Notes from the bench
What shipped, what broke, and why I made the calls I made. Written by me, Paul — the one person who builds all of this.
Proxmox Is the Best Linux Distribution Ever Made. This Isn't Arguable.
Every few years someone writes a "best Linux distro" listicle, and every few years it's the same parade. They all miss the actual answer, because the actual answer isn't marketed as a distro at all. It's Proxmox VE. And it's not close.
Read the postBeta 8: the interface finally looks like the idea — then the radio stack fought back
The Beta 8 overhaul is live — new home screen, arc dock, regrouped settings, and a rule that the phone may never force close. Plus the honest version of how I got VoLTE working on a generic system image, and the one thing I still won't claim.
Read the postI don't have a phone. That's why I'm building this one.
People ask what phone the PresenceOS guy carries. The honest answer is none — my main SIM lives in a test unit on the workbench. Here's why that's not an accident, and what the real finish line for this project looks like.
Read the postPrivacy on purpose: what New Zealanders keep telling the tech industry
The Privacy Commissioner's surveys from 2024 to 2026 show privacy is now a mainstream concern, not a niche one — 82% want the right to have their data deleted, 71% worry about children's privacy, and only 18% trust the law to protect them. Here's what those numbers say, and how PresenceOS answers each of them.
Read the postLab notes, July 2026: one-button pairing, honest backups, and life after Google's push servers
What actually shipped in the last few weeks — NFC pairing that needs one button press, a backup protocol that can no longer lie about success, push notifications with zero Google — and where the iOS Companion genuinely stands.
Read the postWhy PresenceOS left GitHub
GitHub got breached through a poisoned VS Code extension. Today I finished moving every line of PresenceOS source onto my own hardware — here's the reasoning, and the uncomfortable admission that comes with it.
Read the post