Restored old Samgung NP300E5C Laptop (Jun. 2013) AntiX 23.2 on 1.5GB of RAM

Photo of the restored laptop

My stepfather has a couple of old laptops lying around with Windows 10 installed (completely unusable because of low performance) I told him I could restore them by installing a new OS and agreed.

He actually used that thing for work, 10 minutes to boot, 3 minutes to open anything...

Now it just takes 3 seconds to open the browser or libreoffice and has a very fast response time. I am not sure if you could even browse on this thing using Windows...

Kept everything on a different partition because of +40gb of data. AntiX on a new partition using the rest of the disk.

Probably going to work on another of his laptops after he experiences the performance of this one.

Only shitty thing about AntiX is 1. I dont know to make shortcuts to folders 2. I dont know how to start the wifi tray at boot

But that's small price for giving a new life to a laptop.

Btw this thing was supposed to run Windows 8 (wtf)

https://redd.it/1j3avko
@r_linux

Photo browser with iPhone live photo support

I've searched high and low and I don't think this software really exists but I thought I'd ask. Apple are disabling E2EE in the UK for cloud-stored photos and I'm conscious that the providers that do still offer it may also withdraw these services eventually. So I'm looking at bringing my personal computing back in house and looking for local storage solutions.

Proton Drive and Ente.io both manage to replicate the iPhone's photo reel with Live photos but the local software I have tried treats the video component and the photo component as two separate .mov and .heic files. To make matters worse, preview of .heic and .mov doesn't really seem to work on gThumb, Shotwell or digikam either.

Is there any software that I can run locally that could replicate the Live photo functionality of iPhone, Proton Drive and Ente.io to display a photo reel with preview thumbnails and combine the photo/video components of each capture? I'm particularly looking for a relatively lightweight photo browser rather than something server based like Nextcloud.

https://redd.it/1j3cs7v
@r_linux

Firefox 136.0, See All New Features, Updates and Fixes
https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/136.0/releasenotes/

https://redd.it/1j3dc1k
@r_linux

Which rarely used UI/UX design patterns would you like to see more in open source software?

Inspired by the leader key post. What I mean here by UI/UX design patterns are ways to control applications that are different from the bog-standard buttons/top menubars/hamburger menus/default hotkey combinations.

For me personally, the feature that I now crave in any relatively complex software is the Command Palette. I've primarily seen it in Microsoft's products (VSCode, Windows Terminal, even Word's Search is functionally a command palette) as well as Obsidian.md, but I can pretty much no longer live without it in those apps. It's basically a mini-terminal for controlling software-specific functions/settings that shows recently used and pinned commands first.

I struggle a lot when it comes to remembering specific shortcuts (unless I use one app for literal years), which leads to me rarely using certain functionality. With the command palette there is a lot less friction between what I want and what my fingers need to do, I just type what I need the program to do and it executes that action. In particular, I've started using tmux-like functionality in WT a lot thanks to the palette. I also use it with various Obsidian plugins that I keep handy, but not handy enough for me to learn all of their shortcuts.

I would particularly like this functionality in non-linear video editors, which otherwise require a lot of shortcut usage or clicking through tabs.

To add on to that, in CLI-land I also prefer longer command names that make it immediately obvious what is going on over overly-abbreviated command/param names that make you sound like a wizard having a stroke. This is primarily due to how powerful and omnipresent autocomplete is these days and, of course, I'm talking desktop use and personal shell noscripting here. I'm completely on board with the classic unix command/param naming for things like server administration if push comes to shove.

What would you like to see?

https://redd.it/1j3gee3
@r_linux

Hello everyone
https://redd.it/1j3mqhj
@r_linux

What are folks favorite TUI apps?

Hey guys, I've been using Linux for awhile now, and I'm finally getting into setting up a sway config from scratch (well, almost: https://github.com/EndeavourOS-Community-Editions/sway).

My goal for this setup is to use TUI applications for as many of my daily processes as possible. I know some of the obvious ones like cmus, cava, cbonsai, etc, but I was wondering if you guys have favorite TUI apps that you use as well? Thanks!

https://redd.it/1j3mgsx
@r_linux

Taskwarrior Web: Minimalistic web UI for Task warrior
https://github.com/tmahmood/taskwarrior-web

https://redd.it/1j3pfdp
@r_linux

Any Arch based distro recommendations?

I moved from Windows to Ubuntu a couple months ago in the hopes of gradually advance into more and more complex linux distros, I think jumping from ubuntu straight into Arch sounds like a stretch but what do you think?

Should I stay on Ubuntu some more, try out X distro or just jump into Arch?

https://redd.it/1j3to7i
@r_linux

GNOME's Mutter Now Supports The Wayland Cursor Shape Protocol
https://www.phoronix.com/news/GNOME-Mutter-Cursor-Shape

https://redd.it/1j3u8ja
@r_linux

Suggestion/Guidance Needed

So an Ematic EWT117 2 in 1 laptop/tablet was just given to me.

It has a measily 32GB emmc card.

I am looking for suggestions for (preferably light weight) operating systems.

I would like this device to operate as both a laptop and tablet.

The reason is I am a university student. This is a cheap laptop I can use when I'm on the move (I am often busy in the week). This means I can leave my more expensive laptop at home. If I lose this one or break it, it's no big deal.

Thanks!

Information:

I've tried Ubuntu related flavors.
I tried Debian related flavors and Ive tried some arch related flavors.

The problem is my keyboard, track pad and touch screen doesn't work with any of them.

https://redd.it/1j3v0xk
@r_linux

Thunderbird Desktop Version 136.0 Released
https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/136.0/releasenotes/

https://redd.it/1j3w16q
@r_linux

What are the dangers of using proot-distro?

I've been looking at options to run linux on my phone, and currently im looking into proot-distro, but I had a few concerns about its stability and management. Any replies are appreciated!

1. Is there any danger to my data or my phone if I use proot-distro? I'm interested in getting linux on my current main phone instead of an old one for tinkering (which I also haven't done yet), but I don't want to risk bricking my phone somehow!
2. How easy is it to remove the linux distribution from my phone if something went wrong? Is there a specific folder where everything is that I can just delete?
3. Kind of a side note, but what's the most efficient gui that I can install? I'm thinking about xfce, but any other recommendations would be great!

Sorry if these are amateur/dumb questions as Im new to the linux on android scene!

https://redd.it/1j3yn51
@r_linux

Kumander Linux 2.0 is ready for download!

Dear all,

After many, MANY months of development, Kumander Linux 2.0 is finally here! 🎉

Kumander Linux is the bridge between Linux and Windows—created by a team that originally lived in the Windows ecosystem but wanted to escape its tyranny and embrace true digital freedom.

This release brings UEFI support, better Wine integration, a fully custom sound theme, improved system logs, and much more! Plus, we've officially kicked Firefox to the curb—Brave is now our backup browser.

Curious to see what it's all about? Download it here:
👉 **https://www.kumander.org/download-kumander-linux**

As always, I welcome any feedback, criticism, or praise (if you must 😆).

https://redd.it/1j3yu59
@r_linux

Distrowatch

With the recent turnout in geopolitics, I wanted to compare several distributions for their geographic origin.

So I went to the Distrowatch website (https://www.distrowatch.com) but it turns out the site is down.

I get an error 403: Forbidden. You don't have permission to access this resource.

I havent been on the site for months. So I dont know: is the site down? Since when? Is this a regional blocking? (I tried google translate as a proxy, but it wasnt able to give me a webpage either)

https://redd.it/1j409zw
@r_linux

XWayland: suddenly, everything works again

A few months ago I decided to do my annual check on the much touted Wayland and distrohopped to Fedora KDE. It proved generally usable as a daily driver this time, yet not without a bug here and there. Firefox and LibreOffice were especially affected.

Recently I ran into a showstopper: Firefox started freezing for unpredictable periods at random moments. And guess what, forcing it and other affected apps to use Xorg (technically XWayland) cured the thing along with many other annoyances.

Firefox no longer gives me wobbly text.
Firefox correctly switches to foreground after I click a link in another app.
LibreOffice Writer documents stopped scrolling to random positions in web view.
And so on. After two days of testing I do not even remember all the bugs XWayland fixed for me.

Overall, it's just another quality of life. Why not switch the whole KDE to Xorg and stop using crutches? Well, Wayland is supposed to have some security advantages... I will consider it when choosing my next distro, though.

And no, it is neither Nvidia nor AMD. It's an Intel iGPU, not really new.

https://redd.it/1j41ft3
@r_linux

What did i break? Kernel panic unable to mount root. It is fixed now, i just wonder what happened.

This morning i was browsing internet on latest Ubuntu, and firefox. I opened a few reddit posts in new tabs, this sometime freezes/crashes firefox for some reason. (Read on internet apparently common reddit hecks on forefox)

But today whole computer decided to freeze, no keyboard no mouse no nothing.

Well i pressed reboot key on desktop and it didnt boot, but said: kernel panic unable to mount root.

After using duckduckgo for fifteen seconds i found these instructions

They worked, rebooted and now all is/was fine.
So i wonder, what broke? Was there and update in background i messed up?
I tend to let os decide itself when it updates/upgrades.

https://redd.it/1j444qm
@r_linux

FLX1 Linux Phone Display Out!
https://redd.it/1j46f2w
@r_linux

Introducing Mumbai GLUG!

Mumbai GNU/Linux Users' Group (Mumbai GLUG) is a community for GNU/Linux enthusiasts, hackers, tinkerers, and free software advocates

Whether you're a beginner or a seasoned pro, this is a space to learn, share, and collaborate on everything GNU/Linux and FOSS.

I'd love for you to be a part of it! And despite the name, this isn't just for Mumbaikars - anyone interested is welcome: https://mumbaiglug.org/

If you know anyone else who might be interested, feel free to share this with them too! Would be great to grow the community together. :D

https://redd.it/1j473q5
@r_linux

How far has debian come?

I like distrohopping, my latest run was with pure Arch but after some time it eventually broke on me. It made me wonder, I've always liked debian but it always seemed a bit behind.
Any of you daily driving debain? Is it better that it was, let's say, 7 years ago? I'm just itching to come back to it.

Edit for some clarity:
When I say debian I mean pure debian + de used as a desktop os, not the forks.
Forgive me, it's a tad bit late where I am 😅

https://redd.it/1j4csj9
@r_linux

is linux desktop in its best state?

hardware support (especially wifi stuff) got way better on the last few years

flatpak is becoming better, and is a main way install software nowadays, making fragmentation not a major issue anymore

the community is more active than ever

I might be wrong on this one, but the amount of native software seems to be increasing too.

https://redd.it/1j4fnit
@r_linux

How can you protect unencrypted databases utilized by an application?

Imagine an application that utilizes an unencrypted database. While I recognize that snapd and Flatpak provide security for applications, do they also alter the filesystem where an application writes its data? Essentially, do they containerize the application to such an extent that even when the application is not actively running, the unencrypted database remains inaccessible to other applications that might be operating simultaneously on the host system?

https://redd.it/1j4fec5
@r_linux