Need some opinions on my next Laptop and Linux Distro
Hi, im searching for a new Laptop and i was tempted to buy the framework 13.. BUT..
Usually i would search for a used or refurbished Laptop to give it a second life u know. And after it broke down in like 4-6 years usually, i would buy a new used one again.
So my first question is: Is the framework 13 really worth my money for the repairability and upgradability in comparison?
My prefered Laptops are the Surface like ones 2in1 with a stand and detachable keyboard...
But im okay with it to switch to a normal laptop Formfactor.
I would prefere 16:9 or 16:10 for multimedia but im used to a 3:2 so it would be kinda okay for me to stick with it.
How good can i implement linux on some surface like laptop?
I switched from win10 to linux Mint on my desktop this year. But i think im going to switch to another distro, because i need the ASHA-protocoll as fast as possible. Maybe not that important on my desktop but definetly on my next Laptop.
Someone switched from surface like laptop to FW13?
Im not a coder. More like a gamer with og cheat codes in gtaSA on a cracked Version of the game, which runs in deamon-tools as an ISO, lol.
Main use would be Multimedia and some gaming, if possible.
Another use would be AI.. but as far as i know linux doesnt support the build in NPU of the FW13 yet. Maybe ai tinker in a few years then?
And im something like a crypto bro i would say. So how good are crypto tools implemented in linux? Some cold wallet support for exampel.
Which distro would serve my needs the most?
Is there a better choice for me than FW13 ?
So all in all im hopelessly lost and cant decide shit ^^
My only hope is to ask some Linux OGs to help me out on dis.
plz halp.
Finnish Air Force plans to remove swastikas from unit flags
[Swedish] count [Eric von Rosen] used the swastika as a personal good luck charm. When he gifted a plane to the nascent air force of Sweden's newly independent neighbour in 1918 he had had a blue swastika painted on it. This Thulin Typ D was the first aircraft of the Finnish air force and subsequent planes all had his blue swastika symbol too, until 1945.Supporters of a continued use of the symbol point out that there were no Nazis in 1918 so the air force's use of the swastika has nothing to do with Nazism.
However, while Eric von Rosen had no Nazi associations at the time of his 1918 gift, he did subsequently become a leading figure in Sweden's own national socialist movement in the 1930s. He was also a brother-in-law of senior German Nazi Herman Göring, and, according to Prof Teivainen, a personal friend of Hitler.
So the fascists adopted the swastika by way of a Swedish Count-cum-fascist.
Also: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Forc…
Father-in-law of British terror chief working on Palestine Action case is patron of UK Lawyers for Israel
The father-in-law of the UK’s independent reviewer of terrorism legislation has personal ties to Israel. Jonathan Hall is responsible for assessing whether groups like Palestine Action qualify as terrorist organisations. On Saturday, Hall wrote for the Observer, which defended the decision to proscribe Palestine Action.
This is despite leaked evidence which showed government intelligence revealing it had no grounds to proscribe Palestine Action.
But Craig Murray, independent journalist and former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan, recently revealed that Jonathan Hall’s father-in-law is Lord Dyson. He is a patron of UK Lawyers for Israel.
Jonathan Hall: UK terror chief has ties to UK Lawyers for Israel
Craig Murray, independent journalist, recently revealed that Jonathan Hall's father-in-law is Lord Dyson, a patron of UK Lawyers for IsraelHG (The Canary)
Father-in-law of British terror chief working on Palestine Action case is patron of UK Lawyers for Israel
The father-in-law of the UK’s independent reviewer of terrorism legislation has personal ties to Israel. Jonathan Hall is responsible for assessing whether groups like Palestine Action qualify as terrorist organisations. On Saturday, Hall wrote for the Observer, which defended the decision to proscribe Palestine Action.
This is despite leaked evidence which showed government intelligence revealing it had no grounds to proscribe Palestine Action.
But Craig Murray, independent journalist and former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan, recently revealed that Jonathan Hall’s father-in-law is Lord Dyson. He is a patron of UK Lawyers for Israel.
Jonathan Hall: UK terror chief has ties to UK Lawyers for Israel
Craig Murray, independent journalist, recently revealed that Jonathan Hall's father-in-law is Lord Dyson, a patron of UK Lawyers for IsraelHG (The Canary)
Spreadsheet to help choose between Proton, Tuta, Infomaniak, etc.
Hi there,
During the last couple of weeks I have created a spreadsheet to (hopefully) help people decide which mail/cloud/messaging/etc. would best suit their needs and wishes. I thought I'd share it here, so maybe more people can use it AND people can give feedback so I can improve upon it!
I wanted to, on the one hand, make it as detailed and exhaustive as possible, but on the other hand easy to use, since many people (including myself) get overwhelmed by all the possiblilities and aspects to take into account. So somewhere between 'spend days and days scrolling websites and forums to pick the best option for you' and 'just use Proton!'. I've always used Google and Microsoft myself, wanted to switch many times, and finally started to really abandon them in the last couple of months (and am really happy about that!). I hope many more people will make the switch to other services that are less damaging to our privacy/data/environment/choice.
The spreadsheet, though I'm not happy abou that, is made in Excel and can be downloaded from my OneDrive: Grading MS, Google etc. alternatives_290825.xlsx . I tried to convert it to .ods, but somehow that messes up some of the formulas...sorry about that.
Most data in the spreadsheet are protected to prevent making accidental mistakes, but the password is just blank, so you can also adjust/add/do whatever with the document.
Regarding the spreadsheet: It speaks for itself, I hope. I graded the various services, based on some research (and, I'm sorry to admint, ChatGPT). For each area (e.g. email, cloud, navigation) you can indicate how important certain aspects (e.g. privacy, ease of use, sustanability) are for you (0-5), and besides that, you can toggle some features (e.g. only show European based, only show open source). Based on that it shows you 'personalized' ratings of the various providers (e.g. Gmail, Proton drive, Bitwarden, Magic Earth), to help you pick one. Also, you can indicate what you already use (on the first sheet), which can influence the rating (since it's easier/more logical to start using Proton Drive if you already use Proton Mail, etc.). I tried to judge Google, Microsoft en Facebook as fair as possible, since they are not all bad ('evil' is another story I guess). As a result, if you mostly value reliability, ease of use, the amount of users it has and the monetary cost, they do quite well. If you consider other aspects, not so much.
That's it! Just a little project I thought of since I started searching for alternatives to Big Tech and got drowned in the amount of options and opinions that are out there. I'm not an expert, cannot code, and barely know my way around spreadsheets.
Anyhow, if this gets some traction, I'm more than happy to keep updating and improving upon this file! And make it more accessible.
Cheers,
Thomas
(from the Netherlands, which could explain some langauge mistakes or weird phrasings)
Worm Wiring Diagram May Help Us Understand Our Own Nervous System
Worm Wiring Diagram May Help Us Understand Our Own Nervous System
Genes in the humble C. elegans also turn up in autism, schizophrenia and other human disordersKaren Weintraub (Scientific American)
Amtrak Rolls Out New High-Speed Trains Running Slower Than the Old Ones
Amtrak Rolls Out New High-Speed Trains Running Slower Than the Old Ones
It will take longer to travel from Washington to Boston in the new trains than in the old ones.Tom Sanders (The Daily Beast)
Trump Tariffs Cause Chaos on Ebay as Every Hobby Becomes Logistical Minefield
Trump Tariffs Cause Chaos on Ebay as Every Hobby Becomes Logistical Minefield
The Trump administration is throwing various hobbies enjoyed by Americans into chaos and is harming small businesses domestically and abroad with its ever-changing tariff structure that is turning the United States into a hermit kingdom. It has made buying and selling things on eBay particularly annoying, and is making it harder and more expensive to, for example, buy vintage film cameras, retro video games, or vintage clothes from Japan, where many of the top eBay sellers are based.“Trying to figure out what the future of this hobby is going to look like for those of us in the USA (other than insanely expensive),” a post on r/analogcommunity, the most popular film photography subreddit, reads. “All of my lenses and my camera body came from Japan, they would have been prohibitively expensive [now], paying an extra $80 per item. I feel like entry level to this hobby is going to get hit especially hard.” Another meme posted to the community under the title “Shopping on eBay be like this now” reads “The age of the Canon Mint++ is over. The time of the Argus C3 has come,” referring to a common way that Japanese eBay sellers list Japanese-made Canon cameras. The Argus C3 was a budget mass-produced, American-made camera that was not popular in Japan, and so most of the people selling them are in the United States. Some people like them, but it has been nicknamed “the brick” because it “could serve as a deadly weapon in a street fight.” It remains very inexpensive to this day.
The photography hobby is a microcosm of what anyone who wants to buy anything from another country is currently experiencing. The de-minimis exemption, which allowed people to buy things internationally without paying tariffs if the items cost less than $800, made it very easy and less expensive to get into hobbies like film photography, retro video games, and vintage fashion, to name a few. The Trump administration is ending that exemption Friday and it will quickly become a financial and/or logistical mess for anyone who wants to buy or sell anything from another country. Communities and companies focused on electronics, board games, action figures, skincare, flashlights, sex toys, watches, and general ecommerce are also freaking out, stopping service to the United States, or telling U.S. customers to expect higher prices, higher fees, longer shipping times, more paperwork, more headache, and unpredictable delays.
In recent days, national mail carriers in the European Union (including DHL, which is widely used internationally), Australia, India, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and, crucially, Japan, have started restricting many shipments to the United States. Some of the few remaining ways to send shipments internationally to the United States is through UPS and FedEx, which have warned customers that the end of de-minimis means more paperwork, higher shipping prices (both have increased their international processing fees), and also means that either the shipper or the receiver will have to pay tariffs on whatever is being sent, which of course adds both costs and processing time. This is on top of the fact that FedEx and UPS are often more expensive services in the first place.
All of this is a nightmare if you are an eBay buyer or seller, a small business that sells to the United States or that buys things internationally to sell within the United States, or are a mere American resident who has a hobby.
A chart from eBay telling sellers to expect "negative feedback"
Earlier this year, I bought a vintage Super 8 film camera. The vast majority of functioning, good-condition cameras on eBay are shipped from Japan, because that is where a lot of the cameras were manufactured and because there are a huge number of camera businesses there. The camera came in a matter of days, and I did not think at all about customs or how it would be shipped, what the additional costs would be, if it would be held up at customs, where and how I would pay the tariffs, or whether if the duties would be paid by the seller (Delivered Duty Paid or DDP) or by me (Delivered at Place or DAP). These are acronyms you are going to have to get to know and hate, that I have already seen percolating through ecommerce communities.Lots of camera equipment comes from Japan, but so do lots of vintage electronics and rare video games. Many high-quality vintage and preowned designer clothes are also sold by stores in Japan, because Japan has strong anti-counterfeit laws, and so people who are into vintage fashion will regularly try to source things from Japan because they are less likely to be fake. This is to say nothing of all of the other hobbies and interests where products are made and sold elsewhere, but the problem is incredibly stark with camera equipment, because Canon, Nikon, Ricoh, and many other top camera manufacturers are Japanese.
A chart from eBay telling you to look up the Harmonized Tariff Schedule to calculate what the tariffs may be
Tuesday, I messaged about 25 eBay sellers located in Japan asking how they were going to ship their item to California if I purchased it, if I would be subject to tariffs, and how they are handling it. The answers were all over the place. Lots of the sellers told me to buy the item now because items shipped after Thursday would be subject to tariffs: “If you purchase today, I can send it before customs duties are incurred,” one seller told me. “We recommend purchasing as soon as possible,” another told me. “If you place your order today, we can still make it in time,” a third said.“Starting August 29th, tariffs will be imposed on all items in the US, so if you purchase this item, you will be responsible for any customs duties,” another said.
Multiple sellers told me that I should expect anything I bought to be held up at customs, and that I should expect to pay tariffs when it arrives: “While the exact details are still being clarified, it seems that in addition to duties, extra fees may bring the total to around 18–20% of the item’s value,” someone selling a vintage handbag told me. “Because of the changes in customs procedures, shipments may experience additional delays during clearance.”
Multiple eBay sellers in Japan told me that they intend to lie about the value of the items on customs forms, which is a time-honored tradition in international shipping but still does not seem like a good solution: “We will put a 50% reduced product price on the address label. Only this one time,” one seller said, before later adding “we do not mark merchandise values below value or mark items as ‘gifts’ - US and international government regulations prohibit such behavior.” Another told me “the problem is the customs duty, but don’t worry. The amount on the shipping label determines the customs duty. I won’t go into details, but I won’t make it sound bad.”
Another camera seller told me they would charge $20 shipping, then followed up an hour later and said “the shipping cost is actually $30 … with the elimination of the de minimis rule, there is a possibility that services may be suspended. Increased workload from customs procedures could even lead to strikes.” Another said that “If U.S. customs clearance goes smoothly, the package usually arrives within about 5–10 days,” but “Due to recent U.S. customs regulations, the clearance process has become stricter and is taking more time than usual(2-3 weeks). Please understand that, under these circumstances, we are unable to predict the delivery date. We are sorry to tell you that all the import duties and taxes are unpredictable. Customs and duties are different from state to state and country to country and we do not keep track as this is a cost the buyer is responsible in paying.”
eBay is telling buyers that the new, simple process for buying internationally is to look up the item on the Harmonized Tariff Schedule, which is a gigantic list of every possible product and its potential tariff code, “apply some math” to estimate what the tariffs will be, “add shipping provider fees,” which are additional processing fees that shipment services may apply, then wait for a call or email from the shipping processor to go through the duty clearance process and pay them fees. This is instead of the old way, where you simply purchased something, paid a clearly demarcated price, and waited for it to come to your house. eBay has also added a message to item listings that says “Due to US policies, import fees for this item will need to be paid to customs or the shipping carrier on delivery.” eBay is already telling sellers that they can expect “negative feedback” from customers who do not understand this process and might blame it on the seller.
eBay also offers something it calls SpeedPak shipping, which is where an international seller ships their item to an eBay warehouse in their home country, and the item is shipped by eBay aboard a cargo vessel to the United States alongside other purchases. This process takes 8-12 days, eBay says. One Japanese seller who said they use the system told me in practice that shipment takes “about 1 to 2 weeks,” and that they have made the decision to pay tariffs ahead of time for the buyer. Naturally, this leads to increased overhead, however, and surely we will begin to see prices for items sent this way rise.
As you can imagine, people are stressed about all of this. On the eBay subreddit, a Canadian who says they sell their old clothes on eBay wrote “can someone explain the new US DDP [Delivered Duty Paid] rules to me like I’m 5?” Another post says “I sold an item to a buyer in the US, but due to temporary issues with international shipping from my location (Europe), I’m currently unable to send it out.” Another says “How to exclude USA completely from shipping? The tariffs are a complete mess and a joke for small businesses like mine here in Europe.” “I’m a seller who ships over 80% of my products to the US. The post office no longer offers service for US parcels, and I’m completely devastated by this policy change. My income has evaporated in thin air,” another post reads. “As someone that’s been building a sega Saturn and pc engine collection this news broke my heart today.” “I'm in some chat groups with people who bought a ton of things from Japanese marketplaces and this has basically made sure they're out of the game for good,” another says.
There are two ways this can go: One everything becomes much more of a pain in the ass, certain products are not available, the tariff prices and subcharges and processing fees and times end up getting paid transparently by the customer, and everyone becomes mad at this state of affairs. Or two, and unfortunately more likely: The rough edges of this process get smoothed out because big shipping companies and platforms are terrified of upsetting Trump and the burden of dealing with all of this is passed primarily onto overseas sellers who will simply incorporate all of these new fees into the prices of the actual products and will pay the tariff ahead of time, so everything costs more because of the tariffs but the artificial, completely self-inflicted reasons that it costs more to do your hobby become largely invisible and accepted over time. The “normal” state of affairs will be that buying things from small overseas sellers is expensive and slow. But it is worth remembering that none of this is necessary, that it wasn’t always like this, and that an immeasurable number of small businesses and regular people all over the world have been immensely impacted by these tariffs.
All of this means that if you have any hobbies that require buying stuff from another country, your life just got more expensive and more annoying. Back on the AnalogCommunity subreddit, one poster summed it up nicely: “Oh look, voting of [sic] an idiot has real world consequences? Who knew?”
eBay did not respond to a request for comment.
SpeedPAK Shipping Services
Learn about SpeedPAK shipping services and how to place your order on eDIS – eDelivery International ShippingeBay
Salesforce sacrifices 4,000 support jobs on the altar of AI
Salesforce sacrifices 4,000 support jobs on the altar of AI
: Benioff boasts bots now handle half of customer chats as doubts over reliability lingerLindsay Clark (The Register)
Raoul Duke likes this.
Gaza Genocide deniers are no different from Holocaust deniers, except that their denial abets the genocide itself
Gaza Genocide deniers are no different from Holocaust deniers, except that their denial abets the genocide
The denial of the Gaza genocide has been echoed from the mainstream media to the White House. While reminiscent of Holocaust denial, today’s denials have deadly consequences as they are used to justify the very genocide deniers claim isn’t happening.Mitchell Plitnick (Mondoweiss)
Argentinian President Javier Milei leaves rally after protesters throw rocks
Argentinian President Javier Milei leaves rally after protesters throw rocks
The Milei government is weathering a bribery scandal as a pair of important elections approach in September and October.Al Jazeera
like this
“They could have killed anyone,” Adorni said of the protesters.
Too bad they didn't.
Border Patrol agents arrest fire crew members at Washington wildfire
Border Patrol agents arrest fire crew members at Washington wildfire
Immigration agents arrested two Mexican contractors helping to tackle a wildfire in Olympic National Forest in Washington, a supervisor who oversees the crews said ThursdayAlicia Victoria Lozano (NBC News)
Switching to Linux - A comprehensive guide
I’ve been seeing a lot of people wanting to switch to GNU/Linux(shortly just Linux) recently, owing to various reasons including Windows 10 EOL, forced integration of AI tools, screenshot spying, bloatware, etc. and I thought I’d make a comprehensive guide based on my experience.
Please feel free to correct me when I’m mistaken.
Step 1-A:
To dual boot with Windows or not:
Decide how much you rely specifically on Windows based apps.
For most apps, there are open source and/or free alternatives.
- M$ Office → LibreOffice.
- Edge → LibreWolf, Ungoogled-chromium/Trivalent.
- Outlook → BetterBird, and a shout-out to the new Tuta Mail client.
- Photoshop → Krita, GIMP
- Premiere Pro → Davinci Resolve, Kdenlive
There are also workarounds to run Windows apps on Linux using a VM(Virtual Machine) or containers, which you’ll have to experiment or look up others’ experiences.
→ A few multiplayer games with invasive kernel-level anti-cheat(like Valorant, LoL, Apex, Destiny2, Rainbox Six Siege, Fortnite, some Battlefield ones) will not run on Linux.
Check if it’s the case with the game you play on ProtonDB.
Edit: As some people have pointed out, AreWeAntiCheatYet website is also a good resource on multiplayer gaming on Linux.
Steam with its Proton support will just run majority of games otherwise.
98% of my 500+ games library on Steam just works.
→ For those who use Epic Games, your library will work through Lutris or Heroic.
- Heroic will have a library of all your games and each one will have its own prefix, I think.
- Lutris just has one prefix for Epic games and all the games in its library and runs like the Windows equivalent.
→ Those sailing high seas can still use Lutris/Heroic/Bottles to run stuff. IYKYK. Make sure to play around with winetricks and change runners if things don’t work.
There’s a slight learning curve if you’re using Lutris and stuff on your own.
Get the relevant community’s help when needed.
I personally dual boot two different Linux distros, one of which is to run stuff from the high seas.
Step 1-B:
(Skip to Step 2 if you don’t want Windows.)
If you don’t have alternatives or if VM/containers don’t run the apps you use properly, you will have to stick to dual booting Linux with Windows.
If you do, try to install Linux on a separate HDD/SSD. If you don’t have a spare drive, you can still install Linux in the same drive as Windows, but Windows has a history of breaking dual boot configurations and Linux’s bootloader. In this scenario, all you just need is to keep a USB drive with your distro’s ISO handy so you can live boot, open CLI and fix the bootloader.
Also, after installation, don’t try to run games directly from external NTFS drive on Linux. You’ll have issues.
You can always continue to copy/run files from an NTFS drive on Linux. But since NTFS is windows’ proprietary filesystem, expect it to corrupt it. It can be easily be fixed by chkdsk(disk Error checking) on Windows. So, don’t panic about this.
If you don’t need to use your external drive on Windows at all, convert it to ext4 and safely use it on Linux.
If you want to use your external drive on both Windows and Linux without corruption, exFAT supposedly works better, but exFAT doesn’t have journaling and similar features. So, a power cut during file transfer might cause data loss.(?)
I started out dual booting with Windows myself as I was scared if some things wouldn’t work, but gradually, I’ve been able to ditch Windows completely.
Step 1-C:
If you’re using the same drive for dual booting, you’ll have to make some space on it for Linux to use.
Windows can make it harder sometimes, so you might end up using some 3-rd party partion manager tools to force it, if it wouldn’t allow you.
→ Also, disable Hibernation, turn off Virtual Memory in Advanced System Settings and set paging size to 0. You can turn it back on after installing Linux.
→ To make some space, go to Disk Management and shrink your Windows volume based on your choosing. You should ideally be able to get as much free space as you see in Properties of your C Drive.
If this doesn’t work, then try a reputable 3-rd party partition manager to shrink it.
→ Once shrunk, you’d see unallocated space of your chosen size. This is where we’re going to install Linux.
Step 2-A:
Picking a distribution. There are a lot to pick from.
The three big parent ones are Debian, Fedora and Arch and many other distributions are built on top of them. There’s also OpenSuse, which supports RPM packages that is typically used on Fedora.
There are also a lot more independent distros like Gentoo, Void, Nix, Qubes of which I’m not much familiar with. You can explore those communities if interested.
Debian is a fixed release distro. Fedora is semi-rolling, and Arch & OpenSuse Tumbleweed are rolling/bleeding-edge.
- Debian(Slow to update but supposedly stable) → Ubuntu(has unfriendly snap) → Mint(most popular and friendly).
I’d not recommend Ubuntu based on my experience. But if you want to, go ahead.
- Fedora(Natively, it has only FOSS packages by default and requires a bit of really simple initial config for proprietary Nvidia driver and codecs- refer RPM Fusion).
Fedora derivatives like Nobara/Bazzite usually have Nvidia driver and proprietary codecs already installed. Make sure to choose their ISO file that has Nvidia support.
- Only try regular Arch install if you have enough time and patience.
[If you’re a novice, avoid AUR if possible since they are all user submitted packages there.]
Otherwise, try Cachy-OS that is Arch-based. It has a GUI package manager.
SteamOS, also Arch-based, is typically not recommended for Desktop systems, I think.
- OpenSuse Tumbleweed is also rolling distro like Arch. Has a nice installer and a GUI package manager.
This is what I’m currently using after a lot of distro hopping, along with another Fedora based distro.
Most of these are regular traditional distros except Bazzite.
Bazzite is an image-based or an atomic distribution, which is supposedly hard to break. The core of it is untouched and applications can then be installed using Flatpak/Containers.
If packages are installed natively, they will be layered on top of the image.
If something goes wrong after an update, it can be rolled back to the previous working image.
Note: Regular Fedora based distros offer the ability to switch to 2 previous kernel versions during boot.
There are also other atomic distros like Kinoite(Fedora KDE in atomic form), Silverblue(Fedora Gnome in atomic form), Secureblue(if you take security very seriously), Aurora, etc.
At first, you may pick a distro that’s not for you.
In which case, always have a back up of your important data elsewhere and be ready to install another distro that you’d like to try.
Step 2-B:
Picking a Desktop Environment (also Display Server and Window Manager/Compositor).
TLDR note: Only worry about choosing Desktop Environment. Ignore others if needed.
Desktop Environment is how an OS looks like and all that you can customize with the GUI.
A lot of distros support KDE & Gnome by default.
There’s Cinnamon used in Mint.
XFCE is a lightweight DE.
Cosmic DE(still in alpha) is based on Rust(memory-safe).
Optional reading:
These DE typically have their own Window Manager(X11) or Compositor(Wayland).
I’ve never strayed away from the default stacking managers that most Desktop Environments provide.
But feel free to explore others out there if you’re into it.
Popular tiling managers are i3 on X11 and Sway on Wayland.
Now, Display Server is the simply the underlying protocol coordinating input/output. There are only two that exists. Xorg’s X11 and Wayland.
X11 is the legacy display server that is used by many distros, but slowly being phased out.
Wayland is the newer display server that is supposedly more secure with GUI isolation(which X11 lacks) and supports features like HDR.
Applications that are developed to run for X11 run on Wayland too using compatibility layers like x-Wayland.
- Cinnamon on Mint works well on X11 from last I used it and Wayland is only experimental.
If you’re choosing Mint, you’ll probably be sticking to X11 for now. - KDE and Gnome, both have wayland support. Gnome is soon phasing out X11.
- Xfce has recently introduced wayland support.
→ On most DE, both Wayland and X11 can be used by switching over in the Login Screen.
Speaking of login screen, there’s the Display Manager. If you’re asked to pick anything in some distros, just use SDDM(for plasma), GDM(for gnome), lightDM(for others).
Step 3-A:
Now, time to get the distro ISO file from their legit websites.
Some of them support torrent downloads too.
Distros like Fedora package different environments as spins.
So, there will be Fedora KDE, Fedora Workstation(Gnome), Fedora Cosmic, and so on.
Mint’s native ISO will have Cinnamon bundled.
It also has a separate XFCE version and LMDE version(derived from Debian instead of Ubuntu).
In other cases, if you have an Nvidia card, make sure to select the Nvidia version of the ISO if they offer you that way.
Step 3-B:
Preparing a USB drive with Ventoy:
Before anyone asks, Rufus is great, but only works on Windows and you’ll have to format an ISO with it everytime you want to use a different one and you’re only limited to one ISO at a time.
Ventoy on the other hand, has cross-compatibility. It is a one time installation. You can just drag and drop or copy & paste multiple distro ISOs in it as long as you have the space in the USB drive.
Avoid Balena Etcher. I’ve seen people have issues with it.
Ventoy should have both GUI and CLI method to install. Check their site.
Step 3-C:
Meddling with BIOS:
BIOS/UEFI can be accessed during the startup of a system usually with F2/Delete/F12.
- SecureBoot(a Microsoft feature) has to be turned off before installation.
Note: If you’re not dual-booting or don’t need Mircosoft’s secureboot, you can continue to leave it disabled after installation too.
If you want it however, it can be turned on again after installation.
If turned on, a secureboot key for your linux distro has to be registered.
You’ll have to create a keypair using ‘mokutil’ and register this with a password.
Check your distro documentation regarding how to do this.
Exception:
From what I recall, Nobara does not support SecureBoot.
- Fast boot can be turned off too.
- SATA mode should preferably be in AHCI.
- Boot order can be changed and the installation USB can be prioritized to boot first too.
This step can also be done by accessing the boot menu, typically by spamming F8 or F10 on startup.
Step 4-A:
Installation & Partitioning:
- If you’re using auto-partitioning,
→ choose the unallocated free space if you’re dual booting on same drive.
Distro installations will usually have options like ‘Install alongside Windows’.
→ Choose the windows drive otherwise if you’re getting rid of Windows. The installer will format the drive and install over it.
Note:
You can also choose to encrypt your disk partition with a password with LUKS during installation.
Ignore the following if you’re using auto-partitioning.
- If you’re manually partitioning, you’ll typically have to create:
/boot/efi (EFI partition type – vfat filesystem) of about 300 MB to 600 MB space for boot loader.
/boot partition(linux extended boot - ext4) of about 1 GB to 2 GB size to store kernel images.
/ partition(Linux root x86_64 partition type – either ext4 or btrfs or one of your choosing), with the much of the rest of your free space.
/swap partition (Linux swap partition type – swap filesystem) with anywhere from 2 to 4 to 8 GB of size.
This is similar to the paging file and acts as extended Memory. This is optional, but good to have.
Note: I suspect most distros have fully started using GPT instead of legacy MBR even for EFI partition. So, hopefully, no one has any issues with that.
→ For your root filesystem, you can use the standard ext4 filesystem which has journaling features.
There’s also the popular Btrfs, which has Copy-on-Write feature that supposedly helps with better snapshots of system.
→ Additional Note: Timeshift backup program doesn’t work well with Btrfs on Fedora because of how the root volume is labeled there. I think the root is labeled as @ instead of /. Look into it if you want to use Timeshift on Fedora.
Nobara fixes this by default. So, you can use Timeshift in it.
OpenSuse distros have btrfs+snapper integration for backup.
→ Troubleshooting note for btrfs users:
Lately, during power cut or forced shutdown, Btrfs partition got corrupted due to a bug in the Linux Kernel(anywhere between 6.10 to 6.15, I think).
To fix this, use the command:
btrfs rescue zero-log <insert root partition address>.
Eg.
btrfs rescue zero-log /dev/nvme0n1p3
OR
btrfs rescue zero-log /dev/sda3
Your root partition can be found by using the command ‘lsblk’.
Edit:
Troubleshooting note:
- Try to use USB 3.0 or USB-C ports for live boot or live-install. Avoid USB hubs.
- On USB 2.0, live-install can be slow since it has to load stuff from USB to RAM.
- If you have any issues with graphics, try the legacy graphics/ basic graphics mode while choosing to install.
Intermediate/Expert users:
You can also do this temporarily.
Press 'E' during boot loader menu and edit kernel entry(line that starts with linux or kernel and may end with splash) to add nomodeset.
So, it should look like:
linux /boot/vmlinuz... nomodeset quiet splash
- Those who have other issues during install, make sure you downloaded the file fully or copied the file into the USB fully.
This can be confirmed by comparing the checksum of the file on the website to the one on the USB.
Step 4-B:
Post-install and Troubleshooting notes:
→ For those who ditched Windows completely, make sure to back up your data and convert your external drives’ Filesystem to ext4 too for Linux-only use.
→ For most apps, you can try to find a flatpak version(preferably verified ones).
Some apps like Steam, Lutris, gamescope and OBS are recommended to be installed natively.
*Avoid Snap packages if you use Ubuntu.
→ In some distros, you have to manually add Flathub repository and use flatpak apps that are then integrated with your Desktop Environment’s AppStore.
To be safe, you can also check for a tick sign or a verified signature of the developer of your flatpak application.
Distros like Mint have an option to just show you only verified apps.
Fedora has an extra repository of its own managed Flatpak applications. I avoided this and just directly used apps from Flathub though.
→ Remember to always update your system additionally after a kernel/GPU driver update, if you are using flatpak applications.
This is so that the Flatpak runtimes(like Freedesktop stuff and other application platforms) will get updated and only then most flatpak apps will continue to work.
Some distros take care of this during a regular update itself. But keep an eye out for this one.
→ Some distros like base Fedora only comes with FOSS apps. Install proprietary Nvidia driver and codecs separately by following the RPM-fusion site.
(If you’re using Fedora derivatives like Nobara/Bazzite, you don’t even have to do the following.
If you’re intimidated by it, just use a Fedora derivative.)
It involves installation of two RPM repos: free and non-free. Then, a few lines in the commandline to install Nvidia driver and ffmpeg codecs.
Those with AMD GPU can just install the proprietary codecs.
//
For people who don’t want to read too much into the simple, one-time procedure can just follow this (as shown in RPM fusion site):
For Nvidia driver, type:
sudo dnf install akmod-nvidia
For optional CUDA support, type:
sudo dnf install xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-cuda
For Video acceleration support, type:
sudo dnf install nvidia-vaapi-driver libva-utils vdpauinfo
For Codecs, type:
sudo dnf swap ffmpeg-free ffmpeg –allowerasing
For additonal codecs:
sudo dnf update @multimedia --setopt="install_weak_deps=False" --exclude=PackageKit-gstreamer-plugin
//
→ Screensharing with audio is still problematic with Discord even though it claims to have been fixed.
Vesktop had fixed this a year ago or even before Discord even tried.
→ Some mkv files with eac3 audio may have issues with VLC.
Haruna player, with its innate mpv stuff, manages to play those.
→ If Steam doesn’t launch the first time, type:
__GL_CONSTANT_FRAME_RATE_HINT=3 steam
→ For rolling & semi-rolling distros, the latest Nvidia drivers should have solved a lot of its issues.
If anyone still finds a blank screen after waking from sleep, try getting into TTY by pressing Ctrl+Alt+F3, followed by Ctrl+Alt+F2(or F1) to get back into your Graphical UI.
→ CachyOS and OpenSUSE has great GUI installers that allows one to choose packages during and after installation.
Arch users are on their own with the Wiki.
→ Other distro users can still make use of the Arch Wiki in most cases. It’s very helpful.
Case in point:
Arch has a guide to disable HSP/HFP of a Bluetooth headset by creating a file in .config folder in home(~) directory.
I had to do this so that I can just use my external mic and avoid my Bluetooth headset going to poor quality audio codec when it uses BT microphone.
→ If anyone suddenly miss their Wifi/Bluetooth device and not even detected with ‘rfkill’ command, then you might be overloading your USB ports that it doesn’t get enough power.
You might see a code “usb error -110” when you check your journalctl log or when you use the command :
journalctl -b 0 -p err.
In this case, just unplug all your devices and powercycle your motherboard, i.e. you have to press your power button for 10-15 seconds.
After that, your Wifi/BT device will be detected again.
→ Most distros have good enough firewall like ufw or Firewalld.
One can also install OpenSnitch or Safing Portmaster if your distro supports it and have fine-grained control of your system.
→ If printing, local filesharing and geolocation are not needed,
packages like ‘cups’, ‘samba’ and * ‘geoclue’ can be removed or *masked(disabled).
like this
Many people think about these WM when they talk about tilling as an overhyped feature used just for unixporn posts.
Stop with I3 or Sway please.
AwesomeWM Qtile or River are more automatised, this is a great added value allowed by tilling for everyday use.
Pardon my ignorance, fellow Linux user.
I just happened to mention the ones I heard of.
Will check these out and include them.
Chris Hedges: Israel’s Assassination of Memory
European leaders, along with Joe Biden and Donald Trump, remind us of the real lesson of the Holocaust. It is not Never Again, but, We Do not Care. They are full partners in the genocide. Some wring their hands and say they are “appalled” or “saddened.” Some decry Israel’s orchestrated starvation. A few say they will declare a Palestinian state.
This is Kabuki theater — a way, when the genocide is over, for these Western leaders to insist they stood on the right side of history, even as they armed and funded the genocidal killers, while harassing, silencing or criminalizing those who decried the slaughter.
The razing of Gaza is not only a crime against the Palestinian people. It is a crime against our cultural and historical heritage — an assault on memory. We cannot understand the present, especially when reporting on Palestinians and Israelis, if we do not understand the past.
History is a mortal threat to Israel. It exposes the violent imposition of a European colony in the Arab world. It reveals the ruthless campaign to de-Arabize an Arab country. It underscores the inherent racism towards Arabs, their culture and their traditions. It challenges the myth that, as former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak said, Zionists created, “a villa in the middle of a jungle.” It mocks the lie that Palestine is exclusively a Jewish homeland. It recalls centuries of Palestinian presence. And it highlights the alien culture of Zionism, implanted on stolen land.
When I covered the genocide in Bosnia, the Serbs blew up mosques, carted away the remains and forbade anyone to speak of the structures they had razed. The goal in Gaza is the same, to wipe out the past and replace it with myth, to mask Israeli crimes, including genocide.
This denial of historical truth and historical identity permits Israelis to wallow in eternal victimhood. It sustains a morally blind nostalgia for an invented past. If Israelis confront these lies it threatens an existential crisis. It forces them to rethink who they are. Most prefer the comfort of illusion. The desire to believe is more powerful than the desire to see.
Chris Hedges: Israel’s Final Solution for Gaza — Erasing a City, Its People, and Its History
Chris Hedges: Israel is razing Gaza City with bombs, bulldozers, and famine. Palestinians face genocide, while centuries of Gaza’s history are wiped outChris Hedges (MintPress News)
The Last Days Of Social Media: Social media promised connection, but it has delivered exhaustion.
At first glance, the feed looks familiar, a seamless carousel of “For You” updates gliding beneath your thumb. But déjà‑vu sets in as 10 posts from 10 different accounts carry the same stock portrait and the same breathless promise — “click here for free pics” or “here is the one productivity hack you need in 2025.” Swipe again and three near‑identical replies appear, each from a pout‑filtered avatar directing you to “free pics.” Between them sits an ad for a cash‑back crypto card.Scroll further and recycled TikTok clips with “original audio” bleed into Reels on Facebook and Instagram; AI‑stitched football highlights showcase players’ limbs bending like marionettes. Refresh once more, and the woman who enjoys your snaps of sushi rolls has seemingly spawned five clones.
Whatever remains of genuine, human content is increasingly sidelined by algorithmic prioritization, receiving fewer interactions than the engineered content and AI slop optimized solely for clicks.
These are the last days of social media as we know it.
The Last Days Of Social Media
Social media promised connection, but it has delivered exhaustion.James O'Sullivan (NOEMA)
Video - Anti-Zohran Protest
- YouTube
Profitez des vidéos et de la musique que vous aimez, mettez en ligne des contenus originaux, et partagez-les avec vos amis, vos proches et le monde entier.www.youtube.com
Iran’s Parliament submits emergency bill to withdraw from Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
Following the announcement by the E3 (France, Germany, and the United Kingdom) to trigger the snapback mechanism on sanctions against Tehran, Iran’s Parliament has drafted and submitted an emergency bill proposing a full withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
Hossein-Ali Haji-Deligani, Deputy Chairman of the Article 90 Committee of Iran’s Parliament, confirmed that the bill will be uploaded to the parliamentary system on the following day and subsequently reviewed in an open session.
“As we had previously stated, these countries were already implementing the consequences of the snapback mechanism, including sanctions against us. There is nothing new in this.” Haji-Deligani told Iran's Tasnim.
Iran’s parliament submits emergency bill to withdraw from NPT
Iran’s parliament has introduced a bill for a complete withdrawal from the NPT in response to the E3’s decision to trigger the snapback mechanism.Al Mayadeen English (Iran’s parliament submits emergency bill to withdraw from NPT)
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The proposed legislation comes amid growing frustration in Tehran over the West’s repeated failure to honor agreements and ease pressure on Iran.
That part is important.
Introducing ActivityPub.Space
The in-person events at FediCon in Vancouver lit a fire in the Canadian ActivityPub community. One of the louder calls were for a place in the fediverse for ActivityPub discussions; a place for groups to form and for long-running discussions to be had.
I was more than happy to get involved. I also wanted such a place, and I've discussed it on and off for the past year. ActivityPub development discussions are fragmented across multiple disconnected channels, and none of them fully capture the entirety (or a majority, or even a sizeable minority) of the AP developer community. ActivityPub.Space is my answer to that call.
One constant about ActivityPub is that all ActivityPub developers are on the fediverse, and so it only makes sense that discussions about AP development should also take place on the fediverse.
At the same time, the "fediverse" isn't one singular entity. jaz@mastodon.iftas.org famously quipped "There is One Fediverse. There are a Million Fediverses." While I can't make guarantees about this site connecting with a million fediverses, I can say that it does connect with the microblogiverse, the blogiverse (WordPress blogs!), and the Threadiverse (Lemmy/Piefed/MBin/NodeBB/Discourse).
So how does it work?
The site is divided up into several categories:
- General Discussion is for any non-technical discussions about ActivityPub
- Technical Discussion is for technical deep-dives
- Meta contains discussions about this site itself
- Random is for everything else (there's always a "Random" category on a forum, isn't there...?)
We also pull in content direct from Fediverse news outlets such as "Week in Fediverse", "Connected Places", and "Relay, by We Distribute".
On the threadiverse side, we directly link to several other fediverse-focused communities on Lemmy and Piefed.
We utilise a number of relays to both distribute local content out and receive content from the wider microblogiverse. When content comes in via microblogs, they're not usually categorized, so we check for relevant hashtags and automatically categorize them into one of the local categories.
The wonderful thing about this site is that it fully federates, which means you can follow all of these categories from your app of choice. You don't even have to register a local account if you don't want to, but you definitely can (and should!) if you want the best experience browsing the categorized topics.
The categories today are rather broad, but over time I hope to split them up into smaller topics based on user demand. Give the site a try today!
crossgolf_rebel - kostenlose Kwalitätsposts likes this.
reshared this
Here's instructions I wrote up for another NodeBB site with how to follow stuff from Mastodon - discussions.thenexus.today/top…
How to follow and participate in discussions here from your Fediverse and ATmosphere accounts
Another way you can load discussions here into Fediverse is to copy the address bar, but add a post index to the end. For example, /topic/123 might not load,...The Nexus of Discussions
How do I diagnose issues when it comes to bugs/crashes?
So, how do I go about fixing this sort of stuff? My method of trying every single version of Proton with various recommended settings/commands from Protondb has not yielded anything beneficial. Additionally, searching the web with errors has also not yielded any meaningful results. For now, my solution is to switch back to windows if I want to play anything other than Factorio.
Thanks for the help.
My best guess is that you have an GPU that either doesn't support Vulkan, or has driver issues. But we shouldn't guess, that's what logs are for.
For Steam logs, running Steam from terminal as suggested is one way. Do note that error with wrong ELF class for game overlay library when starting any game is normal, since Steam tries to load both 32 and 64 for bit version for each game, and the wrong one will always fail. Arch wiki has more information.
wiki.archlinux.org/title/Steam…
For Proton logs, set environment variable PROTON_LOG=1. You can do it in Steam launch options, see Proton Readme for more info.
github.com/ValveSoftware/Proto…
With hardware and firmware issues system logs often point to right direction. Again Arch wiki has a good tutorial on it.
wiki.archlinux.org/title/Syste…
Games often have their own logging too if you need to go there. You'll need to look those up, as they vary by game.
I hope this helps.
GitHub - ValveSoftware/Proton: Compatibility tool for Steam Play based on Wine and additional components
Compatibility tool for Steam Play based on Wine and additional components - ValveSoftware/ProtonGitHub
Jaguar Land Rover Car Production and Sales Crippled by Cyberattack
IT issue leaves JLR unable to register cars on crucial 'new plate' day
No new Land Rover models registered in UK today as firm races to solve system faultFelix Page (Autocar)
Technology Channel reshared this.
“This is Eternal Displacement”: Israeli Onslaught on Gaza City Forcing Thousands to Flee With Nowhere to Go
cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/35366137
Abdel Qader Sabbah
Aug 27, 2025
Palestinians are describing the assault by the Israeli military to seize and ethnically cleanse Gaza City—Gaza’s largest city, where up to a million people are currently seeking shelter—as the end game.On Tuesday, residents in al-Saftawi neighborhood, just north of Sheikh Radwan in Gaza City, were forced to flee in the thousands as Israel’s ground assault bore down, with tanks and warplanes leveling entire blocks.
“For about a week now, it’s been constant bombing, shelling, and destruction,” Ramy, a resident being displaced from al-Saftawi, told Drop Site on Tuesday. “Today we were shocked when the army raided our area and bombed it. We were terrified, really terrified. A quadcopter came and they told us: ‘You have six hours to evacuate.’”
“This is Eternal Displacement”: Israeli Onslaught on Gaza City Forcing Thousands to Flee With Nowhere to Go
Abdel Qader Sabbah
Aug 27, 2025Palestinians are describing the assault by the Israeli military to seize and ethnically cleanse Gaza City—Gaza’s largest city, where up to a million people are currently seeking shelter—as the end game.On Tuesday, residents in al-Saftawi neighborhood, just north of Sheikh Radwan in Gaza City, were forced to flee in the thousands as Israel’s ground assault bore down, with tanks and warplanes leveling entire blocks.
“For about a week now, it’s been constant bombing, shelling, and destruction,” Ramy, a resident being displaced from al-Saftawi, told Drop Site on Tuesday. “Today we were shocked when the army raided our area and bombed it. We were terrified, really terrified. A quadcopter came and they told us: ‘You have six hours to evacuate.’”
“This is Eternal Displacement”: Israeli Onslaught on Gaza City Forcing Thousands to Flee With Nowhere to Go
“No one is spared—no old person, no child, no woman. No human being is spared.”Abdel Qader Sabbah (Drop Site News)
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“This is Eternal Displacement”: Israeli Onslaught on Gaza City Forcing Thousands to Flee With Nowhere to Go
Abdel Qader Sabbah
Aug 27, 2025
Palestinians are describing the assault by the Israeli military to seize and ethnically cleanse Gaza City—Gaza’s largest city, where up to a million people are currently seeking shelter—as the end game.On Tuesday, residents in al-Saftawi neighborhood, just north of Sheikh Radwan in Gaza City, were forced to flee in the thousands as Israel’s ground assault bore down, with tanks and warplanes leveling entire blocks.
“For about a week now, it’s been constant bombing, shelling, and destruction,” Ramy, a resident being displaced from al-Saftawi, told Drop Site on Tuesday. “Today we were shocked when the army raided our area and bombed it. We were terrified, really terrified. A quadcopter came and they told us: ‘You have six hours to evacuate.’”
“This is Eternal Displacement”: Israeli Onslaught on Gaza City Forcing Thousands to Flee With Nowhere to Go
“No one is spared—no old person, no child, no woman. No human being is spared.”Abdel Qader Sabbah (Drop Site News)
Google Photos app uploaded all my locally saved pictures completely against my will
I've gotten a new phone and setting it up for the past few days - a Fairphone 5 with Android installed. So obviously, this means I can't escape Googles clutches. Sure, whatever.
I have been VERY adamant about pressing "No" on all prompts, that try to get me to try something out or use some dumb service. I do not want any AI tool or similar to go through my files.
Yet, while perousing the depths of my system settings, I realized Google Photos was using a suspicous amount of storage. Somehow, it had "synchronized" ALL my locally saved pictures - this included pictures of my vacations, my drivers license, private pictures I would have rather not shared, and so on...
And while checking the Google Photos App for the damage done, obviously it had already automatically generated "previews" and "albums" for me, neatly organized.
IT HAD AUTOMATICALLY ANALYSED MY DRIVERS LICENSE AND SAVED IT INTO AN ALBUM CALLED "Identity-related"
How the fuck is this legal? I am so mad at myself right now. I'm usually so fuckin cautious about denying any sort of pop-up and setting all settings as strictly as possible.
So obviously I just had to spent 2 hours figuring out how to turn this "synchronization" off, and how to delete all photos in google photos - spoiler alert: There is no "Delete All" button. You have to manually select every single fucking image.
Sorry for the rant, I hope it's not too off-topic.
I'm just so mad right now.
a Fairphone 5 with Android installed. So obviously, this means I can't escape Googles clutches
If you have a Fairphone then you can escape Google, Fairphones are one of the few phones that support third party ROMs. If they weren't so expensive I would buy one myself.
Google Photos fails to include a libre software license text file. We do not control it, anti-libre software.
What did you expect? LMAOO
[RESOLVED] Looking for a way to make links to posts that don't leave the instance.
I know I've seen it before, some website that translated a link to a post into a link to that same post, but on the instance of the user clicking the link. I cannot for the life of me seem to find it again, though.
It was not a browser extension.
Is BOINC safe to run on your personal computer/server with your private files?
The adage that victors write history unravels here. China, a clear victor, was denied the platform to showcase its courage, sacrifices, and contributions. Today, it’s unjustly branded as a threat by Western discourse. World War II neither began nor ended in Europe. China, a founding UN member and the first to sign the UN Charter, remains its most steadfast supporter. It rejects the US-dominated narrative, crafted by a latecomer to the war that suffered the least yet unleashed atomic devastation. China’s WWII legacy fuels its modern mission: eradicating poverty, aiding the Global South, building global infrastructure, and championing peace and a shared future for mankind.
I know that after my death a pile of rubbish will be heaped on my grave, but the wind of History will sooner or later sweep it away without mercy. — Stalin
Maybe some day, but in the Global North they’re still piling on rubbish.
China’s SANY has commenced work on a 10 MW solar photovoltaic (PV) power plant in Zimbabwe as part of a mining project
SANY's Zimbabwe mining solar power project - African Review
Energy - Sany commences zimbabwe mining solar power projectafricanreview.com
Fuzzel 1.13 adds new features for menu building and usability
Fuzzel 1.13 adds new features for menu building and usability
Fuzzel, a popular Linux app-launcher and menu building tool on Linux has recently released version 1.13. While Fuzzel may be best known as an app launcher, it's a popular choice for building little menus.Mark Stosberg
German consumer confidence slumps again as job fears rise
German consumer confidence slumps again as job fears rise
German consumer confidence fell for a third month in August, with income and economic expectations dropping sharply amid rising job fears. Willingness to buy declined slightly, signalling a fragile outlook.Piero Cingari (Euronews.com)
Can other lemmy users see my email address I registered with?
"The Fort Bragg Cartel": Book Exposes U.S. Special Forces' Involvement in Drug Trafficking & Murder
- YouTube
Profitez des vidéos et de la musique que vous aimez, mettez en ligne des contenus originaux, et partagez-les avec vos amis, vos proches et le monde entier.www.youtube.com
A Dark Money Group Is Secretly Funding High-Profile Democratic Influencers
https://www.wired.com/story/dark-money-group-secret-funding-democrat-influencers/
Israel raids Nablus in the West Bank, injuring 80+, Microsoft workers occupy president’s office in protest of company support for Israel, and the U.S. demands Lebanon's Hezbollah surrender arms
cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/35350848
Drop Site Daily: August 27, 2025At least 76 Palestinians have been killed and 298 injured in Gaza over the past 24 hours, with 10 more dying of famine and malnutrition, including two children. An ongoing Israeli raid in Nablus injures at least 80 people. Churches in Gaza City vow to continue sheltering civilians as Israel prepares its assault. Hamas’s Qassam Brigades released footage of a July ambush in Beit Hanoun that killed five Israeli soldiers. In Syria, Israeli drone strikes kill six soldiers near Damascus, part of Netanyahu’s escalating regional war strategy. In Lebanon, Trump’s envoys pitch a U.S.-Gulf backed “economic zone” in exchange for Hezbollah’s disarmament, while Sen. Lindsey Graham demands Lebanon surrender its arms before any conversation with Israel. In the U.S., Microsoft workers occupy president’s office over ties to Israel as Brad Smith acknowledges the company helps run Israeli military surveillance programs, Delta Airlines faces a $20 million lawsuit over alleged assault of a Palestinian passenger, Silicon Valley billionaires launch a $100 million AI super-PAC. Activist groups advocate for the immediate release of Mohammed Zaher Ibrahim, a Palestinian-American teenager detained in an Israeli prison. Britain, France, and Germany begin the process of reimposing U.N. sanctions on Iran.
Israel raids Nablus in the West Bank, injuring 80+, Microsoft workers occupy president’s office in protest of company support for Israel, and the U.S. demands Lebanon's Hezbollah surrender arms
Drop Site Daily: August 27, 2025At least 76 Palestinians have been killed and 298 injured in Gaza over the past 24 hours, with 10 more dying of famine and malnutrition, including two children. An ongoing Israeli raid in Nablus injures at least 80 people. Churches in Gaza City vow to continue sheltering civilians as Israel prepares its assault. Hamas’s Qassam Brigades released footage of a July ambush in Beit Hanoun that killed five Israeli soldiers. In Syria, Israeli drone strikes kill six soldiers near Damascus, part of Netanyahu’s escalating regional war strategy. In Lebanon, Trump’s envoys pitch a U.S.-Gulf backed “economic zone” in exchange for Hezbollah’s disarmament, while Sen. Lindsey Graham demands Lebanon surrender its arms before any conversation with Israel. In the U.S., Microsoft workers occupy president’s office over ties to Israel as Brad Smith acknowledges the company helps run Israeli military surveillance programs, Delta Airlines faces a $20 million lawsuit over alleged assault of a Palestinian passenger, Silicon Valley billionaires launch a $100 million AI super-PAC. Activist groups advocate for the immediate release of Mohammed Zaher Ibrahim, a Palestinian-American teenager detained in an Israeli prison. Britain, France, and Germany begin the process of reimposing U.N. sanctions on Iran.
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Jumuta
in reply to tj0m0 • • •tj0m0
in reply to Jumuta • • •brucethemoose
in reply to tj0m0 • • •Yes. Especially if you want to game and dabble in local ML (which the 13 is unfortunately not great for, its NPU is too small and old to ever be useful).
But what's your budget, approximately?
tj0m0
in reply to brucethemoose • • •brucethemoose
in reply to tj0m0 • • •Ah, crap, you're in Europe.
So basically the only laptop worth anything for AI is one with the new Strix Halo AMD chips, and the closest to what you want is the Asus Z13: notebookcheck.net/Asus-ROG-Flo…
shop.asus.com/us/rog/90nr0jy1-…
Specifically the 128GB version if you can save up, or at least the 64GB version. While most laptops are useless for ML, this one utterly blows my desktop out of the water: it's like an of magnitude better than the Frameowrk 13 at that.
Even more importantly, LLM devs are targeting the Strix Halo chips, so they will be well supported. You can spin up a vllm, exllama or llama.cpp-rocm image on them right now, whereas you will struggle to get things up and running on most laptops older IGPs.
Coincidentally, you won't find anything 13" that can game better either. Its a surface-like tablet too, and franky its cooling is way better than a Framework 13. It's perfect!
...Problem is, I don't know if you can even get it in Europe. But historically, I know Asus laptops tend to be proportionally more expensive than they are in the US for some reason, so even if you can, I'm afraid the 64GB/128GB versions would be cost prohibitive.
Asus ROG Flow Z13 GZ302EA Convertible Review - AMD's Strix Halo GPU is neck-and-neck with the RTX 4070 Laptop
Andreas Osthoff (Notebookcheck)tj0m0
in reply to brucethemoose • • •I only found asus rog z13 flow with 32GB here sadly.
I considered this one (store.minisforum.com/products/…) earlier but 16GB is not good at all.
I heard of a new competitor to the z13 flow, but cant remember the name.
MINISFORUM V3/V3 SE
Minisforumbrucethemoose
in reply to tj0m0 • • •There is a 14" HP laptop with the same chip:
ultrabookreview.com/70442-amd-…
And a handheld, heh: gpdstore.net/gpd-handheld-gami…
There may be more.
TBH, it may be prudent to wait a month or two for more “AI Max” chips to show up in laptops. It’s pretty new; Asus is just super early with it like they usually are.
AMD Strix Halo laptops- complete list, best options (Ryzen AI Max+ 395, Ryzen AI Max 390)
Andrei Girbea (Ultrabookreview.com)tj0m0
in reply to brucethemoose • • •brucethemoose
in reply to tj0m0 • • •Yep.
FYI, rumors suggest the AI Max/Strix Halo successor won't be coming out till H2 2027, aka nearly 2028 (as Strix Halo techically launched in January this year, but as you can see takes time to actually make it into laptops):
notebookcheck.net/Detailed-AMD…
Anyway, what I'm saying is it won't go obsolete anytime soon, and it will be quite strong for many years to come if you get one.
Detailed AMD Medusa Halo and Medusa Halo Mini APUs leak claims up to 26 Zen 6 cores and next-gen RDNA 5 iGPUs
Fawad Murtaza (Notebookcheck)HelloRoot
in reply to tj0m0 • • •brucethemoose
in reply to tj0m0 • • •Oh, and one more thing. There's a sizable linux community specifically built around Asus ROG laptops. Look up 'linux rog' and you will find associated gitlabs and a Discord specifically built up around them. It's still a fantastic resource for my 2020 G14.
The Z13 is especially good for linux, as it has discrete-gpu-class performance on the IGP, so you don't have to fuss with a dual GPU setup on linux (which can be a tremendous headache, especially with Nvidia cards).
As for a distro, I adore CachyOS for ML stuff, and its well suited for gaming. But its really down to your personal experience and taste.
flatbield
in reply to tj0m0 • • •tj0m0
in reply to flatbield • • •flatbield
in reply to tj0m0 • • •Distros. Pick something in the top 10 of distrowatch.com/ .
I use Debian or one of the derivatives of Debian.
DistroWatch.com: Put the fun back into computing. Use Linux, BSD.
distrowatch.comtj0m0
in reply to flatbield • • •buckrogers
in reply to tj0m0 • • •www-gem
in reply to tj0m0 • • •I had some similar concerns before buying my Framework 13. The community here helped me a lot to confirm that this is a great laptop. After 3 months of use I'm still in love with it (got mine on sale).
I had a Dell XPS 13 before that, and tested lots of mainstream brands over the years (Lenovo, Acer, Vaio... and dinosaurs like PB, Toshiba). All within a budget of \~$1200-$1500. They all did a decent job and the XPS13 was certainly the best, but they all end up going to the trash because of hardware failure after 4 years max.
I wanted to move to a company that cares about Linux and with Framework, hardware issues will not cause death of my machine anymore. I'll be able to have my machine longer, or upgrade it for a fraction of the price of a new laptop.
www-gem.codeberg.page/sys_Fram…
www-gem.codeberg.page/sys_Fram…
Also, along my research before opting for Framework, I've heard mostly about starlab, purism, tuxedo, and system76. There's obviously pros and cons for each brand as well as difference in opinions based on individual experience, but a common criticism for these (including Framework) less marketed brands is the price of their machines. Lots of people don't realize that there's reasons for a slightly high price.
New laptop: Framework 13. The last one?
www-gem wordsHubertManne
in reply to tj0m0 • • •Eugenia
in reply to tj0m0 • • •A few days ago I posted about the same thing, I wanted a Mac-like laptop but running x86 so I could run Linux properly and not through hacks. 80% of the people in the comments suggested the Framework, and for a moment I was close to getting one. But I don't think I would be fully happy with its clunkiness to be honest. Modularized stuff are clunky we like it or not. Yes, much better for repairability, but DELL also offers me two years on site support even here in Greece, so...
At the end, I bought this DELL. It's coming with Linux, so I know it's 100% compatible, and I paid only 765 euros on it (after removing VAT, since I bought it also for work). That's half the price of a Framework, with a slicker design, and it's fast-enough (15,200 passmark cpu points). The only compromise I had to make was that the touchpad was off-center, as it's a large laptop. Other than that, it ticks all my boxes as per my post the other day.
Eugenia
2025-08-24 12:45:09
Zamundaaa
in reply to tj0m0 • • •Depends on what you upgrade for, and what you need in the first place.
If you upgrade mainly for more CPU and GPU power, in my opinion that's a hard sell. The new mainboards from Framework are hella expensive!
If you need a dGPU in a small form factor laptop, Framework just doesn't offer that. Same for touch or built-in tablet support.
If you're ok with the built-in GPU and upgrade for better display, for better battery, and a better but perhaps not the absolute latest and best APU, yes, it's worth it.
When I bought the FW13, a year later or so they brought out a new 120Hz higher resolution display. The first display being 60Hz was my only big annoyance with it, having a 120Hz monitor for comparison... So I just bought the new display, and swapping it only took literal 5 minutes.
Similar story with the hinges, I wanted ones with more resistance, so I just bought stronger ones for 25€ and easily replaced them.
If the battery gets worse, or they bring out a new one with decently improved capacity, I can similarly replace it in 5 minutes.
No glue, no 10 types of special screws, just the screw driver that was shipped with the laptop, and basically zero risk of breaking anything when making modifications.
You'll have to know yourself if these tradeoffs are worth it to you... but after my old HP Envy's display broke and even finding the correct replacement part was a challenge, let alone replacing it, I'm quite happy with the FW13.
Mereo
in reply to Zamundaaa • • •Zamundaaa
in reply to Mereo • • •Mereo
in reply to Zamundaaa • • •iopq
in reply to Zamundaaa • • •Joker
in reply to tj0m0 • • •I have the latest Framework 13 and I had a ThinkPad before this. I can recommend either of them. The Framework is one of my favorite computers I’ve had, but it’s not cheap. You will save some money if you ever have to make repairs, but I don’t know how the TCO works out for upgrades. It’s more about empowerment and reducing waste though.
Linux runs fine on both the Framework and the ThinkPad. You can pretty much just take your pick of distros and they should work, although you may want to stick with one of the more up to date distros on Framework because it has new hardware. Fedora, Arch-based, Tumbleweed all work well.
iopq
in reply to tj0m0 • • •