamOS, a custom distro built by steam specifically. You can download it here
Try manjaro, and hear me out here:
Manjaro is actually the only distro that I would recommend to a beginner, actual beginner in this case is someone that should not be running a single terminal command to get their system to work (which is what people are expecting to do when they tell you to use Endevour or CachyOS lol)
WIth ubuntu/debian based distros you will either have to deal with installing flatpaks/snaps, which come with their own set of issues like not following the system theme, using the wrong system font, issues accesing the internet, issues accesing the home directory (yeah steam flatpak can’t be placed in the home directory lol).
You could try adding PPAs which is not something I would recommend a beginner to do.
Also some games like BeamNG hate having irqbalance, which usually comes by default on debian based distros.
On the other hand Manjaro already ships with pamac which is their GUI store that supports everything, including Aur packages which means 0 issues having to deal with broken permissions or theming if you want to install apps that are usually not found in the official repos.
Their own official repo even includes brave-browser and fastfetch, two apps that I use that are usually very hard to find in other distros.
AUR isnt widely recommended in manjaro
As long as you only keep the Manjaro repos in your system, it is like using it on Arch, which even you Arch the Aur isn’t perfect.
Because the Manjaro repos don’t sync at the same time with the Arch repos, you might not be able to install/update some Aur packages as the version of X dependency might not match during that time.
But literary, Manjaro has been the most stable distro I’ve run, even more stable than Arch that recently broke on my system and required manual intervention because of their recent changes on their repo migration.
Nice change you made!!
I ditched Windows because I could not stand them restarting my PC without my permission after an update. And ads! Fucking ads on my start menu.
Same
welcome home
deleted by creator
Same, I didn’t know which server suited me so I created three accounts on various Lemmy servers and also one on kbin, but now I’m exclusively using just this account.
I wasn’t really looking for a replacement, just wanted to break my reddit addiction which was hampering my productivity. Lemmy isn’t a replacement in the sense, but a nice change and something new to try.
FOSS
Same. I adopted a google account a long time ago, but I’ve finally hit my limit on what they’ve been doing with youtube and everything. Free and open source alternatives are the way to go, it may take a while to catch on or may never fully, but who cares. Switching to linux recently was the best thing I’ve ever done.
Same here
Well said
For anyone panicking, this is exactly like what happened with the transition from ICQ to AOL messenger, from MySpace to Facebook, from 9gag/etc to Reddit, and so on.
Website makes a mistake, some people leave. Makes another, more leave. Each time this happens, more ‘main’ people of said website leave. Hell, I already saw PoppinKREAM here, so that’s a great start.
So this is exactly how it always goes. The fact it is still here means it’s staying. Look at Threads, or Metaverse, whatever those things are. All dying or dead, barely lasted. Lemmy is still here, people are still posting, so just keep doing what you’re doing. It’s already working.
It’s like a ratcheting effect. Every time schmeddit fucks up, we gain a few more. And if you can count on Spez for one thing, it’s that he’ll reliably fuck up on the regular.
Think it really was PoppinKREAM?! Love to read them again.
Them and Portarossa
Who the fuck are these people?
Not sure about the other but PoppinKREAM became known on Reddit during the Mueller probe for very long, very well researched and cited comments mostly related to politics. Their citation style in particular meant their comments got tons of Reddit awards and were highly visible.
PoppinKREAM and Portarossa are two extremely through researchers into politics, mostly US politics, and how we even got here.
Oh I was planning to check for Portarossa, one of the few usernames I recognize
On mastodon or Lemmy?
Lemmy for me, I never used Twitter, so I don’t use Mastodon either
Aw man. ICQ. I miss those times.
I don’t care that the fediverse has a ton of traffic. It may not have the most users, but it definitely has the best
*tips hat
Lem’my
Very true. I’m still amazed how good lemmy is considering how small we still are.
100% agree. Have encountered a few jerkwads on Lemmy but hey, blocking works. The overall vibe here is 100x better than schmeddit.
Quick question regards blocking - how does it work exactly?
When I block someone, I can still see their message. Just won’t get a notification. I thought, it would be blocked entirely - so I’m a bit confused.
When a blocked user replies to my message I get no notification and might just see “1 more reply” or something like that but when I click it it wont load. Only when I sign out can I read it. However I believe that the blocked users can still see my messages just fine. Same with bans. I can see all posts from lemmy.ml but they can’t see mine.
Exactly. I don’t need the most users. The internet was better back when it wasn’t everybody.
People complaining about a loss of users are the same people that will complain about performance issues next time there is a huge influx of users that stresses the infrastructure for popular instances.
I’m way less mad about Kbin having issues than I ever was at Reddit
Lurker here. Just writing this as my first ever comment to push those numbers.
Bump
Right.
Fuck you. Welcome.
Got to admit, this made me chuckle.
💚🐿️
Ghmmm hmmm hmmm. bump.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
Got pump those numbers up, those are rookie numbers
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
All the people returning and forgetting what reddit did and will continue to do. Then the next time reddit messes up, they will come back. 😔
Edit: other stats seem pretty good though! Unless i am misunderstanding them.
I can’t wait until the next time reddit fucks up.
I’m sure it won’t be long.
My money’s on them killing off old Reddit next.
That would be juicy. That would drive a lot of people away.
As long as they need more money for shareholders you can count on it.
The blue one doesn’t reset count every mount so it’s cululative. It means people come and go. There was a big Reddit rush and some people went back others got annoyed with the growing pains and went elsewhere. But the fact that it’s slowing down means it’s stabilizing to a dedicated community.
I would prefer to use Lemmy, but it simply doesn’t have some things that reddit currently has. It could in the future, but it doesn’t have the user base yet.
The half year probably still includes all the Reddit refugees, maybe that’s why it hadn’t fallen yet
Here’s the thing though… I’ve been on Reddit for over a decade before Lemmy, and whilst there may be less interaction the interactions themselves have been far more sincere. People are more willing to engage, and even with this random comment there’s a chance someone would comment below.
The community feel of Lemmy is something, at least I’ve found, Reddit had lost a very long time ago.
Sort of a quality Vs quantity thing I guess?
It doesn’t matter. I get all my news here and I can comment if I want. That’s enough
11 million comments this month. 11 million comments from people smart enough to leave behind the other. 11 million comments, likely largely from actual humans.
Lemmy is thriving.
Plot twist: It’s all piped.video bot.
lol ive never clicked a piped link even once
I did, once. It didn’t work.
Google’s shareholders appreciate your contribution.
Yepp, that user was my first and only block ever. Yes, we get it. YT bad, Piped good. It was so annoying.
For anybody interested, the monthly active users including voters is
131,150
(131k)The one in the graph only takes into account people who have made a post or comment
Edit: The halfyear active users including voters is
253,166
(253k)That engagement ratio is super high when you look at it this way. 118k-ish posters/commenters and 131k total users? Damn. Good job Lemmy.
The 118k is half year aka 6 months
The one around 35k is month
Still though - like I know it was boosted by the reddit exodus and so the 6mos stats are inflated, but still not too shabby.
I didn’t realize commenting was an important metric. I check lemmy everyday but rarely have something useful to say.
This is a great metric-explainer. What impressive numbers. Now we really know how successful this migration has been.
Ooh, that’s my preferred global population! That’s a good sign!
FWIW Lemmy has fully replaced Reddit as my go-to toilet reading material, and I’m sure there are many other lurkers around here who don’t post much and thus don’t show up in these stats. The more niche communities are still lacking in content, yes, but these things are best left to grow organically over a long period of time to maintain quality. It was the same on Reddit too before the enshittification escalated.
Zoomed out graph including some months before the join wave
Users/month are relatively stable now at 33x users/month compared to pre join wave (users/month is people who have posted or commented)
This graph is much more reassuring:
https://lemmy.fediverse.observer/dailystats
We are stable, even slightly growing in the last few days.
It’s really painful that these graphs don’t start at zero. Hard to see if that growth is as dynamic as it looks
The average comments is far more interesting. Constant growth. Active accounts is skewed by all the alts new people make.
Good point, but I feel like alts haven’t been used that much lately as instances have been stables for weeks now
First of all, rooting for decentralized net 100%. Watching Tumblr, Reddit, Twitter, etc. all get screwed over from the top down sucks. I really appreciate the strong community here - having it smaller and more engaging encourages participation and makes it feel a little more human.
However, I’m considering leaving Lemmy just because somehow it’s even more cynical than reddit, and I’m losing interest in opening the app if it’s just 99% downers. I mean almost every article is just crushingly bad news. The world is in a rough state for sure, and staying informed is really important! But trying to live on and find the good is near impossible here.
(Yes, I’m subbed to upliftingnews. That’s the 1%.)
Is this a demographics thing, or am I just subbed in all the wrong places? Maybe a bit of both?
For whatever anecdotal observations are worth, I’ve recently been seeing a huge uptick in activity from the userbase that is here. Maybe it’s been driven by posts like this one or memes about growing Lemmy, but people seem to be posting and commenting more than usual.
If lemmy has 100 users I’m one of them
If lemmy has 1 user it’s me
If lemmy has no users I’m dead
I don’t know about huge but the data on the same page supports the observation on post quantity. It’s still steadily increasing.
Comments might be currently on a stable trend.
It’s also a common finding from those comparing replies to the same posts on Twitter and mastodon: fewer but better replies on mastodon.
I’ve been trying to post as much as I find it possible and engaging.
It’s anecdotal. It’s not worth anything.
Keep it in mind
We lost active users because of this
- beehaw has been defed from lemmy.world, sh.itjust.works and other instances
- some instances like lemmy.film and fmhy went offline
I’d imagine Hexbear and lemmygrad ran a lot of people away as well.
I’ve been registered on Lemmygrad. Got banned for saying Stalin is not a superhero and that he made both good and bad moves.
Noted, moved to lemmy.world
I’m not even on either and got an account banned from .ml for telling the Hexbear clowns that their little meme responses were childish and cringy.
You mean a pic of a pig w shit on it’s balls isn’t high-minded discourse?!
Right? Who’d have thought that a large community of children would be obnoxious and cringy?
@tigeruppercut is that what “pigpoopballs” is??
I don’t see their images, just a line of text that I’m not about to click on. For some reason I was imagining little round balls made of poo, possibly in a pyramid shape.
yeah, it’s an old pic so you may’ve run across it before anyway, but for some reason the hexies think it’s the height of satire
there’s a know your meme page if you’re curious
@tigeruppercut thanks. That was underwhelming. I don’t know why they post it so often!
I’ve had like three accounts banned from .ml for saying, among other things, that the US revolution didn’t involve kidnapping children. Trying to have any world news discussion here is completely impossible, and that’s one of the more active areas on Reddit. No wonder people try out lemmy and then bail.
Happy to see you’re now on SJW, it’s a pretty chill instance
Yeah, I was banned from world news for posting about jinping and uyghurs
Probably but people who make their account on Lemmy.world, the most common instance, also never see them.
I have an account there. I use it as my good news/no negativity scroll. The absence of that garbage is so refreshing.
It absolutely did. Instances should have acted on that day 1.
Day 1, most of the instances were down due to the massive influx
I was wondering what happened to lemmy.film.
Nobody knows unfortunately, but we created !moviesandtv@lemm.ee as a replacement
Well that’s sad. But I suppose we’re still in the new, rough period of Lemmy. The Wild West of federated, private server owned link sharing discussion sites.