GNU/Linux HowTos, K Desktop Environment vs GNOME, and More

posted by Roy Schestowitz on May 18, 2026

• Instructionals/Technical

  • HowTo Geek ☛ Stop opening ports on your router to access your home server (do this instead)

    When you're connected to the same Wi-Fi network, it's pretty simple to SSH into any device connected to the same network. But outside that same network, you cannot do that because your ISP doesn't assign a unique public IP to your home network. You might have heard that you need to set up "port forwarding" to get into your home servers when you're out. But it doesn't have to be so complicated. Here's an easy and safe way to SSH into your home network when you're away.

  • HowTo Geek ☛ Your Linux boot drive can save you hours of frustration (if you know how to use it)

    After you get done installing Linux with a flash drive, it is tempting to just wipe it and throw it back in a drawer. However, that is a waste. Whether you just leave Linux on it or you add a few extra things, your Linux installer USB can become one of the most useful tech troubleshooting tools you own.

• Games

  • XDA ☛ Linux is finally ready for gamers, but gamers are still not ready for Linux

    The fact is that the overwhelming majority of PC gamers are still on Windows. What's also a fact is that more and more gamers are moving to Linux, something we saw clearly when Windows 10 entered its EOL phase. Linux gaming used to elicit audible groans from PC gamers. However, gaming on Linux is far from what most people remember. Today, you can play most of your Steam library on Linux, often with better performance than Windows, and without a ton of setup if you use the right distro. That said, what's possible on Linux doesn't automatically convince the average user to jump ship. With enough time and effort, you can resolve the many errors Linux gaming still throws at you, but not everyone wants to do that. The long history of Windows and PC gaming means that Linux will take decades, not just years, to gain any kind of mainstream share in the PC gaming world. Linux may finally have ironed out most of the kinks, but the average gamer needs much more than that to leave the walled garden of Windows.

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

  • K Desktop Environment vs GNOME

    • XDA ☛ I switched between KDE Plasma and GNOME for months, and they’re not actually competitors

      Linux offers an overwhelming number of distributions, and there's something for everyone. Desktop environments (DE) add the visual medium to interact with the underlying OS, and there's no dearth of them as well. You've got GNOME, KDE, Xfce, COSMIC, just to name a few. It's also possible to switch to a different desktop environment, which is one of the key things I love about Linux. I've been using Ubuntu with GNOME for a long time and KDE Plasma for a little less than that.

• Distributions and Operating Systems

  • Fedora

    • XDA ☛ Ubuntu 26.04 is polished, but Fedora 44 asked less from me out of the box

      Installing two major Linux releases on the same machine is one of the fastest ways to remind yourself that “Linux desktop” is not one single thing. Ubuntu 26.04 and Fedora 44 may both sit comfortably in the mainstream Linux world, but they don’t greet you the same way after a fresh install. That first hour matters more than people sometimes admit. It’s where a distro either feels ready for your daily routine or quietly hands you a to-do list.

      After using both on the same hardware, Fedora 44 made a stronger first impression. Ubuntu 26.04 has plenty going for it, especially if you want an LTS release with a familiar setup and a huge support ecosystem. I don’t think it’s a weak release, and I wouldn’t pretend otherwise. But Fedora felt calmer, cleaner, and less eager to make decisions I immediately wanted to reverse.