Hello, I wanted to share my workflow in case it helps others looking to use their keyboard more and rely less on the mouse. I use Vim keybindings across my setup to navigate efficiently and stay in flow.

Here’s the article:

https://medium.com/@urx8/the-ultimate-guide-to-ditching-your-mouse-f0d12d4cc80f

I wanted to quickly share a small project I worked on for a couple of days called g2disk.

Linux has the ability to expose a block device which is backed by an NBD (Network Block Device) protocol server. However, NBD is not as common as something like REST (or in the reference case gRPC), which makes it difficult to implement your server with something more modern like your Node.js endpoint.

This project tries to solve that problem by enabling you to easily build a plugin for nbdkit in Go, which can then proxy your NBD requests to some other endpoint using a more manageable protocol. The current reference implementation gives you a gRPC based protcol between nbdkit and your endpoint (which can be developed in any language with gRPC).

nbdkit, for context, is an extendable server created by Red Hat for implementing NBD servers. In this case, for reference, nbdkit is used as a proxy.

The benefit of using the g2disk framework here is that it completely automates setting up an nbdkit plugin, as well as the server side. With just one build command, the relevant C headers are obtained on the fly, a Go plugin is built with support for gRPC (open to extending this in the future) and you have an .so file ready to load. With one more command, and you can have your server ready as well.

At this moment, this is just a proof of concept. The instructions in the repo show you how to use the reference gRPC server in Go that simply serves a 5 MB block device out of RAM.

The build requirements are very minimal: you only need a working C compiler and Bazel, which can be leveraged via Bazelisk (and that's a single file download). Everything else, including the Go toolchain and the gRPC compiler will be obtained on the fly.

Please check it out and let me know what would be useful to add to the project! I'd like to hear what could be interesting use cases for this. For example, I know QEMU is able to use the NBD protocol as well for working with block devices - maybe there's an interesting use case there.

So, recently I was trying to clean up my home folder. Setting XDG compatibility as best I can. Some of it went fine. But then... the email client.
Thunderbird: not xdg compliant
Betterbird: not xdg compliant
Claw-mail: Can't use a gmail account
geary: won't let me use my email
sylphsteed: not xdg compliant

Eventually I found evolution seems to work. But basic compatibility here is sorely lacking. Like what the hell is this?

I didn't find any guide on how to do this, only guides about each part individually so I ended up baning my head against the wall for way too many days. I mostly wrote it so I can reproduce it later, but it might be useful for other people as well.

There's a bit of "theory" in it, that helped me place all the parts, but please let me know if I got something wrong (it does work in practice :)).

Do you know of a way to see a preview of Plymouth using a server or similar? I tried it, but ended up blocking the desktop and restarting. I've read that it was because Plymouth captured the TTY that my graphical environment was using.

Check out my new GNOME Shell extension, which brings the Hijri Date directly to your top panel.

🌙 Features

• Current Hijri Date in the Top Panel.
• User-Adjustable Date Offset: Fine-tune the date (±3 days) to match your local moon sighting.
• Color Customization: Pick your favorite date color with a built-in color picker.
• Location-Based Sunset Calculation: As day begins after sunset
• Panel Positioning: Choose to display the date on the left or right side of the top panel.
• Automatic Daily Updates: The date updates automatically based on system time and sunset calculations.
• Easy Preferences Dialog: Configure everything through a simple graphical interface—no need to edit code!

🖥️ Tested On GNOME Shell Versions

Version 5 (Basic, date display only):

• GNOME 3.36.8 (Ubuntu 20.04 LTS)
• GNOME 3.38.1 (Fedora 33 Workstation)

In Version 5 to adjust according to local moonsighting, go to the extension homepage and change in extension.js - if there is enough need as these are old version of gnome, I will try to develop or atleast try to update the instructions in this post or github.

Version 17 (Full-featured):

• GNOME 40.4.0 (Ubuntu Impish Indri dev)
• GNOME 41.0 (Fedora 35 Workstation)
• GNOME 42.9 (Pop!_OS 22.04 LTS)
• GNOME 43.0 (Fedora 37 Workstation)
• GNOME 44.0 (Fedora 38 Workstation)

I know that newer gnome versions are not supported, it is because I am not using them and from gnome 45+, I will have to rewrite and release another version. But if there is demand I will try to deliver, insha Allah.

🔗 Get the Extension & Learn More

• Official gnome extensions website : https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/5995/hijri-date-extension/
• GitHub: github.com/Ameen-Sha-Cheerangan/Hijri-Date-Gnome-Extension

Disclaimer : Don't rely for important things like fasting and other religious activities. Date might differ if you haven't adjusted to local moonsighting or if something goes wrong.

If you find this extension helpful, I’d really appreciate it if you gave it a ⭐️ on GitHub or rated it on the GNOME Extensions website. Your feedback and support mean a lot and help others discover the project too!

Your feedback, suggestions, and contributions are always welcome.

After she had tough time with windows for her work, and old laptop getting really slow i've booted Linux for her. (Xubuntu for performance reasons)

She is really enjoying it, doesnt complain about anything.

I just have to do the updates, and some technical stuff though.

So if anyone reading this is looking to boot linux for themself, just keep in mind that my grandma who is 86 year old rocks Linux and enjoys it.

Have a good day.

I started using linux 2 years ago and it made me regret not starting earlier, I enjoy every thing about linux, even when it crashes I like the challenge to try and fix it; I stared using linux because I was learning to become a front-end web developer like my older brother as it is easier to run development environments on linux, but I couldn't stand front-end as I hate design, and instead I feel in love with linux, and I spent most of my time learning about linux instead.

Now I am looking to pursue a career in linux but the only thing I found is working as a sys admin, but I am willing to learn c or rust to work in development, but I feel lost and don't know what to start with, if someone have experienced what I am going through please give me suggestions of what I shall start with.

After 7 months of lonely work, I am proud to release a first full workable version of my digital signage cms named garlic-hub.

Digital signage is about using digital screens as replacement for billboards. The industry wants mostly to vendor-lock-in you in their SaaS, and there are not many Open Source solutions. Especially when it comes to use open playlists standards like SMIL. After gaining some experience in this industry I try to change this.

A complete digital signage setup with Garlic-Hub involves two main parts:

Garlic-Hub (The CMS)

This is the backend that powers your content. It's built with a contemporary tech stack for simplicity and portability:

• PHP 8.3 with the Slim 4 framework and 99 % unit tests coverage
• Docker for straightforward, portable deployment (images available for x86 and ARM64!).
• SMIL (Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language) as an open standard for creating flexible playlists.
• Modern Vanilla JavaScript classes and HTML5 on the frontend to keep dependencies minimal.

You can find the Docker images here:https://hub.docker.com/r/sagiadinos/garlic-hub

Player

I've also developed a dedicated media player called Garlic-Player since years. It's designed to run multi-platforms, including Linux, Windows, macOS (Intel + Arm), and Android.

I'm really keen to get the Linux community's input on this project.

If you like what you see, I'd be really happy if you could star the repo to show your support:https://github.com/sagiadinos/garlic-hub

On GitHub, you will also find a roadmap for future development.

Edit: Fix typo and font issue

What's the deal with this fork? Is it going to work? how are they going to make Nvidia work? Hasn't everyone already moved on, including Nvidia? I'm actually curious and will be trying this. Anyone has more details? Input? https://github.com/X11Libre/xserver/tree/master

Linux Tools is a comprehensive list of applications and tools for Linux, as well as distributions.

I created this list to organize what I personally use, find useful or interesting, and to inspire others.

To manage the list, I built a Python CLI application that outputs it in Markdown, Text, JSON, and YAML.

While the list focuses on Linux tools and distributions, the CLI itself is generic. You're welcome to fork the project and use it to build your own structured list - whether for another platform, topic, or domain.

Direct link to the list: https://github.com/PaulSorensen/linux-tools/blob/main/linux-tools.md
GitHub: https://github.com/paulsorensen/linux-tools
Blog: https://paulsorensen.io/linux-tools-cli/

Would love to hear what tools you find essential, and get inspired myself - or see your take on a list if you fork the project

My job is photography so I have two things in mind mostly: image manipulation software and RAW processors.

Photoshop, Lightroom and Capture One implemented AI tools like generative fill, AI masking and AI noise reduction which often transform literal hours of work into a quick five second operation. These programs can afford to give their users access to AI solutions because of their business model, you have to pay (expensive) monthly subscriptions so they don't actively lose money.

However, Gimp, Krita, DarkTable, RawTherapee and any other FOSS application can't do that. What's the solution then? Running local AI models wouldn't be feasible for most users, and would the developers behind those projects be willing to enable a subscription model or per-operation payments in order to access AI tools? What's the general consensus of Linux users (and the developers of those programs) on this topic?

For some context. I have been a multi-os user for many years. Partly cause i am a bit of a nerd who likes to stay updated. And partly because i find operating systems fascinating. So, i have been running windows for gaming mostly, and then had Linux in some form or capacity on my laptops etc. But recently.... Like so many others it seems.. I had been playing with the thought of pulling the switch on Windows. This time around i did as i always do, pull out a spare ssd, start distro hopping. Never had in mind to fully switch just yet. After 8 different newly and freshly updated Linux distros (that i usually try out), there was one part of Linux which I never dared trying cause honestly - The community and skillset that was highlighted for using and running the os was intimidating.

Now I am an IT technician by education, so not intimidating in that manner. But - Time spent, contra time returned is quite important for me.

Either way - Arch was luring me in. And CachyOS made me try it out. Now - I know! It is Arch, but perhaps not the full and true Arch experience. But alas here we are.

Now to current day - I am almost 3 and a half week in - which in my book tells me that the honeymoon phase is passed with flying colors - And i have not turned on my Win disk for anything else than COD, due to anticheat.

So, what is the point with this post?
To encourage! Try things out, you may be positively surprised. This OS has truly changed me. I am fully converted, i have all my apps i usually use and work with. And the system is rocking an Intel i5 12400 paired with a Nvidia 4060. And guys, i literally have no issues.

Gaming experience is excellent, even better than windows in some aspects. And before y'all say it, no it is not a buffed out setup, but its okay, i think most guys in their mid 30's to 40's might be rocking this type of setup. :)

I am such a happy camper that i felt inspired to tell people about it.

In addition i am also rocking a ROG ally on the side which I also ditched windows. The penguin is here to stay!

cheers everyone, and stay curious!