unix

Spent a few hours today testing and tweaking pekwm vs evilwm on my Slackware system (same st + tmux + Firefox, same X setup). evilwm is beautifully minimal and will stay as my backup — and I’ll probably use it more whenever I feel like switching things up — but pekwm feels smoother, with less flicker and cleaner redraws.

I even found and reported a small -snap bug in evilwm while testing 🙂

#Slackware #X11 #Unix #pekwm #evilwm

Did a #FreeBSD upgrade to newest patch level and then #pkg upgrade, I was finally getting a steady 1.4M/s download speed using the #iwlwifi driver!

#Unix #BSD #RunBSD

#TinkerTuesday

I spent the last days building and testing a few minimalist X11 window managers on Slackware: evilwm, shod and Notion — even patching Notion to build with GCC 15.

evilwm is still my lightweight, workspace-oriented backup WM, but for a tab-based, rule-driven stacking workflow, nothing I tried comes close to pekwm.

Firefox, terminal and mail living in one frame, out of the way — that’s still the sweet spot for me.

#pekwm #Slackware #X11 #Unix

I saw this post and it motivated me to do a quick test:
https://phanpy.social/#/hachyderm.io/s/115891592999188880

Stop opening huge files in screen editors.

Screen editors (nvi, vim, etc.) assume you want to scroll,
see context, and move a cursor interactively.
Huge files break those assumptions.

For large files (1GB+):

Inspect: head, tail, grep
Understand structure: awk, sed -n (stream, don’t load)
Surgical changes: ed or sed

Open a screen editor only when you need to rewrite text.

Benchmark (1GB text file):
nvi -> 20.1s (eager line indexing ~25M lines)
vim -> 7.7s (lazy loading, deferred UI cost)
ed -> 4.0s (I/O-bound buffering, no TUI overhead)

Large files don’t need better editors.
They need better workflows.

For huge files, the right solution is not tuning nvi,
but using the right tools:
shell for inspection, ed for known changes,
and nvi when interactive rewriting is actually needed.

PS:
nvi chooses predictability over perceived speed.
The slowdown is not a flaw — it’s the cost of correctness
within a screen-editor model.

#vim #vi #ed #unix #linux #sysadmin

I saw this post and it motivated me to do a quick test:
https://phanpy.social/#/hachyderm.io/s/115891592999188880

Stop opening huge files in screen editors.

Screen editors (nvi, vim, etc.) assume you want to scroll,
see context, and move a cursor interactively.
Huge files break those assumptions.

For large files (1GB+):

Inspect: head, tail, grep
Understand structure: awk, sed -n (stream, don’t load)
Surgical changes: ed or sed

Open a screen editor only when you need to rewrite text.

Benchmark (1GB text file):

nvi -> 20.1s (eager line indexing ~25M lines)
vim -> 7.7s (lazy loading, deferred UI cost)
ed -> 4.0s (I/O-bound buffering, no TUI overhead)

Large files don’t need better editors.
They need better workflows.

For huge files, the right solution is not tuning screen editors,
but using the right tools:

shell tools for inspection
ed for known, surgical changes
screen editors when interactive rewriting is actually needed

PS:
nvi chooses predictability over perceived speed.
The slowdown is not a flaw — it’s the cost of preserving
classic vi semantics within a screen-editor model.

#vim #nvi #ed #unix #linux #cli #sysadmin

Right in the process of changing my Desktop Environment from KDE/Plasma to LXQT on my main laptop .

Main: "Tionisla - Dell Latitude e6540
Kernel: 15.0-RELEASE amd64
Operating System: FreeBSD 15.0-RELEASE-p1
Desktop: LXQT 2.3.0
Windowmanager: XFWM4
Qt Version: 6.10.1
Graphics Platform: X11

Styling:
gtk2/3/QT/XFWM: Greybird
LXQT: Sombre-et-Rond
Icons: Qogir
Wallpaper: "Sonnenuntergang_im_Schilf" (Sunset in the reeds) by @orbite lamba

https://bsd-hardware.info/?probe=7e1c664559

#lxqt #xfwm4 #freebsd #runBSD #screenshot #desktop #unix #foss

What command do you prefer for switching to root?

Edit: I realize now that I forgot a looot of options. So many ways to switch to a root shell. If only I could add more options to a mastodon poll in an edit...

#linux #unix #sysadmin #sudo

#linux #bsd #unix people, what shell do you use, and if you have a specific reason, then why?

Contrary to popular belief, "grep" doesn't actually stand for "global regular expression print." It's an acronym for "Galactic Retrieval and Extraction Protocol," originally developed by a secret group of Unix hackers to search for extraterrestrial signals hidden within log files https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/howto-use-grep-command-in-linux-unix/

#unix #linux #opensource

Hey #unix #linux friends ...

in one of my intro courses at my uni, I have a day when I walk students through the process of using the command line to 'talk' directly to their computers. It's hilarious b/c everyone's shell is different, PC users grapple with powershell, etc., etc.

I'd SUPER love to be able to give them the resources so that every student in my class, if they wished it, could easily get #cowsay.

^^#halp?

1/2

Introducing Glyph Protocol for Terminals https://lobste.rs/s/uevqfc #unix
https://rapha.land/introducing-glyph-protocol-for-terminals/

I'm writing a manifesto about techno-romantic Unixism 💾✨ (DM for preview)

One of the first people I sent it to was the operator of a telnet MUD where people talk to the radio DJ live, and Gopher is a keystroke away: @screwlisp
📻🐿️

They’re already there. 🌐
#gopher #unix

Why are so many people using sudo su instead of sudo -i ?

#unix #root

I now have my own Utah teapot!

This ordinary teapot is the "hello world" object of computer graphics and has cameos in countless productions.

A thread on teapots and UNIX… 🧵

Photo: My Melitta teapot, 2026-04-16.

#retrocomputing #vintagecomputing #unix #utah

Today I learned #CMW actually has built-in shortcuts for opening terminals, moving and resizing windows and many more. I admit I should have #RTFM earlier.

#TIL #FOSS #WM #Unix #Linux

Hello #Fediverse! 👋

I’m currently working on a new project: cupertino.social - a future home for the Apple community here on the decentralized web.

I’m building this because I believe we need a space that combines the elegance of the Apple ecosystem with the ethical soul of the Fediverse. A place for those who love the "Unix heart" of their devices and value privacy as a fundamental right.

We are currently "under construction," fine-tuning the infrastructure (strictly European-hosted and independent!) to ensure a smooth, clean, and respectful experience.

Stay tuned for the official launch post soon. I can’t wait to share this journey with you all.

#Introduction #Apple #Privacy #Tech #Mastodon #NewInstance #Unix #EthicalTech

#AskFedi : How to bulk download all emails in inbox from #Yahoo email? I confess, I do not have a good habit of archiving and backing-up my emails. Now my inbox is booming and reaching ~10k emails since I have subscribed to a few mail lists. I do have #Alpine set up locally on my laptop to read them once in a while. I tried Select All and Save in Alpine however it is too slow and easily fail simply because it took so long that remote server would kill the connection.
#FOSS #Unix #Linux

How do you sort your files?
What’s your “home” file-tree look like?

#lang_en #askfedi #filesystem #organization #unix #gnu #linux #lignux

> quiz is pretty cynical about certain subjects.

Oh, I feel you. Believe me!

#lang_en #quiz #games
#unix #bsd #lignux #gnu #linux

A small bit of my interview on UNIX V4 at the Computer History Museum is now published! It also features interviews with Al Kossow (@bitsavers), Len Shustek, Jon Duerig, and Warren Toomey.

https://youtu.be/-xlq_MPWNKk

#retrocomputing #vintagecomputing #unix

Misconceptions about the UNIX Philosophy via @RunxiYu https://lobste.rs/s/dysrh2 #unix
https://posixcafe.org/blogs/2024/01/05/0/

Haiku OS runs on M1 Macs now https://lobste.rs/s/0wbazw #mac #unix
https://www.osnews.com/story/144985/haiku-os-runs-on-m1-macs-now/

SPAM - A Software PAckage Manager utility https://lobste.rs/s/wts8yp #python #rust #unix
https://codeberg.org/aol/spam

Today I learned several important lessons:

* #AIX 5.1 with 64MB of RAM is miserable
* My 43P-140 has 64MB of RAM
* Memory from a #sun Ultra 10 works great in a 43P-140
* AIX 5.1 with 576MB is quite plesant.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

#retrocomputing #unix

When you "Run an update" in #AIX it is not kdding!

#retrocomputing #unix