Linux Room

1. Why linux
2. Distros +
- 2.1. Guides
- 2.2. Cool distros
+
3. GUI apps +
- 3.1. Claws mail
- 3.2. Emacs
- 3.3. SpaceFM +
  - 3.3.1. Encrypted partitions in spaceFM
  - 3.3.2. sftp
  +
- 3.4. mpv
- 3.5. Liferea
- 3.6. ePDFViewer
+
4. Web browsers +
- 4.1. Icecat +
  - 4.1.1. Installing
  - 4.1.2. Hardening
  +
- 4.2. Palemoon and Basilisk +
  - 4.2.1. Hardening
  +
- 4.3. Ungoogled chromium
- 4.4. librewolf
+
5. Command line +
- 5.1. Alacritty
- 5.2. zsh
- 5.3. vim
+
6. Extras +
- 6.1. lite-xl
- 6.2. vlc
- 6.3. Evolution
+

1. Why linux

+I have always liked being able to customize, mod, and poke inside +different things. Computers are machines for us to play around with and +use how we see fit yet the only thing the big tech companies want to do +it lock everything up and it disgusts me. Fuck google, fuck microsoft, +fuck apple, and fuck all the other evil tech companies!!! Its time for +the open source revolution and seize them all and open source the entire +world!!! Without linux or any other unix life would be much much worse. +Linux is my safe place from all the shit in the world. +

+ + +

2. Distros

+I will distro hop a bit though for the most part I like to stay with the +same distro and just change DE's or WM's. For the longest time I just +switched to a different fedora spin every so often. Now I use arch +because I got tired of fedora and couldnt find a distro I liked so I +switched to arch to make it feel the way I want. +

2.1. Guides

2.2. Cool distros

+Not including the guides +

+ +

3. GUI apps

+A lot of linux users dont like GUI apps. I think they are great +when they are done right. +

3.1. Claws mail

+I have used thunderbird in the past though like I said before +mozilla is evil as fuck. +Through the power of actually following the unix philosophy and +not being full of javascript bullshit claws is about the safest email +client out there. Gone are the days of just clicking a email being +enough to fuck you over. Anyways you likely noticed that claws just +displays everything in plain text. I like using the dillo plugin for a +nicer view, and guess what? Still no shitty javascript that can get you +fucked! +

3.2. Emacs

+Don't use emacs. Its stupido.
+
+That is and will always be true but lately as of writing this I been bit +by the emacs bug. Using emacs is so bad and so wrong but feels so good +to use. I defeated rsi by doing hand exercises for nearly a year and a +half as of writing this. I had to learn the hard way being a guitarist +and emacs user while taking CS classes and writing code all the time +wasnt a good idea. Now I play bass to but it balances out because I +switched over to IT and became too lazy to write code most of the time. +I lost my lite weight hand exercise tools and instead of buying new ones +I just started using the heavy ones for hours at a time until I had the +grip strength to crush a human skull. Now my rsi is cured as long as I +keep up the exercises.
+
+I dont use doom emacs, spaceacs… or any of that bullshit. Just good old +gnu emacs with a simple config and a hand full of plugins.
+Some of my favorite are: +

+ +

Ivy: it makes emacs feel a bit nicer without completely changing it by +much.
Company with eglot: a easy way to add good auto-complete and lsp +support. It doesnt bloat the system up too much and it adds much +faster and better auto-complete then what any standard ide has and it +doesnt get in the way.
nyan-mode: this plugin will change your life. Emacs isnt even usable +without it. This plugin is the biggest reason I use emacs. Take that +vim users!

+ +

+Fun fact: I use emacs to work on this site. +

3.3. SpaceFM

+For the longest time I just used thunar because its decent and default +in xfce though I decided to give spaceFM a try as of writing this. I +might got annoyed of it in a week and ditch it or end up really liking +it. These kinds of things tend to go either way for me. I will either +fucking hate it or wonder how I ever lived without it.
+Update: After using it for a little bit I really dig it and never want +to go back. +

3.3.1. Encrypted partitions in spaceFM

+SpaceFM doesnt support encrypted partitions by default but lucky for us +its very customizable. To get encrypted disks working I use udisks2 and +udiskie. +

+ +

Install udisks2 and udiskie.
Go to xfce session and startup than add the command udiskie -s as a +autostarted app. The -s option makes udiskie show a tray icon and hide +it when there arent any disks. -t will show the tray all the time and +by default udiskie will not show a tray.
In spaceFM go to Devices->Settings->Device Handlers and add a new +handler:
+Whitelist: crypto_LUKS
+Mount: udiskie-mount %v
+Unmount: udiskie-umount $(lsblk -n -o MOUNTPOINT %v)

3.3.2. sftp

+Spacefm uses sshfs for sftp support. Once you install it you will be +ready to rock. Though for my use case I need symlink support. sshfs +needs to have the option -o follow_symlinks To support symlinks. +To add the option go to Devices->Settings->Protocol Handlers->ssh and +change the mount option to: +


+#!/bin/bash

+

+[[ -n "$fm_url_user" ]] && fm_url_user="${fm_url_user}@"

+[[ -z "$fm_url_port" ]] && fm_url_port=22

+echo ">>> sshfs -o follow_symlinks -p $fm_url_port $fm_url_user$fm_url_host:$fm_url_path %a"

+echo

+# Run sshfs through nohup to prevent disconnect on terminal close

+sshtmp="$(mktemp --tmpdir spacefm-ssh-output-XXXXXXXX.tmp)" || exit 1

+nohup sshfs -o follow_symlinks -p $fm_url_port $fm_url_user$fm_url_host:$fm_url_path %a &> "$sshtmp"

+err=$?

+[[ -e "$sshtmp" ]] && cat "$sshtmp" ; rm -f "$sshtmp"

+[[ $err -eq 0 ]]  # set error status

+

+# Alternate Method - if enabled, disable nohup line above and

+#                    uncheck Run In Terminal

+# # Run sshfs in a terminal without SpaceFM task.  sshfs disconnects when the

+# # terminal is closed

+# spacefm -s run-task cmd --terminal "echo 'Connecting to $fm_url'; echo; sshfs -p $fm_url_port $fm_url_user$fm_url_host:$fm_url_path %a; if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then echo; echo '[ Finished ] Press Enter to close'; else echo; echo 'Press Enter to close (closing this window may unmount sshfs)'; fi; read" & sleep 1
+

3.4. mpv

+I switched to mpv because vlc was acting weird with audio sometimes when +watching anime and nothing in this world is worse then something getting +in the way of anime time! Just like lite-xl and neovim mpv uses lua for +its config files and is really simple by default. It also can play +youtube videos or other online streams just by giving it a url. +

3.5. Liferea

+Feed readers are one of those things I use on and off. A lot like mail +clients feed readers tend to be very bloated. Liferea is my favorite but +it has always had issues with nvidia drivers until I found out a +trick.
+
+If liferea has issues add this to your /etc/environment and reboot
+WEBKIT_DISABLE_DMABUF_RENDERER=1
+
+Some cool tricks: +

+ +

Get this +plugin to find feeds easier.
You can turn youtube channels into rss feeds with +https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id={channel_id}
+This can be done for all your subscriptions with +this script
You can drag and drop youtube urls from your feed reader into mpv so +you can keep up with your subscriptions without even touching +youtube's website.

3.6. ePDFViewer

+I wanted a pdf viewer that was light weight and simple. Being a xfce +user I wanted something that isnt tied to another DE and doesnt uses a +hell ton of dependencies. +

4. Web browsers

+Modern browsers are some of the worse things to every happen. These are +some of the better options out there.
+
+For some resources on browsers check out +spyware watch dog and +dig deeper.
+
+For addons stay away from the mozilla or google bullshit and instead use +something like the gnuzilla thingy. You +can also find addons on mybrowseraddon +than manually install them or something along those lines.
+
+For a dark mode addon stay away from darkreader. Dont know if its +spyware or not but when the browser starts up it makes a bunch of +requests which is something a dark mode plugin shouldnt do. Instead use +something like +dark-mode. +

4.1. Icecat

+I use to use firefox but switched to librewolf because +mozilla is evil as +fuck. If you don't know librewolf it its the ungoogled-chromium of +firefox. Than I switched from librewolf to icecat.
+
+The builtin plugins are decent. Librejs and its other contend blocking +plugins are way more annoying than something like umatrix but I am +giving them a fair chance knowing that umatrix might not have much of a +future even if its still quite functional still. I still like to install +ublock even with everything that comes builtin.
+So I got annoyed of librejs and other builtin plugins in icecat. Now I +just disable them because umatrix and ublock can do way more, except +jshelter: It is a api spoofer which is different from the others which +are contend blockers. Its useful for when you have to use javascript +heavy websites but still want to prevent alot of information from being +leaked. I set ublock to disable javascript by default and I set jshelter +to strict mode by default.
+
+Fun little trick: If video playback/youtube frame breaks on a website +just throw it into mpv to stream it from there. Sometimes to find the +media you can hit ctrl+i to pull up page info and use the media section +or in some cases you might have to dig around in the inspector. +

4.1.1. Installing

+You can find some newer builds here. The +offical version can be found +here. +

4.1.2. Hardening

+The magic of icecat is it makes zero requests to mozilla but its not too +hardened so you might wanta use a user.js. Check out +pyllyukko user.js. +

4.2. Palemoon and Basilisk

+Palemoon is a old firefox fork that uses a +different rendering engine so it can keep up with newer webstandards +while stilling keeping the old interface and support older plugins. +Basilisk use to be developed by +moonchild and was designed to be kind of like palemoon but based off a +bit newer version of firefox. The basilisk team broke off and is now +seprate from moonchild but still keeps in close contact with them.
+
+What version you choose is really up to you and what interface you like +more. Both of them are going to struggle to use javascript heavy +websites but its ok its I prefer disabling javascript whenever possible +and using umatrix to only let in what the site needs to function. +

4.2.1. Hardening

+Even though they are about as good as browsers get these days the +developers are still stupidos so you should +follow this guide. +Its also best you disable webrtc (only basilisk even supports webrtc out +of the two) and webgl along with other hardening because even though +they are based off older versions of firefox they still support the +modern features that make it easier for sites to fucking fingerprint +you. Basilisk is the only one that supports webrtc out of the two.
+
+To help hardened get yourself +a palemoon +user.js. It helps you stand out less by hiding the fact you are using +a weird old ass browser. Btw, for whatever fucking reason this user.js +seems to brick github issue pages so just keep that in mind. Though if +anything this just is another reason why real git sites like gitea and +codeberg are better.
+
+You can timezone spoof by setting TZ=UTC before launching: +


+sudo -s

+rm -rf /usr/bin/palemoon

+echo "#! /usr/bin/sh\nTZ=UTC /usr/lib/palemoon/palemoon \$@" > /usr/bin/palemoon

+chmod +x /usr/bin/palemoon
+

+Basilisk users can come up with their own hack instead of having their +hands held and gently walked through +

4.3. Ungoogled chromium

+Ungoogled chromium is what the name says, chromium without the google. I +still prefer to avoid anything chromim but if you really want to use a +chromium based browser without all the spyware shit you arent going to +get any better than this. It hella beats brave brave is fucking +terrible. There is a addon that lets you install addons from the chrome +store and update them without having to sign into google but I still +think the best option is just to manually install the addons to +completely avoid google.
+
+Ungoogled chromium isnt hardened at all by default. Its designed to be a +drop in replacement for chrome that is user friendly and doesnt break +anything. We dont do that here, for heaven fucking shake at least harden +it a little and to do that you can use +these +flags.
+
+With manifest v2 on the way out the future of chromium based browsers is +fucked. Mozilla is also doing shitty things so we are just in general +fucked. +

4.4. librewolf

+Librewolf is about the easiest way to get a decent hardened browser +setup. It still makes some requests to mozilla which kind of sucks. +

5. Command line

+Yes, the terminal is a GUI program. But I put it here because fuck +you.
+
+For a cool command line I use nerd fonts. My favorite is the hack nerd +font which can be installed with: +


+wget https://github.com/ryanoasis/nerd-fonts/releases/download/v3.3.0/Hack.zip

+unzip Hack.zip -d Hack

+sudo cp -r Hack /usr/share/fonts/
+

+More nerd fonts can be found here. +

5.1. Alacritty

+I only started using it very recently because I been using kitty for a +long time. I switched to alacritty because ssh in kitty is fucked up and +I found out that alacritty now has a option for toml files for the +config. The yml files was one of the biggest things keeping me away from +alacritty. +

5.2. zsh

+zsh is pretty cool though I been playing with fish a bit and been +thinking of switching to that. zsh has lots of cool things like vi keys +(even though I use emacs) and is somewhat compatable with bash to. +

5.3. vim

+For a long time I used neovim. I started using neovim becaues I wanted +vim to act more like a ide and have fancy shit. For most things I ended +up using ~~lite-xl~~ emacs more because well… emacs just make my autism +happy. Neovim ended up just being used for editing configs, quickly +throwing together scripts, crazy vim wizard edits… so I decided to +just ditch neovim (you can find my old config +here) and instead go +with a simple vimrc with only a few plugins.
+
+How dare someone use both emacs and vim! Shut your fucking piehole +stupido! +

6. Extras

+These are programs I at one point used, dont use much… that I wanted +to add. +

6.1. lite-xl

+I started using lite-xl because I wanted a simple little easy to config +graphical text editor. lite-xl is just that. I no longer have a need for +it as I get into emacs again as of writing this but still a great little +editor.
+
+On different screen sizes lite-xl may look bad and to fix it you need to +set the LITE_SCALE environment variable. +

6.2. vlc

+Yes, mpv is better. Yes, vlc sometimes has issues. But vlc is still +better than the default media player on most systems and has its fair +share of useful features. Even with mpv I still like to have vlc +installed just in case mpv breaks when I dont have internet and I like +its file converting features. The mobile version of vlc kicks ass. +

6.3. Evolution

+Evolution is one of the better mail clients out there. If for whatever +reason you need to use gmail or some other locked down shitty service +evolution has you covered. By default it uses the gnome style window +decorators but unlike most gnome apps it lets you use your desktop/WM +decorators instead. Its not as bad as most mail clients (looking at you +thunderbird) and it lets you at least hide most of that shit out of +the way. +