Why are the economical benefits of Linux not talked about more?

Simply put, free.

It is astonishing to a lad like myself that one can have incredibly old "outdated" hardware, that refuses to run newer operating systems (e.g. Windows 10, 11, etc.) but works like a charm on a Linux distro.

Furthermore, Linux provides LTS that lasts for many years, which means you can continue to use your hardware for many more years to come.

I am stating this as a lad whom was contemplating throwing out my 10 year old laptop, because it doesn't support Windows 11 but find it magical that I do not need to purchase new hardware for $1K but rather can continue to use my existing hardware for many more years, thanks to Linux.

No one talks about the peace of mind you get on Linux with essentially no viruses existing so no need for anti-virus software, security concerns, etc. which could cost you lots of money in the long-run.

LibreOffice sure beats that crummy Microsoft Office recurring subnoscription too.

I feel like many huge financial burdens have been lifted off my shoulders after switching to Linux. Thank you for freeing up lots of money for me, so that I can continue to put food on the table and not on software and subnoscriptions that were created with an artificial expiration date that large corporations have set, when they need to pad up their P&L statements for shareholders.

https://redd.it/1nx19b5
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niri: A scrollable-tiling Wayland compositor
https://github.com/YaLTeR/niri

https://redd.it/1nx018j
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Modernising GNOME
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCAlzx_x6rY

https://redd.it/1nx44jq
@r_linux

Linux 6.18 will be a Big Improvement for Servers Encountering DDoS Attacks

Source: https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-6.18-DDoS-Improvement

Intro: "A set of patches merged via the networking pull request for the Linux 6.18 will help servers better cope with distributed denial of service "DDoS" attacks. Thanks to a Google engineer there are some significant optimizations found in the Linux 6.18 kernel code for more efficiently handling of UDP receive performance under stress, such as in DDoS scenarios".


https://redd.it/1nx7zw6
@r_linux

Why is it not standard for desktop files to have uninstall entry?

It would have been easier for DEs like gnome to implement a way to uninstall their applications within the shell. Even better if a separate remove and purge entries. Any form of packaging, deb, rpm, flatpak, snap etc could benefit to this as they can just put their uninstall commands on those entries.

https://redd.it/1nxlbw0
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Why this man is still working
https://redd.it/1nxlilc
@r_linux

How We're Redesigning Audacity For The Future
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYM3TWf_G38

https://redd.it/1nxp9t2
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Rate my setup
https://redd.it/1nxrzys
@r_linux

This Week in Plasma: 6.5 beta 2
https://blogs.kde.org/2025/10/04/this-week-in-plasma-6.5-beta-2/

https://redd.it/1nxt18o
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Enhancing your internal notebook speakers without using an Equalizer (Easy Effects)
https://wwmm.github.io/easyeffects/guide_1.html

https://redd.it/1nxv8uz
@r_linux

How can someone have Git commits from 1998 if Git was created in 2005?

https://preview.redd.it/ut70xp3jj4tf1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=bdd7d0938b0a0fd7cb2186e90557ffb139b35d2b


I noticed that some GitHub repositories show a commit history starting from the late 1990s — even though Git was released in 2005 and GitHub launched in 2007.

How is that possible? Were those projects using a different version control system before Git and then imported the history, or can commit dates be manually faked somehow?

Curious to know how this works under the hood.

https://redd.it/1nxz0lr
@r_linux

What proprietary software do you use, and what open source alternatives have you tried using?

I recently watched this video: https://youtu.be/kiQif7dYBxY regarding some good quality closed source apps.

Do you have any that you can't live without? If you've used any open source alternatives to that software, what make you stick with the original?

https://redd.it/1nxyk5q
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Many Debian/Ubuntu Packages for Intel Accelerators & Other Intel Software Have Been Orphaned

Source: Many Debian/Ubuntu Packages For Intel Accelerators & Other Intel Software Have Been Orphaned - Phoronix

Intro: "In addition to some Intel Linux kernel drivers being "orphaned" following the corporate restructuring at Intel between developers being laid off and others deciding to pursue opportunities elsewhere, these changes have also led to a number of Intel-related software packages within Debian being orphaned. In turn these Intel packages are also relied on by Ubuntu and other downstream Debian Linux distributions.

Around one dozen Intel packages within the Debian archive were recently orphaned, a.k.a. now being unmaintained following developer departures from Intel with no one currently taking up the new responsibility, with also needing to be a Debian Developer or Debian Maintainer to contribute".

https://redd.it/1nxyxab
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Don't question it I just really love Linux.
https://redd.it/1ny7bd0
@r_linux

Did my drive just die on me?
https://redd.it/1ny9fjh
@r_linux

NFS at 40: Remembering the Sun Microsystems Network File System
https://nfs40.online/

https://redd.it/1nybe89
@r_linux

Found this funny meme and thought I’d share it
https://redd.it/1nydg0k
@r_linux

How Do I Make The Switch Smooth?
https://redd.it/1nykbji
@r_linux

Linux Desktop Security: 5 Key Measures
https://youtube.com/watch?v=IqXK8zUfDtA&si=rtDjR2sEAMzMn7p2

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

Multiply kernels on one system.

There has been a new LWN article released on setting up multiple kernels so that they can run on different cores. (It's all a very early non-functioning prototype.) This to me at first sounded like a very low level gimmick with no applications for the average user but, I thought that if it may be possible to run the windows kernel on one of your cores and launch an anti cheat through it, maybe you'd be able to run games that require anti cheat on Linux?

If someone could explain how and if such a thing would be possible that would make my day.

I don't have any knowledge regarding kernels or how they work so correct my understanding, but what I'm picturing is that if you have an application like an AC run on a Windows kernel, all of it's syscalls would be picked up by the Windows kernel so it would think it's installed on a Windows OS. I see a lot of problems that I'm not knowledgeable enough to be able to think about. For one, how do you marry the different multitasking solutions of different kernels so that applications can communicate between each other? If one kernel has it's space in RAM where applications live, and takes care of context switches between it's apps how does it know that it can communicate with an app that's outside of it's own space. How does the AC detect that the game is running if it isn't a part of the RAM space/scheduler of it's kernel? I don't have a clue about any of this so if someone can explain some of this stuff to me I'd be very happy, I plan on learning more about operating systems and how they work when I have the time in the future.

https://lwn.net/Articles/1038847/

https://redd.it/1nytnb9
@r_linux

Linux/GRUB-based centralized selection of the booted system in the students' lab

I have a student's lab with many PCs that may boot one of a few operating systems.
When the classes start, students must ensure that the proper operating system is selected and booted in the GRUB menu.
However, when I or another teacher needs to do some maintenance work, it is a nightmare to switch all those machines one by one and select the right system.
It is also a problem when Windows must be updated, which requires multiple unattended reboots.
Therefore, we need a central management system enabling the selection of the right system to be booted.
The natural solution would be to use a network server from which those machines can get information on which system to boot. In our lab, there is one teacher's machine that runs Linux, so it is trivial to do in a certain directory:
`echo linux > bootsel; python3 -m http.server`
or
`echo windows > bootsel; python3 -m http.server`

The problem is how it can be handled in GRUB. I spent some time checking the documentation, searching the web, and finally discussing it with ChatGPT (see [https://chatgpt.com/share/68caeb90-d734-800c-b404-88bd71393528](https://chatgpt.com/share/68caeb90-d734-800c-b404-88bd71393528) ).

Grub may load the file from the HTTP server. The commands below display the contents of such a file (I assume that the server has IP [10.0.2.2](http://10.0.2.2) \- like in the case of a QEMU-emulated machine):
`insmod http`
`insmod net`
`insmod efinet`
`cat (http,10.0.2.2:8000)/bootsel`

The question is, how can we use the contents of this downloaded file? Grub does not allow storing that content in a variable so that it could be later compared with constants.
Theoretically, the standard solution should be getting the whole grub configuration from the server and using it via:
`configfile (http,10.0.2.2:8000)/bootsel`
Such an approach is, however, insecure. Just imagine what could happen if somebody injects a malicious grub configuration.
After some further experimenting, I have found the right solution. Possible boot options should be stored in files on the students' machines:

`echo windows > /opt/boot_win`
`echo debian > /opt/boot_debian`
`echo ubuntu > /opt/boot_ubuntu`

Then we should add getting the file from the server and setting the default grub menu entry.
That is achieved by creating the /etc/grub.d/04\_network file with the following contents (you may need to adjust the menu entry numbers):

#!/bin/sh
exec tail -n +3 $0
# Be careful not to change the 'exec tail' line above.

insmod http
insmod net
insmod efinet

net_bootp

set default=0
if cmp (http,10.0.2.2:8000)/bootsel /opt/boot_win; then
set default=2
fi

if cmp (http,10.0.2.2:8000)/bootsel /opt/boot_debian; then
set default=3
fi

# Ubuntu is the default menu entry 0, so I don't need to handle it there

The attributes of the file should be the same as of other files in /etc/grub.d. Of course, update-grub must be run after the above file is created.

Please note, that the selected approach still enables manual selecting of the booted system in the GRUB menu. It only changes the default system booted without the manual selection.

If the HTTP server is not started, the default menu entry will be used after some delay.

Please remember, that the network stack must be enabled in BIOS. Otherwise, GRUB won't be able to access the server.

https://redd.it/1njj42w
@r_linux