r/linuxquestions

I have gotten most of Sibelius running on wine and I am left with 3 issues.

Issue 1:

The Text is pixelate. This might be a DPI issue. When I turn up the dpi the text isn't pixelated but the bar up the top with the close window is showing and all the proportions are messed up.

Issue 2:

There is a small white rectangular box that appears when I run Sibelius. This isn't really a problem as I can just close it.

Issue 3:

When I run Sibelius I get this error:

Error: 40203 The driver was not enabled. (MMSYSTEM/IN)

The rest of the program still works fine except for the Sibelius sounds.(that includes the startup music)

Any help would be appreciated. Also if someone could tell me how to get a verbose terminal out put of a wine app that would be great so I can see if there are any missing dlls or similar.

So, a few US states have started requiring age verification to install operating systems. Aside from whether this is a sensible decision, why is it even possible in linux?

Linux is famously free and open source (most distros, anyways) and users can tinker with any aspect of their distro that they want. So what is to stop users from just yanking out the part of the installation program that does the age check? Or couldn't they download a script file that would do it for them?

Am I being naive? What am I missing?

Thanks

Some allow you to se the system one but many applications not, for example:

- Chrome Web Apps

- Edge

- Steam

- Discord

- Interactive Broker

- Trading View

- VS Code

If I am just a regular user in the system, and root user is dead, what should I do?

I use this pc for gaming (I use steam idk if that impacts anything) I’ve heard that Nvidia gpus run worse on some distros (compared to windows) and I would like to avoid this. if this is not possible I would like to minimalize any performance hit. I value space on my ssd and low memory usage. I would also like to retain some if my files and data (mostly game save files) and I don’t have an external drive to back up my data, so if somebody has a solution to this or would be much appreciated.

specs:

i9 14900f

RTX 4070 Ti SUPER

32gb ddr5

1 terabyte ssd

(it’s an Alienware prebuilt idk if that impacts anything (yes I know that I overpaid but it’s the computer I have and I’m not building a new one during the ram crisis as long as this one can hold up))

VLC twas showing frequent stuttering, and laggy when i jump betweens different moments in the TL often. BTW 4k on it made the player blow up, lol.

Atm I'm using Debian 13, with GNOME.

Hi everyone,

I’m an engineering student and I’ll need to use software like Autodesk Inventor and similar CAD tools for my classes.

The thing is, I’ve been trying to avoid using Windows and wanna try Linux or any OS for my daily workflow. But Inventor seems to be Windows-only, so I’m not sure what the most practical setup is.

For people who regularly use Inventor or other CAD software:

• Do you just run Windows as your main OS? • Do you use Linux + Windows dual boot? • Has anyone tried running Inventor in a VM with decent performance? • Or do you keep a separate Windows machine just for CAD?

Basically I’m trying to figure out whether avoiding Windows here is realistic, or if it’s just easier to accept Windows for engineering software.

Curious what setups other people are using.

First of all, if you have no clue just ignore this post. Im really noob and i have to install linux in this desktop. The least i want to hear is "linux isn't for you" 😭.

My laptop is Lenovo legion R7000P ADR10, r9 8945hx, rtx5060. Idk what cause it to randomly freeze, i try three distro so far which is nix, fedora and cachyos. I try installing nix from tty and it freeze when i installing package. So i move on from nix to fedora For fedora and cachyos, i try installing it multiple time and it froze at random. I cant update the all package because during that time too. Since it in live cd i dont know how to get the log of previous installation. I have succeed once for cachyos by installing without dual boot with window, and while using it i experience same freeze. I ignore it and reinstall the window and since then i never succeed installing cachyos again.

I have tried adding nomodeset during installation but it still wont work. I also try sysrq, didn't work, but im not sure if my key is correct.

Does anyone know what's going on and how to fix it? If you need more details tell me

Seriously, what the hell is this? Since when did Linux turn into Windows?

I'm running Kubuntu and I came back to my PC today only to find it had rebooted without my permission. Yesterday, it was nagging me to restart because it decided to update the system on its own, and apparently, it just took the liberty of doing it for me while I was away.

I just lost a month of progress on a biochemical simulation. It was a non-savable model, and it’s all gone because the OS decided its "updates" were more important than my uptime.

I use Linux to avoid this intrusive, babysitting bullshit. If I wanted an OS that restarts whenever it feels like it, I would have stayed on Windows. Is there a way to kill this "feature" permanently, or do I need to find a new distro that actually respects the user?

Absolutely fuming right now.

The irony is that I was less than 24 hours away from completing the entire simulation.

EDIT: No worries, I am OK - wounds healed already - new lesson / know how learned, Just surprised after 13 month of Kubuntu usage. I will try to solve it by suggestions you mentioned. I love Linux either way, much better than newer Windows.

Anyone here willing to suggest a clean and fast e-reader for linux (i use arch btw)

I tried readest and even though it works perfectly.. its way too resource intensive for some reason so pls suggest me one

thx

I’ve been exploring Linux recently and noticed that many users seem really passionate about it. From customization and performance to privacy and open-source freedom, there are many reasons people love Linux.

For you personally, what is the most satisfying thing about using Linux?

Is it the control, the learning experience, the community, or something else?"

Is Debian a suitable Linux distribution for new/returning users if one's hardware supports it?

I used mostly Apple products from the beginning of 2015 to the beginning of 2025

I highly admire the free software ethos and respect distributions like Debian that uphold it

Also should I use Debian stable or Debian testing?

This is what happens when I run GNU Parallel

$ parallel 
Academic tradition requires you to cite works you base your article on.
If you use programs that use GNU Parallel to process data for an article in a
scientific publication, please cite:

  Tange, O. (2026, February 22). GNU Parallel 20260222 ('Epstein files').
  Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18735643

This helps funding further development; AND IT WON'T COST YOU A CENT.
If you pay 10000 EUR you should feel free to use GNU Parallel without citing.

More about funding GNU Parallel and the citation notice:
https://www.gnu.org/software/parallel/parallel_design.html#citation-notice

To silence this citation notice: run 'parallel --citation' once.

Come on: You have run parallel 25 times. Isn't it about time 
you run 'parallel --citation' once to silence the citation notice?

parallel: Warning: Input is read from the terminal. You are either an expert
parallel: Warning: (in which case: YOU ARE AWESOME!) or maybe you forgot
parallel: Warning: ::: or :::: or -a or to pipe data into parallel. If so
parallel: Warning: consider going through the tutorial: man parallel_tutorial
parallel: Warning: Press CTRL-D to exit.

(Fiio KA11 DAC, Sennheiser HD560S and CachyOS)

in KDE audio settings it allows me to select a few options for the profile: Analog Stereo Output, Digital Stereo (IEC958) Output, Digital Surround 5.1 (IEC958/AC3) Output and then Pro Audio

I noticed that with Pro Audio my audio quality (hz) changes based on what I am listening to prioritzed by what was launched first, is this what I should use then? Pro Audio? or something else

Okay, imagine this: no distro hopping. No “just testing this in a VM.” No reinstalling every few months because something shiny came out.

You have to choose one distro and stick with it for the next 5 years.

What are you picking — and why?

Would you go for something super stable and boring (in a good way)?

Or something bleeding-edge that keeps things exciting?

Do you care more about customization? Community? Corporate backing?

I’m really curious how people think long-term about this instead of just chasing the next release. What would be your 5-year distro and what makes it worth committing to?

In a time before privacy concerns existed you could finger users to find out their personal information. It has fallen out of favor and is not installed by default in many distros. If devs have to add age verification, it seems like the perfect command.

Every once in a while (I don't think theres a pattern) my monitors will go black for about 3 seconds and when they come back there is a notification from KWin Window Manager that says "Desktop effects were restarted due to a graphics reset" Anyone know how to fix this? Tried updating the system with sudo pacman -Syu already.
CachyOS and KDE
Specs:
AMD 7800X3D
AMD RX 7900 XT
32GB 6000MT/S CL30 DDR5 RAM
Samsung 980 Pro 2TB
GIGABYTE B650 Eagle AX

i have been using linux for not that long, however i prefer it to windows by a lot, and im considering getting a new laptop since the one im using right now is quite old and slow, and one thing ive noticed is that a lot of linux users use thinkpads, so i was wondering if there is a specific reason for this? if i use linux as my main OS should i get a thinkpad?

the font rendering is really inconsistent and bad, (please don't comment that it works well for you if you have a 4k monitor or really high PPI display, or if you're using a high scaling or font sizes. because on that resolution/scaling regardless of how bad the rendering is, is it will still look good). Here's an example of Inter font, same scaling, same everything, between Windows and Linux:

I tried messing with the font hinting and font anti-aliasing. it seems like they don't affect most apps, and it usually looks particularly bad on dark backgrounds (light text on dark backgrounds). I also tried messing with "FREETYPE_PROPERTIES" on /etc/environment, but that didn't do anything either. And Inter font is not even the worst example, I'd say it looks better than most fonts, I've seen worst (like Discord's font, Poppins, and more).

I also tried different distros and DEs, the rendering looks the same on all of them, and the smaller the text the worst it gets.

Edit: it's NOT a font problem, and yes I I took out fonts from my windows dual boot, and put them on linux, not even an old package of Microsoft fonts, all fresh new. Also the example I provided isn't even a Windows font, just to clear that maaaybe microsoft optimize their own proprietary fonts. But no, this applies to all fonts regardless.

for some reason I'm getting down voted for asking for help or if someone manged to find a workaround

Update: First of all, thanks to all the people who suggested fixes, explanations and tweaks, and who took the time to even try to replicate it on their own machines.

What Worked For Me: (at the time of writing)

Huge thanks to for suggesting this and for the detailed explanation on how to properly test and apply font rendering settings.

Results:
Pros:

• Massive improvement across nearly all apps

• Small text is more readable on ~90 PPI 100% scaling displays similar to Windows

Cons:

• Doesn't work on Chromium/Chrome or Electron apps (Discord, Obsidian, Feishin, Spotify, etc.), see explanation below.

• Some larger fonts may appear slightly too bold (can be fine-tuned)

Why Chromium Doesn't Work:
Chromium 133+ switched to a new font backend, and they completely removed FreeType support and the flag to disable it:
In the comparison I provided, it was an electron app. So Chromium/Electron problem, not a Fedora or Linux/distros problem

Other Notable Resources:
If doesn't work for you or you want to experiment with custom settings:

Arch Wiki - Font Configuration:
(Thanks )

Explanation on Testing Settings:
(Thanks )

HarfBuzz:
(Thanks )

I started training a small model for my college project and initially i use zram for this but my computer started freezing and could not run anything, after swapping my zram for my swap.img i am able to use my laptop. should i permanently change to swap.img or should i just toggle my memory based on my use case
i have 5.2GB ram

I switched from Windows 11 to CachyOS two weeks ago. My experience is really great, but in my opinion the biggest painpoint in the Linux ecosystems are mail clients.

I don't know any mail client which looks modern and clean. Why?

If you know a nice Linux mail client, please let me know. 🙏

I've hit an infuriating roadblock! I installed Kubuntu 25.10 recently on my desktop PC and everything has gone broadly well. But I use this computer for work, so I have moved my profile to systemd-homed for an encrypted home directory.

All has gone very well except for an intial issue with SDDM, but now I can't pull up a file picker dialogue for 'save as' when using Firefox on snap or Edge on Flatpak. I know it's a systemd-homed issue because the same occurs on another such account I created, but my wife's (regular) account is unaffected.

Google Gemini suggests it might be something to do with desktop portals, but to be honest this is a little beyond my knowledge. Since I routinely need to download documents to the desktop this is a problem.

Help!

Like the title says. I have a FXF Radeon HD 6850 on a fresh Linux install. Linux is detecting it. And from what I have researched the drivers should already be installed with Linux. But I'm not getting any video signal from it. I'm setting it up as a jellyfin server if that helps anyone. And integrated graphics work.

I've been using windows since I was six. I started with Windows 7 and recently got windows 11. We've all heard about how bad windows 11 is and I thought when i upgraded to windows 10 that was bad. Needless to say, I've been researching linux for some time now and I'm torn between mint and fedora. I like mint for stability, but i love having new updates. However I don't want to use arch based or arch linux because I don't want have to fix it if an update goes haywire. Mint's stable sure, but i want the updates. Which is why I'm considering fedora. I was wondering if fedora would be beginner friendly enough for me to start off with it for my first distro?

Edit: i choose fedora and love it! Thanks for the help

the command I'm using is "sudo rmdir -rf [file]"

the file is from an old minecraft server I use to run with friends and the file has all the player data inside.

Hello!

I am currently running windows 7 and wanted to switch to a more modern os and knowing what modern windows is like I want to use linux

The reason I am creating this post is because I have a gtx 1080 and a core i7 7700k which I heard do not like linux which might have changed in the last few years. I would also like to keep a few drives running on ntfs due to photos, pdfs and videos that I store on them, I want linux to only read them and not write anything to my *windows* drives.

A distro that can run some windows programs through compatibility layers, can only really Read ntfs drives and runs with my hardware is all I really need.

I will give you a heads up thank you for all recommendations and if I remember to log back into reddit I can provide more context for which you ask me

This is my first post so I want to say hello. I hope you are well.

I have small bug with Task Manager (Debian 13.3 Stable, KDE Plasma 6.3.6) - pinned LibreOffice apps appear in wrong place. When I open Writer/Calc file, icon appears in other place than I pinned it. When I move cursor on the icon it comes back to correct position. It's small issue but annoying a bit.

I searched the web and I found two possible resolutions:

1. Disable "Separate launchers" option - but I don't see it in my system (maybe I'm blind or stupid :D )

2. Create .desktop files - files exist.

Probably you need some outputs - which ones?

I will be grateful for your help. Unfortunately I'm a perfectionist and I want to resolve this bug. Thank you.

Hello there linux community. I have been a fan of linux ever since i learned about it 3 years ago but i havent been able to actually use linux on my pc. I got a pc last year with really good specs and i even got a dedicated drive just to use for linux and dualboot it with windows. But i was lazy and didnt install any linux distros on it. But now i think its time to actually start learning more about linux since Windows is getting enshittified by the day.

I currently have a 7950x3d CPU and a 4070 ti super GPU in my pc. From my knowledge nvidia GPU drivers dont really work well with linux so i wanted to ask what i could do to solve this issue.

Is there a specific distro with better nvidia drivers support ? Im going to be mainly gaming on linux so i want a distro optimized for that.

Thank you for your help 🙏.

I currently use Arch on my laptop alongside windows 11, and I'm looking to try out different distros, for example CachyOS or Fedora, and i would like to have my home directory on a separate partition to make any future distro hopping easier if i ever want to do that, while still keeping my windows installation.

How exactly should my partitions and their mount points look like for something like this?

Hi I am looking to make a custom rice for my use and I however I have some questions as to which tiling window manager would be best for my use case:

1. Supports wayland

2. Supports manual tiler.

3. Minimal RAM usage (not crazy low but just not bloated like any DEs out there)

4. That supports “xray” feature where it uses any image as the background and as I move it it will update what it shows, what I mean is the background image is zoomed in and as I move the image moves with it (if that makes any sense)?

5. Supports high level scripting via any language including compiled languages (kinda like bspwm).

Hey guys!

looking for recommendations on an open source password manager that works great on Linux with reliable browser and mobile support. Ideally something that integrates well with Firefox and Chrome and has good autofill. If you use one daily on Linux, what do you like about it??

Hi, I created a virtual machine (Windows 10) with a passthrough GPU, running on Proxmox because Proxmox was the easiest and had an automatic PECU configuration script. But now I have a problem: I get a Windows BSOD when I try to run Nested Virtualization. It works on Libvirt.

Libvirt use KVM and QUEMU

Proxom use KVM and QUEMU

Unless there is some script to automate gpu passthrough for libvirt?

How to convert this libvirt xml to proxmox arguments? <features> <acpi/> <apic/> <hyperv mode="custom"> <relaxed state="on"/> <vapic state="on"/> <spinlocks state="on"/> <vpindex state="on"/> <runtime state="on"/> <synic state="on"/> <stimer state="on"/> <frequencies state="on"/> <tlbflush state="off"/> <ipi state="off"/> <avic state="on"/> </hyperv> </features> <cpu mode="host-passthrough" check="none" migratable="on"> <topology sockets="1" dies="1" clusters="1" cores="8" threads="1"/> <cache mode="passthrough"/> </cpu> <clock offset="localtime"> <timer name="hpet" present="yes"/> <timer name="hypervclock" present="yes"/> </clock>

Mine was Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron. I had no idea what I was doing, broke it constantly, and loved every minute of it. By modern standards I'd probably point a complete beginner toward Linux Mint instead - Ubuntu has changed a lot and Mint is more forgiving for someone coming from Windows. What was yours, and do you think the distro that got you into Linux is still a good starting point?

I'm making a big move this week, buying one of the most expensive laptops I've ever had. It's the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 Ultraslim.

My concern is that it has copilot+. If I get this machine with the sole purpose of installing linux, does that make the ai features useless? Do I need to find a new machine?

Thanks for your help.

Edit: Sorry for any confusion. To be clear, I'm trying to move to linux because I do not want ai features. I'm completely new to Linux, but I want to learn. I just want to make sure the ai isn't hiding somewhere in the fan or something, lol.

I was wondering which distro would suit me (or my PC) better, so here are specs so you can recommend me what is the best for me:

LENOVO 83SC LOQ Essential 15IRX11 LENOVO_MT_83SC_BU_idea_FM_LOQ Essential 15IRX11

• CPU: 13th Gen Intel© Core™ i5-13450HX × 10

• Integrated GPU: Intel Corporation Raptor Lake-S UHD Graphics

• Dedicated GPU: NVIDIA Corporation Device 2d98 (RTX 5050)

• RAM: 16GB

• HARD DRIVE: 512GB

More information, not about hardware, but about me, more specifically, for what I use my laptop:

• daily tasks (browsers, documents and stuff like that)

• gaming

• video editing

• music

• paint/graphics

• school (sometimes)

I've been using Linux Mint for 2 months now, and I like it a lot. However, I've heard it might not be the best option for newer hardware and I've had some issues (for example, I've had issues with headphone jack, though I'm not sure is it the OS problem).

I wanted to try anew distro because, well, curiosity, so I went with Fedora KDE Spin. I've tried it multiple times on live USB and it was pretty fun to use (I like KDE) and I've noticed some improvements (headphones worked better, battery lasted longer etc.). Now I'm really thinking about switching or at least dual-booting, but I'd like to know, would Fedora KDE be better than Mint, or is there some other distro that would work too?

I am used to windows/mac os but want to make the switch to linux due to my PC's lack of power, I need to be able to play normal pc games and it to look good. Should I just stick with MicroSlops Windows 11? I just hate how bloated and slow it is. Thanks for the help!

i've been hearing about linux forever but always assumed it was for like... terminal wizards and programmers. i'm not a total idiot with computers but also not someone who wants to spend weekends fixing stuff. i just wanna browse the web, write documents, watch netflix, maybe mess with some photos occasionally.

So I used mint for almost a year(I tried pop os and Ubuntu before that but stuck with mint) I loved it for the most part but I decided that I want something with better flat pack integration something different and that maybe there is something better out there. I installed fedora but god I hate it i hate how windows look on it I hate that it's less snapy... I wanted to like it but it just can't happen. So now I wonder what os to go to next or to just reveet to mint. What are y'alls suggestions ?

If Linux was the pre-installed standard on every PC, and Windows/macOS were free alternatives you had to manually install, would the average person ever bother to switch?

Take into account that in this world there would be no drivers problems with apple computers and every software would be compatible with all these OS!

Hey all, I’m looking for a solid password manager that works great on Linux with browser extension support and reliable autofill. I’m open to self hosted or cloud options as long as they run smoothly on Linux. if you use one daily, what do you recommend and why?? would love to hear your real experiences! thnx!

I am mostly asking whether you use secure boot on your Linux setup. I personally try to make all my Linux device as secure as possible without usability getting too annoying. For my main gaming/workstation PC running CachyOS, my main drive is encrypted, secure boot enabled, only enable internal hard drive booting and bios password enabled. It is also located in my room and I mostly trust my landlord.

My thinkpad X13 runs Secureblue (hardened fedora silverblue). I have secure boot, encrypted drive, only internal hard drive, disabling hyper threading, and bios password.

Probably my least secure Linux device I frequently use is my MSI Claw running CachyOS handheld. It only have secure boot enabled but no drive encryption and bios password. I do sort of use it as portable workstation when traveling in addition for gaming so I need to have a more secure setup. Maybe yubikey encrypted drive so I don't need keyboard to decrypt my drive but I am not traveling abroad.

I do have other devices that doesn't have secure boot enabled. But these are mostly testbench PC I use to test R600 driver, or old non-uefi laptop that only run random Linux/FreeBSD distro. Probably need at least encrypted drive for my testbench PC. Do have a Chromebook running coreboot but it is running an broadwell celeron so not quite ideal.

Am I just inconsistently paranoid about security or is my tism just currently latching into ins and outs of secure boot?

I have been using Ubuntu and windows as dual boot and I recently decided to give arch a try and i did install hyprlanld and kde and everytime I switch from one desktop environment to other or I change boot Google ask me to sign in again

I never had this issues with Ubuntu and I would appreciate any help

I have some old android phones lying around and my mum wants a pc to type document and browse web, so I was wondering could do anything with help of hdmi hub with usb. I already have twrp.

I’m currently using Windows 11 as my main OS, and for programming I’ve been working inside WSL2 with Ubuntu. So I’m comfortable with the Linux side of things (apt, sudo, git, gcc, etc.), but I haven’t used Linux as a full desktop system yet.

I’m studying IT and thinking about switching to Linux as my primary OS. My laptop is a ThinkPad X13 Gen 3 (Intel).

Right now I’m considering:

• Fedora Workstation (GNOME)

• Fedora KDE Plasma Desktop

• Kubuntu (LTS)

I noticed one of my professors is using Kubuntu, which made me look into it more seriously. At the same time, Fedora seems more up to date and closer to a “clean” Linux experience.

What I’ll be using it for:

• C++ projects

• VS Code (maybe Kate as well)

• Git

• general development work (CLI tools, compilers, possibly Docker later)

• everyday use (browser, documents, media)

What matters to me:

• stability (I don’t want updates breaking things randomly)

• good battery life on a laptop

• fast and responsive system

• reasonable amount of customization without unnecessary bloat

Since I’m already used to Ubuntu inside WSL2, I’m wondering if it makes more sense to stay close to the Ubuntu base (Kubuntu), or if Fedora would be a better long-term choice for an IT student.

I’d appreciate real-world experiences, especially on newer Intel laptops, and practical differences between Fedora KDE and Kubuntu. Also curious whether GNOME is worth considering for a development workflow compared to KDE.

Hey everyone, hoping to get some real talk from people who've made the switch. I've been on Windows my whole life, never really thought about it. But lately I'm just fed up with all the nonsense. Forced updates at the worst times, random slowdowns, ads in my start menu? Come on.

I keep hearing about Linux from people online and I'm curious. But I'm not a tech wizard. I can build a PC and I can google my way through problems, but I don't know command line stuff or coding. I just want to browse the web, play some games, maybe do some light document work.

So my main question: is using linux easy for a normal person who doesn't want to spend hours fixing things?

I see names like Ubuntu and Mint thrown around. Are those actually user friendly or do they still expect you to know terminal commands?

For gaming, is using linux easy to set up with Steam and stuff? I heard about Proton but not sure if it's plug and play or if you have to tinker for every game.

What about drivers? On windows you just download stuff. Does Linux handle that automatically now?

If my printer stops working or I need to install some random program, is using linux easy to figure out or am I going to be digging through forums all night?

Anyone else make the switch from Windows and never looked back? Or did you try it and get frustrated?

I'm not trying to become a Linux expert, I just want my computer to work without all the Microsoft nonsense. Is that realistic?

Would love to hear from regular people, not just the hardcore enthusiasts. Thanks.

I'm fed up with the awful Windows, so I'm learning what I need to switch to Linux Ubuntu (and then move on to Fedora) if anyone can help me with websites or other resources where I can learn, please let me know

Do you guys recommend to always dualboot linux & windows even though your daily driver is linux?

What are the cons of only having linux as your OS?

I work in IT, mainly full-stack and devops. Is windows really necessary or can i rely entirely on Linux as my main OS? Should i keep my windows just in case?

(planning to delete windows)

It’s a tool that simplifies installing Linux. It scans your hardware, recommends compatible distros, downloads the .ISO, verifies it and flashes it to your usb drive. After it’s done it also deletes the iso so it doesn’t take up any space.

It’s windows only for now with Linux and macOS versions coming soon.

Even Zorin emailed me: Please keep us informed about your progress and let us know if there's any way you would like to propose working together.

I also tried connecting my Linux laptop to my data plan (different ISP), and I'm finally able to use my browser. This only happens with my main ISP, the one I use the most.

I'm pretty much this has nothing do with Linux, but since it's only happening on Linux, two different Linux laptops (Ubuntu and Fedora).

Any suggestions or theories are appreciated!

so im in the process of switching over to NixOS, and i want to learn more about all the things that actually make up linux as a full desktop OS. what actually do x11 and wayland do? like i understand what a DE/WM does (i use hyprland), but what purpose does x11 and wayland serve in that?

People who use Linux — who even are you and what do you actually do?

Why did you choose Linux specifically? What distro are you running?

I’ve been thinking about switching from Windows, so I watched a lot of videos and read a bunch of forums about it. But the more I read, the more confusing it gets. For example, someone recommends Ubuntu — and right below there are 10 comments saying it’s bad. That’s just one example, but it feels like this happens with every distro.

So I wanted to hear opinions from Reddit directly — what are you using, and for what purposes? Work, gaming, servers, programming, just daily use?

Would be interesting to hear your experiences.

I have a text file with contents that looks like this

This is a   
block of text

line of text

another line

also another line

Another block of  
text

How do I make it so that the blocks of text are in one line?

I'm currently working on a film project, with one part being a humorous bit of Joel and the bots from Mystery Science Theater 3000 reacting to another clip. Specifically, this bit from the episode "Manos: the hands of fate".

What I want to do to better achieve this silhouette effect than just cropping out the image (which still leaves the space between the silhouettes) is to rotoscope them out. I tried to do this on Adobe after effects on my Windows drive, but I was unable to figure out how to do the trick even with asking for help online. Since my free trial was about to expire, I ultimately gave up. So, I'm wondering if there's a free Linux variant that allows me to rotoscope. (It doesn't have to be a filmmaking program entirely. Just any tool as I can easily transfer it back over to my premiere rush on Windows. In fact, the simpler the better).

Any advice would be appreciated. :)

The Linux community is very friendly and always helps when someone has a question. I help out where I can, and they always help me when I have a question. Linux is great.

basicially i want to start practicing web server admin, and i want to host a website on my laptop and connect to it locally from my phone; using Debian or ubuntu server; Can i do this with a VM or do yall recommend dual booting? sorry if this sounds like a stupid question

Hello fellas

With the way that things in tech world seems to take open-source is both in danger and seems to be the only option. So I was wondering if the android alternativ like Ubuntu Touch is viable and if it works on most of the devices. Any thoughts ?

I know this is a weird question but it keeps popping in my head from time to time. Are you actually satisfied using Linux even after you found your distro, you found your workflow in a DE or WM, you tried out just about every app or alternative to some other program, you customized your whole setup, tried out about every video game that may or may not work. You know whatever it may be.

Am I the only one who feels that way? I done just about everything I wanted to do on Linux and now kind of unsure what to do now. I'm so sorry if none of this makes any sense.

Hi! I have this issue where most letters in my terminal look like: "h e l l o" and some look like "hello", and its pretty inconsistent and sometimes even has "he l lo" where some are separated and some arent. thanks in advance.

EDIT: Thanks to the comments, I figured out that I had changed the font of the default terminal profile(somehow??) which I couldn't edit after so I just made a new profile and set it as default. Thanks!

I have ran yay -Syu and updated with pacman, rebooted several times as well

whenever I open steam it loads until it should show menu, which it then closes.

while this happens the mouse will only be able to move every 8 seconds or so-

Well, the speed at which the platforms such as Proton, Lutris, Steam OS, Zen based kernels etc. have grown in the past few years, do you believe that Linux is going to be the first choice of gamers in the future, maybe in upcoming 5 years?

Any hopes for surpassing Windows purely for gaming in future?

I am not considering productivity apps such as microslop suite etc, but in gaming world is it possible to actually replace windows in upcoming 5 years down the line?

I've been using debian with kde plasma for a bit now, and I'm wondering if there's any point in using anything else?

I initially started with mint, and then went distro hopping among the more beginner friendly distros, tried standard ubuntu, and then zorin.

I mainly use my pc for videogames and the occasional photo-editing, and debian does the task just fine. Now I'm wondering if I'm missing anything since people seem to be constantly at war about what the best distro is. Is there any major performance benefit?

I apologize incase this is a stupid question,

Thanks for all the answers. I think I'll stick with what I have right now. My hardware is pretty new (rx7800xt, 245kf), but I haven't encountered any hickups in that regard. I'll look towards CachyOS if I ever face a major issue.

Sometimes I have to work on another directory, after that's done is there a way to quickly cd back?

Pretty self-explanatory. Everything rendered fine at first, but after an incident with a version of the kernel not working properly and needing to be purged, some websites have been rendering as if using the "ultra compressed" version of the default font instead of the regular version. Makes Reddit, Github, and AskUbuntu really frustrating to try and read. ^{(Funnily enough, I had a similar issue back when I still used Windows- apparently upgrading from Musescore 3 to 4 and then reinstalling 3 alongside 4 made Musescore 3's fonts all janked up in the exact same way. Not sure why I'm getting an encore of that, but here I am anyway.})

If it helps any, my kernel is 6.14.0-37-generic and the kernel that needed purging was 6.17.0-14-generic, and I use Waterfox as my primary browser.

I just saw the news that Gmail is removing support for third party email accounts, meaning I'll no longer be able to get my Gmail, Yahoo, and business emails all in the Gmail app. This sucks. Are there any good Linux email apps that can work with multiple different emails, and have excellent spam filtration on par with Gmail's? And also offer folder storage and sorting?

Slowly migrating over to Zorin from Windows and I am unable to get some custom made Firefox extensions to work which I made using AI. They are for Old Reddit and just minor things like transparent arrows that move from tab to tab or up/down a page, and copy links for posts/comments to copy to the clipboard with a single click.

I thought it would be pretty straightforward as in dumping them in a folder and then point to them in FireFox 'Load temporary Ad-ons', but while it does momentarily show a green light called 'Running', the buttons don't appear and then the green light turns off.

Been working with AI to troubleshoot but to no avail. Case-sensitive thing I am aware of and is not the issue.

As the title says. Is it worth it? I know it's tough as hell, but is it really as hard as people says?

Edit: I mean literally starting from scratch, without any other base, literally programming a Linux distro from absolutely nothing. Without basing it on Ubuntu, Debian, Arch, etc.

Edit 2: I am honestly very grateful to the people who gave me concrete answers and even took the time to describe what the process would be like.
At the moment, I'm not planning on creating another 100% original Linux distribution, as I don't have the necessary knowledge or resources to even begin to do anything. I made this post out of sheer curiosity to know how difficult it really would be to make a new Linux distro. Even so, if I were to make a new Linux "distro", I would definitely use parts from other distros because doing the process from scratch is impossible for one person, Unless you're someone like Terry A. Davis (1969–2018 RIP), a legend

Im having an issue with my Intel wifi card on my thinkpad running gentoo every 10~20ish sec the wifi stop and where it start back up it’s very slow how to fix this ??

Win server 22 on debian 13 stable. When i select bios mode, memory is capped at 2G else the vm wont boot. but it runs flawless aside from a bit of lag. When i select uefi it does boot with more memory but display is stuck on win basic driver (1380 x 800). can anyone point me in the right direction as to whats happening and how i can fix one or both scenarios?

Hi. I have just installed Debian's latest with KDE. So far, so good, mostly.

When I switch from the KDE interface to a console, I see that there is a login prompt, but the screens dims to black in only a few seconds. I cannot type anything, as I cannot see what I am typing.

Is this a driver issue?

Sorry I am on another system right now and cannot run inxi for you.

System is a desktop AMD Ryzen 7 with a good old Radeon RX580.

KDE works great, I just think something is not right with the console on F2, F3, etc. I assume KDE is on F7.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

How was you experience?

Hey all,

I’m a long-time Windows user preparing to move to Linux, and I’m trying to figure out which distro would make the most sense for me.

I’m currently leaning toward Nobara, mostly because I want something that works well for gaming and everyday desktop use without a huge amount of setup.

That said, I’d really like to hear from people who’ve used multiple distros and can explain why they prefer one over another.

What would you recommend for a newer user, and what made that distro the right fit for you?

Thanks.

To give more context: most of what I do on PC is either gaming, or game development. I know gaming on Ubuntu is fine because of Proton and the fact that most of my games are on steam, and my plan for game development is to just have an entirely separate SSD with a debloated Win11 on it for the sake of compatibility (it literally won't have anything except Windows, Blender, UE5, and GIMP). I'm aware that I could get all of this stuff UE5 working on Linux but at some point I need to think about how it affects my workflow.

So far my only experience with Linux is SteamOS, and I very much enjoy the Discovery store and how easy it is to update things. I generally prefer not having to use the terminal if I can help it, but it's not a big deal if I do.

All these things considered, is Ubuntu still a good overall choice for someone like me?

Trying to install system/security updates for Spiral Linux on my old Asus T100 tablet, but can't even download any updates because this conflict is immediately flagged:

 "Unable to download updates: The following packages have unmet dependencies: firmware-realtek: 
 Conflicts: firmware-realtek-rtl8723cs-bt but 20181104-2 is to be installed"

I haven't yet been able to completely understand the message. Is it trying to install 2018 version but that's potentially too old for the other updates? Can this be updated manually to the correct version?

There's a way to use facial recognition or fingerprint scanner in linux? I'm planning to install Fedora (KDE) on my laptop.

Took a bash script from Ubuntu, ran it on a Mac, sed broke immediately. BSD vs GNU apparently.

How deep does this actually go? Is coreutils the main thing or are there bigger gotchas I'm not seeing yet?

Hello lovely people!

I've checked the internet up and down and couldn't find any solution for my problem.
The thing is I'm trying to use Wake on LAN to wake my PC, but it basically only works when I do it within a couple of seconds after shutting down, if I wait like 20-30 seconds then it doesn't work anymore...

lshw -c network output is:
product: Killer E2600 GbE Controller
vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.

and ethtool enp2s0 says that WoL is active:
Supports Wake-on: pumbg
Wake-on: g

I've set up my BIOS to allow it as well and the green light on my NIC is flashing green when the PC is off, so apparently it remains active longer than the couple of seconds after shutting down.

What I don't really get is that all "solutions" regarding WoL in the internet tell me that I have to change settings in the OS as well to make it possible, which I really don't get, because the whole WoL action happens before any OS is loaded into the system, but maybe some of you can explain the reasoning there to me.

Just in case and for good measure, I've adapted all settings in bazzite and Windows 11 (I'm running a dual boot setup) as far as I'm conderned, but still I can't get it to work... drives me nuts!

If any of you might be able to help I'd greatly appreciate it!

[SOLVED]
so it turns out I missed a very vital option in the BIOS power settings, called "Deep Power Off Mode" which needs to be disabled for WoL to work indefinetly!

Starting my DevOps journey today.

I’ve begun learning Git and GitHub and just pushed some changes from my Linux terminal. It’s a small step, but it feels good to finally start understanding how real development workflows work.

There’s still a lot to learn — containers, CI/CD, automation, and cloud — and I’m excited to explore all of it step by step.

If you’re already in DevOps or have been through this learning phase, I’d genuinely appreciate any tips, resources, or mistakes I should avoid in the beginning.

#DevOps #Git #GitHub #Linux #LearningJourney

so im on windows 11 and i really want to switch to POP OS or linux mint. Mainly pop os because i heard it has better gaming performance. is there ANYTHING i need to know before i switch to pop os. im obviously worried about ruining my laptop and compatibility with other software like roblox, minecraft, steam and allat. i have no reason to switch from windows 11 to pop os so some convincing would be appreciated aswell. and my data i dont really know how to get it all back

Ive been using Windows my whole life but Im getting tired of all the bloat and privacy stuff. Looking to make the jump to Linux but honestly the number of distros is overwhelming. I keep seeing Mint recommended for beginners but then also Ubuntu and Zorin and Fedora and I dont know where to start. I mainly use my computer for web browsing watching Netflix some light gaming and occasional document work. No programming or server stuff. I want something that just works without having to use the terminal all the time. Is Mint really the safe bet or should I look at something else. Also how much of a learning curve am I really looking at coming from Windows

I've been using Windows my whole life but I'm getting tired of the ads, forced updates, and all the extra stuff I don't want. I keep hearing that Linux is more private and gives you control but I'm nervous about making the switch. I'm not a programmer or anything just a regular user who browses the web, watches streaming services, does some light document work, and plays a few games. I don't want to spend all my time in the terminal fixing things. How beginner friendly is Linux really in 2026. Can I do all the normal stuff without constant troubleshooting. Also concerned about things like Netflix playback quality and game compatibility. If I do switch what distro would make the transition easiest. Mint seems to come up a lot but open to suggestions.

I am using Fedora 43 KDE and wanted to improve my ipv6 privacy since I heard it has many flaws. I wanted to impliment privacy extensions that would make ipv6 use temporary addresses for outgoing connections and to use stable-privacy (non-MAC address based) ipv6 addresses.

First I made a file /etc/sysctl.d/99-ipv6-privacy.conf with the contents:

net.ipv6.conf.all.addr_gen_mode = 3
net.ipv6.conf.default.addr_gen_mode = 3
net.ipv6.conf.all.use_tempaddr = 2
net.ipv6.conf.default.use_tempaddr = 2net.ipv6.conf.all.addr_gen_mode = 3
net.ipv6.conf.default.addr_gen_mode = 3
net.ipv6.conf.all.use_tempaddr = 2
net.ipv6.conf.default.use_tempaddr = 2

That seems to work but only at kernel-level (I forgot which command I used to verify it was working).

Then I made a file /etc/NetWorkmanager/conf.d/99-ipv6-privacy.conf with the contents:

[connection]
ipv6.addr-gen-mode=stable-privacy
ipv6.ip6-privacy=2[connection]
ipv6.addr-gen-mode=stable-privacy
ipv6.ip6-privacy=2

This doesn't seem to work for some reason. When I use

nmcli connection show "Wired connection 1" | grep -E "addr-gen-mode|ip6-privacy"nmcli connection show "Wired connection 1" | grep -E "addr-gen-mode|ip6-privacy"

it shows ipv6.ip6-privacy as -1 (default) and ipv6.addr-gen-mode as default. I was able to fix this by modifying each connection with nmcli which is annoying since any new wifi I connect to will have to be manually modified aswell. I would like to set the networkmanager settings to automatically apply to new connections.

Very new to kodi only ever used windows I used to duel boot, a friend of mine created a kodi build for me which was great, but windows screwed with my Linux partition and lost it, now I've gone 100% Linux after reinstall and need to do another kodi build, my pal is overseas for a while so any help would be great.

Hi everyone,

Recently I decided to mess with an alternative installation for arch in which case I want to have the boot partition and the EFI with grub on a usb drive. My plan is to use it as a two factor authentication on top of block device encryption with LUKS.

Based on the arch wiki installing grub on a usb is really straight forward . As for the boot well again really simple.

Now after I generate the fstab file with the usb mounted I know I will get the boot partition with its uuid.

While have not done it yet I wanted to ask if the thought process is correct or do I have to to configure anything else.

My understanding is that installing grub takes care of the Nvram entries with partuids and genfstab takes care of the uuid of the partition in this case the where boot is located.

Is that all I need to do to have the boot partition and grub on a USB drive? Has anyone done it before at least recently?

Obviously this will not be my main computer. I am doing it on a machine that I use to to learn.

Hi all, I'm new to Linux as a home PC. I work in IT so I've used various distros before but because like many IT people I hate having to "work" when I'm not at work, please assume I know nothing and am 100% a newbie.

I'm ideally looking to move away from Windows as they keep making their OS worse.

I'd like a distro that emulates the windows experience, ie simple, auto update, software just works.

I use waterfox as a browser, open office as "office" and steam for games (bg3 must work lol)

I have a 5080 gpu, AMD 9800x3d CPU and Gigabyte B850 mobo, though I imagine most distros nowadays dont care "that" much about hardware.

Any help picking a distro would be hugely appreciated.

Ive been using KDE Plasma with a 24.04 Kubuntu LTS base on my Yoga Pro for the last 6 months and I absolutely love it, coming from windows my laptop feels 5 years younger. However I was confident in switching because this is my oldest device and nothing vital is on it.

My question is this, I just got a nice desktop with Win 11 pre-loaded on it, should i switch my desktop OS as well?. This PC is extremely vital as it has all my undergrad research and thesis on it. And I also use it for gaming on steam. Id like to know what you guys have used for this use-case and what hiccups you had in switching over on desktop. Anything at all helps!

I am looking for advice on which Linux kernel to put onto an intel computer stick (I don’t remember the model and can not check it at this moment) to act as a host for Syncthing. I’m not new to putting new OS on devices but that’s mostly been in context of emulation devices. I’m also open to being told this isn’t worth it. I have the stick laying around so that part will be at no cost to me. Is there a “supply list” or a resource for doing anything like this? I apologize if this is to broad of a question.

Hello everyone. I would like your opinion on which Linux distro you recommend for my personal laptop. I want to have a dual boot of Windows and Linux. The distros I have in mind are: Ubuntu. PopOs. Fedora. Linux Mint.

My goals are to use my laptop for browsing, playing games with Steam and Proton, having the duality of the graphics card and integrated graphics, and I use Adobe very occasionally, so I'll stick with Windows. I also want to experiment and join the project of having Linux as my free OS instead of Windows.

If there is a thread that already discusses this topic, that works for me too.

Good morning,

Like many, my partner and I find ourselves at EOL on Windows (me with Win10, he with Win7 on an older PC). Our next PCs will almost certainly be Linux distros as we hate Win11 and the rumors about Win12 make it sound even worse. We have slightly different use cases: he primarily uses his rig for gaming, torrents and media (both viewing/listening as well as long-term storage). I use mine for business purposes, some gaming, file conversions, and music creation (Sound Forge and the like).

Here are our key considerations:

* Ideally the same distro for both of us, but I would be curious to know if you would have different recommendations for each of us

* Must NOT include AI-related shit, or at least must have the ability to fully disable/uninstall it

* Must be able to run Steam, VLC, uTorrent, and the popular web browsers at a minimum

* Must have good options available for virus scanning/defense, VPNs and firewalls

* Must be able to support our existing external storage without reformatting

* Must be relatively easy to set up a home network

* Must have a very “Windows-esque” user experience–while I have history operating in *NIX environments (including all command-line), my partner does not, and we would like to avoid a steep learning curve if possible

* Must be relatively easy to install and update, preferably with automatic updates as an option

* Support for music software is a nice-to-have but not essential

* If it makes a difference, the new hardware will likely come from a professional PC-building service like Maingear, iBuyPower, etc. rather than building it ourselves

Writing this all out makes me feel like I'm looking for a unicorn distro–hopefully I am not. Is there anything out there that fits the bill?

We just inherited my inlaws' old computer, bought in 2001, a Gateway Pentium 4 with Windows XP Home and 512meg of RAM, and an Nvidia GeForce 2 graphics card. Is there ANY version of Linux that would still run on this thing? A GUI version, I should say, I'm not really interested in a pure CLI environment (don't have the spare time at the moment). I know Nvidia legendarily hates Linux, too, so I'm not sure I want to have to fight with that if it's going to be a huge hassle. It's actually kind of fun having a Win XP computer again, but I don't trust it security-wise to connect to the internet or anything.

Maybe I'll just use it to play Wing Commander...

Edit: Lot of people saying it won't work. I do remember installing my first Ubuntu system only a year or 2 max after this thing was new, though, so presumably there's some version out there that would work. Though considering all the replies to the negative, I may just be better off keeping this with XP, which runs great on it. Maybe just leave that and hit up GOG for some fun 90's games.

Hello, and I'm sorry for the bad English. I want to change my Operating system to Linux completely and leave windows. I have a technical background and I'm comfortable with the terminal because I've set up two local servers using ubnto server and Raspbian. After some research I found that a few distribution that sut me.

1. arch

2. ubnto

3. NexOS

4. Fedora As I said that I have technical background and I've used the terminal but I didn't use any desktop version so I don't know what I will choose

Hello everyone,

I have a drive (256GB used as operating system and formatted in exFAT) that was formatted incorrectly and I'd like to recover the data. I'd like to recover it with its original filenames (if possible) and would like to know the best tool for this.

Thank you.

Hi everybody,

I recently made the switch from Windows to cachyOS and have been loving it so far.
My moms old desktop is running win10 and its just a matter of time before support ends.
All she does with it is can be done in a browser. So I have thought, why not switch.

But and here is the big but, updates in terminal wont work for her.
It needs to be more windows ish. In a GUI and stuff.

I have only run CachyOS, so I dont know of other distros. Is Ubuntu the answer? Or maybe ChromeOS flex?