Practical Linux tips and tricks – terminal shortcuts, productivity hacks, and configuration tweaks for Ubuntu and other distros.
The GNU Hurd project recently issued their Q2’2026 status report to outline recently development efforts. The Hurd is still happening! The GNU Hurd Q2-2026 progress report was published earlier this month but only yesterday did their project site get fixed up to once again restore its RSS feed. While not as pronounced as the Linux…
Linux users looking for system-wide voice typing functionality now have an open-source option in the face of Vocalinux, a new, privacy-focused dictation app that inserts spoken text directly into the desktop application in focus. Instead of operating as a standalone transcription tool, Vocalinux runs in the background and activates via a configurable keyboard shortcut. Users…
The official Discord desktop app supports Linux but it doesn’t make much effort to fit in, which is why alternative clients are popular – not least because they can be themed. Discord GNOME Theme by developer ~ricewind012, is so named because, basically, that’s what it is: a custom theme that restyles Discord to look more…
43 Marcus’s Systems Brief: Linus Torvalds just drew a hard line on AI in the Linux kernel. I break down his exact words, the formal policy that already exists, the Sashiko controversy, and what every developer needs to know about the most divisive topic in open source right now. Linus Torvalds does not stay quiet…
Sooner or later you will need to grab the entire contents of a file open in Vim, whether to paste a config file into a support ticket, move a script into another editor, or wipe everything and start over. In most editors that is Ctrl+A followed by Ctrl+C. Vim does not work that way, and…
Our brains are not meant to be locked in for eight straight hours during a work/school day. That’s not how these little pink sponges work, no matter what hack productivity gurus on YouTube might try to sell you. What works is cutting the friction around your workflow, and staying on top of the mental nerfs…
This week’s batch of AMDGPU Display Core “DC” updates arrived heavy with 70 new patches for improving that open-source display support for Radeon graphics on the Linux desktop. For those wanting to use the modern Apple Studio Display with AMD Radeon graphics on Linux, this week’s AMDGPU DC patches contain an important fix. The Apple…
Microsoft has released Visual Studio Code 1.129, introducing an experimental preview of a substantially modernized interface for this most popular cross-platform code editor. Instead of adding a new color theme, Microsoft is updating the entire VS Code workbench, improving the visual separation of panels, editor groups, tabs, menus, and toolbars. The Explorer sidebar, editor panes,…
When Flathub banned AI-coded app submissions last month, some critics warned the platform was denying the future by dismissing a new wave of “vibe-coded” software as out-and-out “slop”. Well, new data suggests otherwise, as nearly three-quarters of the rejected apps are already dead, existing only a few months. Linux developer Evangelos Paterakis, developer of Tuba, Turntable…
15 Marcus’s AI Brief: Claude Desktop just hit Linux in beta. I spent a day across three distros to figure out what actually works, what breaks, and whether Anthropic’s AI is worth your time on the penguin. Here’s everything I found. What Is Claude Desktop for Linux and Why Should You Care Claude Desktop is…
