budgie-extras VS Pi-hole

I like Ubuntu Budgie. 6th year on it. https://ubuntubudgie.org/

My experience has been that Ubuntu's Gnome DE is somewhat less suitable to older computers than Ubuntu "official flavors" with lighter DE's -- Ubuntu Budgie (Budgie DE), Kubuntu (KDE Plasma DE), Ubuntu MATE (MATE DE), and Xubuntu (XFCE DE) -- all of which use somewhat less resources than the Gnome DE.

If you were a fan of Windows 7 - install Ubuntu Budgie. I have been running it since Windows 7 and it is rock solid.

I recommend two official Ubuntu flavors to friends contemplating migrating from Windows 10 to Linux -- Ubuntu Budgie (Budgie DE) and Kubuntu (KDE Plasma DE).

In terms of distros that will help facilitate the migration from Windows, I would suggest either Ubuntu Budgie or Kubuntu.

Take a look at Ubuntu Budgie 22.04 LTS and Kubuntu 22.04 LTS, two official flavors of Ubuntu that give you the stability of Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and a good looking, very functional desktop environment. I have used both extensively and can vouch for them. My use case is similar to yours -- lots of internet/browser work, occasional word processing, spreadsheet and file work.

Consider looking at several of the Ubuntu official flavors -- Kubuntu (Plasma DE), Ubuntu Budgie (Budgie DE), Xubuntu (XFCE), Ubuntu MATE (MATE DE). I wouldn't bother with Lubuntu (LXQT DE) unless you need a lightweight distro, because the LXQT DE is not as mainstream or well-supported as the others.

Si te preguntas, ¿por qué no usar Adguard o Pihole? 🤔

This is an overreaction, almost to the point of absurdity.

Risks inherent to pipe installers are well understood by many. Using your logic, we should abandon Homebrew [1] (>38k stars on GitHub), PiHole [2] (>46k stars on GitHub), Chef [3], RVM [4], and countless other open source projects that use one-step automated installers (by piping to bash).

A more reasonable response would be to coordinate with the developers to update the docs to provide alternative installation methods, rather than throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

[1] https://brew.sh/

[2] https://github.com/pi-hole/pi-hole

[3] https://docs.chef.io/chef_install_script/#run-the-install-sc...

[4] https://rvm.io/rvm/install

Pi-hole to block ads and tracking for my less technically savvy relatives

https://pi-hole.net/

I ran a competing project[0] on my home network for a few years before I discovered NextDNS[1]. What I lost in performance (requests don't leave my house) I gained in portability: ALL my devices can take advantage – at home and away – and time-saved. PiHole works 90% of the time, but when it did stop working, I'd have to spend a bit of time fixing it. At $20/year, I simply couldn't compete with NextDNS.

Note: This isn't a shill for NextDNS; I love these kinds of projects and think they absolutely should exist, but NextDNS just happens to be one of those dead-simple SaaS tools that is an insanely good value.

0 - https://pi-hole.net/

1 - https://nextdns.io

It definitely IS an option, but at the network level.

https://pi-hole.net/

It runs on damn near everything, and is a DNS level adblocker for the whole network.

I recently switched to Wipr [0]. It’s dead simple to use, and will auto update its filter lists in the background.

Adguard [1] is a decent free option.

I also use a Pi-hole [2] on my network.

[0] https://kaylees.site/wipr.html

[1] https://adguard.com/en/adguard-safari/overview.html

[2] https://pi-hole.net/

Are you trying to build a DNS proxy (similar to Pi-hole) that intercepts DNS requests and checks for the ones that look harmful? If so, I would suggest trying to separately build a DNS client and a DNS server, before trying to integrate them together. Start with Beej's Guide to Network Programming if you need to learn the basics of sockets, and then take a look at the documents that define the DNS protocol itself (RFC1034 and RFC1035).

Setup a pi-hole.

It's definitely not as simple as installing an app on your phone, but I run a Pi-hole on my home network, and it does block ads in many games.