XDA Developers

While Linux has been making headlines due to distros taking stances on AI code implementations and what's new with Linux 7.3, there has been something genuinely very interesting bubbling away with the kernel. Slowly, but surely, we're seeing people getting Linux working on Apple devices.

If you've bought a graphics card in the last few years, there's a piece of advice that you have probably heard — "just turn on frame generation." Ever since it was introduced with the RTX 40 series, frame generation has become a routine part of the PC gaming conversation. It's also the deciding factor in a lot of GPU purchasing decisions, as it was for me, too. Amidst all of this, it's easy to forget one important detail which revealed itself in the last Steam Hardware & Software Survey.

Most TVs on the market have only evolved in terms of the display. You can see one new display technology coming out every year, whether it's Mini LED, RGB, or whatnot. The rest of the hardware on these devices, the actual hardware needed to run all the software these brands keep stuffing into them, has remained abysmal. The most basic use cases, like turning on the TV, scrolling through apps, opening Netflix, or changing a setting, have remained terrible experiences.

A few months ago, I turned my old Kindle Paperwhite into a Home Assistant dashboard. I used the Kindle SmartHome Dashboard project, a jailbreak, and a WebSocket proxy to get around Kindle’s slow WebKit browser. That setup was running on my desk the entire time until I woke up to my Kindle updating automatically. I ended up selling that Kindle a while back and picked up a Paperwhite 12th Gen. When I tried putting the same setup on it, none of it worked.

As someone who loves repurposing old hardware, I was ecstatic upon realizing I could use Podroid to run containerized services on a mere smartphone. In fact, I’ve spent the last couple of days testing a bunch of Docker environments on my cheap Poco M6 Pro, and the results have been surprisingly decent.

A prebuilt NAS arrives with an operating system for a perfectly sensible reason. The manufacturer knows the hardware, can integrate its own utilities, and wants you to store files without first turning storage administration into a side project. I’ve used both UGOS Pro and ZimaOS enough to appreciate how much easier they can make running a home server. But after installing TrueNAS 26 on a NAS, I kept finding that I preferred an operating system built to show me what my storage was actually doing

Initially designed to attract new students to the joys of computing, the Raspberry Pi lineup made Single-Board Computers available to thousands of tinkers – including yours truly. My first contact with the Raspberry Pi Zero taught me a lot about Linux, and it’s low-key how I got into distro-hopping. Heck, I still use Raspberry Pi SBCs in my home lab, despite owning significantly powerful hardware.

Switching between your apps on Windows 11 is probably something you wouldn't think needs to change all that much. It's been the same general concept for years: you press Alt + Tab until the window you want is active.

When streaming devices became commonplace, Nvidia led the space, launching the Shield Pro in 2019. The company made the set-top box very "future-proof" by packing it with powerful hardware that lets it run as a Plex server, plus plenty of ports, great picture quality, continuous updates, and the customizability of Android TV.

Buying an OLED gaming monitor and then playing most games in SDR has always seemed a little backward to me. Sure, you're still getting many other benefits, like instant pixel response times, perfect blacks, and an infinite contrast ratio, all of which make OLED appealing in the first place. Still, HDR is a huge part of that experience, as those bright highlights really help these panels stand out compared to traditional LCDs.

Ever since I realized the sheer potential of the tools within Nextcloud’s App Store, it has become an essential part of my self-hosted stack. Thanks to Collabora Office, I was able to edit conventional text documents, spreadsheets, and presentation slides directly from Nextcloud, while Tasks, Notes, and Collectives fill their own niche roles in my productivity toolkit.

I have used both Ollama and LM Studio to run local models, and neither is particularly difficult to set up. But if you actually want to integrate local LLMs into working systems, you'll find Ollama just a little cumbersome. As your stack grows, your AI setup will become hard to maintain and even harder to rebuild. I faced this recently and started exploring options. I now run my models through Docker Model Runner and keep the rest of the setup in a Docker Compose file. The file defines how the s

SSD prices show no signs of coming down, so making your existing drive last for longer has become more important than ever. My main drive is a 1TB Gen4 NVMe SSD, with a 1TB Gen3 drive reserved solely for games. My C: drive is decently large at around 230 GB, but that doesn't stop Windows from nearly filling the partition every few months.

An Android phone comes with several Google apps built in. You get Maps, Photos, Gmail, and Chrome, along with a bunch of others that you rarely open. Chrome has a large user base on desktop, and this strategy expands its reach to most Android users. The browser is the default gateway to the internet and to browsing websites, and its popularity pushes you to use it instead of any other pre-built browsing app.

The Xbox gaming scene is a little strange right now. This time last year, Xbox was moving to scrap as many of its exclusivity deals as possible, allowing its titles to migrate over to rival consoles and PCs. It seemed to be working (to the point where Xbox games dominated the PlayStation's top-selling charts), but recently, the new Xbox CEO has pulled back, instead citing exclusives as required for the brand.

One of the cooler aspects of getting into tinkering and 3D printing is that, if you need a specific piece of furniture or a gadget for your home, there's a good chance you can just make it. For example, if you're feeling the need for a plant-shaped lamp for your room that glows pretty colors, someone has already filled that niche for you. Best of all, you can grab all the files, build instructions, and the Bill of Materials right now.

Not many people know that you can install Linux on your phone, and I don't mean Android, either. It's not exactly ideal, as you may find some apps and services won't work, but it is entirely possible to install a Linux distro on your phone like you would on a PC. For instance, someone dug up an iPhone 6S and slapped Linux on it, and while it was a pain to get working, it's a cool example of how you can give old tech a new lease on life.

Sometimes, when you make the jump from Windows to Linux, you have to let some of your beloved apps go. However, some people take it upon themselves to make their own version of the app for everyone to use. Such is the case with this Reddit user, who coded up their own version of CrystalDiskInfo because they missed it so much.

As much as I want to say that Linux is perfect in every single way, the truth is, it isn't. Some companies handle their driver updates via a bespoke app, and getting that same app onto Linux may not be ideal. Fortunately, perhaps inspired by the number of people moving to Linux to game, 8BitDo has fixed the issue with its own controller drivers with a website that lets you download your drivers.

Windows Patch Tuesdays, of late, haven't been the most reliable, but once every new update is installed and the PC finally restarts, there's one screen that greets everyone — the one that says "Getting things ready." I've spent enough time staring at that screen to know what it means: absolutely nothing useful. There's no percentage bar, no estimate for completion, or any indication of whether my PC is actually working while Windows apparently "gets things ready."