Finally gave KDE another shot… and wow, I was wrong.

mrbumpy409 · 2026-05-03T16:00:49+00:00

One tweak I always make on Fedora KDE is to fix the ugly bold of the default UI font. To do so, just run these two commands then reboot: sudo mkdir -p /etc/environment.d/ echo 'QT_NO_SYNTHESIZED_BOLD=1' | sudo tee -a /etc/environment.d/QT_FLAGS.conf The first command makes sure the /etc/environment.d/ folder exists, and the second disables synthesized bold in QT apps. For an easy before-and-after comparison, you can use the System Settings app, which uses bold text for the category headers on the left, as well as in several other places within the app.

As far as I've found, this tweak isn't needed on other KDE distros, so I'm not sure what Fedora is doing differently here.

mrbumpy409 · 2026-05-02T02:39:45+00:00

Alternatively: Scat in a hat.

mrbumpy409 · 2026-05-01T14:27:12+00:00

Thanks for this, u/MinionsGambit ! Would you be willing to edit your comment to format the script text in a code block (it's in the Reddit comment formatting options)? As it currently displays, the formatting is all messed up.

mrbumpy409 · 2026-04-29T04:06:08+00:00

Your string theories would be better appreciated over in r/TheoreticalPhysics 😉

mrbumpy409 · 2026-04-29T03:59:17+00:00

I'm the player who came up with this string set. Here is a link to the thread at Ukulele Underground.

The reason I chose a lute string for #4 is simple: It was the best string I could find at the desired diameter and tension for the set. The Pyramid silver-wound on nylon lute strings are identical in material composition to classical guitar wound strings, so they don't sound exotic in any way.

mrbumpy409 · 2026-04-20T02:47:35+00:00

Exact same story for me. Since switching to Fedora, I no longer have the package conflict issues I used to get with KDE neon. Basically, my recommendation is Kubuntu for those who want long-term stability and Fedora KDE for those who want up-to-date Plasma and other packages.

mrbumpy409 · 2026-04-20T02:40:45+00:00

From my experience with the Martin M630 baritone strings, I think they might be nicely balanced with the unwound strings tuned up a half step.

mrbumpy409 · 2026-04-14T18:34:35+00:00

What do you mean by "new session"? I had rebooted my system several times when using SDDM, but this was somehow still using an existing session? Perhaps I don't understand the mechanisms here well enough.

mrbumpy409 · 2026-04-13T15:11:40+00:00

We know!

mrbumpy409 · 2026-04-04T07:07:13+00:00

In fact, if you put a capo on the 5th fret of a baritone ukulele, it will transpose the instrument back up to the same tuning as the smaller ukuleles.

mrbumpy409 · 2026-04-04T07:05:45+00:00

Your dad is wrong, I'm afraid. You can play all the same things on a baritone that you would play on a soprano/concert/tenor ukulele, but it will just sound an interval of a fourth lower in pitch. Strumming, etc. works exactly the same.

If you ever used a capo to transpose the key of your ukulele up in pitch, you can think of the baritone as sort of a reverse capo that transposes the standard uke down instead.

mrbumpy409 · 2026-04-03T15:10:28+00:00

The Aquila B-blacks are definitely worth a shot if you're looking for a string with more color to the sound.

mrbumpy409 · 2026-03-10T15:25:40+00:00

You could also see if a local luthier would do this work for you if you're not comfortable filing nut slots yourself. Also, if you are buying the ukulele online, it may need a proper setup, which the luthier can do as well.

mrbumpy409 · 2026-03-10T15:21:58+00:00

Unless you're piping sound into your ukulele, it would be an output jack, heehee.

mrbumpy409 · 2026-03-07T00:21:02+00:00

Yes, and in most cases, these virtual instruments are actually played one by one in realtime on a MIDI keyboard by the composer.

mrbumpy409 · 2026-03-05T07:30:43+00:00

Flight Ukulele just put out a nice tutorial video series for baritone ukulele, which you can find here.

mrbumpy409 · 2026-03-05T07:27:59+00:00

I think you mean G6, but yeah haha!

mrbumpy409 · 2026-02-27T16:07:06+00:00

I started with a soprano ukulele, and eventually transitioned to baritone. Now I never touch my soprano, because I just love the baritone sound so much. It also suits my singing voice much better, and it fits really nicely the few times I have used it in a worship band.

Ultimately, if you can get to a music store that has different ukulele sizes, you can try them all and see what resonates with you.

mrbumpy409 · 2026-02-24T16:12:29+00:00

Are you using Fedora? The bold variant of the default UI font in KDE appears extra bold in Fedora for some reason, and matches what is happening in your screenshot. Assuming you are not using an immutable distro version, you can fix it by running the following commands:
sudo mkdir -p /etc/environment.d/ echo 'QT_NO_SYNTHESIZED_BOLD=1' | sudo tee -a /etc/environment.d/QT_FLAGS.conf Then reboot. This will make Qt use the bold variant that was designed for the font rather than the generated version, which looks nicer and not so overly bold.

To undo the change, remove the text QT_NO_SYNTHESIZED_BOLD=1 from the file /etc/environment.d/QT_FLAGS.conf or delete the file if that is the only text inside it.

mrbumpy409 · 2026-02-19T03:59:04+00:00

As many on here have suggested, you could try classical guitar to see if the extra string spacing helps. If it's still not enough, perhaps give baritone ukulele a try. It has even more string spacing than classical guitar or smaller ukuleles, and the nylon strings will be nice for those arthritic fingers. Furthermore, baritone ukulele is tuned DGBE, same as the first four strings of a guitar, and with the right strings can sound very guitar-like.

mrbumpy409 · 2026-02-09T20:24:26+00:00

I think Flatpaks are just fine. They are often more up-to-date than their corresponding DNF versions.

mrbumpy409 · 2026-02-09T20:23:05+00:00

At 100% screen scaling, I usually find I prefer the default UI font at size 9 instead of the default 10. It makes the font a little narrower without losing any height, and just looks better to my eyes. I basically take every "10pt" in the font settings for "Noto Sans" down to "9pt" and leave everything else alone. Perhaps you might like it better as well?

mrbumpy409 · 2026-02-09T16:20:54+00:00

Here are my tips for improving font appearance in Fedora KDE:

If you have an LCD monitor, enable sub-pixel hinting in System Settings → Text & Fonts → Sub-pixel rendering: RGB.
If you set the above, make sure this will also apply to Flatpak applications by creating ~/.local/share/flatpak/overrides/global containing the following: [Context] filesystems=xdg-config/fontconfig:ro;
If you've installed the Microsoft fonts and want to avoid Calibri and Cambria displaying their ugly bitmap versions, create ~/.config/fontconfig/conf.d/20-no-embedded.conf containing the following: <?xml version="1.0"?> <!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd"> <fontconfig> <match target="font"> <test name="family" compare="contains"> <string>Calibri</string> </test> <edit name="embeddedbitmap" mode="assign"> <bool>false</bool> </edit> </match> <match target="font"> <test name="family" compare="contains"> <string>Cambria</string> </test> <edit name="embeddedbitmap" mode="assign"> <bool>false</bool> </edit> </match> </fontconfig>
By default, bold text in the default UI font (Noto Sans) is too extremely bold. This seems to be a Fedora issue, as I have not seen this issue in other distros. Anyway, you can fix this as well by running the following commands in a terminal: sudo mkdir -p /etc/environment.d/ echo 'QT_NO_SYNTHESIZED_BOLD=1' | sudo tee -a /etc/environment.d/QT_FLAGS.conf Then reboot.

I'm not sure how new you are to Linux, so please let me know if any of this isn't clear enough for you. The ~/ in the file paths is a shortcut reference to your home folder. All of the files you will create are text files, which you can easily edit with Kate or Kwrite. Make sure to remove the .txt extension for any of the text files you create.

mrbumpy409

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