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What is the future of F-Droid and apps it distributes now that Google is hell bent on stopping sideloading and forcing developers to register at google? A large portion of what F-droid distributes are apps that are not at Google's good graces.
Do you like writing software for Android, perhaps even sideload the occasional APK onto your Android device? In that case some big changes are heading your way, with Google announcing that they wil…
More immediately, push as hard as possible against it. No mountain is too big that it can't be moved with the right strategy.
On the longer term, forking AOSP would be a good bet, I think, but do note it requires a continuous effort/investment. In the same vein, pushing for Linux and non-Apple-developed BSD systems for mobile (the latter dunno if exists, but if Apple did it, others could also).
Another thing, but for much longer down the line, to change culture. For example, to stop using, as the saying goes, "the language of the enemy", like instead of "sideloading", which implies avoiding the main/correct way, say "installing", and "program" instead of "app"/"application", same as more standard computers. Also if the situation allows, whenever possible, to point the problem Google is, and to not cause apathy, to include solutions in the argument.
I'm new to this 'language of the enemy' lesson. There are so many categories of types of software though. How are we to distinguish best terms for this cause? love the resilient optimism this comment brings
I try to think what could the meaning behind a message be, even if as an unintended consequence. For example, referring to the Windows release of a program as the "PC release" while referring to other releases by their systems' names, e.g. "Linux release", "iOS release", etc., could disassociate the notion of "PC" with the other systems, so in this example, when someone wants to get a new PC, if he/she only finds computers with Windows, he/she wouldn't find weird the lack of other options.
Manipulating the language is a way to manipulate the people. And if you'd be interested to check regarding pointing out this in the technology niches, Louis Rossmann is tackling it way harder for some months now.
And for pointing out who the "enemy" would be, a start, I think, is to see who benefits or promotes a given "language", and if it goes against your ideals.
This is true today, but when the new iron curtain goes up and all of our devices are goog-lag'd next year, it won't be possible, especially with all of the handsome makers the distribute in the US being complicit.
Samsung just removed my ability to unlock the bootloader or load any alternate oses for my handset devices this summer.
Soon my only options will be to import phones that are only partially compatible with the networks here in the US and that come with their own security and privacy concerns.
I switched to Hyprland some time ago and now I made a video showcasing all the features I've implemented for myself, check it out!
In this video I'm showing my current Hyprland setup as a demo. I'm showing features I implemented myself and my configuration of hyprland, waybar, tofi, wlogout, kitty and other tools.
Google is in the middle of a six-month, $45 million contract to amplify propaganda with Netanyahu’s office. The contract describes Google as a “key entity” supporting the prime minister’s messaging.
E: apparently it needs to be said that I am not suggesting you switch to Linux on your phone today; just that development needs to accelerate. Please don't be one of the 34 people that replied to tell me Linux is not ready.
Android has always been a fairly open platform, especially if you were deliberate about getting it that way, but we've seen in recent months an extremely rapid devolution of the Android ecosystem:
Samsung, Xiaomi and OnePlus have removed the option of bootloader unlocking on all of their devices. I suspect Google is not far behind.
Google implementing Play Integrity API and encouraging developers to implement it. Notably the EU's own identity verification wallet requires this, in stark contrast to their own laws and policies, despite the protest of hundreds on Github.
And finally, the mandatory implementation of developer verification across Android systems. Yes, if you're running a 3rd-party OS like GOS you won't be directly affected by this, but it will impact 99.9% of devices, and I foresee many open source developers just opting out of developing apps for Android entirely as a result. We've already seen SyncThing simply discontinue development for this reason, citing issues with Google Play Store. They've also repeatedly denied updates for NextCloud with no explanation, only restoring it after mass outcry. And we've already seen Google targeting any software intended to circumvent ads, labeling them in the system as "dangerous" and "untrusted". This will most certainly carry into their new "verification" system.
Google once competed with Apple for customers. But in a world where Google walks away from the biggest antitrust trial since 1998 with yet another slap on the wrist, competition is dead, and Google is taking notes from Apple about what they can legally get away with.
Android as we know it is dead. And/or will be dead very soon. We need an open replacement.
Samsung One UI removed bootloader unlock officially in latest update. Learn what this change means for custom ROM users, developers, and how it affects Android enthusiasts.
I'm likely going to go to t-mobile as they're cheap from what I understand and they make up a big part of the network that google leases, along with (i think) US Cellular, or something similar.
That said, I've got about a year to decide, unless someone decides to hire me and then I can pay my phone off early.
go w an mvno; they're usually cheaper and it rob the carriers of profit.
and the carriers deserve it for blacklisting chinese smartphones from their networks in collusion with the us gov't in order to prevent chinese tech from entering the us like they're doing with EV's and solar panels using tariffs.
My family just switched from T-Mobile, as they've been jacking up prices lately, and without good reason, considering other carriers have better reception anyway.
As someone dailying a Linux phone, I will say that there were no issues getting it to work on T-Mobile. The only thing I did was manually enter the APN details, but that was an OS thing.
From what I have seen on forums Verizon won't let you at all, and AT&T might take a bit of work to get them to whitelist the IMEI on their network.
at&t collects any and all data they can and sells it directly to law enforcment and the government btw. im pretty sure they all sell your data, but at&t has illegal deals with the government
T-Mobile acquired them, per the usual bullshit, but I get 15GB a month with unlimited talk and text for "$20" a month. The catch is that you pay yearly in bulk for that price. Had it a year and change. Been solid.
I'll have to look into it. 30GB isn't bad at all. I think I have unlimited now with text and phone for only like $10 more a month. I'd have to look, it's been a while since i've dealt with it.
That's a good question. You don't need a phone plan but I think you do still need some way to communicate with the towers. If you do like jevans (data plan only), I suspect there will be no calling functionality at all. Emergency or otherwise. But I could be wrong. Take out your SIM card and call 911 and let me know haha.
Unfortunately there's a lot(!) to do to make Linux enjoyable on a phone. I bought a Pinephone some years ago. And in addition to the slow hardware, the entire software/desktop experience isn't great. While everyone else has instant messengers, Linux doesn't have connected standby and emails and messages just don't arrive unless the screen is on. It wastes quite some power, and there are a bazillion small little quirks and annoyances and it's barely usable if compared to a regular smartphone. I think someone needs to invest quite some more time and money until this becomes a thing. I mean don't get me wrong, Linux and the low-level system is awesome. And it's brilliant on any server/laptop/desktop computer. It's just that there's so many things missing for a proper phone experience. And it's not just mildly inconvenient, but like people expect instant messages to be delivered...
Sure. It's just that the timeframe is a bit disheartening. To me... so all of this is highly subjective. We had the Nokia N900 in like 2009. And I was expecting to live the full Linux experience within a few years and those things to become a bit more affordable. And today it's almost 16 years later and it doesn't feel like we've come substantially closer. More recently we had Librem and Pine64 put some effort and publicity into it, and that's also been 5 years. The mobile/touch desktops made some good progress. PostmarketOS is kind of nice. But there are entire layers missing like the app framework in Android which enables such app lifecycles, connected standby... Sandboxing and a fine-granular permission system for proprietary apps (or just modern mainstream usage) is kind of in its infancy. And I'm not even sure if everyone is going to use Flatpak for everything. And all of those missing things are huge undertakings.
So I'm not sure when to expect such an every-day phone... Maybe in 2030 or 2035? But that's kind of late if the headline is "more important now, than ever". Because all the while Google is moving more and more stuff from AOSP into their proprietary Play services and it's getting uncomfortable for me. We have a deadline with the Google messes with the allowed apps on a phone starting 2027. And my life includes more and more mandatory apps, or I have to forfeit taking part in society, culture, convenience or riding a train... This year, Google started giving the GrapheneOS devs a hard time... Now they're making it even more complicated.
So of course not everyone has to use it, and I'm first of all concerned with my own wellbeing. But I really don't see a solution in the near future which is going to address the important issues if today and the next few years. So I'm a bit unsure if a Linux phone will come around and help me before it's too late, or if I need to find other ways to deal with it.
True but I also never even considered it before because honestly open source Android works really great on most devices already. Now that that's all basically disappearing, hopefully more people will be more dedicated to creating an alternative.
comparison is the thief of joy and it's unrealistic to expect a product of grass roots community effort to compare to a product that benefits from deep pockets that can afford the finest talent and a considerably long head start.
I'm not sure. A phone is kind of a tool, same for a computer. Ideally we weigh our options (aka compare them) and pick which suits us best. And this grass roots effort isn't doing a half-assed job. I have almost everything available. I can do regular tasks, edit videos, do computer aided design, do heavy database stuff, run the bookkeeping for an entire mid-sized company, a server farm or almost anything I like with Free Software and Linux. I don't think a phone is fundamentally different and I kind of have the same high expectations for that niche. We're already doing great with lots of other things, both more niche and more ordinary stuff. And oftentimes it does not include money from tech giants.
How cool would it be to out of nowhere see Valve come out with a SteamPhone based on Arch which does everything you ever hoped for and runs on high quality hardware including all the features that others took away (colour alert pixel, 3,5mm jack, replaceable battery), complete with dual boot or a containerised Android-mode for running apps that would never work like banking or eID. Would buy instantly.
The main problem is that mobile OS is simply not useful without banking or government apps and they won't ever appear on FOSS systems because giving control to user is exactly the opposite of what's in their interest.
That's insane. They don't have TOTP? Or Passkeys? Or (God forbid) SMS or email verification? The only 2FA option is using their shitty app? I think I'd rather switch banks...
It became hard to do that in my country. I changed banks twice in a year because they became shit but even the third one uses its app as 2fa. At least it is a better bank...
I know Credit Mutuel can provide you a physical card with a bunch of codes of which one is selected at random at auth time Had family use it because they had a Huawei phone
If it is what the user wants, then it is a factor for adoption. It is a hard sell to say "yes it can only perform half the stuff you usually do with a phone, but you don't need that anyways". It comes across as condescending, too.
My intent is not to be condescending. It is to make people aware of the fact that they have a choice: They can choose to subject themselves to increasingly-closed and exploitative platforms, or they can choose the extremely minor (I would argue non) inconvenience of using the browser or another computer to access their banking information.
I had nothing but problems with banking apps. Can't do anything if location is off, or it doesn't like your IP, or if it thinks you have rooting software installed. And if it doesn't work right, no one at the bank knows how to help. I just stopped using them, eventually.
Those card readers are called TOTP and we can do that with apps now. Not like the specific app in question but just like a standard password manager that stores all your TOTPs.
In Sweden many parts of society requires an app called BankID. We authenticate getting mail packages, sign contracts, book a time in health care, etc with this app. It's needed everywhere. Buying a bus ticket. A phone without this app is not sufficient to function in swedish society.
A little bit yes, since the BankID is owned by private companies. There are those who are working on a free software version and some people think that the government should have an official authentication app free from private interests. But it's been hard to make people aware and care about these issues. It's like the xkcd worlds smallest open source violin. At the same time, many things that relate to proving that I am me has become very convenient in this society. For example I moved to a new apartment and they just sent a link to the contract and I signed it with the app and that was that, I did my taxes by just checking that the info they had was correct and signed it on my phone, etc.
I would like to move away from Android and iOS. But I'm not sure it's really feasible. Hell, I might even have to move fully to iOS, because that's what the wife uses. That's the challenge with Linux or alternative OSes on mobile. It goes against the purpose of the device - it needs to be able to interact with the people in your life.
Because I have Android and she has an iPhone, we can't easily share headphones (her AirPods or my generic ones) or some of the other accessories. For instance, I don't want a device without a 3.5mm jack, so none of my headphones work for her. About the only thing we can share is the USB-C cable, and it's less efficient on my device. We have to use Google Maps to share location, the built-in functions don't talk. We have to use regular SMS and calls or Discord to talk, because FaceTime and iMessage don't have compatible Android software. I love her with all my heart - and frankly speaking she's worth more to me than software advocacy.
That's what causes ecosystem lock-in. As Sartre said, Hell is other people.
That's the challenge with Linux or alternative OSes on mobile. It goes against the purpose of the device - it needs to be able to interact with the people in your life.
That's not a "challenge" that linux can ever overcome. The only way to overcome that is to ask your wife to switch to a device that's respectful of you and her and everyone else.
I find it extremely irritating that so many people see other devices and "well I can't interact with them the way I want to so I'd better join them and contribute to the problems so I can also not interact with other people on free systems".
Okay. Give me a Linux phone that works out of the box that suits the following dealbreakers:
Compatibility with iMessage and FaceTime. This is essential because my wife, my MIL, and other family members all use it. I can't be expected to change everyone over, I need to be compatible with the majority. I might be able to convert them over time, but it's going to be gradual.
Always-on location information sharing with location data pulled from both GPS & terrestrial sources.
Full support for Bluetooth devices, especially the ANC function of AirPods or similar (oh, and support for my mother's hearing aid app).
OS-level support for telephony and SMS + MMS + RTC messaging. With software that has an instantly usable UI.
A deep repository of trusted software with clear and easy UX that doesn't require adjustment - it all needs to "just work".
That's the issue. It's a great set of goals, but I need to be able to make my wife happy today. Long-term plans for the future are all well and good, but we live in the present. So at the moment, Android is the most open compromise I can make.
Listen, if you want to continue to contribute value to companies that want to fuck you at every turn because you can't be bothered to find other ways to overcome minor inconveniences, that's your prerogative. You're just like most people.
Compatibility with iMessage and FaceTime. This is essential because my wife, my MIL, and other family members all use it.
Once again, this is never going to happen. And this is NOT essential. To anyone. Not even a little bit. Ask your family members to use a different platform. There are HUNDREDS of messaging apps that all do the same fucking thing but aren't behind Apple's Walled Garden. If they can't be bothered, then it must not be important. I ask my friends and family to message me on Signal and most of them don't have a problem with it.
Wait make ur wife happy because of these devices? That insane how u guys were living 20 years ago let not pretend that this devices bring something really important that was not possible to do in old way in the past ,they gave just some alternative way to do stuff including all ur things u said.I am so glad that my family don't understand anything in tech in such things and using just usual phone calls and for video they using something like telegram
Like you, I value my relationships and by extension my mental health more than which messaging app I use.
I hate Meta with a passion and them acquiring Whatsapp is probably the most disappointing acquisition of all time to me, but I'm going to continue using it because my wife, family in Latin America, and world friends all use it. And being lonely and out of touch isn't worth the satisfaction of knowing my data isn't being scraped to me. Others in these threads always seems to disagree here, and they're free to do that but it's not a lifestyle I'm interested in.
I'm making changes where I can; I self host a server for my media, photos, files. I'm going to install Graphene on my phone soon. I'm interested in picking up a cheaper older phone to try a Linux mobile OS on. I have my phone auto connect to my pihole to block trackers when I'm out of the house, etc. But I know as soon as it's something I have to inconvenience others with, it's not going to work.
You're not a dick for saying it. But switching and losing daily driven features isn't really something I think is fair. And that's why I would be the one to change. I'd probably just keep the apple device on hotspot mode and use the Android as a tablet and VOIP call/text device.
I really want one but I dont think I can live with it daily. Too much shit relies on phones now. Linux is perfect for my desktop and I never need windows, but I dont think a linux phone is gonna work for my banking or investment apps
I imagine building on existing AOSP project like GrapheneOS or LineageOS would be the easiest path forward. There is already a decent ecosystem of open source apps available. You'd still need to figure out what to do with proprietary apps like Slack that regular people might need for day to day use.
Ultimately, the problem lies in lack of a hardware vendor willing to take make open phones that are geared towards running a custom OS on without having to jailbreak them. I really think the only way this can happen is if there was a vendor that focuses on providing a full stack open source system for mobile. Maybe a company like Liberux or even Framework will succeed at doing something like that at some point.
Liberux is using waydroid to add compatibility from what I've seen, so that may be the way forward where you have a base Linux system, and then a layer for running Android apps on top of it.
My thinking too. I don't think we need a Linux phone from stracht but fork android and make it work without the play service. It's the hardware manufacturers that are the problem.
Yes. Need the kind of love desktop hardware got for Linux with mobile hardware. I don't need tap to pay and mobile deposit. That can come when the ball really gets rolling and the user base is too large to not service. For now I'd be happy with consistent phone/text support, signal application, a mobile Firefox, and the phone dockable to run full desktop applications. Strong enough hardware. Google are a bunch of jackasses. Need more phones to support PostmarketOS or something
Most apps I can replace with a web browser but the mass market has shown it's preference for an app store. Got to get payments integrated into Flathub
I'm in a similar position. My next phone will be a Linux device I just hope I can install Signal everything else I can do on my pc instead even if it's less convenient
You're saying that an Android without any Google/Samsung/Xiaomi/OnePlus interference wouldn't solve the problems introduced by Google/Samsung/Xiaomi/OnePlus?
We already have it (LineageOS etc), the problem is that the hardware they run on (reflashed unlocked android phones) are disappearing and the whole android ecosystem with proprietary 3rd party software is getting more restrictive.
I have a Pixel 9 Pro which is supposed to get security updates until 2031 but at the pace Google is closing Android down I wonder if it will even be viable to stay on an AOSP degoogled ROM until then.
I feel like the future is leading us to a place where we will have to reduce our mobile computing to a trusted but slow and unreliable main phone while keeping a secondary mainstream device for banking/government apps.
Have you looked at the state of how open source smartphone os projects are funded? Seems like not enough people think it is currently important. i saw no bump in funding since the announcement. I would say the best bet is trying to help one of these projects with fundraising and trying to educate or convince enough people it is worth investing in. and obviously donate if you can. Although to be honest even i don't do that (i think i invest enough in FOSS).
Once i bought a phone i tried to pick one that is friendly for FOSS projects and went with a pixel (which grapheneos recommended). so voting or signaling with your wallet is an option.
I also think something like codeberg. where anyone can be a member if he pays fees that help fund the organisation and democratically elect a board that decides what to fund could be helpful. codeberg has a pretty good organic growth so that is encouraging but i don't know if there is enough interest in that.
Keep Open-Source open for everyone! Codeberg is a Non-Profit Organization, with the objective to give the Open-Source code that is running our world a safe and friendly home, …
My solution? Giving up the smartphone. They are too fragile and are high maintenance. I've simply had enough. So, I went with a Sonim XP3Plus flip phone. Mainly because the screen on the Pixel 3, the phone I went through the trouble of putting a custom ROM on and setting up just right, broke somehow inside.
Yeah, the flip phone runs Android, but it comes as a scaled down version of Android (no Google crap, or extra apps, like any app store; just the basics), so I don't have to do any modding. And I just keep my plan cheap for unlimited calling with very little data (I keep the data off anyways, so I don't care).
Basically, I've gone old school to solve a modern problem (for music, I went with an old school MP3 player). And if people can't be bothered to pick up the phone, I move on. This is where I stand now. I've had enough.
I feel like I finally have peace again after 10 years of using the smart phone. Being disconnected while outside is great.
Best part? The flip phone can last about 2 weeks on a full charge.
PS: Being completely off Google; even YouTube? Feels amazing. I've turned to Odysee, Peertube and B-chute and use those with RSS feeds. No algorithms.
Features that I really didn't give a crap about in the end. Also, my point still stands; smartphones are way too fragile and high maintenance.
So, I did solve the problem; by choosing not to bother with it. For the sake of my sanity. It was the only sane choice to make, given how stupid (and exploitative) modern smartphones have become. All this has done is set people back, wasting more time for absolutely nothing. Rather than being present, people are walking down the street with a phone in their face. It's a sad future for society. Thankfully, I was born long before smartphones were a thing. So, I know how to live without one.
At least I can say this; I am not crying about why Google or Microsoft is doing "this" or "that" to me all the time in a constant cycle. That's no solution at all. Cutting out the problem was the solution.
I did solve the problem; by choosing not to bother with it
Walking away does not solve the problem. It just makes it no longer your problem. Everyone else still has to deal with it. Not everyone has that privilege.
People can change things if they really want to. The real issue is that most don’t want to because they are tied to a bunch of mainstream junk on their phones; thanks to those manipulative algorithms. And that is what you need to realize. Until then, you'll never be free.
Yes and no. Some of us actually need our phones to accomplish things. Work, primarily. As people mentioned elsewhere, simple things like accessing their banking accounts. I wish we didn't, but we do.
I’d never do banking on a smartphone; not in a million years. One theft or hack in public, and all your money and data are at risk. Beyond that, people put far too much of their lives into their phones, and that’s the bigger problem. And that's the aspect you want to keep avoiding.
I’d never do banking on a smartphone; not in a million years.
They're not doing it by choice. The phone is used as mandatory authentication to access the account.
One theft or hack in public, and all your money and data are at risk
...and how do you suppose your laptop is immune from this? Or your desktop, even?
that's the aspect you want to keep avoiding.
I'm not avoiding anything. What you fail to understand is that not everyone's situation is the same as yours. For some of us, these things are outside of our control.
I have a separate flip phone with a number to get a verification code to access my bank account at home. It's only used for getting codes (and nothing else). So, no chance of a SIM swapping.
I just said I do my online banking at home (with a local only encrypted password manager; KeePassXC). Why would I do online banking in public in general when I do my online banking at home? In public, that's taking a huge risk; regardless of the device you use. I just couldn’t dream of doing anything confidential in public; cafes, trains, anywhere. It’s a huge unnecessary risk, and I choose to avoid it entirely.
And you are avoiding everything I am telling you, choosing to continue to make excuses for yourself. That's why you will forever be where you are.
I don't think you understand how SIM swapping works but that's an irrelevant tangent, so I digress.
You are still not understanding what I'm saying: Many banks require an app to be installed on a mobile device (that is, iOS or Android) for account verification in order to access your account. Nothing at all to do with your SIM. You cannot access your account without this app being installed on a mobile device.
Keep on avoiding the issue then, and keep up the good fight with the smartphone ecosystem. It will never end for you. For as long as you defend the smartphone ecosystem, and that you want to avoid the fact that the smartphone controls your life. This is what I mean; tech, like the smartphone isn't serving the user anymore. Instead, the smartphone has become your master. And you, its slave.
Just look around; people walking down the street with their heads buried in their phones. It tells you all you need to know about who is the master and who is the slave.
PS: Use a different bank if they force you to only use an app. Just a thought? Just like restaurants forcing QR codes; walk away. You can make the choice any time you like. 🙂
Over here, banks aren’t allowed to do SMS codes anymore period. So tell me how I should solve the second factor required by law when all „dumb tech“ alternatives aren’t available anymore due to laws and regulations?
Eh... Leave him. He was just looking for attention; pretty sure he has every social media app under the sun on his smartphone. And he wants to make excuses that it's for things like banking. Or work, apparently. Seems like a huge cop-out to avoid the real issue at hand; being held hostage on social media because of those addictive algorithms at play. 🙄
Simply put, he doesn't want to take the initiative to make any changes for himself. So, he'll defend that you can't go through life without a smartphone anywhere. That's how much smartphone users of today are held hostage by big tech. Again, the user is the slave, and the smartphone is their master.
Like, why don't I have this problem with banking? Where I 'MUST' use a smartphone? Sure, my bank has an app, but I am not 'forced' to use it. I can get along quite fine with just using a web browser at home.
Seems like many people who use smartphones at every waking hour, forget the whole concept of what freewill is about. 🤣
Yeah, there ya go again. If it's not a problem for you, it must not be a problem for anyone else. Everyone faces the same obligations and challenges. Right?
Reminds me of my drugs days. "I can control it, I use them because I want to, not because I need them. I can quit any time". 20 years later, no house, no family, no money, and half my recommended weight. And it's the same for every addiction. The only way to get rid of a problem is by first accepting there is a problem. Changing pushers never made it better, just saying.
You act like a typical social media addict (policing comments that weren't even directed to you; along with being unable to resist commenting). Guess it's clear why you can't bear to live without a smartphone, huh? Keep going. You'll only prove my (and youmaynotknow's) point more. But really, I thought you said you were done with me earlier. Isn't that what you said? Well, I said my piece as far as things one can do. Time for a block. You got enough attention from me.
2 weeks? That's awesome. SM6115 and 2300mAh. My Lenovo P11 with LineageOS(GSI) also has a SM6115 with much bigger battery and only gives about 4 days idle.. Are you using some technique for longer battery time?
A technique? Yeah. It's called keeping your WIFI off and mobile data off. As in disconnect completely. You'll regain your time and sense of autonomy, and your phone will last a lot longer on a single charge.
Same thing applied when I still had my Pixel 3 phone; it also lasted 2 weeks. I used it literally for nothing but calling. Other than that, it was left on the table untouched, and completely disconnected. Until the screen somehow broke inside and wouldn't turn on, making me decide to just stop using smartphones altogether as they are just too fragile. Not to mention, high maintenance; which I didn't want to deal with anymore.
Cool, not sure why it doesn't work for me :/ I only turn on wifi about once a week to sync new books from my server since I use it as an offline ebook reader.
Haven't had a pixel 3, but do have a pixel 2. Running stock rom because verizon and degoogled with adb and wifi off, only used for occasional quick photo shoots. The battery also only goes for about 3 days.
I'm glad I can use unlocked phones in Canada. And I was able to use a custom ROM on the Pixel 3 to remove every trace of Google. But honestly, the XP3Plus just spares me such a headache from modern tech. If I am being blunt, I don't want to deal with anything big tech at all now. So, I am also glad I never got a career in IT. Tech of today is just so full of shit. It's all locked down, boring and manipulative.
I was on board the Fairphone hype, and while I think they have a good message, I actually think Pine64 does exactly what they do - just without the flashy marketing. Fairphone still uses AOSP as the basis for their OSes, so there is still a risk of hardware lockout by Google. This is leaving alone other issues like no headphone jack and USB 2.0 for the latest generation's USB-C.
This is actually the same reason I think Ecosia won't succeed in the long term unless they build their own search engine. Luckily it looks like they've already started delivering results as of last month.
I should also mention that the PinePhone isn't Scott free from criticism either. Think I read somewhere that the camera is borked because the latest firmware or software update messed with the camera module functionality. No real fix for that soon, which sucks.
Instead of waiting, you could just go to a flip phone as a temporary measure. It's a lot less on the mind. Believe me. And you may feel in the end, that you won't need a smartphone anymore.
Realistically, i think this idea might work well in tandem with a sort of PDA built off a Pi. I use my phone as a computer, because its a computer. The parts of my phone that i need to be a phone are calls and text, as i dont take photos almost ever. Data is nice, but im fairly certain i had seen recently a sim module for Pi devices, so i can just bake it into that instead so i still have a mobile computer.
Someone will eventually make a better phone OS, but in the short term it seems smart to move to a dumb phone and offset everything else to a device tou can actually control.
I'm not hoping on that; especially if big tech is involved in anything that becomes mainstream. The best option is just to avoid the mainstream.
but in the short term it seems smart to move to a dumb phone and offset everything else to a device tou can actually control.
That's the real point I am making. But people who put their entire life into their phone are incapable of this. And that's what's depressing about all of this. Because of addictive social media algorithms, people hinge their entire lives on their phone.
I was on board the Fairphone hype, and while I think they have a good message, I actually think Pine64 does exactly what they do - just without the flashy marketing.
Exactly what they do, except it's not a functional product. "Overpriced, underpowered, and half-finished" is the motto of pine64.
You missed the overpriced and underpowered part. In the EU, the pinephone pro cost 600€, the same as the fairphone 6, and it's significantly worse in every single way. Even if it actually worked, who in their right mind would pay that much for a device that's going to run out of ram as soon as you open a few tabs in Firefox?
They base a lot of their development on the community though. So if the community isn't up to it, then virtually no one at Pine64 is.
I doubt they'll be fixing anything since they seem to have stopped selling them.
Also, if we go by their track record with the pinetime, PRs fixing basic functionality will be left open for years. Like how they can't be bothered to accept fixes allowing the stopwatch to run in the background and not reset when you get a notification, let alone QoL improvements like being able to tell the time on your watch while the stopwatch is running.
I doubt they'll be fixing anything since they seem to have stopped selling them.
Pine64 stopped selling the PinePhone Pro due to a lack of demand.
The regular PinePhone is still being sold, although a lack of a "Pro" qualifier certainly doesn't help their optics of producing a competent phone at today's standards.
ThinkPads are built to last. I have one that is 17 years old running as my Pi Hole server to not only clear out all the ads and trackers online, but also any mainstream social media platforms and anything big tech related.
And as the cherry on top, a Raspberry PI to host my own SearXNG instance with a blacklist applied to that as well; to filter mainstream tech sites, big tech and also all mainstream social media platforms from my search results.
I have been wanting a Linux phone for ages but I can't afford a librem and pine seems to have stalled out. Just found out about Furi and now I'm wondering if it really is that good. It's still expensive but it at least doesn't look like it'd choke on running a calculator app.
You might have better luck looking at the distros themselves. They're not exactly great on any device yet, but there are cases where mobile Linux distros work at least equally or a little better on select Android phones than they do on dedicated Linux phones.
A linux phone, or any other open source alternative, has ALWAYS been more important than the ones we've got. Being locked into an eco-system, has always been bad for the regular user. It's about companies controlling people and the market, and it should never have to be a choice between a rock and a hard place.
I really wish that the Firefox phone had gained more support. And I wish that there will soon be a linux-phone for the regular person, all over the world.
But I guess people in general keep choosing to lock themselves in, by using Google and Apple...
It's not a simple matter of choice. Most people aren't invested into open source, they just want to get by and do their mundane things. Most people aren't even aware of all the privacy stuff or abusive practices of big business, it's usually some more outspoken tech savvy person that decides to expose what the big corps are doing. So using open source is not a choice, like you would be just choosing your preferred cereal brand, but both a technical and political act. And most people are just into the system, they aren't aware of all malicious things around them.
Not only that, but also when companies feel threatened, they start imposing new technical and legal restrictions to make using OSS harder. Since they have more control over the whole production supply chain of devices, they have more cost effective options and even partnership with hardware vendors to make using OSS very hard or impossible.
the vast majority of commenters here either have no direct experience with a Linux phone or have seen some shallow youtube "review" of a dude swiping the same two screens left/right and extrapolate a buncha shit that has no contact with reality.
presently, and in the foreseeable future, linux phones aren't an android alternative, they are just linux on the phone, i.e. they allow you to do linux shit on a handheld device.
like, the bleeding edge version of any variant (plasma mobile, gnome, phosh) isn't even close to an Android phone from like 2015, let alone a modern one.
and that's before we touch on the pillars of mobile tech like fluidity, battery efficiency, reliability, etc., none of those things are even in a remotely passable state, not to mention - using the thing to make calls. you are better off forgetting about the camera, as well.
and the reason is simple, not only is there a gargantuan discrepancy between evil corp's resources and the predominantly unpaid enthusiasts, each dev team's reimplementing shit that's already solved on another platform. apple doesn't have to do that. google as well.
then there's the idea that the javascript-backed Gnome - that has issues running fluidly on super-capable hardware - is the basis on a low-power device on which the linux mobile phone experience is built. reinventing solved shit, but in a stupid way - THREE FINGER swipe on a phone, really?
although there's a solid app base, the apps that are supposedly mobile friendly are few and far between, most are just downright unusable on a vertical screen and dog help you if launch an electron app. firefox, even with pmOS patches (useless without) is tiresome to use. you can forget about dating, ubering, banking, or even just using a messenger everybody else does.
if you're squeamish about flashing custom recoveries and ROMs, the e.g. pmOS install process is way, way, way more involved and failure prone. if you go with ubuntu touch or mobian, even more so.
finally, if you're talking about a device that you've grown accustomed to to the extent that you're using it subconsciously, swiping and multitasking and such whilst walking and dodging other pedestrians - no such thing exists over here.
I'm just tying this up because I keep reading about "switching", people are either delusional or misinformed, there's nothing (yet) to switch to.
get a couple of $50 ex-flaghips to play with, flash lineageOS on one and pmOS on the other and that should hold you over for a coupla years.
There is always the option of waydroid to get android apps running on Linux. It's not a great solution, but a first stopgap measure to use services only available as apps.
I'm not critiquing your post, I'm just clarifying to a buncha people who think otherwise that it's not an option.
as to "it needs to accelerate", I have a grim outlook. the only way it's gonna do that is if there significant cash behind it and if everything non-essential is to be trimmed so that a functional platform can emerge. in our ever-enshittifying, greater-fool-theory investment climate, it's doubtful there loose capital with such an agenda, and I doubt such a thing is even on the horizon.
same way with "desktop linux"; like, can you image where we'd be if every development effort is geared towards just one DE/WM, instead of tons of duplicated efforts and abandoned paths? yeah, good things eventually emerge from all the disjointed chaos, but eventually. and our joint assessment is that we're running outta time for the "eventual" part.
It's not great but lots of people are using it today. There are multiple entire businesses built on it. It may not fit your needs but it obviously does for many. And it's only going to get better.
see, this is the thing I'm talking about. your comment indicates that it's possibly a viable alternative to OS developed by the wealthiest corps in the world, for 15+ years and people are like "ok, there's options"...
it is nowhere near that. it's linux on a mobile device, and that's such a humongously, vastly different thing than an alternative and that should be the first and foremost thing said. same with the "android is linux" bozos in every thread (it really, really isn't) who are not helping the issue, at all.
and then we can dwell on whether it's usable or not in its present state.
if you're squeamish about flashing custom recoveries and ROMs, the e.g. pmOS install process is way, way, way more involved and failure prone. if you go with ubuntu touch or mobian, even more so.
What?? PmOS and Ubuntu Touch both have very easy, foolproof installers. No idea about Mobian to be fair.
I've been using only Linux-based mobile OS's since my first smartphone, and while you're right for a lot of the new breed made for the Pinephone and Librem, Sailfish OS and Ubuntu Touch are both perfectly useable for lots of people. Both have a decent app ecosystem and both support running Android apps to fill in the gaps (I've used both, the proprietary Jolla one is about as good as it gets and is practically seamless for like 99% of Android apps).
Of course there's going to be people who will respond to me to say they can't possibly switch because of that one app that they and 5 other people in the world use, as though they're in any way relevant to what I've said. Just the same as when I post about people switching to Linux on the desktop and there's always that one Fusion 360 user who thinks everyone in the world also uses Fusion and so Linux can't possibly ever work for anyone.
UT and mobian need to be on stock, ancient versions of android prior to flashing. that is a challenge in an of itself, just check out what it takes to go from lineage A15 to stock A9. also, "easy" and "foolproof", please - you're not the target audience I'm addressing.
To be fair, Fusion 360 is pretty good... I hate to love it, to miss it. I can't wrap my head around the work flow in FreeCAD.
But more often I am shocked by people saying they have to stay on windows because of Office... Like, the fuck? MS doesn't even want you to have that installed on your computer anymore and is pushing all web based, but that is going to keep you on Windows?? Nothing there is particularly hungry, just put it in a VM if you absolutely can't get by with one of the several great alternatives.
This seems less of a problem in the US, but a lot of stuff here is done with some apps that won't run on these distributions.
Banks have created identity provides which now the government also uses, and they're locked down to Android and iOS. Without these, making payments or do other stuff you need your identity for gets hard. And there are used by hundreds of thousands of people daily.
If they can run, I'd switch over instantly, but now I'm pretty much stuck.
Thank you. I get what OP is saying, but in general I'm so over the constant blind Linux fanboy hype train, like it's the solution to everything. One of the reasons I can't really stand to be on this instance unless I see something important enough to hit the front page. I'll take a remotely functional windows dist with customized features over pretty much any linux OS anyday in order to not struggle to complete the most basic, essential tasks.
Life's too short to spend glued to Stackexchange instead of actually getting shit done.
Reclaim your smartphone with Jolla C2 The Jolla C2 isn’t for everyone. It’s for those who believe their privacy is their own to control, who value trust over shortcuts, and who have the courage to make their own way.
How delusional are you? Samsung holds over 20% of the worldwide mobile phone market, only beat by Apple by a few percent.
And that is ignoring the obvious trend from Google to lock down the Android ecosystem to only them and their partners. If they have their way, they will make 3rd party ROMs nearly impossible, block all 3rd party apps, and close the door on fdroid. Maybe what has been done so far doesn't affect you, but if no one gets in their way, it absolutely will and soon.
Is it possible to have my normal shitty samsung for stuff that wont work on a linux phone, and have like a pinephone for simple calls and stuff, but have them both use the same phone # ? I doubt.
Cuz when hiking or something I like a phone for safety but I dont want distractions.
I just hope that this time we go Free Software and not committing the mistake of going Open Source for a 3rd time (BSD/UNIX AT&T; Android/Google). Unless we want to fall with the same stone yet once more.
Android going Open Source allowed Google to close Android once it got mature. It's a Trojan Horse, yet people still go Open Source and then complain when some company closes their source.
Because the license allows the closing of the code whenever a coder wants. BSD has that problem. It gives so much freedom that it can go against freedom itself. Microsoft took Kerberos (BSD), forked it and extended it. The MS fork gained ground against the BSD one and MS closed the source when its fork was the most used, pushing out the original BSD version.
I get where this argument is coming from, but I don't think there are meaningful differences in the success of gpl or other copyleft licenses, vs permissive ones (except maybe cases where someone was willing and able to enforce the gpl in court). Companies are no less capable of doing EEE with copyleft. There are also plenty of permissively licensed software projects that have gained a lot of popularity, just like some gpl ones have.
The difference in traction between Linux and BSD probably has more to do with the same kinds of forces that allowed Android to succeed and then crowd Windows phones out of the market.
My bad for no specifying I didn't use a very specific naming indeed. Normally Open Source it's used for source code that's not copylefted or copylefted software that does not defend user freedom (Although Open Source OSS does not say that, indeed GPL by the OSS definition is open source software). On the other hand Free software is commonly used for GPL like software (although most of the so called open source software could also be named free software). Also free software does not refer to "gratis" software. For a better explanation you can check this and this.
Anyways what I wanted to point out is that software that protects user freedoms and is copylefted (like GPL) protect users because the source code is protected from being closed if it is distributed.
On the other hand some open source software (open as open access), like ASOP, give open access without any protection for the user freedoms. For example the BSD-3-Clause.
I prefer to use the term Free Software instead of Open Software, because it points out that the whole meaning behind the licence is to maintain source code freedoms. On the other hand Open software seems to defend the fact that the source code is open but not its freedoms.
Both OSS Open source and FSF Free software definition refer to mostly the same set of licences, which in order to distinguish you would need to check the particular details like copyleft, etc.
There are two major terms connected to software you can freely use, study, share, and improve: Free Software and Open Source. Based on them you can also fi...
By the way, outside of our brawl down below, I do agree with you 100% that having a fully functional and modern Linux phone would be an amazing thing to have.
Check out postmarketOS, a real Linux distro for phones with a 10-year life cycle goal and mainline kernel support. It’s not daily-driver ready for everyone, but it frees you from Google and OEM lockdowns. If we want an open mobile future, this is the project worth supporting.
i still think that the Linux Mobile ecosystem is bad(even worse then Desktop Linux), i want it to happen and become as good as Desktop Linux. also i am pretty sure Google cannot fully get rid of AOSP, especially Android is put on any phone that isn't Google. tho even before the Goolog fuckery these things where there. Samsung required a a leaked program to Unlock its bootloader(Odin which is proprietary), and would trip Knox. Xiaomi required a wait time to unlock its bootloader, and the unlocking bootloader thingy is proprietary. Banking apps wouldnt work with root and stuff, even before the Play Integrity API forcing thingy.
indeed, android has been a shit show for the last couple of months and its not looking good.
i was thinking that this will make rooting and by extension custom ROMs prevalent again which hopefully will take us back to the golden age of android modding, but be careful of what you wish for.
I DON'T WANNA USE STOCK ANDROID. DON'T WANNA DON'T WANNA DON'T WANNA DON'T WANNA DON'T WANNA DON'T WANNA
The point of this post is that there are worrying trends that threaten the entirety of the Android ecosystem. Not necessarily today, but in the near future.
While I support the continued progress of real Linux phones, have a Pinephone, and even wasted all of yesterday trying to make a working build of Armbian for retro handheld I have; I think it's more practical to focus on open Android distributions, getting more phones out that can support multi os's and buying those, and growing a robust app market system that can compete with Google Play.
F-Droid is almost there, but being open-source doesn't mean something has to be free of charge. F-Droid should be extended, or possibly an additional app manager be established, that still promotes software freedom and privacy, but allows for devs to charge for their apps as well.
Nothing that has or will happen can stop the parts of Android that are already open from remaining open. Yes there will be fewer choices. Yes this means alternative ROM makers will have no choice but to shoulder more of the development burden themselves. And yes this means there's going to be significantly fewer open Android devices and new manufacturers will have to make the intentional effort to make and sell new devices that are free by design - a few of which already exist.
But no matter how many obstacles open Android has, the thing you're ignoring is that it's still in a far better place than mobile Linux. For a start, any device that respects rights enough to be Linux compatible will automatically be compatible with free and degoogled versions of Android as well.
What these growing problems are is a galvanizing call. Samsung, Xiaomi, and OnePlus, and Google were never our friends. Whatever their imperfections, at least Pine64, Purism, BQ, Planet Computers, Murena, Fairphone, F(x)tec, Volla, and SHIFT have sold hardware that was rights respecting by design. We need more companies or other organizations to do that, and we need to choose to buy and promote more devices like that.
And as that happens more, open Android and Linux are going to benefit equally, but there's no getting around the fact that for now and the forseeable future, the open Android variants are still far more mature, far more feature-complete, way closer to the kind of user experience the vast majority of people expect, and far more established.
And again, probably the biggest missing thing we need there is an app marketplace that competes more directly with Google Play, that gives more devs good incentives to want to switch away from Play.
Nothing that has or will happen can stop the parts of Android that are already open from remaining open.
Not really relevant if future development stalls.
the thing you're ignoring is that it's still in a far better place than mobile Linux
The thing you're ignoring is that Linux is continually progressing and improving while Android is regressing.
Whatever their imperfections, at least Pine64, Purism, BQ, Planet Computers, Murena, Fairphone, F(x)tec, Volla, and SHIFT have sold hardware that was rights respecting by design.
The hardware is irrelevant when the software is fundamentally broken.
Yeah this is bad but not even devastating for custom roms like GOS or LineageOS ::: ::: spoiler 2
Samsung, Xiaomi and OnePlus have removed the option of bootloader unlocking on all of their devices. I suspect Google is not far behind.
I highly doubt Google would lock the bootloader, they still make the most friendly devices for custom roms (yes even after all they have done). Also Samsung hasnt acturally allowed custom roms for a while now while Xiaomi doesn't either. ::: ::: spoiler 3
Google implementing Play Integrity API and encouraging developers to implement it. Notably the EU's own identity verification wallet requires this, in stark contrast to their own laws and policies, despite the protest of hundreds on Github.
Even if a developer used the Play Integrity API it doesn't mean custom roms or other operating systems like GOS arent supported. I use GOS and have had no issues with play integrity, there are no incentives to require a certified Android device. ::: ::: spoiler 4
And finally, the mandatory implementation of developer verification across Android systems. Yes, if you're running a 3rd-party OS like GOS you won't be directly affected by this, but it will impact 99.9% of devices, and I foresee many open source developers just opting out of developing apps for Android entirely as a result.
Sideloading isnt going anywhere and tbh I doubt this will be strongly enforced, Google will always have the threat of root resurfacing. You dont even need root to get rid of Google Play services and install MicroG. ::: ::: spoiler Conclusion
Android as we know it is dead. And/or will be dead very soon. We need an open replacement.
That seems highly unlikely, even with everything Google has done the fact is AOSP is the only mature open source mobile project. ::: Now ill get to my issues with mobile Linux: ::: spoiler Hardware As of now there is no good hardware and no plans by any company to make good hardware in the future. ::: ::: spoiler UI Mobile Linux interfaces are at least a decade behind Android, clunky and bearly usable. Btw yes I have tried them recently, they suck. For the most part mobile Linux interfaces are made by developers who would never acturally daily drive them. ::: ::: spoiler Software support Not a lot of Linux software supports arm and those that do either don't work with touchscreens or have them as an afterthought. ::: ::: spoiler UX The software that does work generals isnt designed with small screens in mind and are very often scaled down desktop apps ::: ::: spoiler Basic functionality Basic functionality is absolutely not there on Linux phones, things like calling and texing either require commands or outright dont work at all. For example according to the Postmarketos Wiki in order to change volume on a Pixel 3a during a call you need to manually change it with commands. Genuenly what the fuck, if im on an important call the other person isnt going to wait several hours for me to fiddle with the terminal. If I need to send a text now im not waiting several hours until it works. ::: ::: spoiler Security Mobile Linux has all the security issues as Linux with no mitigations, except phones contain a lot more personal information and are more likley to be a target for data extraction. :::
Samsung One UI removed bootloader unlock officially in latest update. Learn what this change means for custom ROM users, developers, and how it affects Android enthusiasts.
Yeah this is bad but not even devastating for custom roms like GOS or LineageOS
Not yet. It's a concerning trend. It's certainly put a strain on their already-limited resources.
I highly doubt Google would lock the bootloader
...why not?
Also Samsung hasnt acturally allowed custom roms for a while now while Xiaomi doesn't either.
They had unlocked bootloaders. Now they don't. That's all I can say about that.
Even if a developer used the Play Integrity API it doesn't mean custom roms or other operating systems like GOS arent supported.
That's...exactly what that means. That's the entire point.
have had no issues with play integrity
Oh well I suppose if you have no issues, no one else is either? No. You're just not using the apps in question. But once again, it is a concerning growing trend. More and more apps are implementing it.
I doubt this will be strongly enforced
Why would Google lie about this?
As of now
As you might have read in the first sentence of the OP, I was not suggesting installing it now.
My point is that the issues with mobile Linux is so numerous and severe that the timeframe for when the average person could use it is at least seven years or more.
Graphene team already did a blog post about the lock down of AOSP and how it will significantly hinder their ability to support future hardware, since drivers was a huge part of what was moved closed source by google. Those open source drivers was the big driving force for why Graphene basically only supported Pixel phones. They made it significantly harder for people using AOSP derivatives currently to upgrade to a new phone when it is time.
Sure but the GOS team has openly said that even with everything they're still going full steam ahead on Google Pixel support. People thought GOS was going to die but we know now that it was severely overblown.
I got a Sailfish OS last year seeing the writing on the wall already with all the bootloader locking. It’s been bumpy to put it lightly, but at least it has Android apps to help get over the gaping holes of basic missing apps like a halfway decent XMPP client.
Hi guys, as the title says looking for a good OpenVPN client for linux. I know OpenVPN 3 exists but it's a pain to be honest. Edit:I know it is not perfect but I have found that the windscribe VPN Client for Linux supports adding your own VPN config files (both OpenVPN and WireGuard) and has a nice GUI . You don't need to have a windscribe account to use it either. I don't know if other VPNs clients also support this or not
Just in case it helps - I followed this guide to get Mint's Network Manager working with the Cisco AnyConnect OpenVPN thing (needed it for work) which worked well for me, I guess the steps should be fairly similar for other stuff.
Edit: fat fingers made me type "caze" instead of "case".
I hear more complaints about Windows from Windows users than from people who solely or primarily use other OSes. Unless you count “Okay… so why don’t you do something about it?” as a complaint, that is.
Several distributions made an effort to replace locate with alternative and updated versions of it. For usage the command name is still locate, but the package name should be different, in example mlocate or plocate and there are other alternatives too. The main difference between the old and new versions is they are faster.
Since locate doesn't work by default in Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS, and the message on the terminal says:
Command 'locate' not found, but can be installed with:
sudo apt install plocate
As we can see, it ...
I actually don't have a preference. I usually just use the default locate implementation my distribution provides. I used mlocate before and when the distros switched to plocate, I rolled along with that without making efforts installing mlocate from a different source. Its the easiest and safest way to me. Usage and performance between mlocate and plocate seems to be identical in my experience (no benchmark, just how it "felt"). plocate is actually mlocate with a few patches for edge cases, if I understand it right.
I have it currently uninstalled due to an issue:
However, recently I had some issues with the locate and KDEs baloo (baloo can do content indexing too but I set it to only filename indexing, so its similar to locate). Those tools may have killed my previous system SSD and on my new one I noticed they used up Gigabytes of RAM and seem to be stuck. After investigating both tools seem to have choked on few filenames that contain unusual characters. Therefore I have disabled them for now until figured out how to deal with this (probably renaming) and try later again.
They do. You look at it every time you see the contents of your disk. It's just organised in a tree to make path based lookups fast and locate organises its database differently to make fast basename lookups.
I guess because that adds extra complexity that isn't inherently necessary and can be added on top, plus it eats resources. You'll spend the cycles either way basically, at least this way it's optional. I don't bother with a file indexer because with SSDs nowadays, find is pretty fast, and how often do you search for files anyway?
Linux has APIs to get notified on file system events (fanotify, inotify) which would allow such a service to update itself whenever files are created/delete immediately, but locate is way older than that, from the 80s. I think popular DEs have something like that.
There's also ways to search for specific files that come with packages (e.g. dpkg -S), because the package manager already maintains an index of files that were installed by it, so you can use that for most stuff outside /home.
I search for files dozens of times per day, it's largely how I navigate between folders. And often advanced searches like only this root folder, in reverse order of accessed time, or only folder On windows I use void tools everything but nothing like it compares in speed and ease of use on linux. It's one of my many roadblock to transition to linux.
Jokes aside afaik you could do everything you mentioned with sort, find (with -type f, -printf and -mtime) and grep (filtering via regex with the -e flag).
Alternatively you could try KDE's file explorer dolphin (or even just its search utility kfind) as a graphical alternative.
My point is switching to linux is not quick or easy, but there are few really impassable roadblocks (games with shitty kernel level anticheat for example) and there is a high likelyhood someone in this community has encountered your problems aswell and migjt even know a solution.
Yeah, i like nemo a lot, i use it on my main machine when i need a gui, because it has not as many dependencies as dolphin. And it does not feel as "bloated" as dolphin. It does one thing (be a file explorer) and does well. 😀
using find to sort all pictures in /pics/ by inverted (i.e., most recently accessed first) access time, and filtering only those with an exposure time between 1/20 and 1/100 seconds
find /pics/ -type f \( -iname '*.jpg' -o -iname '*.jpeg' -o -iname '*.png' \) \
-exec exiftool -ExposureTime -T {} \; -exec bash -c '
file="$1"
exposure="$2"
# Convert exposure to decimal
if [[ "$exposure" =~ ^([0-9]+)/([0-9]+)$ ]]; then
num="${BASH_REMATCH[1]}"
denom="${BASH_REMATCH[2]}"
exposure_val=$(echo "$num / $denom" | bc -l)
else
exposure_val="$exposure"
fi
# Filter by exposure between 1/100 and 1/20 seconds
if (( $(echo "$exposure_val >= 0.01" | bc -l) )) && (( $(echo "$exposure_val <= 0.05" | bc -l) )); then
atime=$(stat -c %X "$file") # Access time (epoch)
echo "$atime $file"
fi
' bash {} $(exiftool -s3 -ExposureTime {}) | sort -nr
Ah yeah okay, I see, that would be quite tedious to implement in bash. Everything looks pretty neat. 😁
Buuut I just looked at KDE's search framework filter options (used by dolphin if you press + f ) and it seems it is indeed possible to search/filter by exposure time with dolphin or via directly in the cli.
Seems like a good and useful workflow for sure. Don't know if something equivalent exists, maybe it doesn't.
I'd personally use find for this, but it is a command line tool, and while I have memorized some of the more common options (directories-only would be -type d for example), I'd have to look at the manpage for more advances options. It's not hard exactly but it's not easy-to-use GUI software for sure.
I've taken to using chatgpt to make me the more advanced find queries, before on linux I would ONLY use find /path | grep -i somenames So that's already an improvement, if still a bit tedious
The thing about everything is that it's so ergonomic, fast and powerful.
Being able to search anything and sort everywhich way with the click of a button
Check out this sublime search syntax (this not even half of it ! )
And the re-ordering by columns, and there are just SO MANY columns you can add, like search by EXIF camera exposure, no problem !
I really wish there was something as good as "everything" on linux, it's just awesome.
Maybe it could run on something like wine ? But if there's not something like... whatever it is that thing that makes WizTree faster than WinDirStat, then it would probably work in a very slow compatibility mode
Hi, I'm Nick, and I run The Linux Experiment, a Youtube Channel and Podcast where I talk about Linux, Open Source, and privacy. I make 3 videos per week, including a Linux …
First time I've heard about libadapta. Very happy that folks are doing something about GNOME's anti-theming dogma and I'm excited to see what libadapta or a derivative might bring in the future.
I have an old Asus EeePC 1015T netbook with an HDMI (and VGA) output, a screen that glitches if I'm holding it wrong, a huge, tired, unreliable battery, a noisy fan that fails to cool it to less than skin-burning temperatures, and slightly less than 1 GB of RAM. I've seen Xubuntu, then Lubuntu, become slowly unusable on it; I've tried to install Arch then Sway, but although the device got kinda less sluggish, the leaning curve for a tiling window manager was still too high.
So here's a thought experiment: could I craft a Linux setup with a themeable yet cohesive Windows 98-like UI, that I can plug to an old monitor (1280x1024 should be enough) and that can be just responsive enough to do basic, focused tasks (writing, listening to music and webradios, browsing Wikipedia, perhaps playing Doom) using this kind of very limited hardware? The idea would be to have some sort of reliability: instead of installing an old distro and freezing all updates, I'd ideally go for a modern basis that I can upgrade without worrying of watching my setup collapsing on itself; so I could reproduce this setup on other, similarly old computers, and turn them into retro distraction-free appliances where you could chill with a classic Windows feel and Winamp themes.
I have some ideas but I'm not sure about the best approach. I've tried an immutable Fedora image (Blue95), but after a full day and night of waiting for the setup and rebase to complete, the end result was way too slow to be usable. Then I went for BunsenLabs on a Debian Trixie basis: it works okay performance-wise, but there's a lot of obscure menu items pointing to small apps to customize (you have to know what a "conky" or a "tint2" is, and also understand that the default panel is a third different thing). I'm thinking of trying postmarketOS, since the Alpine base sounds lightweight enough, but I havent figured out how to install it on my EeePC.
Could Wayland be possible with these hardware limitations? If so, how should I setup it? I guess labwc (pictured above) is the best fit for a Win9x experience, but what is needed afterwards? LXQt or Xfce or something else?
The lightest Windows 95-esque setup I've achieved was IceWM on Debian. Manually install the GUI to avoid unnecessary packages. Around 200 MB RAM usage from cold boot and very snappy on an Atom netbook with 2 GB RAM. With zram swap set to 50% of total RAM (swapping to the tiny, slow eMMC proved frustrating), I could comfortably browse most websites and work in LibreOffice. If you use a no-frills distro (like Debian), performance shouldn't change too much with updates.
It should come with a Windows 95 theme, but some settings are available only in the config files. Adding a theme like Raleigh for GTK3 will make it look more cohseive without consuming much extra resources.
As for Wayland, I think the only performant options would be labwc or a modification of Weston. I've no experience with XFCE on Wayland, but that would open up the option of the Chicago95 theme.
This is gonna be a lot of work, like, a lot a lot of work.
You're on the right track, I think antix is your best starting point. Its the closest you'll get to a fully featured distro. Damn Small Linux would maybe be my next choice, but I'm not sure if development is ongoing.
Regardless, you want something without systemd. Im personally hopeless without it, but there are plenty of people who daily drive openrc, runit, etc so it's possible with determination.
id probably do 3gb of swap, maybe more if you are crashing a lot. I suspect even if you keep memory usage down you will be swapping A LOT. If you had even 1gb more memory I'd be less worried, but you're cutting it close.
If that's still not light enough, you could try using CDE or Motif as a desktop.
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Isn't React OS unstable? Last time (and this was like maybe couple years), I remember watching a YouTuber trying to run older Windows applications and game and get the Blue Screen of Death
Take a look at Q4OS, with its standard Trinity Setup you get something resembling Windows XP, but i think the Windows 98 look could also be easily achieved with some theming. The needed minimal specifications for the Trinity Desktop also look good: 350MHz CPU / 256MB RAM / 3GB diskspace
I'm not sure what happened to the old Redmond widget theme, which was essentially a transplant of the Windows 9X widget style, but if you're not picky, the .Net theme in the tdeartwork package will probably be Good Enough (or you could go for the different-but-equally-retro CDE/Motif experience). TDE itself, as KDE3, was originally expected to run on an average PC made 20+ years ago—I ran it for years on a single-core Athlon64 with 1GB RAM (and those were pretty good specs for a machine of that era). I don't know what else Q4OS might be carrying along with it, though.
If you want to go even lighter, look for something offering Fluxbox or Openbox as the GUI—they have enough stuff in them to be useful launchers out of the box, but don't have the overhead of the true DEs (configuring them may require you to mess around in text files, but you only have to do it once).
Anyway, your main issue is going to be getting any modern browser to work on a machine that constrained. (If your interest is only in looking at Wikipedia, Konqueror, which ships with TDE, can be made to mostly work if you force the use of Wikipedia's "vector" skin, but the current default skin breaks search and looks like ass. Konqueror's browser code is way out of date and not recommended for general Internet use.)
Ncdu takes ages to run on my system, its like 500GB+ of storage space, but it takes roughly an hour to finish scanning, probably a bit less, is there any alternative which either constantly monitors my files so it always knows the sizes for me to navigate or is significantly faster than Ncdu?
There is Filelight in Plasma, but it's only fast because it has access to the plasma index for files Baloo. I use ncdu extensively though. Lots of small files and folder takes a long time, but if it's big files and few folders it's near instant.
Advice from a long time sysadmin: You're probably asking the wrong question. ncdu is an efficient tool, so the right question is why it's taking so long to complete, which is probably an underlying issue with your setup. There are three likely answers:
This drive is used on a server specifically to store very large numbers of very small files. This probably isn't the case, as you'd already know that and be looking at it in smaller chunks.
You have a network mount set up. Use the -x option to ncdu to restrict your search to a single filesystem, or --exclude to exclude the network mount and your problem will be solved (along with the traffic spike on your LAN).
You have a single directory with a large number of small files that never get cleared, such as from an e-mail deadletter folder or a program creating temp files outside of the temp directories. Once a certain number of files is reached, accessing a directory slows down dramatically. The following command will find it for you (reminder - make sure you understand what a command does before copying it into a terminal, DOUBLY so if it is run as root or has a sudo in it). Note that this will probably take several times as long to run as ncdu because it's doing several manipulations in series rather than in parallel.
sudo find $(grep '^/' /etc/fstab | awk '{print $2}') -xdev -type f -exec dirname {} \; | sort | uniq -c | sort -nr | head ::: spoiler explanation This command doesn't give an exact file count, but it's good enough for our purposes.
sudo find # run find as root
$( ... ) # Run this in a subshell - it's the list of mount points we want to search
grep '^/' /etc/fstab # Get the list of non-special local filesystems that the system knows how to mount (ignores many edge-cases)
awk '{print $2}' # We only want the second column - where those filesystems are mounted
-xdev # tell find not to cross filesystem boundaries
-type f # We want to count files
-exec dirname {}\; # Ignore the file name, just list the directory once for each file in it
sort|uniq -c # Count how many times each directory is listed (how many files it has)
sort -nr # Order by count descending
head # Only list the top 10 ::: If they are temp files or otherwise not needed, delete them. If they're important, figure out how to break it into subdirectories based on first letter, hash, or whatever other method the software creating them supports.
If your filesystem is btrfs then use btdu. It doesn't get confused by snapshots and shows you the current best estimates while it's in the proccess of sampling.
I'll echo everyone else: þere are several good tools, but ncdu isn't bad. Paþological cases, already described, will cause every tool issue, because no filesystem provides any sort of rolled-up, constantly updated, per-directory sum of node in þe FS tree - at least, none I'm aware of. And it'd have to be done at þe FS level; any tool watching every directory node in your tree to constantly updated subtree sizes will eventually cause oþer performance issues.
It does sound as if you're having
filesystem issues, eg corruption
network issues, eg you have remote shares mounted which are being included in þe scan (Gnome mounts user remotes in ~/.local somewhere, IIRC)
hardware issues, eg your disk is going bad
paþological filesystem layout, eg some directories containing þousands of inodes
It's almost certainly one of þose, two of which you can þank ncdu for bringing to your attention, one which is easily bypassed wiþ a flag, and þe last maybe just needing cleanup or exclusion.
I learn something new every day. I've been running du -a | sort -rn | head like some kind of animal. ncdu runs very fast on my systems and shows me what I want to see. Thanks!
Hey I was trying to set up archipelago to run a Chrono Trigger - Jets of Time randomizer file, and it needs a lua script to run to connect to archipelago. I couldn’t find a single SNES emulator with lua scripting enabled such as SNES9x-rr on windows. I tried just running that through proton but the lua scripts would not function. New to Linux so idk much on compiling shit natively or if I would need dependencies or to add something to wine/proton for lua to work or if there is an app image or something already that I could easily install that I didn’t see with a quick search.
update: Okay, seems maybe with proton can get stuff running but the lua won't work. Seems I can get it to try and run it, but runs into some issue with a .dll and not being able to find "main" or whatever. Can't find any flatpack/appimg for a native emulator with a lua injector, and idk if I can install cuz sudo apt doesn't work on it and idk enough to figure out how I'm supposed to get and compile shit. Soooo, heck.
Edit: forgot to mention incase it matters, running Bazzite 42.
Sometimes, you really do just need to run a Windows app on Linux and perhaps WinBoat might make this easier with its promise of "seamless integration".
Run Windows apps such as Microsoft Office/Adobe in Linux (Ubuntu/Fedora) and GNOME/KDE as if they were a part of the native OS, including Nautilus integration. Hard fork of https://github.com/Fmst...
With WinApps you do the bulk of the setup manually, and there's no cohesive interface to bring it all together. There's a basic TUI, a taskbar widget, and some CLI commands for you to play with.
WinBoat does all the setup once you have the pre-requisites installed, displays everything worth seeing in a neat interface for you, and acts like a complete experience. No need to mess with configuration files, no need to memorize a dozen CLI commands, it just works.
Because I use a paid graphics suite for profit (Affinity, great and pretty decent payment model), and I'm OK-ish with paying (a fair price) for stuff that allows me to make money, but I'd rather live in Linux for most everything else.
I currently use Affinity mostly in a VM, and dual boot for some very specific things, but this seems to be a way to make the experience better.
Also, a lot of people have paid for a license when buying their computer. I'm OK with people sidestepping the strict licensing terms if they have paid for it.
It's not "you have pirated it", but "you aren't using it exactly as we want you to"
I will try to use it with Adobe Reader. Right now I need a Windows VM to use it because a PDF I use (MorePurpleMoreBetter Character Sheet for D&D) needs all the PDF scripting and it only works in Adobe Reader and getting Adobe Reader to work in Wine is a pain.
Now I wonder if I dual boot linux / windows, why is there no software that can basically use my existing windows installation from another partition to run windows software (like, maybe load it into VM or something)?
you can run windows software on a windows partition using wine, but it is extremely brittle, since you're going from a case-insensitive windows file system as well.
Parallels on Mac OS lets you do that with the Windows partition. I know VMware and other virtualization tools let you mount a physical disk into a VM so it should be possible. It's just kinda janky, and Windows doesn't always like it when you switch from physical to virtual.
We have Wine / Proton of course and they can run a lot, but not everything is possible. WinBoat is different. Instead of running compatibility layers, it runs a real copy of Windows using Docker and KVM under the hood. The developer explains it should run basically everything unless "it requires strong GPU acceleration or kernel-level anticheat". It uses FreeRDP for showing the apps on your Linux desktop, enabling you to interact with them like you would with any other Linux app.
I don’t want to sound rude, but maybe read the article and not just the headline before asking questions
With WinApps you do the bulk of the setup manually, and there's no cohesive interface to bring it all together. There's a basic TUI, a taskbar widget, and some CLI commands for you to play with.
WinBoat does all the setup once you have the pre-requisites installed, displays everything worth seeing in a neat interface for you, and acts like a complete experience. No need to mess with configuration files, no need to memorize a dozen CLI commands, it just works.
On my Linux Mint laptop Winboat installed quickly and allowed me to install and run the one program I use that requires Windows. This biggest issues were with that same app's windows when they were rendered on the Linux desktop. They sometimes couldn't be moved, resized or closed, however the same app ran just fine on the Winboat Windows Desktop itself.
The latest version is identified as an alpha release on the UI, so these problems aren't surprising. What is surprising is how well so much of this works for an alpha release, particularly how polished the installation process is.
Looking forward to using Winboat when it progresses to the beta.
Listen, I only need to know one thing: can it run Paint.\NET?
Because pretty much all my needs are met but
GOOD GOD THE SELECTION FOR GENERAL-USE RASTER EDITING SOFTWARE ON LINUX IS BALLS.
(inb4 anyone says anything: Krita = painting not editing; GIMP = sucks balls; PhotoGIMP = sucks less balls; Pinta sucks balls ever since they switched to GTK4; and pretty much all other options are MS Paint equivalents so also all suck balls.)
Gimp is heavy in my opinion, no matter the desktop I opened it on It always takes a while to fully open. If I want to make a quick change to an image, crop, draw or write on I don’t want to sit for 5 minutes for the editor to open.
iirc gimp tools weren’t all that beginner friendly either.
it is indeed pretty slow to start, but after that it's pretty fast and doesn't use much memory. I've used it heavily on my core2duo macbook (cpu capped to 800mhz due to no battery) until a few years ago.
Okay, so, please forgive me ahead of time for the following rant. To be blunt, you did ask. 😛
It often doesn't use common UI/UX conventions found in most other editors
It has no polygon tools.
The Lasso tool is called "Free Select" instead of, you know, "Lasso" like every other software under the sun calls it. (Though I admit this in itself is merely a nitpick, it is indicative of the larger trends.)
The text tool is so bad. Honestly, I don't even know how to put how it's bad into words, but just using it is...painful...in comparison to Paint.\NET, Pinta, or even MS Paint back on Windows. Other people can probably word the problems with it better than I can. Sorry I can't be more descriptive.
It doesn't have Lanczos resampling for resizing images (tbf neither do many others but still Paint.\NET does and so that's a point against it. (If you don't know, Lanczos is visibly superior in maintaining fidelity when downscaling an image, compared to linear, bilinear, cubic, etc.)
The currently active layer seems to randomly change, so that one minute you're doing something and the next nothing is worked, you wonder "what the hell" and then finally after 10 minutes of searching you find out it's because the layer has changed and now you need to go click on this one obscure option. (I don't remember what it is. Select > Select None maybe? Anyway, I've had it happen where the option doesn't even do anything.) It completely throws my whole game off and I've never once, even once had it happen until I started using GIMP.
The default UI/UX is very rough around the edges. Just to make it minimally usable for me, I had to install PhotoGIMP over GIMP and spend 20-30 minutes customizing the layout and keyboard shortcuts. Speaking of...
The default keyboard shortcuts are kinda wacko. For example, Zoom In, Zoom Out, and Fit Image in Window (basically zooming in/out but to see the whole image in your window) is +, -, and Shift+Ctrl+E, respectively; while most other programs have it as ctrl++; (and/or ctrl+=), ctrl+- (and/or ctrl+NumpadMinus), and ctrl+0 (and/or ctrl+NumpadEnter). Also, you cannot use tab or ctrl+tab to move to the next or previous tab, respectively, because tab is a excluded key for keyboard shortcuts. (I think I was once told it has to do with a limitation in GTK, but that's ridiculous as Pinta has been able to do it for years.) There are countless other inane defaults for the keyboard shortcuts as well, frankly.
You cannot use LMB or RMB to switch between the primary and secondary colors selected. You have to use X.
These are only a few of the most severe frustrations, annoyances, and hair-pulling-out moments for me with regards to GIMP. I'd never have even tried it out if Pinta hadn't made the ass-backwards decision to move to the stupidly minimalistic and less functional GTK4 adwaita UI and if Paint.\NET worked. (I can't remember why it doesn't wanna work; I think it has to do with a dependency. I know it's not the .NET framework since that could be handled by Mono IIRC.)
90% of the complaints I've heard about GIMP are just because its UI and workflow are different from whatever tool they're used to. I like GIMP just fine because I learned on it. I
Photopea Online Photo Editor lets you edit photos, apply effects, filters, add text, crop or resize pictures. Do Online Photo Editing in your browser for free!
I definitely don't mind trying new things, but that site says it's a photo editor. A photo editor is not at all the same thing as a general-use raster editor like Pinta, GIMP, or Paint.\NET.
Webcam is just USB device, you can passthru that to the VM and it will work. Microphone is part of your onboard audio device, but it can probably be configured somehow to also expose microphone on an emulated audio device inside vm, but idk
Docker based windows seems like an odd choice when qemu exists. Will check it out to see how it bloats on resources. I have a couple work apps that won't work in WINE but are fine in qemu.
Linux phones are still behind android and iPhone, but the gap shrank a surprising amount while I wasn’t looking. These are damn near usable day to day phones now! But there are still a few things that need done and I was wondering what everyone’s thoughts on these were:
1 - tap to pay. I don’t see how this can practically be done. Like, at all.
2 - android auto/apple CarPlay emulation. A Linux phones could theoretically emulate one of these protocols and display a separate session on the head unit of a car. But I dont see any kind of project out there that already does this in an open-source kind of way. The closest I can find are some shady dongles on amazon that give wireless CarPlay to head units that normally require USB cables. It can be done, but I don't see it being done in our community.
3 - voice assistants. wether done on device or phoning into our home servers and having requests processed there, this should be doable and integrated with convenient shortcuts. Home assistant has some things like this, and there’s good-old Mycroft blowing around out there still. Siri is used every day by plenty of people and she sucks. If that’s the benchmark I think our community can easily meet that.
I started looking at Linux phones again because I loathe what apple is doing to this UI now and android has some interesting foldables but now that google is forcing Gemini into everything and you can’t turn it off, killing third party ROMS, and getting somehow even MORE invasive, that whole ecosystem seems like it’s about to march right off a cliff so its not an option anymore for me.
Tap-to-pay and car assistance are must-have in today's world. 10-15 years ago, no. Today, yes. Bank apps is the other thing that can't be done either (because bank apps want a "certified" system to run on). Here in Greece, it's required you have a bank app on your phone to go with your daily life.
Yes, we all want a simpler life, like it was in the past, so we can envision an OS system that "it's good enough". But reality is not on our side. Linux as an open source community phone OS, made by non-commercial/non-corporate entities, can't be an OS for the masses. It just won't tick any boxes for them in today's world. The current Linux phone OSes could be contenders 15 years ago, but not today.
If you actually see what needs each country has for phones (by law), and also what needs normal users have, you would change your mind. It's not just about one user here, one user there that doesn't need these features, but the whole. I have an e/OS Murena phone (very private foss android fork) for example that I can't use here in Greece because it doesn't do banking (the bank app doesn't work). Additionally, here in Greece we need gov apps (e.g. to get prescriptions, and to not have our ID with us all the time). These don't run on "foss" versions of android (let alone clear linux OSs).
I've never used tap to pay. I don't want any banking info on my phone. In the US, we don't need any payment apps. Cash and cards work just fine and never run out of battery power.
There's no way I would ever connect my phone to a modern car with anything other than an aux cable or a bluetooth adapter that plugs into the headphone jack. They gather up all the data they can an do who knows what with it.
The US is not the world though. That's something Americans need to learn. And having a solution for a single country does not work in the long run for that project. Not in the domain of OSes and phones. Either it's universal, or it's doomed to be a niche thing.
The only people that don't use tap to pay in my area are grannies. And you do seem very old school since the last time I saw an aux cable was 10 years ago.
1, use contact less smartcard , they are passive devices 2. get a used phone just for that 3. use one of the open source one, anyway siri and the google one are trash abandonned in 2012
By that logic, I dont need a phone on me at all times and should just go back to a landline, pay cash for everything, and damn everything convenient.
Some of us use these things and we want to switch to a system free from powerful tech bros. People like you tell us we are a problem for wanting features. That’s a ridiculous thing.
Im not saying its a problem to want features, just saying its sacraficing freedom for convience, its a choice.
If you really wanted to use a Linux phone, there are options. You would have to adapt, you would have to use non-standard solutions, but in the long run you'd have more freedom because of those sacrifices in convenience.
None of the 3 things you mention was common place 10 years ago, its not that much of a setback to carry cash or a card, or to use a dedicated device for navigation. Its fine if you dont want to do that but dont act like you can't live without tap2pay or a voice assistant if you really wanted to.
So you sacrafice your ability to use a more free device because youd rather leave your credit card at home, but thats A choice that you made. If you wanted you could bring a card with you or cast with you or a wallet full of things. Do you not carry ID with you either?
Honestly tap2pay seems like very little advantage over a credit card for having to sacrafice privacy and the ability to control the software on my phone, but thats just me.
As cardfire said, I just have to take my debit/credit card from where it's usually stored. I have never lost or damadeged my phone since I got one in 98, that's more than an hedge case.
And I can also buy on the internet without needing physical access to my cards.
The only use case for physical cards is unfortunately gas stations. So 6 times a year in average I need them.
And what did you do five years ago or ten years ago? At what point did Tap to Pay become so convenient and so essential to your life that you're willing to give up your ability to have complete ownership and control over what's installed on your phone rather than go back to having a card on you?
It just doesnt seem like that big of a deal to me, but then i never was able to use it anyway because ive been running grapheneOS or another custom rom since before tap2pay even existed.
It became so convenient and essential for me like 8 years ago. When I leave the house I only need my tiny phone and my house key (and sometimes my car key) and that's it. That's nice. I don't want to have to carry more on top of what I already do.
I'm 31 and would need those things. Makes driving a car how I want much easier. No awkward looking mounts anywhere. Plus I use a super tiny android phone at the moment so instead of looking at a postage stamp for a map I get to look at the big head unit.
Okay I don't drive so im a bit out of the loop on this but last time i rented a car some 15-20 years ago it had GPS built in that didn't require connecting, it was a tablet sized interface on the console... is that not a thing anymore? Like do cars in 2025 not have functioning GPS without a phone connected to them? Thats wild if so. A 2008 Toyota Prius could have a built in console navigation system, it ran off a DVD or USB key that you got updates for by mail, and here we are in 2025 you need a phone just to power the cars computer for navigation.
Built in gps is a bit shit now and my current car actually doesn't have one unless i buy an overpriced encrypted sd card with the map data that if i want to update the maps for, have to buy again.
Phones and their map apps allow me to have up to date mapping that also show where there's roadworks and closures so i can be rerouted elsewhere which is a godsend when you're in a town or city you're not familiar with.
Edit: built in now may not be shitter than it was but it is shitter than the new alternatives via android auto (i also don't use Google maps by the way)
Seeing where desktop Linux was just less than 10 years ago and where it is now gives me optimism for mobile Linux. But I suspect the overlap between developers and users of those 3 features is pretty small, so they might be a ways out.
I was about to suggest getting a head unit that isn't tied down to CarPlay or Android Auto, but then I realized I drive a really old car from the days you'd easily take out the faceplate or the whole unit to deter theft.
Yea, modern vehicles tie a lot of things into the head unit and they just aren’t possible by going third party. But using the CarPlay/AA feature could be a way to bring similar choice to a system that is otherwise locked-in
I still don't see why phone-based tap-to-pay is even a good thing. What, I should hand over all my financial credentials to Google or Apple or Microsoft in addition to my bank? I think not. I'll just keep using a physical card, thank you. (Which, by the way, can often still use tap-to-pay as most modern cards have RFID chips embedded. No different than with your phone, except it's not tied to one of the big oligarchs, even less so if you use a credit union as opposed to a bank.)
2 - android auto/apple CarPlay emulation
Bog-standard bluetooth is more than enough for me.
3 - voice assistants
Why would I need a voice assistant? I can find out information almost as easily just using a search engine. And if I'm driving, I'm not so busy as to be unable to pull over to the side of the road if I absolutely need to check something. Or, you know, get everything ready before I go. At the further risk of yelling at clouds despite my relatively young age (I'm in my early 30s), I think voice assistants and IoT things are largely just fluff that over-complicate things in a world that is already over-complicated.
1 - you arent. You dont need to. They have it other ways. Tap to pay is done on device with a revokable token. If the device is stolen, the token can’t be easily accessed and can be remotely wiped at any time, unlike a stolen card which you have to call in to disable and even that doesn’t always go over well. 2 - Bluetooth doesn’t give me maps or a UI to access my music, podcasts, etc. 3 - feature parity wins people over. You aren’t going to bring people in to the ecosystem by selling on having less. You can sell on mandating less, but opening with “here are the things a Linux phones CANT do” will never get this off the ground.
Bluetooth works fine (or should work fine) with music, podcasts etc. I do it now with a phone, it's a standard I don't see why a mobile device running Linux would be any different.
As for maps, the voice goes over Bluetooth so I don't see an issue there either.
You can't choose a specific playlist or album over Bluetooth via the head unit is what they were saying. And with the maps some people don't like to have the voice on and prefer to actually be able to glance at a map when needed, on the head unit.
True, but then again I dont want to mess with any screen while I am driving. I line up a couple of podcasts or episodes and that is several hours right there. Or stream from my server, and just line up what i want. I can still skip fast forward change tracks, and I don't see why, on a linux phone, I couldnt make the blue tooth inputs do more if I mapped them that way.
It's just good in those moments where things have fucked up for some reason and you can either quickly stop at the side and easily deal with it on the head unit or if there's no traffic around you can slow down and touch the buttons you need to bit by bit while keeping an eye on the road. Or, even better, if you have a co-driver they can sort it for you on a screen that both you and them are able to deal with.
Touch screen cast would be awesome too. I'd love for there to either be that or an open android auto/car play standard. The former would probably be easier and I imagine some aftermarket head units have that functionality already.
I've actually wanted to DIY a head unit at some point and getting a good satnav experience on it would be key to it being a daily DRIVER.
Not for nothing, tapping to pay with phone is not the same as using the physical card to tap to pay. In the former case, your actual card info is not transmitted.
Arguably, yes. When you pay with one of the phone wallet options, you transmit a unique set of info, like a verification token or 2FA token for example, which your banking service confirms is valid for your card and the transaction goes through. But the vendor never receives your real card info.
And since a card cannot transmit a unique token every time (because it's static), it has to include real card info? (Although theoretically it could suffice with limited info as well, I'd imagine. As long as the info gets confirmed by banking service as valid)
Where I live, we do not have tap to pay, we just scan qr-codes. But I guess the vendor would need to enable that. But, if i have a physical card, that’s good enough for me.
Switzerland has GNU Taler. They launched it there a few months ago, lucky for you. Check its website: taler-ops.ch/de/
You just kind of need to wait for merchants to use it. Could become mainstream somewhere around 2028.
From wikipedia:
GNU Taler is a free software-based microtransaction and electronic payment system. Unlike most other decentralized payment systems, GNU Taler does not use a blockchain. A blind signature is used to protect the privacy of users as it prevents the exchange from knowing which coin it signed for which customer.
The wallet is like cryptocurrency wallets in that when you lose it (lose your cryptographic keys or phone), you lose all the money inside of it. So you must keep it safe like your own physical wallet. It works with NFC, so it can replace Google Pay or Apple Pay or whatever.
It also works offline, which is awesome. Though you do need to be online sometimes to refresh your digital money or they expire and become unspendable. The expiry is set by the GNU Taler operator.
Do keep in mind that receivers are NOT anonymous. Only senders are anonymous. This is by design and is there to apply tax to merchants and also combat fraud, etc.
You can learn how it works by reading their docs: docs.taler.net/
tap to pay. I don’t see how this can practically be done. Like, at all.
The same way it was done with Google, Samsung and Apple. Just has to become more popular until banks and credit card companies will have to work with developers to make it happen.
android auto/apple CarPlay emulation.
Again, it will have to require the compliance of OEMs. However I see the entirety of these systems disappearing soon as more OEMs want to lock users into paid subscriptions for such features.
voice assistants
I'm not convinced this will ever be useful. Several of the largest tech companies on the planet have tried and all have failed miserably to produce anything useful for decades at this point.
For Linux it could be tied in with terminal commands using an LLM:
"Install Firefox" -> apt install firefox
"Open Firefox" - > firefox & disown
aichat --execute already turns natural language into terminal commands through any OpenAI-compatible API (and OpenRouter provides free Deepseek R1/Kimi K2 access), so there just needs to be speech-to-text.
It's an interesting discussion to witness in these posts: convenience vs privacy and control.
The convenience and integration you get with commercial products like IOS or Android comes at a price. Everything that matters to you on a daily basis bundled together in one convenient package means that all things which define you as a person are conveniently interconnected for corporations to sell out your data for everyone who wants it.
GPS: your current whereabouts at any moment in time and a complete history of where you have been in the past
Payment functions: what you are buying and where you have bought it
Communication (Messengers, Phone): Who you communicate with and what you are talking about
Photos and Videos: Real life evidence from all the stuff mentioned above.
Web Browsing: Interests and Needs which will be used against you in a totalitarian surveillance state, at a glance
If you in 2025 still think this convenience is there to please you as a consumer I have bad news for you.
Convenience and interconnection of services look nice and useful but at the same time they're a privacy nightmare that makes Orwell's 1984 look like a bedtime story for children.
What this all comes down to: Strictly airgapping the boundaries between the different services is the only way to have a modicum of privacy. Photos do not belong in a cloud controlled by someone you don't know and should be taken from a separate device. Navigation belongs on a separate device with no internet connection, payment should not be done with a personal identifier at all (if avoidable) etc. Living your life this way might seem terribly inconvenient, but as someone who was alive at a time where all this convenience didn't exist I can tell you it has its advantages too. You'll rediscover what really matters.
I'm personally really excited for Linux phones and want to move to one relatively soon. They've done amazing work on the experience of using them. What I'd really miss, based off of talking to folks and trying them at conventions, is: - battery life. My Pixel 3a lasts over a day on Android, likely much less on pmOS - UnifiedPush for notifications. I only see a Matrix client listed as WIP. Every other app (Fediverse, Signal) I would have to keep running in the background - Notifications while in sleep mode. Looks like we don't have "Doze Mode" from Android, so only calls & SMS work while asleep - Fingerprint sensor. More of a QoL but I kept my phone model specifically for the ergonomics of the sensor on the back, and being able to scroll with it. Communication with the sensor is not yet figured out
huh? which linux phone got useful since you'd stop looking? I run pmOS edge on competent hardware with lotsa RAM and fast storage and that thing isn't even close to being usable in everyday life.
just basic stuff, like turn it on and it works. the keyboard works. an intuitive UI that you use while walking and dodging other pedestrians. a rock-solid base that doesn't freeze and stutter with the menial-est of tasks.
the three things you mention couldn't be farther from my mind if I wanted to.
62 comments and not a-one mentioned Sailfish OS yet?
Yes, it's not 100% open source, yes, it used to do business with Russia but not anymore since 2022, yes, it only supports a few Sony phones (available cheaply on the used market) but it is a 100% Linux operating system!
I don't use any of the "needs" you mention (phone payments, carplay, voice anything) and can't see any of them as necessary. I can see thinking of them as cool, but that is different. I don't particularly think they're cool, but that's just me.
That said, Linux is mostly a desktop system with a CLI and some GUI tools. Phones as we know them have considerably different requirements. Linux could be underneath it all, like it is in Android, but at the end there is a lot more besides LInux and its apps.
I did use Meego/Maemo for a while (Nokia N900 and N9) and they had nice aspects, but the phones were way too small and slow.
I switched to GrapheneOS like 4 years ago and at first I was bummed that I could no longer tap my phone to pay. But it's fine. I still go out with my wallet in my pocket, so it's no problem to just tap my bank card really... I'll take privacy over convenience thanks
This is the most unhelpful kind of comment where you basically shame someone for having preferences. Why people feel the need to make their callousness public instead of just shutting up, I never know.
How is a disposable token locked behind passwords and/or biometrics, remotely erasable, unique between each vendor a transaction takes place in inferior to…..a string of unchanging digits in a physical card?
You didn’t “call out misinformation.” You laughed at a differing opinion. That’s not an argument. That’s a noise.
Seriously, the Linux community has tons of helpful, super smart people, but mixed in with them are these obnoxious snobs like you that just embarrass the rest of us.
Yes, I am aware, I just want to point out you started this thread by replying "hahahaha no" to someone saying tap to pay on their phone was more secure than a cc
Eh, both are about the same level of security, as long as you take the correct actions.
Lose a card? Freeze/Deactivate it and call your bank.
Lose your phone? Use Google/Apple/FindMyDevice (Degoogled) to either find it, or nuke whatever data you had on your phone (hopefully you made backups).
Find your device and control it remotely. Works over SMS, instant messengers, or FMD Server's web interface. A secure open source alternative to Google's Find My Device.
Don't want or need any of those things you mention. I want a phone, I want to be able to send messages, I want GPS and a camera. Good battery life, wifi and enough memory and storage... And then privacy...
I don't see why the Linux kernel couldn't add support for NFC devices or someone couldn't write a driver. I always pay for everything in cash anyway.
voice assistants
I know there are foss and local-only voice assistants for Android so it is possible. You'd be limited by the computing power of a phone so eg I imagine running ollama on a phone would be a huge battery drain.
All I need is a smartphone that can run all my daily drives. Browsing, messaging, socials, banking, utilities and games. Especially with companies pushing that everything be done through an app instead of available through a browser. The problem is very few companies bother to develop Linux versions of their software.
Oh I’m already having those arguments about installing apps. It’s one of the many reasons I’m leaving T-Mobile soon actually. If I have to call in I will but I don’t trust apps at this point and they are frankly unnecessary in almost every case.
I already don't have any of those things on my de-googled android. I'm used to it. Sure, they would be nice, but it's not a dealbreaker that I have to tap a card instead of my phone, or use Bluetooth instead of carplay, or type on my phone instead of talking to it.
The only thing I was missing without Google was push notifications. And that works out of the box (I think you have to check something somewhere) on my /e/ OS FP5. It provides the same API as GSF, but with a different, anonymous push service. I doubt that there will ever be a workaround for Google Pay, because you need the intersection of a well-known company and low level device integration for that to work. And as you say, it's not a big deal. The Graphene OS guys were pretty smug for a long while about how superior their sandboxed-GSF approach is, but look how that worked out for them. MicroG was always the right idea and if it can't be done with MicroG it isn't worth doing (on Android).
Everyone here just saying "oh I don't use that therefore no one needs it and should just lose it and switch to a Linux distro" is not helping anyone. This person told us their requirements to switch. How hard is that to understand for anyone. They also told us the requirements of most of the population. This concept should not be so hard to understand. Everyone has features they need in certain products. Some people don't care how headphones sound they just care that they make sound others are really picky audiophles. It's all preference
fwiw regarding point 3, I had Mycroft on my pinephone. Was toying with other distros at some point so I don't have it anymore, but it worked. Took a few seconds to process.
I don’t really see any of these as deal breakers, because I think the state of Linux phones in 2025 isn’t about being “finished” or “perfect,” it’s about being part of a bigger journey. Every limitation mentioned is just a reflection of where things stand right now, not anything permanent. What kinda excites me is that Linux phones are built around openness, community, and the freedom to adapt, qualities you don’t really get with mainstream options. Sure, there are missing features, rough edges, and some compromises, but none of that outweighs the value of having a device that puts you in control....
While I appreciate that, I really want the freedom to use it that way I want to, not the way others are happy with. It’s open, which makes that theoretically possible, but I’m no Linux dev. I can’t create missing features. So I need to work with what people smarter than me came up with.
the other two can be worked on. but point 1 is the entire reason we can't use degoogled android, which is imo almost as good as gnu/linux on a phone.
to expand on point 1: many governments and companies are now locking their services away inside squeamish proprietary apps that won't run at the tiniest sign of something they don't like. i used to have health insurance that didn't let me use their app if i had even the "developer options" enabled.
Don't get me wrong, everyone has different needs and wants, and so this might not work for everyone. I was hesitant at first to let go of mobile tap to pay, but I've been going strong for a year now and just take my wallet with me everywhere anyway. I have an older car so I literally can't even use Auto/Car Play, and I was never a voice assistant type of person ever.
My biggest needs are being able to use most of the apps I use, having easy communication with my family, and security and privacy (leaning more towards security). If I could find suitable alternatives to the apps I use, and texting isn't an issue (especially with iPhones, my family all uses them), then I'd gladly hop on over to Linux phones. I know someone is working on "WINE" for Android, and if that was doable and integrated well on Linux phones, I'd be set.
Why? I don't drive and don't have a car but I can't imagine the car itself not already having the exact same features since modern cars already have what is essentially a tablet built in.
Also, why not just have one of those phone holders on your dashboard like people have been doing before car integration was a thing?
Many cars built in features are so terrible they border on useless. Some doesn’t even have things like GPS at all. My EV uses CarPlay for that and has no navigation built in at all, even though it has a GPS radio it uses for onstar services.
Your phone takes over your car screen as a second display, so you have decent and up-to-date navigation apps like gmaps or waze, with instant alerts etc, instead of those garbage GPS navigation devices.
Are those actually the only things you find lacking? If so that's really good, practically the same as using LineageOS without any Google services.
I don't use any of the stuff you mentioned and might have to consider Linux mobile as a daily driver if it's that good. Especially if Google kills custom ROMs, it sounds like the people already running them would feel right at home switching to Linux mobile.
More importantly, how's the app situation? Can people generally expect most of the desktop GTK or Qt apps they're familiar with to be usable on a phone form factor? Is there a reliable way to run Android APKs on regular Linux now? At the very least F-droid apps?
As someone who spent some time on the topic (result), it's not that every new app is adaptive. Even if someone uses the nice new widgets of libadwaita (or previously libhandy (GTK3)), that app is not necessary running well on mobile if width-reqests demand a higher minimal width or content is just too wide.
The same is true for QtQuick Components or Kirigami, which are the equivalent for adaptive Qt apps.
That said, yes, many new apps developed with these technologies work fine OOTB without the developer even knowing; and if they are too wide or tall, fixing that is usually rather simple and not a full rewrite/redesign.
Yes, you can even run android apps on Linux mobile using waydroid or something similar. So even if you need your stopgap android apps while waiting for Linux equivalents, waydroid has your back.
As for me, I plan on using PWAs as much as possible.
To answer your question about Android apps, there is an application called Waydroid that can run on Linux phones. This essentially emulates Android and you can install apps on there. Some Play Store apps require access to Google Play Services, and even though MicroG tries to emulate it without being as privacy invasive, it is not perfect and some apps won't run well or even at all.
I only use it for a few things that do not have any way to access through a web browser.
GrapheneOS (like any other AOSP fork) is technically a Linux based OS. They run a modified version of the Linux Kernel. What matters is the changes they have made to the kernel, as well as enforcing AVB, SELinux, etc. etc.
"Linux" phones that run modified desktop Linux distros are hugely insecure devices that lack many basic security and hardening features.
Help a non-techy out. I've fully switched my computers to Linux (fedora workstation, silver blue, and ubuntu). Been Linux only for several years now. Silverblue is probably my favorite. I'm willing to make the switch for my phone, too. But there are a few things I'm pretty reliant on:
My banking apps, cash app, and, embarrassing as it may be to admit, Grindr.
You can run Android apps on a Linux phone via Waydroid, but banking apps could be an issue if they force these Google intrgrity checks. Grindr probably does not?
Anyway, you should be able to fire up Waydroid on your Linux desktop and test this beforehand. I have never done this myself, so I might have misunderstood something.
Grindr doesn't even work on GrapheneOS, it's security checks are insane. I tried the modded Grindr app and they instantly banned my account, so I decided the app isn't worth my time.
I've honestly never considered using my bank through a mobile browser. Yeah, it I can do that I'd be fine on that front.
Sniffies is completely dead here, and the dudes that are on it are gross. Grindr isn't much better, but since everyone's on it you can occasionally find people who are willing to use protection or hosting someone other than some bushes. I'll try way droid and see if it works. If it doesn't, I googled it and it says you can use Grindr from desktop if you pay... I may end up having to do that if I made the switch.
Which leaves cash app as the biggie. I'll try waydroid, but if it doesn't work I'll probably end up needing to keep android or switching to iOS (I hate iPhones:( ), or maybe even getting a second phone I use exclusively for cash app. No sim, just my wifi hotspot (can you do a wifi hotspot with a Linux phone yet?). In order to prevent overdrafts and accidental charges, I never spend directly from my bank account. I transfer exactly what I'll need for each purchase to cash app before the transaction and shop like that. Keeps me aware, and no accidental charges or surprises.
Typically if you want to check your account status sure, that work. Maybe do an IBAN transfer, if somehow 2nd step auth via their app isn't required, but typically mobile payment, even if it's not really mobile (e.g. scanning a QRcode on a desktop) requires their app. So in theory yes, in practice for most of the things people use banking daily it's closer to mobile payment IMHO, which is basically owned by iOS/Android AFAICT.
RCS text messaging is another to consider, at least in the US. The carriers implanted it in a proprietary way, so only Apple and Google apps have it. It's a poor substitute for an IM/chat app and not private and secure like it was promised due to poor implementations, but it's still far better than plain SMS. I still have people I can't get to use Signal or another secure IM app.
The Android Auto is the only one I'd be sad about. I love not having to use my phone's screen for navigation and the navigation built into most cars is crap and expensive to keep maps and data updated. I like being able to use any navigation app, though Google Maps/Waze is still the only one I've found that has both live traffic info, which is extremely important with my city, and reading the street names rather than just "turn left" it says "turn left on some street" so I don't have to look at the screen as much.
I use GrapheneOS and that's what I won't be able to replace once I finish my Immich and Home Assistant self host setups to replace Google Photos and Google Home/Nest, but st least they are sandboxed a bit.
Though Google has been moving to make it even more difficult to use their apps on these alternate OSes. Like I just found that Google Photos latest version pops up a not closeable error screen if it doesn't have full "photos and video" access. Doesn't work with the limited access or storage scopes that come with GrapheneOS, at least for now. I have photos I don't want google to scan and index even if they are not being uploaded, which they do now. It's obviously a ploy to get access to your data since it used to work fine. Now, I just use the mobile website instead until I have time to get Immich totally working and get people to switch if they want to see my stuff or share with me.
I think JMP.chat supports RCS, and it lets you text through Cheogram or another XMPP client. I believe it also upgrades the connection if both users are using Cheogram similar to Signal when it supported SMS
Edit: yes they do voip, voicemail, and transcriptions, but they do not do RCS yet. When they do, I might consider switching, especially if I can use their voicemail for my regular number, like gv.
JMP does not (yet) support these features:
RCS, which allows for video calls over the phone network.
PS: on "assistant" (I really think the naming is over-blowing capabilities) I have been using HomeAssistant daily for years now. I have a Nabu Casu on my shelf... and didn't even set it up because it was either 3rd party service dependencies (not why I rely on HA) or a very complex setup. So... I would recommend not looking there, at least few months ago when I received mine, sadly.
Which phone did you find where these are the only problem you encountered? I don't care about any of these things and haven't been finding any usable Linux phones.
They're slow and clunky as fuck for starters. Cellular is very spotty.
Do you have a good alternative I can look into? I really, really, really want them to work. The only usable Linux phone I've seen is Jolla, but I'd much rather have Mobian or Arch on mobile or some other fully FLOSS alternative
This is awesome because I don't want or need any of those things. If this is all that's missing, I think I'm ready for a Linux phone when my android dies.
I was wondering what everyone’s thoughts on these were:
It doesn't work on GrapheneOS either, so I got separate devices I carry with me that do the tap-to-pay instead, and they've been a godsend. They're super compact as well and came for free when I opened the accounts.
I don't own a car, on ebike I use my screen.
Normally I use my fingers. If they're not available I yell cuss words at my phone until they're available again.
I am trying to help my girlfriend backup her iPhone and Macbook.
I am a bit unfamiliar with the Apple ecosystem, and she's still not very familiar with the technical aspects of it.
With my android and PC, it seems a bit more straightforward. Certain programs or services will backup everything, and I can restore it all exactly as it was at that time.
But the Apple webpage for iCloud Backup lists a bunch of things it backs up, meaning, it doesn't backup everything?
I'm trying to figure out the best way to make backups of her phone and laptop so she can restore them exactly as they were when each backup was made.
Do iPhones and Macs have this type of option? Backing up everything, like taking an image of them at that point, including all apps, all files, all settings, every little thing, and then using that to restore them at a later date if needed?
Thank you for taking the time to read my post.
Any direction or guidance you might be able to provide is greatly appreciated.
I'll update with any solutions or options for your opinions if I'm able to find any.
If you have the iCloud storage available, you can do iCloud backups. It will backup all the data from the phone, but not the apps themselves. (Those apps will auto-install after a restore, though.)
As for the Macbook, the usual way is an external USB drive and TimeMachine (which should be preinstalled). You can also take a complete backup of the iPhone using macOS's Finder (the phone should popup there as a "drive" once connected via cable) and then backup everything to a HDD/SSD via TimeMachine.
wondering if I fit into any subculture since I have some American friends who are around my age and they know which subculture they belong to, and typically hang out with other people of their subculture, so I feel like an odd one out being a sort of chameleon, but the one who doesn't have a tribe. I like drawing weird art, like colourful monsters that are Mario inspired. I’m also into emulation, PC gaming + hardware, tattoo design, 3D modelling and making mods for games. I’m a tomboy and never wear makeup. Dry sense of humour. Fashion, my wardrobe consists of tracksuits and trainers, sometimes a cap or fabric coats with a plaid pattern on them. I’ll sometimes wear gold jewellery like bracelets. I don’t do anything with my hair besides keeping it neck length and curly. I’m a big fan of music and that consists of UK garage (Todd Edwards and Klaus Veen are my favourites), deep house and DnB. I’d love to go to music festivals and just go completely wild but I don't have any friends who are into this stuff and sometimes when I'm talking with my friends I can't relate much lol
TL;DR The friends I have are a lot different to me and they know what subculture they belong in, so most of their friends are like that too. I’m just curious and wondering what mine is if any so I can better find more people like me?
Maybe don't try to fit in anywhere. Just be yourself, engage in communities of your interest (online and offline) and you'll surely meet some compatible people. Most of how you described yourself matches with my interests, so there must be more out there. 😉
I was kicking around the idea of building an arcade machine at home and this might just be the one....
Now the real question - can you play old school platformers on it with split second precision that doesnt get interrupted by random shit on the OS? Even Nintendo's SNES Classic was horseshit for games like Megaman. Or maybe I just suck now.
What I meant is that in order to share these games, other people would also need such a device or at least an SD card reader, which most people don't. It's not because of you.
Honestly I love the idea. I wonder if they're planning on the obvious next step of adding a media player that will work similarly, turn it on with a disc or SD card inserted and it'll play the DVD or music
Once upon a time I owned a GameCube memory card, specifically so that I could have my own save progression when visiting my friend's house (who actually owned the GameCube and games). That may not really apply anymore?
On another note though, making the sd card read only means it will last significantly longer. Flash storage (like SD cards) have limited write cycles, so this preserves the games themselves while leaving the much smaller save files to be written somewhere else where they're easier to back up.
Bit rot happens on much longer time scales (like 10+ years), and can happen regardless of use. Most storage media has this as an issue though, so that's why it's always good to have backups.
Save games probably wouldn't have a huge effect on write endurance, but certainly in some uses that write constantly like a dashcam, it could potentially destroy the flash in a matter of months. There are endurance sd cards for this kind of application, but they usually come in smaller sizes, and I've still had them fail eventually.
Kazeta is Czech for casette. The Waterloo-based developer is Canadian but has a Czech name (Alesh Slovak / Aleš Slovák) and knows basic Czech so probably a descendant of Czechoslovak emmigrants.
Maybe I'm just a young whipper snapper but I don't get why people would want cartridges when freely copying the files to the main drive is an option since this would only work with DRM-free games. Cartridges were historically used instead of floppy disks or optical disks for DRM as you can make them basically impossible to duplicate. Even now the only reason Nintendo still sells cartridges is to allow the same game to be played in different devices with different logged in accounts while ensuring there is only one copy available between them.
And so with that in mind the basic idea is that you grab DRM free games (from stores like GOG), and pop them onto SD Cards to turn them into cartridges that Kazeta will detect.
So now instead of storing games on the computer itself, you have to go out of your way to put them on individual SD cards?
Also, is it strictly one game per SD card? That would be pretty wasteful of the available space for smaller games.
I noticed a lot of non-technical people using ChimeraOS/SteamOS getting lost in Steam’s complex menu structure and struggling with basic things like launching and closing games
I feel like someone who's so nontechnical they can't even figure out Steam's UI, which is developed by a massive company with dedicated UX engineers and comprehensive QA for all their software, would probably also not be able to figure out installing a Linux OS, especially one that doesn't boot into a normal GUI by default. It also assumes they will have a dedicated computer just for console style gaming, which nontechnical users probably wouldn't bother with. Unless they plan on selling devices with their OS preinstalled as dedicated game consoles?
Also, you still have to interact with GOG to get the games. And also be able to find the app data direcrory GOG downloads games to in order to put them onto an SD card.
This also directly contradicts a quote later in the article: "Kazeta is definitely not for everyone. It requires a bit of work to get started"
I became disenchanted with digital storefronts and have come back around to appreciating physical media: game cartridges, CDs, DVDs
I have gotten more and more into collecting old physical games and systems and found them to be a much more pleasant experience than what modern gaming offers
Fair enough if you just want physical media in general, but I feel like people collecting physical media would specifically want ones branded by the company and not generic SD cards.
I have become more and more concerned with preserving my digital game collection for play in the future.
Bur there's things in between digital storefronts and physical read-only media. Why not just have a special directory on the desktop that autodetects games copied into it? I assume that's basically what happens when you insert an SD card with a game on it.
If you want to keep games atomic and prevent corruption of the directory structure, why not just support game directories in the form of tar or zip files and automatically mount them as a virtual filesystem?
keeping your games untouched and preserved forever
Don't flash based storage put your data at risk of corruption if you leave it unpowered for too long? Having the games on the SSD you have powered every day sounds like it would be safer.
Though at least the flash's write cycle limit wouldn't matter with read only cards.
This Week in F-DroidTWIF curated on Thursday, 28 Aug 2025, Week 35F-Droid coreF-Droid’s push for decentralization means not only having multiple repos, but a...
i wouldn't recommend debian since they've dropped 32 bit support in trixie, their latest release. the previous release, bookworm, still supports 32 bits archs, but it eol's less than a year from now
From trixie, i386 is no longer supported as a regular architecture: there is no official kernel and no Debian installer for i386 systems
[...]
Users running i386 systems should not upgrade to trixie. Instead, Debian recommends either reinstalling them as amd64, where possible, or retiring the hardware.
but the debian i386 architecture means all 32 bit x86 processors. there's no "i686" build of debian
there are no i586 or i686 kernel or iso available, you can look for them. i386 packages only exist for compatibility reasons, so you can run 32 bit applications on amd64 machines. please read the release notes
I think it should be okay. I have a pentium M machine that did alright with web browsing on Bunsenlabs. Had 2 gb of ram. I used an original eeepc and an MSI u230 wind with the same cpu. The atom and pentium M are about the same
When? Currently 240p youtube will produce frame drops on these. Typical javascript laden web pages can take minutes to render. I guess it largely depends on the websites you plan to visit. Phoronix will work ok.
I also have a gpu in it (ATI mobility Radeon 9700) so there is that. Web browsing was slow but not impossible. I did use discord with my old pentium M machine. (only web bc 32 bit). YouTube did work but not well. I was using smplayer for YouTube. Also this was before everything went to av1 encoding and I haven't tried it since.
Depending on the age of the EEE, you might run into problems because the old low end CPU doesn't support instruction set extensions that are assumed to be present by distros nowadays. I think it was SSE2...?
There is iso image of Sparky 7.0 MinimalGUI i686 available to download. As you know, Sparky 7 still supports i686 architecture (32 bit), but I created only…
One of the OG eeepc is what got me into Linux. The distro it shipped with was ass (it was a Linux variant) so I went hopping and discovered Puppy Linux and a bunch of others. Ended up sticking with !# (crunchbang) which later renamed to BunsenLabs and I still run it on most of my devices to this day.
FreeBSD offers a 32 bit variant still via their i386 image.
Expect a small learning curve if you've never used UNIX, but most things are similar enough that you'll be fine. If you're ok picking up the FreeBSD handbook.
I've started up classes recently, and with being a recent convert and all, was a little curious to hear if anyone had any recommendations for a tablet capable of handling the workload of a student and that runs linux. I'm a bit of a neophyte when it comes to hardware (especially tablets, I've never had one in my life), though I've got enough experience to run Fedora on my PC.
My needs are pretty simple, I just need to be able to run libreoffice and take notes on the machine during lectures. Any insights as to where I should be looking?
I'm not sure how easy it would be to put desktop Linux on it. postmarketOS may get support for it but it looks like it may require a bit of work to put the OS on it. wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Xia…
Putting linux on it is surprisingly easy. The difficult part is unlocking the bootloader.. That took me 2 weeks. But yeah, now I have arch+hyprland on slot B and android 16 on slot A in a dual boot setup, and it's smooth as hell. 17 hours of screen on time with libreoffice/gnome pdf reader.
I can second this. I've got a Surface Go 2 that I've been using for a couple of years now and have fully transitioned to Kubuntu a year and a half ago or so. Been working pretty much flawlessly. My cameras don't work, but I don't need them regardless, the pen and the keyboard cover work out of the box, so does the touchscreen. You might want to make a few changes here and there to adjust for missing functions, but it's been a pretty good experience so far. The Surface's battery also lasts a lot longer and the Surface itself doesn't get too warm anymore either, compared to Windows 11
+1 for the Surface Go 2. I use on of these with NixOS GNOME, and it's lovely. For Pen use I like Rnote. You could also use Plasma Mobile on it. The Go 3 is not really better, so don't get it unless it is in the same price range, and avoid the 64 GB eMMC model.
Dell latitude 5285 is a very robust tablet, its old af but has an x86 intel cpu (i5 or i7 7th gen, rather slow, but fast enough for office and yt) and its easily repaireable (screws on the back) so new battery is no problem.
Refurbished they are sometimes available for ~200€ in germany
Only real issue i found was: volume buttons only work in x11 not in wayland
Star Labs StarLite might be a good choice. I don't personally have one so I don't have 1st hands experience but I know somebody who does, and he's happy with it.
Look at 2-in-1 laptops instead of pure tablets. I use a Thinkpad X1 Yoga gen 4 primarily for note taking, Xournal++ is my favorite note taking application.
Searching for "tablet PC" or "Windows tablet" instead of just "tablet" will probably help in your search. Most computers with x86_64 CPUs (Intel or AMD) should be able to run Linux distros fine.
Idk I never bought a tablet in my life so I just figured I'm paying a bit more for a device that I'll truly own and can do whatever I want with. I don't ever plan on buying devices I can't do that. It was definitely worth it but I also agree. I paid more for it then the power of the specs.
If you have money to spend, look for a Microsoft Surface. It’s amazing how good they work with Linux, despite being a Microsoft device designed to run Windows.
Been using the PineTab 2 by Pine64 regularly since it''s out, even bringing it on holiday, and it's been good. Some minor problems (e.g. no WiFi initially but now working, still no integrated BT for now but dongles working, etc) but honestly for that price ~$200 from Hong-Kong or ~400EUR from EU store with warranty) I think it's excellent value for money for a tinkerer.
I'm a Linux /Android/occasional Windows user who after 4 generations of Android tablets, finally gave up and got an iPad (first and only Apple device in decades), because it's leagues ahead in user experience.
Well, I have a Chuwi Hi8 that I recently managed to get to mostly run on Linux (The hardware is a bit on the strange side: It's meant to be more an Android tablet than a PC, and outdated as hell). Gnome works pretty well, but scrolling can be a pain if the app isn't really meant for touchscreens. But it's good enough for browsing at least...
If notetaking is going to be your primary use, you'll definitely want to focus on the keyboard experience. Touch-typing on a screen isn't a fun way to take class notes and a lot of cheap bluetooth keyboards end up being laggy or otherwise unsatisfactory.
I've heard good things about Surface tablets and their attachable keyboards. I've personally had good luck with two-in-one laptops, where the keyboards are built-in.
When/if you try for a pure tablet experience, be prepared for rough edges. Outside of KDE, Gnome and maybe Budgie, most desktop environments/WMs aren't designed to work on tablets without keyboards. Getting an on-screen keyboard to act how you want it to act isn't something that has been solved universally. Another fun wrinkle is that there's no guarantee that the tablet's accelerometer will be detected, so it may be challenging to rotate the screen orientation. If you like messing around with settings and downloading half-finished projects from github, then you'll love playing around with Linux tablets.
I had a great time with my minisforum v3. Everything worked out of box in fedora and bazzite except the rotation support, which I did w a tray icon anyway.
while it's a bit more than a tablet, I scooped up a gen 3 yoga x1 thinkpad off ebay for somewhere around $300 USD. i'm running bluefin on it and it works great for most of my general computing tasks. the screen folds back into a tablet mode and the keys recess when it does. that functionality "just works" on a fresh bluefin install for me.
the stylus that sits inside the body of the laptop doesn't function and i suspect that it is a (non-replaceable) battery issue. i bought a larger lenovo stylus for the device after some research and it works great (plus i can replace the battery). it's a CCAI21LP1520T4 model. i think it was about $35 USD.
the only downside is it's a bit heavier than a tablet and it can get kind of warm over time but i'm doing development on it and have several docker containers running for that purpose. that might be a me problem.
i like that it has a headphone jack and an sd card slot. there's also a sim card slot but i doubt that's usable with linux.
Similar expierience, got an Inspiron x360 for $150 - works great and its capable of doing so much more than a usual tablet since I have the same Debian Stable install as on my Desktop and work Laptop.
And everything worked out of the box, which kinda baffled me to be honest.
What you're looking for is PostmarketOS. On their website you can also see what tablet devices it runs on more or less perfectly and on which ones some of the features are missing.
I think their website answers all of your questions.
I currently run a ThinkPad Yoga L13 Yoga G4. Works wonders with EndeavourOS+KDE Plasma. I study engineering and I both take notes with Xournal++ and the integrated pen (other wacom compatible pens work too) and run heavy workloads like code compiling and a crap ton of MATLAB. There are some quirks specific to Linux, for example acpi does not recognize when the device is folded into tablet mode (but on Windows it works). I worked around it with two widgets with which I manually turn the tablet mode on and off. Other stuff also, I wrote a blog postt on it if anyone is interested.
For all my bachelor I used a ThinkPad Yoga 370, but the dual core processor couldn't really hold up to my computation workloads. Everything worked out of the box, always Arch Linux and I tried both Gnome and Plasma in my time with it.
flatpak should be newer than apt, correct if wrong.
I first installed FFmpeg extension with extra codecs from flatpak, executed a ffmpeg command that returned: command not found.
I then thought the flatpak package, as the name states, is an extension that needs the apt version to be installed to work, so I executed sudo apt install ffmpeg and after downloading, the command worked.
Should I get rid of flatpak's ffmpeg? Am I gaining functions with this package?
ffmpeg -version returns ffmpeg version 7.1.1-1+b1 Copyright (c) 2000-2025 the FFmpeg developers built with gcc 14 (Debian 14.2.0-19)
Other parts of your system very likely require the apt ffmpeg. Keep it, or at least note the packages that apt wants to uninstall because they depend on ffmpeg
You cannot run flatpak application by simply calling the binary.
Coming to your question, I suggest you to install ffmpeg directly from your Debian repo, this way you can get hardware acceleration or device specific benefits for encoding/decoding/transcoding.
You can keep the flatpak version if it is needed by some other flatpak applications. Normally one won't interfere with the other.
Well guys! I did it! Linux mint on my desktop! Finally! Everything seemed like it was going swimmingly save for some minor issues. But then I ran into one: I did use stability matrix to make furry porn (very bad furry porn, don't ask) but when I tried to run it, it kept telling me it had issues with python and cuda and other stuff. I wondered if the problem was just python libraries or my nvidia drivers. I did manage to get a workaround, but it simply wouldn't use my GPU... in fact, I think I am having a super hard time seeing if I am even using it properly.
Speaking of drivers I tried to install the latest one, but that caused a problem. I use multiple monitors (because of course I do). Three in fact, but only one ended up working with the other two entirely unrecognized. And I still wasn't able to use my GPU to get stability matrix (or even stability forge without that) and my games still can't run on max graphics settings. I've been looking around for some help on this and trying to work on it all day, with limited success. It is basically the only major thing going wrong with my transition from windows to linux.
We're having an event for Software Freedom Day. It is a world-wide event, and we are having one right here at Montclair State University in New Jersey.
September 20th, 2025 from 11am-4pm
We'll have talks about what free software is, and why it's important for everyone. What kind of software is available for your existing computer, and how you can use Free Software to use your computer past the date that the manufacturer wants to keep updating it. There will be a talk on self hosting, so that you can run services that reduce or replace your reliance on outside big tech companies, and keep better control of your data. Talks about Wikipedia and Open Source are proposed. There will also be a talk on Social Networking with free software called "Mastodon and the Fediverse" that will show how you can network with people without giving your data to big tech, and without the algorithms that don't work in your best interest.
Good article, I'm running Docker on my server (a dozen or so self-hosted services like PeerTube) but Podman on my desktop (for e.g. Immich) and prototyping. Honestly I should switch my server to Podman too now that most hurdles, e.g. compose support is pretty much on par and rootless practically always works.
I tried to switch to podman one year ago but my compose file failed. I use advanced networking where i want all traffic coming from specific source ip, including DNS. When they fix that, then i will switch as i no longer have any container that requires root.
Sweet. I have really high hopes for cosmic and system76 for making inroads with mainstream users someday. Cosmic is way more stable compared to a year ago. It will probably be good enough for 26.04
More options is more good. The beauty of the open source community is different offerings of the same product catgory directly benefit each other instead of competing. Looking forward to running Cosmic system apps on KDE.
There's a point where we have too many options and the space becomes too fragmented and inconsistent because everyone is doing their own thing instead of improving what others made.
I don't think we reached that with DEs, but if they don't maintain this one then it's kind of going to just be a waste of time and resources that could've been spent improving a different one.
Time will tell. DEs are massive undertakings and they have a lot of catch up to do.
The thing is that sometimes "improving what others made" can be more easily achieved via either re-writing or forking the project.
And not everyone agrees on what the direction for improvement should be. Sometimes improving UX means stripping things away, or at least remodeling it in ways that make supporting the old usecase troublesome. And that can be disruptive.
Damn... all this happening after I left PopOs. Hope they catchup with the current Ubuntu version of 24 as they are still in 22.7 as i can remember. tbh their outdated version is the one of main reason I left it first hand and also their nvidia driver issue harder to fix or downgrade. Hope they fix their credibility in upcoming release.
Yeah, they're holding back PopOS 24.04 because they want to release it together with COSMIC. Though at this rate, COSMIC will be out not long before 26.04, so idk what they'll do there.
Look during my distro hops I tried cosmic. I didn't get the allure. Maybe for a dead simple touch screen but it's too basic. The settings are basic, it lacks depth. I wasn't a fan of the gnome like interface I guess even if you take that out. The best feature was the tiling. Beyond that I just wasn't feeling the locked down UI and brain dead simple settings. KDE is too deep and has too many menus. Mint does it best. Little depth, little options, not enough to fuck things up too bad but still allow you to make it yours.
I haven't tried Cosmic yet, but for me it's the opposite: I feel GNOME (and KDE) is needlessly complex / bloated. Give me a simple tiling window manager that's efficient, quick and always reliable. No real need for menus or fancy animated toolbar widgets, just snappy instant response to my keypresses.
UX is as varied as people's tastes, and they also might evolve with the times.
I guess you mean Cinnamon, Linux Mint is the distro (and it also comes with MATE and XFCE variants).
Cinnamon started as a fork of GNOME 3, for a while Linux Mint was shipping GNOME 3 + MGSE (Mint GNOME Shell Extensions).. GNOME is configurable through extensions, but due to frictions with the GNOME team it made more sense to fork.
I agree, and COSMIC aims to reach Mint level and stay there. Settings have continuously improved (like everything else), and the main feature of COSMIC is tiling (regular people don't care about written-in-Rust or Wayland-only). I can't wait to see major settings/features appear with the next release, like Night Light. For now, I just want to see it stabilise fully and reach release.
Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 00:32 Sponsor: TuxCare 01:45 GNOME Executive Director steps down 04:41 AI used for backporting patches to the Linux kernel 07:02 GhostBSD launches Gerschwin Desktop, a Mac OS clone 09:06 Bazaar app store is available on Flathub 10:37 Firefox adds web apps backs, sort of 12:21 Vivaldi says no to AI 14:04 Google will block sideloading of unverified apps 16:07 Another Asahi dev leaves the project 17:44 Wikipedia editors reject AI 20:00 Sponsor: Tuxedo Computers
Wikipedia editors rejected co-founder Jimmy Wales's proposal to integrate AI tools like ChatGPT into article reviews, citing failures in neutrality, verifiability, and sourcing.
Wikipedia editors rejected co-founder Jimmy Wales's proposal to integrate AI tools like ChatGPT into article reviews, citing failures in neutrality, verifiability, and sourcing.
Berlin, 29 August 2025 – LibreOffice 25.8.1, the first minor release of the free, volunteer-supported office suite for personal productivity in office environments, is now available at https://www.libreoffice.
Steven Deobald has been in the post of GNOME Foundation Executive Director for the past four months, during which time he has made major contributions to both the Foundation and the wider GNOME project. Sadly, Steven will be leaving the Foundation this week. The Foundation Board is extremely grateful to Steven and wish him the very best for his future endeavors.
The Executive Director role is extremely diverse and it is hard to list all of Steven’s contributions since he has been in post. However, particular highlights include:
energetic engagement with the GNOME community, including weekly updates focused on the Foundation’s support of GNOME development, and attention to topics of importance to our contributors, such as Pride Month and Disability Pride
the creation of a new donations platform, which included both a new website, detailed evaluation of payment processors, and a strategy for distributing donations to GNOME development
a focus on partner outreach, including attending UN Open Source Week, adding postmarketOS to our Advisory board, and the creation of a new Advisory Board Matrix channel, alongside many conversations with partner organisations
internal policy and documentation work, particularly around spending and finances
the addition of new tooling to augment policies and documentation, such as an internal Foundation Handbook and vault.gnome.org
assistance with the board, including recruiting a new treasurer and vice-treasurer
We are extremely grateful to Steven for all this and more. Despite these many positive achievements, Steven and the board have come to the conclusion that Steven is not the right fit for the Executive Director role at this time. We are therefore bidding Steven a fond farewell.
I know that some members of the GNOME community will be disappointed by this decision. I can assure everyone that it wasn’t one that we took lightly, and had to consider from different perspectives.
The good news is that Steven has left the Foundation with a strong platform on which to build, and we have an energetic and engaged board which is already working to fill in the gaps left by his departure. I’m confident that the Foundation can continue on the positive trajectory started by Steven, with a strong community-based executive taking the reins.
To this end, the board held its regular annual meeting this week, and appointed new directors to key positions. I’ve taken over the president’s role from Rob McQueen, who has now joined Arun Raghavan as one of two Vice-Presidents. The Executive Committee has been expanded with the inclusion of Arun and Maria Majadas (who is our new Chair). We have also bolstered the Finance Committee, and are looking to create new groups for fundraising and communications.
Steven has been very helpful in working on a smooth transition, and our staff are continuing to work as normal, so Foundation operations won’t be affected by these management changes. In the near future we’ll be pushing forward with the fundraising plans that Steven has set out, and are hopeful about being able to provide more financial support for the GNOME project as a result. If you want to help us with that, please get in touch.
Should you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to president@gnome.org.
On behalf of the GNOME Foundation Board of Directors,
Current members: Allan Day (President, ex officio), Robert McQueen (Vice President, ex officio), Arun Raghavan (Vice President, ex officio), Maria Majadas (Chair, ex officio), Steven Deobald (Execu...
Hi guys, I recently installed Linux mint on a spare laptop I had to check if I can daily drive this and since I run Syncthing Windows setup on this device before and I essentially want to replicate that setup here which means Syncthing starts up automatically on login but with the condition that the device should be connected to ac power and if it gets disconnected kill the process right away. I could easily have this in Windows setup and also in Syncthing-fork for Android with a simple toggle. How can I replicate this Linux mint as well?
Hi, I just wanted to share a tip, as I was optimizing power usage on my Linux laptop and I’ve decided to pause syncthing on battery. To do so I’ve created /etc/udev/rules.d/61-powersave.
I don't think there's a simple toggle for that, I pasted your question into chatgpt and it gave a very reasonable bash script + systemd service for monitoring that. I'm not going to paste ai slop here though.
Ok so ask ChatGPT then? last time I told people here that sometimes you can use AI for answers too. They all said I'm wrong and I should ask the community and search forums for it which I did but couldn't find anything
What you refer to as "people here" (singular entity that seems to contradict itself) are in fact multiple people with opposing opinions. And you won't get a representative slice of the total population to respond evenly in every thread. Some threads get dominated by opinions that dislike AI, others will be more differentiated, other will be AI fanboys.
Try out all suggestions and then think for yourself to decide which one works best for you.
You could use acpid to run a script when switching between AC and battery power. Here is a forum post where someone used it to start and stop a compositor.
Edit: bah, the built-in AC power condition only checks once when it starts up, so you'll probably have to do the custom option that was selected as the answer in that post I linked to.
Is there a way to use systemd to start/stop services when a laptop is on battery or logged in?
As a developer it's helpful to have things like mongodb and redis autostart, but I would like to susp...
Ok thanks now I just need to figure out systemctl and it's options... Hope linux worth all this effort I'm putting in my little spare time I have these days
I þink you might be eagerly optimizing someþing you don't need to. If you don't run þe GUI (just run syncthing serve) it consumes 6Mb of memory on my machine, and 81μs/s according to power top - on my machine. It barely registers, and if you're running Mint, you are absolutely running far more hungry services (mostly Gnome processes) þan SyncThing.
What makes you þink SyncThing is a significant power drain on Linux?
Not in Middle English. By 1066, thorn had replaced eth in English writing. Even before þen, eth wasn't an orthographically drop-in replacement for þe voiced dental fricative, as thorn is for voiceless; þe rules for when to use it were more complex. Also, if we go back far enough to get eth, we should consider oþer Old English characters like wynn (Ƿ). In any case, eth was replaced by thorn by þe Middle English period.
Involuntary. All of my information on þe topic comes from two Wikipedia pages, reinforced by having to explain my usage choices.
Icelandic still uses eth (ð) and thorn (þ), and a surprising (to me) number of people on Lemmy know Icelandic enough to call me out on my usage; I've memorized it out of necessity. For example, þe phasing-out of ð was accelerated by King Alfred the Great. Þat's all I know about Alfy, þough.
This week saw huge improvements to the Plasma clipboard, KRunner, and drawing tablet support — not to mention a bunch of UI improvements in Discover, and plenty more, too! So without further ado…
Notable New Features
Plasma’s clipboard now lets you mark entries as favorites, and they’ll be permanently saved so you can always access them easily! This is very useful when you find yourself pasting the same common text snippets all the time. The feature request was 22 years old; this may be a new record for oldest request ever implemented in KDE! (Kendrick Ha, link)
Plasma now lets you configure touch rings on your drawing tablet! (Joshua Goins, link)
Discover now lets you install hardware drivers that are offered in your operating system’s package repos! (Evan Maddock, link)
KRunner and KRunner-powered searches can now find global shortcuts! (Fushan Wen, link)
Notable UI Improvements
Plasma 6.5.0
KRunner and KRunner-powered searches now use fuzzy matching for applications. (Harald Sitter, link)
Improved the way Discover presents error messages to be a bit more user-friendly and compliant with KDE’s Human Interface Guidelines. (Oliver Beard and Nate Graham, link 1 and link 2)
Discover now lets you write a review for apps that don’t have any reviews yet. (Nate Graham, link)
On operating systems using RPM-OSTree (like Fedora Kinoite), there’s no longer an awkward red icon used in the sidebar and other places you’d expect black or white icons. (Justin Zobel, link)
KDE Gear 25.12.0
Opening a disk in KDE Partition Manager from its entry in Plasma’s Disks & Devices widget no longer mounts the disk, which is annoying since you’ll then have to unmount it in the app before you can do anything with it. (Joshua Goins, link 1 and link 2)
Notable Bug Fixes
Plasma 6.4.5
Fixed a critical issue that could cause the text of a sticky note on a panel to be permanently lost if that panel was cloned and then later deleted. This work also changes handling for deleted notes’ underlying data files: now they’re moved to the trash, rather than being deleted immediately. Should be a lot safer now! (Niccolò Venerandi, link 1 and link 2)
Fixed a very common KWin crash when changing display settings that was accidentally introduced recently. (David Edmundson, link)
Made a few strings in job progress notifications translatable. (Victor Ryzhykh, link)
Fixed an issue that could allow buttons with long text to overflow from System Monitor’s process killer dialog when the window was very very small. (Nate Graham, Link)
Fixed an issue in the time zone chooser map that would cause it to not zoom to the right location when changing the time zone using one of the comboboxes. (Kai Uwe Broulik, link)
The warnings shown by System Settings’ Fonts page in response to various conditions will now be shown when you adjust all the fonts at once, not only when you adjust one at a time. (Nate Graham, link)
Plasma 6.5.0
Fixed a case where Plasma could crash while you were configuring the weather widget. (Bogdan Onofriichuk, link)
Fixed an issue that could cause System Settings to crash while quitting when certain pages were open. (David Redondo, link)
Plasma is now better at remembering if you wanted Bluetooth on or off on login. (Nicolas Fella, link)
Panels in Auto-Hide, Dodge Windows, and Windows Go Below modes will now respect the opacity setting. (Niccolò Venerandi, link)
Frameworks 6.18
Fixed an issue that caused Plasma to crash when dragging files from Dolphin to the desktop or vice versa when the system was set up with certain types of mounts. (David Edmundson, link)
Implemented support for “overlay planes” on single-output setups, which have the potential to significantly reduce GPU and power usage for compatible apps displaying full-screen content. Note that NVIDIA GPUs are currently opted out because of unresolved driver issues. (Xaver Hugl, link)
Implemented support for drag-and-drop to and from popups created by Firefox extensions, and presumably other popups implemented with the same xdg_popup system, too. (Vlad Zahorodnii, link)
Fixed an issue that would cause V-Sync to be inappropriately disabled in certain games using the SDL library. (Xaver Hugl, link)
Undetermined release date
The annotating feature in Spectacle has been extracted into a re-usable library so that it can also be used in other apps in the future! Such integration is still in progress (as is working out a release schedule for the git repo that the library lives in now), but you’ll hear about it once it’s ready! (Noah Davis and Carl Schwan, link)
How You Can Help
KDE has become important in the world, and your time and contributions have helped us get there. As we grow, we need your support to keep KDE sustainable.
You can help KDE by becoming an active community member and getting involved somehow. Each contributor makes a huge difference in KDE — you are not a number or a cog in a machine! You don’t have to be a programmer, either; many other opportunities exist, too.
You can also help us by making a donation! A monetary contribution of any size will help us cover operational costs, salaries, travel expenses for contributors, and in general just keep KDE bringing Free Software to the world.
This is a patch that we created for Solus to enable users to use Discover to install hardware drivers when using the PackageKit backend. By having this in...
Plasma now lets you configure touch rings on your drawing tablet! (Joshua Goins, link) -> screenshot
I am not a graphics designer, but i have a graphics tablet with such a touch ring. Wanted to use it for some photo editing and this really bugged me in the past. Finally its solved and hopefully the ring can be used to change brush size or zoom in and out in example.
Six years ago the entire Linux enthusiast space was super excited for the PinePhone, then everything fell apart. What went wrong? Was PINE64's favoritism towards Manjaro the sole issue or were there other problems?
So I think there were a few issues. - the original pinephone was basically too slow to be usable - there were a few hardware quirks that had to be fixed in software but made mainlining drivers for it difficult - the lack of community updates (and you could argue overall community management) caused some developers to move away while also impeded pine64s ability to attract new developers - the lack of any sort of funding for developers made it difficult for people to work on as any more than a hobby (not necessarily pine64's fault, but it's the reality) - poor battery life (better idle and sleep support would have been software issues but the hardware was designed to be cheap instead of really useful) - daily driving Linux on a phone is a poor experience - not pine64s fault but there's a bunch of support missing in Linux that needs to be developed before early adopters can really use Linux phones. Modem power management, audio switching between Bluetooth and speaker, MMS support, camera support, etc.
I own the original PinePhone, and it's nice to tinker with, but honestly it's far too slow to be usable on a regular basis. Perhaps the PinePhone Pro is slightly better, but most likely still not good enough.
Couple that with the other issues described by @carzian@lemmy.ml , and it's pretty clear why it failed.
its so slow that it feels worse than a gen 1 iphone. even with a super stripped down alpine based os it's unbearable even just making calls or text and not using any software beyond basic phone apps.
I have both the PinePhone and the PinePhone Pro, IMHO :
lack of Android apps (yes, I know, weird to open with that but for a lot of people, that's the 1 thing, not actual calls or SMS) despite Waydroid because it didn't exist initially then requires higher specs
bad power management : the battery is small so without spot on power management one ends up with less than a day of normal usage, that's a show stopper for most
lack of updates : the PinePhone Pro was available without camera support, no big deal, most were expecting based on the initial pace of updates that it would eventually come but even today checking wiki.pine64.org/wiki/PinePhone… it's either Not implemented or Not working
... so with all that very very few people used either as a daily driver and thus even less probably invested time to make it actually usable.
It's amazing as a tinkering device with connectivity... but in practice I went instead to a deGoogle Android phone (with /e/OS by Murena). I still have other hardware by Pine, e.g. PineNote or PineTab2, so I do enjoy they provide a very valuable service to the community and I'll keep on, probably, getting more from them but one has to be pragmatic about the software limitations coming from a company that basically does not provide software for the hardware they sell.
Regarding Android apps: I hope that gitlab.com/android_translation… will make a difference here going forward. A Wine-like approach is just so much less of a resource hog.
Regarding the Camera on the PinePhone Pro: It somewhat works by now, if not on every OS. Be it with libcamera or Megapixels 2, we're getting there. I suppose it's just that nobody told the Wiki.
Right or gamingonlinux.com/2024/09/valv… is also pretty positive but until it's actually done and does support banking apps (which might not be possible due to a lot of restrictions, e.g Google services, signed ROM only, etc) then everybody will remain on the fence.
Good to know for the PPPro. PmOS indicates the support as partial wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/PIN… I should try again at some point.
Valve appear to have some pretty ambitious future plans for Steam, as we've seen recently in a leak (and not for the first time) that Valve has plans for ARM64 and Android support on Linux.
Just 2ct's on the banking thing (sorry if it sounds rude, but I just can't hear it anymore):
Just forget banking apps of you don't want to stay on iOS or proper Google Android forever and ever and ever, even AOSP-based OSes struggle with that (a lot).
Go to a bank that still has a proper website and allows some kind of hardware device for TAN (and tell them that this is why you are leaving/joining) - we need to show market demand for alternative solutions or else these will disappear completely over time.
We also need to make regulators/politicians understand, that taking part in life must be possible without owning a device blessed by Google or Apple. We really need laws here.
It's not rude but it's incorrect. I have a deGoogled phone and do mobile banking with it. I don't know for how long though but just to say it's possible today.
Yes though I do recommend relying on a bank that does not force its customers to use Apple or Google only. I hope they'd be a way to disclose that beside just name & shame.
Glad that works for you! With my bank (comdirect.de) I can use a mobile website, and if I were to use something AOSP- or Halium-based, I could also use their PhotoTAN app, which, as the name implies, needs a working camera in Waydroid (on my OP6 with pmOS, the cameras work via libcamera, but not in Waydroid), so I have a small gadget for all these TANs.
My main worry with the "let's just use Play Store/Aurora store and the run that apk"-approach is that it does not really send a visible signal to banks that they need to keep considering customers that don't use Android proper.
It also always means that the next update (e.g., after some consultancy or some audit happened) may not work any more, meaning, access may be revoked at any time. Complaining to customer service or in Play Store reviews may have an effect, but it will still hurt. I think I would feel a tad safer if a banking app lived on FDroid... but sill.
100% get your point and indeed agree. I think verification overall is pretty much tied to iOS/(Googled)Android so my (probably naive) hope is that physical token or passkeys that are NOT platform or service dependent gain traction. That's why I got excited when github.com/keycloak/keycloak/i… was recently merged. I still have to test it but anyway more and more of the services I use online (self-hosted or not) are now behind "Log in with a device" and/or WebAuthN where I feel I can properly login, using e.g. YubiKey Bio or NitroKey, without anybody in the middle "owning" my identity or at least the verification step. I believe this is pretty much the "last battle" to have secure interactions without a central (commercial or not) actor in the middle that can use this to reshape our behaviors and interactions.
Description This includes passkeys support in Keycloak including: Check it works and implement it Automated tests Documentation and maybe a blog Discussion #16201 Tasks #23658 #23660 #24264 #24999 ...
I'd say it didn't fail. It was never really a consumer phone. It was an attempt to get hardware in the hands of developers, and it achieved that.
Other posts here discuss why it didn't receive wider adoption.
I daily drove my PinePhone until I could no longer receive MMS messages, since my service provider has a different APN for the internet and MMS. That, and the modem became more unreliable over time. I like my PinePhone, but an average user would never adopt it as it is.
Except it absolutely did. Sure, it got hardware in the hands of developers, but that effort didn't amount to anything. Pinebook paved the way for Pinebook Pro, which made good on company's promise of an open, affordable, low power laptop for Linux enthusiasts.
This never materialized with Pinephone, it didn't even mature enough to satisfy most of the early adopters, who for the most part only wanted reliable calling and texting.
Having had both a Pinebook and a Pinebook Pro and two PinePhones and a PinePhone Pro at some point in time (I co-hosted a PINE64 podcast for a bit), I don't follow. If your point is that the PinePhone (Pro) have never been a great for everybody, I think the same is true of Pinebooks (Pro), they're definitely are among the worst laptops I have ever had. Various just as cheap ARM-based Chromebooks (especially the ASUS C101p) I've had were/are just so much better.
The PinePhone really helped with development of existing Linux on Mobile projects and caused the creation of some additional ones, as evidenced by the massive number of projects on pine64.org/documentation/PineP…
The Community Editions helped projects like UBports or postmarketOS financially. Some people even daily drive the device (despite being slow, I've found Sxmo and Sailfish OS to be acceptable, with Phosh coming in third).
While I don't recommend it anymore for anyone who wants to use GTK based stuff on it, I'd view it as a success (I don't view the Pro as a success though, even though I believe they should have cancelled the A64-based PinePhone, not the Pro - a PP2 was IMHO overdue around 2023/2024). With better Quality Control, better relations between PineStore and the wider Community and a different default OS (putting the heavy Plasma Mobile on it was just nuts, and Manjaro definitely is not my favorite distro, to say the least) for the Beta edition, it could have been an even bigger success.
Yes, it didn't work for everybody, but as getting to a working laptop is so much easier than getting to a working phone (think of calls: the device has to manage to wake up at any moment (and fast), audio routing must be switched, echoes must be cancelled etc.) with the sky-high user expectations attached to phones (and the shitload of semi-hostile phone carriers across the world), I regard the PinePhone as quite an achievement.
LINMOB.net is a blog about LINux on MOBile devices. With the PinePhone (Pro) and Librem 5 shipping it is back to report on GNU+Linux on mobile devices.
Hi, im searching for a new Laptop and i was tempted to buy the framework 13.. BUT..
Usually i would search for a used or refurbished Laptop to give it a second life u know. And after it broke down in like 4-6 years usually, i would buy a new used one again.
So my first question is: Is the framework 13 really worth my money for the repairability and upgradability in comparison?
My prefered Laptops are the Surface like ones 2in1 with a stand and detachable keyboard...
But im okay with it to switch to a normal laptop Formfactor.
I would prefere 16:9 or 16:10 for multimedia but im used to a 3:2 so it would be kinda okay for me to stick with it.
How good can i implement linux on some surface like laptop?
I switched from win10 to linux Mint on my desktop this year. But i think im going to switch to another distro, because i need the ASHA-protocoll as fast as possible. Maybe not that important on my desktop but definetly on my next Laptop.
Someone switched from surface like laptop to FW13?
Im not a coder. More like a gamer with og cheat codes in gtaSA on a cracked Version of the game, which runs in deamon-tools as an ISO, lol.
Main use would be Multimedia and some gaming, if possible.
Another use would be AI.. but as far as i know linux doesnt support the build in NPU of the FW13 yet. Maybe ai tinker in a few years then?
And im something like a crypto bro i would say. So how good are crypto tools implemented in linux? Some cold wallet support for exampel.
Which distro would serve my needs the most?
Is there a better choice for me than FW13 ?
So all in all im hopelessly lost and cant decide shit ^^
My only hope is to ask some Linux OGs to help me out on dis.
I usually buy System76 laptops. Might look at a Framework one next go around. I like supporting the linux supply chain when I can. If money is the only concern, sure some repurposed thing is likely cheaper.
Used to buy dell precision (with a couple of lenovo in between but switched back to dell because of crappy support experience). Replaced my precision last month with TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro 14 - Gen10. Great specs for decent price. Running fedora on it. No remarks so far.
I had some similar concerns before buying my Framework 13. The community here helped me a lot to confirm that this is a great laptop. After 3 months of use I'm still in love with it (got mine on sale).
I had a Dell XPS 13 before that, and tested lots of mainstream brands over the years (Lenovo, Acer, Vaio... and dinosaurs like PB, Toshiba). All within a budget of \~$1200-$1500. They all did a decent job and the XPS13 was certainly the best, but they all end up going to the trash because of hardware failure after 4 years max.
I wanted to move to a company that cares about Linux and with Framework, hardware issues will not cause death of my machine anymore. I'll be able to have my machine longer, or upgrade it for a fraction of the price of a new laptop.
Also, along my research before opting for Framework, I've heard mostly about starlab, purism, tuxedo, and system76. There's obviously pros and cons for each brand as well as difference in opinions based on individual experience, but a common criticism for these (including Framework) less marketed brands is the price of their machines. Lots of people don't realize that there's reasons for a slightly high price.
Warnings:
This post is my thoughts after one day of use of a new laptop I’ve been waiting for 1.5 year, so I’m still under endorphins. I’ve spent $1,200 in an under powered machine, so I’m biased.
A few days ago I posted about the same thing, I wanted a Mac-like laptop but running x86 so I could run Linux properly and not through hacks. 80% of the people in the comments suggested the Framework, and for a moment I was close to getting one. But I don't think I would be fully happy with its clunkiness to be honest. Modularized stuff are clunky we like it or not. Yes, much better for repairability, but DELL also offers me two years on site support even here in Greece, so...
At the end, I bought this DELL. It's coming with Linux, so I know it's 100% compatible, and I paid only 765 euros on it (after removing VAT, since I bought it also for work). That's half the price of a Framework, with a slicker design, and it's fast-enough (15,200 passmark cpu points). The only compromise I had to make was that the touchpad was off-center, as it's a large laptop. Other than that, it ticks all my boxes as per my post the other day.
The impossibility of finding a Linux laptop that I like
I'm a Linux user since 1998 (my main desktop PC runs Debian), however I do have a couple of Macs around because I love their hardware (not so much the software though). In fact, I have three old MacBook Airs (mid-2011, 2012, 2015), all running Linux. The moment I got them, I erased MacOS and installed Linux pronto!
But my main laptop is a MacBook Air M1 with MacOS because it's much faster than these older Intel-based MacBook Airs. Modern web browsing and video editing requires a lot of processing power.
So, I want to move to have my main laptop running Linux too. I DON'T want to install Asahi Linux on my M1, because I don't consider it a proper solution for my needs (I want to run Resolve, you see, and most foss apps that I use would need recompiling). Also, I don't like that Asahi is dependent on MacOS to exist, because you can't boot with a usb to install it.
My issue is that I can't find ANYTHING on the PC market that is as slick or full featured as a MacBook Air (minus its limited ports). What I need is this:
Screen no larger than 13.3" inches, Full HD at least, preferably good color gamut (but not a must). I still need the laptop to be portable though. Basically, I'm not even asking for HDR, as the MacBook Air features.
Keyboard to have backlight, without the numpad (I hate these laptops where the touchpad is off center).
The touchpad needs to be glass or of equivalent feel. The Apple touchpads slide/glide with ease. I find every PC touchpad I've used so far to be "sticky". My finger on some Chromebooks and Dell/Lenovo laptops is doing a "grrrkkk, grrrkkkk" when I slide my finger! There's something special about Apple's touchpads, I dunno.
Intel 13th+ gen CPU, with passmark points over 17,000 on multi-threading. My M1 scores about 12,000 points, and it's 5 years old. So obviously I'd need something faster than what I have now.
Intel GPU (no AMD or Nvidia please, I need Intel's superior video decoding abilities). On a Mac that isn't a problem, because Apple does support these 10bit 4:2:2 codecs I need, with hardware acceleration. But on the PC side, only Intel provides good support for these without headaches (only the newest nvidias support that, but I don't want to use Nvidia for too many reasons -- AMD is a disaster on that video front btw). I don't play 3D games.
I need speakers that sound good. Every single PC laptop I've tried, had the worst sound ever. I need it to be hear-able on YouTube and not sound as if you're listening via a can. I bought a Thinkpad x280 a few months ago and I can't use it because its speakers are so bad! DELL (from 5 years ago that I tried) aren't better either.
I need a (supported) fingerprint reader!
32 GB of RAM.
1 TB of storage.
Below a $1800 price tag. That's the price I can get with a MacBook Air for all that.
Now, you might think that "well, it seems that you just want a new MacBook", but that's not true. I want a PC laptop so I can run Debian Linux instead of MacOS. But I need it to be a laptop that is "proper" by my own standards. The quality of the interaction between my palms, fingers, eyes and PC laptops IS NOT the same as with any Apple laptop I've ever used. The reason people buy Apple hardware is NOT because "MacOSX is lickable" (as it was suggested many years ago by Jobs). I've actually researched the "why". It's because the INTERACTION of your senses and the laptop's design/quality FITS. It's like a glove for one another. It's difficult to explain but I know it now to be true. It was never MacOSX itself (although MacOSX's gui smoothness helps the overall experience).
So the question is: am I missing that special, Linux-compatible, PC laptop somewhere? If you know that such a laptop exists, please reply with a link. I'll buy it in a heartbeat.
This is a serious post btw. I spent the whole weekend trying to find that mythical PC laptop, and I can't. I'm frustrated.
EDIT: I might end up with the Framework 13. Not 100% what I'm after, but probably the best solution right now.
EDIT 2: I bought a DELL 5640 16" laptop, 32 GB RAM, i7 cpu, that comes with Linux pre-installed (so I know it's compatible). It ticks all my boxes except the size and the trackpad being off center. Oh well.
Is the framework 13 really worth my money for the repairability and upgradability in comparison?
Depends on what you upgrade for, and what you need in the first place.
If you upgrade mainly for more CPU and GPU power, in my opinion that's a hard sell. The new mainboards from Framework are hella expensive!
If you need a dGPU in a small form factor laptop, Framework just doesn't offer that. Same for touch or built-in tablet support.
If you're ok with the built-in GPU and upgrade for better display, for better battery, and a better but perhaps not the absolute latest and best APU, yes, it's worth it.
When I bought the FW13, a year later or so they brought out a new 120Hz higher resolution display. The first display being 60Hz was my only big annoyance with it, having a 120Hz monitor for comparison... So I just bought the new display, and swapping it only took literal 5 minutes.
Similar story with the hinges, I wanted ones with more resistance, so I just bought stronger ones for 25€ and easily replaced them.
If the battery gets worse, or they bring out a new one with decently improved capacity, I can similarly replace it in 5 minutes.
No glue, no 10 types of special screws, just the screw driver that was shipped with the laptop, and basically zero risk of breaking anything when making modifications.
You'll have to know yourself if these tradeoffs are worth it to you... but after my old HP Envy's display broke and even finding the correct replacement part was a challenge, let alone replacing it, I'm quite happy with the FW13.
I’ve been seeing a lot of people wanting to switch to GNU/Linux(shortly just Linux) recently, owing to various reasons including Windows 10 EOL, forced integration of AI tools, screenshot spying, bloatware, etc. and I thought I’d make a comprehensive guide based on my experience.
Please feel free to correct me when I’m mistaken.
Note: New users, please don't be intimidated by new terms. You may pick the easy-to-use OS/distros that just mostly use GUI(Graphical User Interface) as opposed to Console/CLI(Command Line Interface) and follow the simple steps. Ignore other details if you want.
OVERVIEW:
Step 1:
Deciding whether to dual boot or not. Checking compatibility of your use-case and alternatives.
Dual-boot only:
→ Using drives on dual-boot
→ Preparation for dual-boot.
Step 2:
Picking a distribution(For easy mode, choose Mint or Bazzite/Nobara/CachyOS)
Picking a Desktop Environment (For windows-like, pick KDE/Cinnamon)
Decide how much you rely specifically on Windows based apps.
For most apps, there are open source and/or free alternatives.
M$ Office → LibreOffice.
Edge → LibreWolf, Ungoogled-chromium/Trivalent.
Outlook → BetterBird, and a shout-out to the new Tuta Mail client.
Photoshop → Krita, GIMP
Premiere Pro → Davinci Resolve, Kdenlive
There are also workarounds to run Windows apps on Linux using a VM(Virtual Machine), WINE compatibility layer or containers, which you’ll have to experiment or look up others’ experiences.
→ A few multiplayer games with invasive kernel-level anti-cheat(like Valorant, LoL, Apex, Destiny2, Rainbox Six Siege, Fortnite, some Battlefield ones) will not run on Linux.
Check if it’s the case with the game you play on ProtonDB.
Edit: As some people have pointed out, AreWeAntiCheatYet website is also a good resource on multiplayer gaming on Linux.
Steam with its Proton support will just run majority of games otherwise.
98% of my 500+ games library on Steam just works.
→ For those who use Epic Games, your library will work through Lutris or Heroic.
Heroic will have a library of all your games and each one will have its own prefix, I think.
Lutris just has one prefix for Epic games and all the games in its library and runs like the Windows equivalent.
→ Those sailing high seas can still use Lutris/Heroic/Bottles to run stuff. IYKYK. Make sure to play around with winetricks and change runners if things don’t work. There’s a slight learning curve if you’re using Lutris and stuff on your own. Get the relevant community’s help when needed.
I personally dual boot two different Linux distros, one of which is to run stuff from the high seas.
Step 1-B:
(Skip to Step 2 if you don’t want Windows.)
If you don’t have alternatives or if VM/containers/WINE don’t run the apps you use properly, you will have to stick to dual booting Linux with Windows.
If you do, try to install Linux on a separate HDD/SSD. If you don’t have a spare drive, you can still install Linux in the same drive as Windows, but Windows has a history of breaking dual boot configurations and Linux’s bootloader. In this scenario, all you just need is to keep a USB drive with your distro’s ISO handy so you can live boot, open CLI and fix the bootloader.
Also, after installation, don’t try to run games directly from external NTFS drive on Linux. You’ll have issues.
You can always continue to copy/run files from an NTFS drive on Linux. But since NTFS is windows’ proprietary filesystem, expect it to corrupt it. It can be easily be fixed by chkdsk(disk Error checking) on Windows. So, don’t panic about this.
If you don’t need to use your external drive on Windows at all, convert it to ext4 and safely use it on Linux.
If you want to use your external drive on both Windows and Linux without corruption, exFAT supposedly works better, but exFAT doesn’t have journaling and similar features. So, a power cut during file transfer might cause data loss.(?)
I started out dual booting with Windows myself as I was scared if some things wouldn’t work, but gradually, I’ve been able to ditch Windows completely.
Step 1-C:
If you’re using the same drive for dual booting, you’ll have to make some space on it for Linux to use. Windows can make it harder sometimes, so you might end up using some 3-rd party partion manager tools to force it, if it wouldn’t allow you.
→ Also, disable Hibernation, turn off Virtual Memory in Advanced System Settings and set paging size to 0. You can turn it back on after installing Linux.
→ To make some space, go to Disk Management and shrink your Windows volume based on your choosing. You should ideally be able to get as much free space as you see in Properties of your C Drive. If this doesn’t work, then try a reputable 3-rd party partition manager to shrink it.
→ Once shrunk, you’d see unallocated space of your chosen size. This is where we’re going to install Linux.
Step 2-A:
Picking a distribution. There are a lot to pick from.
The three big parent ones are Debian, Fedora and Arch and many other distributions are built on top of them. There’s also OpenSuse, which supports RPM packages that is typically used on Fedora. There are also a lot more independent distros like Gentoo, Void, Nix, Qubes of which I’m not much familiar with. You can explore those communities if interested.
Debian is a fixed release distro. Fedora is semi-rolling, and Arch & OpenSuse Tumbleweed are rolling/bleeding-edge. - Debian(Slow to update but supposedly stable) → Ubuntu(has unfriendly snap) → Mint(most popular and friendly). I’d not recommend Ubuntu based on my experience. But if you want to, go ahead.
Fedora(Natively, it has only FOSS packages by default and requires a bit of really simple initial config for proprietary Nvidia driver and codecs- refer RPM Fusion).
Fedora derivatives like Nobara/Bazzite usually have Nvidia driver and proprietary codecs already installed. Make sure to choose their ISO file that has Nvidia support.
Only try regular Arch install if you have enough time and patience. [If you’re a novice, avoid AUR if possible since they are all user submitted packages there.]
Otherwise, try Cachy-OS that is Arch-based. It has a GUI package manager.
SteamOS, also Arch-based, is typically NOT recommended for Desktop systems, I think.
OpenSuse Tumbleweed is also rolling distro like Arch. Has a nice installer and a GUI package manager. This is what I’m currently using after a lot of distro hopping, along with another Fedora based distro.
Most of these are regular traditional distros except Bazzite. Bazzite is an image-based or an atomic distribution, which is supposedly hard to break. The core of it is untouched and applications can then be installed using Flatpak/Containers. If packages are installed natively, they will be layered on top of the image. If something goes wrong after an update, it can be rolled back to the previous working image.
Note: Regular Fedora based distros offer the ability to switch to 2 previous kernel versions during boot.
There are also other atomic distros like Kinoite(Fedora KDE in atomic form), Silverblue(Fedora Gnome in atomic form), Secureblue(if you take security very seriously), Aurora, etc.
At first, you may pick a distro that’s not for you. In which case, always have a back up of your important data elsewhere and be ready to install another distro that you’d like to try.
Step 2-B:
Picking a Desktop Environment (also Display Server and Window Manager/Compositor).
TLDR note: Only worry about choosing Desktop Environment. Ignore others if needed.
Desktop Environment is how an OS looks like and all that you can customize with the GUI.
A lot of distros support KDE & Gnome by default.
There’s Cinnamon used in Mint.
XFCE is a lightweight DE.
Cosmic DE(still in alpha) is based on Rust(memory-safe).
OPTIONAL reading:
→ These DE typically have their own Window Manager(X11) or Compositor(Wayland). I’ve never strayed away from the default stacking managers that most Desktop Environments provide. But feel free to explore others out there if you’re into it. Popular tiling managers are i3 on X11 and Sway on Wayland.
Edit: As people have pointed out, there are a lot better automatized window managers too. Please check out AwesomeWM on X11, and Qtile on Wayland.
→ Now, Display Server is the simply the underlying protocol coordinating input/output. There are only two that exists. Xorg’s X11 and Wayland. X11 is the legacy display server that is used by many distros, but slowly being phased out.
Wayland is the newer display server that is supposedly more secure with GUI isolation(which X11 lacks) and supports features like HDR. Applications that are developed to run for X11 run on Wayland too using compatibility layers like x-Wayland.
Cinnamon on Mint works well on X11 from last I used it and Wayland is only experimental. If you’re choosing Mint, you’ll probably be sticking to X11 for now.
KDE and Gnome, both have wayland support. Gnome is soon phasing out X11.
Xfce has recently introduced wayland support.
→ On most DE, both Wayland and X11 can be used by switching over in the Login Screen.
Speaking of login screen, there’s the Display Manager. If you’re asked to pick anything in some distros, just use SDDM(for plasma), GDM(for gnome), lightDM(for others).
Step 3-A:
Now, time to get the distro ISO file from their legit websites. Some of them support torrent downloads too.
Distros like Fedora package different environments as spins. So, there will be Fedora KDE, Fedora Workstation(Gnome), Fedora Cosmic, and so on.
Mint’s native ISO will have Cinnamon bundled. It also has a separate XFCE version and LMDE version(derived from Debian instead of Ubuntu).
In other cases, if you have an Nvidia card, make sure to select the Nvidia version of the ISO if they offer you that way.
Step 3-B:
Preparing a USB drive with Ventoy:
→Before anyone asks, Rufus is great, but only works on Windows and you’ll have to format an ISO with it everytime you want to use a different one and you’re only limited to one ISO at a time.
→Ventoy on the other hand, has cross-compatibility. It is a one time installation. You can just drag and drop or copy & paste multiple distro ISOs in it as long as you have the space in the USB drive.
→Avoid Balena Etcher. I’ve seen people have issues with it.
Ventoy should have both GUI and CLI method to install. Check their site.
Step 3-C:
Meddling with BIOS:
→BIOS/UEFI can be accessed during the startup of a system usually with F2/Delete/F12.
SecureBoot(a Microsoft feature) has to be turned off before installation.
Note: If you’re not dual-booting or don’t need Mircosoft’s secureboot, you can continue to leave it disabled after installation too.
If you want it however, it can be turned on again after installation. If turned on, a secureboot key for your linux distro has to be registered. You’ll have to create a keypair using ‘mokutil’ and register this with a password. Check your distro documentation regarding how to do this.
Exception: From what I recall, Nobara does not support SecureBoot.
→ Fast boot can be turned off too.
→ SATA mode should preferably be in AHCI.
→ Boot order can be changed and the installation USB can be prioritized to boot first too. This step can also be done by accessing the boot menu, typically by spamming F8 or F10 on startup.
Step 4-A:
Installation & Partitioning:
→ If you’re using auto-partitioning,
Choose the unallocated free space if you’re dual booting on same drive. Distro installations will usually have options like ‘Install alongside Windows’.
Choose the windows drive otherwise if you’re getting rid of Windows. The installer will format the drive and install over it.
Note: You can also choose to encrypt your disk partition with a password with LUKS during installation.
IGNORE the following if you’re using auto-partitioning.
→ If you’re manually partitioning, you’ll typically have to create:
/boot/efi (EFI partition type – vfat filesystem) of about 300 MB to 600 MB space for boot loader.
/boot partition(linux extended boot - ext4) of about 1 GB to 2 GB size to store kernel images.
/ partition(Linux root x86_64 partition type – either ext4 or btrfs or one of your choosing), with the much of the rest of your free space.
/swap partition (Linux swap partition type – swap filesystem) with anywhere from 2 to 4 to 8 GB of size.
This is similar to the paging file and acts as extended Memory. This is optional, but good to have.
Note: I suspect most distros have fully started using GPT instead of legacy MBR even for EFI partition. So, hopefully, no one has any issues with that.
→ For your root filesystem, you can use the standard ext4 filesystem which has journaling features.
There’s also the popular Btrfs, which has Copy-on-Write feature that supposedly helps with better snapshots of system.
→ Additional Note: Timeshift backup program doesn’t work well with Btrfs on Fedora because of how the root volume is labeled there. I think the root is labeled as @ instead of /. Look into it if you want to use Timeshift on Fedora.
Nobara fixes this by default. So, you can use Timeshift in it.
OpenSuse distros have btrfs+snapper integration for backup.
→ Troubleshooting note for btrfs users:
Lately, during power cut or forced shutdown, Btrfs partition got corrupted due to a bug in the Linux Kernel(anywhere between 6.10 to 6.15, I think).
Your root partition can be found by using the command ‘lsblk’.
Edit:
→Troubleshooting note:
Try to use USB 3.0 or USB-C ports for live boot or live-install. Avoid USB hubs.
On USB 2.0, live-install can be slow since it has to load stuff from USB to RAM.
If you have any issues with graphics, try the legacy graphics/ basic graphics mode while choosing to install.
Intermediate/Expert users:
You can also do this temporarily. Press 'E' during boot loader menu and edit kernel entry(line that starts with linux or kernel and may end with splash) to add nomodeset. So, it should look like:
linux /boot/vmlinuz... nomodeset quiet splash
→ Those who have other issues during install, make sure you downloaded the file fully or copied the file into the USB fully. This can be confirmed by comparing the checksum of the file on the website to the one on the USB.
Step 4-B:
Post-install and Troubleshooting notes:
→ For those who ditched Windows completely, make sure to back up your data and convert your external drives’ Filesystem to ext4 too for Linux-only use.
→ For most apps, you can try to find a flatpak version(preferably verified ones). Some apps like Steam, Lutris, gamescope and OBS are recommended to be installed natively.
*Avoid Snap packages if you use Ubuntu.
→ In some distros, you have to manually add Flathub repository and use flatpak apps that are then integrated with your Desktop Environment’s AppStore.
To be safe, you can also check for a tick sign or a verified signature of the developer of your flatpak application. Distros like Mint have an option to just show you only verified apps.
Fedora has an extra repository of its own managed Flatpak applications. I avoided this and just directly used apps from Flathub though.
→ Remember to always update your system additionally after a kernel/GPU driver update, if you are using flatpak applications. This is so that the Flatpak runtimes(like Freedesktop stuff and other application platforms) will get updated and only then most flatpak apps will continue to work. Some distros take care of this during a regular update itself. But keep an eye out for this one.
→ Some distros like base Fedora only comes with FOSS apps. Install proprietary Nvidia driver and codecs separately by following the RPM-fusion site. (If you’re using Fedora derivatives like Nobara/Bazzite, you don’t even have to do the following. If you’re intimidated by it, just use a Fedora derivative.)
It involves installation of two RPM repos: free and non-free. Then, a few lines in the commandline to install Nvidia driver and ffmpeg codecs.
Those with AMD GPU can just install the proprietary codecs.
// For people who don’t want to read too much into the simple, one-time procedure can just follow this (as shown in RPM fusion site):
→ Screensharing with audio is still problematic with Discord even though it claims to have been fixed. Vesktop had fixed this a year ago or even before Discord even tried.
→ Some mkv files with eac3 audio may have issues with VLC. Haruna player, with its innate mpv stuff, manages to play those.
→ If Steam doesn’t launch the first time, type:
__GL_CONSTANT_FRAME_RATE_HINT=3 steam
→ For rolling & semi-rolling distros, the latest Nvidia drivers should have solved a lot of its issues.
If anyone still finds a blank screen after waking from sleep, try getting into TTY by pressing Ctrl+Alt+F3, followed by Ctrl+Alt+F2(or F1) to get back into your Graphical UI.
→ CachyOS and OpenSUSE has great GUI installers that allows one to choose packages during and after installation. Arch users are on their own with the Wiki.
→ Other distro users can still make use of the Arch Wiki in most cases. It’s very helpful. Case in point:
Arch has a guide to disable HSP/HFP of a Bluetooth headset by creating a file in .config folder in home(~) directory. I had to do this so that I can just use my external mic and avoid my Bluetooth headset going to poor quality audio codec when it uses BT microphone.
→ If anyone suddenly miss their Wifi/Bluetooth device and not even detected with ‘rfkill’ command, then you might be overloading your USB ports that it doesn’t get enough power.
You might see a code “usb error -110” when you check your journalctl log or when you use the command :
journalctl -b 0 -p err.
In this case, just unplug all your devices and powercycle your motherboard, i.e. you have to press your power button for 10-15 seconds. After that, your Wifi/BT device will be detected again.
→ Most distros have good enough firewall like ufw or Firewalld. One can also install OpenSnitch or Safing Portmaster if your distro supports it and have fine-grained control of your system.
→ If printing, local filesharing and geolocation are not needed, packages like ‘cups’, ‘samba’ and * ‘geoclue’ can be removed or *masked(disabled).
If you’re targeting this at Windows users who just heard about GNU/Linux and consider switching, this is a terrible guide.
Edge → LibreWolf, Ungoogled-chromium/Trivalent.
No. When someone wants to switch to GNU/Linux, don’t also shove your other opinions onto them. There’s nothing wrong with Firefox or Chromium, which often come preinstalled.
Picking a distribution. There are a lot to pick from.
This whole section is way too long. Here’s what it should say:
Use Linux Mint Cinnamon Edition.
If you want to say more:
Use Linux Mint Cinnamon Edition. Or if your entire focus is gaming, use Bazzite.
No new user gives a fuck what Linux distribution is. They don’t care what atomic distribution is. And talking to them about Arch can only lead to disaster.
SteamOS, also Arch-based, is typically not recommended for Desktop systems, I think.
No. Do not recommend unsupported distribution which doesn’t work with the most popular GPU brand to any new users.
Picking a Desktop Environment
This section unnecessary since the previous section should already direct the new user to either Mint or Bazzite.
Avoid Balena Etcher. I’ve seen people have issues with it.
And you think Rufus with magnitude of options and Ventoy will leave users with fewer problems?
If you’re using auto-partitioning,
There should be no ‘if’. A new user should not do manual partitioning. If they are interested in doing it, they’re already way too advanced to read your tutorial.
→ For those who ditched Windows completely, make sure to back up your data and convert your external drives’ Filesystem to ext4 too for Linux-only use.
Uh? Why? Let them use NTFS if the drive is in NTFS.
No. When someone wants to switch to GNU/Linux, don’t also shove your other opinions onto them. There’s nothing wrong with Firefox or Chromium, which often come preinstalled.
I said this was my experience and there is a reason why I started using/recommending these apps. A lot of people would just simply disagree with you claiming that Firefox or Chromium have nothing wrong. People already hate AI features being built into Firefox and don't want google's tentacles around their neck on chromium.
This whole section is way too long. Here’s what it should say: Use Linux Mint Cinnamon Edition. Or if your entire focus is gaming, use Bazzite.
Again, this has been my experience. And the title does say 'comprehensive' guide. Not a quick guide.
No new user gives a fuck what Linux distribution is. They don’t care what atomic distribution is. And talking to them about Arch can only lead to disaster.
I've been asked in Bluesky about what a distro is by some people. And I had to explain it to them. So yeah, they do care.
No. Do not recommend unsupported distribution which doesn’t work with the most popular GPU brand to any new users.
And that is exactly what I meant. Are you sure you're reading it correctly? I included it and explicitly did not recommend it so that people don't get misled from posts online making them believe that SteamOS will bring about the Year of the Linux and so on.
This section unnecessary since the previous section should already direct the new user to either Mint or Bazzite.
Mint is great. Bazzite is great.
But not everyone will be looking for X11 support and therefore Mint. And wrt Bazzite, not everyone will want to use an atomic distro.
I see you want to simply stuff and just ask people to resort to one or two things. But that's not going to stop people. They're going to experiment different things. Hence the 'comprehensive' guide. People reading carefully and having good reading comprehension will already see that I mentioned Mint to be the most friendly and popular, and also explained in detail about how one can rollback from a failed state with Bazzite.
That would already point the users, who want things to just work, towards them.
There should be no ‘if’. A new user should not do manual partitioning. If they are interested in doing it, they’re already way too advanced to read your tutorial.
I asked people to ignore it if they don't want it. And once again, this is a 'comprehensive' guide.
Uh? Why? Let them use NTFS if the drive is in NTFS
I've explained what goes wrong with it and I've also stated for people who dual boot that NTFS can get corrupt and how to resolve it. For those who are only on Linux, I've been told that running fsck(file system consistency check) on a corrupted NTFS drive may not go well. Hence the reason I asked them to convert it to ext4.
If I'm wrong on this, please do shed light. I'll correct myself on this.
LibreWolf and the likes are paranoidware/autismware and don't work for most people's workloads. Most people would like keeping history and other basic shit like sync that Firefox provides. Also, who hates Firefox's features? You browse too much lemmy.
I said this was my experience and there is a reason why I started using/recommending these apps. A lot of people would just simply disagree with you claiming that Firefox or Chromium have nothing wrong.
You’re writing a guide how to switch to GNU/Linux. If you want to discuss browsers, do it in another guide. If someone wants to switch operating systems, confusing them with browser choices isn’t helping.
Again, this has been my experience. And the title does say ‘comprehensive’ guide. Not a quick guide.
You’re also saying the guide is for people who recently got interested in switching to Linux. Those people don’t need to hear about Arch. They don’t need to understand what immutable distribution is. A comprehensive guide for that target audience should focus on comprehensively describing one or two distributions targeted at that target audience.
But not everyone will be looking for X11 support and therefore Mint.
Someone who just started looking into switching to Linux is looking for neither X11 nor Wayland support.
And wrt Bazzite, not everyone will want to use an atomic distro.
That’s why I wrote ‘if your entire focus is gaming.’ People who just want to play games, don’t care. They just want their stuff to work.
I see you want to simply stuff and just ask people to resort to one or two things. But that’s not going to stop people. They’re going to experiment different things.
Of course. But the way I see it, that’s not the target audience. Someone who so far had been using exclusively Windows, does not need to be front-loaded with all that information. Describe Mint in detail, especially pointing out differences they can face between Mint and Windows, and mention that other distributions also exist if they want to try them in the future.
You say this is a comprehensive guide, but it’s comprehensive in the sense that it touches on a lot of different topics. It goes broad with its scope, but for a new user going in more detail with typical Mint installation would be more useful.
For those who are only on Linux, I’ve been told that running fsck(file system consistency check) on a corrupted NTFS drive may not go well. Hence the reason I asked them to convert it to ext4.
I reckon converting would lead to more lost data than just using NTFS partition. This also locks users into using the drive under Linux. I just don’t think this is a useful recommendation for someone who is just switching from Windows.
Chiming in, I'll say that I mostly agree with your points, except for one:
Someone who just started looking into switching to Linux is looking for neither X11 nor Wayland support.
They won't care about X11 vs Wayland, sure. A non-ignorable number of them will care about stuff like HDR or multi-monitor setups where different refresh rates don't stutter and VRR works, and that's where proper Wayland support becomes a must.
If you recommend someone a distro that can't do those things and later have to tell them that they have to switch distros for that chances are high they'll just go back to Windows.
A non-ignorable number of them will care about stuff like HDR or multi-monitor setups where different refresh rates don’t stutter and VRR works
I’m honestly not sure how much people care. Lemmy and Reddit will have one believe X11 is unusable, and yet I’m still using it on two monitors and I don’t feel any disadvantage at not having HDR or different refresh rates. However, I don’t really want to argue on that part.
My concern is that when newbies search ‘how do I install Linux,’ most sources give them a consistent answer, rather than every website having it’s own ‘top 10 distributions’ list or long articles full of technical jargon. Linux Mint is not a terrible distribution and it seems to be common recommendation which is why I’m recommending it as well. I believe it’s better we give people clear message and lose a handful who care about HDR or VRR, than lose a score intimidated by the choices and perceived difficulty.
I do think those featues have become pretty common in PC gaming nowadays, which is why I'm more in favor of openSUSE as the beginner distro if I had to pick just one, but sure, let's put that aside.
When it comes to Linux though I just don't think there's a one-size-fits-all distro yet that I can safely recommend to everyone. And getting beginners onto a distro that fits them can greatly benefit their initial experience, so I think it's worth it to give them a few simple choices. That said, you're completely right that the way OP tries to explain the differences isn't how you should do it. Ever. Less choices, less jargon, less mentions of fringe distros. It also doesn't help that a lot of it seems to be based on hearsay rather than actual first-hand experience.
It also doesn’t help that a lot of it seems to be based on hearsay rather than actual first-hand experience.
I've pretty much had first hand experiences of Ubuntu, Mint, Fedora, Nobara, Bazzite, Kinoite, Arch, CachyOS, Tumbleweed, Secureblue, PopOS(which I didn't even include), but mentioned Cosmic(which I've used as a Fedora spin).
The only ones that I mentioned and not used are: Debian, SteamOS and Aurora(failed to install cause of an error). And I've only parroted the major descriptions of them.
You’re writing a guide how to switch to GNU/Linux. If you want to discuss browsers, do it in another guide. If someone wants to switch operating systems, confusing them with browser choices isn’t helping.
Switch from what? Are we talking about MacOS or OpenBSD? Did I say switch from Safari?
Of course, some people who switch from Windows are going to consider if they want to move away from Windows based apps. And M$ Edge being Windows' native browser is one of them. I've seen some teachers/professors who just use the browsers that is there by default.
You seem to be vehemently butthurt over the fact that I just didn't leave it at the native Firefox/Chromium that a distro might provide. And I already explained my reasoning and I've in fact suggested a more privacy-focused alternative. If I suggested something like Brave that has a history of silently injecting affiliate links and is bloated with crypto, you'd have every right to be angry.
I've installed Librewolf on some really old, non-technical people's systems and they've not complained. Not one bit. Until I hear someone complain about this affecting their usage, I'm going to keep suggesting it. And yes, I should have included the bit about enabling cookies so their accounts don't get logged out.
You’re also saying the guide is for people who recently got interested in switching to Linux. Those people don’t need to hear about Arch.
Yes, recently because of the end of support and enhanced enshittification of Windows. Why would I want to decide who's going to be reading this? Anyone ranging from having maximum patience to minimum patience could be reading it. And I clearly mentioned that fact about Arch requiring enough time and patience. If I just said, "Hey, just get on with Arch", you've every reason to be concerned about. You just have your own set of people in mind to target. I'm just informing everything. People with decent reading comprehension will understand the implications of what I've advised.
A comprehensive guide for that target audience should focus on comprehensively describing one or two distributions targeted at that target audience.
To quote from 'Big Lebowski', "That's just like your opinion, man."
Someone who just started looking into switching to Linux is looking for neither X11 nor Wayland support.
Someone already rebutted you on this on how people will get frustrated with their installation if they didn't know that HDR/VRR don't get supported on X11. And I've also been talking about gaming. So, yeah. A lot of them care about GSync/FreeSync and 10-bit colour.
Describe Mint in detail, especially pointing out differences they can face between Mint and Windows, and mention that other distributions also exist if they want to try them in the future.
Fair enough point about pointing out the differences. Will try to make notes about that sometime.
I reckon converting would lead to more lost data than just using NTFS partition. This also locks users into using the drive under Linux. I just don’t think this is a useful recommendation for someone who is just switching from Windows.
More lost data? How so?
But yes, it does lock users using the drive under Linux. I've tried with some third party tools to access ext4 on Windows and it was really slow.
And I've already mentioned about exFAT if they still want to share files across OS along with its potential risk.
Switch from what? Are we talking about MacOS or OpenBSD? Did I say switch from Safari?
At this point I don’t know if you’re arguing in good faith. First sentence of your post (emphasis mine):
I’ve been seeing a lot of people wanting to switch to GNU/Linux(shortly just Linux) recently, owing to various reasons including Windows 10 EOL, forced integration of AI tools, screenshot spying, bloatware, etc. and I thought I’d make a comprehensive guide based on my experience.
Later you’re discuss switching from Edge and not Safari.
You seem to be vehemently butthurt over the fact that I just didn’t leave it at the native Firefox/Chromium that a distro might provide.
No. You’re missing the point (and also you seem to be the one butthurt that people may think there’s nothing wrong about Firefox). The point is to not overwhelm people with unnecessary information. If you want to write comprehensive guide about switching to GNU/Linux, write a comprehensive guide about a single distribution aimed at new users.
I’ve installed Librewolf on some really old, non-technical people’s systems and they’ve not complained.
You have installed. They didn’t have to do anything. Now you’re writing a guide about a complicated process of installing a new operating system and include unnecessary steps for them to do.
Why would I want to decide who’s going to be reading this?
Because that makes the text coherent. If you don’t decide who your target audience is, the text becomes useless for anyone. This is true of any text. If you write text for someone maximally patient, someone minimally patient won’t read it.
Someone already rebutted you on this on how people will get frustrated with their installation if they didn’t know that HDR/VRR don’t get supported on X11. And I’ve also been talking about gaming. So, yeah. A lot of them care about GSync/FreeSync and 10-bit colour.
Then pick openSUSE and recommend that if you’re so concerned about Wayland. Don’t bombard people with jargon they don’t care about.
More lost data? How so?
Through the process of failing to make a proper backup of the data.
At this point I don’t know if you’re arguing in good faith. Later you’re discuss switching from Edge and not Safari.
Yes, I'm trying to. The point about Macos/Safari was rhetorical sarcasm.
We are of course switching from Windows and the main point is about the OS change, but that doesn't limit the fact it will make people wonder if their workflow be taken towards it. People might just be used to their tools/apps that Windows provides them by default. And WHY do they switch? One reason is of course, Co-pilot, which I mentioned. So, it implicitly doesn't just stop at Windows. Those who are frustrated with everything M$, including the apps, will be glad to see that alternatives exist. So, that's just a kickstarter.
If they don't like my suggestions, they are free to try what they want.
This is the reasoning behind why app suggestions also can help.
write a comprehensive guide about a single distribution aimed at new users
Why would I do that? If people made up their mind about a distro, they can just go to the distros' website that have their own documentation and most of them are good enough.
For specific cases, Arch Wiki helps, which I've already mentioned with an example.
You have installed. They didn’t have to do anything.
Seriously? Installing a browser is hard for regular computer users now? In most distros, you just go to the App Store, search for the browser or even go to the Browser category and one-click install from there. You seriously think I should include that in the already big guide you seem to be complaining about?
But there are of course people(usually old ones, not to be ageist) for whom things have to be setup. This guide can be helpful for those who are helping setup systems for people like them too.
Because that makes the text coherent. If you don’t decide who your target audience is, the text becomes useless for anyone. This is true of any text. If you write text for someone maximally patient, someone minimally patient won’t read it.
Those who are frustrated with everything M$, including the apps, will be glad to see that alternatives exist. So, that’s just a kickstarter.
If someone is frustrated with Edge, pointing out that after installing GNU/Linux they’ll have Firefox or Chromium available instead. There is no reason to further introduce another step of installing a different web browser.
Why would I do that? If people made up their mind about a distro, they can just go to the distros’ website that have their own documentation and most of them are good enough.
But people did not make up their mind about a distro. They have no idea what a distro is. They dislike Windows, they’ve heard about Linux and now they’re looking up instruction how to use it. One of the popular complains is that just choosing distribution is a huge burden to new users. This is where people who know GNU/Linux should come in and steer people into specific distribution which has highest chance to be good enough for most number of new users. And then you can write a comprehensive guide how to get that distribution working and how to transition from Windows workflows to workflows on that distribution.
Seriously? Installing a browser is hard for regular computer users now?
Yes. Yes it is. If they embark on installing a new operating system, every unnecessary step makes it so much more difficult.
To be frank I prefer GNOME for normal users because it has a distinct and uniform interface and supports modern tech, amongst other issues I have with Linux Mint
In practice I have found that teaching people to use a new environment goes better than trying to replicate Windows which will frustrate people when it doesn't work exactly like windows
And even for making your desktop look like windows, KDE is miles, leaps and bounds ahead of Cinnamon
Also, NTFS -STILL- has write bugs occasionally with the ntfs3g driver (cannot speak for the paragon kernel driver) so it can cause dirty fs issues from time to time although they will be fixed with a chkdsk
And you think Rufus with magnitude of options and Ventoy will leave users with fewer problems?
I agree with most of your post except this item. Balena Etcher caused major problems for me when I tried it (to be fair, years ago, so I don't know if they've resolved/improved the issues), and I'm an IT guy. It borked my USB drive pretty bad, and I had to jump through hoops to get it working again. I don't remember the details, but I do remember that Ventoy has been much less problematic so far. Rufus was also OK.
Thank you, Sir Cricket. It's only on looking at experiences of people like yours on social media that I mentioned that.
I had an issue with Balena myself too, but at one point, I wasn't quite sure if it was something wrong that I did, but others' input like these validated my stance.
I could have also pointed out some powershell scripts that help with debloating Windows, but I've also learned that Windows has been consistently trying to force bake Copilot into it, and eventually, it might be a slowly losing battle if not already the case.
protondb is awesome in a pinch when you need stuff like a specific proton runtime, or a tweak for a game to work. it doesn't happen very often anymore these days, but it's great when you need it.
sad for apex, they used to let linux players in but recently blocked us out. if you like that style game check out the finals.
Lots of assumptions made in this guide about who you audience.
I think it would be helpful if you preface your guide, or any future guide, with your audience in explicit terms so people know if it applies to them or they look for another guide elsewhere.
I3 or Sway are not the best choice IMHO. Many people think about these WM when they talk about tilling as an overhyped feature used just for unixporn posts. Stop with I3 or Sway please. AwesomeWM or Qtile are more automatised, this is a great added value allowed by tilling for everyday use.
In my sky high arrogance I thought 'I have never let Linux grace my devices, how hard can Qubes/Whonix truly be?' and I learned my lesson within minutes.
So I come here before you, humbly and beaten by 0s and 1s, to ask for your help.
How do I open a window where it neatly lists available connections and, if so, my current connection?
Usually when I am connected, it has a wifi symbol on the top right where the rest of my panels are. It disappeared.
I tried searching on the internet for answers. My mental capacity is basically non-existent, otherwise I wouldn't be here (probably).
Please. I just want to connect my device via wifi. I do not own an ethernet cable.
You title says whonix, but the text mentions QubesOS. Which one? This distinction is very important.
Edit: in QubesOS the networking is handled by the sys-net qube. If the networking icon does not show up in the tray make sure the sys-net qube is started. If it is, check what programs are available for the sys-net qube in the start menu (hopefully some networking software is available. But I dont have QubesOS in front of me so I cannot check) otherwise try and start a terminal in sys-net and run the command nmtui
Believe me, I wish I could tell you what I've done :') I wanted to get Whonix, but I think the website eventually led me to QubesOS? All I can say is that at startup it shows the Qubes symbol, so it's likely I got that.
When I try to start sys-net it can't start and says that the Qube sys-net has shut down. I'll provide the error message in a moment if I can't get it up with your other suggestion. Thanks!
eta:
Cannot connect to qrexec agent for 120 seconds.
When I want to check the logs, some other qubes cannot start. Bizarre. I even tried creating a qube without the offending qubes (sys-net etc.) yet it still fails.
All these single-handle showers are such an example of designer UX ruling over user input. What ever happened to having either 2 or four labeled handles?
When I lived in Japan, my apartment had a thermostat for the in-line water heater with controls by the bathroom and kitchen. I knew what temp I liked to shower and just used hot water.
Hey, folks. I wanted to share my findings about the Star Labs StarBook 7 (AKA mk7 AKA mark vii). I've been daily driving this laptop for about 6 months.
Hardware
Intel® Core™ Ultra 7 165H × 22
32.0 GiB memory
1TB storage
Display
I have historically been against hidpi displays for laptop because they just don't work 100% of the time on Linux. No matter how many brittle workarounds I've applied, hidpi displays have always hurt more than helped.
However, the StarBook 7 laptop absolutely nailed the display resolution. 3840x2160 is perfect for 2x integer scaling. When I ran Arch, I never ran into an app that was tiny or blurry. From Bitwarden to Claws Mail to Reaper. I'm happy to report everything worked fine. The ONLY app I was able to find that looked blurry was Cambalache for GNOME dev. All of this with ZERO workarounds, ZERO tweaks. It Just Works.
This has been the best hidpi support I've experienced. However, it's still not as good as running standard dpi. Despite the apps not being blurry, some apps like Bitwarden would forget the size of the window when I closed the app. This means, sometimes, some apps, would start in a tiny, little window, and I would have to grab a corner to stretch it out. Annoying.
When I switched to Guix Linux. UUff. This was bad. Almost all non-wayland apps did not respect GNOME's integer scaling. And when I got GTK apps working, QT apps were still broken.
So even though the Starbook 7 has the best hidpi support I've ever experienced, I will gladly take a more stable system, with less workarounds, and a larger amount of supported software over a slightly crisper screen.
Keyboard
The display was the best part of the laptop. The keyboard might be the worst.
This is easily the worst keyboard I've ever used anywhere, by far.
The keyboard is backlit, which is nice. The keys themselves feel a little light and wobbly, not great, but fine.
However, the actual output signals coming out of the keyboard hardware are trash. VERY often a key signal is sent more than once. The space bar in particular VERY often emits two spaces. But this happens with other keys too. I thought I just had to get used to typing on this keyboard, but no, it's not me, it's the keyboard.
The other trash thing about the keyboard is the placement of "home", "pgup", "pgdn", "end", and the freaking ~~print screen~~ sysrq key. This vertical row of keys is not very visible in the product pics on the website. But the placement of the ~~print screen~~ sysrq key in particular is HORRIBLE because it's right next to the right arrow key. And since the arrow keys blend together (another bad layout choice), I very frequently press the ~~print screen~~ sysrq key on accident.
And other thing. I keep saying ~~print screen~~ sysrq because there is no print screen key on this laptop. If you press the sysrq key, you may be fooled into thinking it's print screen. Do not be fooled. It actually sends a totally different keyboard event signal. This means you loose the ability to use GNOME's built-in screenshot tool. I never found a way to fix this.
The keyboard is so bad, that sometimes it interferes with entering my password. I frequently have to toggle the switch to view the password in plaintext that way I can see when the keyboard doubled up a character.
Other things
Cons: - About 1 out of 30 times I startup the computer, Linux fails to boot. Like the laptop doesn't even try to boot the kernel. It gets stuck on the boot screen. There are no errors. I just have to force power off and try again. - There is no fwupd support on non-official distros (Ubuntu is official). - The laptop has BRIGHT ASS pure blue LED lights on the side and right in front of your face. The front facing LED in particular is horrible at night. - The headphone jack is absolute trash, specifically the mic input. It is extremely noisy. Unusable even with software tweaks. - Laptop is heavy. - Laptop gets HOT, fans frequently need to go on. - Battery life is abysmal - Shits expensive
Meh: - The trackpad is all right. It clicks. - Coreboot is cool for being open source... but I didn't really notice any performance gains compared to the other big, bloated, firmwares.
Pros: - Port selection is good. - No barrel jack for power, just plain ol' USB-C - The camera is decent. - Wifi works. - Bluetooth works...
I wouldn't attribute the hidpi experience to the hardware too much. Wayland support has been catching up and most things work out of the box now, especially on GNOME/Plasma.
Question, what prompted you to buy this laptop in the first place? I've never heard of it.
With laptops designed for Linux, you get support for hundreds of Linux distributions out of the box, regular updates and configurable options tailored to make the experience even better!
most things work out of the box now, especially on GNOME/Plasma
I don't want my system to work 67% of the time. If my wifi card worked most of the time, I wouldn't be happy. I'd like a 100% working system. This isn't my first experience with HiDPI. I owned a Framework and returned it because it required fractional scaling and too many of the apps I use were either blurry or tiny. For me personally, that's a dealbreaker. I understand other people would make that trade off though.
I 100% always attribute hidpi experience to the hardware. It's a bad choice hardware manufacturers make.
Should we only include a hidpi display? Something that we know before hand will definitely cause issues?
Should the hidpi display be some weird resolution that will require fractional scaling? Something that again has a huge and well known history of not working well?
It's easier for 1 hardware manufacturer to pick a Linux-compatible display, rather than expecting millions of individual devs around the world to update their apps to the latest GTK/QT/Wayland frameworks.
Even if you're pro-HiDPI displays, you should totally blame the laptop manufacturers for not picking a display resolution that allows integer scaling. You're missing out. It's a way better experience.
what prompted you to buy this laptop in the first place
I wanted to buy a Linux laptop because I thought it would be more compatible with Linux. I tried System76, but didn't like the build quality. I've previously used Dell XPS 13 and Lenovo X1 Carbon, both of which I like (and have excellent Linux support (and offer standard dpi displays)). Coreboot was another reason, I like that it's open source. I also thought Coreboot would boot the laptop faster since it has less bloat, but that didn't really pan out.
What I'm saying is that integer scaling is no longer required. I've been using non-integer scaling on laptops for the last three ish years on Plasma, and I've seen the number of apps that can't handle it go from a few to almost none. I'm not missing out, I'm living the dream 😁
That being said you make a good point. With (good) fractional scaling support on linux being very recent and only working properly on certain desktops, some resolutions are not optimal. I imagine 1440p and such isn't great. A linux laptop should at least provide a warning.
I avoid all of those kinds of devices because the price in no way reflects the mediocre hardware that we'll be getting.
When we can get 4070 Lenovo laptops at Walmart for $1,0000, it just doesn't make sense to be spending a comparable price on something without a fucking GPU.
We're lining the pockets of businessmen at that point. And don't be fooled: it's all business at the end of the day.
I fixed my boot issue, but now I have to fix the issue with snapper not working right.
The boot issue: Something—I don't know what—added a removable drive to fstab, and the error was that drive couldn't be mounted at boot. I have two guesses:
I formatted a microSD card using YaST Paritioner sometime before doing the distro upgrade.
The drive might have been mounted during the distro upgrade, though I don't think it was.
At any rate, I commented out that line in fstab and it booted right up.
Mullvad is working fine when I boot normally. I guess it was only broken when booting a snapshot from before I upgraded it.
I also fixed /.snapshots by adding it to fstab. Now it gets mounted on every boot, and this version of fstab will be in all future snapshots. I just took a manual snapshot for good measure.
I don't know which action caused the issue, so I'm going to list everything I did. I'm new to OpenSUSE Tumbleweed, and I haven't used Linux since like Linux Mint 17.
I disabled KWallet because I got tired of typing in a password every time my desktop launched just for wifi passwords. I decided to just let Linux store them in plain text since my whole system is encrypted with LUKS.
I did a distro update. (zypper dup) After that succeeded, I logged off and back on.
I noticed Mullvad had a new version. They don't officially support OpenSUSE, so I downloaded the new RPM. I ran rpm -e mullvad-vpn to remove the old one. That might have been a mistake since my notes say I used zypper to install it the first time. I installed the new one with zypper. It launched and connected just fine.
I had some trouble getting network settings to store/retrieve my wifi password, so I decided to reboot my system since I changed so much stuff.
It wouldn't boot. I see a few "BIOS" and "ACPI" errors.
Time to try out Snapper! I reboot and choose the most recent snapshot from before tonight.
It boots, but when I try snapper rollback I get IO error (.snapshots is not a btrfs subvolume)
I get the same error trying to open the YaST snapshot viewer.
I check btrfs, and I see @/.snapshots plus a bunch of numbered snapshots, of course.
I check fstab, but I don't see an entry mounting anything on /.snapshots.
I do see a directory at /.snapshots, but it appears just be an empty directory.
Mullvad seems broken with this snapshot. I can't connect to the internet. The mullvad-daemon won't start, so I think the killswitch is active. I've had to type all this on my phone.
What can I do to fix this? I just want to rollback to this good snapshot, and then I can worry about fixing Mullvad when the filesystem isn't read-only.
One month. That's how long it took me to break my system. ☹️
i cannot help as i do not know the arguments of snapper. Maybe try specifying the snapshots subvolume by hand? Or force it?
Worst case scenario: Restore the snapshot by hand, delete the .snapshots subvolume, reinstall snapper, which i think also makes the .snapshots subbolume.
ACPI/BIOS errors are usually benign and not the cause of boot failures, but those seem weirder than the ones I've encountered before.
Did you enter emergency mode and inspect the system logs? I don't know why it suggests journalctl -xb, use journalctl -e to see at what point it got stuck
Happy to hear you sorted it out! If you want to leave it in fstab so it is automatically mounted but continue booting if it's missing, you can add the nofail mount option.
Also lots of images aren't loading on Lemmy, I was beginning to think something was wrong with my network until I read this and realized just a conincidence
Edit: Turns out you guys were right, I entered the setup password wrong for LUKs. I got this new Logitech keyboard I got for a gift and I type around 170wpm, but I've been having issues with it kind of lagging keys for some reason. What I did was I opened up a notepad and typed in my password a bunch of times and noticed whenever I would type something such as "stain" for example, it would come out at "stani" despite me looking at the keyboard and knowing that wasn't what I was typing. So I encrypted my drive with the wrong password, but figured out how to decrypt it that way. Thanks for the help doods!
Hello! I have a external drive I've encrypted with LUKs that has irreplaceable backups of mine, and for some reason no matter which PC I try it won't unlock despite it being the correct password. It doesn't give me anything else in the terminal other than what I put in the title.
I recently just backed up everything onto the external drive from my computer cause I was distro hopping. It's worked fine on my PC, I saved the password so I was able to mount it no problem before, but now it won't mount on any other PC I try. It isn't the end of the world since I can just try and copy old data from my computers drive before the format since I haven't downloaded anything yet that could overwrite anything important, but I'd still like to be able to get this external drive unlocked. As I've said, irreplaceable files of mine are on it so I'm hoping to get it working. Thank you!
Your password just unlocks the volume key which is used to decrypt/encrypt the data. It sounds like the volume key is on our PC, not the external drive. I don't have much experience with LUKs and none with using it on an external drive, but I suspect that you will need to wipe the drive and set it up again while ensuring that the volume key is stored on the external drive itself.
but I suspect that you will need to wipe the drive and set it up again while ensuring that the volume key is stored on the external drive itself.
Whenever I format a drive I just use Gnome Disks since it's the easiest and it lets me encrypt it using LUKs as a option, I've never had an issue like this for years until now since whenever I've used Gnome Disks in the past it always lets me decrypt the drive on any other Linux machine
Hmm, what method did you use to back it up? It sounds to me like something got corrupted, though perhaps someone more experienced could identify a different issue. What I usually do to clone LUKS partitions is use a liveUSB (so no files change while backing up), then use cryptsetup to create a new LUKS partition on the backup drive if it's a new drive (otherwise for incremental backups you can skip this step), then unlock both drives and rsync to the backup drive. This is also usually faster than pure cloning, as cloning would also copy the (encrypted) empty space in the partition, and for incremental backups, rsync will only copy the changed data so it's much faster.
This would also have the benefit of preventing corruption on transfer, because rsync uses checksums to verify the file was properly reconstructed in the new location, whereas something like dd won't have the granularity to check per-file checksums (especially if used to clone a whole encrypted partition).
I used an app called "Pika Backups" , it shouldn't effect LUKs at all tho and the backups themselves weren't corrupted because it also lets me verify the integrity of the backup files which I did before distro hopping and I got no errors
I want to point out that it may be possible you mistyped the password when setting it up, and then repeated the same mistake when using the drive originally. I know I have done this when setting up passwords. There is definitely a tendency to repeatedly mistype something in the same way.
I once had a similar issue, caused by the keyboard layout in the os installer (when I defined the password) being different from the keyboard layout used for unlocking the drive. I quickly leaned to type my password in qwerty on my azerty keyboard and all is fine now.
Another similar thing I'm thinking about is trying with caps lock, as you may have had it on when defining the password
Recently I got a little tablet laptop which led me down the path of eGPU's, which led me down the path of aluminum extrusion which led me to looking for a mitre saw. Now that I have it and have been learning more about what it can do I'm super excited!
I recently got a little tablet laptop, and learned that over thunderbolt you could plug in a GPU with a little dock board.
My desktop had a liquid cooled GPU so it became a whole thing to get it out and dockable.
I always wanted to mess with 2020 aluminum extrusion so this was my chance.
Its been a couple weeks work at this point and I'm in the home stretch. I have it running now so its just about tidying up and finding a good way to mount the acrylic panels after doing a final coolant flush
I also wanted to say thank you to all the comments from my last post when i first got my mitre saw for this project. it really made me be cautious when making my cuts, I always took my time clamping my pieces down and then going through the motion of making the cut with the saw powered off before making the cut leminal.space/post/24432635
Recently I got a little tablet laptop which led me down the path of eGPU's, which led me down the path of aluminum extrusion which led me to looking for a mitre saw. Now that I have it and have been learning more about what it can do I'm super excited!
Session is a FOSS messenger focused on privacy. No phone numbers, decentralized servers, and full end-to-end encryption. Perfect for anyone tired of surveillance-hungry chat apps. Secure, anonymous, open-source.
US contractors at a Gaza aid centre interrogated a source of Middle East Eye journalist Mohamed Salama seeking information about his identity and whereabouts before he was killed, MEE can reveal.
Hello dear friends , I never thought I would write something like this, but I am a desperate mother reaching out to other mothers who might understand my pain.
My name is Raghad, I am a mother of four little boys: Osama (10), Anas (7), Abdulrahman (5, he has Down syndrome), and baby Mohammad (2). Before the war, I was a science teacher, and my children had dreams just like any child in the world. But everything changed when our home was destroyed, and we were forced to flee under constant bombing.
We lost family members, our home, and everything we owned. Now, my children and I live in a fragile tent with no clean water, no food, and no safety. Every day is a fight against hunger and cold. My little Abdulrahman, who once loved going to a special center for children with Down syndrome, now has nothing. He is regressing, becoming weaker, and it breaks my heart as a mother to watch him suffer and not be able to help.
The worst pain is hearing my children cry at night from hunger, and I have nothing to give them. The prices of food are impossible even a small bag of flour costs hundreds of dollars. Sometimes we go days without proper meals. I feel helpless, like I am failing them, but I refuse to give up.
I know most of you are mothers too, and you understand how unbearable it is to watch your children suffer. I am sharing my story here because I desperately need help to keep them alive, to feed them, and to give them a chance at a future.
Thank you for reading my story, and thank you for your prayers, or kindness you can give. From one mother to another, I am begging for your compassion.
In 2020, Apple released the M1 with a custom GPU. We got to work reverse-engineering the hardware and porting Linux. Today, you can run Linux on a range of M1 and M2 Macs, with almost all hardware working: wireless, audio, and full graphics acceleration.
Our story begins in December 2020, when Hector Martin kicked off Asahi Linux. I was working for Collabora working on Panfrost, the open source Mesa3D driver for Arm Mali GPUs. Hector put out a public call for guidance from upstream open source maintainers, and I bit. I just intended to give some quick pointers. Instead, I bought myself a Christmas present and got to work. In between my university coursework and Collabora work, I poked at the shader instruction set.
One thing led to another. Within a few weeks, I drew a triangle.
In 3D graphics, once you can draw a triangle, you can do anything.
Pretty soon, I started work on a shader compiler. After my final exams that semester, I took a few days off from Collabora to bring up an OpenGL driver capable of spinning gears with my new compiler.
Over the next year, I kept reverse-engineering and improving the driver until it could run 3D games on macOS.
Meanwhile, Asahi Lina wrote a kernel driver for the Apple GPU. My userspace OpenGL driver ran on macOS, leaving her kernel driver as the missing piece for an open source graphics stack. In December 2022, we shipped graphics acceleration in Asahi Linux.
In January 2023, I started my final semester in my Computer Science program at the University of Toronto. For years I juggled my courses with my part-time job and my hobby driver. I faced the same question as my peers: what will I do after graduation?
Maybe Panfrost? I started reverse-engineering of the Mali Midgard GPU back in 2017, when I was still in high school. That led to an internship at Collabora in 2019 once I graduated, turning into my job throughout four years of university. During that time, Panfrost grew from a kid’s pet project based on blackbox reverse-engineering, to a professional driver engineered by a team with Arm’s backing and hardware documentation. I did what I set out to do, and the project succeeded beyond my dreams. It was time to move on.
What did I want to do next? - Finish what I started with the M1. Ship a great driver. - Bring full, conformant OpenGL drivers to the M1. Apple’s drivers are not conformant, but we should strive for the industry standard. - Bring full, conformant Vulkan to Apple platforms, disproving the myth that Vulkan isn’t suitable for Apple hardware. - Bring Proton gaming to Asahi Linux. Thanks to Valve’s work for the Steam Deck, Windows games can run better on Linux than even on Windows. Why not reap those benefits on the M1?
Panfrost was my challenge until we “won”. My next challenge? Gaming on Linux on M1.
Once I finished my coursework, I started full-time on gaming on Linux. Within a month, we shipped OpenGL 3.1 on Asahi Linux. A few weeks later, we passed official conformance for OpenGL ES 3.1. That put us at feature parity with Panfrost. I wanted to go further.
OpenGL (ES) 3.2 requires geometry shaders, a legacy feature not supported by either Arm or Apple hardware. The proprietary OpenGL drivers emulate geometry shaders with compute, but there was no open source prior art to borrow. Even though multiple Mesa drivers need geometry/tessellation emulation, nobody did the work to get there.
My early progress on OpenGL was fast thanks to the mature common code in Mesa. It was time to pay it forward. Over the rest of the year, I implemented geometry/tessellation shader emulation. And also the rest of the owl. In January 2024, I passed conformance for the full OpenGL 4.6 specification, finishing up OpenGL.
Vulkan wasn’t too bad, either. I polished the OpenGL driver for a few months, but once I started typing a Vulkan driver, I passed 1.3 conformance in a few weeks.
What remained was wiring up the geometry/tessellation emulation to my shiny new Vulkan driver, since those are required for Direct3D. Et voilà, Proton games.
Along the way, Karol Herbst passed OpenCL 3.0 conformance on the M1, running my compiler atop his “rusticl” frontend.
Meanwhile, when the Vulkan 1.4 specification was published, we were ready and shipped a conformant implementation on the same day.
After that, I implemented sparse texture support, unlocking Direct3D 12 via Proton.
…Now what? - Ship a great driver? Check. - Conformant OpenGL 4.6, OpenGL ES 3.2, and OpenCL 3.0? Check. - Conformant Vulkan 1.4? Check. - Proton gaming? Check.
That’s a wrap.
We’ve succeeded beyond my dreams. The challenges I chased, I have tackled. The drivers are fully upstream in Mesa. Performance isn’t too bad. With the Vulkan on Apple myth busted, conformant Vulkan is now coming to macOS via LunarG’s KosmicKrisp project building on my work.
Satisfied, I am now stepping away from the Apple ecosystem. My friends in the Asahi Linux orbit will carry the torch from here. As for me?
Agreed, always amazes me what the open source community can do. It's also very humbling, I generally like to think of myself as a competent developer but then I see crazy shit like this being done and I'm like damn still got a lot to learn, I wouldn't even know where to start with reverse engineering a GPU.
I am looking into getting a BOSS RC-5 looping pedal for my guitar, and I am curious if anyone has any experience with using it with Linux?
It makes use of this BOSS Tone Studio to allow adding additional backing tracks, but it is only officially supported for Windows and macOS. I could not find many examples of people using it on Linux, but for the most part any discussion I could find was in the context of their amplifiers.
I wonder if it should be straightforward to run it through Wine? As far as I can tell, you only need to set it up as a storage medium and connect it to your machine, although you can't just drag the files directly onto it.
It is not a deal breaker for me if I can't get it working, but it would certainly be a benefit if I could.
I am looking into getting a BOSS RC-5 looping pedal for my guitar, and I am curious if anyone has any experience with using it with Linux?
It makes use of this BOSS Tone Studio to allow adding additional backing tracks, but it is only officially supported for Windows and macOS. I could not find many examples of people using it on Linux, but for the most part any discussion I could find was in the context of their amplifiers.
I wonder if it should be straightforward to run it through Wine? As far as I can tell, you only need to set it up as a storage medium and connect it to your machine, although you can't just drag the files directly onto it.
It is not a deal breaker for me if I can't get it working, but it would certainly be a benefit if I could.
In the RC-5 settings, if you have some USB settings, see if you can set it to "Mass Storage". Usually Boss loopers can be used like any USB drive. Warning: if it works, keep the directory tree intact!
From the tutorial video I saw (for Windows), that is how you would do it. But it seemed to me that it was not as simple as just dragging in the files, and that you had to use the software to write the files. Another reply here gave two solutions that had worked, so I am just about to order one now. I can update here with what I find when I just browse the file structure.
I've recently been getting into really picking and choosing how my computer is set up and what software I use to do certain tasks. Specifically, replacing GUIs (dolphin, [insert gui text editor here ig]) with CLIs (lf, nvim). That and learning how to leverage bash scripting to really have control over my computer.
The thing is, using tmux, nvim, and lf together has proved cumbersome because I have no idea how to integrate them. I can technically do whatever I need to do, but it certainly isn't the fast CLI-ninja experience I was hoping for.
I've gone through each of their manuals and understand them on their own well enough, but with integrating them I'm drawing a blank.
So, Linux enthusiasts in this corner of the internet, do you have any guidance on setting up proper integration between CLI-based file managers, neovim, and tmux? I'm also open to suggestions for new software or a different file manager.
Edit: after making this post I got to searching again and damn cfiles looking pretty good.... Edit2: nvm it's not in nixpkgs... damn...
For tmux and nvim, I have seen some plugins that integrate opening and closing splits, and moving between them in a see less way. Not at my computer, but look for something like "tmux-nvim" plugin.
That sounds like the conclusion I'm coming to. I just asked on the off-chance that someone says "well there's this and this is how everyone does it" but it seems like that's not the case.
Went down the same route as you until coming to the same conclusion.
The only advice I can offer is to be consistent while configuring across your tools, find something that works for you and stick to it.
For example In my dwm+tmux+nvim dotfiles I use plain hjkl for cursor movement and if i want to move windows/panes i use , if i want to resize i use , Mod keys in tmux and nvim are the function keys (if anyone knows how to get dwm to accept as modkey let me know lol), etc.
Edit: And oh yes, try to stick to KISS 😛 I threw away my first set of dotfiles because i used so may useless plugins/patches for nvim and dwm i could not keep trak of all the keybinds in my head.
You've just entered a rabbit hole that will push the boundaries of your control on your system. Now, I'm not 100% sure that I've correctly understand what you're looking for. If you're after a file manager for nvim or tmux, then I would second yazi for your terminal as previously mentioned. Or you could go bare bone and use the command line straight with the help of some features like zsh and its competition, call to past arguments, zmv (and glob expression)... For nvim, you can use the default tree explorer for basic usage. More advanced features can be found with telescope for example. I personaly opted for fzf-lua. Both can be used in other plugins as well to make things very easy and powerful. Just to cite a few, I'm using fzf-lua with obsidian (which, despite the name, doesn't require the tool of the same name) and snacks.
Specifically, replacing GUIs (dolphin, [insert gui text editor here ig]) with CLIs (lf, nvim)
I really do wonder if þis is a natural evolution, and what distinguishes þe people who follow þis paþ.
I've gone so far down it, I've dipped into setups where I boot only into þe console, and never start X. I don't stay long, because web browsing still sucks pretty hard, alþough tools like chawan get preeetty close. And þen þere are times I want to play Factorio, or do someþing in Gimp or Inkscape... so I'm resigned to running X and herbstluftwm and just having a bunch of terminals and þe odd browser or game.
Point is, I'm not some edge case - a surprising number of people end up rejecting GUIs, or end up using mostly CLI or TUIs, and I wonder what it is about us which causes us to follow þe path of þe terminal.
For me it was a confluence of being tired of þe GUI bloat, but also an increasing hatred of having to move my hand away from þe home row just to move a cursor with a mouse. Reduced memory use, more free CPU, less electricity... þe more I did it, þe better þe results.
I miss tons. Sometimes, I even make entire posts where I forget þem. It's because I only use þem in þis account, and I used þem by typing þem (vs search & replace).
You might remember my earlier post about the first version of sshPilot.
Well, the app has come a long way since then. It’s now a full-featured, stable SSH connection manager with a built-in terminal, so I thought I’d show you where it’s at now.
You might ask, “Why would I need this if I’m already comfortable with the command line?”
Fair question. sshPilot isn’t here to replace your terminal, it’s here to make it better. In fact it's a terminal itself, with a sidebat you can easily toggle on and off. It keeps your connections organized, makes it easy to change your port forwarding rules, stores your keys and passwords securely, and lets you jump between multiple sessions without losing focus.
sshPilot is designed to be simple, intuitive, and keyboard-friendly. You can switch between servers and terminal tabs effortlessly using keyboard shortcuts. Fire up the app and just press enter to connect to the first host. Use Control+L to quickly switch between servers.
Here’s what it offers:
Import and save standard ~/.ssh/config entries
Full support for local, remote, and dynamic port forwarding
Securely stores passwords and private key passphrases (nothing is saved as explain text)
Manage files on your remote machines via SFTP
SSH key generation and transfer
SCP support
Option to open connections in your default terminal instead of the built-in one
Native GNOME look and feel with light and dark themes
The feedback I got here on the first release was incredibly helpful, so I’m looking forward to hearing from you again. Your ideas and suggestions are always welcome.
I have an Honor phone (not rooted) and I dislike the default launcher, so I installed a new one. It worked, but even after switching the default in the settings, the settings kept changing themselves after a while to return to the default launcher. This happened with both Foss-ify's Launcher and Kiss Launcher, so it doesn't seem to be due to a failure of the selected launcher.
Next thing I intended to try was force stop Honor Home, but I'm a bit worried about doing that, because what if the phone still starts refusing to launch the installed launcher but can't find the old one either and doesn't launch anything? Will I find myself unable to open any apps (including the settings to revert this) if that happens?
i tried putting gentoo on my 233mhz powerpc g3 with 32mg of ram and it took 3 days to compile the kernel and x-windows; the imac got so hot that the it messed up the plastic cd tray such that you had to pry it open from then on. lol
It’s 2025, most people have had a secondary pocket computer with internet access for the last 15 years.
Would definitely appreciate a more verbose panic page, but I’m not sure that information exists at the instant of the panic - the percentage is the system compiling a crash dump.
windows: "your computer had a problem here's a bunch of technical terms that don't actually tell you whats wrong along with a qr code that you'll never use because by the time you get your camera we've restarted already"
Since Debian 13 (Trixie), when using the default FDE which uses grub to decrypt the luks partition, I have a single attempt
When the password is mistyped there is a long pause (over 10 seconds) and then the error appears.
I already tried increasing the max tries, which seems to be set to 1 when a keyfile is used.
The config/script seems to be in /usr/share/initramfs-tools/scripts/local-top/cryptroot.
I copied that to /etc/initramfs-tools/scripts/local-top/cryptroot and replaced the value CRYPTTAB_OPTION_tries=1 with 10 using find/replace (ansible stuff).
I think this has no effect though and doing so (might be a different issue) breaks boot entirely 💀
More info: - by default when legacy boot (BIOS) is available, Debian will install grub to the MBR. This is where it happens - when forcing or prioritizing legacy boot and using GPT, debian somehow boots from a 300MB efi partition, the same happens though, one attempt
Newer versions of grub let you retry up to 3 times before going to grub rescue. Check if your grub is up to date, and if it is, wait for Debian to release the update to their repos I guess
But bootloaders are distro/OS agnostic. Why wait for Debian, when you could, for example, boot an Arch live ISO to install a newer GRUB?
I don't use GRUB, but have done the same thing with SystemD Boot before. As GRUB's configuration system is a bit more complex, you might have to mount your main install to get the correct config file.
As it's a bootloader, it should make almost no difference which distribution was used to install it. (I'm not sure if Debian patches their GRUB.) I just used Arch as an example, as it is famous for being up to date. And, no matter where it's installed from, if you've made changes to GRUB's configuration, you'll have to copy it over to the live distribution to keep your changes.
Yes, Debian Sid might be more familiar for Debian users, but that's it.
Edit: You said "get the grub debs from Debian sid", but installing Sid packages on non-Sid systems isn't something that you should do.
Why install it from a package manager at that point? It's probably more of a pain to get an Arch package working on Debian than it is to just build GRUB from source and install it according to whatever instructions GRUB distributes
I meant the following: 1. Find out the Debian package is too old 2. Create Arch Live USB 3. Boot Arch Live USB 4. Copy GRUB config from the Debian install to the current Arch live system 5. Install the up-to-date GRUB while in the Arch environment
The bootloader installer package is distro dependent, the bootloader the package installs isn't. You can boot Debian no matter if the GRUB is installed from Debian stable, Debian Sid, Arch, Fedora or even FreeBSD. Otherwise, dual booting wouldn't work.
Like I said, I've done that before, though with SystemD Boot instead of GRUB, which was a bit simpler due to how the bootloader is configured.
I have a laptop with an Intel i5-1335 CPU and I'm about to receive a mini PC with a Ryzen 8845HS, which is going to be my main computer now. If I just install the SSD M.2 of the laptop on the mini PC, is there any software I need to install that was not installed when first installed Linux on the SSD while being in the laptop? Or something that I need to change in the configuration concerning the new architecture? is it OK to do that? In other words, can Linux deal with the change without any issue or misconfiguration? Just trying to see if I can avoid the work of installing Linux from zero and all the software that I already have on the laptop. I'm using Debian Trixie.
Unless you manually configured a bunch of things you shouldn't need to do anything at all. AMD generally has great open source drivers so everything should just work™️
I did swap a drive from an Intel desktop to an AMD desktop. It worked with no issues. Just make sure the kernel is new enough to support the CPU in the new PC before swapping the drive.
Linux works very differently than Windows. In the majority of cases, assuming the architecture are the same (they are for you), you can just swap the drive and it'll just work. You only need to tell the BIOS to not from the drive. The only considerations would be around graphics, but even then it should come up well enough so you can install packages if needed.
I really want my primary mobile computer to be a tablet mainly because I genuinely like the form factor. My current Linux laptop is dying and I thought I'd just buy the newest Lenovo Thinkpad Surface clone but Lenovo seems to have discontinued it because I couldn't find a 2025 version anywhere, same with HP and Dell's Surface clones. And most of the Windows tablets I could find online have dinky Intel N processors instead of Core.
Can anyone recommend a high end tablet that runs Linux well? Failing that, how bad is the Surface really with Linux as the only OS?
I have a Surface Laptop 4 and have been running Mint exclusively for a couple of years. It's less well supported than the tablets and the initial installation took a bit of work, but once installed it has worked perfectly. The Linux Surface project has a detailed feature matrix that shows what's supported for each model.
It seems weird having the keyboard facing outwards. I know it gets disabled when folded back, just seems wrong. I'm not saying it is wrong just that it kinda freaks me out a little bit because I'm a bit odd like that.
I'm looking at ideapads though, that might be nice.
I have an old laptop that does that and the keys are very distracting whenever I hold it in tablet mode. I find myself holding it awkwardly on one side to avoid them, even though I know they're disabled. It is still a nice feature though, I like being able to transition a laptop to portrait mode sometimes.
I have a minis forum v3 that I use all the time. It's got decent CPU and GPU for a laptop class.
It competent runs Indy and older games, has reasonable battery life, and the general performance is more than enough for productivity.
Touch screen works flawlessly, accelerometer required some tinkering as did volume control. Thumb scanner was easy to get working. I have not gone back to try getting the IR camera for face detection working.
It runs games on par with the steam deck. Works great for a lot of newer or demanding titles if you set the settings apropriately.
Does your pen/sylus work?
I also have a minisforum V3 running archlinux and I can't get the stylus to write in rnote or to draw in krita or to work in Osu!. It just moves the cursor but it never "clicks".
Ahh, I got mine used when a window 11 update "bricked" a lots of them. Rather than do am RMA this guy just got a new one and gave me the old ones saying if I could fix it then I could keep it.
Unbricking was not easy so I can understand why he just replaced it.
Sheeee-it, þat's got a better CPU þan þe mini-pc in using as my desktop (5800H). Half þe RAM, and I don't suppose þe NVMe is upgradable, is it? But, still, it's a spanking CPU.
The 8840U is equivalent to the Z1E that's in the Lenovo Legion Go and ROG Ally X, so it's a super competent chip! If gaming is your main use case, you might wanna check out Bazzite 😀
Sometimes I use my X380 yoga as a tablet. It's an actual mini laptop (13" screen) but it will turn sideways as a tablet, it's touch-screen, and it has a pen built into the side. You can fold the keyboard around (thus the "yoga" element), which disables the keyboard and makes it an actual tablet. Really great. 10/10
There are newer yoga models but I can't vouch for them because I only have this one.
starlite runs the n100 and n200 cpus. the cpus are pretty great (have an n100 on my nuc). the problem with linux is the touch interface first and foremost imo. i have an old windows tablet converted to linux and its a daily headache. well, was. i haven't used the thing for months.
I've got a Lenovo tablet with an Intel Pentium processor that runs Fedora okay. Everything works, but especially remembering/detecting orientation with the keyboard attached is about as polished as stucco.
Apparently the hardware defaults to a portrait layout; it's a 1080x1920 monitor, not a common 1920x1080, and by god and all his rapey little clergy if it CAN wake up in portrait mode, it will. Waking the thing up means turning it on, ripping it in half, waiting 3 seconds for the monitor to rotate back to the way it was when you put it to sleep, and then clicking the keyboard back on.
I bought a second hand surface pro 7 recently and I'm quite in love with it! With a few GNOME plugins it's a quite capable tablet AND a quite capable laptop on the go.
I just went through this with Dell xps 2 in 1 and surface pro 8 with mint and other OSes. Linux just is not fully ready for touchscreen it's 90 percent there but for instance the last 10 percent is text boxes when clicking won't spawn the keyboard, the keyboard regardless of input app is clunky, not phone grade speed, it's possible but you my as well stick with a small 10 to 13 inch laptop. The folio is janky at best, using the slate solo is odd to hold and gets hot. Battery sucks. I tweaked and spent so much time wanting it to work. It just isn't ready yet.
All I could find is how to make a list, and reinstall flatpaks from that list, as well as backup app data, however all of that assumes I want to do updates.
Meanwhile what I want is akin to extracting APK of a stable version of some app, backing it up and using it for years to come. For example that's how I joined these 2 screenshots, using JointPics from 2014 which isn't even on Play Store anymore, and targets API so low that it has to be installed via ADB. (Yeah, I am too dumb for GIMP)
As for the regression, you can see. On left is older Flatpak, on right is version from Arch repo. The Flatpak I originally installed as a hotfix for update that broke it completely at one point on Arch. You can see the older version nicely fits the screen, splitting up text into columns. Meanwhile the new version just does smaller page in middle of screen that doesn't even work properly with Breeze Dark theme, causing different background for text sections.
The only improvement is ability to flip pages rather than use arrows, but that's minimum. Well, and maybe the progress keeping got fixed, but I didn't test that much.
Don't pay attention to the taskbar. I wish it could flip to vertical with different screen orientation. Yeah, the icons' clickability is a dice roll of what you tap.
Are you sure not just the defaults changed? Or isn't it a problem on your end? On the project page the screenshot looks like the old version: invent.kde.org/graphics/ariann…
Have you contacted the developers? They have a matrix chat. Maybe you found a bug, and it would help others if you would report it.
Are you sure it's not a you problem? Or isn't it a you problem? Go read the docs.
Have you contacted the devs? Reporting a bug would be helpful.
Sorry to be so rude, but you really hit a nerve. It isn't even your fault.
Anyway, rant time:
KDE and bug reports. They always come to you like "Hey, bug reports are so really importsnt to us! And we'll guide you through it. Here's our lovely oh-so-helpful wizard!
Except it ain't lovely. Nor helpful. The only thing it does is pop up whenever a KDE app has an aneurysm and asks you for a backtrace. And then... backtrace is declsred useless.
Why even bother people with the stupid popup if in 90% of cases it's declared as useless. Why not do the backtrace silently and then annoy the user only once you declare the bug "useful".
Last instance of this: I was using my KDE desktop. For some reason, Plasma seems to really hate me, because I need to fix default apps every few weeks. For some reason, jpegs and pngs open in Krita by default.
So, wanting to close Krita, becuse I don't need an entire editor to look at a photo, with tools taking up 25% of the screen, when it asked me about the import resolution, I pressed 0. Krita proceeded to crash and open the report bug dialog.
Not having seen the KDE report wizard for quite some time, I felt inclined to go fill out the report. Got through the first few pages just fine. Then came the backtrace. Sure, do it. I'd like whoever debugs this not snooping through a data dump containing god knows what, but sure. Then it gets called useless. AFTER you've taken 30-ish seconds of my life on preliminary questions.
Look, if you're gonna ask people for input and discard said input if something unrelated happens, at least ask after the something unrelated decided it's not gonna be yeeted away. No need for the "Oh, wait, we don't really need this, it'll take too much time to play detective" after the user already passed three screens of interrogation.
Anyway, the point is:
KDE clearly doesn't care about bug reports. Because if they did, the guide on installing backtrace-enabled packages once the inevitable verdict of "useless" wouldn't be a wiki page with the generaal message of "find backtrace-enabled packages, you buffoon" when you could point to them.
Another problem with this is: when a bug happens without backtraceable packages, how is the user supposed to recreate it if they don't know how?
And besides, my bug is very recreateable. Open an image in Krita (preferably from Dolphin, after Plasma mangled the defaults, again and again). When prompted for some integer, enter "0". Instead of a generic error message, see the entire app sink into oblivion.
Anyway, if anyone feels like reporting the totally useless report with totally unrecreateable conditions, feel free. I won't. Just too much work, for it to be discarded just like that by some wizard no one even thought through.
And why would I contact the devs? Or rather, where could I do that? They're worse than government agencies, for god's sake. The right person or place just doesn't exist. Wherever you go to or ask, it's someone else's responsibility or your fault. And the wizard, that true single point of contact - refuses any contact just as consistently.
So tell people to call the devs. Tell them it's their fault. Tell them to make a bug report. Say it just might help not just you, but someone else when all hell will freeze over before anything like that becomes even a remote possibility.
Wtf man, developers are also people. Most of them doing this for free in their free time. You are the kind of entitled user who makes foss devs burn out. Never thought I will find one in the wild.
I use krita frequently and never met your bug so it's not as recreatable or important as you think.
Noone forces you to use krita. If it doesn't fit your workflow or if you think developers are deliberately sabotaging your work, you can switch to another free or paid alternative. If you would switch to a paid one, you could speak to a manager.
In op's case I'm not sure it's a you problem. In your case I'm sure it is.
Krita's devs specifically? No. I respect devs by default. I don't doubt many of Krita's devs love what they develop. I also use Krita. I don't have it installed because I don't need it.
The problem that I keep running into is my (Plasma) defaults being changed for (some) reason. Krita usually gets the defsult for photos. Rhythmbox for audio and MPV for video. I prefer using Pix for photos and VLC for AV.
Noone forces you to use krita.
Plasma, kind of - does.
99% of people do not want a photo editor to be their defsult app for opeing photos. Some artists? Sure. But me? No.
Again, it's nor a Krita thing specifically - Plasma fucks with my defaults. It's a Plasma/KDE thing. Krita is just the unfortunate app to have become Plasma's senseless-default victm.
If it doesn't fit your workflow or if you think developers are deliberately sabotaging your work
Oh, Krita fits my workflow quite well. Personally am in the process of switxhing to it from GIMP. I know I wrote up a huge wall of mostly garbled text in a passionate rage, but reading just the first part of my rant should've made that clear.
I use krita frequently and never met your bug so it's not as recreatable as you think.
Of course you didn't. Because who in their right mind enters "0" as the target resolution? That's right - on one! Except for me, apparently. It's a stupid bug. One which doesn't mean anything. It opens no attack surface. It doesn't cause random crashes. It doesn't interfere with anyone's work.
However, you clearly haven't read my essay. Which is fine with me. It isn't quality reading material by any sensible metric. But, were you to have read it and tried to recreate the bug, you probably would've succeeded.
With that out of the way, my main point was how no - devs (especially KDE, and very transparently so) don't value your feedback as much as one might think.
Which is - understandable.
As you said, many keep FOSS software alive in their free time for nothing other than the moral gratification. Which is much more than merely commendable. And please, do not try to tell me I don't respect that when I do.
Where would devs be if they only replied to stupid questions from new users? That's right - in a tech support hub!
Which is obviously a waste of their time. The fact they don't do that isn't anything negative.
The problem, as always is - documentation. My little beef with KDE's crash wizard is but one example of this deeply-rooted problem.
As is seen in our (both mine and your) example, reading is hard. Writing - harder still. Were I able to read and fully comprehend the ill-fated link on the KDE wizard's "fuck you" page, you probably wouldn't be rading this. But alas, I am a human whose reading comprehension skills aren't top-notch.
Another, equally deeply rooted problem in FOSS is lack of general design thinking and logic. Am I calling KDE devs stupid? Of course not! But any UI (including the KDE crash wizard) should have a few eyes to assess it first. Then research on a batch of test users should be done. And then feedback from the general user population should be listened to. Is that a hard ask? Yes. Step 2 is expensive and as such out of reach of most FOSS projects, and not even Big Tech bothers with step 3.
But am I wrong in calling the KDE modal annoying and badly designed ("stupid") even, when it has already wasted my time in the same way on 15 occasions? Maybe not. I am angry and it may have been irrational. But I feel my perspective is at least understandable even if the wording isn't.
In the end, users can't live without developers and developing user-facing applications makes little sense without users. I'm not in the Linux community because I don't like FOSS, Linux or KDE. I'm percisely here to support them. However, sometimes issues arrise, and having a good community to help with fixing issues (because the devs can't (obviously) handle all that load themselves) is good.
Having a community where the answer to a simple, begginer question is basically "bother the devs, they have a Matrix", "it's probably your fault" isn't an answer. It's a fuck you. And once they find out they've been mislead (not even intentionally perhaps), they might go back to Big tech.
Saying to me that I don't support FOSS, that I don't like it and that I can go back to Big Tech (when I haven't been there for over 4 years now), is an even bigger one.
I like FOSS. Saying I don't respect them wben I truly do is an insult. I merely don't understand some of their decisions. Probably due to a lack of context and knowledge, which is on me.
But does giving a rant about, what are tiny problems in the running of a huge machine known as My Computer, spurred on by someone's unhelpful advice, given in hopes of starting a discussion and the wholly implausible odds of the issue at hand given as an example being fixed due to it call flr the reply "Go to Big Tech, there's clearly no room for you here"?
If you already have the correct version of the flatpak installed, you can try flatpak build-bundle.
flatpak build-bundle LOCATION FILENAME NAME where - LOCATION is the path of the repo on disk. Run flatpak info -l org.kde.arianna, and copy the part before /app - FILENAME is the output file name, preferably .flatpak. Eg: arianna.flatpak - NAME is the name of the app, here org.kde.arianna
The generated file can be installed with a double-click, or with flatpak install <file>
This is the equivalent of an Android .apk. It contains the app but depends on a runtime. If you want to install it in a few years, odds are the runtime will no longer be available. You can backup the runtime the same way with the --runtime option.
flatpak build-bundle --runtime LOCATION FILENAME NAME where - LOCATION same as earlier - FILENAME eg arianna-runtime.flatpak - NAME is the name of the runtime, which you can get with flatpak info --show-runtime org.kde.arianna
This takes a while, for some reason. Maybe it's compressing stuff?
The runtime is installed the same way as the app: double click or flatpak install.
Note: I only did this once, and not specifically on Arianna. Hope it works.
Instructions to add Plasma Discover package manager back into Bazzite using a Systemd Sys-Ext. Based on Travier's Fedora Sys-Ext work at travier.github.io/fedora-sysex… and relies on his base images on quay.
I'm really excited about the application of SysExts to bridge the gap many perceive in adopting atomic distros! This seemed like a fantastic solution to adding this tool back for those who want it, without the overhead of package layering
This is interesting, Bazzite abandoning Discover was the final straw for me to dump Bazzite on my TV pc and move back to Kubuntu. I don't have GameMode anymore but the feeling of being in control is worth it so won't be switching back
I thought so, and its not something Ublue has started using yet to my knowledge - there's some good potential that a lot of stuff they add could just become a set of extensions you can plug in like Lego bricks
The issue with them right now is there's no update mechanism. If you use something as a system extension that depends on a library in the image, and that library gets updated, you could have an unbootable system or at the very least a non-functioning application until you can update your system extension manually.
Ideally that update mechanism needs to be a part of bootc so if your system extension is part of your boot process it can be updated ahead of time before the image is loaded.
We've looked at it since it's inception and it's something we really want, it's just nowhere near ready yet.
But why tho? Bazaar (the few times I use it instead of cli) actually works without randomly freezing while loading, searching, downloading, deleting, just about everything, unlike when I tried using Discover on Arch, Opensuse, Kubuntu, Fedora, and Fedora Atomic.
I've never had issues with Discover on Fedora KDE and then even when I moved to Kinoite. I didnt have any issues using it on my Bazzite machine. I wanted it back, I also wanted to see if it was something I could do with a SysExt, which as I said is something I'm excited about, as I have started using them to add stuff on my Kinoite work machine.
It doesn't take Bazaar away, it just puts the items back for anyone who wants it. Spoiled for choice
the context is: the 470 legacy driver doesn't compile on the linux 6.12 kernel. because of that, debian decided to officially drop support to that driver. i tried installing the driver myself using nvidia's official installer, but the installation indeed fails during the module compilation stage.
this means i am stuck with nouveau. it got better since i last tested it on bookworm, but one major pain in the ass is that nouveau has no support for performance levels for my card and it runs at the lowest clock bc of that (~400 megahertz instead of its max ~900 mhz).
this causes a noticeable performance hit, even for desktop usage, but it's good enough for work. waching full hd 60 fps video is a bit painful, but it's possible. but gaming, which was possible, got way worse. even a lightweight game like celeste got frustrating to play due to stuttering.
i guess i'll have to deal with it and maybe this is the cue to buy another graphics card and never buy nvidia again, but i'm thinking about what my options would be here:
downgrade to bookworm. not easy to do, would only delay the problem.
install an older kernel and use only that. not sure how, the official repos only have the 6.12 kernel. i could get the older kernel from the bookworm backports and pin it to prevent any updates, but mixing repos from different versions makes me uneasy.
patch the driver. there are a few patches floating around that make nvidia's driver compile on the 6.12 kernel. applying the patch by hand is annoying and i would have to re-apply it at every kernel update.
cope.
any ideas?
edit
and it runs at the lowest clock bc of that (~400 megahertz instead of its max ~900 mhz).
that was a mistake. i was reading the clock off of my onboard video chip, which also happens to be nvidia. the onboard chip is at .../dri/0; my graphics card is at .../dri/1. nouveau seems to support reclocking for my card, but i'm trying to change the clock and the video signal goes crazy when i do it
And that's why I'd never buy an nvidia card laptop or PC. For my Debian PC that has a Xeon CPU (so it has no integrated gpu), I bought an Intel ARC GPU for $110. For what I do, which is video editing and encoding/decoding at 10bit 4:2:2 (which is what most modern cameras record as), it's the best card on the planet. Better than nvidia and especially amd. Not so for gaming, of course. If your CPU is a 11th+ intel generation, and it comes with an intel gpu integrated, maybe you don't need anything more than that. Just remove or don't use the nvidia one completely. If you don't have a gpu, get a cheap intel.
Then check if your PC/power supply can run an AMD or intel gpu. If not, upgrade your PC. You can get a BeeLink minipc for $180 that's faster than your current computer.
i'm pretty sure there's an equivalent radeon card for around the same price and i'm willing to buy it as soon as i can, but i'm trying to get as much mileage as i can out of my current card
You won't. You will get crashes. This is a very old nvidia driver, which was barely working on x11, and not at all on wayland. Their newer drivers are more serious. You'd be best to upgrade your PC, not just an old amd card. I personally have found many bugs that DIDN;T exist 10 years ago on open source drivers. Basically, as the kernel evolves, and the old drivers become unmaintained, new bugs emerge. So it's best to get something new, a new pc, and not try to make this old nvidia or old amd card to work. If you can spare $180, you'll be in a much better shape.
Are you OK buying used? Dunno what city you live in, but you can find some RX 570's for 300~400ish on OLX. Maybe even cheaper on Facebook (🤮) Marketplace.
But yeah, not exactly pocket change. Hardware prices suck ass here.
bem lembrado o olx. é que pra comprar no olx tem que preparar bastante o emocional, mas eu moro no rio, então deve ter bastante opção sim. 300-400 é o que eu paguei na minha, então acho que tá de boa
as i said, there's no software problem in my setup. i've checked nouveau's feature matrix for my card (a geforce gt 710) and it's one of the best supported cards, but sadly performance levels are wip. that's the main issue
The thing is, the firmware is needed for extra initialization in some cards even if the feature Matrix reports that is supported.
And that is why I ask. Also some of the DRM packages are optional.
So, yeah, I ask to be sure and as far as you dont want to disclose info, I cannot offer "any idea" because that is conditioned by the variables of the environment.
Edit: removed part of the reply because I was frustrated. I am sorry.
i'm sorry if i sounded obtuse, it was not my intention. i could get the info you want later, but my point is that i am sure that the nouveau driver is configured correctly because 1) debian ensures graphics are working properly on desktop installations for a wide array of hardware configurations and 2) i made sure dri, mesa, the firmware and the x11 driver are all installed. i just wanted to say in my reply that going down that route of investigation isn't worth our time because it would lead to nowhere and what i'm seeking help with is installing the proprietary driver
still, i appreciate your willingness to help. i'll check everything you mentioned when i get home just to make sure
Maybe im missing something here, but why do you need to use such an old driver version? Trixie ships with 550 if you enable non-free so why not use that? Considering you tried the official installer i would think you dont mind non-free drivers.
Ooh i see. That was kinda missing from the post for me to understand it. Do you just not wanna spend any money or why keep that card? You could get a used AMD card that is 10-30 times as powerful for like 30-50€
Im all for extending hardware lifetime as much as possible, but after 10 years i feel like its okay to upgrade.
You could get a used AMD card that is 10-30 times as powerful for like 30-50€
i'm open to suggestions
about the age of the card: i actually bought it new 2-3 years ago. it's pretty common in emergent markets for cheapo cards to be shipped brand new with obsolete graphics chips. this isn't a problem on windows, but then someone owning this card switches to linux and is hit with a massive performance loss bc of unsupported drivers. it sucks.
Please, to the people replying to this person and suggesting "just buy a new one".
Not everynyan has the money, and yes, even 30 dollars/euros/etc may be difficult to get for a person. Maybe low income, maybe no income, maybe inflation in the country, maybe that is not the real price in their zone, maybe no stores available easily.
I understand that some of you have those options but understand that is a privilege too.
edit: if you wanna still suggest that, I propose something better. If it is so cheap and accesible for you, why dont you buy it and give it to them for free?
Absolutely. And in the case of laptops, there might be no way to upgrade the GPU. I'm keeping an eye on this since I have an otherwise perfectly good laptop that also needs an unsupported legacy nvidia driver.
i'm actually okay with hardware suggestions, but they tend to be useless since a $50 or 40€ graphics card normally translates to a R$900 one. a few factors contribute to this
exchange rates. currently, 1USD ~= 5,5BRL
purchasing power. the avg income of brazil is around ~$8500/yr. 1USD is way more money to us than it is to usians and euros
taxes. based on exchange rates alone, $50 converts to around R$270, but most electronics in brazil are imported and are subject to heavy taxation. the "$50 video card" recommended to me by someone in the comments is sold online for R$870 at its cheapest.
although i'm talking specifically about brazil, the same applies to any other emergent market (the rest of latam, india, etc).
this is why hardware recommendations are rarely useful to us. i'm still open to them, though. once in a while something useful pops up.
I am aware too of the Brazil case, specially for imports, the taxes and the inflation.
I have a friend there. I know that my options did not cover the difficulty of import and taxes because I tend to be general. I know that for GPUs and such, unless you want to pay the expensive pricing you have inside from people who scam locals (people who import laptops from US at 200 and sell at 800 as example), must be gotten from outside and such.
Yeah this really pissed me off. People acting like this is a just a trivial purchase. Even $30 is alot for me sometimes and I live in the US, I can't imagine how hard that must be to someone in Brazil.
What I think you should do (the smart choice): Compile the newest lts that supports the driver.
What I would do (the stupid choice): Frankenstein my debian install by adding a repo from somewhere else (probably sparkylinux) and pin it so nothing gets automatically pulled from that repo. Then install 6.6 from that repo. Its jank, its definitely not the recommended or supported way to do it, but I'm lazy and if I compile a kernel onto my system manually its 100% never getting updated ever.
Nouveau supports manual reclocking for Tesla, Fermi and Kepler GPU-s. You said that you have a GT 710, so it should be supported. There is a guide on how to manually reclock it --> github.com/polkaulfield/nouvea….
you're right. i thought my card didn't support it because i might have misread the feature matrix. adding to the confusion, /dri/0 is my onboard video (which also happens to be nvidia) and that's where i got the 400 mhz number from
still, i just tried it reclocking seems to drive the video signal crazy
edit: yeah it's definitely unsupported, the display turns completely into scrambled eggs. i'll try a newer kernel just in case
edit 2: tried it on the 6.16 kernel (i have an opensuse tumbleweed installation laying around) just in case it had some development on that front compares to 6.12 (debian's version) and it's still a mess. so reclocking for my card is definitely a no-no on nouveau
Oh that sucks. Other than that, I don't have many other ideas, maybe get a cheap used ATI/AMD card, even if it is worse on paper, as they should be decently supported, unlike Nouveau.
I gave it some thought, I think that you are getting slowdowns because of some kind of a bug and not due to slow speed of the GPU.
I have actually daily-driven a MacBook Pro 15-inch 2009 with a GeForce 9600M GT and even at 279 Mhz core, it was usable on Manjaro KDE, animations were a bit laggy, but nothing compared to what you are describing.
I still remember trying kernel 6.7 or 6.8 and immediately seeing MUCH worse performance with constant lags. I have only consistently used kernels 6.1, 6.6 and 6.12 on Manjaro on that machine, all of them with decent experience. I would try some other kernel if that's possible, but considering that you have tried 6.12 and 6.16 at this point, I am not too hopeful.
I've had the idea to try and learn how to Program 6502 Assembly for my Commodore PET, but I'm a little lost on what the best source is on learning this stuff, especially for a beginner who is yet unfamiliar with its full Architecture and Quirks!
Thus far I've tried looking at Books from the PETs Period, but those do expect quite a bit of pre-knowledge in Computing, which for me includes a tiny bit of Python and Commodore Basic...
I am a computer professional that helps the public with technology. I have been troubleshooting computer problems for over 25 years. To find out more about me, visit my home page.
Mahmoud, age 17, said that his Israeli abductors "began hurling insults, cursing at us, and accusing us of being with Hamas."
"They stripped us of our clothes and took us to Kerem Shalom, completely naked, with nothing," he continued. "There, the beatings and torture began."
"The Israeli women soldiers beat us. They stripped us and 'played' here, and here, and there," Mahmoud said, indicating his genitals. "They beat us with sticks. Got on us while we were lying on the ground. We were handcuffed like that and naked."
Mahmoud said his captors wanted to humiliate him and other teenage boys in custody, accusing the troops of taking nude photos of them and sending female soldiers to mock and touch his body—an especially shameful ordeal for Muslims.
I'm looking for a laptop that is very compact in size, and relatively cheap. The more internal storage the better. A detachable keyboard and touchscreen would be nice too but aren't essential.
I plan to install Linux mint on it and just use it for light tasks and file management, so it doesn't need to be too powerful.
Avoid lenovo. Their build quality went to crap and they're easily the least repairable laptop on the market these days.
I've had to repair 4 lenovos within the last few years. Cheap parts and the laptops all had their keyboards plastic rivited to the top shell of the chassis, making it impossible to replace without buying a new chassis. One of the laptops had to have two motherboard replacements before it was usable.
Their all-in-one doesn't have a frame around the LCD panel, and they didn't put access doors in the back panel. So if you want to upgrade the ram or ssd you have a 70% chance of breaking the screen.
when I used debian 12.7 xfce I somehow installed something that allowed me to access my android device as an external disk and copy data there simply plugin in the usb cable.
This should just work if your Android device's USB mode is set to Mass Storage, no extra software needed on the PC. It'll just show up like a thumb drive.
File permissions change when transfering between external drives and laptop
I noticed a few years ago that when I transfer files back and forth between my laptop and my external drive all the files that I have transfered have changed permissions.
I format all my external drives as exFAT so I can use larger files.
Why does this happen?
Is there a better way to keep the file permissions intact when transfering files back and forth between external drives?
This is absolutely normal. FAT/exFAT do not support unix permissions (let alone Linux ext4's any special flags etc). So each time you copy files there, the permissions and all other flags are lost or get bad in general.
To save your permissions you have two options:
Zip/targzip or xz your linux files before you copy them on your fat drives. Preferably on files that overall aren't larger than 1 gb, just to avoid other weird problems.
Exfat does not support permissions, so when it gets moved to the drive, that information is lost.
If permission information is important to you and compatibility with non-linux devices isn't, you can reformat the device as ext4 to support all linux features.
exFAT is a Microsoft creation that (unsurprisingly) doesn't understand or preserve Linux-style file permissions. Neither did any of the FAT varieties before it. So the permissions on the files when you get them back relate to the mount options you pass to the exFAT drive (in this case, you probably want to set dmask and fmask), or the permissions on the directory it's mounted to.
If you don't want to twiddle with mount options, you could reformat the external disks using Linux-native filesystems like ext4, but you'll lose the ability to mount them on Windows if you do that.
Thunars "allow this file to run as a program" is generally bugged. Always set to on for me on files like xml, md, json, so they execute on single-click instead of opening the default action. chmod -x doesn't change that checkmark either or only sometimes.
Btw, any file manager that is similiar in features (custom actions) and look but less crashy.
exfat or fat32 is great for interoperability between linux and windows but has limited functionality under linux.
If you're using your external drive only under linux, I suggest switching to a filesystem that works better with unix like permissions and special bits.
Also, like others, depending on your use-case I would suggest something with journaling like ext3 or ext4. If you happen to power of your system while writing something to that drive, the fs does not get corrupted/can automatically recover.
For backups with rollback maybe a FS with copy on write and automatic compression like btrfs or zfs would be better.
With btrfs borg backups allows you to create incremental backups of btrfs subvolumes. I use it to backup my home, etc and /subvolumes on my "backup server" (old pc with two raid1 hdds).
I have a friend who administeres backups for his company (afaik ~100-200GB delta per week) and he swears by zfs. I found btrfs simpler though.
I'm a Linux user since 1998 (my main desktop PC runs Debian), however I do have a couple of Macs around because I love their hardware (not so much the software though). In fact, I have three old MacBook Airs (mid-2011, 2012, 2015), all running Linux. The moment I got them, I erased MacOS and installed Linux pronto!
But my main laptop is a MacBook Air M1 with MacOS because it's much faster than these older Intel-based MacBook Airs. Modern web browsing and video editing requires a lot of processing power.
So, I want to move to have my main laptop running Linux too. I DON'T want to install Asahi Linux on my M1, because I don't consider it a proper solution for my needs (I want to run Resolve, you see, and most foss apps that I use would need recompiling). Also, I don't like that Asahi is dependent on MacOS to exist, because you can't boot with a usb to install it.
My issue is that I can't find ANYTHING on the PC market that is as slick or full featured as a MacBook Air (minus its limited ports). What I need is this:
Screen no larger than 13.3" inches, Full HD at least, preferably good color gamut (but not a must). I still need the laptop to be portable though. Basically, I'm not even asking for HDR, as the MacBook Air features.
Keyboard to have backlight, without the numpad (I hate these laptops where the touchpad is off center).
The touchpad needs to be glass or of equivalent feel. The Apple touchpads slide/glide with ease. I find every PC touchpad I've used so far to be "sticky". My finger on some Chromebooks and Dell/Lenovo laptops is doing a "grrrkkk, grrrkkkk" when I slide my finger! There's something special about Apple's touchpads, I dunno.
Intel 13th+ gen CPU, with passmark points over 17,000 on multi-threading. My M1 scores about 12,000 points, and it's 5 years old. So obviously I'd need something faster than what I have now.
Intel GPU (no AMD or Nvidia please, I need Intel's superior video decoding abilities). On a Mac that isn't a problem, because Apple does support these 10bit 4:2:2 codecs I need, with hardware acceleration. But on the PC side, only Intel provides good support for these without headaches (only the newest nvidias support that, but I don't want to use Nvidia for too many reasons -- AMD is a disaster on that video front btw). I don't play 3D games.
I need speakers that sound good. Every single PC laptop I've tried, had the worst sound ever. I need it to be hear-able on YouTube and not sound as if you're listening via a can. I bought a Thinkpad x280 a few months ago and I can't use it because its speakers are so bad! DELL (from 5 years ago that I tried) aren't better either.
I need a (supported) fingerprint reader!
32 GB of RAM.
1 TB of storage.
Below a $1800 price tag. That's the price I can get with a MacBook Air for all that.
Now, you might think that "well, it seems that you just want a new MacBook", but that's not true. I want a PC laptop so I can run Debian Linux instead of MacOS. But I need it to be a laptop that is "proper" by my own standards. The quality of the interaction between my palms, fingers, eyes and PC laptops IS NOT the same as with any Apple laptop I've ever used. The reason people buy Apple hardware is NOT because "MacOSX is lickable" (as it was suggested many years ago by Jobs). I've actually researched the "why". It's because the INTERACTION of your senses and the laptop's design/quality FITS. It's like a glove for one another. It's difficult to explain but I know it now to be true. It was never MacOSX itself (although MacOSX's gui smoothness helps the overall experience).
So the question is: am I missing that special, Linux-compatible, PC laptop somewhere? If you know that such a laptop exists, please reply with a link. I'll buy it in a heartbeat.
This is a serious post btw. I spent the whole weekend trying to find that mythical PC laptop, and I can't. I'm frustrated.
EDIT: I might end up with the Framework 13. Not 100% what I'm after, but probably the best solution right now.
EDIT 2: I bought a DELL 5640 16" laptop, 32 GB RAM, i7 cpu, that comes with Linux pre-installed (so I know it's compatible). It ticks all my boxes except the size and the trackpad being off center. Oh well.
How's the build quality compared to other brands, particularly macbooks? I haven't found a brand with even remotely the same build quality as a macbook.
I'm sure you have, I spec'ed one earlier today. But I can't find ANYWHERE in their docs or spec pages if it has a fingerprint reader or not. And when spec'ed similarly, it was more expensive than a macbook air ($2065 compared to $1800). And I still don't know about the quality of its trackpad or speakers.
I have a first gen, and it does. There was some coding stickiness, and (i haven't been able to solve) a key that the fingerprint reader doesn't get access too. The effect is that it logs you in and then you get a pop-up that asks for your system password (though you can start using right away). I'm only a junior level coder though, ans just haven't solved it- others might have.
Imo, the framework might mostly meet your spec. I came from a 2012 mac and the build quality and feel are the best I've seen in a non-apple laptop.
One comment on audio, I find mine can be tinny, verging in crappy. This may have been upgraded in more recent models.
Finally, I know you don't want AMD, but they have an AMD AI motherboard that I thought looked very interesting, at least for complex processing. Perhaps it will be of value to explore further? Just a thought.
I have a 16, not a 13, but: - it does have a supported fingerprint reader (at least on Fedora) - spec it without RAM and SSD and buy them elsewhere. You can save several hundred [currency unit]s. - the trackpad is glass and is quite good for a PC. Definitely not current-gen MacBook Pro-level. - The speakers are meh. I'd say ok-tier for a PC, nowhere near a MacBook Pro either.
Framework laptops are expensive, but you buy repairability and upgradability. A lot of parts have already been improved in the 5(?) years the FW13 has been around.
Thank you, I think this puts it well. I'm not sure yet if I want to compromise or not, to be honest. I was hoping there's a well-designed PC laptop out there.
In fact, 2 years ago I bought a levovo (16,000 passmark points, touchscreen, unfortunately large). I thought "ok, I'll compromise". But the moment my fingers touched the touchpad, I just couldn't use it. It was just terrible. Sticky, and NOWHERE to disable the terrible tap-n-drag (I had left it with Windows11 back then).
That laptop now belongs to my niece. I just gave it away (and it was our fastest machine at our house at the time!).
Sorry if I'm wrong, but I'm guessing the problem you have is: - you're used to Apple trackpads that are really good - although other trackpads aren't exactly unusable or worse in performance, you don't want to use them because they feel worse
consider using a trackpoint instead of a touchpad, that way you don't have a point of comparison for it to "feel worse" (trackpoint is superior anyway)
i have the same kinda thing with not wanting to give up my thinkpad keyboard, and ofc i don't want a modern shitty laptop keyboard but I'll probably have to swallow it some day
There’s three threads recommending framework 13. I commented in one. I actually own a new 13 with all the latest stuff. It comes close, but it’s not a Mac.
The trackpad works really good except it has a lot of play in it - it’s annoying.
I’ve seen better screens. Yes I have the newest one, no it’s not terrible - but there’s better out there.
The speakers are just ok. Not bad, just ok.
The 13 craftsmanship wise is amazing. My father in law just bought the 16. That one has fit issues with the trackpad and the spacers on either side of it.
Fingerprint readers on both and they work great. No touchscreen.
Battery life is good. Macs are better. My 13 goes about 6-7 hours of continual “normal use”. If I’m using teams for a video call, it’s significantly less - maybe 3 hours. Games - depends on the game but that can drain it in a couple of hours. You cannot under any circumstances go an entire day+ of continuous use without charging.
They are both fantastic linux machines (frameworks) and I highly recommend them. But the hardware is not Mac perfect despite what others say. Just trying to be real here - sounds like you have high expectations and I’d hate for you to buy an expensive laptop and be dissatisfied.
Part of me wants to plug Thinkpad E16 as the cheapest new laptop you can get away with, but if the trackpad is the same one that drives you insane. Honestly, I don’t really care about the trackpad because I exclusively use Trackpoint.
Also, I would call the speakers mediocre, but honestly, I rarely listen to audio on my laptop, so they may be total crap.
I feel like I'm in the same boat. I don't have a solution, just wanted to say I understand your perspective.
I've completely ditched Microsoft from my life and I'd love to ditch Apple too, but there's just nothing on the market I've seen which matches the build and usability of macbook hardware.
With the old Intel macs it was simple enough to run Linux but now with Apple Silicon it's not on the cards. I love what the Asahi team have been doing and I hope they keep doing it, but it's not ready for primetime yet.
And so I've reached the same annoying conclusion - for the moment I'm stuck with Mac, and therefore stuck with macos too.
Dell XPS 13 checks all your boxes except good speakers.
I have the XPS 15 9510 model. Intel 13th gen i7, backlit keyboard, great trackpad, sleek design. It came with 16GB ram but I replaced with 32.
I bought it "refurb" on eBay last May SPECIFICALLY because I wanted the most Mac-like PC. Running Arch Linux from day one and it's been rock solid and super fast. The speakers aren't great and the mic is pretty bad. But I usually use headphones or external speakers when docked.
I honestly am very happy with it and it was only like $550.
I spent a bunch of time before this comparing new computers; between Thinkbooks, Framework, Tuxedo, XPS. In the end I decided what I wanted didn't require it to be new. I was only concerned about degraded battery but I can replace that myself when the time comes.
I don't want to plug the seller but they're constantly selling these on eBay so you'll probably see them if you search.
Side note I disabled the NVIDIA GPU and only use the Intel iGPU which has saved a lot of battery.
btw, can you really replace the ssd/ram on these xps 13s? I found one afor $1700, and in greece they ask for $2500 if you spec it with 32gb of ram. But if I can replace it myself easily, that would be nice.
Unfortunately I believe Apple hardware is unsurpassed when it comes to solid builds, care into details, functionalities and beautiful appearances.
I've been using Linux for over 20 years, never had problems making my desktops look good and work fine with the right cases and components, but laptops? meh
Only once in 20 years I found one that I like aesthetically and has all the compatible hardware (full Intel only), I got it at half the price because they weren't making it anymore...
I already have 5 laptops. Laptops that range from 2800 passmark points to 5500 points (older Chromebooks usually clock between 1400 and 4000 points, so yours is probably in that range). I use these laptops as testbeds mostly, not as my main laptops for work/browsing. I need something faster than my M1 Macbook Air (which clocks 14,000 points -- and that's already 5 years old). So a 6th refurbished, old, slow laptop won't do the job.
In fact, funnily enough, I've done the same mistake with video cameras back in the day. I was buying cheaper stuff, thinking that one feature here, or one feature there would make out for not buying a more expensive camera. They weren't enough. I had to wait to 2024 to actually find the video camera that I was looking for in 2011.
Same for phones. Even after the popularization of the iphone and android, I still didn't like them. I had to wait until about 2018-or-so, to feel that they had matured to the level I envisioned them 15 years earlier!
I guess I have certain ideas on what I want from hardware and anything less doesn't cut it...
I have a framework 13 running Linux. It’s fantastic - but it’s not up to the high bar OP has laid out (IMO).
The screen is nice - but I’ve seen nicer. The trackpad works well, but the fit has a little bit to be desired - it’s no apple trackpad. The speakers are ok. Not bad, just ok. It’s also pricey.
If OP can compromise on those things, then yes, it’s probably as close to Mac hardware as he’ll get.
You can vastly improve any laptops speakers with "easy effects" but some peeps have gone to great length to create a profile for the framework laptops:
I can’t edit my original post anymore, so it’s here again 🙂 A little while ago I’ve made and posted a DSP profile for Easy Effects This time I’ve added proper response curve calibration with HiFiScan, and it sounds better than ever.
Its what I got from work, its pretty nice quality I have to say.
Usually a functional thinkpad guy, but the screen, trackpad, build, specs, all very good. Keyboard could be better but if you're coming from a Mac then it will be just fine.
Modern web browsing...requires a lot of processing power.
It definitely doesn't. What it does require is a bit of RAM, which Apple intentionally sold in insufficient quantities for thousands of dollars, and judging by local classified boards, that's almost exclusively what everyone bought.
Intel 13th+ gen CPU, with passmark points over 17,000 on multi-threading.
AMD is and has been the superior processor for quite some time now, both in speed and efficiency.
Intel GPU
Well...you are severely limiting your options there. I've never even seen Intel mobile GPUs, personally.
I need a (supported) fingerprint reader!
Yeah that's gonna be very tough also.
Below a $1800 price tag. That's the price I can get with a MacBook Air for all that.
You're looking for a niche product, which, if it even exists, will have niche pricing.
I spent the whole weekend trying to find that mythical PC laptop, and I can't. I'm frustrated.
Unless you're willing to make compromises somewhere, I don't think you're going to.
I can tell you I recently got a Lenovo Yoga Pro, and it rivals Apple in terms of build quality. It has the best laptop keyboard I've ever used, by a longshot.
I was in a very similar situation when shopping for my current laptop so here are my thoughts: I set out looking for a lightweight and relatively powerful 13" Linux laptop and ended up with an M4 MacBook Air. Despite what a lot of people wanna say, the MacBook Air is one of the best deals you can get for an ultrabook, especially on these newer generations, as others I've looked at struggle to compete in performance per watt while at the same price point and with lower build quality. Seems to me that with the requirements you've listed, you will have to compromise on a few things if you want the advantages of running Linux.
The FW13, best fit I can think of, is a wonderful machine, you will probably have a good time with it, but it certainly does not have as good of a build quality, battery life nor UX refinement as a MacBook. The difference isn't massive but it is there. These are common compromises when you buy into more ethical tech.
I was about to suggest the framework as well, but I don't have to 😀 I would just add that the build quality is at least equal to any mainstream brand like Dell or Lenovo, and you also gain in reapairability/upgradability which will make this laptop last forever (every single piece is replaceable) or upgradable for a fraction of the price of a new laptop.
Warnings:
This post is my thoughts after one day of use of a new laptop I’ve been waiting for 1.5 year, so I’m still under endorphins. I’ve spent $1,200 in an under powered machine, so I’m biased.
My issue is that I can’t find ANYTHING on the PC market that is as slick or full featured as a MacBook Air (minus its limited ports).
Hi. Typing this on M2 Air, running Gentoo. 👋
The limited ports drive me crazy too, but what's maybe EVEN MORE frustrating, is the glossiness of the screen. It is not that good to be used outside, especially because it is dust and finger print magnet. I'm constantly wiping the screen. One thing that smudges the display seems to be the fact that some parts of the base touches the display when the lid is closed. Bad design, or I may just have a faulty specimen. The touchpad is needlessly big, but isn't really a problem. My wrist can't bend so that I could move my finger easily from corner to corner. 😁 Touchpad haptic stuff is nice when dragging. Keyboard is... meh. Nothing special. Then there's the money problem. You have to spend ridiculous amounts of money to jump off from the base model. I have 256GB/8GB model. The least I should have accepted is 16Gigs of RAM. I got this Air for only for 300 euros (luck was involved), so a money well spent to get to know current Apple HW. But still... I feel I barely made a good deal (because my last laptop was Matebook D with the same amount of RAM and 1TB NVMe SSD). I'll keep using this until I cannot cope with the amount of RAM anymore.
Battery life, performance and passively cooled CPU are the main highlights. Oh and the DAC can drive high impedance heaphones (I have Beyerdynamic DT-770 250 Ohm). I'm most disappointed to the display. The LCD under the glass is fine, but the glass itself is just horrible design. From now on: I choose only matte displays.
I think you're much better off with Framework. I think that'll be eventually my choice too.
On the off chance that you’re still reading responses to this post:
I repair electronics, everything from automotive to industrial to audio to computers and phones. Not just screwdriver work either, bga rework and microscopic trace repair. I’m speaking from years of hands in experience with lots of computers, tablets, phones, amplifiers, plcs, ecus, and anything else you can think of plus countless hours of exercise helping people figure out what to buy, weather to repair, what to change and how a failure happened.
Get the mac.
You are describing the choice as being between the linux support level and the quality of other laptops. One is constantly improving, currently only falling short of your expectations due to requiring the existence of the computers native os and requiring you to maybe compile some stuff, the other begins below your expectations and cannot meet them. No one’s gonna push a free update that fixes the fit and finish or shitty trackpad of a computer.
Get the hardware you need.
Also, macs are secretly extremely repairable. People don’t like that they can’t just get in there and fuck around with a jewelers screwdriver and guitar pick, but it’s easy to find a qualified shop around you to fix whatever’s wrong with the computer. There’s always tons of replacement parts available, first party support docs (for shops that can prove they are real businesses) and third party info of all kinds.
Thank you for the lucid reply. I already got a DELL 5640 16" laptop in the interim. It ticks all my boxes except the large size and the off centered trackpad. Otherwise it's ok. Nothing amazing, but it's fast and with a lot of RAM for the $765 euros that I paid.
Both Russia and Ukraine have veto power over any peace deal. If Russia doesn't agree to this, they will keep fighting. US and EU might put tripwire forces in Ukraine to deter future aggression but they won't just enter the existing conflict.
MTG's name is so unfortunate. She gives TCGs a bad name, not that the game isn't shitting on its own IP right now either.
Anyway nobody wants the association with her. She's about as psychotic as it gets. So it seems really weird that she'd post something reasonable along the lines of "screw Hamas, but not the innocents getting war crimed" (paraphrasing of course).
I have a hard time believing she's the one who wrote that. It's not impossible, but something more in her camp would be blaming "the Jews" for collaborating with aliens from the Andromeda Galaxy to try and take over the Middle East or something.
Anyway, if she really did write that, then for as little as it does being nothing more than text on social media, it's at least worth acknowledging. Not praising - she gets that if she starts trying to unfuck the US, which probably won't happen. But acknowleding, sure.
Idk man. She's been talking about leaving the Republican party, about women's issues, labor issues, and she's been calling the genocide a genocide. I'm not sold that she has fully woken up and smelled the roses, but she is definitely having some change of heart.
My loose theory is this: the whole MAGA movement is powered by people who (rightfully) believe the American system is broadly working against them. As a result, they distrust any authority or expert on anything and accept the first contrarian viewpoint they hear. I think there's a possibility that MAGA politics has gotten so widespread that she's too contrarian to accept it. I doubt she's actually seeing the world as it is, but there's a possibility she's become more open to other contrarian narratives. We'll see if that's true. Luckily, I'm not a constituent of her's so I don't have to think about it that hard.
The alternative that I've heard is that this "change of heart" isn't genuine and it's just to gain power. I can't rule that out but her actions haven't been those of a greedy power-grabber. I think she's often been true to her principles even when that hurts her politically. Her principles are fucked up and based on a warped world-view, but I think she is principled.
Pam Bondi is the example I would give for someone that is just going for power. When she was doing the whole Epstein thing, it was made into a big media circus with influencers and no real substance. I think she saw this as her moment to become a rising star on the right, without much thought to the crimes or justice of the situation. That didn't work out for her, but the intentions behind the actions were pretty clear. If MTG is just making power plays, she's pretty bad at it.
she has a vested interest in this through putin, why. because israels "other enemy" is IRAN and they attacked them recently, the last thing putin(thats why putins troll farm was allowing epstein talk to go through his channels" want is israel setting thier sites on iran, which deliver drones other parts to russia.
round about 14 forum pages with few followers each and a total of 18 profiles with contacts in the activityPub and diaspora community and some RSS subscriptions. No other specific conectors are enabled.
DB backups amount to ~180MiB and the image file storage folder on ftp around ~400MiB.
Friendica stable | 'Giant Rhubarb' 2023.05 - 1518 PHP Version 8.1.2-1ubuntu2.14 VPS server | Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 4 Core CPU, 8 GB Ram with 300GB NVME Disk - unlimited traffic hosted by @ raroun 👍
Notes: This instances right now seems to work well. Sometimes this profile here has some strange hickups like when following up the link of a post from this server in a stream view a message "Not Found |The requested item doesn't exist or has been deleted." Also right now profiles from contacts, for example @ hoergen or @ feb don't show up in the contact list but they are displayed as followed in the profile contact page.
I'm a member of the flotilla and preparing to leave for Gaza soon hopefully. A lot hanging on logistics and other things still but I will know more the coming days.
We will set sail in September. I hope to be be able to update a bit on these channels and setting up new accounts for this purpose.
Any tips, shares and discussions are welcomed and I hope to be be able to update on the journey a bit here.
Official updates will be made from official accounts but this will be my personal experience and as a backup for when other communications no longer are available.
I've tried switching to Linux from Windows 10 twice now. The first time went wonderfully (on Mint) until I found out that secure boot was stuck in the enabled mode and I had to completely reinstall my bios. This was absolutely necessary as everything was unbelievably slow, especially gaming (on a decent laptop). I understand this is totally my fault as almost every Linux guide says to make sure secure boot is disabled. After fighting with that for literal days, I finally reinstalled Linux mint. WiFi was suddenly completely nonfunctional, no networks were detected, and none of the proposed solutions I saw online worked. I have very little experience with Linux and other complicated tech nerd stuff besides that which comes with tinkering with computers occasionally. I do however have a great deal of patience and stubbornness. I spent maybe a week or 2 just working on this first attempt at making Mint work, until I ran out of patience. After coming back to it a month or 2 later, I decided to try Pop!_OS. Once again, it went incredibly at the start. Because I fixed the secure boot situation, I could now game better than I ever could when I had windows installed. Very few compatibility issues showed up that I couldn't conquer. Suddenly, I try playing Enter the Gungeon after having already played it a couple of times. Nothing out of the ordinary, I had done this before. Suddenly the entire computer freezes and I can still hear just fine. I restart my computer and... no sound. Nothing from any possible source, not Discord, not Firefox, not even the media I have downloaded. I look up the problem, I see several people have had it before, and only a couple ever got a solution. I try EVERY proposed solution on any forum with even similar issues, and still nothing. I have been fighting with my computer for 3 or 4 hours now. I've heard Linux praised for feeling like it is *your* computer that is subject to your will. I'd disagree right now, because it feels like there are spirits in my laptop trying to intentionally fuck me over every time I start enjoying the Linux experience. Does it get better? Am I crazy? Am I haunted? How is this anyone's ideal experience?
edit: I'm on an MSI Thin GF63. Nvidia GPU, Intel CPU. Compatibility seemed fine WHILE this latest attempt was working, up until my sound got fucked. I have a hard time imagining if that could be related to anything besides my sound card and drivers, but I'm nowhere near savvy when it comes to Linux. I'm now installing Bazzite as some of you guys recommended so I can ease myself into this whole Linux thing. I'll give another update if this fixes it :3
edit edit: It's still happening. I can see the "Alder Lake PCH-P high definition audio controller" in my audio config GUI apps and I can see the meter moving when audio is playing. Still, nothing is played. I am not dual-booting. Ive seen people have had issues with this card before, but seemingly the only solution (that I've yet to try) is to buy a whole new laptop. I don't have the money to do that currently. If someone is particularly tech savvy I am willing to hear out proposed solutions, but know that I have tried nearly everything online even remotely related to broken audio on Linux. My computer is haunted and I'll need a proper qualified exorcist it seems. note: it works with Bluetooth headphones. I haven't had a chance to test it with wired headphones but I will continue to give (near)real-time updates.
Does it get better? Not particularly, no. It doesn't get any easier to bear, you'll never get used to it, you just stop caring so much. it won't hurt as hard because you just don't let it, not anymore. And its horrible, it sounds selfish. But there's never going to be a time where you won't wake up with their face fresh in your thoughts, you just won't care, you can't keep caring. you got work in two hours and you have to keep moving, you can't let it slow you down, you can't stop going. the world didn't stop going, nobody did, everything's as usual, you can't stop.
We still here for you though. After all linux is love, linux is live. We're definetly not a cult. Just give it a try. Linux Mint is super beginner friendly, trust me. Just once, you'll feel better afterwards.
Jokes aside, learning or doing something new (can be, but doesnt have to be linux) won't make anything better, but maybe make the drudgery of everyday more bearable, imo.
Also even though I hate it, talking about stuff that is on your mind with people irl is like super important and can be really cathartic.
Maybe your computer has hardware problems that manifest at random times as software problems. I personally got a Beelink mini PC for $160 (16 GB of ram), and it worked perfectly with Linux first time, no issues thereafter.
I followed every instruction on that page once it happened and still nothing. Even after a full reinstall. I'm worried it might be some bigger, harder-to-fix problem like something with my sound card. See my edit for a better update
To answer the main title question: it definitely can get better, especially if you're using common hardware with maintainers working to improve the code to handle them.
I'm one of the people with a mostly smooth Linux experience on my devices (I have similar values to other nerdy programmers and naturally purchase more similar or popular computers/parts, and I haven't really had brand new bleeding-edge computer parts, so that might give me better odds at a smoother experience), no weird audio/WiFi/GPU issues that you often see here. The only issues I have are so inconsequential they're not worth mentioning. And I've used the two OSs you've used.
In my limited experience, there are basically two flavors of Linux: 1) Latest software, everything's available but it breaks a lot. 2) Doesn't update frequently, might have to be cautious with third-party software but very stable.
As I've gotten busier, my preference for stable distros like Debian has grown. I think there's also a lot of value in trying for due diligence the first time you install a distro. It's much simpler to take the time and do it correctly than to try and fix it afterwards. Sometimes it takes a few attempts to get everything set up correctly, but it's worth it long term.
I used Windows growing up, switched to Linux in highschool on my personal machines, and was forced to use Mac for nearly 10 years at work. In my experience, they all have problems, and the worst part is always early on. After you've used them for a while and have gotten familiar/comfortable, the problems get easier to deal with, and switching back (or on to something new) becomes more daunting/uncomfortable than dealing with what you have. So in that sense, yes, it will get easier.
Also, as hardware ages, you often see better support (though laptops can be tricky, as they are not standardized).
Keep in mind, when you use Windows or Mac, you're using a machine built for that OS and (presumably) supported by the manufacturer for that OS (especially with custom drivers). If you give Linux the same advantage (buy a machine with Linux pre-installed, or with Linux "officially supported"), you're much more likely to have a similar, stable experience.
Also, I've had better stability with stock Ubuntu than its derivatives (Pop!_OS and Mint). It might be worth trying an upstream distro, to see if you have better stability.
Seconding just installing something easy and pre-setup. Try a desktop variant of Bazzite (I like the gnome flavour) and see if most of your issues just disappear.
I have just seen your edit. I had a similar problem with no audio but meter levels working on my toughbook. Could you start terminal, type alsamixer and turn all the volumes up? Press F6 to swap through sound cards.
It get's better with experience. I have nuked my system countless times at the beginning.
If you are too frustrated with Linux maybe give it a rest or consider dual-booting instead. It sound that you are frustrated and don't have a clear head to troubleshoot.
It was enabled and for some reason grayed out so I couldn't disable it. Looked up several solutions and nothing worked so I just updated my bios. That ended up working.
Your wifi issues with mint were probably driver related. Ive found especially for newer devices Linux mints kernel is too old and doesn't always fully support hardware. If you have access to Ethernet or USB hotspot you can likely download and install the newest kernel and fix that issue.
Mint is recommended for a reason, it's a traditional Linux experience, it's stable, and it looks familiar to newbies. Plus, lots of us Linux nerds use Debian/Ubuntu (what mint is based on) so it's easier for us to help you.
Driver support will always potentially be an issue unless you buy laptops that are built for Linux, or are well vetted. This is because Microsoft has near total market control and Linux support is usually reverse engineered later if the drivers source is never shared.
Same thing for gaming -- gaming support on Linux is mostly a bunch of ad hock hacks, because those games were never made to run on Linux in the first place.
So, if you want to commit to Linux, make it an informed choice. You will need to make some sacrifices. Or you could always just dip your toes and only use Linux for running a server or hosting a website.
Ask someone who drives a gasoline-powered car why they wouldn't want to get an electric one, and you're almost certain to hear this answer: they take way too...
Exactly, this is game changing stuff. I imagine this will have huge applications outside cars too. I can see this being really useful for stuff like buses, autonomous vehicles, or even robots.
With this release, bluetuith now has initial cross-platform support, and works on Windows. Windows specific instructions are here, tl;dr install haraltd and bluetuith together.
There are no new features introduced, only other optimisations and bug fixes for Linux.
I hope you enjoy this release, and any feedback is appreciated.
General Information
Bluetuith is a TUI based bluetooth manager for Linux, that aims to be an alternative to most bluetooth managers, and can perform bluetooth based operations like:
Connection to and general management of bluetooth devices, with device information like battery percentage, RSSI etc. displayed, if the information is available. More detailed information about a device can be viewed by selecting the 'Info' option in the menu or by clicking the 'i' key.
Bluetooth adapter management, with toggleable power, discoverability, pairablilty and scanning modes.
Transfer and receive files via the OBEX protocol, with an interactive file picker to choose and select multiple files.
Handle both PANU and DUN based networking for each bluetooth device
Control media playback on the currently connected device, with a media player popup that displays playback information and controls.
Welcome to a new issue of This Week in Plasma!
Every week we cover the highlights of what’s happening in the world of KDE Plasma and its associated apps like Discover, System Monitor, and more.
This Week in F-DroidTWIF curated on Thursday, 21 Aug 2025, Week 34Community NewsThe Matrix ecosystem fixed some major bugs that affected servers and clients ...
What's Changed
✨ Features
Add media file limit size warning and media quality selection by @jmartinesp in #5131
🐛 Bugfixes
Fix cursor position in room list search by @jmartinesp in #5138
Fix lea...
Auster
in reply to Korkki • • •More immediately, push as hard as possible against it. No mountain is too big that it can't be moved with the right strategy.
On the longer term, forking AOSP would be a good bet, I think, but do note it requires a continuous effort/investment. In the same vein, pushing for Linux and non-Apple-developed BSD systems for mobile (the latter dunno if exists, but if Apple did it, others could also).
Another thing, but for much longer down the line, to change culture. For example, to stop using, as the saying goes, "the language of the enemy", like instead of "sideloading", which implies avoiding the main/correct way, say "installing", and "program" instead of "app"/"application", same as more standard computers. Also if the situation allows, whenever possible, to point the problem Google is, and to not cause apathy, to include solutions in the argument.
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FailBetter
in reply to Auster • • •like this
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Auster
in reply to FailBetter • • •I try to think what could the meaning behind a message be, even if as an unintended consequence. For example, referring to the Windows release of a program as the "PC release" while referring to other releases by their systems' names, e.g. "Linux release", "iOS release", etc., could disassociate the notion of "PC" with the other systems, so in this example, when someone wants to get a new PC, if he/she only finds computers with Windows, he/she wouldn't find weird the lack of other options.
Manipulating the language is a way to manipulate the people. And if you'd be interested to check regarding pointing out this in the technology niches, Louis Rossmann is tackling it way harder for some months now.
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Auster
in reply to Auster • • •TheLeadenSea
in reply to Auster • • •Default Username
in reply to Auster • • •sabreW4K3
in reply to Korkki • • •like this
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cardfire
in reply to sabreW4K3 • • •This is true today, but when the new iron curtain goes up and all of our devices are goog-lag'd next year, it won't be possible, especially with all of the handsome makers the distribute in the US being complicit.
Samsung just removed my ability to unlock the bootloader or load any alternate oses for my handset devices this summer.
Soon my only options will be to import phones that are only partially compatible with the networks here in the US and that come with their own security and privacy concerns.
government agency in charge of the Soviet forced labor camp system
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Korkki
in reply to sabreW4K3 • • •like this
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