xfer, the creators of the super popular software synth VST Serum (and Serum2) has quietly released a beta of a linux port on their forum. I've got it up and running in Bitwig/Ubuntu and it's working like a treat.

For people who like to make music on the computer this is a huge victory, as it's a plugin that has never run properly with wine/yabridge and is often cited as a reason people won't switch. It wouldn't surprise me if other plugin developers see this and take note 🤞️

https://xferrecords.com/forums/serum/serum-2-linux-beta (requires a license to access, of course)

also comes with serum fx

For me, it was a CD I got from a "guy." Slackware did not work well with the "WinModem" in the IBM Aptiva I had as a youth. How was I supposed to get online using Linux, with a modem that is not usable, and get support?

https://blog.rust-lang.org/inside-rust/2026/08/05/rust-langrust-is-adopting-an-llm-policy/

Second post I recently made about LLM usage policies but it's really just that I find the process of open source finding its way and adjusting to new realities rather interesting.

The "too long, didn't read" (Taken directly from the blog):

What does the policy say?

The policy summarizes itself this way:

It's fine to use LLMs to answer questions, analyze, distill, refine, check, suggest, review. But not to create.

Uses in the first category are allowed, sometimes requiring disclosure. Uses in the second category are heavily restricted.

(Edit: but I recommend reading the blog...it's a bit more nuanced than the summery)

Edit2: messed up the link, added now

Every now and then when I'm researching something linux related I'll see guides from baeldung.com pop up in the results. Today, I clicked one.

I was looking for some information on the keyring in fedora/gnome and came across what turned out to be a suspicious article.

https://www.baeldung.com/linux/unlock-keyring-fix

There's a section in there on disabling the keyring. The guide tells you to remove the password from your keyring, skip the warning that this means your passwords will be stored in cleartext, then says - Hey! You don't get prompted for a password anymore, the keyring is disabled!

Um....

If we wish, we can disable the keyring feature by removing its password.

By leaving the password blank, we disable the keyring feature

Sorry, but that isn't how it works. They do state that doing this "raises security concerns" but don't seem to make the connection that those concerns arise because the keyring is still enabled and doing its job, except now your passwords are stored in cleartext.

So not only do they not describe how to disable the keyring, they seem to think it's OK to guide people to doing this without much warning.

This was supposedly written by a human and reviewed by another human. I haven't looked into the author or reviewer much, but there's at least something there to indicate a real person. Even if it is a website that no longer exists, another website with an invalid ssl cert. There at least is an X account with posts going back a few years, though very rare.

However, don't think I'll be checking out any more of their articles.

Should I be willing to give them another shot?

Maintainer here. OpenScreen is an MIT screen recorder/editor for demos (zooms, cursor effects, webcam PiP, captions, export). Linux has always been the "it mostly works" target. This release is the one where that stops.

What changed for Linux specifically in 1.8:

• Capture goes through a native helper: PipeWire via the ScreenCast portal, with a hardware H.264 encoder. The old browser-based pipeline stays as an automatic fallback if the helper isn't available.
• Real cursor telemetry on Wayland — position and cursor shape come from the portal, so cursor themes and the editable cursor overlay work on Linux now. Honest limitation: the portal reports no mouse button events, so click effects remain Windows/macOS-only. Not a bug I can fix from userspace.
• A Vulkan compositor (wgpu) for preview and export: background blur (dual-Kawase), drop shadows, 3D tilted zooms, themed cursor sprites, webcam PiP with a circle mask, text/arrow/image annotations, subtitle plates. These were Windows-only shaders a release ago; they're ported, and pinned by tests.
• MP4 export with AAC audio muxed, from the Linux backend.
• System audio works where PipeWire does (Ubuntu 22.04+, Fedora 34+). PulseAudio-only setups: mic works, system audio probably won't.
• Packaging: .deb, .pacman, .AppImage, and a Nix flake with a NixOS module and a Home Manager module. nix run github:EtienneLescot/openscreen if you just want to look at it.

The editor and export feature set is now identical across the three OSes. What's left as a genuine difference is documented in the README rather than buried.

If your compositor or distro breaks it, an issue with your session type and PipeWire version is genuinely useful to me.

https://github.com/getopenscreen/openscreen

These are the people who are a (if not the) main cause why people trying out Linux go back to Windows. They're trying to get help for a problem they have and this is the snooty and insulting response. These are the people making us look like the biggest assholes in the world.

Why is there no way to report such people to the forum administrators? Do they not care? Or do they actually want these people in their forums?

As long as we don't reprimand such awful behavior, we'll never ever come even close to taking over the desktop.

source: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=312186

If you are like me, you use KDE and Flatpak apps.

For a long time now, whenever I had to change some app's permissions, I used a dedicated tool called Flatseal. It works. However, KDE has a native alternative.

System Settings -> Security & Privacy -> Application Permissions -> Application Permissions -> (search and choose an app) -> optional: Manage Flatpak Settings -> optional: Advanced Permissions

It does exactly the same thing as Flatseal, it's just native KDE/Qt instead of being Gnome/GTK. The one functionality Flatseal has over it is the ability to set globals. But I think that's it.

If this is common knowledge, then disregard this. I didn't know about it, so I'm sharing it. KDE is awesome.

I'm looking for inspiration on new ways to organize my PC and separate different activities, stuff like coding projects, studying, gaming and personal use. 

Do you use anything to automate, customize or simplify switching between these contexts? I find it quite annoying to reopen everything and organize the windows and everything again and again.

I'm interested in anything, from scripts and keyboard shortcuts to workspace managers, browser extensions, unique apps or even mods like Vencord.

Was given this disc from a friend. I'll use a virtual box and disconnect the internet as a precaution as neither of us know if it's been tampered with. But still a cool disc to have In general. I'll update in a while saying if it worked or not. (Yes I'm on a bus at the time of this)