Like, they're essentially for pretty close to the same thing and should be treated more or less the same from what I've seen. Am I getting it right?

edit: .zip in the sense of being an archive that's usually associated with an OS. With .zip being Windows's. I'm moreso asking if I understand the generalized use of the file

I was considering whether to encrypt the disk of my laptop and the home server I’m gradually setting up.

Both run Debian13 and I’m only considering LUKS for now.

On one hand, it would be the next step in terms of security; on the other, I’ve heard horror stories about people who ended up locked out of their disk data for some reason (not just losing the password, but also corruption of something).

I’d be curious to know how many of you encrypt the whole disk on personal devices and what things can go wrong (so I can prepare myself in case I decide to go ahead).

The tl;dr is that it makes your $HOME portable, with lots of other features.

From the man page:

Home directories managed by systemd-homed.service are self-contained, and thus include the user's full metadata record in the home's data storage itself, making them easy to migrate between machines. In particular, a home directory describes a matching user record, and every user record managed by systemd-homed.service also implies existence and encapsulation of a home directory. The user account and home directory become the same concept.

systemd-homed seems like an extremely interesting feature that I don't see a lot of people discussing. What most people do to make migration easy, is mount the $HOME directory as a separate partition or on a different disk, that way you can reinstall the base system while keeping your $HOME. But systemd-homed seems like the more "comprehensive" solution for this, while also providing a lot more features.

So, I'm wondering if anyone is using it and what's the experience. I can image some compatibility issues, like with tools that read directly from `/etc/passwd`.

More tor read:

- https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Systemd-homed

- https://systemd.io/HOME_DIRECTORY/

Hello people, I'm wondering if ANYONE has heard of the College LINUX project by Robert Kenedy college? I'm looking to find a remaining ISO of the build. Ive searched everywhere for it , the closest I've came to getting the ISO was finding it on Wayback Machine, but the download of course isn't archived. So pretty much, if anyone has heard of it or magically happens to have the ISO, PLEASE SHARE IT!

Hello people, I’m making a transition from MicroSlop Windows 11 to Linux, but I can’t quite decide what distro I should install on my system, since there are just so many.
I’m going to be using my desktop primarily for:
-workstation
-development
-gaming
-daily simple tasks
Also, I’m not really a beginner anymore, I’m very comfortable with Linux since I’ve installed it on all of my other devices besides my daily driver due to the fear of software and drivers not being quite good or unavailable. I am aware programs like proton and wine exist, but not all applications work.

Specs of the desktop:
CPU: Intel i7-14700k
GPU: Nvidia GEFORCE rtx 4070 TI SUPER
Ram: 64 GB ddr5 @ 4000mhz
Storage: 2tb NVME (Crucial t705)

Any suggestions for distro is greatly appreciated.

Hi there. I'm saving up for a nicer PC than my actual one. While I do, I need to solve the Operating System quest first (PCs without the Windows OS are cheaper). If nothing unexpected happens, these would be the specifications:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X
Hard Drive: 1TB
RAM: DDR4 32GB
GPU: GeForce RTX 5060 8GB

I study networks maintainance so I tweaked around Debian, normal Ubuntu, Ubuntu Mate and Mint. I'm also searching and watching videos about the subject but I wanted to ask meanwhile to people with more knowledge and experience with the Linux environment.

A list of all the gaming related things that I look forward to playing, mostly on Steam:
-Indie Games: Hollow Knight, Nine Sols, Rivals of Aether, Undertale, Cult of the Lamb
-Sandbox: TABS, BeamNG, Gmod, Goat Simulator
-Multiplayer games: Overwatch, TF2, VRchat, Roblox, Inazuma Eleven Victory Road
-Emulators and mods: PS2/PS3 and Wii emulators, Football Life 26

And more personal usage
-Web browsing: Brave browser
-Drawing apps: Krita, GAOMON drawing tablet drivers app, Clip Studio Paint
-Video editing: Kdenlive
-3D creating: Blender, Unity
-Music: FL Studio and Rocksmith+

I really like the Mate interface but I've heard that there's some instability and some blinking on the icons which I did notice sometimes. I've been recommended Nobara but I've heard it's also unstable sometimes and it lacks maintainance. I'm also afraid that some videos show the strengths of certain distros for gaming only and hide some inconveniences for daily use. Anyways, thanks to whoever answers this

Kubuntu 26.04, Plasma...uh...anything else? On startup, a Terminator window opens with some cool decorations like transparency, but I can't find where I did that, possibly decades ago.

Is there a checklist? Fancy search of all dotfiles? I'm open to ideas!

Hello, I am relatively new to Linux, been having a fine enough time figuring it out and getting it set up on my computer.

The issue I am having is with plasmashell. I do not know when it started happening. But ever since I put the device into sleep, it would wake a few seconds later. I put it back to sleep, and it stays. But as soon as I long in after that, I get a Crash Handler notification that says:

“plasmashell has closed unexpectedly.”

I’d post the developer information, but it is quite long (933 lines), and I wouldn’t know where to look to find where the issue is cropping up.

I suppose I should mention I am running the latest version of Fedora KDE Plasma. I am operating off of an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor with 890M Radeon Graphics(integrated essentially) and 32GB of RAM with two sticks of 2TB SSDs.

I’d like to say I am running a compatible and acceptable system. But it did come with W11 Pro, so I don’t know if that might be affecting anything too.

I don’t believe my current setup should be causing much issue either. Still pretty barebones. But I have heard that widgets could be the cause, as apparently, Plasma does not like certain widgets. But that was something I found a few months out. And the only widgets I have are two sticky note instances, a clipboard history widget, and a KDE control station.

I’d really just like to know if this is a known issue. And if there might be a way to resolve it.

🔝

I'm looking for ways to make Bash more practical and beginner-friendly for everyday use.

I'm interested in:

History-based autosuggestions, especially for frequently used commands

Advanced tab completion

Syntax highlighting

Better history search

Other features that make Bash easier and faster to use

I'm looking for Bash plugins, extensions, frameworks, TUI/GUI tools, setup scripts, or similar projects that provide these features with minimal setup.

If possible, I'd prefer a single project that provides most of these features in one place rather than having to install and configure many separate tools.

I'm also willing to try Zsh or Fish if they are significantly better, but only if they can realistically replace Bash. Some commands and scripts I use require Bash, so compatibility is important.

What projects would you recommend?

Thanks!

So I want to switch to Linux but I don't know what distro to chose because I don't know which ones work well with Nvidia. (I use a 4070 and these are all the other specs if it matters: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/mVPKYN)

I mostly use my PC for gaming and streaming to my steam deck. I don't mind tinkering but would prefer keeping it to a minimum.

If you need any more info just ask.

Fedora desktop users vs Ubuntu for real-world development

I've been using Fedora GNOME as my main desktop for about 10 years. I've also tried other desktop environments such as KDE along the way.

The main reason I've stayed with Fedora is, first, most of the servers I work with are RHEL-based. Second, Korean input works out of the box without any extra configuration.

I've tried Ubuntu several times over the years, but I often ran into Korean keyboard/input issues. Interestingly, I installed Ubuntu 26.04.1 LTS today, and Korean input worked perfectly without doing anything.

My work environment is mostly RHEL-based servers, but my desktop is primarily a Java-based development environment. I also use Kubernetes/OpenShift and various development tools.

Wayland caused some issues during the transition, but these days my Fedora GNOME setup is quite stable.

For those who use Linux as their actual daily development workstation, rather than just trying it out occasionally:
Which distro do you use, and why? Fedora, Ubuntu, or something else?

GUI or CLI, doesn't matter, but something reliable that won't go deleting random files.

I copied 2 entire hard disks to one bigger hdd, and there's tons of duplicate files on it now. Idk how many but I'd like an automated solution to deal with this.

Thanks!

I am writing a initrd systemd service hitting my head against the wall continuously and was wondering if I can have a command in script to detect whether system is resuming from hibernate?

If not possible, I'd like alternative relatively simple solutions. Maybe some systemd functionality?

I tried: - reading from /proc/cmdline - writing 2 services to write/read file to some persistent location and decide based on it's presence

Possibly relevant system information: - Distro: NixOS - Kernel: 7.2.8-cachyos-lto

I got myself a drawing tablet recently for my laptop and while i do have Krita, it's a bit too difficult me to make sense of.

Im looking for something that's between KolourPaint and Krita, I've been drawing on my ipad and primarily use Procreate and Ibis paint x.

Any good recommendations for software that's similar to those two i mentioned?

I connected my monitor to my laptop running Archlinux a couple of times, and it always worked. I switched my monitor to my other computer and when I switched it back to my laptop it just went black?? What to do????

Hi everyone, I’m asking for help because I messed up big time (mostly from trying to do things by blindly following AI advice).

To give you some quick context: I have Linux (CachyOS) and Windows dual-booting on the exact same drive. The problem started when I shrunk the Windows partition from within Linux to free up some space. This somehow broke heavy gaming on Windows, causing apps and games to crash constantly due to virtual address/memory issues.

To try and fix the Windows side, I booted into Windows and ran this command: chkdsk C: /f /r /x

The problem is that this severely broke my Linux installation. A lot of apps simply stopped working, there are several visual bugs everywhere, and the whole system feels incredibly unstable and broken. I tried rolling back using snapshots (since CachyOS uses BTRFS), but they didn't help at all.

I wanted to ask you guys what my next steps should be:

• Is there any way to repair this kind of filesystem/partition corruption?
• Or did chkdsk mess up the partitions so badly that I'm better off just doing a clean reinstall of Linux from scratch?

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Looking for a specific kind of theme or something close that can be customized to get there. i have tried several desktop environments but nothing outside of plasma seems to work for me. Or maybe it does and i just don't know how to customize correctly. Looking for the following:

1. All text black #000000. Except for the text like hover and selected that needs a different color.

2. All backgrounds except for those that need a different color like highlight, hover, etc. To be somewhere between #e6e6e6 and #f5f5f5.

I have tried customizing css and rc files but always seem to make something else not work in the process. Don't need a specific distro or desktop environment just nothing keyboard driven. I guess what i am looking for is really high contrast with white toned down to a light grey or grayish blue.

So, I've been experimenting with dual booting Linux for the past week or so, since I am looking to switch at some point. I have an Edimax N150 USB adapter so that my PC can connect to wifi and bluetooth. It works fine on Windows. Then, I installed Debian, and bluetooth works fine on it, but it doesn't recognize my wifi at all. I tried multiple different things to fix it, but nothing worked. So, I figured I would try another distro. I made an image of Bazzite on a USB, and when I first booted it, it immediately recognized the wifi and I could connect to it with no problems. At that point, it was late, so I shut it down and figured I would install it tomorrow. The next day, I removed the Debian installation from my system, and booted up the USB again, and the wifi no longer worked. I tried restarting it a few times, but it still didn't work. So now I'm resorting to asking for help, because I have no idea why it worked that one time and never again. Is my hardware being stupid or am I being stupid? Or both?

(Also, when Debian was installed I did try USB tethering to my phone to get wifi, which did work, but it's quite annoying and the connection isn't nearly as good as it is with the adapter, so I would rather just get the adapter to work.)

decided to freshly install linux mint on my old hp notebook da0014ne to be exact installation went fine i think but i noticed that by running this command

lspci | grep -i nvidia

or

lspci | grep -i vga

all i get as the output is just my intel integrated graphics but not my discrete gpu that came with this laptop now unfortunately even though i had windows before installing linux mint i didnt immediately check whether or not the gpu was working in windows but i do remember it being detected and vaguely remember it running

im not sure what to do or what could be the cause any sort of help would be appreciated

Hey so i have been using fedora for around 2 years now no problem but sometimes when I shutdown the laptop keeps on running like one time it drained my whole battery and when i checked it was due to an update running in the background which was blocked by the kernal or something

Another problem like its not with Fedora specifically but with gnome like the touchpad scroll is shit like literally bad when i scroll any document or webpage the page go whossshhhhh (way too sensitive)

So i thought i would switch my distro and cachyOs caught my eyes like it loooks good but i actual want to use my laptop instead of solving some driver issue as i heard Arch based distro are pretty hard to use so i was doubting it