Software
Games on Linux
Updated 01-Oct-2026 Turns out there are a large number of games that can be played on Linux, without crap like WINE (though some still use it). Various platforms include: Steam Tons ... of ... games ... Including: Garry's Mod Kerbal Space Program Orion Trail Rome: Total War Native linux games 0ad Minecraft Super Tux Cart ... Read more
Roblox on Linux
Roblox is the only reason my children run Windows on their computers. What an annoying operating system, which regularly tries to sneakily install and configure more bloatware and suveillance. Well, the wait is over to axe these operating systems and install Linux (namely, Debian Trixie 13). Roblox can be installed and used by emulating Android ... Read more
My learning journey with AI
Good morning judges and audience members. My name is Benjamin McNeill. I am a representative 4th grade student from Tessabaan Hangdong Prachkomsangsan. Today I am honored to present briefly on the subject: My learning journey with AI. What is a journey When first informed of this topic, it took a bit of time to understand ... Read more
regex – regular expressions
Updated 26-Sep-2025 A regular expression (shortened as regex or regexp), sometimes referred to as a rational expression, is a sequence of characters that specifies a match pattern in text. Usually such patterns are used by string-searching algorithms for "find" or "find and replace" operations on strings, or for input validation. See also regex101 for helpful ... Read more
Open Source
Updated 23-Aug-2025 This is an ongoing collection of Open Source stuff. Some of this I haven't used but have heard about enough to become interested, and therefore want to keep track of it in some way. Some of this stuff I use daily, and prize highly (some I use daily and prize moderately -- looking ... Read more
Fail2ban
Fail2ban is a security service that monitors the logs of common services (usually sshd and nginx). It uses a filter to identify an abnormality, then passes the IP address of the intruder to a firewall program (iptables or ufw, commonly). Files and configuration Install Fail2ban with sudo apt install fail2ban. The context for this configuration ... Read more
Debian 13 Trixie
Updated 03-Oct-2025 Note: It's out, and looking good. Backports repositories now available. Trixie is release 13 of Debian GNU/Linux. It will be officially released likely sometime in August. It is common to answer the question: When will Debian (number) be released? with When it is ready. And so, an exact date cannot be predetermined, until ... Read more
Neofetch -> Fastfetch
Updated 03-Aug-2025 The venerable Neofetch hasn't been updated since 2020 (and was archived last year). Fastfetch is it's reasonable replacement (with a bit more info). Fastfetch is available in apt repositories and also from the git repository (latest editions). Fastfetch was last updated 18-July-2025 and gets ongoing support. The version in apt lags a bit ... Read more
Disable One UI 7/8 Battery Indicator
Updated 31-Aug-2026 See also Samsung buds core bluetooth Android devices Android apps Disable One UI 7/8 battery indicator Android Debloater The One UI 7 and One UI 8 battery indicator -- One UI 7 is now available in Asia -- which is part of the Android 15 release for various Samsung devices, in a word, ... Read more
Nova video player (Android)
Updated 03-Aug-2025 Originally this was a post about Kodi but it has become about NOVA, since NOVA is much better at what it does, that is being a video player front end and library organizer for video. We use this on our Android TV and it also works on mobile devices. Some old KODI info ... Read more
Symfonium – Android Music Player
Updated 18-Jun-2026 Any future music player needs: Chromecast Auto-mix (random function, some limit to number of songs Share (album cover, album, song) Don't mess with files directly, beyond liking them (turn off external artist info import) Normalize across collection (Symfonium does not appear to have this) Equalizer Android Auto support (an icon and interface, not ... Read more
KOReader ebook reader
Updated 21-Jul-2026 See also Ebooks and where to buy them which discusses DRM from each ebook seller. Kindle and Kobo ebook readers Calibre Ebook Library, De-DRM, Conversion Jailbreak Kindle KO Reader open source ebook reader It appears that KOReader is the leading open source ebook reader, and besides being able to run on Kindle, Kobo, ... Read more
Jailbreak Kindle
Updated 21-Jul-2026 See also Ebooks and where to buy them which discusses DRM from each ebook seller. Kindle and Kobo ebook readers Calibre Ebook Library, De-DRM, Conversion Jailbreak Kindle KO Reader open source ebook reader Update May 2025 It is still possible to decrypt (de-DRM) Kindle ebooks, just not possible to download them from Amazon. ... Read more
Open source project sustainability
Updated 03-Aug-2025 See also: Part 1: Stop using their stuff For me, both open source (defined below) and sustainability (some kind of appropriate life-span and level of health) are both important, together. Though also I believe that reasonable business models around closed source (proprietary) should also be sustainable (in a non-rapacious sense). What is Sustainability? ... Read more
Thunar file manager
Updated 03-Aug-2025 Thunar is the Saxon name for Thor. Thunar is the default file manager for the XFCE desktop but can of course be installed on most distributions. In general it is low-resource, highly flexible, and extensible (supports plugins, and custom actions). It can easily be used for SFTP connections as well. See also Thunar ... Read more
Quod Libet
Updated 12-Aug-2025 See also Symfonium Quod Libet is an absolutely brilliant music player / library tool, with a nice community and set of plugins. Open source and cross platform (Linux, OSX, Windows), it can't be beat in terms of speed (fast), resource utilization (low), and flexibility (UI, streaming, podcasts, etc.). Truly a gem. The last ... Read more
Stop using their stuff
Updated 03-Aug-2025 See also: Part 2: Open source project sustainability -- not yet available This article is a work in progress See also Against venture capital We really need to learn from Google, Twitter, etc. The fact is, these large companies are unaccountable, and not only illegally scrape but also can scan your stuff, delete ... Read more
Golang language and apps
Updated 27-Aug-2026 See also: AI coding for Go I guess I'll be using Golang. Go Getting started Go packages Go applications of note In several cases venerable PHP and C applications have been replaced with Go, which to my mind is a good thing. Start with Awesome-Go a list of Go apps, like this one ... Read more
Kindle and Kobo ebook readers
Updated 21-Jul-2026 (Pictured: Kindle Paperwhite 2018, 2022, paper Manga) See also Ebooks and where to buy them which discusses DRM from each ebook seller. Kindle and Kobo ebook readers Calibre Ebook Library, De-DRM, Conversion Jailbreak Kindle KOReader open source ebook reader Note July 2026: I've been using the Kobo Clara BW for the past year ... Read more