Kitty Terminal 0.40.0 introduces the Text Sizing Protocol: "multiple font sizes ... in a backwards compatible, opt-in way"
https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/text-sizing-protocol/

https://redd.it/1j7r8dy
@r_linux

Wezterm Nightly now has usable support for tmux control mode (native tabs + scrolling)
https://github.com/wezterm/wezterm/issues/336

https://redd.it/1j7t1js
@r_linux

The New Rust-Written NVIDIA "NOVA" Driver Submitted Ahead Of Linux 6.15
https://www.phoronix.com/news/NOVA-Driver-For-Linux-6.15

https://redd.it/1j7tirs
@r_linux

cosmic flair?
https://redd.it/1j7trw2
@r_linux

Sandboxing Applications with Bubblewrap: Desktop Applications
https://sloonz.github.io/posts/sandboxing-2/

https://redd.it/1j7vhec
@r_linux

Durdraw 0.29.0 - A modern ANSI Art editor for modern Unix terminals
https://github.com/cmang/durdraw

https://redd.it/1j7uvlh
@r_linux

Bold move to Mint on macbook pro 2013
https://redd.it/1j82ao5
@r_linux

GPU idle consumption decreases dramatically when nvidia-smi is run periodically

I have recently noticed that by running nvidia-smi periodically, about every 2 seconds, the power consumption of my notebook decreases by a lot. I am using Gnome Power Tracker, and I am seeing a decrease in consumption by about 10 W, sometimes even more. This happens when I am only using the integrated graphics. To reproduce just run nvidia-smi -l 2 or watch -n2 nvidia-smi, and after killing the process the power consumption will slowly creep up again. Just wanted to share, I have no idea if this is a misconfiguration on my part, or a bug in the nvidia-driver, which would be completely unheard of. /s

For those wondering, my config is: 4060 Laptop GPU, Ubuntu 24.04, Ryzen CPU and the latest 565.57 driver from the Ubuntu repo.

https://redd.it/1j8232p
@r_linux

Box64 v0.3.4 released: Box32 runs Steam on ARM64 and more improvements
https://github.com/ptitSeb/box64/releases/tag/v0.3.4

https://redd.it/1j842n2
@r_linux

Self hosted ebook2audiobook converter, supports voice cloning, and 1107+ languages :) Update!
https://github.com/DrewThomasson/ebook2audiobook

https://redd.it/1j84v1d
@r_linux

I wrote a blog post about my history with Linux today
https://smustafa.blog/2025/03/10/chicken-soup-for-the-programmers-soul/

https://redd.it/1j8bmb2
@r_linux

Testing Fedora for the first time after staring my Linux journey last year
https://redd.it/1j8e07z
@r_linux

What's the current situation regarding TTS (Text-to-Speech) in Linux?

I'm trying to find a good TTS solution on Linux, and the Arch Wiki mentions festival, espeak-ng and piper-tts. Festival and espeak-ng sound kind of robotic, and the alternative voices aren't that better either. As for piper, I just couldn't set it up. I followed the Arch Wiki instructions to set it up with speech-dispatcher, but it just won't work.

And I dunno much about it, but I have heard of better TTS solutions like TortoiseTTS, Kokoro but I dunno how it can be used with speech-dispatcher.

Would be great to listen to your opinions.

https://redd.it/1j8igv1
@r_linux

Understanding Unix filesystem timestamps
https://unixdigest.com/articles/understanding-unix-filesystem-timestamps.html

https://redd.it/1j8jhvt
@r_linux

Old Linux fan enjoying the posts of people coming over to Linux with some gutsy enough to try Arch! Keep 'em coming! The more the merrier!

So, I have been full time Linux now since June 2018 (almost 7 years now). I was a dabbler before then. My first experience with Linux was when i bought a copy of it at a computer show (on 4 or 5 floppies) and brought it home and put it on a spare computer. It was pretty cool that it worked on the first try but with no GUI, I had no idea where to go from there. It was essentially DOS-like to me and I couldn't use it.

I still tinkered with it. I went to those computer shows when they held them on the first Sunday of every month. I'd buy a different distro, check it out and decide I couldn't use it.

Then, in 2005, I found Ubuntu. It was actually pretty cool. It had a GUI and that was very appealing. I had it on a different 2nd machine and it really was a nice looking OS. In fact, I found myself booting that computer more than using my Windows system. Pretty interesting indeed!

In 2007, Back at that computer show again, (I had moved but was back visiting family and friends and went to that computer show) I saw that someone had some hot swap trays for sale. The guy had a whole box full of brand new swap trays with the mount for each tray. I also bought 3 120GB Drives as well. I only needed one internal bracket but I bought 3 complete hot swap trays with brackets. I got them home, pulled out one of the blank drives and put it in a new hot swap tray. Then I did that with another 120GB drive I bought that day.

So, The first tray, I installed Ubuntu on it. Got it set up the way I wanted it and then shut the computer down and swapped out the drives and powered it back up again. I bought 3 of the same 120GB Seagate drives because back in the day, you had to tell your COS if there was a different drive in the machine. So I bought 3 identical Seagate 120GB Drives so I didn't have to change anything in the BIOS in that regard.

So, now I had 2 MATCHING drives with different OSes on them. That worked out pretty slick. I never pulled them out when the PC was running. That would have been a mistake. So, I shut down the PC, swapped out discs and powered it back up again. Worked wonderfully!

I did that until about 2011 and then I just needed to be in Windows more often because I started doing more photography work. So, I eventually pulled out the hot swap system and used a dedicated larger drive in there. I did this until 2017. I was done doing photography work. So, I used Windows 7 exclusively until EOL (the first one... I believe they lengthened support on it right around the cut off date). Anyway, I bought and installed Windows 10 on an 8 year old machine. Windows 7 ran beautifully on it. But 10... OMFG! It ran so slow! It took 5 minutes to open an application... Not even kidding!

So, I decided I can't use Windows 10 on that PC. So I started digging around for a comparable to Windows 7 Linux Distro. I tried a few out on the Live USB sticks and I found Linux Mint Cinnamon. It felt a lot like Windows 7 and it ran so quick and peppy. So, that was my final introduction to Linux.

Then, in February 2020 (actually January) I had been watching a couple of YouTubers doing Arch Linux install videos, So, I decided I'd go ahead and give Arch a try. For me, 3rd try was a charm! I got Arch installed and I've been running that ever since. It's such a great distro for sure! I also use a Tiling Window Manager. That was quite a change from Linux Mint for sure!

So, I've been running Arch now since February 2020 (a little over 5 years now) and I absolutely love it! I highly recommend it to tech savvy Linux users if you're not already running it. It's a really fun distro for sure!

But, that's my story. I've been a proud full time Linux user now for almost 7 years and I've been using Arch now for a little over 5 years.

So, I would like to welcome anyone aboard if this is your first time using Arch, welcome! And, if I can be of service to anyone, don't be afraid to

ask.

https://redd.it/1j8jlfn
@r_linux

distro a grandpa can use?

hi, a freind of mines grandpa came to me telling me how his laptop is too slow and cant do shit. hes got a acer one. its a total piece of junk. when i got home to get a better look, it had so much random bloatware. he had nothing he wanted so i formatted it and installed pale moon on his computer. i havent given it back to him yet. its only a 28gb emmc and it still lags on windows 10. hes an old guy who can barely use windows, but a fresh windows 10 install probably wont cut it for long. what is the absolute most simpliest distro an old fart can use? all he really needs is something that doesnt require a "sudo apt update" every day and an internet browser.

this is probably an impossible case but i figured its worth asking

https://redd.it/1j8kps1
@r_linux

Linux (CatchOS) works perfectly on ASUS UX5406SA (Intel Lunar Lake Ultra 7 258V)

I got this laptop a few weeks ago, and I've setup triple boot systems on it: Win 11, Ubuntu 24.10 (Gnome) and CatchOS (KDE) during the time. Overall I'm very happy with the laptop's performance and stability under all of the above OSes. But CatchOS has gradually replaced Ubuntu as my main OS on the laptop.

My previous KDE distro is EndeavourOS, but I found CatchOS has some advantages I appreciate:

- Better package selecting UI
- Btrfs management is easier (Btrfs Assistant is preinstalled)
- zsh is installed with oh-my-zsh customization
- zram is installed and properly configured
- Bluetooth is enabled
- Login screen matches the scaling factor set in Display Configuration
- Generally feels faster

The current version of CatchOS (Linux 6.13.6-2-cachyos) works perfectly on the ASUS laptop:

- All the hardware works great, including Bluetooth, WiFi 7, Speakers, Microphone (with the modification learned from here, Keyboard with backlight, Touchpad, USB ports, etc.
- Battery life is pretty good. Below are 2 scenarios I normally use the laptop (70% brightness + Dropbox at background)
- A local Vagrant/VirtualBox VM + Coding in PhpStorm: 9-11W, about 7 hours of usage.
- Browsing + Writing: 8-10W, about 8.5 hours of usage.

So far the laptop is very stable and I haven't noticed any bugs during my usage.



https://redd.it/1j8mef4
@r_linux

Comparing Fuchsia components and Linux containers
https://fosdem.org/2025/schedule/event/fosdem-2025-5381-comparing-fuchsia-components-and-linux-containers/

https://redd.it/1j7zwz2
@r_linux

Lol Microsoft Should Do Standup
https://redd.it/1j8roln
@r_linux

encfs security and stability

Hi,

I am using encfs on some folders to encrypt important information of mine. Nothing too serious, but some bank information etc.

I have a few noob questions or concerns:

a. How reliable it is? - Like, will it still be available in 10, 15 or 20 years from now?. I don't want to try to access some old HDD or SSD and then discovering I can not read the data because a new version of encfs is now not supporting this type of files ...

b. How delicate it is for disk error (or other unsuspected events)? - for example, let's say I have some bad sectors. Today, if it happen, I usually lost a specific file, or a few files. But I guess using encryption, it might happen that just one different byte (or even bit) may ruin the whole encryption process and I will end up with nothing at all.

c. How easy it is to hack by brute force?

My data is not that important, and sometimes I prefer to risk a data breach than to lose data due to other events. Though what would you recommend to use to save data in a safe way for long time?

BTW, until now I used password encrypted zip files. But I think it's not the best idea due to:

1. Quite easy to hack. (Not my main issue)

2. Difficult to maintain. Sometimes large file with many files inside, that I just need to update one small file require the whole .zip file to compress again. Or the files are not accessible directly from software and I need first to unzip them.

Thanks you in advance.

https://redd.it/1j8s4se
@r_linux