Linux

In one of my posts, I noticed this removed comment:

I was curious what it was, so I checked the modlog, but it states that the last mod action in this community occurred a month ago:

What's up with this? Are mod actions being scrubbed from the modlog?

https://spirallinux.github.io/

BTRFS, GUI Flatpak manager, Theming, nonfree codecs etc., printer support, timeshift preconfigured

Their goal is to make vanilla debian usable, with only debian tech. It is just a config, no "small distro dies and users need to switch"

Might not be the most secure (loose printer configs, preinstalled drivers for random stuff that is not normally a problem)

I'm looking for a cheap and portable tablet that I can use for writing. Microsoft Surface Pro tablets, at least around the gen 4 models, are rather cheap to buy used, and they seem decently well made. Naturally, were I to buy one, I would have to install Linux onto it.

I've been peripherally aware of the Linux Surface project for some time now. I looked at it recently, after having not for some time, and it seems that they have really made good progress compared to what I remember, and it's making me much more interested in trying to install Linux on a Surface Pro.

Having never owned a Surface Pro, I'm not sure which models are the most reliable and sturdy. I'm not looking for something that's the flashiest; I want something that works well. I want something pragmatic — something akin to the idea of an older era of Thinkpad (eg T460). I want a pen with low input delay and good accuracy, reliable and responsive touch controls, and a decent display. I was thinking the Surface Pro 4 might be a good choice, but it's hard to know as there aren't many videos out there of people installing Linux on them, so I'm wondering what your experience has been with Microsoft Surface Pro's and installing Linux on one.

Cross-posts:

• https://sh.itjust.works/post/24035406

It's the MinisForum V3

Pros:

• Touchscreen (currently works best on KDE Plasma)
• AMD CPU (Ryzen 7 8840U) [8 cores, 16 threads] + GPU (Radeon 780M)
• Power button + Fingerprint reader (built into the tablet portion thankfully)
• 3.5mm audio jack
• 65W PD power adapter (likely to be GaN)
• Magnesium alloy body
• the inclusion of gyroscopes means display auto-rotation is supported
• 1x stylus pen included
  • [4096 level pressure, up to MPP 2.6 SLA]
    • (I have no idea what any of that means, hopefully it's useful to yall)
• Keyboard that is/has:
  • Detachable
  • Backlight LED lighting
  • Even-surface actuation pressure touchpad
  • an optional purchase (which can be deselected before checkout)

Alt text: An image of the purchase checkout options for the MinisForum V3 Tablet with the Magnetic Detachable Keyboard (both which are on sale for $999.00 and $149.00 USD respectively as of Aug 21, 2024)

Cons:

• Made in China: "Motherboard Manufacturer: Shenzhen"
• Supported storage: M.2 (2280) 2TB max
• cursed Microsoft Copilot button (thankfully on the detachable keyboard rather than on the tablet itself)
• Limited customization/configuration options in BIOS
• Weak magnets on kickstand
• Inaccessible user manual/BIOS(Windows users be damned)
• Ryzen AI (locked to Windows, personally I find this as a gimmic anyways)
• due to MinisForum disuading customers from opening up their devices I'm adding that the battery is not replaceable (void warranty at your own risk)
  • CPU is un-upgradeable (This is now a con due to Framework providing users the ability to upgrade even from Intel to AMD or vice-versa)
  • WIFI 6E (802.11ax) is soldered/un-upgradeable unlike Frameworks's laptops
  • RAM is confirmed to be soldered/un-upgradeable
    • only two configurations available as of Aug 21, 2024: [32GB max, 16GB]

Features/Specifications

• Weighs: 946g
• Battery: 50.82Wh
• Display: 14", 16:10 ratio, 2560*1600, 165Hz
• 2x [type c] USB-4 at 40Gbps max
• 1x [type c] USB VLink(DP-in)
• 1x SD card (UHS-II)
• Volume rocker button
• Bluetooth: BT5.3
• RAM (assumed both configurations are LPDDR5 with speed/frequency: 6400MHz)
• 2x cameras:
  • [Front]: 2M, Windows Hello, Dual D-mic, Face ID, ESS
  • [Rear]: 5M, Auto focus

Extra Info

VLink TL;DR:

• (on laptops) it's a special type of port that's primarily meant for extending ports with a USB-C hub or driving as a secondary monitor
  • VLink Tomshardware
  • VLink Anandtech

A web accessible Virtual Machine powered by Docker, Debian, and noVNC. Webbian allows you to execute a single docker run command to get an entire linux system with a web interface.

Additionally:

• a ton of ISO downloads, ARM and RISC-V support
• Local AI integration for detecting images, searching through docs, finding stuff and writing emails.
• Wayland support.
• A new UI which is a mix of MacOS, Windows 11 and KDE Plasma.
• Atomic updates.
• A new containerized package format (linglong) competing with Flatpak, with some improvements over it.

So, a couple years ago, somebody published the 2017 free desktop client of SketchUp on the chocolatey repos, and I managed to snag it before it got taken down. I use it primarily to make woodworking plans.

I'm wrapping up my transition plan to Linux, but I'm not really up to date on SketchUp alternatives. The only ones I know of are Blender (afaik more for animation and 3D printing) and FreeCAD (CAD seems like overkill, since I'm just doing simple cuts and joinery).

Are there good Linux/FOSS alternatives to SketchUp that have similar features, or is the web client the only reasonable option?

I'm soon going to transition to full Kubuntu and remove Windows from my PC. I've been looking for alternatives to a lot of the stuff I use and this one was a bit problematic. Or so I thought.

I'm also going to migrate from Google to Proton at the same time and it looks like some of these tools support Proton Drive as well!

tl;dr

So, I recently got interested with the idea of an atomic distro, particularly the derivatives of Fedora Kinoite (currently testing Aurora).

What's your experience with them? What are the unexpected troubles and did you manage to resolve them? Do you feel it's worth it to learn the nuances of their use?

Also, on a personal testing note, did you manage to properly run AppImages and what did you do to make it happen? I couldn't properly run them either natively or via Fedora toolbox on Aurora. (Also, I borked Aurora within 4 hours of trying to install Outline VPN that consistently had issues with tunneling).

cross-posted from: https://discuss.tchncs.de/post/20478370

cross-posted from: https://discuss.tchncs.de/post/20474285

I've been trying tmux and followed a video that showcases and offers a prebuilt config for styling and plugins. Something happended (guess I did something wrong?) the styling broke and I decided I'll go bare bones and customize to my needs when needed instead of using preconfigured stuff. I deleted all configs and caches I could find with fzf and even reinstalled tmux, but still some broken styling is present and makes it unpleasent to work with. Some of my configs seem to be present even after uninstall, as the prefix is still C-Space instead of the default. There are some oh-my-zsh subfolders that contain tmux. I don't know if those have been there before and I also don't know, if I can delete them without breaking the next thing.

I'm on a MacBook and installed tmux via brew.

Gentoo Linux was one of the last few Linux distributions continuing to maintain Itanium (IA-64) architecture builds but that is now being phased out for those discontinued Intel processors.

When AMD announced its Ryzen 9000 series desktop processor lineup at Computex earlier this year, the company touted big performance gains thanks to a massive 16% IPC (instructions per clock/cycle) boost.

While the company's claims probably have not been untrue, the overall performance of a processor is the byproduct of not just IPC but the clock speed too, and this is where a lot of the media who reviewed the chip felt it fell short. For example, the octa-core Ryzen 7 9700X is much more efficient than the 7700X but it leaves performance on the table, at least on Windows 11 it seems.

According to a comparison by the German website PC Games Hardware (PCGH), it seems Windows 11 24H2 may not be the right OS choice if you have a Zen 5-based Ryzen 9000 series CPU. The site found in its comparison that in most instances, the Linux distro Nobara, which is supposedly optimized for gaming, was faster than Windows 11 24H2. And the performance gap was not limited to just gaming either as productivity tests also showed Ryzen 9700X performing better on Linux.

Canonical recently announced a significant policy change regarding Linux adoption in the Ubuntu operating system. The Canonical Kernel Team (CKT), responsible for handling kernel-related issues for any Ubuntu release, will soon begin integrating the latest version of the Linux kernel, even if there is no final stable build out in the wild yet.

As the British company explains, Ubuntu follows a strict, time-based release schedule. Release dates are set six months in advance, and only in "extreme" circumstances can a delay occur. The most recent long-term support version of Ubuntu, 24.04 "Noble Numbat," was released in April 2024.

Meanwhile, developers working on the Linux kernel follow a "loosely time-based release process," with a new major kernel release occurring every two to three months. The actual release date for each new version is described as "fluid," meaning that project leader Linus Torvalds may adjust the upstream development process if a significant bug is discovered.

cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/15501425

You can use cheat sh web service to show cheatsheets for all kind of commands. Just replace the command name: curl -s cheat.sh/date. I also wrote a a simple script with filename being just a question mark to get a working command as ?, that shows all commands in fzf menu if no argument is given or shows the cheatsheet in the less pager if command name is given.

Usage:

?
? -l
? date
? grep

Script ?:

#!/bin/env bash

cheat='curl -s cheat.sh'
menu='fzf --reverse'
pager='less -R -c'
cachefile_max_age_hours=6

# Path to temporary cache file. If your Linux system does not support /dev/shm
# or if you are on MacOS, then change the path to your liking:
cachefile='/dev/shm/cheatlist'      # GNU+LINUX
# cachefile="${TMPDIR}/cheatlist"   # MacOS/Darwin

# Download list file and cache it.
listing () {
    if [ -f "${cachefile}" ]
    then
        local filedate=$(stat -c %Y -- "${cachefile}")
        local now=$(date +%s)
        local age_hours=$(( (now - filedate) / 60 / 60 ))
        if [[ "${age_hours}" > "${cachefile_max_age_hours}" ]]
        then
            ${cheat}/:list > "${cachefile}"
        fi
    else
        ${cheat}/:list > "${cachefile}"
    fi
    cat -- "${cachefile}"
}

case "${1}" in
    '')
        if selection=$(listing | ${menu})
        then
            ${cheat}/"${selection}" | ${pager}
        fi
        ;;
    '-h')
        ${cheat}/:help | ${pager}
        ;;
    '-l')
        listing
        ;;
    *)
        ${cheat}/${@} | ${pager}
        ;;
esac

I couldn't get any of the OS images to load on any of the browsers I tested, but they loaded for other people I tested it with. I think I'm just unlucky.

Linux emulation isn't too polished.