Dariusz Więckiewicz

I have been a fan of Linux since I was young. My favourite branches are these Debian-based. Even though I never officially go full on it, Linux is a part of my daily life, and yours as well.

In daily life, I am using Windows 11, and my main driver is macOS, who derived from Unix. The macOS shares a lot of similarities with Linux, and thanks to the power of the terminal, I can do more than just rely on apps with a GUI (Graphical User Interface).

On the other hand, my other devices all rely on Linux. My router is Linux-based (OpenWrt), I got small Ubuntu server helping me explore stuff and a few Raspberry Pis here and there.

The best feature that I admire in Linux based operating system is the option of managing packages (software) installed in the system. With a few commands using apt (Debian) or opkg (currently in OpenWrt), I can quickly update all that I am currently using in the system.

This is a feature that I miss the most on Windows. To support myself in having always up-to-date apps installed, I used various software. Some are crap, some are doing their job, like UCheck, but none of them are doing everything.

Since Microsoft started to take its Microsoft Store on Windows to their advantage, more and more apps appear there. Most of the apps that are installed directly from their developer website appear there as well, even as a direct link to the installers.

In opposition to what I said, from a Mac user perspective, I am disappointed by how Apple is utilising its AppStore on macOS. Where iPhones rely on AppStore in 99% of the time, with macOS, there is plenty of staff missing, and that’s disappointing.

Thanks to the existence of more and more apps through the Microsoft Store, they can be quickly updated through it without any hustles and that great. However, this does not sort out all the problems.

I recently found time to watch a very insightful, fast-paced presentation by Adam Argyle titled “25 New & Rad Features of CSS”.

After just five minutes, when he demonstrated the use case of @view-transition { navigation: auto; } and the whole crowd reacted positively, I was hooked and watched until the end.

I learned a great deal and implemented many of the features mentioned in my websites. Some of them I had heard of before, but I am not keen to implement everything straight away. When technologies are still at the early stage of adoption in web browsers, I tend to wait. The problem is that later I often forget about them, which is why Adam’s presentation reminded me of some of the concepts I had already come across.

One of these was the use of color-scheme: light dark; and the light-dark() syntax approach for light and dark colours.

Days are passing by, and rolls are rolling. We invested in new paper, but from the very beginning, there was something unusual about it.

After a few days of use, we still actively compare it with the Lidl brand (Floralys Quilted Toilet Tissue), and suddenly, my wife noticed why Who Gives a Crap (WGaC) toilet paper feels different.

I thought it was nostalgia from the late 80s/early 90s, but no!

Although I mentioned that Lidl-branded rolls do not compare with WGaC rolls, due to size, sometimes size doesn’t matter.

On my current internet connection at home, I do not have direct access to an external IPv4 IP address from my router (only IPv6 is available). Because of this, I am unable to set up my VPN server using WireGuard directly. Therefore, I need to support myself with Cloudflare Zero Trust technology.

Following my guide on how to add a Cloudflare Tunnel to an OpenWrt Router, as a WireGuard VPN alternative, I managed to regain access to my network from outside my home.

There is, however, one issue with this solution.

We have been aware of the End of Life (EOL) for Windows 10 for some time. If you don’t, and you are still working on it, then you must be living under a rock for some time.

Microsoft already spammed you with full-screen advice to purchase Windows 11, even on hardware that is not suitable for it!

Migration to Windows 11 has caused a lot of headaches, as it often requires users, even with very powerful hardware, to seek an upgrade.

In a business environment, it’s even more difficult, as all changes of this sort require extensive testing, but what’s more challenging, they require users to adapt to changes, which are not always the easiest ones.

Personally, I have been doing migration in a business environment for some time, before even the deadline was on the horizon (like it is now).

One year before the deadline (14th October 2025), all computers in my main place of work will have already been upgraded or replaced, and everybody will have been adjusting to work with Windows 11 for some time.

“Windows 10 end-of-life (EOL) is October 14, 2025. After this date, Microsoft will no longer provide free security updates, bug fixes, or technical support for Windows 10. While your Windows 10 PC will still function, it will become increasingly vulnerable to security risks and less compatible with new software and hardware.”

This post differs slightly from my usual contributions on this website.

For those who might not read to the end, here’s a 15% off referral link for your first order: whogivesacrap.mention-me.com/m/ns/xg6os-dariusz-wieckiewicz

Recently, my wife convinced me to try a company called ‘Who Gives a Crap,’ which offers products like toilet paper, tissues, and kitchen towels. Their products are designed to be either 100% bamboo or 100% recycled, with the following aim:

“50% of profits are donated to help everyone gain access to clean water and a toilet - over £9 million raised to date!”

I’m eager to give it a try, as long as it doesn’t significantly increase our household expenses.

In the past, I have followed a method of updating OpenWrt devices with an option to restore all installed packages and their configurations without needing to spend hours on reconfiguring and testing everything.

This method uses a simple script run in the terminal to generate a list of installed packages, followed by a web interface to generate a backup file used to restore everything.

As long as the backup file is generated correctly, the restoration process works well, but the problem arises when it isn’t!

On several routers with OpenWrt (24.10.x) that I worked with over recent weeks, I experienced a strange issue that caused me to rethink how I generate a backup file to later use to restore all packages and settings after updating OpenWrt to the latest version.

I discovered this issue the hard way when I wanted to extract a backup to retrieve some configuration from individual files. I noticed that the backup failed to extract correctly.

Back in 2023, I have looked at how to add relevant hreflang tags to my personal website, which considered adding self-reference to the current language, reference to a translated page (if available), and falling back with x-default to a page that is designed as a language switcher page.

Since then, I thought that this approach was correct, but found out that this solution, on my website, where not all content is 100% translated, is not good for sites fully translated by default.

Here is how I learned from it and how I optimised hreflang and x-default on websites built with Hugo.

The day has come when my £25pm Toob Fibre 900/900Mbps, via CityFibre infrastructure, was finally installed.

After all the wiring was done, the new Toob router was connected, and I started testing.

To my surprise, Toob switched to a different Linksys Velop model than I initially expected. I have been supplied with Linksys SPNMX56 (SPNMX56TB to be exact), which, by default, comes with a 2.5 Gbps WAN port.

From my previous post, where I chose £40 Linksys MX4200 as my next router, I did an analysis of my needs, and I concluded that I am fine with a 1Gbps WAN port. Toob’s approach to go with 2.5Gbit is more future-proof thinking. If they want to offer higher plans, they will not need to replace hardware. For my needs and 900Mbps connection, the 1Gbps (1000Mbps) port is more value for money.

In my previous post, In search of the perfect OpenWrt router, I discussed my potential future router. When I started researching it more thoroughly, I paused purchasing the Brume 2 and tried to think of what would be better.

I looked into the Brume 2 when I began researching a potential change of broadband provider from Virgin Media to a full (synchronous) fibre connection (CityFibre).

With the provider (reseller) that I am currently considering (Toob), a 900/900Mbps connection offered the best value for money (£25 per month with no price increases over the whole contract period). However, to achieve that speed, they need to provide me with the right hardware.

I’ve noticed that most resellers of CityFibre services utilise Linksys devices, particularly the MX4200 in its second version (v2). This model is sometimes branded as the Linksys Velop MX4200 (AX4200) or ISP-branded as the Linksys SPNMX42, which is simply a v2 in disguise. However, Linksys has already discontinued this device.