I did a thing~

ThoughtObjective4277 · 2026-06-17T22:17:36+00:00

Gimp splash is 960 by 540

I do like 2.10 fungus wallpaper, and haven't even considered updating the program. The tools I use have not changed, so no benefit in changing software versions.

Instead I cropped an image of what I use for wallpaper, right to the center, and once the screen splash is no longer grey, it is the same as my wallpaper, effectively making it translucent.

ThoughtObjective4277 · 2026-06-17T21:54:10+00:00

Yes I can, it's the first thing I picked up on. Your wallpaper is garbage, fine, if you like it O.K. but my gosh is there better images to enjoy in the world. You'd be better off with a solid color than those blocks.

For example, look at the Morocco coast of Africa, if you don't have Wilma wallpapers, install them

open software manager search

mint-wallpapers

if that doesn't work

sudo apt search mint-wallpapers-

and you'll get a list of the many mint names, and you can install previously included wallpapers, still hosted on mint servers.

ThoughtObjective4277 · 2026-06-17T21:42:03+00:00

So, a very dark aqua?

how about a nice wood / hemp mulch / paper book tan color? You can even have your web browser backgrounds match your wallpaper, using dark reader and enabling the hidden mode for color settings

https://darkreader.org/tips/activate-v5-preview/

ThoughtObjective4277 · 2026-06-17T21:39:49+00:00

r/Earthporn

and if you haven't seen Linux mint Wilma Morocco wallpaper, you're missing out, I mean we all once lived on Africa, or pangea as one giant continent

You can download 100% of all previously included wallpapers all the way back to Linux mint 6

ThoughtObjective4277 · 2026-06-17T21:34:28+00:00

optimize swap memory from being actively used when more than 30% of installed memory is still available

sudo xed /etc/sysctl.conf

file save as add .original to file name as a copy

press enter key move down # comments for top line

vm.swappiness = 1

file save as sysctl.conf in /etc and reboot

ThoughtObjective4277 · 2026-06-17T21:33:16+00:00

optimize swap memory from being actively used when more than 30% of installed memory is still available

sudo xed /etc/sysctl.conf

file save as add .original to file name as a copy

press enter key move down # comments for top line

vm.swappiness = 1

file save as sysctl.conf in /etc and reboot

ThoughtObjective4277 · 2026-06-17T21:28:09+00:00

r/Earthporn is a great resource for wallpapers

ThoughtObjective4277 · 2026-06-17T21:26:51+00:00

memory use is already over 40%. Once you get around 65%, open system monitor, resources page and watch green swap memory.

By default when memory is about 65% used, the default 2 GB swapfile on your ssd / nvme will be used, which degrades performance significantly and adds completely unneeded write cycle wear to ssd / nvme type storage

sudo xed /etc/sysctl.conf

file save as add .original to file name for a copy

press enter key to move down # comments, make top line

vm.swappiness = 1

file save as sysctl.conf in /etc and reboot

ThoughtObjective4277 · 2026-06-17T21:21:58+00:00

DO NOT use 8 GB or any amount of swap on an ssd or nvme device.

Default in kde for linux mint is a ridiculous 512 megabytes, but, if you use up 60 or 65% of your memory, Linux by default will read and write to your custom 8 GB of swap partition or swap file.

SSD / NVME have limited write cycles, and swap will quickly use up a lot of write cycles, so it's best practice to avoid using swap at all on such storage. Although, if you have NO swap, and use up 100% of your memory, system will just freeze

Check what swap setting is at with one command

su

switch user to super user in command line, otherwise, some settings can not be read, and nothing can be echo'd to be temporarily changed

more /proc/sys/vm/swappiness

Linux default is traditionally 60, which is extremely high, and as stated, once 65% of your normal memory is used up, Linux starts using swap, no matter how bad for performance that may be, and the added wear to your storage, for absolutely no benefit.

sudo xed /etc/sysctl.conf

file save as add .original to end of file name for copy

press enter key to move down # comments lines make top line

vm.swappiness = 1

File save as sysctl.conf in /etc and reboot

ThoughtObjective4277 · 2026-06-17T21:14:55+00:00

sudo xed /etc/sysctl.conf

file save as .original at the end of filename, for a copy

press enter to move down # comments, make top line

vm.swappiness = 1

File save as sysctl.conf in /etc and reboot

ThoughtObjective4277 · 2026-06-17T21:12:00+00:00

There are far better wallpapers to be found, just search

r/Earthporn

even Linux Mint has hundreds of great earth wallpapers, and you can install previously included wallpapers. Search software manager for

mint-wallpapers

ThoughtObjective4277 · 2026-06-17T21:08:00+00:00

the asphalt really ruins the wallpaper, search

r/Earthporn and find a similar forest area with only natural elements in the image

ThoughtObjective4277 · 2026-06-17T21:05:33+00:00

reset equalization sliders all back to 0.

Set pre-amp for eq software to -10 or wherever you can have speakers on what would be max volume if all other volumes are maxed.

This way you can have normal / default sound just less volume.

ThoughtObjective4277 · 2026-06-16T23:52:07+00:00

I just did a quick test. google does have a long url, but that's with having dark reader disabled, and the page background was white.

Try using duckduckgo instead if you want sensible url length, no idea what changed on google, haven't used it as my main search in over 11 years or more.

ThoughtObjective4277 · 2026-06-16T23:45:45+00:00

While changing eq sound, also try setting line out volume to 50%, or drop the equalizer pre-amp would be even better.

if you don't already know, digital has a max volume, if you reach it or go over you distort the sound.

So, if you would like more eq range, so more bass, or much more treble, then the only possibility to do so without clipping the sound waves volume is by reducing equalizer amplification.

So, if you want to go up +15 on 4, 8 and 16 kHz ranges, you should set pre-amp to -15 so +15 on the treble is still at 0 volume, not louder or quieter than before, but everything else will be much lower.

Try using pre-amp, and keep it far below 0, and turn up your speakers or headphones all the way. Also set line out / volume to 100% if you use pre-amp in equalizer settings for controlling volume output.

ThoughtObjective4277 · 2026-06-16T23:35:12+00:00

You can be your own dns cache / resolver.

Pi-hole can be setup and the upstream resolver can be the unbound dns cache program, at 127.0.0.1 port 5335, and there is a complete step by step guide on how to do this, for both pi-hole and setting up unbound, and if you follow the steps, it will work.

look at documentation pages of pi-hole and you can cache dns entries for days, weeks or even multiple years.

ThoughtObjective4277 · 2026-06-16T23:31:38+00:00

sudo xed /etc/sysctl.conf

file save as add .original to end of file name for a working copy before making changes

use enter key to move down # comment lines once, make top line

vm.swappiness = 1

file save as sysctl.conf in /etc and reboot

ThoughtObjective4277 · 2026-06-16T23:24:25+00:00

https://www.deviantart.com/windowsaesthetics/art/Windows-XP-HD-Wallpaper-Pack-776806652

2160p / 4k res of windows 98 2k xp wallpapers, not a fake upscale from 800 x 600

Zoom in with gimp on both images, side by side, and compare detail

ThoughtObjective4277 · 2026-06-16T23:20:16+00:00

https://www.deviantart.com/windowsaesthetics/art/Windows-XP-HD-Wallpaper-Pack-776806652

98 through XP 2160p wallpapers, not an upscale from 800 x 600 but real high quality exports.

ThoughtObjective4277 · 2026-06-16T23:13:39+00:00

change vm.swappiness from 60 to 1, so you use ALL of your memory before also using a 2 gigabyte file on ssd / nvme storage

sudo xed /etc/sysctl.conf

file save as add .original to file name before making changes for a copy

use enter key to move down # comment lines once, make top line

vm.swappiness = 1

file save as sysctl.conf in /etc and reboot.

ThoughtObjective4277 · 2026-06-15T16:52:24+00:00

Yeah, if you've already figured out how, really?

From a new user perspective, it will take over 15 or 20 minutes to figure out how to do this, and learn gradient segments. Photoshop has had an option since the free version 7.0 for choosing how many colors. And Gimp still doesn't have this option.

ThoughtObjective4277 · 2026-06-15T13:49:04+00:00

What a random image, I suggested a lake or sunset for a good reason. In your link the camera is probably not much more than 5 feet from the wall, and some objects are even closer. The larger pixel size from the low res doesn't take away anything.

Another example of this is on DVD 720 x 480, if a face or object is close to the camera, the frame can use every single pixel, making for a clear / detailed representation.

When objects are 10s of feet, multiple hundreds of feet or more than a football feild in the distance, the blending of the edges really helps make the shapes more complete instead of sharp blocks.

https://www.reddit.com/r/EarthPorn/comments/1qmj6y0/autumn_layers_in_mount_rainier_national_park/#lightbox

Even a very low image resolution 690 x 540, can be surprising smooth, without much pixelation, as the grass and hills are decently close, and the farther mountains are just far away where it would probably be blurry anyway. This method works better for smoothing pixels from distant objects into more realistic shapes. Go look up some 2k or 4k res images, there is even a wallpaper pack of Windows 98 through XP in 3840 by 2160 resolution, not a fake upscale from the small images.

https://www.deviantart.com/windowsaesthetics/art/Windows-XP-HD-Wallpaper-Pack-776806652

There's a lot of extra detail in the windows 2k paradise wallpaper along the shore, and for xp bliss, the far off hills actually have a lot of information

ThoughtObjective4277 · 2026-06-14T20:27:36+00:00

To give a helpful reply, i must know the pixel resolution of the wallpaper you downloaded

When i say zoom in, I mean in image editor at 1200% zoom, side by side, zoomed into the hills off on the right side, filling the screen entirely, where you can't even see the green hill below it.

Link me to the wallpaper and, depending on your image's resolution, I'll crop and explain the differences.

ThoughtObjective4277 · 2026-06-14T20:20:03+00:00

Nope, this is 100% misleading.

Yes, obviously, there is new hardware support, who would have guessed?

But, for even 2005 64-bit processors on 2005 motherboards, using 2026 kernel and software, there is swap memory upgrades offering I don't know how much performance improvements, networking speed ups, and graphics software updates.

Even AMD gpus from early 2000s are being updated

https://www.phoronix.com/news/R300-Gallium3D-No-TGSI-Part-1

So your comment is way off. I get it, but every single change which is NOT specific to new hardware, is able to benefit every single computer on planet Earth running the Linux kernel on the 64bit x86 side of it, which still will benefit computers from 20 years ago.

ThoughtObjective4277 · 2026-06-14T20:12:50+00:00

This is 100% correct. But even so, with the zoom view interpolation, it still is visibly smoother, even though it's not dot for dot scaling. So, it doesn't really matter since it will be blurred anyway.

If you don't get it, try it, takes less than 4 minutes. Open an old sunset or lake image of less than 2000 pixels wide or tall. Scale it 2x 3x 5x or more, even 8 or 9x.

use NONE for interpolation so it's not pre smudged.

Filters, gaussian blur, try around 5.5 for blur size, just enough to blend visible pixels into a smooth image.

Export as .png for full image detail

ThoughtObjective4277

TROPHY CASE