PCLinuxOS Magazine: News and HowTos

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Nov 30, 2025

• PCLinuxOS Magazine ☛ PCLinuxOS Screenshot Showcase

• PCLinuxOS Magazine ☛ Why PCLinuxOS?

  It’s not on almost any list of Linux distros that are “beginner-friendly.” It’s not popular on Distrowatch (it’s #31 as I write this). It’s called “the Boomer distro,” so it should have no appeal at all to a kid like me at face value. There’s no anime/manga version, no Star Wars edition, no special Gaming edition, no sports edition, nothing to help me improve my chances of making the Varsity baseball team or getting a girlfriend that isn’t taller than me. Besides, the command line terrifies me, and I’m not technically inclined at all. But I can’t afford a Mac or a new PC, and the laptops they issue at school are full of intrusive spyware meant to keep us from cheating, but they also watch and listen and record stuff that is none of the school’s business.

  I could do like almost every other high school kid and just use a phone or a tablet, and not bother with a traditional computer for anything but required school work. But the same things apply: They’re intrusive, monitored, hackable, and dangerous. I even had a creepy stalker using my own phone against my better interests. The sabotage was discovered when I brought the phone to the shop to get something fixed. Sorry, kids, but a phone or tablet is not a good substitute for a good desktop or laptop computer. Besides, we may as well learn how to use them because almost any place we go to work when we grow up still uses computers for darn near everything.

• PCLinuxOS Magazine ☛ From The Chief Editor's Desk...

  Of course, it’s not just brick and mortar stores that are attempting to “cash in” on holiday sales. My email inbox is overflowing with online retailers of all stripes, colors, and flavors, all trying to capture “their share” of my holiday budget.

• PCLinuxOS Magazine ☛ The Death Of Windows 10: It's Worse Than You Think

  So, what are the requirements for Windows 11? Let's take a look:

  Intel Core processor above 7th generation; 7th-gen Core i7-7500U “Kaby Lake” does not meet the requirements.

  AMD Ryzen 2000 processor and above, meaning all machines manufactured in 2017. 2017, 8 years ago, powerful machines capable enough to run any operating system. But not Windows 11. After all, Microsoft cares about the security of its customers, right? Right? Of course not.

  Not to mention the TPM 2.0 module, which was a standard that Microsoft launched in 2015. That is, 10 years ago.

  But first, let's analyze what it means to migrate to Windows 11, and then analyze what personal computing under the domain of TPM 2.0 might mean.

  [...]

  And again, I researched, with the help of AI, what remote boot time attacks exist. And this is what the AI replied: Statistically, there is no boot time attack if the attacker does not have physical access to the machine.

  Consequently, all the security makeup that Windows 11 now presents is just that: makeup. Or, as the AI itself wrote, "Windows 11 promotes TPM and BitLocker as the cutting edge of security. However, this security is an illusion against real threats. In practice, it is a compliance tool for businesses and an effective barrier only against opportunistic thieves, while serving Microsoft's purpose of accelerating the sale of new hardware under the guise of security."

  What about TPM 2.0? Let's see.

  [...]

  In 2015, Richard Stallman suggested replacing the term “trusted computing” with the term “treacherous computing,” due to the danger that the computer could be programmed to systematically disobey its owner if the cryptographic keys are kept secret. He also considers that the TPMs available for PCs in 2015 are not currently dangerous and that there is no reason not to include one in a computer or support it in software due to the industry's failed attempts to use this technology for DRM, but that the TPM 2.0 released in 2022 is precisely the threat of “treacherous computing” that he had warned about. Linus Torvalds also expressed his dissatisfaction in 2023, frustrated with AMD's fTPM bugs, saying, “Let's just disable this hwrnd fTPM crap.” He said that CPU-based random number generation, rdrand, was equally adequate, despite also having its bugs.

  On the BSD side, the FreeBSD community sees TPM 2.0 not as a necessary advancement, but as a lock-in mechanism that attempts to impose an external and opaque root of trust, undermining the principles of transparency, sovereignty, and total user control that are the foundation of an open-source operating system like FreeBSD. They prefer security solutions that are fully inspectable in the kernel.

  However, it gets worse. Much worse with Remote Attestation.

  [...]

  But I use PCLinuxOS!!! For me, these Microsoft things have no effect!!!

  That's where you're wrong. As this “security” scheme (TPM+UEFI) has become an industry standard, the new normal is that all computers come with these useless and superfluous devices, at least for home users. And, obviously, with all these restrictions, it will become increasingly difficult to use any operating system other than the one that comes factory-installed with the machine.

  Thus, open and free computing will become a niche, which only people who understand the dangers of all this control by big tech over users will be part of. And everything that belongs to niches is usually expensive and scarce.

  Is there any hope? We will see below.

  [...]

  Organizations such as the Free Software Foundation (FSF) and the EFF see these mechanisms as a strategy to limit digital freedom, transforming the PC, which was historically an open platform, into a restricted device where the owner does not have the final say on the software that runs on their own hardware.

• Instructionals/Technical

  • PCLinuxOS Magazine ☛ Tip Top Tips: How To Make Your Monitor Remember Your Preferred Brightness Level

    Tip Top Tips is a semi-monthly column in The PCLinuxOS Magazine. Periodically, we will feature – and possibly even expand upon – one tip from the PCLinuxOS forum. The magazine will not accept independent tip submissions specifically intended for inclusion in the Tip Top Tips column. Rather, if you have a tip, share it in the PCLinuxOS forum’s “Tips & Tricks” section. Occasionally, we may run a “tip” posted elsewhere in the PCLinuxOS forum. Either way, share your tip in the forum, and it just may be selected for publication in The PCLinuxOS Magazine.

  • PCLinuxOS Magazine ☛ Inkscape Tutorial: Creating A Cutout

    I saw another cool tutorial the other day on YouTube. This one is from IronEcho Design. He created a cutout effect using a number and a photo. It could be a wonderful idea to use on a brochure or ad.

    I have done this a couple of times now, and even though it seems hard at first, it is not. Opening Inkscape, import your photo, and use your text tool to create a number or letter, whichever you want. Rick from IronEcho says you only have to link the photo rather than embedding it, and it will save some file size. Create your number in white, because we’re going to use a mask on it, and the mask will keep whatever is under the white. (I used a letter this time.) He also suggests that you can reduce the opacity of your number in order to line up the photo the way you want it. Be sure to return it to 100% (no opacity) before you proceed. I only reduced mine to 70%.

  • PCLinuxOS Magazine ☛ A Delayed Screenshot Script

    I have to be honest here. I’ve been seeking a way to take delayed screenshots for some time now. But, perhaps I should give you a little background on why this has been on my “wish list” for a while now.

    As I’ve spoken about before, I retired at the end of 2022 after working 35 years as a Registered Respiratory Therapist. I have ZERO plans to return to the workforce. My wife is also a Registered Respiratory Therapist. Hearing her “war stories” from the bedside trenches just reinforces my decision to have retired when I did. However, I do still maintain my respiratory license … just in case. It’s much easier to maintain it than it is to try to get it back after it elapses.

    Part of the “process” for maintaining my license to practice respiratory therapy (respiratory therapists are licensed in a manner similar to nurses, physicians, and other healthcare professionals) is to complete 24 CEUs (continuing education units … each “unit” is approximately one hour of education) every two years. Half of them must be what the licensing board considers “live contact.” That means either doing at least 12 of those CEUs in a setting where you can ask questions and have “live contact” with the presenter.

    There are two ways to obtain those “live contact” CEUs. You can either attend a seminar, or you can “attend” live webinars online. The former usually comes with a cost that you have to pay (and that cost can climb quickly), while the latter is offered for free via webinars sponsored by equipment vendors and others with an interest in dispensing respiratory educational information. Of course, all 24 CEUs can be of the “live contact” variety, and that is the route I’ve subscribed to for many years.

  • PCLinuxOS Magazine ☛ Wiki Pick: Backing Up Your /home Directory

    On your PCLinuxOS computer, the folder /home will have a subfolder for every user on the system. If you have a large external drive (and they can be bought cheap these days, though those can be slow), you can back up the /home system onto it easily, using a program called rsync. I've also got an extra subfolder in /home, called /home/storage, where I keep stuff safe, like extra fonts, my own wallpaper collection, drivers for my printer/scanner, copies of a few scripts that I like to install when my system needs re-installing, and so on. Of course the main / (root) folder, apart from /home, is installed when I re-install Linux, and if it gets broken somehow, it's probably best to re-install from a more recent ISO. Your /home folder stores the personal stuff that you, and everyone else who uses your computer, can't put back from your PCLinuxOS ISO.