I still use an AMD Turion X2. Yep, that old chip. Mine lives in an HP Pavilion dv6700 and an Acer Aspire 5520 I keep on a shelf. They both have 3–4 GB of RAM, a spinning hard drive (well, one got an SSD later), and cranky Broadcom Wi-Fi. I tried a bunch of Linux …
Continue reading “Best Linux for an AMD Turion X2 (From My Old Laptops)”
I’m Kayla, and I spend a silly amount of time tinkering on Linux. I’ve installed apps from stores, from package managers, and yep, from those mysterious tar.gz files. You know what? It’s not that scary. A few bumps, sure. But it’s doable, even on a sleepy Tuesday night. For an expanded walkthrough I put together …
Continue reading “Installing a tar.gz in Linux: My real-life, no-drama guide”
I’m Kayla. I tinker. I game a bit. I also write about stuff I actually use. This week, I installed the Mesa extra Vulkan layers on two machines. One is my Arch desktop with an AMD RX 6600 and a Ryzen 5 3600. The other is my older Ubuntu 22.04 laptop with Intel graphics. I …
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I’m Kayla. I use Ubuntu at home and at work. I switch between laptops, a tiny home server, and a cloud box. So I check my version a lot. It sounds small, but it saves me from weird bugs and wrong packages. You know what? I like simple. I like quick. Here’s what works for …
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I’m Kayla Sox. I run Kali on a ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 7). My built-in Wi-Fi is an Intel AX200. I also carry an Alfa USB adapter (AWUS036NHA) in my bag. It’s old. It’s tough. It just works. Why did I need monitor mode? Simple: I wanted to watch my own home network. I was …
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I’m Kayla, and yes, I still watch DVDs. Rainy Sunday, thrifted discs, a USB DVD drive, and a mug of tea. That’s my mood. For readers in the Danville area on the same second-hand hunt, check the local classifieds over at Backpage Danville where community members regularly post stacks of DVDs, used USB drives, and …
Continue reading “I installed DVD codecs on Linux so you don’t have to guess”
I’m Kayla, and I’m picky about sound. Not “audiophile” picky. Just “please no hiss and no harsh treble” picky. Linux used to make me tweak and swear. Now? It’s good—shockingly good—if you set a few things right. For the full, screenshot-packed breakdown of every tweak I mention below, you can hop over to my complete …
Continue reading “Better Headphone Audio on Linux: What Actually Worked for Me”
I’m Kayla. I print a lot. Work stuff, school stuff, and the random label for a jar. I run Ubuntu on a ThinkPad. I also sit next to two lasers: an old HP LaserJet 1320 and a Brother HL-L2350DW. Both sit on Wi-Fi. Both see a lot of paper. So I tried PostScript on Linux …
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I live on Linux. I still need bootable USBs a lot. New installs. Rescue jobs. Little school labs. Rufus is great on Windows, but I don’t boot into Windows much. So I tested Linux tools that do the same job.If I’m sizing up a new distro before I burn it to a stick, I usually …
Continue reading “Rufus-like tools for Linux: what I actually use”
I’m Kayla, and yes, I ranch pink slimes on Linux. I’ve played the first Slime Rancher for years. I ran the native Linux build on my desktop, on a mini PC, and on my Steam Deck OLED. I also tried Slime Rancher 2 with Proton. It wasn’t perfect, but it was sweet and bouncy and …
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