GNU/Linux

• PCLinuxOS Magazine ☛ ICYMI: California Exempts Linux, Open Source OS's From Age Verification Law

  California plans to exclude Linux and most other open-source operating systems from its new age verification law, which takes effect on Jan. 1, 2027, according to an article from Extreme Tech. The change follows massive pushback from the open-source software community. In October 2025, Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 1043, a new law for OS providers in California. This law requires an OS to collect users' ages or birth dates when they set up their accounts. OS providers then must share this information with app developers through a real-time API. The law divides users into four age groups: under 13, 13-16, 16-18, and 18 and over. Currently, it defines “"operating system provider” as anyone who develops, licenses, or maintains operating system software. This includes companies that make Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, Linux distributions, and Valve's SteamOS. But the Linux community is overwhelmingly against applying the law to open-source operating systems. Critics have said it would be very hard to enforce rules for community-run distributions such as Ubuntu and Debian. These systems don't have a central account system and let users download ISO files from various mirrors around the world. Something similar has also happened in Colorado, where Colorado's path here involved some direct community legwork. Carl Richell, the founder of System76, spent some considerable time working with Senator Matt Ball, one of SB26-051's co-authors, to get open source exclusions written into the bill, according to another article from It’s Foss.

• Instructionals/Technical

  • PCLinuxOS Magazine ☛ Alternative “Fixes” For The NLUUG Repo Path Problem

    Last month we published an article about what happened during the Great NLUUG Snafu (GNS) of mid-May 2026, with instructions on how to manually fix the repo directory path so that your PCLinuxOS computer can receive updates. For more detailed background on the GNS, please consult the June 2026 article.

    If you have not yet made the manual change to your system configuration, I will present additional options for you to consider. This proves the truism that there are multiple ways to accomplish a task on Linux.

  • PCLinuxOS Magazine ☛ A Custom Script To Manage Your Wireguard VPN Connection

    Because I like simple, non-intrusive ways of getting things done and, for various reasons, other options open to me were not acceptable.

    Main amongst those is that Proton, my selected VPN provider, only provides their application for distros that have systemd running. There is a very short list of distros they “support”.

  • PCLinuxOS Magazine ☛ GIMP Tutorial: The Resynthesizer Plug-In

    Three years ago, I did a tutorial reviewing the Resynthesizer plug-in that GIMP has. It’s an interesting plug-in which allows you to seamlessly remove something from an image that you don’t want. Since GIMP was updated to version 3.0, those older plug-ins no longer work, so I went looking. I did find a tutorial from Davies Media Design. Davies does a good job of explaining what the resynthesizer does. However, this was for GIMP 2.10.

  • PCLinuxOS Magazine ☛ Wiki Pick: Getting Rid Of Unwanted/Unneeded Files

    This page is the results of the questions asked about how to remove unneeded/unwanted files on the PCLinuxOS forum.

    This ONLY involves cleaning old logs and other system stuff that is not needed.

  • PCLinuxOS Magazine ☛ Tip Top Tips: KDE 6.x.y Change Shutdown/Logout Countdown (Konsole Method)

    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.

Distributions and Operating Systems

• PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandriva/OpenMandriva Family

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

    Seventeen years ago, in July 2009, I was named the Chief Editor of The PCLinuxOS Magazine. It’s a position that I’ve held ever since.

    [...]

    Back then, we had another forum where development ideas were put forth and tried out. It was called MyPCLinuxOS. Our former and departed moderator Archie Arevalo put out a call to resurrect the magazine, which, at that time, had been published on a mostly monthly basis (with the exception of the tenure of the former editor). Having a journalism background (I had worked as a photojournalist for a number of years before then, both for local daily newspapers and for the wire services), I immediately threw my name into the hat to be the person to lead that resurrection of the magazine.

  • PCLinuxOS Magazine ☛ PCLinuxOS Screenshot Showcase

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

• Programming

  • Shell/Bash

    • PCLinuxOS Magazine ☛ A New Script To Create Image Transparency

      It’s definitely no secret: I spend a LOT of time working with graphic files in my position as the chief editor for The PCLinuxOS Magazine. You would think that with as much time as I spend working with graphic files, I’d be some kind of GIMP savant … but I’m not. My GIMP skills, if I had to rate them, are just a hair above average (my own assessment). On the staff of The PCLinuxOS Magazine, Meemaw is the resident graphics guru.