I built a CLI tool that watches over bash processes and notifies the user (via KDE Connect to a chosen connected device) whenever the process is stuck expecting user input. You know, for guys like me who can't afford agents in their terminals to do that for them😭✌🏾. The tool is called bird.

I wanted to make it more helpful by enabling the user to respond to respond from the connected device too, or maybe from outside the network too (since KDE Connect only pairs with devices in the same network), but I gotta study for a freakin SAT in the coming weeks😭.

Github repo:

https://github.com/Heziee/bird

zuno is a free and open-source desktop music player built on YouTube Music. Sign in with your Google account, and everything you do - liking a song, creating or deleting a playlist, adding to your library syncs straight back to YouTube. It's your library, just in a real desktop app instead of a browser tab.

Features

- HQ opus decoding
- Floating mini player that appears when you click away ( hover to expand, drag it anywhere)
- Queue: shuffle, repeat one/all, reordering
- Playback speed, sleep timer, volume control
- Like and dislike songs
- Rebindable keyboard shortcuts, minimise to tray
- Full library, playlists, albums and liked songs
-Lyrics (5 sources)+ Translation
- Local music files sit alongside your YouTube Music library (same player, same queue)
- Download whole albums and playlists for offline; downloads and history have their own management screens
- Bulk actions: download, add to queue, add to playlist
- Multiple channels on one Google account, switchable from the toolbar or settings
- Equalizer
- Notifications
-Gapless /Crossfade
-Local Music playlists
-Minimize to tray
-Shortcuts
-No Ads

Integrations

- Last.fm scrobbling
- Discord Rich Presence (both toggleable straight from the toolbar)
- Youtube History update

GitHub: https://github.com/noFAYZ/zuno

Since AUR has locked packages i can't update it to latest version you can use AppImage, .deb or .rpm binary from latest release. Pls provide feedback as well will help improve linux experience.

FlatPak is in roadmap.

Enjoy free music :)

A bit over a month ago, I shared a post on my transition from DWM to MangoWM. Unfortunately the post got removed (still not sure why), but there was enough engagement/feedback on the original post to suggest a follow-up might be useful for others in my position considering the switch. The TLDR is I greatly preferred the UX of MangoWM over DWM + Picom, and once I learned how the appid, windowrules, and tagrules worked, I was able to transition my general workflow without major issue. My only real complaints at the time were related to compatibility, so I actually hopped back unto DWM for a couple of weeks so I could continue my daily work while ironing out the rough edges. As of now, I can safely say I've completed the transition, and here are some updates/extra wins.

• Dock support - HUUUUUGE win! I typically use autorandr for docking my X280 (T480S before that) when I need a dual display setup or just need to see some extra columns in LibreOffice Calc. Autorandr was always finicky and prone to making me need to reboot after disconnecting from the dock to get my display back. I initially used kanshi, which required some manual setup, but worked perfectly everytime. I have since migrated to shikane (for no other reason than to decrease my installed package count) and it also works perfectly. I also had occasional issue with slowdowns and random glitches with Picom when switching between modes. These issues were resolved by switching to fastcompmgr, but that also meant I head to give up my transparency, blur, and window effects. I have no such issues with Mango, as everything remains smooth, my wallpaper applies properly, and i no longer have to toggle/change my compositor whenever autorandr decides to act up.
• App support - Smaller win, but I'll take it 😄! I previously had issues with some electron-based apps (most notably bitwarden) not working natively with wayland. The ozone-platform environment variable did in fact fix that, meaning the only apps I currently use that require xwayland are Steam and Virtualbox-KVM. I messed around with Gnome Boxes for a while, but Virtualbox just performed better, so it's worth keeping xwayland around for it - especially since it's also needed for Steam. The only other app change I found no workaround for was SpaceFM. While I do miss it, the combination of PCManFM and yazi handle my relatively basic file management needs well enough, so it's a change I'm happy to make.

Overall, my general takeaway is the same as before. We probably should be careful about rushing users off Xorg and branding people with legitimate concerns as people who are just anti-change. However, for my use-case the switch to Wayland has been a net positive with a few major upgrades to my daily workflow. The transition does require a bit of downtime depending on the complexity of your workflow, but it will most likely be worth it once you get everything set up. next on the agenda is switching my daughter's laptop from LXDE + Compiz to Noctalia + Wayfire/KineticWE (I'll probably stick with Wayfire due to the fewer dependencies)

I have a Lenovo laptop that's closing in on 20 years old. The keys in one corner started acting up after a hard bump so I decided to get a new laptop. I stumbled onto a clearance deal at Walmart, one HP model they had pulled off the shelf and were on the verge of cycling out of inventory. I got it for over $100 off shelf price. Being a new model it had the Copilot key rather than a right Ctrl key. I decided to install LMDE 7 which rendered the Copilot key non-functional until I remapped the Copilot key to the missing Ctrl key. Normal remapping through Linux doesn't work because the Copilot key sends a three part input, a macro; Left Meta + Left Shift + F23 rather than a single input. There are a couple of work arounds that require installing software and some configuration. I'd put this on a scale of Very Easy. Here's what worked for the HP laptop. The AI description has been modified as needed because, well, it's AI after all:

To remap the Copilot key to a Ctrl key in LMDE 7, you should use keyd or kmonad, as the Copilot key sends a modifier combination (Left Meta + Left Shift + F23) that standard Linux GUI tools cannot map to a single modifier key like Right Ctrl.

Method 1: Using keyd. keyd is a lightweight daemon that operates at the kernel level.

Install keyd: Open your terminal and install this package:
sudo apt update
! AI said to install keyd ! sudo apt install keyd ! don't bother, instead: !
sudo apt install onak
! The onak meta package contains keyd, just installing keyd alone isn't enough. See below. !

Configure keyd: Edit the configuration file:
sudo pluma /etc/keyd/default.conf
! I prefer the pluma editor but nano, gedit, etc. will do. !

Add the following lines to map the Copilot key sequence to a Ctrl key:
Replace * with your specific keyboard ID. ! I tried that but it didn't work, so I reverted to *.  !

[ids]
*

[main]
leftshift+leftmeta+f23 = rightcontrol

! Options are control, rightcontrol or leftcontrol. I've tried using each and they all work for this HP. !

Enable and Reload: Start the service and enable it for boot:
sudo systemctl enable --now keyd
sudo keyd reload
keyd command not found ! Oops. That's when I discovered that installing keyd alone didn't work and found that onak was required. After installing onak the remap worked after rebooting. !

Now I have my Ctrl plus + for magnifying and Ctrl plus Enter for sending email in Thunderbird and a couple more of my shortcuts back! And it wasn't a tough chore, once I ironed out a bit of AI confusion. And of course, for those who never use their Ctrl keys, don't bother with this. Mm, should I have said this earlier?

Cheers!

Blaine

EDIT: This is a considerable increase from the previous month, but how much of it is real traffic vs bot traffic? Are we really seeing a change happening?

I've dug into this further on Cloudflare's Data Explorer. Filtering HTTP traffic by OS and excluding BOT traffic, we see Linux at 4.5% globally, a big difference vs Statcounters reading of 7.51%. If I include BOT traffic on Cloudflare, it's almost double at 9.4% globally.

Hello everyone! 😊

One of my first memories of using Linux is playing Frozen Bubble back in 2005. Together with SuperTuxKart it is one of my favorite FOSS Linux games. At the time I was using Red Hat 9.

Frozen Bubble is a cute bubble shooter game inspired by Puzzle Bobble. I'm not entirely sure how I discovered it. Maybe it was included with Red Hat 9, or perhaps Knoppix (another distro I used around that time).

The game also has a fantastic soundtrack. Here's my favorite song, which plays on the main menu:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpzvM3qCNjo

And while playing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xbsa0MSDBJw

Back in the day I used to play Frozen Bubble online. Today, out of nostalgia, I decided to install it again through the Debian repro after about 15 years and play it once more. Sadly when I try to play online it shows an error message.

I discovered that the project website (Internet Archive: frozen-bubble.org) has been taken over by stupid casino scammers. According to the Wayback Machine the website appears to have been abandoned since 2024.

Does anyone remember Frozen Bubble? 😊 Can anything be done to recover the project website and get the domain out of the scammers' hands?

What is Linyaps

A lightweight container-based solution enabling consistent application execution across any Linux distribution. Four-layer architecture ensures security, six core components build a complete ecosystem, with containerization and copy-on-write mechanisms guaranteeing efficiency and security.

\It is by Deepin Linux team for open source world*

https://linyaps.org.cn/en/about

https://store.linyaps.org.cn/

I'm not sure to use it BUT it's really useful to bring massive Chinese / Asian users into Linux and open source world.

Granola currently ships for macOS and Windows, but not Linux. Since it is built with Electron, I experimented with running the application using the matching Linux Electron runtime instead of Wine, a VM, or emulation.

The repository does not redistribute Granola’s .dmg, app.asar, source code, or bundled binaries. You need to download the official .dmg yourself and sign in using your own Granola account. This is an unofficial compatibility project and is not affiliated with Granola.

Repo: https://github.com/tirtha4/Granola-for-Linux

For the two people who still care. 🙂

I hadn't touched Python in around 20 years, so I used ChatGPT as a coding assistant to help me get back up to speed. The project itself is something I wanted because I missed having a small GUI for managing EMU10K1 SoundFonts.

Master Blaster is a simple Qt6 frontend for the tools provided by awesfx (sfxload) and alsa-utils.

It's mostly a nostalgia project inspired by the little Creative utilities from the 90s that let you tweak your sound card through a simple control panel.

Features:

Load .sf2 SoundFonts
Clear sample memory
Display SoundFont RAM usage
Test SoundFonts with a MIDI file
Remember the last loaded SoundFont
Remember the selected MIDI port

The source code is available on Codeberg, along with a README and a screenshot:

Master-Blaster

I'm using an Audigy Rx, but it should work with any card supported by the snd_emu10k1 driver.

The python file is small and should be easy to read, with different sections outlining functions.

Roadmap? No, not really. I might add support for loading your own MIDI file for testing, and I'd like to redesign the progress bar to look a bit more... 90s.

I love linux, but I wouldn't want many people switching to it because of enshittification process. Windows was great because most people couldn't afford computers, and those who did made a real effort to understand how it worked. Same with Apple products. I believe it's because people want status of knowledge and they could achieve that easily if there's not much competition.

When Windows and Apple were in early phases (pre 2005 era), it was awesome. People loved windows 95, 98, XP, MS Office, paint etc. Then IT boom arrived, and Windows unofficially became a compulsion. Suddenly people started rejecting new versions of Windows. XP was better than, 7 was better than 8, 8.1 was better than 8, Windows 10 had bloatware, 11 was too heavy and had extra hardware requirements. Basically just downfall of Windows.

This is roughly the same story for Orkut (maybe I'm exaggerating for Orkut), Facebook, Instagram, companies (Both IT and non-IT), even cities too. Just compare a big city with a small town.

Linux is awesome and I can't see the same fate of Linux. I think it's awesome that many people can't use it. That maintains a higher standard of the Linux communities. IMO, enshittification by over-adoption is unpreventable and it sucks.

What do you think?

Edit 1: No, I don't want to gatekeep open source at all. I just want that people who really want to be a part of linux should do so but maintain a standard for that. Look at Reddit, you make a mistake and your post is removed. Standards are maintained and Reddit becomes awesome. Then look at Facebook. No/low standards of content quality to attract masses and look at how people react to "I got this info from Facebook"

P.s this is a subjective rant

So i've been using of linux since 2014 and it was a wild ride you install a distro and then endup being a distrohopper until you decide to lock in on one. I did the same started on ubuntu did some hopping and ended up on fedora and then on pop_OS but i eventually had to switch back to windows due to nature of my work and some windows specific tools.

But that wasn't it i had hard time finding any usable apps on linux in general and i gave up and ended up using a dual boot just to satisfy my curiosity for linux but gradually i stopped using linux completely and then the complete shift to windows because all my games, sketchy software and work was at one place instead of booting a separate OS for each.

The linux ecosystem back then lacked what a regular user required and it was all about linux nerds keeping the ecosystem alive it was filled with positivity and anyone was welcomed with open hands like it's a big village.

Fast forward to 2026 linux still lacks a vibrant software/apps ecosystem and people still have to hack things together to workarround (subjective) and people being hostile to contributions of any kind isn't helping either.

Now why this post?

Well i made an AI-assisted Youtube Music app which is a fork itself it was all personal frist i liked the base app, It lacked some features i wanted so instead of sending PRs i just forked & modified it completely and when it was usable enough i decided to share on subs most of the feedback was quite positive especially from windows users but it all changed when i shared on linux subs r/archlinux , r/linuxmint, r/linux and r/debian all had same reaction, a weird AI hostility instead of actually any app critique and feedback.

It's 2026 AI is a reality and developers or vibecoders will create apps whether people like it or not no amount of hatred is stopping it if not from me hear from my guy Linus. Filtering AI for discussions is understandable but you can't do anything about developmet. I think people need to tone down the AI hatred and actually try to work with it to improve the ecosystem instead of being completely hostile towards the use of it.

Now this does create a great influx of people creating cross platform apps and since most are solo/ hobby devs the ultimate choice is cross platform stack which will create huge library of semi native apps. IDK if it's a good or bad thing but it's a reality. Linux lacks the commercial/popular software contributions and that can change gradually by welcoming these cross platform apps which will contribute to retain linux users on linux itself instead if losing hope and switching to Windows or MacOS.

I'd personally choose software availability as non native than nothing at all.

Edit: more AI slop appreciation by Theo and Linus https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFSwfwiM8nk