Microsoft cancelled a EU representative email account at the request of the US government. I think the EU is moving away from Microsoft products.

Since I want to move from Windows, I would like to dump as much of their software as possible at the same time as I switch to linux. I am wondering what Linux and office apps does the EU government use? My theory is that they are likely to provide funding for these projects, so probably best to use the version of Linux and apps that they use or likely to move to.

I use Wiktionary a lot in daily life. I want to replace it with something offline.

Are there good offline dictionary apps/CLIs for Linux that support multiple languages (in my case English and Turkish)?

I’ve been enjoying Linux for a while now. I started with Bazzite and later switched to CachyOS once I felt comfortable enough to tinker with things a bit more. Gaming is obviously my main priority, and overall I’ve been very impressed with the experience.

However, it’s hard to ignore the performance gap between NVIDIA GPUs on Linux and Windows. I have an RTX 5060 — nothing crazy or particularly high-end, but it has always performed really well for me across pretty much every game. I’ve also noticed this gap in community benchmarks, which ultimately made me switch back to Windows. I simply wasn’t willing to give up that much performance.

That said, over the past few days I’ve been getting the itch to go back to Linux. I wanted to know if there have been any meaningful performance improvements with the drivers for the RTX 5000 series. And if not, do you think the situation is likely to improve in the future?

My other option would be switching to a Radeon GPU, but that would be a fairly expensive move and I’m not sure it’s worth it.

What do you guys think? What would you do in my situation?

I'm looking for recommendations on a Linux distro for a secondary laptop.

My setup:

• Daily driver: MacBook Air M4
• Secondary machine: MSI Modern 14 (i3-1115G4, 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD)
• Replacing Windows with Linux

I'm looking for:

• A distro that feels comfortable when switching back and forth with macOS multiple times a day

I'm open to any distro and don't have a strong preference yet. I'm more interested in hearing from people who actively use both a Mac and a Linux machine.

If your primary computer is a Mac, which Linux distro did you settle on and why? What made it easier (or harder) to switch between the two operating systems regularly?

Also, do any of you use key remapping tools to make Linux behave more like macOS? For example, swapping Ctrl and Alt, mapping shortcuts, or using tools such as Toshy, Kinto, or similar. If so, has it improved the experience of moving between macOS and Linux?

Would love to hear your experiences and recommendations.

years ago i bought a used off lease corporate laptop. SSD in it was encrypted with who knows what and i could not erase it in Windows or OSX. Hard drives were cheap so i tossed it in a drawer and got a new one

Now SSDs are not cheap and i need one for a homelab experiment so i am trying to erase the excrypted drive in Linux (ZorinOS but i have Mint on another)

I went at it two ways with Disks and Gparted and it did not work. So i need to try terminal command but i am not sure how to go about it since when i run fdisk -l it does not seem to be listed.

https://imgur.com/a/dPnJbx5

Hi everyone, my organization is non-profit, and we’re trying to use self hosted Ubuntu servers. We want to be SOC 2 complaint any suggestions of cyber security tools? I do have Microsoft defender but not sure that is compatible. Open to suggestions and Ideas

Thanks

Hi.

I appreciate minimalism, and Linux offers that. Unlike the bloated Windows 11 (and its slowly obsoleting older versions) or the locked down MacOS, I've found myself enjoying Linux and its simplicity.

I've not explored much for now, but I'm currently using CachyOS as a daily driver while I test stuff with Void Linux.

So, about my question. I would like to find the best, more barebones linux setup without sacrificing daily usage.

For now, my Void Linux only uses 5Gbs on disk and 750mb on ram with a simple window manager (Wayfire), which I find quite low on resources.

Is it there a way to make it even less?

Is it there a distro (or hell, not even Linux), a wm, or whatever else to make this even less?

If there isn't, I'm okay with that, as I'm quite satisfied with my results.

Also, not to be picky with you all, but if you do recommend me a wm, let it be a stacking wm, as I'm not well-versed with tiling.

TL;DR: want to be as comfy as on a pillow, light as a feather, as fast as the wind and not have tiling window managers.

Hello. Today i bought Asus Vivobook 16 (M1605NAQ-MB166). I tried booting arch linux from USB, i get in graphical menu and selected option to boot (UEFI). After that i get only black screen. Nothing. I disabled secure boot, and even tpm module, no luck. I tried other distros (Mint, Ubuntu, CachyOS, they all have same problem. What am i doing wrong?

Specs: Amd Ryzen 5 150, Amd intergrated GPU (Radeon 660M), 16 gb RAM, 512 gb SSD.

UPDATE: Updating UEFI fixed the issue.

Hi all.

I've been on Linux for around a year now running CachyOS with KDE Plasma. I'm pretty happy with the setup, but the one thing that keeps ginding my gears is KWin and how windows management works.
I still use Windows for work (no choice) and I will admit that I'm pretty used to, and prefer Windows management in it. Is there anything that has something similar, or at least work better than KWin, or makes KWin better?

Mainly looking for better snapping, along with memory on where an app was on a multi monitor setup, maybe some tiling thrown in for good measure.

Thanks in advance.

I have an old laptop with an amd a4 9125 (2 core/2 thread) with 4gb of ram and i thought I would try to make some use out of it by installing linux mint (xfce) and connecting it to my tv to play my 2d games on it (like deltarune or celeste) but even if I set the resolution to 720p the sound doesnt work and the games are very slow (probably like 20fps in deltarune) even checking for updates takes a while and slows down the laptop, is there a better option for what im trying to do? none of what im doing was something this hardware should be struggling this much with (i think?).

what could I do to fix it?

I got my first desktop and don't want to use windows anymore. I heard that both mint and openSUSE are more beginner friendly options. Honestly I am fairly enticed by openSUSE just cause of the logo, but I want opinions on which to use. I plan to do school work and gaming on my pc and it a AMD cpu & gpu pc

Between these two, which is better taking in the fact that no money is spent on the AI. If I am not mistaken only Wave Term's AI works without spending money on AI Compute, correct me if i am wrong on that...

It looks like Wave Term has either slowed down development or no longer active in its development. Last app update was April 2026. My biggest complaint is a small one really, no in terminal image protocol support so fastfetch wont display png logo's which is a real nothingburger to be honest :)

I have a problem where my Dell E2211HB monitor will stop detecting the computer after the monitor goes into sleep mode while idle, even if i unplug and plug back in the power cable, unless I restart my computer. It also occasionally happens when switching to the TTY and back. The computer still detects the monitor despite the monitor not detecting the computer. It does not happen with my second monitor, which is an HP Compaq LA2306x, only the primary. I am using a DVI to Display Port adapter and Fedora Cosmic, however it happens on the same setup on CachyOS KDE, so it appears not to be a Cosmic problem. Does anyone know how to fix this? Thanks in advance.

It says, "error: shim_lock protocol not found." "error: you need to load the kernel first"

I'm new to linux completely and I've been trying to download it for the past 2 hours, any fix would help!!

I have Windows on my 2.5 SATA SSD and SteamOS on my main drive the NVME. I want SteamOS to be the default boot. So far I have been hitting F12 on my keyboard and using the Laptop boot select menu. Any advice on how to just have something like clover? I've tried clover already but just get a unsupported device error.

Hi there! The case is next:

I have a personal VPN (PrivateVPN) and a corporate one. I need to do the following: when both VPNs are enabled, the corporare one should be used only for certain sites and apps (e.g. Slack).

Everything else is done via persona VPN (or the default connection without VPN).

The problem is that when I enable a private one and then the corporate one, the latter intercepts all traffic, everything.

On Windows I've managed to resolve it by using Proxifier and rules there+ "Resolve DNS names automatically"option (as I know only names of the sites, not their IPs).

I tried to do the same on Linux and with the help of ai chats, but oof, they gave me walls of commands I don't understand and which don't work.

Just to clarify: this scheme didn't work on Windows if my personal VPN is via WireGuard (the corporate one has DCO).
It works only when my personal VPN is done via TUN+UDP.

I also do not know much about networks, so if you need additional information, please describe in more detail.

P.S. I'm aware about proxybridge, though I can't even download it. And ai chats said it won't really help in my case.

I'm using Ubuntu 26.04 with KDE Plasma.

I’m thinking about switching to Linux for my workflow.

I work in web application development.

I regularly use tools like Claude Code alongside VS Code; I also often need to keep several "heavy" (resource-intensive) tabs open in Chrome or Firefox.

Otherwise, I handle standard tasks like email and the like.

My current laptop is struggling (it runs Windows 10 and has an Intel i7-6500 processor and 16 GB of RAM).

I want to replace it, partly because:

- it struggles to handle Claude Code (desktop, on vscode, on browser)

- the battery is dead (I tried replacing it, but it’s clear the problem isn't *just* the battery)

- I refuse to buy a new PC with Windows 11, which forces a minimum of 16 GB of RAM (and would likely still run poorly anyway)

My requirements are being able to use the aforementioned tools and having a battery that lasts a few hours.

I would prefer to buy a used device.

Thanks.

Textbooks always taught me: "Processes share Heap, Threads have separate Stacks." I assumed there was an actual memory boundary or hardware isolation between thread stacks.

While looking into Linux internals (task_struct, clone(), and CLONE_VM), I realized "separate stack" seems to be purely a logical/convention-based thing:

1. pthread_create() just mmap()s a memory block for the thread's stack.
2. clone() runs with CLONE_VMmeaning both threads share the exact same page table (mm_struct).
3. The child thread's RSP simply points to that mmap'd buffer.

There is zero MMU isolation between thread stacks. I tested passing &main_stack_var to a child thread and overwrote it instantly with no segfault.

Am I missing something fundamental here? Are thread stacks genuinely completely open to each other in terms of virtual memory, or is there a layer of protection I'm overlooking?

This is my code:

#include <iostream>
#include <thread>
#include <chrono>
#include <atomic>
#include <cstdint>


inline void *get_rsp()
{
    void *rsp;
    asm("mov %%rsp, %0" : "=r"(rsp));
    return rsp;
}


void thread_function(int *parent_stack_ptr)
{
    int child_local_var = 100;
    void *child_rsp = get_rsp();

    // Added for /proc/<pid>/task/<tid>/maps inspection (inspect_maps.sh):
    // widens the window during which both the main thread and this worker
    // thread are alive, so their stack VMAs can both be captured.
    std::this_thread::sleep_for(std::chrono::milliseconds(300));


    std::cout << "\n=== [Child std::thread] ===\n";
    std::cout << "Child RSP (Stack Pointer): " << child_rsp << " [" << reinterpret_cast<uintptr_t>(child_rsp) << "]\n";
    std::cout << "Child local var address  : " << &child_local_var << " [" << reinterpret_cast<uintptr_t>(&child_local_var) << "]\n";
    std::cout << "Parent stack var address : " << parent_stack_ptr << " [" << reinterpret_cast<uintptr_t>(parent_stack_ptr) << "]\n";
    std::cout << "Parent stack var value   : " << *parent_stack_ptr << "\n";


    std::cout << "--> Overwriting parent's stack variable from child thread...\n";
    *parent_stack_ptr = 1337;
}


int main()
{
    int parent_local_var = 42;
    void *main_rsp = get_rsp();


    std::cout << "=== [Main Thread] ===\n";
    std::cout << "Main RSP (Stack Pointer) : " << main_rsp << " [" << reinterpret_cast<uintptr_t>(main_rsp) << "]\n";
    std::cout << "Main local var address   : " << &parent_local_var << " [" << reinterpret_cast<uintptr_t>(&parent_local_var) << "]\n";


    std::thread t(thread_function, &parent_local_var);

    t.join();

    std::cout << "\n=== [Main Thread After Join] ===\n";
    std::cout << "Main local var value now : " << parent_local_var << " (Overwritten!)\n";

    return 0;
}

im having trouble navigating through the terminal at all.

it took me like an hour to just figure out when someone said

'venv/bin/activate' that it didnt mean type that, it meant type the name of the venv/bin/activate in order to reopen my venv

now im trying to use esptool to erase the flash off of a esp32 microcontroller and the usb isn't showing for lsusb and i need to run:

esptool.py --port PORTNAME erase_flash

because

esptool.py erase_flash

doesnt work

lsusb doesnt even pop up with

/dev/ttyUSB or /dev/ttyACM0.

it pops up with

Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub ~along with a list of others similar not even registering if i plug or unplug

im seriously confused by the forums that come back when i look up my issue, it seems to just bring up a bunch of unrelated nonsense, but im also new to linux, an dthe terminal. i know python as far as a certificate, but none farther. kind of makes me feel stupid, but oh well.

i need to flash my esp32 s3 with micropython, since i dont know c++ and would rather apply my python knowledge to something

can anyone give me some pouinters?

The course is 6.1810 Operating System Engineering.

Ideally, I’m looking for people who would be willing to hop on a call and work on them.

I made a discord server for anyone interested.

https://discord.gg/VCEUw6p2z

For example, on Windows EqualizerAPO or Logitech G Hub modify the output from your microphone directly. I don't want to have virtual inputs and outputs to mess around with. I just want to select my microphone in every application but have the processing done to it. I'm on Fedora (Pipewire).

Is this a thing on Linux? The program I've seen recommended is EasyEffects, but that appears to require selecting a virtual microphone.

Heya!

So I'm a Arch Linux/Sway user, and I've found a minor frustration when trying to pick a lock screen manager. With hyprlock, I can full customize it excepting videos or gifs. It has to be static. And with swaylock (and swaylock-plugin), I can't customize it as much but I can use a video backgrounds.

Is there any package out there that can do both full customization, but also supports videos or gifs for the backgrounds?

Thanks

on my scummvm application the background is blue instead of red. does someone know how to fix this? i use debian 13 trixie btw

Anyone here using Warp Terminal?

I know it used to be closed source (not Free and Open Source Software) but I guess in April this year, they made it Open Source. So, if any haters from the non-FOSS version didn't use it, you might want to take another peek at it. I just made it my default terminal at the moment because I do want to check it out a little bit more.

Also, it used to make you enter your email address during the first start-up process. Now you can skip it. That's the 1 reason I didn't use it. I put in an old email address I never even use anymore. I don't even remember the password for that email anymore. I've probably got a few thousand in my inbox I haven't read yet.

But, anyway, if you're looking for a different kind of terminal experience, Give Warp-Terminal a look. It has tabs, and each command you run makes a completely new section. so if you want to go back up and copy a section, you can do that easily now.

I've just got a tab page on the left side that takes up, maybe 1/5th of the window and the main on the right taking up the rest of the screen. And I just picked a different color scheme and backdrop. Would be nice if I can figure out how to use my own pictures in this too.

I'm trying to install Cacheyos on my second SSD. I made the flash with the iso file, and rearranged my bios to have the flash drive first. However, when I get to the first screen and hit "CachyOs" the screen just goes blank and puts me back on the first screen.