So, are there any plans to reduce the bloat in KDE, maybe even make a lightweight version (like LXQt) that’s suitable for older PCs with limited resources?

Bazzite. Here’s why:

• Optimised for gaming (gaming optimised kernel, common tweaks pre-applied, all common gaming apps pre-installed like Steam, Mangohud etc)
• All necessary drivers pre-installed (game controllers, RGB, and even proprietary nVidia)
• A Steam-Deck like gaming experience, if you want (the Deck variant boots directly to Steam)
• Immutable and atomic (image-based OS updates, so updates either work or don’t - there’s no chance of a broken state)
• Easy rollbacks (just select the previous image in the GRUB menu)

But since you said:

how to squeeze the best performance out of this

and if you’re really serious about squeezing the best performance, then check out the Arch-based CachyOS - unlike most other Linux distros, Cachy has optimised x86-64-v3 and v4 packages in their repos, which means apps can make use of advanced CPU instructions such as SSE3, AVX512 etc. Most other Linux distros on the other hand still use x86-64-v1 for compatibility reasons, which unfortunately means that you’d be missing out on all the cool new optimised CPU instructions introduced over the past 16 years.

You can read more about microarchitecture levels (aka MARCH) here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86-64#Microarchitecture_levels

In addition to the MARCH, Cachy’s packages have other optimisations such as LTO/PGO, optimised kernel with the BORE and Rusty schedulers which are better for gaming, plus several performance-oriented tweaks which you’d otherwise have to do manually on Arch (such as makepkg.conf tweaks, pacman.conf tweaks etc).

Finally, Cachy are always on the bleeding edge when it comes to gaming/driver/kernel/performance related stuff, so you’ll get all the good stuff even before Bazzite or other optimised distros. For instance, Cachy was the first distro to include the new nVidia driver which has explicit sync support for better Wayland compatibility, and they’re always on top of major Arch developments and provide detailed announcements which are relevant to gamers and performance freaks.

Eg, here’s their recent recent nVidia announcement:

Hi @here,

as you maybe noticed, we have rolled out the new NVIDIA Driver, which includes the explicit sync protocol and tearing for Vulkan. We have been prioritized to move this forward to finally resolve the wayland situation. Additionally arch has pushed CUDA to 12.5, which is NOT compatible with the current 550 driver (it needs the 555 Driver).

The beta driver is not perfect, but so far we are applying some fixes to avoid issues and restore performance problems with disabling the GSP Firmware load. This is handled via the “cachyos-settings” package.

Anyways, since some people maybe have problems with this driver, here is a short instruction to manually downgrade and block the driver:

[…]

If you are facing issues with the new NVIDIA Driver, reproduce the issues and then run “sudo nvidia-bugreport.sh” and report it to their forum: https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/c/gpu-graphics/linux/148

We are also shipping now an precompiled nvidia-open module. This will be also as default installed for users, which have supported cards as soon NVIDIA releases the 560 drivers.

The CachyOS Team

So as you can see, they’re pretty on to it with this sorta stuff.

Now the Bazzite team are also like the Cachy guys and keep up with this stuff, but because they’re based on Fedora, they can’t be as bleeding edge or as optimised as Arch. So it’s up to you - if you prefer stability, a primarily gaming-focused optimisations, and want something that “just works” then get Bazzite; or if you want an ultra-optimised distro to squeeze out the most performance out of your box but also don’t mind ocassionally diving into the terminal and getting your hands dirty, then get CachyOS.

cc: @01189998819991197253@infosec.pub

Probably the Minisforum V3 I reckon. From what I hear, everything works out-of-the-box, plus it’s a Zen 4 Ryzen, so you get excellent graphics performance and overall compatibility with Linux.

I’m a Zen 4 user myself (Minisforum UM780 XTX with a Ryzen 7840HS - pretty much the same APU as the V3, minus the AI stuff) and I’m really happy with my Linux experience on it so far.

Also, AMD have just submitted some new Core Performance Boost (CBP) patches, so you can expect even better performance/battery with the upcoming kernel releases. This is a very exciting space to be in!

Because:

The DistroWatch Page Hit Ranking statistics are a light-hearted way of measuring the popularity of Linux distributions and other free operating systems among the visitors of this website. They correlate neither to usage nor to quality and should not be used to measure the market share of distributions. They simply show the number of times a distribution page on DistroWatch was accessed each day, nothing more.

So people see it on the list and click on it wondering “what the heck is this MX Linux thing”. And that boosts the ranking. And now that it’s at the top, it attracts more curious clicks, thus it continues to remain on top.

Yes, it’s been long abandoned - no updates in over 3 years. Anyways, this is why alternatives like hyfetch, fastfetch (and others) exist.

Kvaesitso. Opensource, minimal, search-based launcher. My only complaint is that it’s not optimised for foldables, otherwise it’s a great launcher.

Thanks! I did that, but it doesn’t get seem to get rid of them from “trending”.

Anyone here know how to disable shorts? I could’ve sworn there was an option to disable it previously, but I can’t find it any more.

Nice! Any chance you could try the FEX emulator as well? Apparently the 2404 release has some massive performance improvements, so I’m curious how it fares compared to Box86.

if any one of my Windows or Android units got stolen and somehow cracked into or something.

This shouldn’t be a concern if you’re using disk encryption and secure passwords, which is generally the default behaviour on most systems these days.

On Android, you don’t need to worry about anything as long as you’ve got a pin/password configured, as disk encryption has been enabled by default for like a decade now.

On Windows, if you’re on the Pro/Enterprise edition, you can use Bitlocker, but if you’re on Home, you can use “device encryption” (which is like a lightweight Bitlocker) - but that requires a TPM chip and your Windows user account linked to a Microsoft account. If that is not an option, you could use VeraCrypt instead, which is an opensource disk encryption tool. Another option, if you’re on a laptop, could be Opal encryption (aka TCG Opal SED), assuming your drive/BIOS supports it.

TL;DR: Encrypt yo’ shit, and you don’t need to worry about your data if your device gets stolen.

Actually this is probably a good time for you to get into Rust, since everyone is still at the starting point (ish), and you, unlike others, don’t have decades of C/C++ habits ingrained in you. So if you’re starting off fresh, Rust is not a bad language to dip your toes into. :)

Yes, I mostly agree with your conclusions. MMOs do generally employ anti-cheat, so I wouldn’t attempt running them in a VM unless you want to take a risk. So dual-booting is an acceptable compromise.

The good news is though that gaming on Wine keeps improving every day. From the games you’ve mentioned, only Rust isn’t compatible with Linux (due to EasyAntiCheat), but the others are gold rated - and GW2 is even platinum rated!

You can use ProtonDB to check the game compatibility, and the user reports are usually helpful to see if they’ve encountered any issues or had to employ any tweaks to get it going. But do keep an eye out on this space, as Wine/Proton keeps improving constantly, so you never know, maybe some day even Rust might work!

Edit: Actually, reading the reviews for Rust, looks like you can actually get it to work if you connect to a server that doesn’t use anti-cheat!

Paper boxes may be equally bad or even worse, since many of them are coated with PFAS (aka “forever chemicals”) - which can leach into your food and the environment.

Now whilst the FDA has banned sale of PFAS-coated containers earlier this year, it is expected that such products may remain on the market till sometime next year. Of course, it also doesn’t stop someone from ordering cheap PFAS-loaded boxes from AliExpress or elsewhere. And if you’re not in the US, you’d have to find out if there’s a similar ban in your country, and/or verify whether the manufacturer of whatever container/utensil you’re using is PFAS-free.

It would also be prudent to check even non-paper food-related products (spoons, spatulas, chopping boards etc). Even so called 100% recyclable “food safe” plastic, bio-plastics made from plant pulp, and traditionally eco-friendly wooden containers and utensils may be coated with PFAS.

The answers here are only partially correct. If you want to use your device internationally, there are four things or categories you need to consider:

1. Carrier locked devices
2. Region-specific devices
3. Carrier whitelisting
4. Regulatory requirements

Carrier locked devices are exactly that, these are the ones sold by your carrier and subsidised, they usually mention that you can’t use them with other carriers. Eg the SM-S928U of the S24 works only on AT&T. If you have one of these, you may be able to buy an unlock code online to unlock your phone. Depending on your model, you might also need to flash compatible firmware or unlock additional bands from the service menu, if you want to be able to actually use it with your destination carrier.

Region-specific devices generally have limited cellular bands, meant for usage in that country. Eg although the SM-S928U1 variant of the S24 is factory unlocked (unlike the SM-S928U), it may not carry all the bands required for operation outside the US. If you’re unsure about compatibility, use this website to check the bands for your target country/carrier. Generally though, if you travel a lot, it’s recommend to buy the international / global variant of a phone. As an alternative, if you have a US variant Samsung, you could use the service menu to enable all bands. Though regardless of the variant, it’s always a good idea to check the band compatibility before you purchase the device/travel.

Carrier whitelisting is a recent annoying thing which carriers have started doing for some technologies such as 5G, VoLTE, VoWiFi etc. Some of these features may or may not be critical for you, for eg, if the destination carrier no longer offer 2G/3G services, that means you must be able to get VoLTE in order to make calls. And VoWiFi is needed if you’re in an area with poor reception, but have WiFi access. Finally, 5G would be a bonus thing but most carriers allow only whitelisted models to connect to their 5G services. Samsung normally should work in general, but given how many variants Samsung makes, there’s no guarantee that your specific variant would be able to use some/all of these services. So you’ll need to check with your target carrier in advance to see which of their services your phone would be able to support.

Finally, some countries may have regulatory requirements which may legally prevent shops/carriers from selling you a SIM card, if your phone isn’t in their database. For instance, in Japan, it’s technically illegal to operate a device without a “giteki” mark - and if your phone doesn’t have this, operators may refuse to sell you a card. In this case however, you should be fine if you order a compatible SIM/eSIM online before arrival (eg from Sakura Mobile).

First of all, forget all the Spice-based viewers - by far the best solution for interacting with a Windows guest is using freeRDP. It’s extremely smooth and lightweight, and feels like you’re interacting with Windows natively - unlike Spice viewers which feel very clunky. With freeRDP, you don’t need to configure Samba etc, clipboard sharing works, dynamic resolution works, and you can even use seamless windows (RemoteApps) to make it look like you’re natively running a Windows app in Linux!

Just enable Remote Desktop in Windows, and then from your host machine, you can run the following command to connect to your VM:

xfreerdp /v:192.168.122.xxx /u:dexter /p:password /drive:/home/dexter/Downloads,Downloads /cert:ignore /dynamic-resolution +clipboard /scale:180 /f

• Obviously, change the above parameters according to your system.
• Setting a static IP inside Windows would also make it easier, so you can just create a shortcut/script with the above command.
• In my above command, I’ve shared my Downloads folder. This will appear in Windows as the share \\tsclient\Downloads. You can then map this share to a drive inside Windows to make it easier to access.
• I’m on a HiDPI monitor so I’ve enabled scaling with the /scale:180 parameter.

Alternatively, you could use a GUI tool like Remmina, which uses freeRDP in the backend.

I also highly recommend using freeRDP v3.x if possible - this is available in Arch (AUR) and Flatpak. The reason being, freeRDP has made numerous improvements since v3.0 (released December last year), which make it 100% worth the upgrade - but most distros seem to be stuck on 2.xx for some reason.

Let me know if you have any questions. I use Win11 guests on KVM almost daily for testing various things as part of my job, and I access it via freeRDP without any issues.

Wait till you find out that you can even uninstall Linux!

E37: No write since last change

It’s easiest to just register a domain name and use Couldflare Tunnels. No need to worry about dynamic DNS, port forwarding etc. Plus, you have the security advantages of DDoS protection and firewall (WAF). Finally, you get portability - you can change your ISP, router or even move your entire lab into the cloud if you wanted to, and you won’t need to change a single thing.

I have a lab set up on my mini PC that I often take to work with me, and it works the same regardless of whether it’s going thru my work’s restricted proxy or the NAT at home. Zero config required on the network side.

Most third-party Lemmy clients should support this. For instance, if you’re on Sync, you can just swipe it hide the post (assuming you’ve configured it that way).

Nope.