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1 • BSD anything (by vmc on 2026-05-18 00:10:55 GMT from United States)
Don't care for BSD anything. Tried in the distant past. It fell short.
2 • Bleachbit (by vmc on 2026-05-18 00:14:29 GMT from United States)
I use Bleachbit on all my machines. Cleans Firefox caches. I reclaim over 1gig of space on used cashes.
3 • MX Cleanup (by Andy Prough on 2026-05-18 00:39:29 GMT from United States)
I've been using mx-cleanup recently for my distro cleaning needs. Works great, and also will remove old kernels and unnecessary WiFi firmware.
4 • Phone Rooting (by Seve on 2026-05-18 01:06:14 GMT from United States)
While Power Users might go extinct at some point, I wonder how whether it has anything to do with the difficulty to learn certain skills. Case in point: Rooting your phone. Great idea. However, trying to find documentation on something like this is not easy. Additionally, there are several large manufacturers (looking at you, Samsung) that have proprietary kernels and can't be rooted, particularly in the US. Sure, ADB is an option, but nowhere near as great as rooting the device.
5 • cleanup (by Brad on 2026-05-18 01:28:49 GMT from United States)
I just spent a few hours today manually cleaning up items from .cache, .config, and .local which I *knew* in no longer needed.
I run MX, so I took a look at Cleanup, which I have not used, but I noticed that the default action for cleaning cache and thumbnails is "All", with the qualification of "potentially dangerous".
Nope.
I'm intrigued by bleachbit, and I'll probably take a look at some point, but if it has a similar setup then, Nope, again. I enjoy full control.
6 • Cleaning: APT and Bash (by xero on 2026-05-18 01:33:09 GMT from The Netherlands)
I use the APT cleaning tool frequently via aliases, and a couple of bash scripts, one that runs at start-up to clean out thumbnails and delete the bash-history file, which restores itself on first command you run.
If you use the terminal daily, open your bash history file and look at how many lines it's holding.
If you want to clean it every so often, the command is: history -c && history -w
(Jesse provided this a few years ago in response to a Help question.)
You can also...
alias ch='history -c && history -w'
7 • Power Users (by Wedge009 on 2026-05-18 01:36:03 GMT from Australia)
I stopped using Windows as my primary OS with the end of mainstream support for Windows 7 in January 2020. The idea of loss of control resonates with me because that's essentially what I saw happening with subsequent iterations of Windows. I understand for the broad majority of users, having things run automatically is a convenience or necessity in the sense of increasing security. But for the minority of those of us who are accustomed to having that past control - having it taken away without a means of overriding it.
Of course, the security aspect didn't always work out. How many times have reports surfaced about automated updates rendering system unbootable, unusable, or otherwise non-functional? The article's citation of the mobile ecosystem as causing the most damage in terms of training consumers to think a certain way seems accurate. Perhaps a reason why I'm still very uncomfortable with running anything on a phone if it can already be done on a PC (and don't get me started on phone-first and phone-only applications...).
8 • Spring cleaning (by Arve Eriksson on 2026-05-18 01:37:53 GMT from Sweden)
Eeeh, my clean-up procedure depends on what needs cleaning up. MintUpdate does a good enough job at clearing out older kernels, and I'm not hurting for disk space generally.
9 • Clean-up and Shell History (by Vinfall on 2026-05-18 03:00:32 GMT from Hong Kong)
Last time I use BleachBit was about ten years ago and now I mostly use ncdu2 to scan and clean-up disks.
If you only care about reclaiming disk space:
As developer: Basically cache from package managers, not just apt/apk/dnf/whatever or kernel headers/modules/dkms, but also things like Python/uv venv and JavaScript packages. A shell alias/function is all you need.
As user: Software cache of course. BleachBit is useful in this regard, although nowadays it's (unfortunately) getting less and less noticable with the increased size in software itself.
If you want to prune everything unnecessary, good luck tracking down the rabbit hole. Rsync with exclude list is extremely helpful here to make absolute sure you don't miss anything.
Re: @6 shell history is largely useful. If you want to have a cleaner history, try setting "HISTCONTROL=ignoreboth" and "HISTSIZE"/"HISTFILESIZE" in your bashrc. If you care about privacy, set "HISTIGNORE" instead. Similarly, in Zsh it's "HISTSIZE"/"SAVEHIST" and "HISTORY_IGNORE" (to make sure there is no duplicate, you need to have many "setopt" lines, refer to zsh documentation or ohmyzsh/lib/history.zsh)
10 • Rooting phone (by Dave on 2026-05-18 03:19:19 GMT from Australia)
@4 In the olden days, you could easily root your phone with an executable and SuperSU. Remember Towelroot? So easy.
Now there's all this stuff in the way like locked boot loaders, Google Safety net, DRM support, apps that detect root, and a bunch of other stuff to work around so things function property, it's often not worth the effort.
It's probably more secure now? But yeah it used to be fun.
11 • freedoms or not (by gloatees on 2026-05-18 06:00:17 GMT from Switzerland)
RISC-V is the new thing - with its open & free ISA, and its NPU chip for AI computing. It has already got 25% of the market and is expected to outdo ARM eventually. 2026 is supposedly going to be its break-thru year.
But there's no telling how big tech might find other ways to lock consumers into their products.
Also, the open source community is its own worst enemy, in that its adherents range from honest Joes to evil crackers & hackers. The latter drives the need for some of the lock-in/down features, like security.
12 • Nowadays' freedom (by ?!? on 2026-05-18 06:28:02 GMT from Italy)
In a world in which every constructor can nest updatable malware directly into a CPU, may everyone say we can be safe just by choosing an OS?
Mala tempora...
13 • autoremove ... ... (by Tony45 on 2026-05-18 08:08:49 GMT from Thailand)
Is it apt autoremove
or
apt autoremove --purge
? ?
14 • Cleaning your system poll (by Anamezon on 2026-05-18 08:38:56 GMT from Finland)
again, a missing "a combination of the above" option, which would have been my choice ... who designs these polls...?
15 • the slow death of the power user (by yesbutno on 2026-05-18 08:58:11 GMT from Belgium)
I wanted to read "The Slow Death of the Power User" on my 27" screen. But with this "sh***y smartphone only" format i've closed the page without reading. How ironic...
16 • That makes sense (by ?!? on 2026-05-18 10:07:33 GMT from Italy)
@15 They addressed the ill, not the sane...
;-)
17 • Clean up (by kc1di on 2026-05-18 10:08:39 GMT from United States)
on my Ubuntu /deb based systems I use stacer and Ubuntu cleaner to clean the system. between the two of them they do a good job and have never given any problems. Only problem is I don't know how long they will be supported. So may give bleachbit a try.
18 • The slow death of the power user (by DedPowUser on 2026-05-18 10:17:44 GMT from United States)
@15 funny I am looking for a browser extension to read articles aloud for the first time just because of that article.
19 • @15, the slow death of the power user (by El Cacho on 2026-05-18 10:25:43 GMT from United States)
"this "sh***y smartphone only" format" I found it quite easy to read on my 24" screen. Hit "Control and +" a couple of times and I could read it from over 3 feet away while sipping my coffee. Just text on the page, like a big book with giant type. None of the usual distractions.
20 • Slow Death of the power user (by kc1di on 2026-05-18 10:48:49 GMT from United States)
I found it very interesting and have watched exactly what he/she is saying happing in the last 10 years or so. Thank for the link.
21 • Bleachbit (by bin on 2026-05-18 11:09:04 GMT from United Kingdom)
For me the best use of Bleachbit is removing man files and other stuff in other languages that I don't use.
It doesn't delete the language folder structures and leaves a stub file in each one which means it won't get reinstalled in some update as it is still seen as present.
This simple tool removes thousands of files that will never be needed and can return up to around 800mb in the process.
22 • Poll: (by dragonmouth on 2026-05-18 11:39:30 GMT from United States)
Poll should have had a "Combination of methods" or "Various tools" choice.
I use Apt, BleachBit, Synaptic and manual removal to keep my system clean.
23 • I have never used BleachBit (by frc_vfco on 2026-05-18 12:38:49 GMT from Brazil)
In ".deb" distros, I use Synaptic, with the option to clean packages cache after they are installed. — In other distros, such as Arch, Artix, Void, I use their package manager to manually clean their packages cache when I see growing occupation of their root partitions, which I monitor by Conky.
For /home partitions, I have a crontab command which deletes all cache after 365 days. — When I see some /home partition with growing occupation, I try to understand what is happening. Once, it was a "tracker3" installed in Mageia as a dependency for Foliate. Once, a large Lutris folder (which I don't use), from an old installation. — And I can always delete all thumbnails, which grows when I use some distro with KDE Plasma for a long time.
24 • Clean up (by Friar Tux on 2026-05-18 12:41:35 GMT from Canada)
I used to use "autoremove" and stacer, but nowadays, I really don't bother. I already do a complete reinstall of the OS every few years anyway so it seems redundant. (There plenty of storage space on my laptop so it can store all it wants. Call me a lazy user.) I also don't find any slow downs, or bottlenecks. On average, I'm on my laptop about 16 hours a day. (Yup, you read that right (from 6:30 am to 10:30 pm).) I do pretty well everything on that machine, and I haven't had an issue in years.
As for the "sh**y smartphone screen" mode... I use "CTRL +" all the time. In my case, it's these dim eyeballs that are the issue.
25 • Good issue (by Dave on 2026-05-18 12:53:43 GMT from United States)
Thanks Jesse and Ladislav, this was a good issue of the weekly. I appreciate the notice about the article "The Slow Death of the Power User", as I am also interested in these issues. (I will read it today!). Also I really like seeing the other comments on cleaning your system. Keep up the good work and best wishes.
26 • BleachBit (by Lawrence on 2026-05-18 13:29:00 GMT from United States)
I have been using BleachBit for many years.
In the initial setup, in the General tab I uncheck 'Check periodically for software updates via the Internet' and 'Hide irrelevant Cleaners,' I select and check the next four (4) items, I uncheck 'Dark mode' (that's my personal choice), and I check 'Remember window geometry.' The final two items I leave unchecked.
In the Drives tab I select and add my entire computer (you will see / ).
I do not change or select anything else in any of the other tabs.
Going down the options (selections) (starting with Adobe Reader), I select EVERYTHING with two exceptions: under System I uncheck Free disk space and I uncheck Memory.
I do ALL OF THE ABOVE for both BleachBit and BleachBit (as root).
It takes a while to do all of that but you only have to do it once. On rare occasions when BleachBit is updated, you need only look and check to add any new programs added.
This program keeps my computer clean and protects against anyone seeing where I have "been" and what I have been "doing."
I am using MX Linux (for the last five years) but Bleachbit (both options) works well on any GNU/Linux distribution I have ever tried (over twenty of them).
I have never had any problem whatsoever with BleachBit and it has never caused any difficulties with any of my distros.
I hope that this is of some interest.
27 • Cleaning Up (by Steve on 2026-05-18 13:57:33 GMT from Liechtenstein)
@13
The only time I use purge is when I remove a package:
sudo apt purge "package"
then I run:
sudo apt autoremove
sudo apt autoclean
sudo apt clean
After that, I use sudo find / -iname "package-name" to find leftovers
which are usually cache, config and .desktop files
28 • Review..BleachBit..DW (by Rabbi Muhammad Saint Buddha on 2026-05-18 14:00:15 GMT from United States)
Aside: The DW website seems to load very slowly or not fully at all off and on for the past week or so (from different machines at two locations about 45 miles from each other).
Meanwhile, I doubt if I am the only one who cannot understand much at all of the subject of this week's review. I am a BSD fan, especially Free and Ghost. But I am not learned enough in the subject at hand in that review to have a clue about it ("jails," etc). I hate doing searches in google etc on subjects that don't interest me. I am glad that Jesse Smith here (and the others involved in this website) have such knowledge and background, though; it's not just a "reporting" site..
Distrowatch has great depth. Some of us who use this great site are kind of like people strolling along who (barely) notice a car repair shop and quicken our pace to get to our own car; they're needed at times but certainly and hopefully not very often. ;oD
BleachBit is essential for my Linux computing. I first noticed it a long time ago and it is one of the first things I install with a new distro (I may not be doing much "new distro" stuff any more as Q4OS has taken over my sensibilities big time and is now on two of my laptops). Thank you for publishing that question about it and the APT commands.
29 • @5 - MX Cleanup (by Andy Prough on 2026-05-18 14:10:05 GMT from United States)
>"I run MX, so I took a look at Cleanup, which I have not used, but I noticed that the default action for cleaning cache and thumbnails is "All", with the qualification of "potentially dangerous".
I wonder if you are on an older version of MX? Here's the defaults that I see right now for the current version of MX 25:
Clean folders - Cache & Thumbnails - Not accessed for 2 days
Clear APT Cache - Old Files
Delete Logs - Old Logs - Logs older than 7 days
Empty Trash - Trash older than 30 days
No automatic clean
What you refer to - "All (potentially dangerous)" is a non-default option under Cleaning Folders of Cache and Thumbnails.
30 • @18, The slow death of the power user, read aloud. (by ElChaco on 2026-05-18 14:15:05 GMT from United States)
"funny I am looking for a browser extension to read articles aloud for the first time just because of that article. " No need for an extension if you're using Firefox. Just click on the "Reader View" icon on the right of the address bar. You'll be offered many options for different voices, all of which, in my experience, pretty much suck. I'd rather read it myself.
31 • Sylve PAM authentication (by ht on 2026-05-18 14:51:06 GMT from Sweden)
The "near complete lack of security" in Sylve appears to be an issue with PAM authentication, which the author enabled but the documentation recommendends against:
https://sylve.io/getting-started/#setting-up-sylve
The documentation also says that the issue has been addressed in version 0.3.0, which doesn't seem to have been released yet. It should now only allow login via PAM if the user is explicitly created in Sylve.
32 • Sylve security (by Jesse on 2026-05-18 15:07:44 GMT from Canada)
@31: "which the author enabled but the documentation recommendends against:"
The problem with this line of thinking is it is the user's choice (any user's choice) to select which authentication method they want to use. It's just a drop-down option on the login page. In other words, no, I didn't "enable it", it's always there by default and the user (any user which can reach the web interface) can select it without any restrictions.
33 • How do you clean your system? (by JD on 2026-05-18 16:53:32 GMT from Italy)
I use "sweeper" on KDE. I don't trust Bleachbit.
34 • autoremove... (by JD on 2026-05-18 17:00:56 GMT from Italy)
@13
apt autoremove --purge && apt clean
35 • power users (by nonce on 2026-05-18 18:16:25 GMT from Germany)
if you're willing to sell to dumb people, how can *you* expect them to not do dumb things? with "your" tools.
36 • Sylve Security (by vermaden on 2026-05-18 18:21:17 GMT from Poland)
Hi.
> Any user on the host FreeBSD system,
> even a completely unprivileged user,
> can sign into Sylve at any point
> - including the initial setup.
Its exactly the same as with FreeNAS and TrueNAS appliances ... but I do not recall this being a problem when FreeNAS or TrueNAS were reviewed.
Regards,
vermaden
37 • Re: Sylve security (by ht on 2026-05-18 18:28:28 GMT from Sweden)
@32: I haven't used Sylvie yet, so I was mainly trying to understand the problem you were pointing out.
If I'm reading the docs correctly, it is not the case that "any user on the host FreeBSD system [...] can sign into Sylve at any point" unless you enable PAM, which you say in the article that you did. But with the default settings, i.e. using the built-in authentication rather than PAM, this problem should not occur. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
Clearly it's a huge footgun that it works this way if you do enable PAM, so I think you're right to point it out. And it sounds like they're fixing it in a coming version, as I mentioned, which is good.
38 • Bleachbit (by AndyVGR on 2026-05-18 18:39:46 GMT from United States)
ahh yes, Bleachbit, made most famously probably during the 2016 presidential election when it was brought up that a certain server was wiped and bleach bit was used for it, Hillary Clinton responded with "wiped?, like with a cloth or something?". After that the website's owner started selling an actual microfiber cloth! hilarious!!! Nice utility, and recommended for cleaning, I don't really do that on my Linux boxes but used to use it on Windblows
39 • The Slow Death of the Power User (by Jeffrey on 2026-05-18 18:51:18 GMT from Austria)
I recently witnessed a conversation where someone with a (bio)medical engineering degree and related Ph.D. just learned from someone that "that app" they checked on their smartphone (a flash-card program) is actually not a phone app, but an interactive website. Apparently the engineer didn't even realise they were tapping the link of a website; they thought if it runs on their smartphone, it must be an app... And they had an engineering MSc and Ph.D.! If that ain't terrifying AF, nothing is.
40 • Re: Sylve security (by ht on 2026-05-18 18:52:03 GMT from Sweden)
@32: Ah, I did misunderstand, it turns out. Sorry.
The sample configuration, both in the package and in the documentation, sets enablePAM to true. So PAM is enabled by default, and the lack of security you pointed out is the default behavior. That's not great.
Although the docs do mention this problem, I don't know if they did when you tried it, and if they "strongly recommend disabling PAM" as they say, then it probably shouldn't be enabled in the sample configuration.
41 • Rooting phones / power users (by Keith S on 2026-05-18 19:37:51 GMT from United States)
The ubiquity of malicious attackers on mobile networks makes rooting a phone a real hazard these days. GrapheneOS does not require the phone to be rooted in order to install and use it. I think LineageOS may have changed its setup to avoid having to root the device as well, though I have not used it for at least six years.
I have never considered myself to be a power user, but rather more of a tinkerer. I suppose others who have never installed an operating system might see it as something else. It is true that the big companies (and I include Red Hat and Canonical and SuSE in that) are herding most users into a narrower and narrower chute in order to gain more control for themselves. Google, Apple, and Microsoft are the worst offenders, but the big Linux distros are not far behind. The irony is that many "power users" fail to see the obvious changes being implemented as control. I'm not sure if it's because it's been slow and steady, or if it is just blind faith that "open source" somehow provides immunity from that.
42 • Rooting my phone? (by PhoneRooter on 2026-05-18 19:53:12 GMT from Finland)
No thank you, I won't root my phone.
I am not scared it will be a dead brick, I am afraid it will become a nice brick witn Linux but can't be used for original purpose of actually communicating in real world.
I want my banking apps to actually work and exist, and actually using the phone for calls in case of emergency, without buggy modem support or draining the battery too fast because it is almost supported.
So what if I root it and put some nice almost functioning Linux distro with fancy KDE on it, if I can't use it for what it's built for.
43 • Automotive power users died long ago (by Keith S on 2026-05-18 20:23:49 GMT from United States)
Just read an article about Subaru's EyeSight tech that can go so far as to steer the car to the shoulder, turn on the hazard lights, and shut the car down if a driver looks away too long. There was a time when I did all the basic maintenance on my car, but those days are long gone since computers began to be integrated into basic functionality. We are very near the point where third parties (whether private or government matters little) have total control over your personal transportation. Technology is so wonderful.
44 • Sylve (by Jesse on 2026-05-18 21:13:44 GMT from Canada)
@36: "Its exactly the same as with FreeNAS and TrueNAS appliances ... but I do not recall this being a problem when FreeNAS or TrueNAS were reviewed."
No, it is not the same at all. On TrueNAS you can sign in as a non-root user, but then you don't have root access. With Sylve you can sign in as any user and it elevates the user to root. TrueNAS does not do this which is why I didn't complain about it.
@37: "If I'm reading the docs correctly, it is not the case that "any user on the host FreeBSD system [...] can sign into Sylve at any point" unless you enable PAM, which you say in the article that you did. But with the default settings, i.e. using the built-in authentication rather than PAM, this problem should not occur. Please correct me if I'm wrong."
PAM is enabled by default. I did not enable PAM, nor did I write that I enabled PAM. On the login screen PAM is always one of the sign-in options. PAM is enabled as a login option by default, this is not something I enabled. Which means any user can sign in as is given root access.
45 • Cleanup not needed (by We all float down on 2026-05-18 22:48:30 GMT from The Netherlands)
Happens during each shutdown or reboot, because everything is in RAM (Slitaz) or, with Tinycore, usually home and var are. Packages don't have to be installed but can be mounted readonly, as they are squashfs, not cpio.lzma, files.
So if you do want to taint your (mostly) immutable disk with fresh data, you have to use copy/rsync explicitly. It's not standard operating procedure.
46 • Automotive power users died long ago (by The other hand on 2026-05-18 23:48:25 GMT from United States)
@43- "Technology is so wonderful." It can be. Maybe you missed the article about the drunk driver in a Tesla on autopilot who passed out on the highway and the car stopped, perhaps preventing him from taking a few souls along with himself to that open bar in the sky. How many articles a week about cars running into crowds, cyclists, pedestrians, often driven by perfectly innocent old fogeys (guilty) or teens? Imagine a tech that would prevent most of that. You don't have to. It exists.
I remember doing my own maintenance. Points, timing lights, gap gauges, frequent spark-plug cleaning and replacement. Frequent oil changes. Remember bearing grease? No power steering? AC optional? Now I can have a car 5 years and just do a few oil changes, maybe air filter. Nothing else. And if the cameras and proximity sensors prevent me from banging into something because I was distracted or I misjudged, that's a big plus. I like it better now. Yes, technology is wonderful. No sarcasm.
Now, the US government will require sensors to gauge impairment for drivers. Still being evaluated. They may be touch-based, breath-based, or cameras, depending on levels of accuracy obtained. That may just be a step too far. We'll see.
47 • MX-25-KDE @29 (by Brad on 2026-05-19 01:38:50 GMT from United States)
Hi - yes, I'm running the latest and greatest,but I could just be misunderstanding the options offered.
I see this in the upper left-hand corner of MX-Cleanup (Main Tab):
Clean Folders
Cache (checked)
Thumbnails (checked)
Not Accessed for: 1 Day (radio button not enabled)
All (potentially dangerous) (radio button enabled)
Of course, as I mentioned above, I could be misunderstanding the meaning of these options, but it gave me pause, since I never used the Main Tab before (so I assumed that these were defaults - perhaps I'm mistaken).
I understand that things can get lost or mistaken in translation, so I apologize if my observations lead folks down the wrong path, or cause them to overlook a fine distro that I have used without major issues for years.
Thanks for listening.
48 • Automotive power users died long ago (by Keith S on 2026-05-19 04:30:58 GMT from United States)
@46 What a dismal dystopia it is that you desire. Has safety ever been the highest goal, or even any sort of goal, of any great civilization? Whatever happened to teaching people to behave responsibly instead of corralling all of them into a giant playpen with baby bumpers to protect them, turning them into feeble-minded adult children with nannies hovering over them in every situation?
"Modern society is crowded with instruments of state control 'from the most trivial to the most coercive,' apparently to save us the inconvenience of thinking for ourselves. Yet these are also intrusions into privacy, exerting supervision and pressure over life and conduct."
49 • Automotive power users died long ago (by The other hand on 2026-05-19 09:41:14 GMT from United States)
@48- "Has safety ever been the highest goal, or even any sort of goal, of any great civilization?" Maybe giving it a higher priority might have prevented them from going extinct.
50 • Automotive power users died long ago (by anony on 2026-05-19 11:37:15 GMT from United States)
@48 You completely missed his point, and the whole point of the article to begin with. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
51 • correction (by anony on 2026-05-19 11:46:42 GMT from United States)
I actually meant to respond to @49, not @48. @48 is spot on and correct.
52 • Trust (by Allan Vázquez on 2026-05-19 14:18:54 GMT from Mexico)
The problem aren't the systems, simplified access systems are a common evolution even in Linux and other open source operating systems. Even Distrowatch recently simplified for newcomers.
The problem is the openess and transparency of those systems. And that isn't a technical problem, it is a problem of trust. I think it is not that mayor vendors want to imprision us, they don't trust us the responsability to allow for a more open enviroment. And it is the same with ‘us’, we don't trust ‘them’ either.
Think of it in a smaller scale, about friends and family. There is always someone that isn't trustworthy because of age, temperament or other reasons. Yet it is very important to let them learn. I can do this because I see them as family, I ‘know’ them. Yet it is the same with other people because it is not about them, it is about me, about peace of mind.
I think peace of mind is more important that technical knowledge to make informed desicions about the kind of systems that empowers me. Even a system like Linux can be a prison if I am always searching for more ‘privacy and independence’. I need to trust myself to allow me to reach for the things I need, in myself and other people. I am not saying to trust blindy, but without trust there can be no freedom.
53 • System Cleaning (by Robert on 2026-05-19 14:41:22 GMT from United States)
How do I clean my system? With soap and water, obviously!
Seriously though, I would say I don't really do system cleaning. Every now and again I'll remember to clear the package cache, which might have a year's worth of junk built up.
I'll clear my browser cache as a troubleshooting step when I start having issues.
And that's about it really. One of these days I should at least see if the system logs auto-rotate and prune, and set that up if they don't. I have no idea, could be years of crap built up there.
54 • What BleachBit can't clean (by RoestVrijStaal on 2026-05-19 14:48:08 GMT from The Netherlands)
BleachBit is the solution for removing usage tracks.
However, just like in the Windows ecosystem, not every usage cleanup tool can target everything.
The same goes for BleachBit. But it's hard to blame them.
Most KDE apps mix settings and usage track in ONE rc file, sitting in ~/.config/
Apart from its unstructured manner of the file, it's hard to clean up at all.
Do a find & replace in Kate? Stored in katerc for as good as for ever.
Open something with Okular? Stored in okularrc for as good as for ever.
I hope that million Euro will be used to refactor KDE apps to separate configuration from usage.
____
Also, for the people who use wine: don't forget you'll leave usage tracks as well.
You could use BleachBit for that. But you could also consider using PrivaZer for the things (like the register in the Wine environment) which BleachBit barely touches.
55 • Freedom (by Karl on 2026-05-19 22:32:52 GMT from Germany)
@12:
"In a world in which every constructor can nest updatable malware directly into a CPU, may everyone say we can be safe just by choosing an OS?"
Firstly, security and freedom are different things.
Secondly, you still can avoid Intel ME, AMD PSP and ARM TrustZone blobs.
Thirdly, there is an amazing FPGA-based project https://betrusted.io/ aiming to implement a fully transparent hardware and OS platform.
56 • Come on! (by ?!? on 2026-05-20 05:11:19 GMT from Italy)
@55 "Secondly, you still can avoid Intel ME, AMD PSP and ARM TrustZone blobs."
How?
Be honest, you're European like me. If we want to avoid them, there _must_ be an EU law initiative to prevent constructors from implement them. I'm quite fed up with "amazing" projects which promise the Moon and die in sad silence...
It's not time for aiming to something: it's high time for doing.
57 • Death of the power user (by Zyber on 2026-05-20 08:48:42 GMT from United States)
The reason for this confuses me. The more knowledge we get, the dumber people get. People are getting more and more lazy and honestly I don't think there are many people left with the brain power to do anything real. And as much as I love AI's, this will only help people get dumber. Perfect for companies to watch, sell and control their puppets so they spend more and more money on worthless crap. I have watched all that my generation fought for and tried to prevent from happening get destroyed. So yeah for that part, thank you idiots!!!
58 • @55, @56: Avoiding Intel ME (by picamanic on 2026-05-20 08:57:53 GMT from United Kingdom)
@55, @56: Avoiding Intel ME: the only way I found is to adopt Coreboot, which has the ME code physically removed. I have two desktop computers that are ME-free.
59 • Coreboot (by ?!? on 2026-05-20 09:19:50 GMT from Italy)
@58 I'm fed up, too, with projects which stand up but support just a few dozen systems or less. It's just like with Android: lots of free OSes but just some device to support them.
If I don't want a Yale lock and want to replace that with another one, why should I be told I have to replace the door because it's not supported? There are standards, respect them.
60 • Find a way to change settings? Nah, complain that the default is bad and quit. (by The real power user on 2026-05-20 12:20:32 GMT from United States)
@15 It is ironic, because if you would have spent ten seconds looking at the controls for the page, you would have noticed there is a slider to adjust the text width. =)
61 • Death of the Power User & More.. (by Devil's Advocate on 2026-05-20 16:01:58 GMT from United States)
The death of the power user is the death of critical thinkers who value their ability.
We created AI so we'd have to think less and it worked.
People in here talk about how they used to change car parts manually and things weren't computer controlled. The same people would seem lightyears beyond those who (sadly arent around anymore) remember crank-starting their cars or dealing with the real "Real McCoy".
We want Linux to work better on systems that (usually) do nothing to support Linux, so the choice many now make is to go with these companies like StarLabs, System76, Nova, Tuxedo.. making hardware that is more natively Linux supported so that the user no longer has to actually -Make Linux Work On It-. This 'support' comes with what I would argue is an unjustifiable price tag - barebones systems from leading manufacturers still cost less than the lowest offering of any of these "FOSS Friendly Companies". They're only serving to make the Linux user base also filled with less and less power users - more complainers. More braggers - "I wasted 2k on a laptop that Linux runs on flawlessly" - whoop-di-dooo!
The problem is not with the technology - hardware or software. Lazy people will always use it to grow lazier. Productive people will be more productive, and those who claim to be useful and knowledgeable will continue to hide their deficits behind complains and fat pocket books.
To quote #57: "The more knowledge we get, the dumber people get. People are getting more and more lazy and honestly I don't think there are many people left with the brain power to do anything real."
Dumber people are getting dumber. Smarter people are getting smarter. There's just less of a middle class of intellect to get confused in now. You're either learning or you're not.
62 • Death of power user (by marty on 2026-05-20 20:09:29 GMT from United States)
Yes, smart people are getting smarter, dumb people are getting dumber. There is less middle group.
63 • Privileged controllers and execution modes (by Karl on 2026-05-20 23:06:32 GMT from Liechtenstein)
@56: "How?" By using older hardware (yes, it is relatively cheap now and is still usable) or by flashing Coreboot and setting a flag to disable almost all ME functionality or by using something like MNT Reform (not sure whether it has an open-source TrustZone functionality).
The EU can and should, of course, legislate something to put the end user at control of these things, but there must be enough interested people and organizations lobbying it and the legislative process is slow...
"I'm quite fed up with "amazing" projects which promise the Moon and die in sad silence...
It's not time for aiming to something: it's high time for doing."
They do: https://ci.betrusted.io/releases/v0.10.0/, their chip mass production is expected to be started before July (but I trust the FPGA version more).
64 • @63: ready to use Coreboot computers (by picamanic on 2026-05-21 00:28:17 GMT from United Kingdom)
@63: it is not necessary to flash Coreboot as inexpensive complete modern computers [desktops and laptops] are a widely available [eg from StarLabs [UK]].
65 • Please read it better (by ?!? on 2026-05-21 05:55:17 GMT from Italy)
@63 "By using older hardware (yes, it is relatively cheap now and is still usable) or by flashing Coreboot and setting a flag to disable almost all ME functionality or by using something like MNT Reform (not sure whether it has an open-source TrustZone functionality)."
Intel ME is (quote from Wikipedia) "an autonomous subsystem that has been incorporated in virtually all of Intel's processor chipsets *** since 2008 ***". What should I use that older? And where should I buy that?
And I still repeat: Coreboot is not widely usable. If I have a PC from Samsung or Acer or whatever, I can't apply that because Intel ME (and I suppose even similar as from AMD or ARM) are deliberately thought not to be replaced with something else. Using Coreboot is presently possible only with processors meant to adopt them from the beginning, and processors like them are not widely available at all.
"They do: https://ci.betrusted.io/releases/v0.10.0/, their chip mass production is expected to be started before July (but I trust the FPGA version more)."
Stop asserting what they will do. My rage is due to the fact that years have passed (Coreboot was born far in 1999 as LinuxBIOS) and still can't be applied to most of modern CPUs. At least OpenWRT has a large selections of routers to be usable with, but still we have to face projects which spend years and end up in working with one-digit numbers of really old and deprecated devices only.
That would NOT happen if only such projects didn't waste time and money in coping with internal fractures and forks. The world of open source has always lived with freedom of choice, but at the moment people should realize if our freedom is menaced by who has time and money to do so, join forces is a MUST.
66 • How do you clean your system? (by ~hellfire103 on 2026-05-21 15:01:09 GMT from Germany)
I mainly use `xbps-remove -Oo` for cleaning, but I also occasionally clear out ~/.cache and go through ~/ with Midnight Commander.
67 • Coreboot and Betrusted (by Karl on 2026-05-21 21:10:50 GMT from Germany)
@65
"Intel ME is (quote from Wikipedia) "an autonomous subsystem that has been incorporated in virtually all of Intel's processor chipsets *** since 2008 ***". What should I use that older? And where should I buy that?"
For AMD, as far as I know, there were no working PSP before 2016 on desktops or 2014-2015 on laptops. You can buy old hardware on eBay, for example. Dell Core 2 Duo laptops from 2007 still work fine under modern GNU/Linux distros. Nobody said that you _should_ buy that, but you can consider buying or using such hardware if you are reasonably assuming that you are sufficiently likely to be targeted by NSA or other entities having access to the secrets needed to activate the alleged backdoor functionality.
"And I still repeat: Coreboot is not widely usable."
There is a set of compatible hardware, including almost all Chromebooks. I didn't claim that it's widely compatible with random off-the-shelf hardware, but it is an option that works on certain boards.
"Stop asserting what they will do."
They are not affiliated with Coreboot at all, AFAIK. Their FPGA-based product is a handheld RISC-V device having similar number-crunching performance as Nintendo DS or Blackberry devices from 2004-2005. And it is in stock, ready to be bought.
68 • @67 (by Karl on 2026-05-21 22:04:03 GMT from Germany)
"Dell Core 2 Duo laptops from 2007 still work fine under modern GNU/Linux distros."
Sorry, not a particularly good example. Some of them are based on Intel Santa Rosa platform and already have a ME, others don't.
69 • Intel M.E. (by Slappy McGee on 2026-05-22 14:12:29 GMT from United States)
@68.. hmm.. close, 2008 by my records here (used to dismantle for inspection at resale).
70 • The Slow Death of the Power User (by Karl on 2026-05-22 20:17:20 GMT from Germany)
Thanks for sharing a link to this inspiring article!
Number of Comments: 70
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| • Issue 1176 (2026-06-08): Redcore Linux 2601, the problem with minimal system requirements, Red Hat account linked to compromised npm repositories, COSMIC to get frosted glass effect, openSUSE shows off system extension manager, Origami merges with RakuOS |
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| • Issue 1137 (2025-09-01): Tribblix 0m37, malware scanners flagging Linux ISO files, KDE introduces first-run setup wizard, CalyxOS plans update prior to infrastructure overhaul, FreeBSD publishes status report |
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| • Issue 1135 (2025-08-18): Debian 13, Proton, WINE, Wayland, and Wayback, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, KDE gets advanced Liquid Glass, Haiku improves authentication tools |
| • Issue 1134 (2025-08-11): Rhino Linux 2025.3, thoughts on malware in the AUR, Fedora brings hammered websites back on-line, NetBSD reveals features for version 11, Ubuntu swaps some command line tools for 25.10, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA support |
| • Issue 1133 (2025-08-04): Expirion Linux 6.0, running Plasma on Linux Mint, finding distros which support X11, Debian addresses 22 year old bug, FreeBSD discusses potential issues with pkgbase, CDE ported to OpenBSD, Btrfs corruption bug hitting Fedora users, more malware found in Arch User Repository |
| • Issue 1132 (2025-07-28): deepin 25, wars in the open source community, proposal to have Fedora enable Flathub repository, FreeBSD plans desktop install option, Wayback gets its first release |
| • Issue 1131 (2025-07-21): HeliumOS 10.0, settling on one distro, Mint plans new releases, Arch discovers malware in AUR, Plasma Bigscreen returns, Clear Linux discontinued |
| • Issue 1130 (2025-07-14): openSUSE MicroOS and RefreshOS, sharing aliases between computers, Bazzite makes Bazaar its default Flatpak store, Alpine plans Wayback release, Wayland and X11 benchmarked, Red Hat offers additional developer licenses, openSUSE seeks feedback from ARM users, Ubuntu 24.10 reaches the end of its life |
| • Issue 1129 (2025-07-07): GLF OS Omnislash, the worst Linux distro, Alpine introduces Wayback, Fedora drops plans to stop i686 support, AlmaLinux builds EPEL repository for older CPUs, Ubuntu dropping existing RISC-V device support, Rhino partners with UBports, PCLinuxOS recovering from website outage |
| • Issue 1128 (2025-06-30): AxOS 25.06, AlmaLinux OS 10.0, transferring Flaptak bundles to off-line computers, Ubuntu to boost Intel graphics performance, Fedora considers dropping i686 packages, SDesk switches from SELinux to AppArmor |
| • Issue 1127 (2025-06-23): LastOSLinux 2025-05-25, most unique Linux distro, Haiku stabilises, KDE publishes Plasma 6.4, Arch splits Plasma packages, Slackware infrastructure migrating |
| • Issue 1126 (2025-06-16): SDesk 2025.05.06, renewed interest in Ubuntu Touch, a BASIC device running NetBSD, Ubuntu dropping X11 GNOME session, GNOME increases dependency on systemd, Google holding back Pixel source code, Nitrux changing its desktop, EFF turns 35 |
| • Issue 1125 (2025-06-09): RHEL 10, distributions likely to survive a decade, Murena partners with more hardware makers, GNOME tests its own distro on real hardware, Redox ports GTK and X11, Mint provides fingerprint authentication |
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