AppImage is a frustrating invention for Linux. It should work like macOS's .app, but it falls short. Getting an app to run and dock always involves tinkering and manually deploying a .desktop item, among other hassles.

I wish I had known about Gear Lever for Gnome earlier. https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/07/gear-lever-appimage-app-for-gnome

Gear Lever makes updating AppImage apps much easier. I prefer .deb packages, but too many apps don't offer them.

Source code: https://github.com/mijorus/gearlever

#Linux #AppImage #Apps #OpenSource

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Gear Lever screenshot, Installed applications: Beekeeper Studio Ultimate (4.6.4), FreeYourMusic, NextCloud Desktop. Check updates button.

I woke up to a comment so smug, so perfectly soaked in gatekeeping and faux-righteous posturing, it earned its own blog post.
You want freedom? You want GNU/Linux to mean something?
Then maybe start by not telling disabled users to go fuck themselves with a smile.
This commenter thought they were defending "software freedom." What they were really doing was kicking people out of the room. Dismissing accessibility. Mocking effort. Pretending that cruelty is some kind of rite of passage. They quoted Stallman like it was scripture, ignored real-world experience like it was noise, and wrapped it all in condescension dressed as virtue.
I’ve spent over a decade in this ecosystem. Writing patches. Rebuilding broken stacks. Helping blind users boot systems upstream doesn’t even test. I didn’t "just install Arch and whine about the terminal." I lived in it. I survived it. I held it together when maintainers disappeared and no one else gave a damn.
But apparently, because I didn’t call it GNU/Linux™ and because I dared to talk about how this OS chews people up and spits them out, I’m lazy. I’m weak. I should "get a dog."
So I wrote a response. Line by line. No mercy. No euphemisms.
This isn’t just about one comment. This is about every time someone’s been told they don’t belong because they couldn’t learn fast enough, code well enough, or survive long enough. It’s about everyone who was pushed out while the gatekeepers patted themselves on the back for "preserving the spirit of free software."
You want a free system? Start by making it livable. Because freedom that demands you crawl bleeding through a broken bootloader isn’t freedom. It’s abandonment dressed in ideology.
And if this kind of gatekeeping is your idea of community?
You can keep it.
https://fireborn.mataroa.blog/blog/you-dont-own-the-word-freedom-a-full-burn-response-to-the-gnulinux-comment-that-tried-to-gatekeep-me-off-my-own-machine/
#Linux #GNU #FOSS #Accessibility #BlindTech #FreeSoftware #Gatekeeping #DisabilityInTech #OpenSource #Orca #ScreenReaders #ArchLinux #BurnItDown #blogpost

THIS.
I gonna save this to just post it every time one of those entitled FOSS-bros crosses my path.

If the only way for people to use a computer is to either become a developer yourself or suffer through exploitation by big corporations it isn't an individual failure of those people, it's an absolute failure of the FOSS / Linux community to build good software.
https://fireborn.mataroa.blog/blog/you-dont-own-the-word-freedom-a-full-burn-response-to-the-gnulinux-comment-that-tried-to-gatekeep-me-off-my-own-machine/
#Linux #Accessibility

How retro! The new Nintendo Switch 2 will bring back the classic AA batteries you loved inserting into your Nintendo Gameboy! Recreate that sense of pride and accomplishment you felt unboxing that Nintendo Gameboy from under the Christmas Tree with 16 AA battery holders on the main console and 1 on each JoyCon. Play on! #nintendoswitchnews #playon #linux #stillwithher

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back of a nintendo switch with a few poorly edited additions. the word "two" has been perspective warped after the text "nintendo switch". two double-sided 8-battery AA holders have been added to the back with no visible attachment mechanism, just wires. each joycon has a single battery holder each. i don't actually know if they're AA battery holders, they just look kind of like them

Steam just dropped screen reader support in the latest Big Picture Mode beta. On the Deck. On SteamOS. On Linux.
Not hacked in. Not community-patched. Built-in. From Valve.
There's an accessibility tab. There's a screen reader. There's high-contrast mode, UI scaling, color filters, reduced motion, and more.
I can’t believe I’m saying this but: I need a Steam Deck now.
Accessibility isn’t just coming to gaming — it’s here, and it’s official.
Let’s make some noise so they keep going.
🔗 https://www.theverge.com/games/689922/steam-is-adding-screen-reader-support-and-other-accessibility-tools
#Accessibility #Gaming #SteamDeck #ScreenReader #Linux #valve

For this weeks video I wanted to go over one of my favorite desktop tools, Flameshot~ Its an awesome open source Screenshot Editing utility that I absolutely love~ ​​

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8qt3p9JSm8

#opensource #opensourcesoftware #linux #linuxmint #flameshot #foss #utilities #youtube

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The title graphic to my flameshot video. Its my avatar holding her hand to her face with the logo in the background

I’ve published Part 3 of “I Want to Love Linux. It Doesn’t Love Me Back.”

This one’s about the so-called universal interface: the console. The raw, non-GUI, text-mode TTY. The place where sighted Linux users fall back when the desktop breaks, and where blind users are supposed to do the same. Except — we can’t. Not reliably. Not safely. Not without building the entire stack ourselves.

This post covers Speakup, BRLTTY, Fenrir, and the audio subsystem hell that makes screen reading in the console a game of chance. It dives into why session-locked audio breaks espeakup, why BRLTTY fails silently and eats USB ports, why the console can be a full environment — and why it’s still unusable out of the box. And yes, it calls out the fact that if you’re deafblind, and BRLTTY doesn’t start, you’re just locked out of the machine entirely. No speech. No visuals. Just a dead black box.

There are workarounds. Scripts. Hacks. Weird client.conf magic that you run once as root, once as a user, and pray to PipeWire that it sticks. Some of this I learned from a reader of post 1. None of it is documented. None of it is standard. And none of it should be required.

This is a long one. Technical, and very real. Because the console should be the one place Linux accessibility never breaks. And it’s the one place that’s been left to rot.

Link to the post: https://fireborn.mataroa.blog/blog/i-want-to-love-linux-it-doesnt-love-me-back-post-3-speakup-brltty-and-the-forgotten-infrastructure-of-console-access/

#Linux #Accessibility #BlindTech #BRLTTY #Speakup #Fenrir #TTY #PipeWire #ScreenReader #DisabilityTech #ConsoleComputing #LinuxAccessibility #FOSS

Does anyone know if there's a way to apply uBlock Origin filters to wget? I'm trying to download some pages, but I get trapped in a tarpit*†**‡.

*Google web tracking services & advertisements.
†There's not actually a tarpit, it's just fucking Google.
**I've been sitting here for several minutes to download a page that should only take a few seconds.
‡I'm just trying to get offline "bookmarks" for things I want to read & reference on my laptop.
#Linux #Web #wget

Do you like fox? >
Do you like floof? >
Do you have computers??? I'm sure you do!!! >

Perhaps you can share with others that your computer is powered by floofy fox!!

I got a bunch of "Powered by floof" laptop stickers printed. Glossy stickers, approx. 2.1cm x 1.6cm, similar to "CPU Inside" stickers.

>> ORDER! <<
Order here: https://square.link/u/UkjBrk5O

$1.50 CAD per sticker! Discounts for orders of 5+, use coupon OVER5 on Square. $3.50 CAD Shipped untracked lettermail globally.

Tracked shipping and non-Credit Card payments* can be discussed if desired otherwise! Just email me, contact @ nabein.me

• PayPal, Wise, Interac E-Transfer, IBAN/SWIFT Euro transfer (Europe + Euro dollars only)

Thanks to
@ Houl@wetdry.world for designing the stickers!! and @ volpeon@is-a.wyvern.rip for making blobfox!!

https://wetdry.world/@Houl/113244681727230890

#fox #stickers #laptopstickers #fops #blobfox #xenia #linux #computer #computing #forsale #classified #classifieds

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The sticker on a laptop above a newer style Intel Inside square sticker.

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A WHOLE BUNCH of laptop sized stickers of a blobfox and "powered by floof" text in a grouping closeup.

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Xenia the linux fox plush with a sticker on her nose, to certify that she is powered by floof.

Do you like fox? >
Do you like floof? >
Do you have computers??? I'm sure you do!!! >

Perhaps you can share with others that your computer is powered by fox! by floofy fox!!
floofy fops!!

I got a bunch of "Powered by floof" laptop stickers printed. Glossy stickers, approx. 2.1cm x 1.6cm, similar to "Intel Inside" stickers.

>> PRICE <<
$1.50 CAD per sticker! Discounts for orders of 5+.

Lettermail shipping (untracked, CAD):

• $1.75 within Canada
• $2.50 for USA
• $3.75 Internationally

Tracked shipping/Registered mail can be discussed if desired otherwise!

>> TO ORDER: <<
Email: contact @ nabein . me
Subject: Fox stickers
Include your shipping address and sticker quantity if ready to order!

>> PAYMENT: <<
PayPal, Wise, Interac E-Transfer (canada only), IBAN/SWIFT Euro transfer (Europe + Euro dollars only)

Should have a storefront as well soon that will support Stripe credit card payment.

Thanks to
@ Houl@wetdry.world for designing the stickers!! and @ volpeon@is-a.wyvern.rip for making blobfox!!

https://wetdry.world/@Houl/113244681727230890

#fox #stickers #laptopstickers #fops #blobfox #xenia #linux #computer #computing

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A WHOLE BUNCH of laptop sized stickers of a blobfox and "powered by floof" in a looong row of paper, on a countertop.

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A WHOLE BUNCH of laptop sized stickers of a blobfox and "powered by floof" text in a grouping closeup.

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The sticker on a laptop above a newer style Intel Inside square sticker.

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Xenia the linux fox plush with a sticker on her nose, to certify that she is powered by floof.

The way Gitlab, Forgejo, Gitea etc. use the server-side SSH server to accept pushed data over SSH relies on a system user called git having SSH access. (or forgejo in their case).

Access is granted by the standard authorized_keys inside ~/.ssh, which for forgejo means /var/lib/forgejo/.ssh/authorized_keys. When a user adds an SSH key to their account, it's added to this authorized_keys file.

I really hate this, this means that any user of Forgejo is only inches away from having full shell access. The default shell of the forgejo user is /bin/bash, it exists inside of /etc/passwd:

forgejo:x:122:130:Forgejo (Beyond coding. We forge.):/var/lib/forgejo:/bin/bash

command="/usr/bin/forgejo --config=/etc/forgejo/app.ini serv key-1",no-port-forwarding,no-X11-forwarding,no-agent-forwarding,no-pty,no-user-rc,restrict ssh-ed25519 AAAAC3NzaC1lZDI1NTE5AAAAIOgnZeNC4fMCXYuWxir7NlKts9Zj4sYZZJzzHh4IyTm2 Baa-New