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Herbstzeitlose, in 6 LibreOffice Alternatives for Linux

Another day, another shitty itsfoss list that didn’t need to be an article.

robojeb, in Do I actually need to do anything to go from GeForce to Radeon?

I just upgraded from a 1080ti to a 7900xt last month and I just plugged it in and it worked. Then I uninstalled the Nvidia binary drivers and libraries.

Montagge,
@Montagge@kbin.social avatar

Then I uninstalled the Nvidia binary drivers and libraries.

I need to get around to that one of these days lol

popekingjoe,
@popekingjoe@lemmy.world avatar

Just adding to the pile. One day.

heygooberman, in 10 YouTube Channels Linux Users Should Explore
@heygooberman@lemmy.today avatar

I’m already following The Linux Experiment. It’s great that there are other channels to consider!

rdmemd,

I think he is overrated

llothar, in Starlite?

I ordered one. First units should be shipped early December. Right now they seem to be some out - just few days ago you could order with 7-8 weeks delivery, now it’s just ‘notify when available’.

desmosthenes, in Starlite?
@desmosthenes@lemmy.world avatar

didn’t know about this till just now; very interesting

cyborganism, in (help-solved)monitor 1 with workspace 1 and monitor 2 with workspace 2, how pls?

Isn’t the whole workspace thing simply a software way to have multiple monitors into one which you can “look at” when you switch?

sxan,
@sxan@midwest.social avatar

That’s sort of how herbstluftwm models it. Workspaces are called tags, and are areas windows can be arranged. Monitors are like SVG viewports, with dimensions; Herbst auto-manages physical monitors, but lets you define virtual monitors with arbitrary dimensions. Workspaces (tags) are displayed on monitors and windows are adjusted to the dimensions of the monitors as tags are moved around. Monitors can be overlayed… the terminology is counterintuitive (windows have tags, but can only have one tag at a time, and monitors can overlap, etc), but it’s a really nice way of approaching things IMO, and is one of the main reasons I’m sticking with X.

just_another_person, in Framework 13 With AMD Ryzen 7040 Makes For A Great Linux Laptop (Review)

Disclosure: I bought one because of the idea and dream. It’s…okay-ish. I love the idea, but the execution is going to be a time-based thing. They need to fix a lot of issues with power consumption, and I get this will take time, but I just don’t understand where their projections for performance and battery life came from on Linux. They have entire papers written on the subject, and a lot of documentation on specific kernel issues and distros, but this is like a Beta. I’m afraid for the 16" AMD version I’m also expecting soon, but got delayed. I REALLY want to love this project, but it’s not there yet.

Would love to hear other’s experiences.

mossy_capivara,
@mossy_capivara@midwest.social avatar

I’ve had mine since they launched and haven’t had any major complaints, I’d my Linux experience so far has been about same as on previous laptops. Though I will say that it does get fairly toasty.

just_another_person,

Your talking about the Intel model then, but thanks for your response.

CaseSensitive, (edited )

I have the same feelings. I was in the market for a laptop after a long time of desktop use only. I went for it because I love the idea of owning my hardware without any corporate bullshit. But the whole laptop feels very beta, which can be OK, but the price is also quite high.

Pros:

  • formfactor, I love the screen
  • switches for camera and mic
  • open source & Linux
  • Firmware Updates are a breeze
  • easy access to hardware
  • you can use your own ram and disk
  • Magnets, everywhere

Cons:

  • They promised shipment early Q3 for batch 1, I got it early Q4
  • opening the laptop is quite hard, the groove is to small/finicky
  • I hate the expansion cards. They are too hard to pop out, you need so much power to get them out.
  • only four ports, that’s if you don’t count your power supply. Very weak
  • clicking with the TouchPad is very mid, borderline bad
  • restarting causes my power supply to stop working, I need to unplug and insert it again. And I mean I need to unplug the power supply, not the laptop.
  • graphics problems, constant noise artifacts
  • default sound is very bad, search for equalizer Configs, it makes the speakers bearable
  • black screens where I need to close the lid, wait for sleep and open again for me to be able to work again
  • Fingerprint reader does not work
  • General Linux Problems, Kubuntu has a few issues, other distros might have a better experience
  • no worldwide shipping. I’m waiting for my visa for Japan and won’t be able to get any shipping of replacement parts over there.

On a sidenote, I probably broke my screen a few days ago while trying the fix/debug the graphics/noise problems. I don’t know how I fucked up, but 5cm of the screen is permanently black now… On a positive note, replacing it supposedly is quite easy. I hope they ship it fast.

waigl,

Some of those Cons sound pretty bad, especially the graphics problems. A lot of those I figure I could live with, but some, like the constant noise on the graphics or a low-quality touchpad would be just too much to tolerate.

I am currently awaiting my (pretty damn expensive) Framework 16 at this time, and I can only hope my experience will be a bit better than yours…

CaseSensitive,

I don’t know if those are Amd, framework or Linux issues and who is to blame. The cpu is very new so there might be more driver issues than normal. Hopefully these issues get resolved with future updates. The first firmware update didn’t help my issues.

Most of the time the noise is negligible, but with dark screens and resource intensive tasks it gets more noticeable and pronounced. But it’s better than the screen tearing other users experience.

I’m wishing you luck that most of the issues are resolved when they ship the framework 16. I’m very tempted to get that one as well, just for a custom ortho keyboard if they ever make one…

morrowind,
@morrowind@lemmy.ml avatar

I’ve had mine for two years, haven’t had op’s problems (software problems don’t apply since I don’t actually run Linux on mine).

The problems I have had have all been fixed to my knowledge, except battery life, which has improved but can always be better.

just_another_person,

Not all of that is true, you who seems to be from Framework. Did you fix the ACPI issues? How about the SLEEP modes? Anything being done about the crazy battery drain on AMD chips?

CaseSensitive,

Those are my personal experiences, they might not be representative for all users, but those are my issues. I don’t work for framework amd can’t give you updates regarding support issues.

mvu,
@mvu@lemmy.world avatar

I’ve been daily driving a first gen 13"/i7 model for 2 years now. It’s not the best laptop I’ve ever owned, but it’s my favorite.

Battery dies in sleep, sometimes it won’t wake up… honestly things I can live with. In exchange, I’ve been able to increase ram, replace the screen, and upgrade the back panel myself. I’ve also switched up my port configuration twice over the 2 years and that’s been super convenient.

It’s like running a less mainstream desktop environment: It’s got rough edges, but I picked it for reasons besides stability and consistency.

I’m going to grab an AMD mainboard next year instead of buying a new laptop, and will turn the old mobo into a server for my website.

Idk, it’s got issues, but no more than any other laptop I’ve run Linux on. It’s good enough and I smile every time I pull it out of my bag and see the gear logo (even when it turns out it died in my bag lol)

just_another_person,

We’re talking about the AMD model, but thanks for your feedback.

mvu,
@mvu@lemmy.world avatar

Woops, missed that context! Assumed you meant 13 inch framework models in general!

just_another_person, (edited )

I have a 13" AMD, so all good!

Edit: Reddit comments from 3 months ago, and we all have the same issues: www.reddit.com/r/framework/…/amd_13_any_review/

h3ndrik, (edited ) in State of the Nvidia open source driver in late 2023?

I don’t think so. I can’t find any good information about those new ‘open-source’ kernel modules in any of the Linux wikis. Just news articles from 2022. Something isn’t right there. It’s either a marketing stunt and nothing changed or something else. I would dig deeper if I were you.

Concerning NVidia’s history: Don’t rely on them making user-friendly decisions. Especially when it comes to Linux. The usual drivers work. They have some hiccups and you’re going to have some annoying issues with things like Wayland, if something major changes in the kernel you have to wait for NVidia but they’ll eventually fix it. It’s not open source and you have to live with what they give to you. It mostly works though and performance is great. I’d say this is the same with the newer ‘open-source’ drivers that just shift things into (proprietary) userspace and firmware.

The true open-source alternative is the ‘Nouveau’ drivers. For newer graphics cards, expect them to get only a fraction of the performance out of your GPU and having half the features not yet implemented, including power management. So your game will have 10fps and fans on max while it empties your battery in 20 minutes.

On my laptop Nouveau started to be an alternative after several years when development kept up and it got comparable performance and battery life to the proprietary drivers. But you might replace the laptop at that point. Waiting for NVidia or the open source drivers to keep up hasn’t been worth it for me in the past. I did that two times and everytime I had to live with the proprietary drivers instead.

So my advice is: Be comfortable using the proprietary drivers if you want to buy NVidia.

Intel Arc got really bad performance reviews. It’s not worth spending lots of money on them. But fortunately they’re cheap because the gamers don’t buy them (for that reason). I live with the iGPU that’s part of my CPU. It’s alright since I don’t play modern games anyways.

But you missed AMD. There are some laptops available with the Ryzen 7040 series and it seems to be a fast CPU. They also made the integrated graphics way faster than before, albeit probably still not on the level for proper gaming. But I bet there are desktop replacements out there that combine it with an AMD GPU.

wim, (edited )

Thanks, that’s what I was thinking as well.

I didn’t miss AMD. The dedicated GPUs just aren’t available new in my wide area, unless they’re put into mediocre plastic shells of a budget laptop, and the integrated GPUs don’t work for my use case.

I just sold an AMD laptop (with RX 6800s) because I wanted a bigger screen. I don’t need top-tier performance, most of the games I play are fine on mainstream gaming hardware. The software experience was perfect but I didn’t use the laptop very often because it was 14" and uncomfortable to use in the couch because of the screen hinge design.

I already have a perfectly fine 2021ThinkPad X1 Nano that does everything I want from a portable computer and I noticed I just never had a reason to use the gaming laptop unless I was gaming. I just want something with a bigger screen and better GPU that will only be moved on our living room table and the storage rack, and the occasional car trip. If the 18" Alienware with RX 7900M was for sale here (for a reasonable price) I would buy that, but that is not going to happen.

estebanlm, in 10 YouTube Channels Linux Users Should Explore
@estebanlm@lemmy.ml avatar

This is nice!

Still, I would like to have an equal list of non GAFAM channels, heh.
I know “The Linux Experiment” (the best of those channels IMO) has a peertube:
tilvids.com/c/thelinuxexperiment_channel

any other around?

ozoned,
@ozoned@beehaw.org avatar

Linux Cast: tilvids.com/c/thelinuxcast_channel/videos

Chris Were: share.tube/c/chrisweredigital/videos

Veronica Explains: tilvids.com/c/veronicaexplains_channel/videos

Techlore: neat.tube/c/techlore/videos

Linux Lounge: tilvids.com/c/linux_lounge/videos

Nicco’s videos mentioned in the article: tube.kockatoo.org/c/niccolo_ve/videos

FYI: I’m linking to their home location, but you can follow them from any Peertube instance. I’m on Tilvids and follow all of these folks from there so I don’t have to jump around to multiple places.

PropaGandalf, in Bcache is amazing!: Making HDD way faster!

Then wait for bcachefs to land in 6.7

malpingu,
@malpingu@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

BcacheFS is a very different animal from Bcache; it does not provide block device caching. See bcachefs.org/FAQ/

TCB13, (edited ) in 6 LibreOffice Alternatives for Linux
@TCB13@lemmy.world avatar

This is the definition of clickbait, bullshit articles… they didn’t even bother to take their own screenshots of the suggested alternatives. I also don’t really know what’s the point of this article, Linux users know what’s out there and although I dislike LibreOffice and have strong thoughts about it it is vastly superior to the other alternatives suggested to the point said alternatives aren’t really alternatives.

Also, Cryptpad? Fucks sake.

FuzzChef, in Bcache is amazing!: Making HDD way faster!

I can’t quite figure out what would be the use cases where bcache would excel, except for hdds without cache or systems with very limited ram. Can you help me out with that?

Atemu,
@Atemu@lemmy.ml avatar

except for hdds without cache

The “cache” on HDDs is extremely tiny. Maybe a few seconds worth of sequential access at max. It does not exist to cache significant amounts of data for much longer than that.

At the sizes at which bcache is used, you could permanently hold almost all of your performance-critical data on flash storage while having enough space for tonnes of performance-uncritical data; all in the same storage “package”.

Uluganda,

In my case, it basically helps me improve random read significantly. My NVMe is fast, like 3GB/s in sequential and 500MB/s in random, but it’s only 120GB. By using it as a cache in a bcache system, once a random read is performed, the data will be copied from HDD to SSD and if the data is requested again the random read will happen from SSD instead of HDD.

Thus, using it to play modern gaming is actually do able. Game that requires fast random read, like Baldur’s Gate 3 and Starfield.

As a lot of people in my og post mentioned, random is more important that sequential. Bcache by default disable sequential cache so you wont fill you cache to fast if a big data is being read, like watching movie, copying video, etc. That’s where Raid0 comes to the rescue. Having Raid0 with 2 drives basically double my sequential read and having 3 triples it.

Max_P,
@Max_P@lemmy.max-p.me avatar

Basically the idea is that if you have a lot of data, HDDs have much bigger capacities for the price, whereas large SSDs can be expensive. SSDs have gotten cheap, but you can get used enterprise drives on eBay with huge capacities for incredibly cheap. There’s 12TB HDDs for like $100. 12TB of SSDs would run you several hundreds.

You can slap bcache on a 512GB NVMe backed by a 8TB HDD, and you get 8TB worth of storage, 512GB of which will be cached on the NVMe and thus really fast. But from the user’s perspective, it’s just one big 8TB drive. You don’t have to think about what is where, you just use it. You don’t have to be like, I’m going to use this VM so I’ll move it to the SSD and back to the HDD when done. The first time might be super slow but subsequent use will be very fast. It also caches writes too, so you can write up to 512GB really fast in this example and it’ll slowly get flushed to the HDD in the background. But from your perspective, as soon as it’s written to the SSD, the data is effectively commited to disk. If the application calls fsync to ensure data is written to disk, it’ll complete once it’s fully written to the SSD. You get NVMe read/write speeds and the space of an HDD.

So one big disk for your Steam library and whatever you play might be slow on the first load but then as you play the game files gets promoted to the NVMe cache and perform mostly at NVMe speeds, and your loading screens are much shorter.

LoafyLemon,

What are the implications in regards to the lifespan of the disk used as cache? Any potential downsides?

Max_P, (edited )
@Max_P@lemmy.max-p.me avatar

I don’t know, it’s going to depend a lot on usage pattern and cache hit ratio. It will probably do a lot more writes than normal to the cache drive as it evicts older stuff and replaces it. Everything has tradeoffs in the end.

Another big tradeoff depending on the cache mode (ie. writeback mode) if the SSD dies, you can lose a fair bit of data. Not as catastrophic as a RAID0 would but pretty bad. And you probably want writeback for the fast writes.

Thus I had 2 SSDs and 2 HDDs in RAID1, with the SSDs caching the HDDs. But it turns out my SSDs are kinda crap (they’re about as fast as the HDDs for sequential read/writes) and I didn’t see as much benefit as I hoped so now they’re independent ZFS pools.

ChristianWS,

So one big disk for your Steam library and whatever you play might be slow on the first load but then as you play the game files gets promoted to the NVMe cache and perform mostly at NVMe speeds, and your loading screens are much shorter.

I really love/hate how you can immediately understand the practical application of new technologies through the use of games.

master, in Windows 11 vs Linux supported HW
@master@lem.serkozh.me avatar

Windows: “We dropped support for that thing you bought brand new 5 years ago”

Linux: “We are considering dropping support for something that has existed for longer than you had”

argv_minus_one,

Linux: “We’re dropping support for this device because we’re fairly sure we had the last one in existence and it just died.”

DrWeevilJammer,
@DrWeevilJammer@lemmy.ml avatar

Hell, I can get a 30 year old HP LaserJet 4 printer working just fine on almost any version of Linux with the official HPLIP CLI software provided by (shockingly) HP, which was updated 2 months ago with support for over 50 new printers and the following OSes:

  • LinuxMint 21.1
  • MxLinux 21.3
  • Elementary OS 7
  • Ubuntu 22.10
  • RHEL 8.6
  • RHEL 8.7
  • RHEL 9.1
  • Fedora 37

I HATE HP and their printers (PC LOAD LETTER WTF FOR LIFE) but I will admit that this is impressive support.

Prunebutt, in 10 YouTube Channels Linux Users Should Explore

I really can’t stand Linux Cast’s style and don’t get why he is on this and not Brodie Robertson.

Linux cast is just rambling most of the time, having a hard time getting to the point, while Brodie has some wit and humor. I also don’t like his clickbait video titles and how every second video feels like it’s about tiling WMs (we get it: tiling WMs are cool).

I’m aware that this might just be an involuntary anti-fat bias speaking, though.

jaykay,
@jaykay@lemmy.zip avatar

I have the opposite opinion lol I hate how Brodie posts every damn day and spamming my subscriptions, plus I could probably read an article for 2 mins instead of watching his 10-15min video. I prefer Linux Cast much more

Suoko, in This week in KDE: Panel Intellihide and Wayland Presentation Time
@Suoko@feddit.it avatar

I thought it could be ported to standard Linux since it’s QT. Kde does not have a systemd ui yet

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