I Dual Boot for School

I swapped to Linux fully a couple weeks ago. I didn't play anything that required kernal level anti-cheat except occasionally Rust. I mostly play other games. I have to swap back to Windows when I take my online proctored exams and online certifications(CompTIA, Windows, etc). They require some hefty permissions that Linux won't grant. Until I'm out of school, I'll have to keep Windows alive. With how far Linux has come, I don't see a reason to keep Windows around anymore. I've always used open source because I'm too cheap anyway.

https://redd.it/1iwjlih
@r_linux

Budget Friendly Gaming Laptop

Hi all! I’m looking to buy a budget friendly gaming laptop for my husband for his birthday. He uses Linux on all his devices but I’m not super familiar with it yet. My only experience so far has been my steam deck & he has stated he doesn’t want one at this time. However, his laptop is ancient & we’d still like the portability of gaming when going on vacation.

I’m looking for recommendations for laptops he can put Linux on & that can run FFXIV (his favorite game we currently play). He doesn’t really play anything more intensive so I don’t think the hardware specifications need to be too crazy. I’m looking to spend under 1000 & if possible somewhere between 400-600.

https://redd.it/1iwkfdc
@r_linux

9 Most Stable Linux "Rolling Release" Distributions
https://linuxblog.io/linux-rolling-release-distros/

https://redd.it/1iwluru
@r_linux

Gentoo Linux Announces Official QCOW2 Images For Cloud VMs
https://www.gentoo.org/news/2025/02/20/gentoo-qcow2-images.html

https://redd.it/1iwlu1c
@r_linux

Resources for learning to use OpenSUSE as a user of mainly Debian-based distros

Hi all,

I'm interested in trying OpenSUSE because I've heard a lot of good things about it. I'm starting on Leap because I value stability over having the latest-and-greatest stuff. I'm wondering if anyone has any tips on resources or documentations geared at learning the basics of OpenSUSE use and administration, apart from the official docs on their website.

Specifically, I've pretty much always used Debian or other Debian-based distros (Ubuntu, Mint, etc) and while I know tools like apt like the back of my hand, I'm totally lost when it comes to using an RPM-based distro. The last one I used regularly was Red Hat Linux 7 (not RHEL) as a teenager.

Has anyone put together a document outlining what the equivalent commands are to administer an OpenSUSE system compared to Debian?

Thanks in advance for any help.

https://redd.it/1iwo1h0
@r_linux

First announced here, my Open-Source "Internet OS" Just Hit 2,000,000 user!
https://github.com/HeyPuter/puter/

https://redd.it/1iwpyem
@r_linux

Southern California Linux Expo

Just a reminder that the Southern California Linux Expo (SCaLE) is in less than 2 weeks in Pasadena.

There’s also lots of colocated events for devops days, cloud native days, and more.

It’s a completely community run event and reasonable ticket prices.

I’m a long time attendee and now part of the planning committee. AMA

https://www.socallinuxexpo.org/scale/22x

https://redd.it/1iwo7lp
@r_linux

Windows 8's Metro UI for Linux?

Is there a way to make my OS look like Windows 8? I mean, the fullscreen Start menu with tiles, Metro-like theme for Qt, etc.

I googled but found nothing...

Now I'm using openSUSE Leap 15.6 with KDE

https://redd.it/1iwtc92
@r_linux

AI as a guide

This may be controversial but AI is a good guide.
Everyone hates on AI when it comes to installation and configuration of your system. I think it is absolutely incredible and i will die on this hill. Now, don’t copy+paste every command it gives you because it will break something. Instead if you know what you are doing, ask the AI about your situation and what you want to do, with further research and proper knowledge this is the most effective way to find what you need. Forget the forum post from 2009, forget the guides and forum posts where it’s generic or even worse, not for your system. Ask AI, rtfm and understand what the commands/code you execute/write do.

DISCLAIMER: Don’t blindly follow AI and don’t take me for an expert. Do your research.


https://redd.it/1iwzgbp
@r_linux

Soar – Distro Agnostic Package Manager, HomeBrew (LinuxBrew) Done Right
https://github.com/pkgforge/soar

https://redd.it/1ix0tzs
@r_linux

GNOME Compose key sequence cheat sheet
https://redd.it/1ix1k2s
@r_linux

Linux's libinput Input Library Finally Supports 3-Finger Dragging
https://www.phoronix.com/news/libinput-3-Finger-Dragging

https://redd.it/1ix1tuz
@r_linux

Video streaming software?

Hello all - I don't know if this is out of scope for this sub, but I have a somewhat unique problem to solve. I have a closed environment that currently uses multicast to push video stream feeds to computers within the closed environment. I've been working on a project to get the video out of that network for sharing to a remote site but it has had its own set of challenges.


What I'm trying to find now is if there is a server software that will allow me to ingest the existing multicast streams, then provide a webpage/GUI where an external party can log in and view the streams individually (or, ideally, in some form of multiviewer) rather than trying to force the video stream itself out of the network. If anyone knows a software like this that would work, I'd greatly appreciate the information! Also, I need a software that can run on a virtual machine, as we don't have the space to allow for new hardware. Thank you so much to anyone that can help! (Crossposting as well)

https://redd.it/1ix7m4f
@r_linux

Joining the gang
https://redd.it/1ixaon5
@r_linux

Linux Mint XFCE on a 3gb ram Notebook
https://redd.it/1ixc6cv
@r_linux

Arch Vs Mint

Hi, I want to change my OS to either Linux Arch or Mint but cant fully decide yet..

I'v been watching a lot of videos and reading a lot of people opinions about arch / mint, advantages and disadvantages but cant decide..

I have experience with slackware linux server, I'v installed and used on it php, mail, ftp, dns, web and more.

i wanna know how hard will it be for me to use arch linux as someone with experience on slackware linux.

mint installation is gui mostly if im not mistaken so its shouldnt be a problem at all, but arch is more freedom as people say but also people say it can just brake in a middle of nowhere thats why i cant decide which one to install as my main OS.

im planning to game, watch videos, use apps like discord / spotify / netflix and etc, based basically.

i wanna know your thoughts and opinions about either arch or mint. thanks for all the answers!

https://redd.it/1ixdfls
@r_linux

Second monitor in kiosk mode?

There's some inexpensive monitors that are on the cusp between raspberry pis and PC accessories. For the latter it's mostly system status - temperatures, network traffic, etc. I know at least one of these screens has a windows app that provides this information.

This should be easy to do on a Linux desktop, right? Alas I was a novice X-mage in my youth and could (and did) set up multiple independent sessions at the time with the introduction of DBus and Wayland all of those skills are now moot.

So the question is how can I set up a separate Wayland session? (Or separate X and Wayland sessions). It's fine for it to be in kiosk mode and locked to a browser - I don't want to raise my X/Motif skills from the dead!

I can immediately rule out the obvious solution - simply adding this monitor to my set of displays. I tried that but the system got very confused with three displays - in fact it would only show two until I explicitly added the third. I have a 4-port video card and I will use 3 displays sometimes but it requires some care-and-feeding. With two displays I'll often drop from "join" to "mirror" after an idle period but everything is predictable. With three displays it seemed to shuffle the content in unpredictable ways.

(This may be due to this being a pretty old video card, probably dates to shortly after 4k/30s was first available.)

In the worst case I can use a dedicate RPi - and may need to do that anyway if I can't have the video card support separate Wayland/X sessions - but I would prefer to just hang it off my desktop if possible.


Eyoyo 7 inch mini monitor 1024x600

wisecoco 8.8 inch cpu temperature monitor with casing 1920x480 LCD Display

https://redd.it/1ixhn4b
@r_linux

What linux distro best for thinkpads?

Hey folks, ive been a long time user of ubuntu (xfce or kde) which ran on thinkpads mostly, i always had issues with my video drivers (nvidia) and constantly had to mess with reinstalling drivers once in a blue moon either one or both external screens would refuze to connect; was wondering what distro folks could suggest that just works?
Assume its an nvidia card.


https://redd.it/1ixi26u
@r_linux

Dual booting windows with mint
https://redd.it/1ixiz5y
@r_linux

Working a full time job while working on a FOSS project

For those of you who work on FOSS projects and work a full time job (especially if you have one tech), how do you do it?

I have been working on a project for the past year and I was hoping to have it done by now, but I just can't muster the motivation to sit down and do coding/troubleshooting/documentation after dealing with people and technological gore all day.

I can sometimes muster the energy to get things done on weekends but even then I just want to relax.

Do I just need more discipline? Do I need an extra set of hands considering I am the only one working on the project? Any words of wisdom from people experienced with this?


For context, my day job is basically a team lead for a Service Desk where I have to do some advanced troubleshooting and a little bit of coding with Powershell.

The project I am working on is called LogicalArdour, which is supposed to give Ardour similar functionality to GarageBand out of the box.

Github for those that are curious: https://github.com/jmantra/LogicalArdour

https://redd.it/1ixgvlr
@r_linux

Why are UNIX-like systems recommended for computer science?

When I was studying computer science in uni, it was recommended that we use Linux or Mac and if we insisted on using Windows, we were encouraged to use WSL or a VM. The lab computers were also running Linux (dual booting but we were told to use the Linux one). Similar story at work. Devs use Mac or WSL.

Why is this? Are there any practical reasons for UNIX-like systems being preferrable for computer science?

https://redd.it/1ixmd5e
@r_linux