Recent Valnet Articles About GNU/Linux and More

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Feb 09, 2026

• Desktop/Laptop

  • HowTo Geek ☛ How to make your Linux laptop more secure in 7 steps

    Chances are that part of the reason you broke away from Microsoft and switched to Linux is the open-source OS's reputation for greater security. That doesn’t mean your Linux distro is impenetrable, though, and certainly not out of the box. Here are seven steps you can take to make your Linux laptop more secure.

    If you’re still looking to make the jump, check out our selection of the best Linux laptops.

• WINE or Emulation

  • HowTo Geek ☛ MAME can now emulate Apple's first graphical computer

    The popular multi-system emulator MAME just received its first update for 2026. MAME 0.285 has arrived with better support for Apple's first graphical interface computer, the Lisa, along with more arcade emulation options and other changes.

    MAME already laid the groundwork for emulating the Apple Lisa, the ill-fated 1983 desktop computer from Apple, but this release places it in "substantially better shape." The original Lisa, Lisa 2, and Lisa 2/10 have all been moved to the 'working' list of systems, so they should be able to fully boot and run some software.

    The Apple Lisa was the first mass-market personal computer with a graphical user interface, though it was still incredibly expensive with an initial retail price of $9,995 (about $33,000 in today's dollars). It had many problems besides the high price, including an underpowered processor and unreliable floppy drives, but it helped pioneer desktop computing as we know it today. Apple released the much more successful Macintosh only one year later, and the remaining Lisa computers were reworked as Macintosh XL desktops with a built-in Mac ROM emulator.

• Desktop Environments (DE)/Window Managers (WM)

  • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

    • XDA ☛ KDE Plasma 6.6.0 will fix the most annoying part of printing within the desktop environment

      Printers are already finicky enough to work with, so the last thing you want is for your software to have its own gripes, too. Unfortunately, as much as I love KDE Plasma, it does have some quirks with printing that make the process a little more annoying than it has to be.

      Well, the good news is that the newest "This Week in Plasma" blog post has revealed what people are working on for KDE Plasma version 6.6.0. And one of the upcoming fixes allows the desktop environment to properly report on how much of your printer's waste receptacle is left.