Best of Linux — September 2025

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Engineer’s Codex·32w
How to Not Write "Garbage Code" (by Linus Torvalds)
Linus Torvalds criticized a Meta engineer's code for creating unnecessary abstractions that increase cognitive load. The piece argues that good code should minimize context switches and mental overhead for both humans and AI systems. Sometimes code duplication is preferable to complex helper functions when it keeps logic self-contained and easier to understand. The principle of "Please Repeat Yourself" can reduce cognitive burden, especially as AI coding tools become more prevalent.
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Article
Mitesh Viras·32w
Before Linux Vs After Linux
A humorous take on how Linux transforms users from casual web browsers into system administrators running their own infrastructure, highlighting the learning curve and responsibilities that come with adopting Linux.
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Article
omg! ubuntu!·34w
SuperFile is a Command-Line File Manager You’ll Enjoy Using
SuperFile is a modern terminal file manager written in Go that offers a colorful, icon-rich interface as an alternative to traditional tools like Midnight Commander. It features multiple panels, keyboard-driven navigation, vim-compatible keybindings, and integrates with external editors while maintaining simplicity and usability for command-line file operations.
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Article
Hacker News·33w
TibixDev/winboat: Run Windows apps on 🐧 Linux with ✨ seamless integration
WinBoat is an open-source tool that enables running Windows applications natively on Linux systems through virtualization and containerization. It provides seamless integration with the Linux desktop environment, automated installation processes, filesystem sharing between Windows and Linux, and supports running both individual Windows apps and the full Windows desktop experience. The project is currently in beta and requires KVM virtualization, Docker, and specific system resources to function properly.
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Article
Hacker News·30w
The Beauty of Programming
Linus Torvalds explores the philosophical and creative aspects of programming, comparing it to mathematics and physics. He describes programming as world-building where developers create their own rules and systems, emphasizing the beauty found in elegant solutions over brute-force approaches. The piece highlights how programming combines art and engineering, using examples like the Mandelbrot set and Gauss's mathematical insight to illustrate how finding the right perspective can transform complex problems into simple, beautiful solutions.
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Article
It's Foss·33w
14 Themes for Beautifying Your Ghostty Terminal
Ghostty terminal emulator offers extensive theming capabilities with built-in theme preview functionality and support for external themes. The guide covers how to configure themes through the config file, preview themes before applying them, and showcases 14 popular themes including Monokai variants, Catppuccin, Nord, and light themes like Ayu Light and Primary. Users can easily switch between themes by modifying the configuration file or adding custom theme files to the themes directory.
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Hacker News·32w
vicinaehq/vicinae: A focused launcher for your desktop — native, fast, extensible
Vicinae is a high-performance desktop launcher built with C++ and Qt, designed as an alternative to Raycast. It offers keyboard-first access to system actions, file search across millions of files, clipboard history, calculator, emoji picker, and extensibility through React/TypeScript extensions. The launcher includes Raycast compatibility for reusing existing extensions and targets developers and power users seeking fast, native performance without Electron overhead.
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Article
The New Stack·33w
Linux: Deploy a Honeypot to Catch Your Server’s Attackers
Learn how to deploy Cowrie, an open-source SSH/telnet honeypot on Ubuntu Server to detect and study unauthorized access attempts. The guide covers installation dependencies, creating a dedicated user, setting up a Python virtual environment, configuring port redirection, and monitoring logs to catch potential attackers before they reach production systems.
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Article
Lonely Programmer·33w
Before and After Linux
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Article
The Register·30w
Zorin OS 18 beta makes Linux look like anything but Linux
Zorin OS 18 beta introduces a highly customizable Linux distribution that can mimic the appearance of Windows, macOS, and other operating systems through layout switching. Built on Ubuntu 24.04 with GNOME 46, it features improved window tiling, better performance, enhanced web app support, and tools to help Windows users migrate to Linux. The Pro edition costs $47.99 and includes additional software and layouts, while the Core edition remains free.
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Article
It's Foss·31w
Hyprland Made Easy: Preconfigured Beautiful Distros
Hyprland is a modern Wayland compositor with beautiful animations and extensive customization options, but setting it up can be challenging. Several Linux distributions and scripts now offer preconfigured Hyprland environments to lower the entry barrier. Garuda Linux, ArchRiot, and CachyOS provide complete distributions with Hyprland ready to use, while Omarchy and KooL's scripts automate Hyprland setup on existing Arch Linux installations. These solutions include themes, essential applications, and optimized configurations for users who want the Hyprland experience without manual setup complexity.
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Article
Lobsters·33w
NixOS is the endgame of distrohopping
NixOS represents the ultimate Linux distribution for experienced users seeking reproducible, declarative system management. The author chronicles their journey from Arch Linux through various distributions to NixOS, highlighting how it solves fundamental problems like configuration drift, dependency hell, and the "works on my machine" issue. NixOS offers immutable infrastructure, safe rollbacks, and mathematical guarantees about system state through pure functional package management. While not recommended for beginners due to its abstraction of low-level Linux concepts, it provides unparalleled control and reproducibility for managing multiple servers and development environments.
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Article
Isaac de Andrade·32w
Replacing Bash for scripting?
A developer seeks alternatives to Bash for scripting tasks, having found Lua more verbose for command execution and stdout handling. They're looking for community experiences with replacing Bash using Python, Fish shell, or compiled languages for more capable scripting solutions.
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Hacker News·31w
Linux phones are more important now than ever.
Google is rapidly closing Android's open ecosystem through AOSP component privatization, manufacturer bootloader restrictions, Play Integrity API enforcement, and mandatory developer verification. Major manufacturers like Samsung, Xiaomi, and OnePlus have removed bootloader unlocking options, while Google targets ad-blocking software and forces app store compliance. This trend mirrors Apple's closed approach and threatens the viability of custom ROMs and open-source Android alternatives. The author argues that Linux mobile development needs acceleration as Android's openness disappears, despite current Linux phones lacking polish and features compared to mainstream smartphones.
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Hacker News·31w
KDE is now my favorite desktop — kokada
A developer shares their positive experience switching to KDE desktop environment on Linux, highlighting its comprehensive feature set, built-in tools, and performance advantages over Windows and macOS. They praise KDE's network management, screenshot tools, window management capabilities, and integrated system utilities, while noting it feels faster than Windows 11 on the same hardware and comparable to their previous Sway setup.
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Article
Hacker News·31w
How Container Filesystem Works: Building a Docker-like Container From Scratch
A comprehensive guide to building Docker-like containers from scratch using only Linux tools like unshare, mount, and pivot_root. Explores how mount namespaces form the foundation of container isolation, while PID, cgroup, UTS, and network namespaces provide complementary functionality. Demonstrates step-by-step container creation including filesystem preparation, namespace isolation, pseudo filesystem setup (/proc, /dev, /sys), and security hardening. Also covers advanced topics like mount propagation, bind mounts, volumes, and explains why union filesystems aren't mandatory for containers.
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Mental Outlaw·32w
CachyOS - The Blazingly Fast Linux Distro
CachyOS is a Linux distribution based on Arch Linux that focuses on performance optimization through compiler flags and kernel configurations, similar to Intel's discontinued Clear Linux. Benchmarks show modest performance improvements over standard distributions, with better results in some applications but marginal gains in others. The distro includes gaming-focused features and handheld device support, making it appealing for gaming and performance-oriented users who want Arch benefits without manual optimization work.
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Article
Phoronix·32w
Hyprland 0.51 Compositor Released With Reworked Gesture System, New Animations
Hyprland 0.51 introduces a completely reworked gesture system with enhanced flexibility and new 1:1 trackpad gestures supporting fingers, modifiers, and directions. The release includes per-device scroll factor configuration, new DPMS animations, fade effects for Wayland pop-ups, and fixes for Chromium and Firefox screensharing by defaulting to 8-bit color.
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Hacker News·33w
Switching from Docker to Podman
Podman offers a more secure alternative to Docker by eliminating the persistent daemon architecture that runs with root privileges. Running containers as direct child processes under user privileges, Podman reduces attack surface and provides better systemd integration, native Kubernetes alignment, and lighter resource usage. The migration from Docker to Podman is seamless with compatible CLI commands and existing Dockerfiles working without modification.
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Juxtopposed·29w
I Designed My FIRST Linux UI from Scratch
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Article
It's Foss·32w
sudo vs sudo-rs: What You Need to Know
Ubuntu 25.10 will replace the traditional sudo command with sudo-rs, a Rust-based implementation that offers better memory safety and modern codebase maintenance. For regular users, the change is transparent - you'll still type 'sudo' but it runs sudo-rs underneath. System administrators should be aware that some advanced features like sendmail support and wildcards in sudoers files are not supported. The original sudo remains available as 'sudo-ws' and can be set as default using update-alternatives until Ubuntu 26.10.
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Video
Low Level Learning·31w
rust is causing a lot of problems...
The GNU community is rewriting Linux core utilities in Rust for memory safety, but early implementations show significant problems. The Rust version of 'sort' fails on large single-line files, and the checksum implementation runs 17 times slower than the C version. While Rust rewrites make sense for security-critical binaries like sudo that cross privilege boundaries, most core utilities don't have meaningful threat models that justify the performance and compatibility risks of rewriting battle-tested C code.
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Article
Phoronix·31w
Ubuntu 25.10's Rust Coreutils Transition Has Uncovered Performance Shortcomings
Ubuntu 25.10's transition from GNU Coreutils to Rust Coreutils has revealed several performance issues, with the Rust version being significantly slower in some cases. Notable problems include cksum being up to 17x slower for large files and sort command failing to complete for large single-line files. While some issues like base64 performance have been quickly resolved and even improved beyond GNU's performance, developers are actively working to address remaining performance gaps before the stable release.
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SavvyNik·32w
Ubuntu's Massive Mistake..
Ubuntu's package repositories experienced a 35-minute outage that caused days of disruption for users worldwide. The archive.ubuntu.com and security.ubuntu.com repositories went down, preventing package installations and security updates. While the servers came back online quickly, the resulting backlog overwhelmed mirrors and caused ongoing failures for several days. The incident highlighted critical infrastructure weaknesses in Ubuntu's centralized repository system and raised questions about redundancy, failover mechanisms, and community communication during outages.
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Article
Cloudflare·30w
Supporting the future of the open web: Cloudflare is sponsoring Ladybird and Omarchy
Cloudflare announces sponsorship of two independent open source projects: Ladybird, a new browser built completely from scratch with its own rendering and JavaScript engines, and Omarchy, an opinionated Arch Linux distribution designed for developers. Both projects aim to provide alternatives in ecosystems dominated by a few major players, with Ladybird challenging browser consolidation around Chromium and Omarchy making Linux more accessible for development work.
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