LibreOffice project + community activities, January 2021
https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2021/02/05/libreoffice-monthly-recap-january-2021/

https://redd.it/ld48ug
@r_linux

How to schedule cron to run image with docker-compose?

Hi,
I have a dockerised noscript that I need to run once daily (at 8am local time). The image is pushed onto my repo and I have a docker-compose.yml file with the image tag and settings that I need for it to work.

How can I get cron to run docker-compose up in the directory with the docker-compose.yml file in it and log the output of the image to a file?

​

I have already tried:

0 8 * * * cd ~/directory/with/yml && /usr/local/bin/docker-compose up -d > ~/directory/with/log.log 2>&1

https://redd.it/ld52g5
@r_linux

FSF founder Richard Stallman shares his views on 35 years of FSF
https://peertube.qtg.fr/videos/watch/d4aab174-50ca-4455-bb32-ed463982e943

https://redd.it/ld761x
@r_linux

Worth the effort for performance?

I'm about to purchase a ThinkPad x250 i5 with 8gb ram. I always see that Linux is recommended for older machines as it's lightweight etc.

The only experience I've had with it is on a Chromebook (which just died) so that I could install calibre. Other than that I have no idea.

I'm not going to be doing anything really too taxing on the ThinkPad, some light music production being the hardest it will work. Other than that it will be pretty basic word processing, ebook management, music management etc.

Researching the things I would install, it seems that quite a few have little problems or are difficult to get up and running with the latest versions etc (difficult for somebody with my level of experience that is). For instance, I use Google drive and docs quite a lot, and need things synced with my phone.

Just unsure if it's worth the effort for the performance increase to switch from Windows?

A list of some of the apps I'd want/like to run if possible :

Musicbee,
YouTube music,
Audacity,
Renoise,
Reaper,
Anki,
Google drive,
Google docs,
Google sheets,
Google keep,
Simple note,
Scrivener,

I was looking at mint, kubuntu, and manjaro.

Any advice or guidance would be appreciated.

https://redd.it/ld86d7
@r_linux

MPV open video specific time

I have another app which accepts file:// protocol. But then it only opens the video file with default app.

I want to be able it open at a specific time (let's say 8m 30s). Does mpv have it's own protocol something like mpv:// ?

How can I open the file at specified time in other app?

https://redd.it/ldapz5
@r_linux

LiveBoot New-User Experience, Top 10 DistroWatch Distros

**Intro**

Hi there Linux Subreddit!
I don't use Linux much privately (see some exceptions below) these days but every now and again I check what's going on in the Linux Desktop world.
So, I decided to test the LiveBoot Experience on the Top 10 most popular distros as ranked on https://DistroWatch.com from a "newbie's" (remarks on that below) perspective.
The goal was not to "get the distros to run" but rather check out the Out-of-the-Box experience for a user that might consider switching to Linux and wants to try it out first.
In each case I downloaded the first ISO that was listed / recommended on each distro's home page (as of last weekend, 2021-01-30 to 31).
I know, no one cares about my opinion, but it's fun for me to write up and share my experience.

These are not meant in-depth and long-term reviews of all the Distros and are highly subjective.
User experiences in each case might very well vary. :)
Please don't get offended if I had a bad subjective experience with your favorite distro that runs like a rocket for you and millions of other users.

---
**Debian Live 10.7.0 Cinnamon - 0 Stars**

- Starts with two errors (unkown chipset and no HID input somethingsomething)
- then just hangs with a blinking error without further information, doesn't boot

---
**ElementaryOS 5.1 Stable - * * * Stars**

- nice verbose boot process
- boot time fast to medium
- pretty good out-of-the-box desktop with most common programs in dock
- Corsair headset was recognized as default sound device
- display drivers / monitor resolution not properly detected

---
**EndeavourOS 20.09.20 - 0 Stars**

- starts with nouveau error (unkown chipset)
- completely freezes after that, even Ctrl+Alt+Del doesn't work
- utter fail, would give -1 stars if I could.

---
**Fedora Workstation Live 33-1.2 - * * Stars**

- nice verbose boot but starts with an apparently non-critical error about being unable to extract intramfs
- quite fast boot time
- Corsair headset recognized as default sound device
- display drivers / monitor not properly detected
- desktop is barren with no welcome message etc., could be confusing for new users

---
**Linux Mint 20.1 Cinnamon - * * * (*) Stars (would be 4 with proprietary display drivers at boot)**

- nice verbose boot process
- super fast boot - the fastest of the bunch
- Corsair headset recognized as default sound device
- Helpful icons on Desktop and taskbar layout intuitive
- display drivers / monitor resolution not properly detected (but in theory proprietary driver switching easy via helper app)
- impressive bonus: Network printer automatically recognized and added

---
**Manjaro 20.2.1 Xfce Edition - * * * * Stars**

- option to boot with foss drivers or proprietary (way to go!)
- nice verbose boot
- some waits / hangups in the boot process but with proper indicators and timers
- nice welcome screen and clean, stylish desktop background
- helpful icons and helpful taskbar layout
- absolutely every single piece of hardware, including GPU, was properly recognized, resolution set correctly
- minor gripe: Corsair headset was not selected as default output device, but then again I have several options

---
**MX 19.3 ahs - 0 Stars**

- nice initial boot screen with option to see verbose boot via Alt+F1...
- ...then just a black screen, no boot and even Ctrl+Alt+Del isn't working...

---
**Pop_OS! 20.10 NVIDIA Edition - * * * (*) Stars (would be 4 with better post-boot experience)**

- welcome screen at boot nice addition
- nice verbose boot BUT with several weird resolution changes during the process (looks buggy)
- the desktop is very barren and you only get a welcome screen encouraging you to install the OS - almost a chore to get into "demo" mode
- all hardware, including GPU, properly recognized, resolution set correctly

---
**Solus 4.1 Budgie - 0 Stars**

- nouveau error in the beginning (unknown chipset)
- hangs at error "iwlwifi bios contains WGDS but no WRDS"
- at least Ctrl+Alt+Del works
- Update: Checked out Solus 4.2 in the meantime. Same

experience, just hangs on a different error.

---
**Ubuntu 20.04.01 - * * * Stars**

- nice verbose boot
- boot speed pretty slow, comparable to Manjaro
- helpful icons on the desktop & dock
- Corsair headset recognized as default sound device
- display drivers / monitor resolution not properly detected

------

**Conclusion:**

**If I were to recommend someone to try out Linux via a LiveOS experience, I'd choose Manjaro.**

Congratulations to this very subjective winner!

Runner-Ups are Pop!_OS and (still!) Linux Mint - the former could offer a better LiveOS experience and the latter would be better off with offering a nonfree boot option a priori.

In general I very well understand the advantages of FOSS but I think the way of getting more people on board with Linux would be to make the initial experience as smooth as possible.
I truly believe that many Distros could take some lessons from ones that offered nonfree drivers either by default - or like Manjaro as an option at boot - and had very good hardware detection.

P.S. I didn't even give out a 1-Star-rating. I guess I would give it to an OS that would boot to the desktop but offered an utterly terrible experience. I do believe there are Distros that would qualify for that, just not in the DistroWatch Top10.

------

**BONUS ROUND!**

I decided to try some other distros I'm familiar with or which popped up in my research as attractive options.

---
**Linux Lite 5.2 - * * * Stars**

- nice verbose boot but with (skipped) errors strewn throughout
- surprisingly long boot for such a "light" distro
- Corsair headset recognized as default device and nice startup sound played as welcome
- display drivers / monitor resolution not properly detected
- useful icons on desktop, nice welcome message and clean interface

---
**Kali 2020.4 - * * * Stars** (4 as a utility distro)

- several boot options to choose from (nice)
- vebose boot that turns into a graphic loading screen - pretty smooth
- surprisingly quick boot
- tons of helpful programs and icons on desktop (understandably)
- display drivers / monitor resolution not properly detected
- Corsair headset was not selected as default output device (but detected)
- bonus: all Windows partitions were auto-mounted

---
**Garuda Dr460nized Gaming Edition (KDE) - * * Stars**

- customizable boot with nonfree driver option preselected
- rather non-verbose boot that is incredibly slow with not one but TWO subsequent loading screens with spinners (LOL!)
- nice interface and helpful welcome message
- all hardware detected including GPU, proper resolution set - only wrong audio device selected as default
- Firefox comes with several preinstalled extensions that I would rather not have and loads slowly on top? Big no-no!
- overall the desktop experience seems rather sluggish, even on my hardware (yes, by that time it had finished loading from the USB drive)

---
**Zorin OS 15.3 - * * * Stars**

- nice verbose boot
- display drivers / monitor resolution not detected (especially disappointing from a distro touted as a drop-in Windows replacement, just my opinion)
- Corsair headset recognized as default device
- helpful icons on desktop and intuitive taskbar layout

---

**FAQ:**

**What system are you running this on?**

* Alienware Aurora R11
* Intel Core i7-10700KF
* GeForce RTX 3080
* Proprietary Dell Mobo with Z490 Chipset
* 32 GB RAM by Kingston @ 3200 MHz
* 1 TB Micron NVMe

Yes, yes, I know, Alienware, hard to get an RTX 3080 otherwise though, bought it during a Black Friday sale and here in Europe they seem to offer a much better price-performance than e.g. in the US.

Also, the price difference between the Aurora and purchasing, assembling and setting up my own PC is more than made up for in saved time.
Been building my own PCs for over 20 years before that.

---

**You just don't know how to make the systems run!**

That's not the point of this exercise. I want to emulate the "out-of-the-box" experience for a new-ish user without having to adjust any configs, debugging etc.

---

**You're a Linux n00b / hater!**

It's true

that I currently don't run Linux on the PC listed above (outside of Ubuntu via WSL2), however, I have Linux Lite installed on my old Netbook and run Debian on my private server.

Also, I'm an IT-professional with 10 years experience in the industry, working with Red Hat Enterprise Linux on OpenShift, Amazon Linux 2 and running Ubuntu and Kali in WSL2 on my enterprise laptop. While dealing with OS-specifics is not at the core of my job, I do have a good understanding of the advantages and disadvantages FOSS as well as non-free Software.

Up until around 10 years ago I was also usually dual-booting Linux with Ubuntu and later Linux Mint, also always having kept SlaX (when it was Slackware-Based) on a USB stick as a kind of rescue OS (saved me from so many Windows MBR disasters! ;)).

https://redd.it/ldbq9m
@r_linux

FSlint GUI: only show results if file is in one of the specified directories

Let's say I have three directories: 'a', 'b' and 'c'. In FSlint GUI, I am using the 'Name Clashes' tab ('Same names' search option selected) to find duplicate files with the same filenames across directories a, b and c. Is is possible to only display the results when a duplicate is found in directory c?

Example 1: 0001.png is found in a, b, and c, so the three duplicates are listed.

Example 2: 0002.png is found in a and b only, so the duplicates are not listed.

The 'Select using wildcard' option only works on filenames, not paths, so that can't be used in this case.

https://redd.it/ldb93o
@r_linux

Why is FreeOffice free but proprietary?

So I have recently found myself using the office-alternative, freeoffice. I really like how it has a similar aesthetic and feel as MS Office, especially given my indoctrination into the MS Office suite from a young age. However, in the wake of privacy violations by larger tech firms, and seeing the FOSS communities reeling for safer, more transparent services - I have found myself wondering, why is FreeOffice free but proprietary?

Sure, I could use some truly open sourced alternatives such as LibreOffice - but again, with my Microsoft product upbringing, I’m drawn towards an office suite with similar UI fundamentals. I use various distros as my daily driver, and have done so for a number of years - but I can’t shake the feeling that on my beautiful, open source system, there is some proprietary thing lurking under the guise as “freeware”.

Could someone with a bit more understanding of its history explain why it is as it is?

https://redd.it/ldaz7e
@r_linux

Could WebAssembly and WebGPU be the next hope of the Linux desktop ?

I recently learned about WebAssembly (WASM) which is a new standard that allows developers to compile pretty much any language (like C++, Rust, C#...) to a portable virtual machine that can be run in any modern browser with near-native performance while being sandboxed. To be fair I'm pretty hyped by this technology and I'd like to share my reflection about what that could implies for software development as a whole and how that could help the Linux desktop.

Firstly, the only real problem with Linux today is software availability, it is literally the only problem that cannot be reasonably addressed by its users, we probably all know some people who tried Linux and even tho they enjoyed it, they need to use some kind of Windows-only software, however they would happily make the switch if only they could run all their software and games on it.

However, recently thanks to technology like Electron, this problem started to see some answers : cross-platforms frameworks that allow to "Write once, run everywhere" are probably the only reasonable solution. Electron allow developers to take any web application and ship it as a desktop application (Discord is written in Electron for example), even tho I perfectly understand the hate towards Electron for a variety of reasons, I still think it is a wonderful technology that helped Linux : some companies who previously would not have care about shipping a Linux build can now do it simply by editing a single compilation flag without any further modification to their code.

So, even if Electron is very useful, there are still some major limitations : most notably it is still just a Chrome tab running JavaScript, for light applications it is not a problem, but if the app needs near-native performance or direct access to the GPU, Electron is out of luck. However this may no longer be true very soon thanks to WASM and a new standard which is right now under active development : WebGPU which will allow web applications that need heavy graphics workload to operate like native applications.

In a few years, I can see a future where any application could run in a web browser, we may for example use Photoshop right into the browser or play any game directly in the browser as the gap between real native performance and WASM will tend to zero. The best part is that thanks to technologies like the Emnoscripten compiler, C++ code can directly be ported into WASM, not requiring developers to make massive changes to their codebase, making it directly executable in a browser or in Electron. Stuff like "Universal binaries" already exist by taking advantage of the WASM format (the Wasmer runtime for example).

Essentially operating systems may just become a bootloader for these universal platforms, once this happen for real, Windows may lose its biggest advantage, in fact Microsoft will probably fight against it but it's not clear how they could win in the long run, once we'll be there, the Linux desktop will finally become a fully viable alternative.
So, what do you think is going to happen ? Is WASM just another technology that will remain marginal or the start of something great ? Could the Linux desktop rise because of that ? It this reflection realistic ?

https://redd.it/ldlese
@r_linux

Rocky Linux: Build Infrastructure Update

Infrastructure ready for build systems and automatic package builds has been passed to the Development team on schedule. They’re now performing validation steps as they continue to work on the core OS. You can view initial successful builds on Koji.

​

Want to get involved? Join our Mattermost server and check out /r/RockyLinux

https://redd.it/ldk763
@r_linux

How to begin making a linux application

I really hate the look of all the linux music players I've used, and would like to attempt to make my own, where would I begin, I have basic knowledge of python and am learning more now, but don't know what tools to use to create a full application with gui.

https://redd.it/ldnv2r
@r_linux

Share the Internet automatically from iPhone to Linux

If you want to share internet wirelessly from iPhone without even enabling hotspot than you can configure Bluetooth tethering by pairing them together.

This is how you can connect and share your internet form iPhone to your Linux, using gnome Network Manager

1. Pair your iPhone with Linux in Bluetooth Settings.
2. Now in Settings > Network you can see a new option " Connect to Internet". Click it and your internet will be connected.

To connect it automatically,

3) Open Terminal, Enter the command (Install nmcli if not installed)

nmcli device

Now you will see a list of devices. Get the address of your iPhone device from there, it looks like "2C:33:61:6C:21:F9"

4) Now disable internet if connected and try this command:

nmcli device connect ADDRESS
Example: nmcli device connect 2C:33:61:6C:21:F9

If the internet is connected than its working.

5) You can create a shortcut key for this command in Settings> Keyboard Shortcut

To connect the internet automatically after logging in:

6) Open file .profile from Home/.profile and paste the above used terminal command in the end

Now, Your Linux will automatically take the internet from the iPhone after login. Your iPhone doesn't need to do anything except that the mobile data and Bluetooth is turned ON.

https://redd.it/ldp6nl
@r_linux

How to make a bootable for windows?

I was deleting ubuntu but somehow my windows bootloader got damaged or something. So windows is not loading . Now I am on manjaro and downloaded a windows iso but etcher say that iso image is not bootable .I tried several other methods from google or youtube but nothings works. I mostly use linux but windows is required for some tasks. And data is important too. How can i make a bootable usb from linux.

https://redd.it/ldqmm4
@r_linux

ExpidusOS: mobile and desktop Void Linux with XFCE 4

Hello, I'm developing the Expidus operating system along with a few people I know. We've spent the last 5 months working on getting this system to the point its at right now and we're almost ready to release 0.1.0-prealpha-test1. This release will be out by the end of February. The OS is based on Void Linux and uses a minimal package repository. The minimal repository is necessary since the OS will run its own app store which we plan on making open source for others to help along with. Talking to people on DanctNIX and the PINE64 Discord servers have spiked an interest in this OS. With their support and others, I hope this operating system will be something worth using once alpha or beta rolls out. And yes, I did get XFCE to work on the PinePhone.

Website which contains a bit more info: http://expidusos.com

GitHub with the source code: https://github.com/ExpidusOS

https://redd.it/ldpucu
@r_linux

Linuxfest Northwest 2021 Cancelled

I was notified a little less than two weeks ago, last year was an online thing which did not feel the same.

I got to admit, it feels like it has been in decline over the past few years, but I do respect the work put in to it. I am hoping there will be a rebound next year.

https://redd.it/lds3wo
@r_linux

How to look for Linux admin Freelance projects/one time jobs?

I have a friend who is also has a job as Linux admin, but he also wants to do some freelance work in the Linux field. Like:-Monitoring/Migrating/troubleshooting/Security for Wordpress/CentOS/Ubuntu servers/ LEMP/LAMP etc.

and have experience about 5 years.

The thing is, he tried Upwork already but didn't receive a single job even applied regularly and profile is verified and more over they now charge you for every proposal.

Any underground community or site where he can get these one time jobs/projects ?

https://redd.it/lds2q0
@r_linux

I'm teaching Linux Command line fundamentals for free

I teach about command line and linux in general on discord anyone interested can pm me to get the discord link.
Apart from this on the discord I post resources, and you can ask anything related and meet people also interested in computer science in general.

https://redd.it/ldtpw2
@r_linux

Application for dynamically map network nodes

As i was wondering, is there any free application to dynamically map or visually monitor live nodes on the network like Spiceworks’ Network Mapping tool or Intermapper?

My requirement is that i want to create a live diagram(map) of all the nodes on my network and their live status.

https://redd.it/lds3qi
@r_linux

Pagemon is an interactive memory/page monitoring tool allowing one to browse the memory map of an active running process.
https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~cking/pagemon/

https://redd.it/ldty6q
@r_linux