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I've made the mistake of building my workflow around a non-open thirdparty tool... Tactiq automatically saves the transcriptions of online meetings on google meets and Teams. I know both allow you to save transcripts if you're the meeting organizer but I'm usually not the organizer. I've tried to find similar tools for Firefox but haven't found much and what I did find didn't work the way I expected.

Is there anything that does a similar job but works with Firefox and preferably saves everything locally.

Hey all,

I've been a Linux user for many years now, primarily on full featured GNOME and KDE desktop environments. However, as I've gotten older and developed arthritis in my hands, I've found myself relying more and more on Android for its easy and available voice-to-text keyboard input.

Being able to dictate messages is sometimes the only comfortable way to communicate. I don't want to have to switch over to Mac just to get usable system-wide voice input, but I have been considering it.

So I'm wondering if there have been any improvements on this front in recent Linux distros or GNOME releases? Last I checked a few years ago, the voice recognition and dictation options were still quite limited compared to mobile operating systems or Mac.

Are there any new solutions for Linux voice-to-text that works well across different apps either working now or in development? Have I overlooked any obvious choice?

Here’s a little script I use for every fresh install I do. It isn’t ground breaking stuff, but it saves me the hassle of diving into settings and finding all the check boxes to check. Here it is:

# Set Gnome Clock to AM/PM Mode
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface clock-format '12h'

# Enable Fractional Scaling
gsettings set org.gnome.mutter experimental-features "['scale-monitor-framebuffer']"

# Add Minimize and Maximize buttons
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences button-layout ':minimize,maximize,close'

# Display Battery Percentage
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface show-battery-percentage true

# Enable Tap to Click
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.touchpad tap-to-click true

# Enable Natural Scrolling
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.mouse natural-scroll true
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.touchpad natural-scroll true

# Install Flatpak
sudo apt install flatpak

# Add Flathub repository
flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

# Install GNOME Software plugin
sudo apt install gnome-software-plugin-flatpak

To finish making gnome into a comfortable home for me, I also manually install the dash-to-dock and blur my shell gnome extensions.

Also note that I used to run into a bug with some apps and the fractional scaling option turned on. Even with the scaling set to a round number, apps like Vivaldi would be blurry when fractional scaling was enabled. When I had that issue I'd disable it and use gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface text-scaling-factor 1.2 instead.

Recently, I found myself needing the latest Firefox version, specifically version 115, for its GPU accelerated video capabilities. My machine isn't the most powerful, so this feature was a game-changer for me. With previous Firefox versions, I was limited to 1080p for smooth video playback or could manage 1440p, but with occasional stuttering. Even worse, my computer would become extremely sluggish during this.

However, with Firefox v115, I can now smoothly run 4K video at 10% CPU utilization (max) without any issues. Even 8k is smooth, though CPU usage jumps to 80%+.

didn't want to remove Firefox Extended Support Release (ESR), so I decided to install the latest Firefox version alongside the default ESR.

Here are the commands I used to install the latest Firefox version:

cd /opt

# Download the latest version of Firefox
sudo wget -O firefox.tar.bz2 "https://download.mozilla.org/?product=firefox-latest&os=linux64&lang=en-US"


sudo tar xjf firefox.tar.bz2

# Create a symbolic link
sudo ln -s /opt/firefox/firefox /usr/bin/firefox

# Create a desktop entry for GNOME
echo -e '[Desktop Entry]\n Version=1.0\n Name=firefox\n Exec=/opt/firefox/firefox\n Icon=/opt/firefox/browser/icons/mozicon128.png\n Type=Application\n Categories=Application' | sudo tee /usr/share/applications/firefox.desktop

Additionally, I wanted to easily differentiate between the two Firefox versions on my machine. To do this, I created a .icons directory in my home directory and downloaded an appealing Firefox PNG icon from here.

I then updated the icon line in /usr/share/applications/firefox.desktop to use my newly downloaded icon. Now, I can easily distinguish between the two versions at a glance.

I've found myself immersed in RPM land for so long that I seem to have forgotten the "proper" way of doing things. I jumped ship for Debian 12 before the recent Red Hat nuttiness, but I wanted to keep Gnome 44.

To install Gnome 44 and took the following steps:

1. Added the following lines to the file /etc/apt/sources.list.d/experimental.list:

deb http:ftp.debian.org/debian experimental main contrib non-free
deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian sid main 

2. Ran apt update (without upgrade) and proceeded to install Gnome components using the command:

apt install -t experimental baobab eog evince gdm3 gjs gnome-backgrounds gnome-calculator gnome-characters gnome-contacts gnome-control-center gnome-disk-utility gnome-font-viewer gnome-keyring gnome-logs gnome-menus gnome-online-accounts gnome-remote-desktop gnome-session gnome-settings-daemon gnome-shell gnome-shell-extensions gnome-software gnome-system-monitor gnome-text-editor gnome-user-docs mutter gnome-desktop3-data

3. Additionally, I executed the command:

sudo apt-mark auto baobab eog evince gdm3 gjs gnome-backgrounds gnome-calculator gnome-characters gnome-contacts gnome-control-center gnome-disk-utility gnome-font-viewer gnome-keyring gnome-logs gnome-menus gnome-online-accounts gnome-remote-desktop gnome-session gnome-settings-daemon gnome-shell gnome-shell-extensions gnome-software gnome-system-monitor gnome-text-editor gnome-user-docs mutter gnome-desktop3-data

(Note: I discovered these commands from a now deleted Reddit post, but they aligned with my previous experiences with Fedora and BSD.)

4. Finally, as a precautionary measure, I commented out both lines in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/experimental.list to avoid inadvertent updates in the future. Fortunately, everything went according to plan, and I'm currently using Gnome-Web on Gnome 44. However, in hindsight, I realize I should have conducted more research before diving in. Now, I'm curious to know if there was a more optimal approach to achieve the same outcome. Is there a better way to I could have gotten the specific newer packages?