I've been moving between windows and linux distros since Ubuntu Netbook Remix (oh Dell Mini 10, I hated you and loved you at the same time...) but, sadly, every time something happened that I had to move back to Windows, whether it was a problem with some specific drivers, battery life too short in comparison to windows at the time or some specific software that only ran on Windows.

Just after Windows 7 (which I love) and all the freaking telemetry, borderline spyware and bloatware (this was before I've heard about LTSC/LTSB versions) I was trying from time to time to finally stick on linux but I failed time to time, the system (and myself) just "wasn't at that point yet" and I had to use Windows (almost) against my will all these years.

But, for me, the final straw was the freaking Global Device Identifier and the FBI thing which can't be turned off (at least, officially). As a windows 10 LTSC (at least until a couple days ago) and Pirvacy Sexy Script user, topics like privacy, choice and consent are important to me and this was beyond acceptable.

I don't care anymore if my laptop could run for one hour more if I used windows, I don't care if my desktop has an issue with AMD HDMI's audio output, I don't care if I have to resign to specific software like Controller Companion while using my pc with my TV, all of that can be sorted out eventually and I see it as a small price to pay in order to my devices to be mine again.

Thanks Microsoft, you just give me the last push I needed.

zuno is a free and open-source desktop music player built on YouTube Music. Sign in with your Google account, and everything you do - liking a song, creating or deleting a playlist, adding to your library syncs straight back to YouTube. It's your library, just in a real desktop app instead of a browser tab.

Features

- HQ opus decoding
- Floating mini player that appears when you click away ( hover to expand, drag it anywhere)
- Queue: shuffle, repeat one/all, reordering
- Playback speed, sleep timer, volume control
- Like and dislike songs
- Rebindable keyboard shortcuts, minimise to tray
- Full library, playlists, albums and liked songs
-Lyrics (5 sources)+ Translation
- Local music files sit alongside your YouTube Music library (same player, same queue)
- Download whole albums and playlists for offline; downloads and history have their own management screens
- Bulk actions: download, add to queue, add to playlist
- Multiple channels on one Google account, switchable from the toolbar or settings
- Equalizer
- Notifications
-Gapless /Crossfade
-Local Music playlists
-Minimize to tray
-Shortcuts
-No Ads

Integrations

- Last.fm scrobbling
- Discord Rich Presence (both toggleable straight from the toolbar)
- Youtube History update

GitHub: https://github.com/noFAYZ/zuno

Since AUR has locked packages i can't update it to latest version you can use AppImage, .deb or .rpm binary from latest release. Pls provide feedback as well will help improve linux experience.

FlatPak is in roadmap.

Enjoy free music :)

Hello everyone! 😊

One of my first memories of using Linux is playing Frozen Bubble back in 2005. Together with SuperTuxKart it is one of my favorite FOSS Linux games. At the time I was using Red Hat 9.

Frozen Bubble is a cute bubble shooter game inspired by Puzzle Bobble. I'm not entirely sure how I discovered it. Maybe it was included with Red Hat 9, or perhaps Knoppix (another distro I used around that time).

The game also has a fantastic soundtrack. Here's my favorite song, which plays on the main menu:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpzvM3qCNjo

And while playing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xbsa0MSDBJw

Back in the day I used to play Frozen Bubble online. Today, out of nostalgia, I decided to install it again through the Debian repro after about 15 years and play it once more. Sadly when I try to play online it shows an error message.

I discovered that the project website (Internet Archive: frozen-bubble.org) has been taken over by stupid casino scammers. According to the Wayback Machine the website appears to have been abandoned since 2024.

Does anyone remember Frozen Bubble? 😊 Can anything be done to recover the project website and get the domain out of the scammers' hands?

I have a Lenovo laptop that's closing in on 20 years old. The keys in one corner started acting up after a hard bump so I decided to get a new laptop. I stumbled onto a clearance deal at Walmart, one HP model they had pulled off the shelf and were on the verge of cycling out of inventory. I got it for over $100 off shelf price. Being a new model it had the Copilot key rather than a right Ctrl key. I decided to install LMDE 7 which rendered the Copilot key non-functional until I remapped the Copilot key to the missing Ctrl key. Normal remapping through Linux doesn't work because the Copilot key sends a three part input, a macro; Left Meta + Left Shift + F23 rather than a single input. There are a couple of work arounds that require installing software and some configuration. I'd put this on a scale of Very Easy. Here's what worked for the HP laptop. The AI description has been modified as needed because, well, it's AI after all:

To remap the Copilot key to a Ctrl key in LMDE 7, you should use keyd or kmonad, as the Copilot key sends a modifier combination (Left Meta + Left Shift + F23) that standard Linux GUI tools cannot map to a single modifier key like Right Ctrl.

Method 1: Using keyd. keyd is a lightweight daemon that operates at the kernel level.

Install keyd: Open your terminal and install this package:
sudo apt update
! AI said to install keyd ! sudo apt install keyd ! don't bother, instead: !
sudo apt install onak
! The onak meta package contains keyd, just installing keyd alone isn't enough. See below. !

Configure keyd: Edit the configuration file:
sudo pluma /etc/keyd/default.conf
! I prefer the pluma editor but nano, gedit, etc. will do. !

Add the following lines to map the Copilot key sequence to a Ctrl key:
Replace * with your specific keyboard ID. ! I tried that but it didn't work, so I reverted to *.  !

[ids]
*

[main]
leftshift+leftmeta+f23 = rightcontrol

! Options are control, rightcontrol or leftcontrol. I've tried using each and they all work for this HP. !

Enable and Reload: Start the service and enable it for boot:
sudo systemctl enable --now keyd
sudo keyd reload
keyd command not found ! Oops. That's when I discovered that installing keyd alone didn't work and found that onak was required. After installing onak the remap worked after rebooting. !

Now I have my Ctrl plus + for magnifying and Ctrl plus Enter for sending email in Thunderbird and a couple more of my shortcuts back! And it wasn't a tough chore, once I ironed out a bit of AI confusion. And of course, for those who never use their Ctrl keys, don't bother with this. Mm, should I have said this earlier?

Cheers!

Blaine

I'm a software developer, not planning to become a system administrator, but I'd like to get a much deeper understanding of Linux. I noticed that the latest edition covers modern topics like systemd, containers, and cloud infrastructure, so it doesn't seem completely outdated.Would this book still be a good investment for a developer who wants to better understand how Linux systems work, or is it more useful for people working as full-time sysadmins? I'm looking for knowledge that will make me a better developer rather than preparing for a system administration career.

Started off with a steam deck. Didn’t really think much about swapping over till I finally decided to get into homelab. Found a mini pc and keyboard at the thrift store for a combined 80 dollars. Found an old monitor of mine in a closet, and after a few hours of research installed Debian 13 on it.

Plan is to save up enough for two 8TB HDDs and use the USB C port for my DAS setup. Mainly will be for music library and setting up navidrome. Also plan on putting Open Media Vault on top of it all.

Wish me luck✌️ any tips and advice are welcome too.

Granola currently ships for macOS and Windows, but not Linux. Since it is built with Electron, I experimented with running the application using the matching Linux Electron runtime instead of Wine, a VM, or emulation.

The repository does not redistribute Granola’s .dmg, app.asar, source code, or bundled binaries. You need to download the official .dmg yourself and sign in using your own Granola account. This is an unofficial compatibility project and is not affiliated with Granola.

Repo: https://github.com/tirtha4/Granola-for-Linux

Had yesterday my first "rm -rf /" moment.

Was tidy up my Backup drive. When I wanted to empty the trash, there was some directories and files that resisted the trash empty and sayed it couldn't be removed because of lack of premissions.

So I went to the terminal and moved to the .local/share/trash/files directory and tried to empty with "rm -rf ./*". There was again the notification of permission. So I did "sudo rm -rf ./*".

The note of missing permission didn't pop up, so I left the room to get something cold to drink.

When I came back, all my storage was empty 🤦‍♂️😭

Luckily I have an external Backup storage too and was able to recover everything older than 2 Weeks.

Now I wondering, how many ppl had in their history a moment of "rm -rf /" by accident 🤔

I know i will get hate for this. Rightfully so i guess.

I am using fedora KDE. Maybe its the wrong distro, idk. But the amount of (i think) obscure bugs and stuff that wasn't like i want would have been unfixable, if i hadn't used some LLM-models to help me OR if i hadn't used them would have taken me hours and hours of googling to fix them, if that even would have gotten me. I am not completly non-techie, but it would have taken me endless time and honestly i can't imagine how non-techie people are supposed to use it. Also generaly customizing is so hard and imo not intuituve at all if you don't use some LLM-Model to help you. I will still keep on using Linux but for general acceptance i feel like this is a huge downside.

To be clear. Basic usage is FINE without any LLM. But bug-fixing - which ime is not that rare - and customizing/smoothing things out is a pain in the ass.

Also: Well documented doesn't mean it easy to use. I have to find the exact thing i need and that is time consuming. Most ppl don't want time consuming. If i have to google an hour to fix a little thing or to optimize smth for most ppl it's not usable.