Tha value of "free" in "Linux is free" and FOSS in general

Back story: at home I use Linux on my machines. I had some distro hoping but settled on Mint. At company laptop I have to use Windows.

I have always valued the fact that Linux is free as free from any corporate strings attached. However, today I was reminded of that with the company laptop. For unknown reason, my laptop was kicked out of the company domain. We don't know for how long and only realised when admins can't use their domain admin account to do things on my laptop. So they have put it back in domain but then, other Microsoft applications decided not to cooperate and demanded sign in. But apps refused the mail I regularly use to login. It was something to do with the account on the Microsoft side. Just like that they have decided that MS Office licence expired. One Drive is annoying but when it cannot sign in it is popping up constantly. Even Visual Studio had issue as licence is tied to the same account. Admins had to handle online with all this nonsense. Later it was resolved but the amount of power they hold over our local stuff is horrible. How sad reality for computing. I am really glad I have moved away from Windows on my private machines.

https://redd.it/1mckquw
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Duckstation dev announced end of Linux support and he is actively blocking Arch Linux builds now.
https://github.com/stenzek/duckstation/commit/30df16cc767297c544e1311a3de4d10da30fe00c

https://redd.it/1mcnsev
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This is a first for me. I just stumbled upon an AI linux YT channel pretending to be a real person.

I got recommended this video and decided to check it out. From the beginning, it was obvious this "guy" is using AI for the images, which I didn't mind that much.

Throughout the video, I felt more and more like this isn't a real person talking, and decided to check the beginning (where he speaks with a "webcam") again. Sure enough, the person is also AI generated (at 0:11 his bottom teeth move when "he" says "shakeups"). I would've suspected it is entirely AI almost immediately if I didn't see the fake person at the beginning.

Looking at the rest of the channel, the other videos are much more obvious AI slop. This newest one is unfortunately more believable. I just wish YouTube had the option to report a video for pretending to have a real person speaking. These videos should be taken down immediately as a rule unless they have huge "AI GENERATED" labels plastered all over.

In the end, I'm just pissed I got tricked into listening to an AI for 10 minutes. I could've done something infinitely more productive instead, like watching my nails grow for 8 hours straight.

TLDR: AI slop channels are slowly getting better at pretending to be something remotely worth watching.

https://redd.it/1mcne8p
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LLM-made tutorials polluting internet

I was trying to add a group to another group, and stumble on this:

https:\/\/linuxvox.com\/blog\/linux-add-group-to-group\/

Which of course didn't work. Checking the man page of gpasswd:

>\-A, --administrators user,...

>Set the list of administrative users.

How dangerous are such AI written tutorials that are starting to spread like cancer?

There aren't any ads on that website, so they don't even have a profit motive to do that.

https://redd.it/1mczbai
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Newelle 1.0 Released: Mini apps
https://redd.it/1md0apk
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Linux on Snapdragon X Elite: Linaro and Tuxedo Pave the Way for ARM64 Laptops
https://www.linaro.org/blog/linux-on-snapdragon-x-elite/

https://redd.it/1md457e
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You can now run Doom and other graphical apps in Android's Linux Terminal
https://www.androidauthority.com/linux-terminal-graphical-apps-3580905/

https://redd.it/1md460h
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Linux 6.16 changelog, includes Ext4 perf improvements; XFS support for large atomic writes; USB audio offload; zero-copy send TCP payloads from DMABUF memory; futex improvements; support for sending coredumps over an AF_UNIX socket, or make easier to build your kernel optimized for your local CPU
https://kernelnewbies.org/Linux_6.16

https://redd.it/1md9oa7
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After what kind of changes does the kernel get a new major version?

There have been 6 major versions of the kernel (7 if you include the 0.x versions), so I was wonder what changes have been significant enough for the kernel to get a major-version upgrade? Is it design? Is it new features? If so, which kind of features? Is it user space API changes?

https://redd.it/1mdcgsw
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Small thing but getting rid of the windows key felt important to me.
https://redd.it/1mdf1l8
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Microsoft bans LibreOffice developer's account without warning, rejects appeal
https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/1mcx9ni/microsoft_bans_libreoffice_developers_account/

https://redd.it/1mdi573
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X11 functionality in wayland

I'm trying to prepare my Emacs configuration for distribution and I'd like to have it working under both X11 and Wayland. There're two things I'd like to have, one important the other mainly for me and I can do without and I could use some help from people familiar with Wayland.



[important\] under X11 whenever I change the font size or the background color, I also write a \~/.Xdefault file. This way when Emacs starts its window has already the right size and color and there's no visual flashing. Is there a way for doing this in Wayland?



[nice to have\] in development I can launch a secondary Emacs (that the window manager then maps to a different workspace, but this part is not too important). I have <f1> mapped so that from the main Emacs it launches the dev Emacs and focuses it (including switching to the relevant workspace). On the dev Emacs, <f1> would return and focus the main emacs. This way if I change the configuration <f1> gives me a dev Emacs and another <f1> brings me back after testing whatever I'm interested in. Any way to do something like this?

https://redd.it/1mdm96g
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KDE Linux
https://kde.org/linux/

https://redd.it/1mdtwvn
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How to set Equalizer in PulseEffects or EasyEffects for noobs for listening music in your Linux Distro . Difficulty level:Easy

Yo Yo Yo . Linux noob here .

Don’t mind my English as it is not my first language .

For music listeners i have setup the PulseEffects’s equalizer for “near perfect bass & treble” for wired/wireless earbuds ( i don’t have external speakers with subwoofers so can’t say if this will work on external speakers . You can try . My guess is it will work ) .

Settings have to be done only in Equalizer of PulseEffects .That’s it .

This will also work in EasyEffects as both Pulseeffects & EasyEffects are same .PulseEffects is for pulseaudio framework & EasyEffects is for pipewire audio framework . check what comes with your Linux distro. in Debian 12 Mate pulseaudio is installed , which is my Linux distro .

First make a system snapshot in timeshift in case you want to go back to previous state as was before if you don't like it .(pulseeffects installs bunch of dependencies so it's time taking to remove them 1 by 1 in synaptic package manager)

Then Install PulseEffects from synaptic package manager (for debian users) or software manager (Ubuntu/linuxMint & others) .

Now open PulseEffects . Tick mark the box next to Equalizer to select it . Then select the settings menu in equalizer . Now type ‘10’ in bands to get 10 toggle bars in equalizer . Click out side of the menu to get out of the menu .

https://preview.redd.it/ht68ufhtk6gf1.png?width=1366&format=png&auto=webp&s=24b571331489459be3a610aadffffe65793b1abe

Now , starting from left side in Equalizer (picture below) , select the settings menu on top of first toggle bar . set the frequency & quality to the prescribed numbers given below . Example : type ‘31’ in Frequency & ‘1’ in Quality . Leave the rest of the boxes in the menu as same as in the picture below . Simple .Click out side of the menu to get out of the menu . Setup the 10 toggle bars of Equalizer like this .

https://preview.redd.it/hofxbd45l6gf1.png?width=1366&format=png&auto=webp&s=3b03b2d2b081b5f9fddd342e9aa9118e6164e06b

Prescribed frequencies & qualities for 10 toggle bars are as follows :

Frequency 31Hz 63Hz 125Hz 250Hz 500Hz 1KHz 2KHz 4KHz 8KHz 16KHz

Quality 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

Toggle bar +6 +3 -3 -5 0 0 +1 +2 +3 +5

to set the toggle bar value simply roll up/down your mouse wheel (accurate method ) or just pull them using mouse or use arrow keys (slowest yet accurate) .

next is

https://preview.redd.it/2emmdt2xm6gf1.png?width=1366&format=png&auto=webp&s=81643639d121dd786883897dd7d0b746bc21cdb2

set input to - 4 (minus 4)

to save the Equalizer settings go to here as in this picture below

https://preview.redd.it/ufgceopen6gf1.png?width=1366&format=png&auto=webp&s=0e226bdb01cc91cac72b6e35c1c9ad4457887687

write the name you want to give in ‘name box’ & click the + sign . After that on your ‘named preset file’ click the download sign to save the EQ settings .

I hope you guys enjoy my Equalizer setting . i took the 10 frequencies from VLC android .

Feel free to change it according to your liking .

Thanks






https://redd.it/1mdxv6b
@r_linux

BTRFS bug bites a bunch of Fedora users
https://www.reddit.com/r/Fedora/comments/1md7uk6/what_a_bad_day_for_my_ssd_to_shit_itself_out/n5zhuxe/

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

We've just released a FOSS Universal 2D Graphics Editor
https://pixieditor.net/blog/2025/07/30/20-release/

https://redd.it/1me02ts
@r_linux

kAirPods: Native AirPods support in KDE with battery + ANC control
https://redd.it/1me5chy
@r_linux

Acer and Linux compatibility question

I hear that Acer laptops specifically have really bad compatibility with Linux Operating Systems, I was considering buying an Acer laptop and using Linux on it (Acer Swift Go 14") so I wanted to ask if anyone else has had experience/problems with Linux on Acer laptops.

https://redd.it/1me83r6
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Adding Obstacles to Your Ebitengine Game (Tutorial)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmRxgScWu1c

https://redd.it/1medxj6
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A good low-cost laptop to boot with linux for a computer science / cyber security major.

I'm gonna be a freshman in college this year, majoring in computer science (plan on doing a cyber security track). I already have an M4 Mac Pro as my main college laptop (I do have a Linux virtual machine), and I'm wondering if there's a point to purchasing a low-cost laptop that I will only boot with Linux. Looking for advice on the specifications I should be looking for, but my general idea is something along the lines of 8/16 GB RAM, 128/256 GB SSD, and I truly have no idea what processors/number of cores I should be looking for. ATP, my idea is to simply purchase a 2020ish Intel MacBook (one of the reasons why I bought my Mac is how important I consider the battery in a college setting), wipe macOS, and boot with Kali or Ubuntu. As I mentioned, I'm still not sure if this is even worth it or if I should just stick with a virtual machine. Thanks for any advice, appreciate it.

https://redd.it/1mehzd1
@r_linux

I made a simple graphical SSH connection manager

sshPilot is an ssh connection manager made with GTK and Python.

Here are the features:

Manage multiple SSH connections
Open each connection in a separate tab
Both password and SSH key authentication methods are supported
Automatically detects SSH keys in ~/.ssh/
Use your desired color theme and font style for the terminal
Uses secure password storage (GNOME secure password storage)

If you manage multiple remote machines, this might come in handy.




Main window




https://redd.it/1meije8
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