Linux for Leftists

https://lemmygrad.ml/pictrs/image/390fc71c-5d0d-4d27-9ebb-be7dc7b9bedd.png

Welcome to the Linux for Leftists community! We are here to spread not only information about Linux, but also about free software in general, privacy, security, free hardware as well as hardware capable of working with almost 100% free software. For this we have prepared guides, as to ease people into these topics, without them having to repeat questions or having them need to spend an afternoon looking for posts. This list is never finished, however the guides should be helpful enough. [*So you want to get into Linux?*](https://notabug.org/polskilumalo/lemmygrad_leftistunix/src/master/guides/getting_into_linux.md) [*So you'd like to be a (pragmatic) Free Software extremist?*](https://notabug.org/polskilumalo/lemmygrad_leftistunix/src/master/guides/free_software_extremist.md) [*So you want to secure your communications?*](https://notabug.org/polskilumalo/lemmygrad_leftistunix/src/master/guides/securing_communications.md) --- If you find the list lacks a guide the community could use, make one yourself, make a post about the creation of one, or DM an active mod. You can also open an issue on NotABug. We'll figure something out.

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https://yewtu.be/playlist?list=PLp31D6HATKfeEHEFqFo5hlCOYwHi4Sl9O

I watched the "Robert Elder's Favourite Linux Command" YouTube playlist and learned a lot of ways to improve upon my scripts in Linux.

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I know most people here regard electorialism as useless. I do too, but I didn't five years ago. And so I got roped into keeping a dying Electoral District Association on life support. I was the financial officer. As part of the role I was supposed to file financial reports, but I discovered they must be done using some proprietary software (available for free) that ran only on Windows (which I don't have and haven't had for decades). Long story short, I reached out for help (to the Green Party), mistakenly assumed they had taken care of it based on their email response... but now 5 years later the Elections Canada is likely fining me for failing to file these documents. Fine range is probably between $100 and $1,500 -- don't know yet. Anyway, I'm annoyed that running Windows is a requirement for participating in our "democracy". Does anyone know any Canadian free software or other legal organizations that might be interested in filing a formal complaint?

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https://drewdevault.com/2024/04/09/2024-04-09-FDO-conduct-enforcement.html

Latest foss drama. Consequences of your actions........ the /r/linux subreddit thread about this is as awful as you would imagine. The SJW's are coming for your toothbrush!!!-

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https://nixos-users-against-mic-sponsorship.github.io/

>It is understood that people attached to the Military Industrial Complex or close the Military Industrial Complex should be able to participate in NixCon, whether as organizers, speakers, or attendees. Their attachment to the Military Industrial Complex should not be taken against the individuals. This is a bit of a "separating the art from the artist" issue. If some person works for MIC, they're part of the problem and they deffo shouldn't be allowed to participate. So I'd say this letter isn't fully being against MIC involvement, however, it's better than nothing. At least the direction is more correct than just accepting MIC sponsorship quietly. Perhaps this has some effect if it gains a significant amount of signatures. BTW: There is also a clowny [NixOS Users For Western Military and Governments Support](https://nixos-users-for-western-mil-and-govs.github.io/) which hopefully gains no support, but hey, at least the imperialist lap dogs are outing themselves.

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www.gamingonlinux.com

Quote from the article... "Take it with your usual little pinch of salt like any survey sampling though."

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Hello! I'm a CS student, have been a FOSS lover for a long time and am a commie since recently (a year or two). I was thinking of my future career and as much as I'd love for there to just be an easy, free and open approach to using my skills, capitalism just makes it all impossible. I know thay capitalism will make it impossible for me to exercise my profession in a good way, but is there no alternative that fits in the middle anywhere? There just seems to be for profit software if I want to actually get a decent wage and a decent life. How can I get a decent job with free software? The idea of it just inhibits it while on the capitalist mode of production. TLDR: how can I be a FOSS dev while not caving to the interests of big techs and corporations to provide for myself (aka be a hypocrite)? Thank you for your time reading, cheers from Brazil!

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as much i am enjoying pop!_os and used linux mint, i also like to explore other distros.

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I've been struggling to come up with words to describe my frustrations with the definition of free software and how it ignores some of the nastiest behaviours of corporations. Stuff like EEE, repositories that are technically free but owned by a corporation and too big to fork (chromium), and other hazier real life conditions. Could there be a "free software but dialectical" definition that would be more useful?

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As I mentioned in My other post, my laptop broke and I am searching for a new one. The people in my comments said that the thinkpads aren't really good for gaming, so I'm looking at the lenovo legions but I am curious if there is other laptops that are good.

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So my laptop broke and I am looking for a new laptop. And I am going for lenovo thinkpads because I seen a lot of linux communities recommend older and used lenovo thinkpads, but I wonder if the new thinkpads are worth getting or I should stick with getting a used thinkpad.

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https://www.uci.cu/universidad/noticias/presentan-nova-90-la-ultima-distribucion-cubana-de-gnu-linux

I'm really curious to see it in action so I downloaded it. There are two versions, Nova Escritorio (Nova Desktop) and Nova Ligero (Nova Lite/Lightweight). Curiously Nova Ligero seems to be only 200MB smaller than Nova Escritorio. (1.9GB vs 1.7GB) Here's some download links in Pixeldrain, for faster download speeds and in case the original servers are down when you want to download. --- ::: spoiler Nova Escritorio 9.0 https://pixeldrain.com/u/jf1TivHd ::: --- ::: spoiler Nova Ligero 9.0 https://pixeldrain.com/u/7SipXJ2b :::

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So I saw on [this post](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2234108) the upsetting information that fedora is blocked on cuba, and I Wanted to check if the same was true of the downstream distributions, in particular open SUSE tumbleweed, as well. Edit: By what it seems they put it there more as a way to reduce liability(once the us trade embargoes seem to include most anything with US developed technology, although I do not understand that very well or if it does apply to open source stuff), in case the US comes a looking, because it does not describe any tools or measures to prevent it, in fact it even states that it is not geoblocked anywhere.

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I can use KDE connect over tailscale.

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Hello there! I just managed to install and play Falcon BMS on my Linux machine (Arch), and as such I'll make a brief tutorial on how I did it. Step 1: Buy Falcon 4.0 on Steam Step 2: Open Falcon 4.0 on Steam This is so the BMS installer can recognize that you aren't pirating Falcon 4.0. Step 3: Close Falcon 4.0 after it reaches main menu. Step 4: Download latest Proton-GE and install it on your Steam install. This is a custom Proton fork by Glorious Eggroll. It is better than regular Proton for some reason. Step 5: Run Falcon BMS 4.37 installer through Protontricks in Falcon 4.0's prefix. If you haven't installed Protontricks, install it, since it is necessary for this tutorial. Step 6: Update Falcon BMS to 4.37.2 using the updater through Protontricks (Falcon 4.0's prefix). Step 7: Play Falcon BMS using the regular launcher (The alternative launcher did not work for me) through Protontricks, using Falcon 4.0's prefix. Now it is done and you can play Falcon BMS. Now I just need to figure out how to use TacView and Simple Radio Standalone so I can finish this tutorial. edit: Tacview is pretty simple. Just install it using Protontricks and launch it also using Protontricks (on Falcon 4.0's prefix, as always).

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news.itsfoss.com

This is about a month old, but this distro is now released. It's a completely independent distro from China.

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Heyo comrades, I just bought a laptop with an Nvidia RTX 3060 (don't call me a capitalist, Italy discounts VAT on tech stuff if you're disabled) and was looking for a noob-friendly distro with a good Nvidia support (fuck those proprietary pigs) I looked at Mint since I use it on my desktop, but it has an out of date kernel (I heard that you need 5.8 or above to game with Nvidia, once again fuck them. Never had an issue with my trusty rx580) would just updating the kernel be an option or should I be looking for a different distro? My only 2 requirements are that: It's noob friendly (something Debian-based maybe, with a .deb and APT based package management) And that doesn't use a gnome DE, maybe something more like cinnamon, KDE of XFCE would be nice. Thanks. (sorry for long post, had to insult Nvidia)

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/3776409 > I'd just like to interject for a moment. What you're refering to as Israel, is in fact, USA/Israel, or as I've recently taken to calling it, USA plus Israel. Israel is not a country unto itself, but rather another illegal occupaton of a fully functioning USA empire made useful by the US Armed Forces, the Central Intelligence Agency and vital imperial components comprising a full empire as defined by any competent dictionary. > > Many Palestinians get murdered by the USA empire every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the illegal occupation which is widely used for murdering Palestinians today is often called Israel, and many of its victims are not aware that it is basically the USA empire, developed by the colonizers who genocided almost all of the Native Americans a few centuries ago. > > There really is an Israel, and these people are getting murdered by it, but it is just a part of the empire they are victims of. Israel is the illegal occupation: a part of the empire which resides on land that belongs to someone else who did not consent to getting murdered or having their land taken away. The illegal occupation is an essential part of the empire, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete empire. Israel is normally used in combination with the USA empire: the whole empire is basically USA with Israel added, or USA/Israel. All the so-called Israel distributions are really distributions of USA/Israel! >

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My Predator Helios from 2018 is working just fine with win10, but I really want to move over to linux. Probably I will start to have problems but I would like to hear comrades opinions. This Laptop is mostly for gaming.

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https://groups.google.com/g/vim_announce/c/tWahca9zkt4

A sad day, but also a moment to be grateful for all his work. Ever since I've learned how to use Vim I have never looked back, electron-based editors be damned.

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I'm liking it a lot, it's very barebones which is something I was looking for, and the package manager's command to install stuff is kinda hard to remember but does its job well. This might be my new daily driver now. Only issue is that since it's not as popular as other distros finding information specific to Void Linux might be inconvenient. Did any of you look into Void Linux? Do you like it?

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Hello Comrades, Thanks for all your advice about setting up Linux. It was a success. The problem is that I’m now I’m intrigued and I’d like to play around a bit more. I’m thinking of building a cheap-ish computer but I have a few questions. I’ll split them into separate posts to make things easier. Note: I won’t be installing anything that I can’t get to work on Linux. Do I need a dedicated graphics card? I'd like to run an HD display as a minimum. (I don't have a 4k monitor at but I wouldn't mind upgrading later if I can save up for one.) Mostly, I'll be streaming or playing videos. I wouldn't mind playing some games but is a dedicated GPU needed? If I should look into a GPU (I can always add it in later), what should I look for? (I'm not really interested in the latest AAA games). I wouldn't mind playing HOI4 or Victoria 3 as I hear so much about them. What are your thoughts on second-hand GPUs? This will obviously cut costs but is there anything to watch out for?

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Hello Comrades, Thanks for all your advice about setting up Linux. It was a success. The problem is that I’m now I’m intrigued and I’d like to play around a bit more. I’m thinking of building a cheap-ish computer but I have a few questions. I’ll split them into separate posts to make things easier. Note: I won’t be installing anything that I can’t get to work on Linux. Should I prioritise RAM or the processor? My budget is limited so I will have to make a choice between RAM and the processor. Would it be better to go for e.g. 32GB RAM and a slower processor, or 8GB RAM and a faster processor? Or is balance better? Say, 16GB RAM and a 'medium' processor (that's 'medium' between the 'slower' and the 'faster' option within my budget, not 'medium' for the market). Intel or AMD?

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Hello Comrades, Thanks for all your advice about setting up Linux. It was a success. The problem is that I'm now I'm intrigued and I'd like to play around a bit more. I'm thinking of building a cheap-ish computer but I have a few questions. I'll split them into separate posts to make things easier. Note: I won't be installing anything that I can't get to work on Linux. Question about storage and swap memory. I plan to install an SSD of maybe 128–256GB for the system files and a larger HDD for storage. I would partition the SSD so that I could install a few different distros without losing any installation. This way I can commit to some longer experiments before deciding which distro to use. The question is: should I have the swap partition on the SSD (with the OS partition) or (separately) on the HDD? And if I install multiple distros, do I need a different swap partition for each one? For example, if I install 16GB RAM, do I need a 16GB partition for, say, Mint, Debian, and Ubuntu? Or can I let them 'share' the swap partition? Are there any additional security/privacy risks of installing more than one distro on the same SSD card?

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Hey there, I've been doing a lot of typing lately on my shitty old Compaq keyboard (it has a good build quality, but keys require relatively much force to be pressed) and I experience some discomfort in my fingers. Would anybody suggest any specific keyboard or keyboard type that would help me ease the strain? I know absolutely nothing about keyboards lol!

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Hey, I am unhappy with my current job and I seek the strategy to improve my life situation. It took me a long time to sort out my personal problems, so I am rather late to the party, but I finally feel ready and capable to try and learn something new. I have **basic** knowledge of how GNU/Linux works and very limited knowledge in C++ programming. I enjoy spending my time on learning new things in that subject and I would like to use it as an advantage to earn money doing it. Yes, hobbies turned into work sometimes ruin it, but I have no better ideas at the moment. I already figured out that costly professional courses may be a waste of time and money or at least that's what I've read online. The only truly good thing is that they sometimes offer help with finding job at the end of the training, which might make things easier. I am not sure what to think about it. Is the perspective of choosing a job in the IT field and changing a job realistic at my age and without any formal education? If so, do you have any advice for me on how to even begin the journey? I know that I did not specify anything, but I'm trying to get an advice before I make any decisions and I will be happy to receive any suggestions. Cheers!

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news.itsfoss.com

China made a distro, free from most western code (aside from the kernel I guess). Looks decent, apparently it’s being adopted across many government agencies? Not sure how popular windows is in china, but the UI gives me windows vibes slightly. Would love to see windows die in the west [Source code repo](https://gitee.com/openkylin) [Website](https://openkylin.top)

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news.cgtn.com

Website: https://www.openkylin.top/index-en.html Git repositories: https://gitee.com/openkylin I haven't tried it myself yet but I might give it a spin since it has a unique Desktop environment.

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Hello comrades! I'd just like to inform you that I've finished a guide about securing your communications. It's in no way comprehensive, but I hope it will help you start out! [*So you want to secure your communications?*](https://notabug.org/polskilumalo/lemmygrad_leftistunix/src/master/guides/securing_communications.md) Cheers! EDIT: I hate the feeling of tiredness, I improved the guide according to community feedback but I can barely even consider this and improvement. More work is necessary. Thank you to [@Pili@lemmygrad.ml](https://lemmygrad.ml/u/Pili), [@Kovpak@lemmygrad.ml](https://lemmygrad.ml/u/Kovpak) and [@ColonelRevolution@lemmygrad.ml](https://lemmygrad.ml/u/ColonelRevolution).

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So I have now been planing for several months to reinstall my OS that I have run for a year or so. I have few reasons for this: Firstly there are some bugs that occur randomly, like file explorers taking a long time to open a directory (it has happened on every DE and file explorer that I have tried). There are also other minor bugs that are in the DE or deep in the system. Secondly I don't particularly like Pop! OS and Debian just sounds very appealing. So is there easy way to switch or do I have to download my home folder and other config files from /etc and other locations to another disk and then move them back? That sure sounds like a lot to check and remember. Info that you may need: The whole system is in one partition and it isn't encrypted.

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Everything just feels way more complicated than it needs to be. I tried installing Openshot (a video editor) but I couldn't figure out how to fix the error it spits out when I try to emerge it. I will now try out Arch and hope I don't need a master's degree to install packages. Edit: Gentoo isn't the first distro I've tried, I've been daily driving Debian for more than a year and just wanted to try it out since I heard good things about it. And also I didn't really need to use Openshot, I just wanted some video editor and arbitrarily chose to install that one. Also I guess I will just stick with Debian since apparently Arch is also complicated.

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Hello, Is there anyone using tiling window manager (i3 and similar)? I get easily distracted by stacking desktop environments and I found out that the minimalist approach works best for my ability to focus on learning and doing actual work with the computer. The less on the screen, the better and I don't mind memorizing some additional commands to get works done, if it reduces amount of information displayed at one time. It's not even about productivity - this approach just feels better and "cleaner", compared to bloated desktop environments like KDE. Vimb is pretty good for that purpose (no menus, no tabs, no need for mouse usage most of the time), although it fails to load some websites and it can get buggy sometimes. Can you suggest any alternatives or ways to improve the experience with that browser?

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