GNU/Linux and BSD Leftovers

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Jul 05, 2026

• Desktop/Laptop

  • PC Mag ☛ Wait! Instead of Throwing Away That Old PC, Try One of These 20 Fun Projects

    Can't upgrade to Windows 11? Make your computer feel young (and safe) again with a freshly installed operating system. Most alternative OSes (translation: neither Windows nor macOS) are based on Linux, which comes in a variety of options called "distros." Popular examples include Ubuntu, Mint, elementary OS, and Zorin OS. You'll find interfaces similar to Windows, and they come with software packages such as LibreOffice (a free, open-source equivalent to Microsoft Office). Most work well on PCs with 4GB of RAM or more, but check the specifications.

• Applications

  • HowTo Geek ☛ Why I stopped installing apps the traditional Linux way

    Installing programs on Linux is a fairly simple process. Using a package manager and an installation command ( sudo apt install [program name] for example) in your terminal installs an application, assuming it's available in your distro's repositories. As I grew more experienced with the operating system, I stopped installing Linux apps the traditional way, largely because the other options offer more control, variety, and customization.

    Here's why and what I do instead.

• Distributions and Operating Systems

  • Barry Kauler ☛ Improved hardware profiling for audio

    Hardware profiling is one of the unique features of EasyOS. It remembers the hardware setup when you bootup from a flash drive on different computers. Or even on the same computer if you change the audio card.

  • BSD

    • Subnetspider ☛ How to fix Homebox 0.26.2 not starting on FreeBSD | subnetspider.com

      After upgrading my Homebox jail yesterday from 0.25.2 to 0.26.2, the homebox service would not start anymore. Taking a look into /var/log/homebox.log, I got presented with the following error message: [...]

  • Fedora Family / IBM

    • Hackaday ☛ Using Flatpak To Run A 1996 Version Of The GIMP On Modern Linux

      Bundled with this Flatpak release are a lot of plugins and tutorials that were created at the time, making it a veritable time capsule of a more innocent era. As noted by [balooii], this version of GIMP was very much Beta software, with all of the UI quirks you’d expect. It also features the multiple unconnected windows (not MDI) approach to its UI – dropped in more recent GIMP releases — that has enraged proponents of the single window approach, as used by all commercial competitors, including Paint Shop Pro and Photoshop.

    • Kevin Fenzi: misc fedora bits: start of july 2026

      "Today's the fourth of july. Another june has gone by."

      (appologies to Amiee Mann).

      Here's another short recap of the last week from me. I was off Thursday, and Friday was a holiday, and I'm off next monday too, so this was a short week.

      [...]

      Staging openshift workers network

      Last week we moved a number of servers to balance power in racks. That went fine, but networking folks noticed that 3 of the machines were not properly using 802.3ad/lacp. That is, they were only connected on one interface. These machines were our staging openshift workers.