Ubuntu 25.10's Move To Rust Coreutils Is Causing Major Breakage For Some Executables
https://www.phoronix.com/news/Ubuntu-25.10-Coreutils-Makeself

https://redd.it/1nr1bas
@r_linux

Why isn't my latest macbook as responsive as my 5-7 year old linux or windows systems?

I’m not talking about benchmarks, rendering, or coding performance, but about the elements of the user interface. Things like moving a window, maximizing it, or snapping it to the edges—in Linux or Windows these actions feel swift and responsive. Even simple interactions, like clicking a button, feel different. On Linux in particular, the response seems immediate. On macOS, though, it feels like there’s a slight delay, almost as if the system takes a beat before registering the action. This isn’t just on my MacBook, all other macs belonging to friends and family also feel the same. Am I simply biased toward Linux and Windows, or is macOS really less snappy?

https://redd.it/1nr338z
@r_linux

[KDE/X11] Blazing Fast Application Startup (at the cost of 1.5 GB RAM)

Hello Linux community! I've had a great experience with a startup noscript for KDE that I've written that keeps your specified programs hidden in another Activity to boost startup time of opening commonly used windows like Firefox, Visual Studio Code, Obsidian, and Firefox PWAs. The only downside is that it uses 1.5 GB of memory which isn't much of a sacrifice if you have 16 GB or 32 GB.

A video can be found on my post [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/kde/comments/1nr659z/x11_blazing_fast_application_startup_at_the_cost/).

**THIS REQUIRES X11** because it uses xdotool and KDE Window Rules that target Window Classes which doesn't work on Wayland. Install `qdbus6` and `xdotool` if it isn't installed already.

## Window Rules

If using Firefox PWAs, make a new PWA for `https://blank.page/`, then find its PWA ID from its `.desktop` file in `~/.local/share/applications/`. It will be used in a regular expression for the Window Rule.

Make a Window Rule with the following settings:

- Denoscription: autohide warmup programs
- Window class: Regular expression; `^(FFPWA-01K4Z047J6WNGHK9RWE19Q0JGQ|firefox|Code|obsidian|)$`
- Window types: Normal window
- Add properties
- Minimized: Force; Yes
- Skip taskbar: Force; Yes
- Skip pager: Force; Yes
- Skip switcher: Force; Yes

Test it by having one of the windows open and enabling the rule, but be careful if you're using Firefox right now because it will be minimized and you can't unminimize it for your current session without wmctrl. The window should be forced hidden and cannot be Alt-Tabbed to.

## Find the Window Rule ID

Open `~/.config/kwinrulesrc`, and locate the rule we just created by searching for its Denoscription, and put the following underneath the Denoscription line:

```
Enabled=false
```

Above the Denoscription line is a unique ID that you need to copy. Mine is `[4e198a98-2811-4a63-9aa6-51b186a26bd1]`.

## .xinitrc

Edit or make `~/.xinitrc` if it doesn't already exist. Insert the following, changing the Window Rule ID to yours that you copied in the previous step:

```
#!/bin/sh

# start startup programs without compositing and skip panel
sed -i "/\[4e198a98-2811-4a63-9aa6-51b186a26bd1\]/,/^\[/ {
s/Enabled=false/Enabled=true/
}" ~/.config/kwinrulesrc

exec startplasma-x11
```

## Creating Dummy Activity

Create a new Activity in the KDE Settings app, and name it something like Other. Run the following in your terminal to fetch it's ID:

```
kactivities-cli --list-activities
```
Copy it for later.

## Startup noscript

Create an empty file, ideally where you keep noscripts or somewhere in PATH, and name it `warmup-programs`, then put the following in it. Inside the noscript, make sure to

- Change the Firefox PWA ID for the empty page PWA to yours from its .desktop shortcut from earlier
- Find your Firefox's profile folder that has a `sessionstore-backups` folder. It is usually inside something similar to `~/.mozilla/firefox/xtv5ktwu.default-release/sessionstore-backups -r`, but you need to change the random series of letters to match your folder.
- The above step deletes your previous session's backups every time you login if Firefox got abruptly closed. This way the previously opened tabs don't get opened in the empty Firefox window that gets hidden in another Activity and hog more memory.
- Copy the Other Activity ID into its place at the bottom (there is an all-caps comment indicating where to put it)
- Follow the other all-caps comments

```
#!/bin/bash

# CHANGE TO MATCH YOUR FIREFOX PROFILE FOLDER
# remove session backups so they don't open in the new firefox window that gets opened and hidden
rm ~/.mozilla/firefox/xtv5ktwu.default-release/sessionstore-backups -r

# UNCOMMMENT TO START STEAM IN BACKGROUND WITHOUT OPENING WINDOW
# start steam in background
#steam -silent %U &

# programs to start that will stay running in another activity
firefox about:blank &

# CHANGE TO MATCH YOUR EMPTY PAGE FIREFOX PWA
firefoxpwa site launch 01K4Z047J6WNGHK9RWE19Q0JGQ &

# MAKE AN EMPTY FOLDER IN YOUR PLACE

OF CHOICE AND DISALLOW TRUST FOR THAT FOLDER IN VISUAL STUDIO CODE; IT ASKS AT STARTUP WHEN YOU OPEN A FOLDER FOR THE FIRST TIME
code ~/System/empty &

# MAKE AN OBSIDIAN VAULT ANYWHERE NAMED `empty-obsidian` AND OPEN IT AT LEAST ONCE MANUALLY IN OBSIDIAN
flatpak run md.obsidian.Obsidian obsidian://open?vault=empty-obsidian &

# define the list of window noscripts to wait for.
declare -a windows_to_wait_for=(
"firefox"
"obsidian"
"Code"
)

# loop until all windows are found
echo "Waiting for all windows to be open..."
while true; do
all_found=true
for noscript in "${windows_to_wait_for[@]}"; do
if ! xdotool search --class "$noscript" >/dev/null; then
all_found=false
break
fi
all_found=true
done
if "$all_found"; then
break
fi
sleep 2
done

sleep 2

# CHANGE TO MATCH YOUR WINDOW RULE ID
# reenable compositing and panel rendering for programs
sed -i "/\[4e198a98-2811-4a63-9aa6-51b186a26bd1\]/,/^\[/ {
s/Enabled=true/Enabled=false/
}" ~/.config/kwinrulesrc

qdbus6 org.kde.KWin /KWin reconfigure

sleep 5

declare -a apps=("Firefox" "blank" "Obsidian" "Code")

# loop through each window and move them to the activity Other
for app in "${apps[@]}"; do
xdotool search --class "$app" | while read -r wid; do
if [[ -n "$wid" ]]; then
# PUT YOUR Other ACTIVITY ID INTO THIS LINE WHERE MINE IS
xprop -f _KDE_NET_WM_ACTIVITIES 8s -id "$wid" -set _KDE_NET_WM_ACTIVITIES "1487a88b-b741-40b7-ba37-4afcdf525253"
fi
done
done
```

Give it executable privileges with `chmod u+x warmup-programs`.

## autostart file

Make a file named `warmup-programs.desktop` in `~/.config/autostart` with the following contents, changing the path to the noscript to the appropriate location:

```
[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Exec=bash -c '~/Bin/warmup-programs'
Hidden=false
NoDisplay=false
X-GNOME-Autostart-enabled=true
Name=Warmup programs
Comment=Warmup programs and hide them from main activity
```

## Logout/Reboot to test it

You have to wait about 5-7 seconds after logging in for the programs to load in the background then get moved to the Other Activity. You should know it's done when your panel flickers or something. I use a custom theme so it gets reloaded when `qdbus6 org.kde.KWin /KWin reconfigure` gets ran. Now you can open up your programs!

## Firefox New Window fix

For Firefox shortcuts to websites you place on your desktop (not PWAs), you have to edit them to be like this so when clicked, the won't bring up the Firefox instance in the Other Activity:

```
[Desktop Entry]
Icon=/home/prestonharberts/Pictures/icons/favicons/teams.ico
Name=https://teams.microsoft.com/v2/
Type=Application
Exec=firefox --new-window https://teams.microsoft.com/v2/
Terminal=false
```

## Conclusion - TL;DR

Now you can open up windows very quickly at the cost of some memory! You only have to wait 5-7 seconds for the noscript to finish running upon signing in to your computer. This is a lengthy guide, but I hope it helps someone out there.

I've optimized this noscript to use as little memory as possible by opening `about:blank` in Firefox, an empty folder in Visual Studio Code, an empty vault in Obsidian, and `https://blank.page/` for Firefox PWA.


https://redd.it/1nr6lot
@r_linux

Made a GUI tool to compress and deduplicate files on Btrfs in few clicks — packaged builds available
https://redd.it/1nraztg
@r_linux

Gamer's Nexus and Level1 Techs: Adding Linux GPU Benchmarks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5O6tQYJSEMw

https://redd.it/1nrebb2
@r_linux

The Cosmic & PopOS betas are here! Linux Weekly News (The Linux Experiment)
https://peertube.wtf/w/c72MBrfGuUwAEA221F7PHV

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

Hello World !
https://redd.it/1nrn4xy
@r_linux

Last libxml2 maintainer wants to commercially fork
https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/libxml2/-/issues/976#note_2531513

https://redd.it/1nrnwz0
@r_linux

Just Wondering, How Many Of You Guys Transitioned To Linux After Being Annoyed By Windows Search As One Of The Reasons? What Was Your Major or Last Reason To Stop Using Windows?

I had used Linux from time to time, either dual boot or single. But that was for fun.

However, ever since a few months ago it has been counter productive to even use Microsoft own tools.

I haven't used Linux since I got a new laptop.

My only problem for now is I lack storage to dual boot, just in case I had to run some stuffs on Windows from time to time.

Just wondering how you guys went through these kind of experience.

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

En Autriche, l'armée renonce à Microsoft Office
https://www.cio-online.com/actualites/lire-en-autriche-l-armee-renonce-a-microsoft-office-16563.html

https://redd.it/1nrp4hb
@r_linux

42 YEARS OF GNU - VIVA LA REVOLUTION!
https://redd.it/1nrudot
@r_linux

Looking for a voice translator that translates things in voice out loud

Looking for a voice translator that allows me to listen to something in any language and have it translated it to me in any language but the software will say it in English out loud for example if I'm watching a show in Spanish I want to be able to translate what I'm listening to into English but I'm not talking about subnoscripts I'm talking about the software will speak out loud in the language that I'm listening to maybe there's a software where it will lower the volume of what I'm listening to and it will say it in English to make it easier to hear if there's no software like that maybe a browser extension I don't know.

I'm looking for something like this because I'm playing a game and a lot of the time I want to do other things while playing. I can't sit there and read subnoscripts while I'm playing a game that's like really hard but I can watch something in another language listen and hear what's going on and still play the game.

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

Linux Driver Developer At Valve Preps More Patches For Improving AMD GCN 1.0 GPUs
https://www.phoronix.com/news/AMDGPU-More-GCN-1.0-SI

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

LibrePhone – a community-driven Linux OS for phones (project idea & call for contributors)



Hi



I’d like to share an idea I’ve been working on, and hopefully gather some contributors.

LibrePhone is meant to be a community-driven Linux OS for smartphones, built on two tracks:



Stable → thoroughly tested, reproducible builds, cryptographically signed and security-audited. Recommended for people who just want their phone to work.



Community → open to experiments, diufferent flavors, ratings, and verified maintainers. Perfect for trying new features, testing forks, and contributing.



🛡️ Security focus: Stable builds are reproducibly built, signed, and run through CI pipelines with CVE scanning and virus scans.

👥 Governance inspired by Wikipedia: auto-confirmed users, manually confirmed maintainers, and admins who oversee security and Stable promotions.

📱 Vision: “Your phone. Your freedom.”



We’ve already set up a simple website demo

https://redd.it/1ns17pz
@r_linux

I'm sick of the US android tablet market. Could a Linux tablet be the answer?

I own a Galaxy Tab S10 ultra, and am happy with it. However, with samsung's bootloader locking and android just getting worse, would a Linux tablet work? Of course, linux phones have been tried, but I think that with a keyboard case, like the one for the Galaxy Tab Ultras, you could reasonably use a desktop-style linux. Would there be any demand for a device like this, even a niche, low-production-volume one?

https://redd.it/1ns41rv
@r_linux

Help needed, my terminal is acting weird
https://redd.it/1ns812w
@r_linux

Linux desktop is attracting new users, and that's good, but we must be critical of everything that needs improvement

I recently returned to Linux after a 2-3 year absence, and I was surprised by how well it has evolved on the desktop. More stability, compatibility with more software, mature DEs... it's a real pleasure.

However, I also notice that the Linux community has some areas for improvement from different points of view (its organization, how it welcomes newbies, software, etc.). I'm writing this post just to see if others see the same things I do. If not, that's fine, you can give your opposing opinion and debate it, no need to lynch me. Here we go:

1) Dependence on large companies. Yes, I know, they are precisely the ones that finance and support Linux the most, but at the same time, they do nothing but twist the community to their liking, sometimes damaging it. We have Canonical imposing its Snaps on Ubuntu, even hijacking you when you try to install using "sudo apt install", probably the most well-known distro among the general public. In addition, more recently, there has been some debate about replacing GNU tools with a rewrite in RUST that will be licensed under MIT (more permissive, allowing those who benefit from the code and modify it to not have to share the result, privatizing it).

We also have Red Hat, which two years ago decided to restrict access to the RHEL source code to the community, citing that others were benefiting “unfairly” from that access, as other companies (ie, CIQ) were creating clones of RHEL and then offering support and charging for it.


All these developments don't seem positive for the Linux community and are reminiscent of how Microsoft treats Windows, which is manipulated like their toy. Of course, there are still other “community” distributions, such as Debian or Arch, although they are not as easy for beginners to get started with.



2) Division of efforts. It is in the nature of Linux that everyone can create their own “home,” and therefore, it is inevitable that there will be hundreds of distributions, but when there is none that is capable of being “perfect” for the general public (there is always some drawback, however small, in Gnome, KDE, Cinnamon...), it seems incredible that efforts continue to be divided even further. We have the PopOS! team as example, although they started well and gained some popularity in their day, now they seem to think it is worthy their time and effort to create another new DE (COSMIC), just... because? Or we have Hyprland more recently, or... Until in the end, we have almost as many DEs as distributions, and some with very little usage (how many people use Budgie? What future will MATE have?).

I understand that customization is the soul of Linux, but sometimes it feels like it weighs it down a lot. “Divide and conquer,” they said about the vanquished.


3) Lack of consistency. Similar to the above, in Linux you can do anything, that's clear, but it won't help its “mass” adoption if the instructions for doing basic things change so much depending on the distribution or DE. Sometimes, even what is compatible can be affected by things that the casual user doesn't understand (X11 vs Wayland, for example).

4) Comfort with using “advanced” applications or settings. For example, no one is incentivized to build open-source software that synchronizes clouds (Google Drive, OneDrive, and others, similar to InsyncHQ, with active real-time synchronization), because advanced users have more than enough with RClone and the terminal. Or in specific configurations, the terminal is still unavoidable. If you want to install drivers for an HP Laserjet printer, you'll have to go through the terminal. Want to install Warp VPN? Terminal! It's not bad at all, don't get me wrong, but it makes me angry that there is still a certain complacency that prevents Linux from being “chewed up” a little more to attract the general public, which would help popularize Linux and make more native software compatible.

5) Lack of attention to cybersecurity. Beginners are

often told not to worry, that “there is no malware” on Linux desktops. At the same time, we have seen how Arch's AUR repository has been detected with malware, or how certain vulnerabilities have affected Linux this year (Sudo having a PAM vulnerability allowing full root access, two CUPS bugs that let attackers remote DoS and bypass auth, DoS flaw in the kernel's KSMBD subsystem, Linux kernel vulnerability exploited from Chrome renderer sandbox... And all of that, only in the last 2 months).

Related to this are questionable configurations, such as trusting Flatpak 100%, even though the software available there can often be packages created by anonymous third parties and not the original developer, or the use of browsers installed in this way, even though this means that the browser's own sandbox is replaced by Flatpak's sandboxing.


6) Updates that have the capacity to break entire systems, to the point of recommending reinstalling the system from scratch in some cases. This is almost on par with Windows or worse, depending on the distribution and changes that have taken place. It is well known that in Linux, depending on the distro, updating is a lottery and can leave you without a system. This should be unacceptable, although understandable, given that Linux is still a base (monolithic kernel with +30M lines) with a bunch of modules linked together on top, each one different from the other. In the end, it is very easy for things to break when updating.

In part, immutable distributions help with this, allowing you to revert to a previous state when, inevitably, the day comes when the system breaks, unless you can afford to have a system with hardly any modifications, with software as close to a “clean” state as possible.

If the system breaks and you are not on an immutable distribution, you have already lost the casual user.



At the end, I want to love Linux, but I see that many of the root causes preventing its popularity from growing (on the desktop, I'm not counting its use as a kernel for heavily modified things like Android, or its use by professional people in servers) haven't consideribly improved. The community remains deeply divided, fighting amongst itself even on some issues, and continues to scare away the general public who come with the idea of “just having work done”.

Because of all this, a few days ago, I was surprised to see that Linux in the Steam survey remains at 2.64%. It's better than the 1.87% from just a year ago (Sept. 24), of course, and I suppose SteamDecks have helped a lot too, but it's a shame that it's not able to attract the audience that is migrating elsewhere on Windows (Windows 11 went from 47.69% to 60.39% in the same period, even with all the TPM thing that will make millions of PCs "incompatible" with Win11). In other words, for every person who switched to Linux in the survey, more than 16 people switched to Windows 11.

What are your thoughts on improving Linux (if it were up to you)? Do you think there will come a time when Linux will have a significant share of the desktop market, so that it will at least be taken into account in software development?

(And please, I would ask that haters refrain from contributing nothing, simply accusing me of something or telling me to “go to Windows.” I hate gatekeeping and not being able to have real discussions sometimes in this community. Thank you).

https://redd.it/1ns8qzz
@r_linux

An Omakub Review for Potential macOS Switchers
https://dominickm.com/omakhub-review/

https://redd.it/1ns9wck
@r_linux

Does linux have OCR based vim-like hinting?

In windows I can go fully mouseless because a program called fluent search allows me to press a key and then it tags all UI elements using OCR then lets me click on any one I want by pressing the key in the hint.

Does Linux have a similar feature?

https://redd.it/1nsca1m
@r_linux