Linux

i get a little annoyed at posts that start with broad statements like "is linux actually ready for the average user?" but then it's just someone asking for help to fix a problem they have with their sources.list or whatever. it's not a massive problem, but it's misleading and it feels borderline inflammatory sometimes

please tell when you're asking for help

ty

I tried running a 2nd instance of Roblox simultaneously on macos 15 with another account but this shows up, if my mac can handle it then why can't it just let me do it? If I have two copies of an app like Roblox in separate User/Applications folders, macos moves them to the /Applications/ folder.

Sometimes it won't run apps claiming to be corrupted, so I then have to do sudo xattr -cr /Applications/someapp.app in the terminal and they run perfectly fine. It always nags me if I download apps from anywhere but mac app store. Some of these messages can only be gotten rid of by disabling system integrity protection, but then macos blocks you from running MAS apps due to having "permissive security".

I don't daily drive macOS anymore, I switched to Linux on my M1 mac where I can do whatever the hell I want.

Hopefully this kind of post isn't too tired, but I figure it's my turn:

Finally decided to, after absolutely refusing to upgrade to 11, make the jump from Win10 to Linux! Been hopping around distros a bit and landed on EndeavourOS last night and I'm really enjoying it so far.

It's definitely tinkery and took me like 2 hours just to get my push to talk working in Discord (mostly due to my own lack of knowledge), but I love the level of control of everything you have (was on Pop!_OS before 🤮...)

There's definitely never been a better time to switch and I'm very excited for when I inevitably brick my shit and come back here for help, so thanks in advance everyone! :)

Hello folks. I use many distro from Debian to Fedora to OpenSuse and Arch. I also use many window managers like i3, dwm and qtile. On desktop environment, I use XFCE the most. Currently, I am looking to try something new, hence KDE.

I am looking for something with a beautiful UI and works out of the box. So, something on the same spectrum as XFCE but more pretty.

I tried out the distros with preinstalled KDE: Fedora KDE, Manjaro KDE, Kubuntu.

The good: KDE is beautiful and very easy to use. I actually enjoy using my computer more.

The bad: it crashes.. a lot even when I turn off all the animations. My system is not that slow: AMD 7 Pro with 64 GB of RAM. Some examples:

• Logging in, KDE hangs for 30 seconds. Even when I finally see the desktop, I would need to wait a further 10 seconds to finally able to interact, i.e. click and open stuff.

• After resume suspend, system would hang and there is nothing I can do except for a forced reboot.

• Browsing the web with only 3 tabs opened, KDE also hang.

As much as I hate GNOME, everything just works. I installed the GNOME flavors of above distros and never experience any hiccups.

If KDE works for you, do you use a preinstalled distro and which one? How about if you install KDE from scratch, like Arch?

I've been using evince to open PDFs. But for larger PDFs it is quite laggy, for selecting the text and stuff like that. Is this just a limitation of my computer, or are there faster alternatives to evince?

Just as the title says, posting this here because I reference this all the time (maybe one day I will remember it).

I know Snaps and Ubuntu get a bit of hate in the Linux community, but hopefully this is helpful to someone. I'm not familiar with any of the reasons people don't like Snaps (I never use them unless its the only option, so my experience is limited), however for Firefox I can't use the snap package due to limitations with editing configuration files for startpages.

How did you partition your disk before installing Linux? Do you regret how you set it up?

I'm looking for some real users experiences about this and I'm trying to find the best approach for my setup.

Thank you for sharing!

This is going to be nice. Good first step.

Hi, I've just replaced my "HTPC" and done a fresh install of Debian on it. There's a strange issue with Kodi and the focus under Wayland: after some time Kodi (running in full screen) loses focus so I cannot navigate it with the TV remote anymore, but I have to switch back to Kodi using ALT+TAB on the keyboard. I'm not sure of when this happens, basically I power on the TV on the next day and Kodi has lost focus, the PC is always on. Since something like this had never happened before on the old PC (running Mint), I tried switching to xorg instead of Wayland and the problem disappeared. Desktop environment is KDE, Kodi is installed via official flatpak. No standard keyboard or mouse are connected to the PC, only a wireless keyboard with touchpad which is pratically always powered off, so it is impossible that someone is switching focus by mistake. Does anyone have any clue?

https://youtu.be/hKypVQuA7yk

Please and thank you

Look, I've only been a Linux user for a couple of years, but if there's one thing I've learned, it's that we're not afraid to tinker. Most of us came from Windows or macOS at some point, ditching the mainstream for better control, privacy, or just to escape the corporate BS. We're the people who choose the harder path when we think it's worth it.

Which is why I find it so damn interesting that atomic distros haven't caught on more. The landscape is incredibly diverse now - from gaming-focused Bazzite to the purely functional philosophy of Guix System. These distros couldn't be more different in their approaches, but they all share this core atomic DNA.

These systems offer some seriously compelling stuff - updates that either work 100% or roll back automatically, no more "oops I bricked my system" moments, better security through immutability, and way fewer update headaches.

So what gives? Why aren't more of us jumping on board? From my conversations and personal experience, I think it boils down to a few things:

Our current setups already work fine. Let's be honest - when you've spent years perfecting your Arch or Debian setup, the thought of learning a whole new paradigm feels exhausting. Why fix what isn't broken, right?

The learning curve seems steep. Yes, you can do pretty much everything on atomic distros that you can on traditional ones, but the how is different. Instead of apt install whatever and editing config files directly, you're suddenly dealing with containers, layering, or declarative configs. It's not necessarily harder, just... different.

The docs can be sparse. Traditional distros have decades of guides, forum posts, and StackExchange answers. Atomic systems? Not nearly as much. When something breaks at 2am, knowing there's a million Google results for your error message is comforting.

I've been thinking about this because Linux has overcome similar hurdles before. Remember when gaming on Linux was basically impossible? Now we have the Steam Deck running an immutable SteamOS (of all things!) and my non-Linux friends are buying them without even realizing they're using Linux. It just works.

So I'm genuinely curious - what's keeping YOU from switching to an atomic distro? Is it specific software you need? Concerns about customization? Just can't be bothered to learn new tricks?

Your answers might actually help developers focus on the right pain points. The atomic approach makes so much sense on paper that I'm convinced it's the future - we just need to figure out what's stopping people from making the jump today.

So what would it actually take to get you to switch? I'm all ears.

Linux mint 22.1 and jackett is hogging 200+GB of virtual memory. I do have a couple -arrs running, and calibre server, but it seems a ludicrous amount of memory. Reading on the webs it seems people think 20GB is crazy.

Any help/thoughts where to look? Not using Docker.

UPDATE: After hours and dozens of fixes it simple does not work. The Boss Katana Mini X seems to be completely incompatible with Linux. I'm gonna install Windows again on my Surface. W11 works like dogshit on it but at least I can use it to connect to my guitar amp.

Leaving the thread open in case a solution does eventually appear.

OP:

I'm having an issue with a BT speaker, well Guitar amp. actually. (BOSS Katana Mini X)

Device is a Microsoft Surface Pro 7.

It connects, but it wont play any sound at all. I'm now at the point where I'm considering installing W11 on that Surface again just so I can connect it to my amp to play some guitar with backing tracks and whatnot. I hate using my phone for this.

• Speaker is chosen as the output device.
• Tried to switch to PipeWire
• Installed Blueman and a Pulse Audio interface
• Also tried this on Fedora 41(GNOME)
• Bluetooth earbuds from JBL works fine and get normal sound
• I have installed the kernel for Surface devices, but I also tested this BEFORE installing that and there has been no difference on both Ubuntu and Fedora.

What I notice is there's only two configs I can chose from on the settings for the amp as an output device, instead of the long list I have on other devices. Possible cause?

I'm currently working on a build tool, which does caching based on the last-modified timestamp of files. And yeah, man, I was prepared for a world of pain, where I'd have to store a list of all files, so I could tell when one of them disappears.
I probably would've also had to make up some non-existent last-modified timestamp to try to pretend I know when that file got deleted. I figured, there's no way to ask the deleted file when it got deleted, because it doesn't exist anymore.

Thank you, to whomever had that smart idea to design it like that. I can just take the directory last-modified timestamp now, if it's the highest value.
In fact, my implementation accidentally does this correct already. That's how I found out. 🫠

I let Discover handle updating to Fedora 42 and got a kernel panic error, so I backed up /home/ and did a fresh install of Fedora 42.

I started my restoration by nuking /home/ with sudo rm -R /home/ and then copied everything over via Dolphin as stuff was slowly torn asunder as parts unloaded from RAM. Everything seems intact so far...

Edit: This worked for me in Zorin! Thanks for the ideas & discussion in the replies! https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-to-create-folders-in-gnome-44-to-declutter-the-application-overview

Hi, I'm looking to switch to Linux full-time on my desktop. Aside from my NAS, I'm pretty unfamiliar with Linux in general.

On Windows, I have apps pinned to the Start menu grid, with apps in groups/folders for easy access. I don't pin anything to the taskbar or leave icons on the desktop. For the apps I care about most - and there's around 40 of them - they're available with just 3 clicks maximum. I can reorder them and put them in groups (or pull them out of groups) anytime.

Here's what that looked like (note the top row): https://i.imgur.com/Y9PmYoG.png

On Zorin OS (Ubuntu-based) via Gnome, I haven't had any such luck. ArcMenu is great but offers no app group support. This also a feature that doesn't seem to be in very strong demand in general. I can use the Gnome menu editor (Alacarte, rebranded as "Main Menu" in Zorin) to hide the default categories & make my own. This would be a perfectly suitable solution... but doing so requires multiple steps per app - no copying & pasting, no drag & drop, each one has to be created on a per-category basis. The amount of effort is considerable. I don't mind doing it once of course, but if I decide to reorganize, it'll require all of that effort all over again.

I'm fully happy with Gnome, I'm looking for a productivity-first DE and the only issue is this app menu situation which is a hard deal breaker. I guess I just have three questions:

1. Are there alternative menus I can check out which might be able to solve this?

2. I doubt this, but: Is there an easier menu-category editor I could use? Something that allows for at least moving/copying between categories, so I can grab an app from All Apps or something and put it where I want it. Choosing a unique name, finding an icon, copying the terminal command, etc. is a ton of work just to stay organized.

3. Would using a different DE offer the flexibility I'm looking for in this situation? I'm willing to switch DEs or even distros to fix this - it's seriously the crux of my workflow.

If this is the wrong community to post this, please point me in the right direction and I'll post there. Thanks in advance, I've been trying to find a fix for this for several hours and I'm not sure where to look for an answer.

One of the strongest points of Linux is the package management. In 2025, the world of Linux package management is very varied, with several options available, each with their advantages and trade-offs over the others.

I really wish that I was born early so I've could witness the early years of Linux. What was it like being there when a kernel was released that would power multiple OSes and, best of all, for free?

I want know about everything: software, hardware, games, early community, etc.

Or is there maybe a way to set the pager for all help related queries to some command? I'm using bat and would like to pipe all --help through | bat --language=help by default for the syntax highlighting and colored output... Or if you know a lower effort way to color the output of --help let me know.

I'm going to switch to arch for my general-purpose laptop, since I feel like kubuntu is not enough for me, I want to try a tiling WM and do some ricing.

I'm still undecided between plain arch or CachyOS, because that optimisation looks promising and I also game on my laptop.

The fact is that CachyOS seems more "bloated" with some unnecessary packages, so what do you suggest me? A simple arch installation, arch using the cachy-linux kernel and its optimisations or a debloated CachyOS install? Thank you all in advance.

Hi, so I want to building a pc for a home server (?) or NAS. I dont really know whats the most appropriate term but what I intend to build is a one pc for my household. currently my requirement is one work 'pc' capable of heavy 3d modeling one light work pc. two 4k gaming tvs. (they most likely wont be used at the same time)

my knowledge of technical stuff is bretty basic so please be patient with me.

before, i used my steam deck to stream my work pc using parsec but i thought i just want to jump all in on linux and using vm to use more niche 3d softwares.

my budget is flexible as long as i dont need to use enterprise hardware. also i heard nvidia is not good for linux so i'd like to confirm if that is still the case as im thinking of using 5090 if not, i hope amd releases an equivalent capable card or if any according my quick research suggest.

as for linux, the only distro (?) i ever used is the steam deck one and i love it. im not a programmer or even remotely capable one so i'd like to avoid anything that has to be manually typing commands at terminal but im open to surface level tinkering.

thank you for your time

Hello!

I am pleased to announce a new version of my CLI text processing with GNU sed ebook. This book heavily leans on examples to present features one by one. In addition to sed commands and options, regular expressions are also discussed in detail.

Links

You can read the book online here: https://learnbyexample.github.io/learn_gnused/

Interactive TUI app for exercises: https://github.com/learnbyexample/TUI-apps/blob/main/SedExercises

Feedback

I would highly appreciate it if you'd let me know how you felt about this book. It could be anything from a simple thank you, pointing out a typo, mistakes in code snippets, which aspects of the book worked for you (or didn't!) and so on. Reader feedback is essential and especially so for self-published authors.

Happy learning :)

This year, so far, I've moved two older family members over from windows 10 onto Linux. I opted for an ubuntu based distro as I'm familiar enough to troubleshoot it, even remotely.

The first was a laptop, about 10 years old; windows was unusably slow. Luckily, the transition was smooth, Linux Mint took first attempt and no issues were had, everything worked out of the box except swipe scrolling - a quick tutorial sorted that out (terminal intervention was needed). 4 hours total setup (including a pile of desktop shortcuts), dual boot just in case she had issues.

The second was an older machine, a desktop, Frankensteined out of old parts (oldest being the motherboard at 15 years old). It ran windows 10 without a single hitch or slowdown.

2 days to get it "running", I had to repair grub to get the damn thing to boot after an install finally took. In the end I had to go with lubuntu with a manual cinnamon install because I hit my 4th mint install attempt and got a strong case of the"fuck thats". At the end I have a machine that has ghost headphones flickering into existence giving choppy sound that is pretty unusable. There is also horrific graphical glitches when booting (harmless, but I crapped a brick when I first saw it) - though I suspect this is just the fact there is an elderly Nvidia card in there.

A lot of time spent in terminal was unable to even identify what was happening - a first for me! My money is on a bios update, but yeah, not fun on old boards.

All in all, two very different experiences. It's not a warning against Linux (make the change now while the support is there!), just a warning that the road isn't always smooth. The bumps can come in odd places - you'd think the laptop would be the tricky one but nope, desktop rig was the worst.

Good luck out there with the change folks!