Is there any name for... I call it dependency fragmentation, in package management?

The thing that flatpak and every similar package does. Software ends up needing gnome-runtime 0.8.0001, then something else uses .0002, then something else .0003, and so on, and you waste a ton of bandwidth and disk space. Haven't seen any system like that avoid it because ultimately they're kinda just, accidentally designed to facilitate it.

Is there any widespread name for it? It's a known issue, I've seen it come up time and time again in practice and theory, but I've never seen a name for it, other than it being a distinct type of dependency hell.

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

Could incompatible RAM screw a system?

Context: I have an aspire 4720z running antix (debian 12), and also had 3gb (1+2) ram ddr2. Ok for now its safe.

Then i bought a unkown and certainly not suspicious RAM from the internet, having in total 4gb. Here shit starts.

My laptop started acting crazy, crashes when sudo updating (?) and broke my apt and dpkg after those random crashes. used my 3gb combo again and the problem persisted. After some hours of testing and fixing dpkg/apt, the problem stopped.

I suppose that if I go back to 4gb my system will again fall apart. Any ideas? help? Im really newbie with this.

Also memtest86+ said he doesnt care and simply crashes with the "faulty" ram.


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

Can someone explain to me how you all use Flatpaks willy nilly when they take up x10 or even x100 more space

So, question in noscript. My software manager has this nice option to compare install packages, including flatpaks. For some software, the system package can take a few MBs, while the flatpak for the same software takes up hudreds, sometimes more.


I understand the idea of isolation and encapsulation. But the tradeoff of using this much storage seems very steep. So how is flatpak so popular?

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

GPT-5 Codex knows what's the standard text editor
https://redd.it/1nlsd2h
@r_linux

Multihome network question

so home network

wifi network 192.168.110.0/24 ... DGW .1
lan network 192.168.111.0/24 ... DGW .1


nginx server
eth0 192.168.111.31/24
eth1 192.168.110.31/24
DGW 192.168.111.1
keepalived - vip on eth0 192.168.111.14/32 on vrrp@
nginx listening on port 443

test box
eth0 192.168.110.7/24 DGW 192.168.110.1


I try wget 192.168.111.14/deb/apt/something

I have packet dumps on test box and the nginx box and what i see is
test -> syn
test -> 192.168.110.0/24 rtr -> 192.168.111.0/24 -> nginx

syn + ack goes
ngxin -> 192.168.110.0/24 \->
ngxin -> 192.168.110.0/24 \->
ngxin -> 192.168.110.0/24 \->
arp for 192.168.110.7
then it takes off
so makes a big delay


as i am writing this I am going to guess. that what happens is nginx has mac for text box which is the router and it uses that mac on eth1 (192.168.110) not eth0 where the packet came in from and has to wait for the mac to expire and then does arp and then blasts forward. << feels about write.
Is there away around it .
My other thought is to set up ip ru to force packets our the interface they came in on based on source route .. but that would allow new connections to start on any interface - how will that affect the arp table - can i have 2 entries with different interface and different mac's

looking at trying to get some efficiencies but just causing more hassles it seems...

https://redd.it/1nls6yk
@r_linux

Mini PC hardware compatibility

I’m want to try Linux—for the third time, in 10 years—and this time I’m going to go for Omarchy, which is Arch based.

I’ve hear the recent AMD processors might have WiFi inconsistencies and issues. I’m stuck with WiFi and won’t be able to use Ethernet, unfortunately.

So what kind of other hardware issues should I look out for when considering a mini PC, for instance the Beelink SER 9—as the one I’m currently looking at?

https://redd.it/1nlrv4a
@r_linux

A quick guide to choosing the right linux distro and desktop environment

Disclaimer: This is my opinion, but I will try to make it as objective as possible. This post is meant for beginners, searching for their first linux distro or desktop environment (DE). Look at the comments for differing opinions as well.

General guidelines:
-You should choose something popular, because that usually means there’s more bug reports, more development and therefore more stability.
-If a DE only has experimental wayland support, don’t use wayland yet.

First off, I believe, that choosing the DE is the first thing you should do.

-KDE: It’s a modern and polished DE with an intuitive design, especially if you’re coming from windows. Most things should “just work”.

-GNOME: It’s also a modern and polished DE, but might be a bit less intuitive for a windows user (I have heard it’s better for MacOS users, but I can’t comment on that). You can install a few extensions to suit your needs, and that should make it easy to switch from windows.

-Cinnamon: It’s polished and intuitive, but a bit less modern in feature set and imo in design (look at pictures online and judge for yourself)

These are the DEs that a first time user should use imo, other ones have less development and are either older in feature set, design, or are less stable (or targeted at experienced linux users). If you’re reading this in the future, when COSMIC DE has released, then you can look into that as well.

When you’ve decided on the DE, then the only thing you should worry about is the update-cycle of the distro. If you have very new hardware, then choosing a distro with a quick update cycle is the best option.

If you chose KDE, then there are a few options:
If you want updates once every 2 years, choose Debian
If you want updates twice a year, choose kubuntu
If you want updates a few times a month, choose fedora KDE
and If you want updates a few times a day, then choose something Arch based (Endavour OS is my recommendation)

If you chose GNOME,
If you want updates once every 2 years, choose Debian
If you want updates twice a year, choose Ubuntu
If you want updates a few times a month, choose fedora
and If you want updates a few times a day, then choose something Arch based (Endavour OS is my recommendation)

And if you chose Cinnamon, I think that Linux Mint is the best option, because Cinnamon is developed together with Mint.

I don’t recommend installing POP OS until the COSMIC de releases, because it’s not getting updates until it does.

For transparency, I currently use Arch with Enlightenment WM, and have experience with all of the DEs and distros that I mentioned except Debian. I also have experience with hyprland, xfce, cosmic alpha and probably other ones that I don’t remember at the moment.

When I first tried to install linux I really wanted a simple and quick guide for choosing the right distro and DE combination for everyone, and so I wrote it now, that I have more experience with linux. In pursuit of keeping it simple I only mentioned the options that I think a beginner should use.

If I got anything wrong, or if you don’t agree with something, comment on this post and I will update it.

https://redd.it/1nm22va
@r_linux

Git: Introduce Rust and announce that it will become mandatory
https://lore.kernel.org/git/20250904-b4-pks-rust-breaking-change-v1-0-3af1d25e0be9@pks.im/

https://redd.it/1nm2y05
@r_linux

This Week in Plasma: KDE 6.5 beta (Only Notable Change Log A.K.A. "TL;DR") by Nate Graham

Source: https://blogs.kde.org/2025/09/20/this-week-in-plasma-6.5-beta-and-start-of-the-bug-fix-a-palooza/

https://redd.it/1nm6xef
@r_linux

How often do you update your wallpapers?
https://redd.it/1nman5d
@r_linux

Graphite (FOSS, non-destructive 2D art/design suite) September update - project's largest release to date
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vl5BA4g3QXM

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

Multiple kernels on a single system
https://lwn.net/SubscriberLink/1038847/051210b0b125822a/

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

What happened to unix.com???

Does anyone know what happened with unix.com? I remember using and learning Linux and other *nix from it for 15 or so years. I was on there less as I got to where I could answer most questions myself or with google. I went to just browse it the other day and it seems to be gone. Wondering if anyone knows what happened as it was a great resource.

https://redd.it/1nmh7oh
@r_linux

Serial console on a vm

I am running a server with Debian Trixie. It runs two virtual machines using kvm. I always ssh into these machines to do maintenance tasks. Yesterday I learned that I can also use



virsh console <machine_name>



to connect to the vm if the host hast serial console enabled, which may be useful in some situations.

Does having the serial console enabled on a vm possess any security risks?

https://redd.it/1nmj3dr
@r_linux

Service offerings from Mastodon
https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2025/09/service-offerings-from-mastodon/

https://redd.it/1nmpgz7
@r_linux

Deleting a project on Fedora COPR

An image showing a snapx project dashboard with a \\"Delete Project\\" prompt. The prompt asks the user to solve a word problem to confirm the deletion: \\"3.6 hens lay 2.0 eggs in 3.4 days. How many eggs do 4.2 hens lay in 1.3 days?\\"

I think I might leave the project up... Human verification too hard these days /s

https://redd.it/1nmrtf9
@r_linux

I Created A CLI Data Processor

Lately, I built a data processor in Rust. It's incredibly fast compared to Python-based and other interpreted applications. I used it to check if 100M random numbers up to a billion were prime, and it finished in 3:42.6, a tiny amount of time compared to doing the thing with some python modules on my i7-3450QM. This data processor is also very easily integrated as a backend with AI middlemen and GUI frontends via shell and stdin, and the result is simply printed to stdout. If you find any problems or think I should add more features, please put in Issues tab.

https://github.com/matthewyang204/dproc

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

any linux distro left that support i686 32bit cpu?

I have a really old laptop and I just realize that the CPU is i686 and that means no 64 bit linux distros, I try downloading voidlinux, it worked but not fully and any older version were impossible look for as most and all links are expired.

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

Linux based Workflow for private cloud
https://redd.it/1nmz570
@r_linux

Does Linux suffer from a community that suffers the "Curse of Knowlege"?

So the idea of this post is to ask a very simple question. Does the Linux community suffer from the Curse of Knowlege?

The Curse, or at least my interpretation of it, is simmilar to "math teacher syndrome" where a teacher doing a lesson on math can sometimes "skip trivial steps" when teaching more complex topics.

In the terms of Linux's community, its the idea that when we give our opinions, advice, and knowlege to others, we tend to do so with the Curse of Knowledge.

Take Nvidia Drivers. We can argue every day to Sunday about how, "objectively" Nvidia is a worse time on Linux than AMD (this is not an invitation to argue this is the comments haha).
This can put off new users as it makes Linux seem unstable when we talk about stuff like drivers not updating properly etc. But the reality is that, unless you are doing everything from complete scratch, the drivers are not likely to poop themselves if you use something like Ubuntu, Bazzite etc.

Another is "what is important". On Ubuntu, they spent a solid year updating their installer to be "more modern". But last year, when I helped around 12 students install Ubuntu on old laptops that they had "given up on"... not a single one of them even commented on the installer... which was the older version.

When it comes to major adoption, do we struggle to get people moving to Linux because, to be frank, the most important opinions, topic, advice... knowlege... is from a position of folk who have drunk quite a bit of the Linux sauce?

This is a community where we spend months on updating niche or intermediate / advanced tools and software... but then still dont have a way to change % to the actual raw values on GNOME's out of the box system monitor (that I know of haha).

So I guess my question is, are we held back a bit by a "Curse of knowlege" and does it effect the image folk have of Linux's stability / viability?

Interested to hear folk's opinion below 😁

https://redd.it/1nn1a06
@r_linux

Flathub downloads per capita
https://redd.it/1nn70x4
@r_linux