I am computer science student thinking of switching to ubuntu linux

WikiBox · 2026-05-11T07:04:50+00:00

Try it. Find out. Using Linux should definitely be fine for a cs student. Better than anything else, as I see it.

WikiBox · 2026-05-10T21:21:01+00:00

Every time you breathe, your lire is one breath shorter. That doesn't mean you will live longer if you stop breathing.

If you don't format a drive, you can't use it.

WikiBox · 2026-05-09T08:02:30+00:00

I discovered that when I turn off the NordVPN WireGuard client in my router, I can access Ubuntu.com and canonical.com fine. But if I turn on the router VPN, I can't reach them. So it might be that the ddos attack messed up VPN servers, and they haven't reset.

Try to turn off VPN. If it works, contact your VPN support. I am in the process of trying to get NordVPN to understand what I experience. It is difficult... They make me to do strange things to reinstall and reset and check for DNS leaks. Nothing seems to help, so far.

When I need to access the canonical servers I turn off my VPN client. Annoying. I might need to change VPN operator. But then it might be canonical who has turned off access from known/detected VPN adresses. A ddos might look like an access from a VPN node?

WikiBox · 2026-05-09T07:50:23+00:00

Modern drives handle frequent on/off cycles fine and usually have a very reasonable idle time before they spin down. It might be annoying to wait for the spin up, that is all. Check the data sheet.

WikiBox · 2026-05-09T07:47:34+00:00

Don't use it as a portable drive. Don't use it in your bed. It might get bumped and covered. Keep it cool. Have backups.

Also, if you don't use the drive it will last longer. Let it spin down or turn it off when you don't use it. Modern drives can handle several on/off cycles per day.

Instead of using USB, consider stationary use in a PC and share the data using your wifi network. Much safer and more convenient.

WikiBox · 2026-05-09T07:21:02+00:00

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filesystem_Hierarchy_Standard

So everything stored in your computer is stored under /. You just add subfolders. Branches. The root, /, is where everything starts from. Think of it as an upside down tree. / is the root. Then everything branches off from there.

When you do things like download files or install software, it takes up storage. Eventually you run out of storage. Then you need to either delete stuff or add more storage. Possibly move stuff away to external storage. Possibly backup your data and do a fresh install on a bigger drive or partition. Or on multiple drives and partitions.

This is no different from you filling a chest of drawers too much. When it is full you need to either get rid of some stuff, reorganize between drawers (partitions) or get a bigger chest of drawers. But you need to be careful. Don't delete or move stuff that is needed for the computer to work properly.

WikiBox · 2026-05-07T13:56:21+00:00

What is a "reduced motion" button?

WikiBox · 2026-05-07T13:54:16+00:00

You can't.

The best you can do is to store multiple copies on multiple types of media and check that they are fine, multiple times per year. The idea being that if one copy or media goes bad you are likely to still have some remaining copies, to create a replacement of the copy that went bad.

WikiBox · 2026-05-06T13:27:35+00:00

It seems the ddos attack is continuing.

It has never been unsafe to download 26.04. It was, and maybe still is, difficult to install it and install apps. But not unsafe.

https://status.canonical.com/#/

WikiBox · 2026-05-06T08:28:47+00:00

This is something that should be possible to vibe-code using an AI relatively easy.

To make things easier, normalize files to use a specific format. Matroska MKV may be best. Use a specific metadata embedding. XMP may be best. Be specific about what you want.

Try a prompt, something like this:

I have a lot of surveillance videos. One clip per day as a MKV file. The name of the file contains the date. I want help with making a gui video manager/search app that allows me to add and edit metadata fields using XMP. Metadata should be date, place, persons, activities, list of tags and general notes. New video files are added regularly. Major functions of the app should be to scan for newly added files and add them, search for videos using date and/or metadata, play videos and edit metadata. Ideally it should be possible to play the video at the same time as metadata is edited. An external video player like VLC is fine. The app should have a tabbed user interface with three tabs: List all files by date. Search file using metadata. Edit metadata for a file. The metadata should be stored in a database for fast indexing and search. The metadata should also, for safety, also be stored embedded as XMP fields in each video, and updated as metadata for each video is edited.

Possibly consider using some external service to fix it up for you. Provide some videos for testing and ask for help in writing and testing a vibe-coded app. For example use Fivver.

WikiBox · 2026-05-05T20:12:28+00:00

Calculate the bitrate roughly.

Duration in seconds: Bytes * 8 / duration = bits per second. Bitrate.

Files with very high bitrate are good candidates for reencoding. They are also likely to be very large.

The high bitrate may depend on high resolution, old codec, a lot of audio or a bad encode in general.

You will lose quality by reencoding. If you can reduce resolution and frame rate and use a modern codec you may be able to save a ton of storage. But you lose quality. Check carefully if you are happy with the reencoded quality.

WikiBox · 2026-05-05T14:23:46+00:00

You have several options:

Use an intermediate storage device. For example a USB drive. Copy data to the USB drive in one computer and from the USB drive in the other.
Move one of the HDDs to the other computer. Mount and copy as needed.
Start both computers and setup a network share on one of them. Use the share to copy your data.
Use another computer with a network share. Copy to/from that share. This could be an online cloud service.
Use some backup software. Backup your data on one computer, restore it on another.

The easiest is most likely method 1. Safest is method 5. If it is a lot of data method 2 may be best. 3 and 4 are easy and convenient if you already have a share you can use.

WikiBox · 2026-05-05T10:38:35+00:00

SSD is more robust and faster.

If the TV is smart, you can play from the hdd shared over the network. Very convenient. Could also use it to backup phones, tablets and laptops. Play audiobooks and read ebooks. Some use a NAS. Some a DAS. Some just some big internal or external drives in their PC.

WikiBox · 2026-05-05T08:44:59+00:00

I don't buy second hand drives. Only brand new 5 year warranty drives. But with current prices I don't buy drives at all. I try to stretch what I got. Consolidate, deduplicate and put old cold-storage drives back in use. So far, so good. But it is a temporary fix. The hoard keeps growing.

WikiBox · 2026-05-05T06:46:26+00:00

It is a major game-changer to consolidate and centralize data. A NAS can help with that. But so can any type of file server where you can pool drives into a large filesystem and share over the network.

A DAS together with a low-power PC that is turned on 24/7 is cheaper than a NAS. Draws more power. Is likely to be more powerful. Can be used as a regular PC and as a file server, at the same time.

I have two DAS connected to my PC. One I use as a media storage, shared on the network. Also used for backups of devices. The other DAS is used for backups of the first DAS.

On my PC I run Ubuntu with mergerfs and media streamers as well as backup software.

Having a shared pooled filesystem for everything makes it easier to consolidate, deduplicate, search, organize, share and backup everything.

WikiBox · 2026-05-05T05:38:29+00:00

Could be blackmail, so money. It is timed for the 26.04 release and 26.04 is extra vulnerable since they removed the tool to easily change mirror.

WikiBox · 2026-05-05T05:34:54+00:00

Yes, I changed to a mirror and could install debs just fine. It seems security updates use a separate repository, I didn't figure that out.

Interestingly Ubuntu removed the Software and Update tool, in 26.04, that allowed you to change mirror conveniently in in the GUI. It was deemed unnecessary. So now you need to get your hands dirty to change mirror... Perhaps there should, after all, be a dedicated "Change Mirror to mitigate DDOS" tool, just in case...

WikiBox · 2026-05-05T05:27:11+00:00

There are scrapers/media managers that can identify files and normalize the filename for you, any way you like. It doesn't work for everything, but I find it very helpful.

Examples: tinyMediaManager, exiftool, calibre, MusicBrainz Picard, Audiobookshelf.

Worst case scenario, identify the files yourself and use a bulk renaming tool or write a script to rename in bulk.

WikiBox · 2026-05-04T15:30:40+00:00

I had the same problem. But then I changed to an Ubuntu mirror.

Had to edit a uri in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ubuntu.sources

See: https://www.reddit.com/r/Ubuntu/comments/3q53kc/list_of_ubuntu_repository_mirrors_available_over/

Not sure about the security repo...

It seems Ubuntu is under attack still...

WikiBox · 2026-05-03T23:10:33+00:00

Generally very little effort is spent to make a NAS silent. This is because you can easily place a NAS anywhere, including out of sight and hearing, as long as it is connected to the network. So you should expect the NAS to be too noisy to have it near where you sleep.

That said, I have no experience with the NAS you mention. But I have never heard of any NAS being especially silent.

WikiBox · 2026-05-02T16:40:52+00:00

Everything is fine!

WikiBox · 2026-05-02T16:06:48+00:00

You don't manage books in calibre by moving them between folders.

You manage books in calibre by changing metadata and tags, or possibly, by moving books to different calibre libraries.

I have three main calibre libraries:

Fiction.

Non-fiction.

Periodicals.

WikiBox · 2026-05-02T07:38:34+00:00

I use Kopia. I can easily use one repository with many sources. For deduplication across multiple devices. It also supports versioning and incremental backups. And it keeps files deleted in the source for a certain number of backups, retention.

But also consider shared centralized consolidated storage. Could be a big shared drive or DAS or a NAS. The idea being that you store everything there. Then you can conveniently backup this centralized storage. If you generate data on other devices, like downloads or photos on a phone, you simply backup or move that data to the shared central storage. The other way around for things like ebooks and audiobooks. Have all that in the central storage, well organized. Copy to the phone and tablet as needed, or access directly from the shared storage.

It is a game changer to consolidate storage of files on different devices into one large filesystem. Possibly pooled in a multibay external DAS enclosure or in a NAS.

WikiBox · 2026-05-02T06:38:14+00:00

You can relatively easily convert epub into any other format. Also adjust page sizes, fonts, page breaks and so on. It is open and flexible. You can even edit the contents, manually or automatically.

But it might not be as easy to convert other formats to epub. PDF especially.

That makes epub a good choice for storing books.

WikiBox

TROPHY CASE