spn VS dotfiles

Port forwarding on router without the use of a VPN is not what I was talking about dude. Linux has always had the ability to route iptables and software like Portmaster SPN, have paced the way for granular control at the packet level. So before you respond, take a look at the protocol of Portmaster SPN and consider what I’m saying, I’m trying to help you bro, not fight. https://safing.io/spn/

Safing develops the privacy firewall „Portmaster“ and runs the „Safing Privacy Network“ (SPN) which joins features of Onion Routing and VPN. The company has a transparent business model and the code is open source. We are an official reseller of Portmaster Unlimited.

If you're up to trying something new, we've built a technology to replace consumer privacy VPNs: https://safing.io/spn/

Technical summary of the SPN (Safing Privacy Network):

- A Privacy Network aimed at use cases "between" VPN and Tor.

- Uses onion encryption over multiple hops just like Tor.

- Routes are chosen to cover most distance within the network to increase privacy.

- Exits are chosen near the destination server. This automatically geo-unblocks in many cases.

- Exclude apps and domains/entities from using SPN.

- Change routing algorithm and focus per app.

- Nodes are hosted by Safing (company behind Portmaster) and the community.

- Speeds are pretty decent (>100MBit/s).

I have been messing around trying to make a secure browsing instance that has a few browsers and some VPN clients like Proton VPN and and Portmaster by Safing and after going through a long path of errors and wrappers written in Python i think the issue stopping these tools from running properly is accessing the hosts network from the container. Looking at these stack overflow questions lead me to this conclusion: nmcli in a docker container Enabling network manager inside docker

but SPN is open source as well

There is really so much. Check their website. They do a better a jop at that : https://safing.io/spn/

I read their info and tutorials. Honestly I don't put completely my trust in the onion routing system. Does anyone use this software and can give a balanced opinion on speed, usage, problems, and overall quality of service? https://safing.io/spn/

There are 3 big parts:

- The firewall itself with rules, filter lists, and so on - https://safing.io/features/

- Secure DNS (DoT/DoH resolver) - https://safing.io/features/

- "SPN": Optional paid VPN alternative similar to Tor, our source of revenue - https://safing.io/spn/

Oh my gosh, that /opt/local rant was prophetic.

This is how I set my $PATH, note this code is portable between several Linux distros (including NixOS), macOS, OpenBSD, FreeBSD, and amd64/arm64...

<https://github.com/rollcat/dotfiles/blob/52a634f/.profile#L1...>

Whenever I touch it, I just wish I could put PATH=/bin in there instead, but then I'd be stuck juggling 17 different ways to make bind mounts.

In my dotfiles:

https://github.com/rollcat/dotfiles/blob/0d44759/.emacs.d/th...

There's also a dark variant, and a "base" variant to convince Emacs not to touch colors when running in a terminal. There's also support for matching the system theme in Emacs & Terminal.app on macOS: https://github.com/rollcat/dotfiles/commit/b3e49ad

> If you do consider switching, one warning about Mac is this: Window management is utter garbage. Maximizing is actively discouraged. Tiling left / right etc? Doesn't exist. Everything must be random size and overlap weirdly. Instead, each new version brings a new quick switch or workspace functionality that I have never seen anyone use.

Mac has a different window management paradigm. It suits some people, it frustrates others. I've switched from Linux/BSD after 15 years there, and it immediately made so much more sense to me. YMMV.

It also makes so much more sense if you have a very large screen. I've tried using dwm or Sway with my 43" screen and it's incredibly awkward. You need first-class support for floating windows, or at least smarter tiling.

But I agree, some things on macOS are not as good (workspaces), or plain dumb/useless (stage manager). For missing functionality, like keyboard-driven tiling, I fix things using Hammerspoon: https://github.com/rollcat/dotfiles/blob/master/.hammerspoon...

> Being usable out of the box?

It's interesting that you bring up this point in defense of KDE, because that's exactly my problem with it, especially when contrasted with macOS. Every issue I have with KDE boils down to: "there are too many options, and none of them make the system feel right".

> decent window snapping

In my opinion, no window manager gets it right. I've made a shot at it with my Hammerspoon config[1], it will move/resize/tile floating windows in a 2x2/3x3 grid using custom hotkeys. It's annoying though, that the code works on macOS only - I could probably refactor it to work with an X11 window manager.

[1]: https://github.com/rollcat/dotfiles/blob/master/.hammerspoon...

> put files on my Android phone over USB

I think integration within the Apple ecosystem is what really outshines all competition. I've never had to plug my iPhone over USB to a Mac, and yet I can just copy on the phone, and paste on the computer, like they are one device. Files, mail, contacts, calendar, photos, notes, todos, bookmarks, are all synced - heck I can use the phone camera as a webcam, all out of the box.

> I don't need to give my terminal permission to display my fucking documents folder

Sounds like you never had to fight SELinux or AppArmor. Personally I'm happy that desktop OS's are trying to improve end-user security (why do I have to type the root password to install a game, but I don't need one to run a cryptolocker?), but let's be honest, all attempts so far have ended up half-assed. The root of the issue is that desktop OS's must remain general-purpose tools, otherwise we could just as well call PCs glorified toasters.

> I'd say that's kinda a big selling point of Emacs though: you can write elisp code to make anything you do (not just writing code) less of a pain.

I agree in principle, but in practice, I find myself writing a lot of ELisp just to work around Emacs' shortcomings. E.g. on macOS, to support dark/light theme switching integrated with the rest of the system, I need an external program[0], a shell script to tell that program to call emacsclient, a LaunchAgent to keep it running, an unholy build of Emacs with all of the GNU-unapproved Cocoa integrations that some kind soul is maintaining, and only THEN a piece of ELisp (which is also calling out to AppleScript) to actually change the theme[1]. And as I wrote this, I realised half of this glue didn't even make it into version control.

[0]: https://github.com/cormacrelf/dark-notify

[1]: https://github.com/rollcat/dotfiles/blob/7f6a6d7/.emacs.d/in...

I've been using Emacs for about 20 years, and with every passing year I just wish there was *less* ELisp for me to think about. The actual useful customisations (like adding the +x bit on shell scripts) are few and far between, most of it is just glue and fixes.

This is my strategy for dotfiles. My home directory has a .gitignore with "*" in it. I will "git add -f" any files I want tracked; git is extremely efficient at ignoring the rest. It doesn't require any frameworks, symlinks, installation scripts, elaborate tutorials/manpages, or any other voodoo.

To move in to a new machine - unfortunately you can't git clone into a non-empty directory, but the commands to work around that are simple enough to remember.

https://github.com/rollcat/dotfiles

> I tried my hand at tiling WMs with pop!OS, I just couldn't wrap my hand around it (pun intended). I really admire people who work through all the keyboard shortcuts. It's just not for my capabilities.

I think Windows actually did a great job of making tiling more mainstream - the way windows automatically snap to the left/right half of the screen. macOS could use something like that - I've hacked something similar using Hammerspoon[1] but I think Windows does it better: it's very discoverable for regular users, and has a very intuitive shortcut for the power users (win+left/right/up).

The world of minimalist tiling WMs suffers from the elitism factor. It's a shame that you can't get the right dose of minimalism, without making this huge leap. I think people making most of these WMs misunderstand good UX design: it's not about accommodating non-power users, it's about lowering the barrier for everyone, hackers included.

[1]: https://github.com/rollcat/dotfiles/blob/master/.hammerspoon...

Well, you blew it ;) I have no idea how you've identified my dotfiles as a web project using any kind of an established web framework/language, and at this point I'm too afraid to ask.

I'm happy with my Hammerspoon setup. I need something to fix "the other 90%".