What distro should I choose? (I know...proably the 87th guy asking today!) sick of windows shenanigans, win 11 basically makes me nauseous! Ready to make the switch

I'm a web developer, so comfortable with command line, however...I don't want to use it for OS, would rather use a GUI

I don't want to tinker with stuff, I just want something fast, clean and low maintenance, don't need eye candy.

I don't play video games, this is for work.

I don't need bleeding edge features, I'm a "if it ain't broken, don't fix it" kind of guy

Need something easy to use, but not bloated for beginners...

What do you guys recommend?

https://redd.it/1nz6cm9
@r_linux

Looking for a pointer: Accessibility on Linux; discussion group

Basically all my friends are visually impaired and with the imending end of win10, the recent "hype" on Youtube about switching to Linux and whatnot, I have had my hands full answering questions, explaining things, and at times even recommending a variety of methods to "just try it out".

But, the biggest of them was:

- Do I get a screen magnifier?
- What about the screen reader situation - is Orca any good?
* Does Orca work on Wayland or is it X11 bound?
- Can I use global keyboard shortcuts to save myself some mousing around?

Well, I have a spare old MacBook here, and soon I will have a SteamOS maschine (so, Arch on SystemD/KDE/GameScope in Wayland via AMDGPU) so I will be experimenting a lot. However, I would love to provide good answers to my friends and on the other side find the people I'd have to talk to to figure out where to donate or set up bounties to get certain projects going and rolling. I hope that by going this route, I can possibly find some capable hands to implement - or perhaps fix - the accessibility situation on Linux.

So if you happen to know any Subreddit, forum, mailing list or alike - please drop them here, I'd love to check them out and see what I can do for both my friends and myself also. I mean, I am grasping at win10 as much as I can too lol. Hopefuly I can switch some day also. But I am heavily reliant on screen magnification and both keyboard _and_ mouse shortcuts to work them quickly. Nobody likes waiting, and imagine having to tap something like `meta`+`+` 20 times just to zoom in - its just too slow lol.

Thank you in advance and kind regards!

https://redd.it/1nz7fx4
@r_linux

Any maintainers for the vi code editor project?

Are there any maintainers actively maintaining the vi project?

Vi is such a simple modal text editor and I like that about it. Currently i'm trying to get the hand of the source code. Would like to contribute for bug fixes in the near time.


Also if anyone knows of how vim is an upgrade over vi in terms of the changes introduced. I have used vim and Ik about the customizing but other than that what changes are done to it?

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

about r/linux moderators

Almost a week ago, I posted about being able to compile the kernel for the first time. Now, the post has the status "post awaiting moderation." Why did I get this? I didn't get a reason. I wrote to the moderators, but they're ignoring me. Has everyone been ignored like this by moderators, or do they hate me?

https://redd.it/1nzcj2a
@r_linux

Managing Zip files with SQL queries
https://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20251006#tips

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

I love Linux migration stories. People really started to see FREEDOM!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlTgkkd-I9A

https://redd.it/1nzkdv4
@r_linux

GIMP 3.0.6 Released
https://www.gimp.org/news/2025/10/06/gimp-3-0-6-released/

https://redd.it/1nzmcd4
@r_linux

I made an all-in-one USB drive as a farewell gift for a colleague
https://redd.it/1nzpb5k
@r_linux

Installing Linux on Hundreds of "Obsolete" Computers
https://youtu.be/NHLTOdsqDRg

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

Linux Means Less Pain

Yes, I occasionally have issues with Linux that I need to resolve and, yes, I occasionally need to visit the command line to do this, but, after being off Windows 11 for over a year I had to come back to it for some things today.

It was so painful, so frustratingly slow, so many hangs while I waited for things to happen AND IT DID THIS ALL DAY LONG.

Between the Antimalware Service, Windows Defender, .NET Optimization Service, and all the other CPU and I/O-sapping process that Windows is constantly running on and off, I'm surprised anyone is able to get any work done without being frustrated as the OS itself is using the majority of the system resources just to keep itself up float.

It's truly astonishing.

Microsoft should be paying us to use this operating system due to all the time and efficiency lost as a result of Windows just trying to manage itself.

https://redd.it/1nztk3j
@r_linux

lighthearted linux bloat competition

for this you need perf installed (eg linux-perf package in debian).

after booting/rebooting, open terminal in the simplest manner you can. then write "free -h" (or more likely look up in terminal history for convenience). the "used" column in the "mem" row is your result for this. you can rerun this as many times as you want and pick the best result, if you want!

after doing that, run "sudo perf stat -a sleep 10" in the same terminal. or equivalent if your system has different syntax. this measures all activity that occurs during the 10 second sleep that it executes, over the entire system.

from the output, "context-switches", "page-faults" and "branch-misses" are your result!

there is no strong reason why i picked these exact stats: context-switches are supposedly slow things, page faults i don't know much about at this level (other than that something was not found and work needs to be done), and branch-misses roughly measures the hot codepath size (in my opinion).

feel free to post your results (with a short denoscription of your system) and discuss why the numbers are so big.

in the past when people have measured (desktop environment) bloat, they have generally compared ram consumption. this can be relevant for (old) low end machines. occasionally people have compared boot times, which do not seem too interesting for me (but can certainly matter for old machines). but i haven't seen people actually measuring how much work the cpu has to do when the system is "idling".

my results with stock debian 13, x11 xfce preset from installer with slight usability tweaks are:

system|used mem|context-switches|page-faults|branch-misses
:--|:--|:--|:--|:--
debian 13, x11 xfce|892 Mi|572|82|771k

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

FrOSCon: AI slop attacks on the curl project - Daniel Stenberg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6n2eDcRjSsk

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

AntiX software.

Will AntiX be updated soon??? I am trying to find a Debian distro that is easy on my computer hardware. Right now it is the easiest on my computer as free comes in at about 500K... Any suggestions would be appreciated...



https://redd.it/1o04zbr
@r_linux

Windows 10 refugee here, I want to change to Linux but I don't know where to start

Last time I used Linux was around 2014, more than ten years ago. I spent some weeks trying several distros and eventually Elementary OS became my main until Windows 10 released and I changed again for gaming and digital art.

Now that Windows 10 is not being supported anymore it's time to change again, but I don't know where to start.

Ubuntu seems like the best option due to great hardware compatibility (my laptop is AMD and the drivers for a wacom tablet may be harder to.come by in Linux) but the concept of snaps are rubbing me in the wrong way. I prefer Flatpaks, community owned over owned by a company that's pushing snaps more and more everyday and obligatory updates I didn't ask for.

Debian 13 sounds okay, but I've never used Debian before, I don't know how it goes with hardware compatibility, digital art and maybe gaming (for gaming is not that obligatory, I own a Steam Deck anyways).

I'm lost, it's been more than ten years, any advice?

https://redd.it/1o08qdu
@r_linux

LibreOffice project and community recap: September 2025
https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2025/10/07/libreoffice-project-and-community-recap-september-2025/

https://redd.it/1o094qg
@r_linux

Google Confirms Non-ADB APK Installs Will Require Developer Registration
https://hackaday.com/2025/10/06/google-confirms-non-adb-apk-installs-will-require-developer-registration/

https://redd.it/1o0ab8t
@r_linux

Qualcomm Acquires Arduino, Announces Arduino UNO Q Built On Dragonwing
https://www.phoronix.com/news/Qualcomm-Acquires-Arduino

https://redd.it/1o0gf2y
@r_linux

NixOS saved me from leaving Linux

Preface:

About 6\~7 years ago, I became fed up with Windows. "10" was the last version I ever used, however I've used Windows for over three decades, since Windows 3.1 to eventually 10.

My main reason for leaving Windows was simply this: I saw the early trend of a near dystopian future in Windows. Microsoft feeding me ads to use their products, promoting their news sources within the desktop itself, cracking down on user privacy, the very annoying "ran Windows update, met with a "setup screen" that asks to collect all my personal information again", and repeat and rinse... I began to feel like I no longer owned my computer because I had no control of what Microsoft was cramming into the Windows eco system.

Now, I understand there's workarounds to removing such things in Windows, but I was also aware that Windows could run an update, forcing users to re-implment and tweak those work arounds again. I'm not really into customizing my desktop; I just want my desktop to work for me, or not change once it's set. Windows couldn't give me that option, and when you own multiple devices, it's such a pain to manage them all.

Windows 11 requirements was the final blow, and their system requirements are still baffling to this day. While the rest of the Windows community were finding workarounds, I was pretty fed up. By 2019, I was done with Windows.

Also, I have to say, the beginning of the pandemic, and being in lock down, was also a good time to try something new, especially while isolated with a few computers. The timing for me was impeccable.

\----

I recently was reading this sub ( https://www.reddit.com/r/opensource/comments/1nzkxg8/what\_open\_source\_solution\_doesnt\_exist\_for\_you/ ) , and as sobering as it felt, to awaken to such lack of open source solutions, I felt I needed to chime in my thoughts of where I'm at with Linux today.

I've been tinkering with Linux since late 2018, but I couldn't fully commit to using it as my main rider. I've used Windows for such a long time, and had my uses for computing, especially for DJing and file management.

I first started with Ubuntu Studio. I've read that it was good for folks who dwindle in multimedia. However, it wasn't the best introduction into Linux. I didn't understand anything, and everything was very blunt and a confusing experience, and a lot of the software I've just never heard about before. Nonetheless, I had to push forward to figure out if Linux could be a thing I can migrate to, coming from this damning Windows experience.

Some friends had recommended some distros to me, notably Arch and Fedora. Arch was way too steep for me. I even tried Manjaro, and it was a unstable experience. Distros that randomly stop working when you've only booted them, or stop working after running a system update, was a bad out of the box experience.

I eventually found myself on Fedora "Design Suite", using GNOME, and it was stable enough for me to explore. I spent about 3 years learning Linux through that RedHat distro, and it was a pleasant experience. I eventually learned to love running a distro in Vanilla, as it gave me more control of what I was putting into my system, allowing me to understand each program and their use. These suites, or prepackaged installers, they're neat for non-computer literate people, or people who want to use a computer for one single thing. I eventually evolved out of pre-packaged distro suites because I didn't always agree with what they used, and wanted to choose packages myself.

Fedora was a great experience, but when it came to managing multiple computers, I needed to find a better solution. For a time, I was writing and using bash noscripts that would install all the packages I needed, and would do minor tweaking to GNOME to make it suitable for my liking. Cloning was an option, but it didn't always work out for me, and I felt better building a system from scratch rather than: "resizing" a drive, changing

UUID, separating my home files from the cloning process, and etc. Cloning also didn't really help when I had to update multiple systems, so I had to abandon that idea.

I had a decent system, but I needed something more streamlined. Fedora was a great experience, but I still feared Linux possibly crashing, and managing multiple systems wasn't the most ideal.

I had to keep a backup Windows laptop for those "rainy days", and I couldn't commit to only using Linux because of the fear of a random or user-caused system crash. I had a "system" for managing Windows, and I had all the programs I needed, but I hated Windows' invasion into my world. At this point, I was dual booting and flip flopping between the two, until I could figure out if Linux could become my main driver.

Personal note: I believe that if it takes more time and work to build a system to your needs, it's not worth the work. Especially for if this device gets stolen, if the OS breaks, if you lose your work... not worth it. For people who work in creative spaces, you want all the programs, utilities, accessories to be available. Your tools are your solutions. If you have to search for solutions, or fix problems, it really impedes on your motivation and creative flow.

I wound up trying NixOS, which had a learning curve of about 2\~4 weeks. It wasn't as bad as jumping into Linux and not understanding a single thing: terminal/konsole, running and figuring out broken CLs, figuring out how to configure settings, how to enable certain drivers to work, and etc. It didn't help that it wasn't Linux FHS compliant, but the words immutable, declarative, and easy to replicate, made it worth trying out.

NixOS wasn't a perfect experience, but rebuilding a system with only 15\~30 minutes worth of work, while a computer would run un-monitored for a couple of hours, made it much easier for me to manage. If a system broke, I would revert to an older generation before it broke. If that didn't work, I'd do some troubleshooting. If that didn't work, I'd just backup the home files, rebuild the system with the configuration file, and wait; not much thinking after that. The solutions were easy, quick, and not laborious.

NixOS would rarely break, and sometimes it was caused by me, either doing a dirty shutdown during updates, or messing up the generations. But even then, there were so many protective barriers, and it made the experience of using Linux less stressful, and allowed me to experiment and grow.

Reflecting back to that subreddit link, it's true: open source is very limited and is very lacking. I can only hope that open source community continues to gain more popularity, more users, and more support. I do see how closed source software is also making its way through Linux, but I truly think the opensource experience holds the best spirit of community contributions. Through open source software and Linux distros, it does come down to giving users, and even creatives, control of their work and system, but more importantly, reliability.

NixOS helped solidify that I was going to stay on Linux in the future, and I no longer fear losing work or my time.

https://redd.it/1o0ivwq
@r_linux

Linux while a student

Hi there, I’m still trying to get the hang of linux so forgive me if this is a daft question.

I just got a thinkpad and I’ve been wanting to use it as my main laptop for university, and I really want to run linux on it. It just looks really fun, and I would like to break away from Microsoft.

The only thing I’m worried about, is that my uni uses many Microsoft applications and runs almost entirely off Moodle. Sorry if this is daft but can I still access all that while running Linux?

Thank you!

https://redd.it/1o0jowm
@r_linux

X11 / Xorg Logo spotted in Italy !!?
https://redd.it/1o0mhw8
@r_linux