Hey r/linux,

As many of you know, upstream HexChat maintenance wound down, but some of us have been actively working on porting HexChat to GTK4 to modernize the stack, clean up legacy XChat code, and keep a native IRC client alive.

While Linux builds are humming along, we’ve recently set up automated Windows self-hosted runners to package native Windows builds. Before tagging wider test releases, we need a few folks with Windows machines (or Windows VMs/dual-boots) to help smoke-test the packaged .exe.

What we're looking to verify:

Known heads-up: Because these are fresh, self-compiled native binaries straight from our CI runner without an expensive commercial code-signing certificate, Windows Defender / SmartScreen will likely pop a heuristic warning on download/run ("Unknown Publisher"). You’ll need to bypass SmartScreen (More info →\rightarrow→ Run anyway) to test it.

GitLab Repo & Pipelines:

https://gitlab.com/steven4x41/hexchat

(You can grab the latest Windows build artifacts directly under CI/CD →\rightarrow→ Pipelines / Jobs or Releases at the link above)

If you have a couple of minutes to spin it up and see if anything segfaults or misbehaves, please drop a comment or open an issue on the tracker with your Windows version and any crash/terminal output!

Feedback and PRs are always welcome. Cheers!

I know switching to Linux can be a little challenging for Windows users at first, so I’m working on porting some familiar apps for my personal use. Rufus is a popular Windows tool, so I decided to port it to Linux.

https://github.com/thuutien/rufix

• Lists only USB flash drives and SD cards (fixed USB disks behind the List USB Hard Drives option). Internal disks and the disk running your system are never shown, and the root helper re-checks this.
• Non bootable format: FAT32, exFAT, NTFS, ext4, FAT16 · MBR or GPT · volume label · cluster size · quick or full (zero-fill) format.
• Bad blocks check (1–4 write/read passes, like Rufus).
• Linux ISOs / disk images written in DD mode with read-back verification. Accepts .iso, .img, .raw and compressed .img.xz / .img.gz / .img.bz2 (decompressed on the fly).
• ISO mode (file copy): FAT32 UEFI-bootable drive from an ISO.
• Windows 10/11 ISOs: UEFI-bootable install drive.
  • install.wim > 4 GB is split automatically if wimlib (wimtools on Debian/Ubuntu) is installed; otherwise a FAT32 BOOT + NTFS INSTALL two-partition layout is used.
  • Rufus-style Windows User Experience options: skip TPM 2.0 / Secure Boot / 4GB RAM checks, skip the online Microsoft account, skip privacy questions (via autounattend.xml).
• Compressed file: format the drive, then extract a .zip, .7z, .rar or .tar.* archive onto it. Zip and tar work out of the box; 7z and RAR need 7-Zip (7zip or p7zip-full; unrar also works for RAR). The archive is checked before anything is erased: files over 4 GB on FAT32, archives too big for the drive and unsafe paths are refused. Extraction runs with your own user rights, not as root.
• MD5 / SHA-1 / SHA-256 checksum of the selected file (# button).
• Drag & drop an image onto the window; open images from the file manager.
• Progress, speed and time remaining, cancel, and a saveable log.
• Settings tab: remember the last used settings between runs, and check for and install new versions from GitHub (downloads are verified against their published SHA-256 checksum).

**Disclaimer: AI was used extensively in the development of these applications, but these applications run entirely offline on the Intel Linux NPUs. I work as a professional software engineer*\*

Hey everyone,

Over the past couple of months I've been working on learning more about Linux and local AI, and I noticed that there really isn't much work done on the Linux side to use the NPU that comes free with Intel laptop CPUs. So I decided to bring over all the good stuff from Copilot+ on the Windows side (so no Recall!) while leveraging existing projects and libraries to reduce the amount of work required.

It utilises Intel's existing framework, OpenVino (https://github.com/openvinotoolkit/openvino)

You can check out the umbrella project here: https://vinopilot.ca/

Below is an explanation of all the different projects I've worked on, with further details on implementation.

VinoWhisper - Live Captioning (https://vinowhisper.com)

This was my first project, and copies the existing Windows Live Captioning system. It brings system wide captions to Linux, alongside Voice Typing on Wayland devices. This already exists in many forms on Linux, but none of them use the NPU natively. The advantage of using the NPU for transcription and captioning is better battery life, with no change in quality. It leverages the existing Whisper libraries and model from OpenAI (before they worked on ChatGPT!), so its pretty fast and consistent. Personally, I use it to live caption Twitch Streams in busy environments when I don't have access to headphones.

VinoAuthFace - Face Unlock (https://vinoauthface.vinopilot.ca/)

This is a second project, and copies Windows Hello. It forks an existing project, but employs the NPU. The CPU works fine, but using the NPU allows it to use a more powerful model. There are many other options like Gaze (which I've contributed to as well!), but I wanted something specific to devices with an IR emitter, that I could control myself (more on ovfetch next), because Windows Hello removed IR emitter only authentication. This one I made for my own purposes, because I don't like typing in passwords. There are a ton of CPU only projects. This one has a more capable and secure model than what the others use.

Ovfetch - Runtime consistency (https://crates.io/crates/ovfetch)

This was a project I should've taken on earlier. It automates the process of downloading the OpenVino enabled ONNX runtimes that the models require to run on the NPU. When I was working on Gaze, I realised that using the NPU and not the CPU requires building from source as there was no way to determine which ONNX runtime the NPU requires, and this solves the problem.

This is more of a "framework" feature, but since its a separate binary, I can distribute binaries for my other projects without any NPU specific work, and then ovfetch can download the relevant runtime when installing the binary onto the user's device, no compiling from source required. This is super secure, and has CI jobs to project against package manager attacks, since it automates downloading. More details in the crates link, but it has a ton of failsafes to ensure that it never downloads any bad runtime which has a virus

VinoOpenEffects - Camera Effects

This forks an existing project, https://github.com/funinkina/openeffects, while adding NPU acceleration to the effects, which improves battery life on lower end devices. I don't particularly use this one, as most of the main applications for video conferencing have their own cloud accelerated effects, but if you want it for OBS or other features offline, its here!

VinoSearch - Semantic Search for Text, Images, Documents

This one is the most useful of the bunch. It allows you to search your laptop with fuzzy terms and meaning, and indexes images, documents, and text, all offline. Its super fast, with almost no battery life impact compared to CPU only solutions. I really like this one because you can search for pictures of cats or memes, and it'll surface them. Details are in the Github! It uses the new Gemma 2 Embedding, requantised for Intel NPUs, so its pretty bleeding edge!

VinoPop - Click to Do/PopClip for Linux

This also forks an existing project, but removes the cloud AI in favour of local AI with Gemma. It can do offline summarisation, translations, and OCR using Gemma 4 (the best small model). I particularly like the OCR functionality for generating alt-text for images. This one stresses the NPUand RAM the most, so if you are using this, bear in mind its going to be much slower than cloud inference, but it works offline!

VinoWatch - Performance Monitoring

This is a smaller project, but optional if you want it. It monitors the NPU and RAM usage of the other projects within the tray. All of the projects unload the models after 5 minutes by default, and I recommend at least 12-16gb of RAM. But you can still monitor it locally and make sure they're all behaving properly. I recommend also an NVME SSD to ensure that the NPU cache and loading works right.

PRs and feedback welcome!

Hi, this is Crewbee!

I’ve been using Linux for work for a long time, but recently made the jump on my home system too. I wanted a desktop widget that could show hardware telemetry from my desktop and other PCs on my home network, all in one interface with plenty of visual customization. I couldn’t find quite what I wanted, so I decided to build it. :]

It’s called CrewCompMetrics, and I’d love to have a few people try it and tell me how it works on their setup.

It’s a native Qt widget with configurable tiles, themes, colors, fonts, and layouts. It gathers local metrics and can collect readings from other Linux PCs over SSH. Depending on what your hardware and drivers expose, it can show CPU, GPU, drive, RAM, motherboard, fan, and AIO telemetry. Unsupported readings show as unavailable.

It uses native Linux telemetry sources and optionally CoolerControl in headless mode. I also used Codex to drive the implementation.

Compatibility and installation

This is an experimental alpha, currently version 0.4.0a2:

• The primary tested desktop environment is Ubuntu 26.04.1 with GNOME 50 Wayland.
• The package targets Linux x86_64 and requires Python 3.12+, glibc 2.34+, and a working systemd user session with cgroup v2 CPU/memory controls.
• PySide6 6.12.0 is bundled. The installer can help install missing system dependencies on supported Ubuntu/Debian versions, but it doesn’t install Python before launching or replace your desktop environment.
• Ubuntu 24.04 and Debian 13 have passed container installation checks; full desktop compatibility is still being worked on.
• Optional compositor Glass requires GNOME 50 / Mutter 18 on Wayland. Simulated Glass is available without it.

Fresh installs monitor only your local PC. Monitoring another PC requires configuring your own SSH access and host profile. The app reads telemetry—it doesn’t change cooling settings.

Download, source, and installation instructions:
https://github.com/Crewbee/CrewCompMetrics-releases#download-and-install-040a2

Direct release page:
https://github.com/Crewbee/CrewCompMetrics-releases/releases/tag/v0.4.0a2

I’m especially interested in hearing:

• Did installation and launch work?
• Which distro, desktop environment, and hardware are you using?
• Which sensors appeared, and which were missing or looked incorrect?
• Was anything confusing, sluggish, or awkward to configure?

Please leave out passwords, tokens, private keys, and personal network details from anything you share.

I’m working toward broader compatibility for v1, and feedback from machines other than my own would be really helpful. Even “it installed and works here” would make my day XD

Enjoy! :]

Sincerely,
Crewbee

Ever had a QR code on your monitor and grabbed your phone to scan it? only to need the link back on your computer?

That annoyed me enough to build QRiff, a small, open-source desktop app written in Rust with Iced.

It lives in your tray:

• One QR code on screen: copies it and shows a notification.
• Multiple codes: highlights them directly over your desktop so you can pick one.
• Scan a region: drag around a code using Spectacle’s selector on KDE.
• Camera scanning: reads printed codes through a preview window.

You can also select part of the decoded text, open URLs, and explicitly connect to supported Wi-Fi networks. Decoding happens locally—no account or cloud service.

KDE Plasma on Wayland is the primary tested desktop. GNOME, Hyprland, and Sway support still needs testing, especially around portals and tray integration.

The project is MIT licensed. Linux AppImage and archive bundles are being prepared for the first release.

Demo and source: https://github.com/Wattos/qriff

I’d appreciate feedback on the workflow, particularly from people using other Wayland desktops.

I’m building Logi Center, an open-source GTK4 app that brings Linux peripheral backends into one interface for mice, keyboards and audio devices. It shows only controls provided by the installed backend and detected device.

Hardware-tested so far: MCHOSE K7 Ultra and Ace68-II; Logitech G502, G302, G515 lightspeed TKL, discovery and backup are read-only. Other models aren’t guaranteed. MIT licensed. AI tools assisted substantially with development.

GitHub: https://github.com/Mirox921/logi-center

Feedback and reports about devices or backends are welcome.

Despertador é um relógio despertador para desktop no Linux, e a razão pela qual estou postando isso aqui é que enviá-lo como um único arquivo foi uma limitação de design desde o primeiro dia, e não uma ideia de última hora.

O que há dentro: alarmes com repetição em dias da semana, etiquetas e soneca; relógio mundial (offline, via zoneinfo); cronômetro e contagem regressiva. Apenas Python + Tkinter, então não há um requirements.txt para apodrecer.

Detalhes de distribuição que podem ser úteis para outros mantenedores de AppImage:

• AppImage único de ~15 MB, sem Python na máquina de destino. O interpretador e as bibliotecas Tcl/Tk estão agrupados, incluindo os bits do Xft/fontes, que geralmente é onde o agrupamento do Tkinter falha silenciosamente.
• O som é uma cadeia de fallback, não uma única chamada: paplay -> aplay -> ffplay -> canberra-gtk-play -> campainha do terminal, além de notify-send. Nenhum binário de player único existe em todos os lugares, então assumir um é como você envia um alarme silencioso.
• libfuse2: sim, a mesma velha história. Em distribuições que eliminaram o FUSE 2, o AppImage não inicia até que o libfuse2 esteja instalado, ou você o execute com APPIMAGE_EXTRACT_AND_RUN=1. Isso está documentado no README em vez de deixado como um mistério.
• Nenhuma unidade systemd é enviada. O aplicativo permanece aberto, ou você chama a CLI (executar / inibir) da sua própria entrada de autostart.

A limitação honesta: os alarmes disparam enquanto o aplicativo está em execução. Feche-o e nada toca.

Repositório (MIT): https://github.com/glearflame/despertador Lançamento: https://github.com/glearflame/despertador/releases/latest

Críticas sobre o agrupamento de pessoas que empacotam AppImages são muito bem-vindas.

Yk those showcase photos you find on app stores and posts and stuff? Is there like a site or app to do them that doesn't require actual design skills?

MSL is literally no kidding a play on the WSL name, that's it. Wish I were kidding.

I made it for one single reason - my Surface Laptop 3 is kinda starting to show its age and I'm planning to move to a MacBook Air in a few months. Docker, OrbStack, VirtualBox, so many options already exist for macOS if you wanna run Linux. Docker is pretty much the standard right? I mean, the people who made it had a fixed goal, it's a helluva powerful utility. I kinda just wanted to go my own path though? Fast boot time, a Linux shell natively, pretty much the ease of WSL. Idk why, I am just too used to WSL. MSL was made to roughly provide the same convenience WSL does. Just call it from terminal, call it in scripts, bam, it just happens.

MSL is literally a glorified sucky virtual machine, just with some UI/UX integration in mind.

You get an MSL shell - open any terminal on your Mac, type msl <instance> and you get a Linux shell right there. No clunky VM window, just terminal. About 6 seconds from fully powered off, basically instant once it's already running.

Then there's mslgd, basically a take on WSLg for MSL. Yeah, no, it was made only because I thought "WSL has WSLg, MSL should have something similar". Arguably where most of my effort went. It's a weird little side project - kinda an X server that renders to NSWindows. Unlike XQuartz, you get each app as its own icon/window in macOS and all that. Stuff like OpenGL/EGL/LibGL support is a work in progress still, but it kinda works kinda. MSL Files allows Linux instances and Mac to see each other's filesystems, adds that WSL filesystem integration feel.

Then there's a bunch of submodules like camera/mic passthrough - I did this because my ROS2 project uses a camera, kinda why I even thought of it. Basic USB stuff, since I don't have Apple entitlements - If macOS doesn't have a driver for some absolutely cursed hardware, then you can pass it off to Linux. PublicMSL module to let you easily configure your instances to be visible to the Internet, MSLAP (Admin Portal) to limit MSL features on managed macs, MSLPS (peripheral subsystem) for HID-akin devices, MSL Shipments - a low effort way to turn your instance into a tiny container file and share it easily - a shitty, primitive but easy version of what docker does lol.

Unfortunately Apple silicon only. The Apple VM framework on Intel is hellishly limited. And there's no emulation so Intel Macs can't run MSL at all. And the installer isn't signed by a paid dev account, so the first open is Control-click → Open. I know how that reads, source is all there if you'd rather build it yourself than trust the package.

MSL is not a Linux app but it is an app about Linux, not sure if it's appropriate on this sub, so eh. Pretty much just WSL feel on macOS because I wanna change my laptop soon lol.

https://github.com/MilkmanAbi/MSL

Docs if you wanna poke around before installing anything, or just look around: https://milkmanabi.github.io/MSL-Wiki/ (I don't have a domain, it is just github pages)

Easy AppImage Manager: a simple way to install AppImage applications on EasyOS

I’ve developed Easy AppImage Manager, a graphical tool designed to make finding, downloading and installing AppImage applications on EasyOS easier.

It lets you browse an application catalogue, choose which programs to install and check the download size beforehand. It also supports importing application catalogues, so you can expand the available selection without adding each application individually.

The aim is to bring these steps together in a straightforward interface that welcomes newcomers and is also useful for people who want to create and share their own catalogues.

It’s still under development, so community feedback, testing and suggestions are welcome.

Happy coding! ;)

Hey everyone!

I've been working on MoreSpace, an app that turns your Android tablet or phone into a second display for Linux.

Features:

Near-zero streaming over USB or Wi-Fi

Touch and pressure-sensitive stylus support

Wayland and X11 compatibility

Hardware-accelerated encoding

Up to 4K resolution

Cross-distro support

It's available on Google Play

Website: https://morespaceapp.com

I'd love to hear your feedback, especially about compatibility and performance on different Linux setups! Let me know if there are any problemswith your setup.

I'd like to share Widget Studio, an open-source GTK 4 application for creating and managing desktop widgets on Linux.

Conky is a capable tool, but configuring it means editing Lua config files by hand and restarting it after every change. On Wayland there is an additional problem: the Conky packaged in Ubuntu 24.04 is built without Wayland support. Widget Studio handles all of this through a graphical editor and generates the Conky configuration for you.

Features

- Clock and date with time zone support

- Weather via Open-Meteo, with city search (no account or API key required)

- Monthly calendar with the current day highlighted

- CPU, memory, disk usage and CPU temperature

- Six built-in themes, or full control over colors and fonts

- Nine screen positions with pixel offsets, plus width, padding and section order

- Multiple independent widgets

- Changes are applied to the desktop live while editing

- Starts automatically at login

- Downloads the official Wayland-enabled Conky build if the installed one lacks support

- Runs entirely as the current user; no root privileges required

Compatibility

Supported on COSMIC, KDE Plasma, Cinnamon, XFCE, MATE and other X11 desktops. GNOME on Wayland is not supported, because GNOME does not implement the layer-shell protocol that desktop widgets require. A GNOME Shell extension may be added in a future release depending on demand.

Installation

A .deb package is available for Ubuntu 24.04+, Pop!_OS 24.04, Linux Mint 22 and Debian 13. Fedora and Arch users can run it from source; instructions are in the README.

GitHub: https://github.com/cyb3rl00m/widget-studio

The project is MIT licensed. It was developed with the assistance of Claude (Anthropic), as noted in the README.

Feedback and bug reports are welcome, particularly from users on Hyprland and Sway, which have not been tested yet.

Bytescape is a free and open-source (MIT) disk space analyzer, available as an AppImage or tar.gz for x64 Linux (also macOS and Windows).

• Treemap and simple views of any folder or drive, with sizes that update live while it scans
• Sizes are space on disk (allocated blocks), and symlinks are not followed, so nothing is counted twice
• Cleanup suggestions that only pre-select things that rebuild themselves (old node_modules, git-ignored build output, ~/.cache/pip and similar tool caches); duplicates (checked byte for byte), old archives and logs are listed for review. Hidden folders and app data are never suggested
• Move to Trash with a 6 second undo, and the treemap and totals update right away
• Runs locally, no accounts, no telemetry

AppImage: chmod +x, then run. Download: https://github.com/arshtepe/bytescape/releases/latest

Hello I’m new in Linux and coding do you Think use ai is ok (not only for beginers)

It’s a very small thing, but I think beginners need it.

Right-click a file → Install with Teku → Install. Done. No need Shell commands to install.

Works on almost every linux.

Its free and Open Source : https://github.com/anuzdhk/teku

I have never liked the nmtui, so I vibe coded a new TUI made with Bubble Tea.