Gentoo running on a Toshiba Satellite 300CDS from 1998

Hi, I was able to install Gentoo Linux on a very old laptop from (probably) 1998. It's not the most complete install, some stuff doesn't fully work, but it boots, and that's the most important part :)

The Toshiba 300CDS has a Pentium with MMX cpu, 48MB of ram (16MB soldered + 32MB extra). I thought ram would be the most important problem, but in the end, after compiling the kernel it used only 15MB on idle.

I installed and compiled everything in a vm. Huge thanks to this for pointing me in the right direction. It was my first time installing gentoo, so the guide made it very easy. It had a .config file for compiling the kernel, which was very helpful. In the end I compiled about 5 kernels before it actually booted. I was getting kernel panics about the system being unable to mount the root partition. I used the latest stable kernel as of now (6.12.21) and tested an older one as well (5.10.233; I was getting more issues on that one).

Then I had to image the drive. I don't have an adapter for IDE to USB, so I had to use another laptop to image the drive (USB drive -> other laptop with Plop Linux booted from a CD -> target drive -> Toshiba laptop). It was kinda annoying swapping the drives.

\(yes, the PS\/2 cables in the background are connected properly\)

It takes about 2 minutes and 18 seconds to boot. If you want the see the whole startup/shutdown sequence, you can check it out here.

https://redd.it/1m0k8rp
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Any Widevine L1 development or workarounds yet?

Since most major streaming platforms now require Widevine L1 for HD or 4K playback, I’m wondering if there have been any developments toward enabling true L1 support on Linux. Also, are there any known methods or workarounds that are official or unofficial that allow users to bypass the L1 requirement entirely on Linux systems, rather than just settling for L3 fallback or relying on alternate devices like streaming devices, Android, Apple devices, or Windows.



https://redd.it/1m0jkrj
@r_linux

Little shoutout to Kzones. The Kwin noscript that gives you customizable window zones in KDE Plasma.

I wrote a blog about it.

Blog: https://txtechnician.com/r/kzones (hey if this is too self-promo or spammy, let me know and I'll not put my blog posts here)

I really like the built in template editor in KDE Plasma (accessible by pressing Meta+T). But I needed a way to customize the layouts. And after getting beyond confused about how to implement this. I found out about Kzones (would love some tips about other kwin addons).

I'm on OpenSuse Tumbleweed btw.



https://redd.it/1m0tapb
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Helix (a Kakoune / Neovim inspired editor) 25.07 released
https://helix-editor.com/news/release-25-07-highlights/

https://redd.it/1m0vef5
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Inexperienced linux gamer but loving it Ubuntu

Heya all!

Ive been using Ubuntu in the past when i wanted to try it out and i always loved it.

Recently went back as im just so tired of windowss and oh my.... It just feels so extremely sleek and optimized.

Been gaming on it aswell and i have to say, it just feels so much better somehow...

The only negative i have with Linux and why it takes me long to swap full time to it is that when you have to troubleshoot or just make youre way to something as simple as a folder directory, you have to know youre way around the terminal wich is pretty complicated imo.

https://redd.it/1m0y56h
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PCIe Wi-Fi Adapter with 802.11k/v/r supoort (mesh)
https://redd.it/1m11g5o
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A story of my beginning

Yeah you heard it, just do it! Like many of you, I just used to watch things about Linux but never had the courage to install it. Because I really didn't have much knowledge about computer. My dad bought me this laptop just a few months earlier for my study purpose.

So even the windows was so fascinating for me. I used to explore everything. Then something caught my eye which was Tor. I began to dig deeper and deeper. I started to learn and see many things in a different way. I started to feel better staying anonymous. I wanted to reach something which was untouched to most of people. Then I started to learn coding [ still a newbie \].

I learned a new way to communicate with people who stays far from the surface web. Then, I saw that there isn't enough privacy, there isn't enough freedom to tweak things. I wanted few things in my own way. But I couldn't get enough courage to swtich to Linux because I had fear of breaking the systen

The previous day, I determined myself, no matter what happens, I'm gonna give a try. I chose the most easy one to get started which is Linux Mint. Now I have to install it. But I don't have a flash drive. My dumb brain though, I may be a genius, let's take the risk and do it without flash drive. I tried and failed quiet a few times. Everytime my heart dropped and I don't know how I just fixed it and switched to windows😭.

I saw no hopes and decided to buy a flash drive. My parents are so strict, I don't even have my own wallet to spend money on. They won't buy me a flash drive. Then I had to sacrifice something. I had savings, yeah I secretly saved some money for a surprise gift for my girlfriend. Do you know how I saved it? By skipping meals quiet a few times. Yeah I know , even with this the savings were so low. Because my parents buy for me most of the stuffs. So literally I spent all the money on 64 gb flash drive [ I bough 64 because I wanna do something more with it \]

Yeah, after that I bought the flash drive and installed Linux Mint, But still that thing wasn't that smooth. It crashed, I don't know why. After that I wanted to boot again but it didn't boot cause of my misclick and guess what! Linux Mint started to work fine😭. When it works, don't touch it.

Then I spent all day night to to make my desktop look better. Then I faced a lot of issues. I installed Linux Mint without any preparation for it. So I talked all day long with chatgbt and learned to install apps and everything. Had to change shortcut keys for screenshot and screen recording. To change that I had to find that you know what I mean.

Then as I text a lot, I needed an emoji panel [ you may call emoji picker \]. ON GOD TRUST ME, I tried every emoji picker I learned through websites to satisfy myself. When nothing it, one from the past made me to swtich to it. But then I started to run it, now it doesn't run [ Pain started \]. I had to learn how to unistall stuff and so many unknown stuff which I couldn't even figure out what I was doing. But luckily it worked. It took me more than 5 hours just to set an emoji picker🙂[ worked on emoji font aswell \]. I'm still not happy with the current emoji picker. I wish it had visiual like the windows emoji panel, If someone knows how to do it, please help me out

So that was it, my journey has begun with Linux Mint. It was so unexpected. That flash drive is just not a flash drive for me. I'm so happy with this because even spending all day long with tweaking stuffs, my girl listened to all of my dumb stuffs and showed me the excitement even though she is way far from tech stuffs xD

Simplicity

https://redd.it/1m179a8
@r_linux

sshman – A secure SSH key manager and connection tool written in Go
https://redd.it/1m18dlg
@r_linux

Start of a new journey!

I'm new to Linux, been a Windows user for almost 30 years now, I find it exciting and a little bit daunting but the way Microsoft keeps on cramming garbage into Windows, I want out of that OS, as I got no experience with Linux yet, but eager to learn, what distro would you say I should install?

https://redd.it/1m18yr4
@r_linux

what is this extension called??
https://redd.it/1m1b5m6
@r_linux

Hyprland 0.50.0 released!
https://hypr.land/news/update50/

https://redd.it/1m1bmat
@r_linux

NIX-OS running on a phone

This kind of idea in regards to adding compatibility of some of the popular distro in mobile phone is a drooling idea to any enthusiast of open source space look how peak is this

https://youtu.be/yxfDNqZ9WTM?si=W3kwoeTxOH2Jjr2N

https://redd.it/1m1cgbu
@r_linux

Linux desktop market share has officially surpassed 5% in the U.S.

🐧 Big news for Linux users! Linux desktop market share has officially surpassed 5% in the U.S. for the first time ever, according to the latest StatCounter data.

What's driving this growth? Users are increasingly fed up with Windows due to privacy concerns, forced upgrades, and Windows 10 reaching end-of-life. The popular Steam Deck handheld console, powered by Linux, is also introducing a new wave of users to Linux gaming. Plus, modern Linux distributions have become much more user-friendly, appealing to mainstream audiences.

Interestingly, if you combine Linux (5.03%) with Chrome OS (2.7%), the Linux family now makes up about 7.7% of desktop usage in the U.S.—a notable milestone for open-source enthusiasts.

This growth signals not only a shift in consumer preferences but also opportunities for businesses, developers, and hardware makers. As Linux adoption continues to rise, expect stronger vendor support, a growing talent pool, and increased innovation opportunities across the tech industry.

Are you one of the new Linux converts? Or considering a switch soon? Let’s discuss! 👇



https://redd.it/1m1dyw6
@r_linux

I Love Linux Because I Love Being in Control

I don't use Linux because it's trendy. I use Linux because I like being in charge of my own system. Simple as that.

Linux doesn't shove updates down my throat in the middle of a gaming session. It doesn't randomly reboot my PC for a "critical update" I never asked for. I decide if, when, and how my system updates. Windows? Nah. That OS treats users like clueless children. Try disabling updates and it’ll just silently re-enable them later. That’s not convenience. That’s control taken away.

With Linux, I’m the one driving. I choose my distro. I choose my desktop environment. I choose what runs, what doesn’t, and what gets stripped out entirely. You want a barebones setup that runs on a potato? Linux can do that. You want a fully customized powerhouse tailored to your workflow? Linux is your best bet.

Want privacy? No telemetry, no tracking, no mystery background processes. You can literally read the source code of the OS if you want. Try doing that on Windows or macOS.

So yeah, I love Linux. Not because it’s perfect, but because it’s mine. Fully. Completely. No strings attached.

https://redd.it/1m1go7f
@r_linux

b-top / a bad bashtop clone written in Rust with shader-like effects (thank you tachyonfx)
https://redd.it/1m1bjq6
@r_linux

Some Linux Detective Work

Linux is really neat.

After a fresh installation of Debian Bookworm with XFCE4, I noticed my laptop’s battery was draining faster than I expected it to. I ran powertop and found that pulseaudio was active continuously, giving my laptop a discharge rate around 5.47W.

Using pactl list sink-inputs, I discovered that the speech-dispatcher (a text-to-speech service) was sending silent audio streams constantly to the output. I then disabled and uninstalled speech-dispatcher and killed its processes, including dummy processes.

Post-removal, the discharge rate dropped to approximately 5.08W, and the CPU wake-ups count was cut in half (481 --> 254). This extended my estimated battery life by almost an hour!

https://redd.it/1m1d2sc
@r_linux

Mailspring released version 1.16.0

Mailspring is the forked and maintained version of the defunct Nylas Mail. It is a solid Email Client for Linux.

Note, I am not part of the Mailspring team. Just a user of it.

Website: https://www.getmailspring.com/

Change Log

Thunderbird-style Autoconfiguration
Fix in-app previews for PDF attachments on Windows / Linux
Update and improve zh-TW Traditional Chinese locale
Update Czech translation
snap: Use core24 as base
Change lsb-core-noarch to be an optional dependency in the RPM package.
Fix a few misc application errors logged to our reporting service
Upgrade to Electron 37.2.2 - Chromium 138, V8 13.8, and Node.js 22.16 for faster JavaScript execution and better email rendering, native system context menus on Linux, and more!

https://redd.it/1m1fpzz
@r_linux

Non-Profit FOSS Solves the Conflict of Interest
https://home.expurple.me/posts/non-profit-foss-solves-the-conflict-of-interest/

https://redd.it/1m1gwv1
@r_linux

Going back to windows... Did anyone ever say it

I'm interested to know if anybody's ever gone back to Windows and why they did it, And what was your experience.

I recently just installed Windows 11 to dual boot alongside my Linux Mint for gaming. I honestly forgot how bad an operating system window is.

I always believed it was more refined than Linux, but it's extremely rough. It's years of old technology forced to work with updates. Menus all over the place. And it lags, despite my system being an absolute beast.

For me, it's reinforced 100% why I choose Linux and Open Source in general.

https://redd.it/1m1mf0e
@r_linux

Slackware Release Anniversary

On this day in 1993, Patrick Volkerding — the “Benevolent Dictator for Life” of Slackware — released Slackware 1.0, launching the oldest Linux distro still maintained. Still simple. Still solid. Still Slackware.
Read the original announcement: https://www.slackware.com/announce/1.0.php

https://redd.it/1m1p837
@r_linux

Forgot I had an old windows 8 laptop laying around.
https://redd.it/1m1r925
@r_linux