Random Archwiki tip: If you use duckduckgo you can preface a search with !arch or !aw to search the Archwiki
There's a bunch of other !bangs: https://duckduckgo.com/bangs?c=Tech&q=linux
this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2025
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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The bang syntax makes duckduckgo easily the best search engine - it's a shortcut to everything, the perfect gateway to the internet.
Until you try kagi
Serious question: why should I pay for a search engine? Sounds like just another subscription that'll enshittify like all the others.
Because Kagi is a really good search engine, and because a search engine is the thing that it's most important to keep ads far away from.
I'm not getting it though because it's American, I ain't paying a subscription to an American company.
I tried it for a few months it frankly was just objectively worse then using duckduckgo/bing.
It was just pissing money into a hole.
I have a very different experience: duckduckgo only succeeded in simple queries for me, anything complex failed and I had to switch to google. And Kagi works for me even better than google.
Do you mind giving me an example? I have issues with technical questions but with enough coaxing I could find what I was looking for.
I have switched a while ago and don't have specific examples at hand. I do use quite some technical questions for work, and struggled with getting answers to them from duckduckgo. Kagi barely ever needs coaxing, and when it fails I can't get results from google either.
They have a direct incentive to care about your interests unlike all other search engines which make money through ads.
I know the appeal of cynicism, but it’s not the best long-term strategy.
Unless you rely on the goodwill of people running open-source searches like SearxNG, you’re paying for your search services or providing them with reasons to enshittify by blocking ads. On google, duckduckgo, and many others you pay with your attention to ads and with your data. They have the incentive to keep you longer on the search page to show you more data, contrary to your goals. For Kagi makers the way to get rich is much more straightforward: make good search and get many paying users.
They make quite a convincing argument here IMO.
I would much prefer this business model for online services. I pay, they provide a service.
No collecting data, targeted ads, etc. Just a yearly payment for a year of service.
It's ridiculous how bad this situation has become without any meaningful regulations.
Brave has it too—but yes, I couldn’t imagine using the internet without bangs.
I use !aur a lot to go look at pkgbuild history
!pac searches the official Arch package repos
Niche Tip! Thanks.
!aw even works
firefox also has that built in
Neat. I love Debian, but its documentation is crap! I hope this works out and I can see an improvement.
Every time I want to contribute to Debian documentation, translation or the like, it feels like the tools and/or bureaucratic process is super heavy and then I just don't have time for that. It might just be me or that I haven't found "the way" but other things I can do much easier. Haven't tried to contributed to Debian Wiki, so that might be easier.