Recent content on Paolo Mainardi
Note I wrote this post by hand. An AI helped me review it, tighten the writing and fact-check the technical parts. The build, the choices and the opinions are all mine. TL;DR # I already have a Linux workstation for work, this is something else: a small, silent Mini-ITX machine that lives under the TV, boots straight into Steam and behaves like a console. No desktop, no terminal, just a controller…
Introduction # If you’re experiencing annoying lag or stutter with your Bluetooth mouse or trackpad on Linux, this post might help you fix it. This approach works by directly adjusting Bluetooth connection parameters through the debugfs interface. I was seeing serious stutters with my MX Master 3S , especially under heavy load. It became almost unusable. I also had similar problems with an…
Info 06/01/2025 Update: Many readers requested the inclusion of OrbStack in the benchmarks. This update introduces OrbStack’s performance data, along with updated insights and comparisons. TLDR # Two years after my first analysis of Docker performance on MacOS , things have improved significantly . VirtioFS is now much faster (bind mounts are only 3x slower instead of 5-6x) , and we have new…
Introduction # I have a huge collection of mechanical keyboards (> 15 and counting); when I started the journey, I mainly chose TKL layouts, which seemed the simplest choice for a desktop keyboard; they have all the keys I need, such as Home, End, PgUp, PgDown , that at least for me are essential for my writing habits. The issue with this layout is that you have to move your hands a lot to reach…
This is a short post to remind myself that is always time to learn something new or to refresh memories that sit there in the back of your head, maybe wrong, maybe right. In this case, they were very wrong. I was building a Docker image to be used both as a development environment and as a cli tool. To simplify it, it was something like this: dockerfile Copy FROM node:20-lts COPY entrypoint.sh…
Software Supply Chain security issues are hitting hard the whole OSS ecosystem; not a day goes by without a security incident going into the wild, affecting unaware users and companies with software built with the modern patterns of ultra composability made of a dense number of external dependencies in multiple layers. According to the research conducted by Sonatype in their annual State of…
How the actual build look like. TL;DR # This is not a guide on how-to install and configure Linux, but a list of the components I used to build my personal Linux workstation, to avoid any compatibility issue and to exploit the best in terms of performance and stability. For who’s asking, I am using Arch Linux as my daily driver and it is configured through the Ansible playbook i made.
If you know me, you know how much I love the container ecosystem (and Docker) and how breakthrough they have been in the market the last 10 years, containers changed everything. Even tho Docker/Podman have become an essential tool in the world of software development, as they allow developers to create, deploy and run applications in containers, sometimes a process needs more than just a container…
Note 05/01/2024 : Hello there, you can find an update version of this article here , with the latest findings, improvements and new tools. Thanks to the DALL·E 2 , we finally have a very nice graphic representation of the feelings of a Docker container inside a macOS environment, I will try with this article to make this poor container safe to the coast. TL;DR # At the time of writing, the only…
What I’ve always loved about Linux is its customizability and the freedom you have to configure your rice exactly you like it, especially when you pass the line of D esktop E nvironments to embrace more straightforward environments like tiling manager ; this is where Linux on the desktop shines . Tiling managers allow arranging windows in non-overlapping frames and controlling any aspect…
Procrastination After years of procrastination, I’ve finally decided to give a chance to this simple space (based on Hugo ), and just focus on writing contents. I will try to force the nerd side of me not to waste time on techy stuff , which is most of the time the way to mark the bitter destiny of personal side projects . Side projects Writing is hard - it requires focus, skills, and time ;…
Hello, I am Paolo Mainardi, proud founder and CTO of Sparkfabrik , and Linux Foundation Europe advisory member . Twin of Stefano . We started with computers at around five years old and have been working together ever since, which makes this less a career than a habit. Our big brother Sandro runs Sacchetti di Tessuto , the family company, making custom fabric packaging in Italy. He is the one of…