Alt Forums

Personally I prefer that my music preferences change depending on what I'm doing like I listen to upbeat songs when I'm working (offline or online) and calm instrumentals or some pop music when I want some relaxation. Do you have a favorite genre or does it vary for you too?

Oh. My. Goddess!

I just stumbled on to a major nostalgia moment on Threads. Did you know you can still purchase Word Perfect? Like, a one time purchase, no subscriptions, or any of that junk? And, yes, I believe Word Perfect is superior to Word. Simply having Reveal Codes was a Godsend! I'm seriously thinking about dropping the money for the full pro version, relearning it again just so I may be able to get a decent office job again! Apparently, lawyers and academia still uses Word Perfect (and related suite products).

(I wonder if macros are still a thing in the current version of Word Perfect?)

I've been seeing lots of vibe coded chat clients being shared over on Reddit, and 9 times out of 10 these threads are often downvoted to oblivion. That got me thinking, would you ever use a chat client that was vibe coded? (Vibe coded means it was made with AI by someone telling it to generate code.)

I just discovered this old IRC client from Microsoft today. This software is now open source, so if you wanted to mess around with it you can now! I've never really been big into IRC, and seeing how this came out in the mid 90's when I started elementary school it's no wonder I didn't know it existed. :V It also brought the best font to the world, Comic Sans. (Yes I said what I said, CS is the best font!)

https://microsoft.github.io/comic-chat/

Welp, Sony decided to stop producing physical games starting in 2028. The playstation 5 is the last playstation console I will own because of this news. Physical media is better than digital.

https://blog.playstation.com/2026/07/01/physical-disc-production-ending-in-january-2028-for-new-games-releasing-on-playstation-consoles/

If you have a VPS or your own server at home and miss AIM or ICQ, you can now host your own OSCAR server using Open OSCAR Server (previously Retro AIM Server) and relive those old AIM and ICQ clients without depending from those closed and centralized services like NINA.

https://github.com/mk6i/open-oscar-server

I just came across this in a YouTube comment and I found it so interesting that I wanted to share it here.

It's a self-hostable Discord alternative almost similar to Matrix (obviously without federation). It has voice chat, screen sharing and some other basic functions of Discord except a "fancy" profile customization.

The server is just a simple and lightweight binary (also available on Docker) which after launching, it starts a web client at port 4991 (yeah, it doesn't have a native client yet you can only use it from your browser). You can configure it later by creating or editing config.ini file under the ~/.config/sharkorddirectory and following this guide (things like server description, logo, storage and signups can be changed inside the web client after using the owner token the server generates for you).

There's also a public official demo here if you want to test it without running a server.

• https://sharkord.com/

• https://github.com/Sharkord/sharkord

This has been a pretty popular Linux Distro as of late. Many people are ditching Mac and Windows for Zorin OS, I watched a video where this guy installed Zorin OS on his girlfriend's old MacBook that was super sluggish. She did struggle to use Zorin a bit at first but was able to eventually get used to the OS and she was super happy she was able to use her MacBook again without slowdowns. I haven't used it yet, but I'm pretty content with Ubuntu that I'll just stick to using that distro for now.

https://zorin.com/os/

I've heard about Matrix but I haven't had the chance to try it out yet. One of the staff over on Sonic retro mentioned that they might eventually move to Matrix from Discord, but he's no longer an admin for the site so who knows if that's going to happen. Which client do you use if you use Matrix? I suppose I could make separate topics for the different clients but I think general discussions about Matrix can just be made in this thread.

This chat client has been around since 2004, so it makes me wonder if anyone here ever used it before. I feel like it was mainly used in a professional setting, I just discovered it since I've been doing research on Discord alternatives for the forum. The latest stable releases were released at the end of last year it looks like. TechRadar mentioned it as a Skype alternative after the platform shut down.

https://jami.net/

This is another free Discord alternative that you can actually host yourself. It's also federated and has E2E encryption. Have you tried this one out yet? I'm thinking about giving it a go and see how I like it. For now Root is still my go to Discord alternative, but maybe Loqa will replace Root who knows? Also you can migrate your Discord server over to Loqa too.

https://loqa.chat/

Looks like the Twitter clone is looking for ways to get their member base back since it's dropped. They're looking at Reddit for ideas apparently. I read this thread about it the other day, but I finally got around to reading the article as well. Have you ever used Blusky before? I used it for a little bit but now the only Twitter like social media I use in a blue moon is Threads. I find it amusing that all these social media platforms keep going back to looking at forums for inspiration. It's almost like forums are still the best at being forums right? 🤣

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/06/04/bluesky-twitter-rival-reddit-social-media.html

Anyone here have experience with linux phones? I know there are a few different OSs for phones like Sailfish and Ubuntu touch.

One linux phone I've been interested in is the Pinephone Pro. It's not highly powered or anything but it has a removable battery and hardware killswitches behind the cover.

https://pine64.org/devices/pinephone_pro/

I've also liked the look of the Librem 5 by Purism. It's vastly underpowered by many modern phones but it has physical kill switches right on the side and uses their own PureOS. I've heard it can take FOREVER to get your phone though.

https://puri.sm/products/librem-5/

Also the Jolla Phone.

https://commerce.jolla.com/products/jolla-phone-sep-ii-2026

Looking for a new platform to use after Discord decided to start forcing users to upload an ID? Look no further! Though Root is not open source like other chat clients are, the devs are clear with their privacy statement and best of all you don't need to upload an ID to access NSFW servers! You can also move your Discord server's layout over to Root. Unfortunately there's no way to bring members and posts over though. It's current in open beta right now, so give it a go and see if it's worth using it over Discord.
https://www.rootapp.com/

This seems to be a professional chat client, so think Microsoft Teams and not Discord. Though they do have a blog post about why people prefer to use Pumble over Discord which is interesting. I don't think Discord when I think of teams so it's kind of odd they compared their platform to Discord lol. Anyways, I don't think most people here will use this one unless you manage a group of people and you need something more professional and don't use Teams. They do allow importing from Slack so if you're using Slack and want to try an alternative Pumble might be a good replacement.

https://pumble.com/pricing

I've been wanting to get a NAS server since I want to setup a webhost to save some money on hosting costs. Does anyone here have any experience with a NAS server? Which one do you have and what do you primarily use it for?

This Reddit alternative really reminds me of the old Reddit from the early 10's, which is the time I joined Reddit. There's also no ads on the site which is great to see. I also prefer the threaded style Tildes has compared to nested over on Reddit. I'm going to sign up and try this platform out! Have you tried Tildes yet?

https://tildes.net/

I figured now would be the best time to make a thread for this version of Linux since over 400 Arch Linux packages were compromised. I wonder how Someordinarygamers is doing since he uses Arch Linux... Sucks this is happening since Linux is typically more secure and harder to compromise.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/over-400-arch-linux-packages-compromised-to-push-rootkit-infostealer/

This is a thread I've been meaning to create since I get curious to see how everyone found the forum. So how did you find Alt Forums?

Do you like any specific genres? What games, gaming systems, and gaming computers do you own or have owned? What were they like?

This is another Linux distro I've used a little bit in the past. It's based on Ubuntu so most packages for programs will work in Mint as well. I feel like Mint is more beginner friendly than Ubuntu is, and I do recommend giving it a go if you're having issues with Windows or Mac. I have it installed on a mechanical hard drive, and because of that it's pretty slow. But SSDs are super cheap these days so it'll definitely work much faster on a SSD.

Not sure where to put this but anyone like made-for-Linux PCs? I know of a few brands and personally have one.

https://system76.com/

is a popular one.

https://starlabs.systems/

is really good, I have the StarBook.

https://www.tuxedocomputers.com/

Another option

What teams do you like? How do they perform? How was your experience playing yourself?

If it's too personal, feel free not to answer. If you do answer, then tell us some non-threatening details.

There's a guy over on Forum Promotion who created a retro like website complete with it's own social media network and forum. He's also working on implementing a monster collecting feature too which is pretty cool! I figured I would share this platform with everyone here in case you haven't checked it out yet. (Generally speaking I think sharing any cool forums you find here is fine btw. They are alternative platforms after all right?)

https://loneportal.com/