Quality of Life Features of Linux - Week 7 of Using Linux

  

Week 7

 While daily driving Linux on my PC at home, I have noted several quality of life features that the operating system, or at least KDE CachyOS Wayland, offers the user. In this post I will sum up and list the features in a ranked order, from last (but certainly not least) to the best. Obviously there might not be an equal gap throughout the items of the list; the "best" one might only be slightly stronger than the second and third quality of life features. But without any ado, let's dive right in.

4.  Btop - computer performance monitor

 "Btop" is an excellent performance monitor which is directly accessible right on the go. it features clean bars showing the usage of your computer components like your CPU and your memory (RAM). The usage percentages and the temperatures of all CPU threads are also shown (in my case there are 16 threads). Graphs showing the download and uploads of memory and storage are also present with a great deal of metrics such as the current speed in Kibps, Mibps, and even bitps.

 I have heard that you can even customise this performance monitor, pushing this software to great heights. 

The btop performance monitor (and yes, that is the Spotify app running on Linux) 

3.  Screenshots and Spectacle

 Almost every time I take a screenshot on my computer I need to use it directly. And that is why there is a feature called "Save to clipboard". But what if you also need to crop, rotate, or do any kind of small adjustments before? Here comes "Spectacle". By default on CachyOS Linux (or at least the KDE desktop of it), you can use the simple Meta (Windows key) + Shift + S command and the Spectacle app opens up. What is even better is that when you make the selection for the area of the screenshot, you can just press "copy" so that you don't end up with dozens of screenshots that you will never use in your files. However I wasn't able to take a screenshot of Spectacle because it didn't work, so I just took a screenshot of the app in the application menu instead.  

By the way, this image was taken by the "copy" screenshot feature
  
 2.  Panel Taskbar Customisation
 
  If you've read a post on this blog before, you've probably already heard of how I glazed the freedom of customisation that the Linux operating system offers the user (read this guide). One of my favorite aspects of customising my desktop is the panel (task/app bar), which is one of the elements that comes first when the desktop is looked at. I have found the customisation of my panels pretty straight forward as a newcomer to Linux, and I have remained satisfied with my choice. What I mean by simple is that you only need to right click somewhere on your desktop and press "Enter edit mode" and you can already customise it. You can change the width, the size of the app items, how close together the panels are, and the list goes on. Customising this aspect of my desktop environment was really enjoyable, and I like to come back to it and just play around with the different features. As you can see in the image below, I have three different panels for the application menu (start menu: the CachyOS logo), my actual apps, and lastly one for the time, clipboard, calendar, volume, media player, etc.

The panel customisation menu 


1.  Updating and Installing - the console
 
  Every Linux operating system contains a console or terminal where the user can use commands and gain full control over their computer. This is also how apps are installed; there isn't an app store and executable (.exe) files don't work exactly like on Windows or MacOS. Instead, the user must enter a command to search the repositories to install or update a package. This might seem overly complicated to a lot of people but it comes with advantages. You can look for system and app updates at the same time with a command as simple as "paru". Some updates can even optimise the packages by reducing file storage.
 
 A small downside however is that not all packages are located in the same repository. For example, "Sober", which is used to play Roblox on Linux, is managed via Flatpak. 
 

This is how updating packages works in the rolling release Arch Linux distribution

 Conclusion
 
 This puts an end to my list and I hope you enjoyed reading this post. You can always read more from the homepage or at the end of this article. 
 

This is the seventh episode of my Linux Experience 2026 blog series. Every week, I upload a post talking about my experience using this unique operating system! Sign-up with your email to receive a notification when a new blog releases, it's free! 


My PC Specifications:

    AMD Ryzen 7 9800x3D

    AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT 16GB VRAM

    32 GB DDR5 6000Mhz CL30 RAM

    2 TB NVMe 5.0 SSD 

 Other Components:

    27'' 2560x1440 320Hz 1ms Monitor

    B850-Plus Motherboard (WiFi 7)

    850W Power Supply

    Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE ARGB

    5x Artic P12 Case Fans

    Phanteks XT Pro Chassis

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Smooth Start - Week 1 of Using Linux

Image
  Week 1 I had recently finished building my first PC, and it was finally time to install the operating system. At first, I thought that I would just go for Windows like most people, but when I learnt about Linux, I was doubting if I should even pay the $139 to activate Windows 11 Home. So I begun my research into finding the perfect Linux distribution to my taste. I decided to go with Nobara, a distro based on Fedora Linux. It was gaming-centred, and seemed to be very promising. I proceeding into creating a bootable USB using the Fedora Media Writer software on MacOS, which ended up being very straight-forward. Spoiler: I didn't end up going with Nobara. You see, I was having troubles with my PC trying to get a display on my monitor, and I had to wait several days for a repair to be completed. With all that time, I was starting to accumulate doubts about Nobara. While Nobara was still a very famous Linux distro, ranked top 13 on DistroWatch, I was looking for a distro with a lot o...
Read more

Famous Alternatives to Windows Apps on Linux - Week 2 of Using Linux

Image
    Week 2  So far, my PC experience with CachyOS Linux has been nearly flawless. I have played Elden Ring and achieved the frames per second cap of 60 fps constantly. I have even  launched Roblox, which is notably known for not being supported on Linux! Here is a summary of all the software that I have been using in the past week, as well as a note on a small issue that I have experienced.   Productivity  To browse the internet, I am currently utilizing the wonderful open-source Firefox browser by Mozilla. Initially I used the Google search engine, but then I finally transitioned to Ecosia (which I recommend everyone to use). I have done work using these software and I haven't had any productive problems. I am still deciding if I should I use the OpenOffice suite instead of the traditional Microsoft and Google apps. In case you don't know, OpenOffice is a free, open-source software package that contains a document editor, a drawing software, a spreadshe...
Read more

Customising your Linux desktop! - Week 4 of Using Linux

Image
  Week 4   Welcome to the fourth episode of the "My Linux Experience 2026" series. In this episode, I will dive into a simple customisation tutorial for KDE Linux desktops, as well as share this week's experience using Linux. This will include some new apps that I have been trying out and my honest review of them. Let's dive right in.   To start off, I am still using the same Linux distribution, the Arch-based CachyOS. I installed it for the first time four weeks ago on my brand new PC. The technical specifications are listed at the end of every post and in the " About " page.   Customising your KDE desktop  Linux is notably known for being very open to customisation in comparison to other operating systems, allowing users to make their desktops fit precisely their taste. Operating systems such as Windows and MacOS start off their users with a generic taskbar and few options to alter the look of it. Putting the desktops of two Windows users side-by-side won...
Read more