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

12 years of incubating Wayland color management
https://www.collabora.com/news-and-blog/news-and-events/12-years-of-incubating-wayland-color-management.html

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

Non root sandboxing solutions (like chromium / web browsers ) except for native linux applications ? (shouldn't require root even once)

I am on a non root device and I would like to get a sandboxing solution , there is mbox which I have tried but it doesn't work on some devices and its 11 years old with no updates and the name was already a big part of the mail ecosystem that seaching for it took me a long time and it doesn't work.


There is bubblewrap which uses linux namespaces but I am not sure why but I tried to run it on a non root server and it just didn't work / couldn't install flatpak.

There are other options like libriscv but that requires me riscv executable and even then no offense to libriscv , I really really love that tool ,but it seems that I would lose performance.

Docker / podman require one time root (generally speaking podman is better)

Apptainer doesn't require root but it also uses name spaces (I can be totally wrong , I usually am)

I just need a sandbox where the applications wouldn't know that they are in sandbox (something like docker in that sense) but I am not root in the first place.

I haven't dived into the deep ends of sandboxing in linux but I may be wrong , I usually am , but browser model seems to provide the greatest level of sandboxing , yet they require wasm which just loses performance (yes they are "near" native) but the point of wasm in my opinion is that it can work on web browsers , is cross platform / platform agnostic and is near native.

There was this pnacl project by google which I was really excited for , but its discontinued and its much more of a cross platform thing again.

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

strace Wow Much Syscall
https://brendangregg.com/blog/2014-05-11/strace-wow-much-syscall.html?ref=dailydev

https://redd.it/1ixrl3i
@r_linux

Linux is so much faster for compiling projects and playing Minecraft

I was using Windows 11 and recently switched to Linux. I am a software developer for Minecraft related stuff.

I saw an improvement on git operations, specially patches and bash noscripts, in comparison to linux Git Bash, performance is x100 faster when applying patches (almost instant compared to Windows having a 1 second delay per patch)

Also, running Minecraft, as I use it for debugging and run multiple instances, is much faster on startup and gameplay in general. Probably because it uses native libraries in comparison to Windows. Same happens when you run local Minecraft servers.

If you are a developer, this are the main reasons to use Linux, also, everything related to software development is better integrated into the terminal.

https://redd.it/1ixu6nl
@r_linux

[Big if true] zlib-rs is faster than C by Trifecta Tech Foundation
https://trifectatech.org/blog/zlib-rs-is-faster-than-c/

https://redd.it/1ixtw0j
@r_linux

What's New in Emacs 30.1?
https://www.masteringemacs.org/article/whats-new-in-emacs-301

https://redd.it/1ixx009
@r_linux

What changes should be to made to Linux if we ignore the "don't break userspace" rule?

Sometimes, breaking changes are good. However, the Linux kernel has a hard rule of not allowing patches that would break userspace.

Personally, I think that processes starting with 'X' should not be treated differently, because it just seems silly to me.
Reference: https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-DRM-Process-Start-With-X

Which changes do you think should be made to the Linux kernel (that would break userspace)?



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

"Challenging to justify the resources required for Windows-specific builds."

Mattermost is dropping its official Windows builds, saying the low level of Windows deployment compared to Linux doesn't justify the resources in maintaining them.

Since we usually hear the opposite from most software companies, please allow me a moment of Schadenfreude!

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

What are we using for an email client these days?

I have been using Linux in various flavors as servers for years, but have just switched to using it as a daily driver. It's been a few years since the last email discussion here and it might be time for another. Despite the sense that email's time as the best communication tool is over, I can't get away from it. And if I have to spend another week on my host's webmail garbage, I am going to cry.

Is it still just Thunderbird? Geary?

https://redd.it/1ixz7v3
@r_linux

Christoph Hellwig resigns as maintainer of DMA Mapping
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=f7d5db965f3e

https://redd.it/1iy6l8j
@r_linux

Reviving pearOS

yo Reddit!!

I have a plan to revive pearOS. I'm going to fork it and fix all the problems people have been having, plus create the best possible OOTB macOS experience on Linux. For a better macOS-like experience, I'm thinking of switching from KDE to XFCE because it's lighter and has better macOS-like technology. XFCE works great with docks like Plank or Cairo, has better global menu implementation, and tons of macOS themes available.

My vision is to make this fork sleek, fast, lightweight, and configurable. It'll be primarily based on Xubuntu, but I'm also planning an Arch-based version similar to how pearOS had NiceC0re.

Some of you might ask "Why fork?" Simple answer: pearOS is really the only Linux OS of its kind that offered a decent macOS-like experience, but since it's discontinued, someone needs to keep the dream alive.

So what do you guys think about this plan? Is XFCE the right choice? Should I maintain both the Ubuntu and Arch bases, or focus on just one? I'm thinking of calling it "Newton" or "Kepler" since they connect nicely with the Darwin/Apple theme.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments and-
BYE REDDITORS!! :\]

https://redd.it/1iy9fn2
@r_linux

Eloquent: a fully offline spelling and grammar checker for Linux with support for over 20 languages and the ability to expose its local LanguageTool server to other apps and browsers
https://flathub.org/apps/re.sonny.Eloquent/

https://redd.it/1iyjv04
@r_linux

I want some different terminal based programs to play around with

Ive been a Linux user for a while and I've only just installed terminal programs for the first time. I dont mean Ive just installed programs through the terminal, I mean I've got things to run in terminal and now I want to find more to play around with.

What are some other good terminal based programs I can install? So far I have asciifire, cmatrix, cowsay, fortune, figlet, the bsdgames, sl, moon-buggy. Ive seen a few lists online but they all seem to offer the same small selection. For what its worth, Im on Mint


https://redd.it/1iy47hq
@r_linux

Is Wayland worth it?

I'm looking into changing my OS from Windows and I'm a little stumped on where to go.

I'm thinking of going Linux Mint as I used to daily drive it and I personally loved it.

The only thing is the lack of Wayland.
I've never used Wayland but from my knowledge of it, it seems great.
But Linux Mint doesn't support it unless in Beta.

This got me wondering, is Wayland worth considering when picking a new Distro for the average person?

EDIT:
After going through the comments, some great points I didn't know were made.
X isn't the greatest for working on multiple monitors with high refresh rates so Wayland is better in that regard.

Given Mint won't stably support Wayland for quite some time, I'll have to reconsider my Distro of choice.

https://redd.it/1iymdv4
@r_linux

How is Debian to use?

TLDR: I'm changing OS from Windows to Linux. I was going to go Mint but the lack of Wayland is annoying given my set up. How is Debian as an operating system?

I recently posted here about X Vs Wayland and if Wayland is worth using.
Some of the responses were very helpful and pointed out that Wayland is great in many cases (and lines up with my desired use cases) but it's not perfect.

From that I'm considering going to Debian as my main Distro.

I don't want Arch on my main machine, I'm thinking of having it on an old laptop to tinker with but the bleeding edge nature of Arch is something I'm not interested in when I get home from a long day at work and want to play a game just for something to break.

I don't want Fedora and Fedora based systems given the recent troubles with Flatpack and my experience on Nobara Linux.

From that I thought of going to Mint, my favourite but the lack of support for both X and Wayland has made me reconsider.

I run multiple monitors and will be buying a new one in the near future moving to 3 monitors.
Given how they have different refresh rates, Wayland would be better.

So I'm looking into Debian as an option for my Main Distro with it's support for both X and Wayland.
I haven't decided on Desktop Environment but I'll go either KDE or Gnome.

So my question is, how is Debian to use on a daily basis?
I would mainly use it for gaming with some productivity.

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

I use Android btw
https://redd.it/1iyp7o7
@r_linux