Own Your Bits

For what it's worth, when the original Rosetta (PowerPC to Intel) was released, it wasn't faster to run emulated/translated PowerPC apps on the first generation Intel Mac, but a few Intel Mac generations later, it was. There was a reason why Apple decided to migrate off of PowerPC. :-) See also this post about Rosetta performance from someone who ported Google Earth: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23686924 For Linux and Docker, you might want to check out: Transparently running binaries from any architecture in Linux with QEMU and binfmt_misc https://ownyourbits.com/2018/06/13/transparently-running-binaries-from… Docker Engine on Intel Linux runs Arm Containers https://blog.hypriot.com/post/docker-intel-runs-arm-containers/ While it describes running ARM linux binaries on an Intel machine, it should be possible to do the opposite.

The recent changes to Dropbox incited me to finally build a home NAS/personal-cloud server based on Nextcloud last month. My first impressions were a bit negative, as I was expecting "open source Dropbox" and nothing more; Nextcloud actually does quite a lot, which made me think it was bloatware. This is due to my ignorance and jumping in too fast. What Nextcloud actually is: a personal Dropbox-style server, with open source equivalents of Google Docs, calendaring, contacts, notepads, and a complete "app store". It's all really well built, and you can use as much (or in my case, as little) as you feel like. I thought I'd use none of these apps at all, until I realized that I would really like a Del.icio.us-style [bookmarking app](https://apps.nextcloud.com/apps/bookmarks), but had no desire to shop around and adopt something that required a fee or might disappear later. At this point, my only criticisms are that I think the installation should be more idiot-friendly, and the UI smells of 2012. For anyone interested in following suit, I picked up an [Odroid-HC1](https://www.hardkernel.com/shop/odroid-hc1-home-cloud-one/) (a bit like a Raspberry Pi, but much higher disk and network performance, at a similar price point) and [NextcloudPi](https://ownyourbits.com/nextcloudpi/#download) (complete Debian + Nextcloud image). It went swimmingly and cost well under a hundred bucks, not counting the 3.5" hard drive. Nextcloud is backed by a corporation that mostly makes its money…

An annoying side effect is that the (closed) "core OS" that the Pi runs on, ThreadX, is owned since 2019 by... Microsoft ! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ThreadX https://ownyourbits.com/2019/02/02/whats-wrong-with-the-raspberry-pi/ Note that the above is specific for the Pi 3 - the Pi 4, for instance, doesn't have the issue of a ridiculously undersized power connector (2.5W minimum standard for up to 13 W demand !!)

> But in this tarball's filter directory there are only x64 and x86 filters. For next time you are stuck with that problem: qemu + binfmt_misc can transparently run cross-architecture apps, see https://ownyourbits.com/2018/06/13/transparently-running-binaries-from…

Oh wow no kidding. Was not aware of that. This article [1] seems to be the primary source for that. Also kind of funny that the ThreadX wikipedia page [2] randomly links to Intel Management Engine. [1] https://ownyourbits.com/2019/02/02/whats-wrong-with-the-raspberry-pi/ [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ThreadX

It's not really bare-metal, given that a ThreadX OS controls booting of the raspberry pi and continues to run afterwards https://ownyourbits.com/2019/02/02/whats-wrong-with-the-raspberry-pi/ Side note: Microsoft bought ThreadX in 2019.

https://ownyourbits.com/2019/02/02/whats-wrong-with-the-raspberry-pi/ Companies like Microsoft have so much cash, they will constantly be poisoning the well of software freedom destroying the last remnants of privacy, long after their own business models became obsolete or out of fashion. I fully expect Google and Facebook will pose the same issue long into the future. Their models too will see their sun set, but they will still work to have their fingers in our pies (no pun intended).

Look for the nextcloudpi project (I have submitted a couple of patches and use it for 2+ years) if you want a straightforward installation and deployment for self hosted nextcloud at home. https://ownyourbits.com/nextcloudpi/

Been wanting to start try nextcloudpi[0] but I need the time to learn and set it up (even if it's an hour of reading). My point is for someone not as willing to learn as me, it's at least harder than signing up for OneDrive, Dropbox, etc. [0] https://ownyourbits.com/nextcloudpi/