Hi. I’m a Linux convert and hate Windows as well, but I feel the need to contest some of this

I hate rounded corners […] I like having my whole desktop real estate to be used

Rounded corners only lose something like 30 pixels (assuming 100% resolution scale) out of the millions on screen. Serious question, no shade or sarcasm: do you need those corner pixels? Plus in Windows 11, the window corners are only rounded when the window is floating. The corners go square when the window is snapped and maximized so you get those corner pixels back anytime real estate matters most.

I want to just throw my cursor into a corner without looking and click with the confidence that it will open my start menu.

That’s always been the case since… the Start menu was invented, I think? In Windows 11, just set your taskbar to Left instead of Center and you get that behavior back.

[The Start menu is] all small icons and you can’t have them in groups.

The former is correct, the latter isn’t. I exclusively keep my icons in groups, in the grid along with regular pins, on my last remaining Windows 11 computer. As someone who loves KDE, it drives me crazy that I can’t keep my own in-grid groups like in Windows 11. Closest option I have is Plasma Drawer, which works but requires me to use the KDE Menu Editor to customize which is less convenient.

The taskbar freezing thing sucks for sure, my only recommendation would be to maybe try a 3rd party replacement like StartAllBack but it isn’t free.

There’s a few ways to turn it off, but they require registry editing or using the Group Policy editor if you have a Pro license

https://www.ghacks.net/2021/11/26/how-to-turn-off-search-the-web-results-in-windows-11/

I love the idea but not the messaging. Older folks & non-nerd people - a vast majority of the demographic of people who would benefit from this campaign, if I had to guess - aren’t going to want Linux or “fresh new software”. They want a computer with a web browser, an Office suite, and an OS/layout that functions exactly the way they expect it to.

If you tout so much change, they’re going to lose interest. I’d argue they’d lose interest seeing technical words like “software”, since all they know on phones and computers are “apps”.

However, If you instead show them side-by-side how they can do the exact same tasks with nearly identical steps and also emphasize the benefits like cost effectiveness and speed… they’ll just say “okay great, can you do it for me?”

I had this issue on my desktop in Windows. Haven’t tested to see if it’s an issue on Linux (I just recently set up dual-booting with Kubuntu). I know your request is for Nobara but this may be helpful for troubleshooting.

The fix for me on Windows was always to power off my audio interface. Using powercfg /requests would show Firefox kept the audio device active once a YouTube video started playing. The software fix was arbitrary… sometimes closing the YouTube tab would work, sometimes I had to close the window, and sometimes none of those would work. What *always" worked was physically powering off my interface, waiting about 2 seconds, and turning it back on.

Thanks for the idea, I might try that. A friend recommended switching to Plasma and creating a folder menu on the main bar that contains the groups (folders) and pins (shortcuts) that I want. I’m considering going that route. Guess I’m just surprised to see a convenient app menu solution (ArcMenu) with a whole world of customization, but no way to group pinned items together.

I think I did a poor job of explaining things, sorry!

So here’s what I could do on Windows:

1. Right-click and app in the All Apps list, pin to Start

2. Drag & drop pinned apps on top of one another, which creates a group

The result I was able to accomplish on Windows looks like this (note the top row, all groups with app pins inside): https://i.imgur.com/Y9PmYoG.png

On Linux, using Gnome and ArcMenu, I can get close to accomplishing a similar result using the Enterprise layout: https://i.imgur.com/btNKjtj.png

I can edit those categories on the left of the menu using Alacarte, so I have the grouping I want and the pins inside that I want… but I can’t just drag & drop app commands, or even copy & paste them. So for every app I want in a specific category, the process is:

1. Create the category, if it doesn’t exist already

2. Name the category

3. Give the category a description

4. Give the category an icon (required) and save it

5. Create a new item in the category

6. Either figure out the launch command or copy it from an existing entry elsewhere

7. Give it a unique name (required)

8. Give it an icon (required), which means hunting for it if I don’t already know where it is

And then it’ll work. But, steps 5-8 are required for every single app… so if I want to put an app in a category, I have to perform those 4 steps every time. It’s a solution but it requires a notable amount of time and effort.

Thanks for the info! I’m already using ArcMenu, which is great - but as mentioned, it lacks app grouping support of any kind… not unless I want to go through the effort of editing categories. Doing that is a solution, but requires so much time and effort that it isn’t really the solution.

A friend is recommending switching DEs or distros, would Plasma get the job done?

My approach: A single data point is “dah-ta” Some quantity of data is “day-ta”

For example: “I back up my game’s save dah-ta in case my hard drive’s day-ta gets corrupted”

5 points, not bad

What you recommend in terms of offline open-source converters?

Same here… unless I’m listening to Spotify and/or podcasts a lot. Pixel 9 user here, latest GrapheneOS build. Not sure what the deal is, but Spotify alone can use up to 30% of my battery

Worth mentioning that the bidirectional linking works for notes themselves, or even certain parts in notes. So if Note A has a list and I want to link to a certain list item from that inside Note B, I can do that. Super cool functionality imo

Had no idea FLauncher existed. Thank you so much

Yep. You can just disable filtering for specific devices. Or, if you want to get more granular, you can create device groups with different levels of filtering (including none).

My partner uses Facebook, I don’t. Her phone has Facebook unblocked, but it’s blocked on all our other devices.

I recently de-embarrassed my hostnames. I went with names that are one step removed from being dead obvious. Feels nice having descriptive, but not uncreative, names for everything

• Custom built desktop pc: Studio
• Home theater PC: Theater
• Server: Gamut (this was Nexus until I ran into bs regarding the TLD preload list in web browsers… had to go with a non-tld name)
• Everything else: Based off the model. For example, my Asus Vivobook S 15 is just “Vivobook”, etc

How well do ebooks & audiobooks work on jellyfin? I’m an emby user, and while I love it a lot, it’s not great for audiobooks & there’s functionally no ebook support… you can see ebooks in their library but not even open them.

I have audiobookshelf too which handles both, but I’m also always looking for ways to cut down on excess stuff to have to worry about or maintain

Felt really obsessive. He wants to impress Lumon so hard, I can’t help but feel he’s going to make a 180 if they keep failing to appreciate him. Reforms? Who cares, you’re using paperclips wrong. Unhinged

Same here lol, glad to see it’s easier for everyone else now though!

Yep! Here’s an ebook I have hosted through Audiobookshelf, reading it over the Internet using my domain & reverse proxy.

(The top bar is shown/hidden when you tap the screen, so it’s not always in the way like this)

This. I’ve personally found it easiest to use Calibre to strip DRM & get things tidy, then use Audiobookshelf to manage both my ebooks and audiobooks