news
Valnet on Tolaria, Pipes, and Ditching Ubuntu
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Applications
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HowTo Geek ☛ Obsidian isn't actually open source—here's the markdown editor that is
This is an insane feat for any open source project to accomplish—gaining over 10,000 stars in 16 days. Tolaria definitely deserves it, though. The developer, Luca Rossi, is extremely active on X and has been working feverishly to merge pull requests every single day for Tolaria.
He has actively improved the Tolaria experience over the past few weeks, and I have definitely seen lots of benefits to using Tolaria over Obsidian. For starters, Tolaria has a proper MCP (model context protocol) for AI agents to integrate with. Obsidian just has Obsidian CLI, which allows the AI agents to talk to Obsidian, but not as deeply as a proper MCP does, as an MCP provides structured tool access, context aware interactions, and makes it easier for AI agents to orchestrate requests.
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Instructionals/Technical
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HowTo Geek ☛ 9 essential command pipelines that simplify everyday Linux
The pipeline feature is one of the driving forces behind the Linux philosophy, a single character that changes everything about how you work. By connecting the output of one command to the input of another, you can chain small programs together, creating a tool that is far greater than the sum of its parts.
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Distributions and Operating Systems
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Canonical/Ubuntu Family
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XDA ☛ I ditched Ubuntu after ten years on it, and only regret not doing it sooner
My Linux journey started with Ubuntu as a test operating system. I played around with hypervisors to get any Linux or alternative OS working. Back then, it wasn't about learning it but simply discovering what a Windows alternative looks like. Slowly, it became a part of my college curriculum, and I used it on both college and personal computers. But today's Ubuntu is wildly different from what I tried 11 years ago. Its design, feature set, and overall package try to appeal to a bigger audience.
But despite all these enhancements, it became a pain for me to use. Shifting strategies, forced bloatware, missing features, and customization make it a difficult choice by today's standards. Let's discuss why I finally gave up on it after spending more than ten years.
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