A space biologist by training and a (Arch)Linux user by passion #ArchLinux #Linux #KISS #FOSS #terminal, #python https://www-gem.codeberg.page/

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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: February 17th, 2023

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  • I used to use the famous Zathura for a long time, but it’s really minimal. Sioyek is an incredible pdf reader so overlooked.
    Amongst a lot of other things, it lets you:

    • quickly preview or jump to figures/references/equations/tables… (even if the PDF does not have links)
    • search paper names in any search engine you like (defaults are google scholar and library genesis) by middle clicking on their name or using keybindings
    • mark locations (using lower case for local mark and upper case for global mark) or create bookmarks for quick navigation
    • highlight text
    • save annotations in a local database or embed them in a new version of the PDF file to share them with others
    • automatically reload a file when it changes

    I wrote a brief overview of it quite some time ago.



  • Thanks for writing this response so I don’t need to spend the time and efforts you did to write it :) Hopefully OP find it useful.

    I’m in the same boat. I’m running the same Arch for 15 years now. The only cleaning is for old packages and config files. Also, if you remove the packages correctly, the maintenance should be minimal.

    There should be no need to do a fresh install of the OS. This is another great benefit versus others. Even when I change my machine, I just install an image of my old system so it’s fully functional right away.





  • There are a lot of software alternatives depending on your needs and preferences. You may want to take a look here or there.

    Linux is full of options to let you build the best system for you. That means you’ll have to invest some time to decide what you want (starting with the distro). Moving to Linux is discovering a brand new world where it’s easy to get discouraged and flooded by the freedom you’re given.


  • In your efforts of developing a new desktop, I’d suggest to look around for already existing Linux desktops focused on visually impaired users. While they may go beyond what you’re suggesting in your post (screen reader, text speech, braille output…) you may still get some inspiration from them.






  • No one’s job is to screen PKGBUILD of AUR packages so it’s technically not safe to use them. That being said the large community is keeping an eye on these packages and, while problems are not fully preventable, malicious stuff are caught pretty quickly.

    So, to contrast with my first statement, one could argue that it’s mostly safe to use AUR. That’s even more true for packages used by a ton of people because issues/risks will be flagged almost immediately should they ever exist. That’s the case for browsers, especially when developers themselves offer an AUR package (like Librewolf: https://librewolf.net/installation/arch/).

    Packages from the AUR basically do what is written in the PKGBUILD and install script so that’s why everyone will instruct you to learn about that before installing AUR packages with an helper. That’s too much for some people though and at the end of the day you also have to trust the person who wrote the source code and which is compiled locally.

    Nothing is 100% safe. I personally have 96 AUR packages installed because there’s no other packages available (this includes stuff like my windows manager, python tools, 3D slicer, web browser…).




  • www-gem@lemmy.mltoLinux@lemmy.mlZooted my arch install
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    3 months ago

    As others said, the fix will be easy. Reinstalling everything should never be something you have to do. In the very worst case scenario, chrooting should solve any situation. Contrary to other OS, even removing system files will not force you to do a fresh install from scratch.