A new chapter for Attie

Bluesky’s AI assistant, Attie, is getting a major upgrade. Originally launched in March as a tool to help users build custom social feeds without writing a single line of code, Attie is now expanding into what the company calls an open-ended research tool. The new feature, named Quests, lets anyone ask Attie questions about what’s happening across the broader Bluesky ecosystem — which the company nicknames the Atmosphere.

That ecosystem doesn’t stop at Bluesky itself. Quests can pull information from any app built on the AT Protocol, the decentralized foundation that underpins the network. So if you’re curious about trending topics, influential voices in a specific city, or even a niche field like open-source gardening tools, Attie can now help you dig into it.

What Quests actually does

Think of Quests as a research assistant for the open social web. Instead of just filtering your feed or recommending accounts, you can ask Attie open-ended questions. For example: “What are the most talked-about topics among climate scientists on Bluesky right now?” or “Who are the top accounts discussing AI policy in Europe?”

The company describes the feature as a way to “fight back against the proliferation of misinformation and noise.” In a blog post, Bluesky’s chief innovation officer Jay Graber — who stepped down as CEO in March and was replaced by Toni Schneider, former founding CEO of Automattic — wrote that Attie is meant to help people “make sense of the internet” and “find the truth yourself.”

Graber also emphasized that the goal is to lower the barrier to entry for using the AT Protocol. “We want Attie to reduce the barrier to entry and expertise required to learn how to use the AT Protocol,” she wrote, “and to put the tools for customizing your experience in the hands of anyone who wants them.”

Why Bluesky needs this now

Bluesky’s user growth has clearly slowed. The social network saw its user base double to 40 million last October — a remarkable surge within just a year — but it now reports around 45.6 million registered accounts. That’s growth of only about 5.6 million over the past eight months.

So the company is looking for fresh ways to expand its audience and, eventually, generate revenue. Attie is free for now, but Bluesky has floated the idea of charging for the service down the road. In March, the company announced it had raised $100 million in funding, giving it some runway to experiment. That cash is being used to explore ideas like Attie, a premium subscription tier, and tools for power users.

Balancing community sentiment with revenue needs

There’s a tension here. Many Bluesky users are openly skeptical of AI — for economic, political, and environmental reasons. The company has to navigate that community sentiment while also figuring out how to keep the lights on. Attie is one of the more visible attempts to strike that balance: a useful AI tool that doesn’t feel like an intrusion, and that might one day become a paid service.

Graber acknowledged that Attie is being redesigned with accessibility features and a new logo. More changes are coming in the months ahead.

What’s next for Attie (and who gets access)

For now, the new Attie experience is in beta. Users will be invited in from a waitlist over the coming weeks. The company hasn’t shared a specific timeline for a wider rollout, but the direction is clear: Attie is no longer just a feed-builder. It’s becoming a research tool for the open social web.

The bigger picture is that Bluesky is betting that tools like Attie will prove more useful than the algorithmic noise machines that dominate much of social media today. As Graber put it, “Our bet is that tools that help people make sense of the world will prove to be more useful than those that fill it with confusion.”

Whether users will pay for that clarity is an open question. But for now, the company is focused on getting the tool right — and getting it into more hands.

If you’re interested in how Bluesky’s approach compares to other platforms, you might also want to check out our guide on WhatsApp HD photo sending or read about the latest WhatsApp privacy settings.

Why I Ditched Ookla and Built My Own Speed Test Server

For years, I trusted Ookla’s Speedtest like everyone else. Click “Go,” watch the needle swing, and declare victory—or call your ISP. But something nagged at me. The numbers looked too clean. Too consistent. So I decided to stop being a passive consumer of speed tests and start running my own.

I set up a private speed test server on a virtual private server (VPS) located in a major data center. The idea was simple: measure my real-world connection without Ookla’s optimizations, server selection bias, or traffic shaping. What I found changed how I think about internet performance.

The Ookla Problem: Servers Built to Make You Look Fast

Ookla’s infrastructure is massive—thousands of servers worldwide. But here’s the catch: ISPs can host their own Ookla servers. And many do. That means when you test with an ISP-hosted server, you’re essentially measuring the speed of your local network plus a short hop to the ISP’s own rack. Of course it looks fast.

Even when you pick a random third-party server, Ookla’s algorithm tends to select the one with the lowest latency and highest throughput. That’s great for a best-case scenario. But the real internet isn’t a best-case scenario. You don’t get to choose your server when you stream Netflix, join a Zoom call, or play Call of Duty.

How My Self-Hosted Test Changed the Results

My own server sits in a different city, three hops away from my ISP’s backbone. No special peering. No optimization. Just a standard Linux box running OpenSpeedTest and iperf3.

The first test was sobering. Ookla gave me 940 Mbps down, 35 Mbps up. My server? 620 Mbps down, 28 Mbps up. That’s a 34% drop on download. Not a fluke—I ran it twelve times over three days. The gap persisted.

Why? Because my ISP’s Ookla server is practically inside the exchange. My server requires traversing an actual internet path, complete with congestion, routing delays, and the occasional packet loss. That’s the connection you actually live with.

Bufferbloat: The Silent Killer Ookla Ignores

Ookla measures throughput and ping. It does not measure bufferbloat—the latency spike that happens when your connection is saturated. This is a huge blind spot.

I ran a bufferbloat test alongside my speed test server. With Ookla, my ping was 12 ms. Under load from my server, it jumped to 380 ms. That explains why your video call stutters even when “speed is fine.” Ookla’s short burst test doesn’t fill the buffer long enough to reveal the problem.

A self-hosted test with a sustained download exposes bufferbloat immediately. It’s the difference between a sprint and a marathon. Your ISP optimizes for the sprint. Real life is a marathon.

Peak-Hour Performance: The Truth Comes Out at 8 PM

Ookla tests at any time of day. But ISPs know when people test. They can prioritize speed test traffic. It sounds paranoid, but it’s documented: traffic shaping and deep packet inspection can identify Ookla traffic and give it a fast lane.

I scheduled my server to run tests automatically every hour for a week. The results were eye-opening. At 3 AM, I got 890 Mbps. At 8 PM on a Tuesday? 410 Mbps. That’s a 54% drop during peak hours. Ookla tests taken at 3 PM looked fine. They didn’t reflect my evening experience at all.

If you’re only testing during the day or late at night, you’re getting a lie. A self-hosted server gives you the full picture—including the ugly hours.

How to Build Your Own Speed Test Server

You don’t need to be a network engineer. Here’s the quick version:

• Get a VPS — Any provider like DigitalOcean, Linode, or AWS Lightsail works. Pick a location far from your home for realistic results.
• Install OpenSpeedTest — It’s a free, open-source HTML5 speed test. Deploy it with Docker in about five minutes.
• Set up iperf3 — For more granular testing, iperf3 gives you TCP and UDP throughput, jitter, and packet loss.
• Run tests at different times — Use cron jobs or a simple script to automate hourly tests. Log everything.

That’s it. You now have a truth-teller that doesn’t care about your ISP’s feelings.

What Your ISP Doesn’t Want You to Know

After a month of data, here’s what I learned: Ookla is a useful tool, but it’s a marketing tool first. It shows you the best possible version of your connection. My self-hosted speed test server showed me the real version—the one that lags during peak hours, bloats under load, and doesn’t get special treatment from the ISP.

If you’re serious about knowing your internet’s actual performance, don’t rely on one test from one provider. Run your own. The truth is worth the 20 minutes it takes to set up.

HDR gaming on Linux: no longer a pipe dream

For years, High Dynamic Range gaming on Linux was a punchline. You could buy a fancy HDR monitor, boot up a title on Steam, and get… washed-out colors, crushed blacks, or a desktop that looked like someone smeared Vaseline on the screen. The promise was always there. The delivery? Barely.

That’s changed. In 2026, Linux can do HDR gaming properly — not through hacks, not through third-party patches that break every other update, but through genuine, upstream support. The combination of KDE Plasma 6 and Gamescope has turned a frustrating mess into something that just works. Here’s exactly what you need and how to set it up.

What changed? The software stack that finally works

The turning point was Wayland. The display protocol that Linux enthusiasts have been championing for years finally got serious HDR support baked in. But Wayland alone isn’t enough — you need a compositor that knows what to do with it. That’s where KDE Plasma 6 comes in.

KDE’s developers put serious work into color management and HDR output. The result is a desktop environment that can switch between SDR and HDR modes without you needing to restart X11 or fiddle with config files. It just detects your monitor’s capabilities and asks what you want to do.

Then there’s Gamescope. This is Valve’s micro-compositor, originally built for the Steam Deck. It wraps your game in its own little display environment, handling HDR metadata, color conversion, and refresh rate locking. When you launch a game through Gamescope, it gets a clean HDR pipeline — no fighting with the rest of the desktop.

Together, these two pieces form the backbone of modern Linux HDR gaming. No custom kernels. No patched drivers. Just a distro that ships recent software.

Hardware you’ll actually need

Before you dive in, check your gear. HDR on Linux makes specific demands.

GPU: AMD leads, Intel works, Nvidia is complicated

An AMD Radeon RX 6000 or RX 7000 series card is the smoothest path. AMD’s open-source drivers have excellent HDR support under Wayland. Intel’s Arc GPUs also work well if you’re on a recent kernel (6.8 or later).

Nvidia? It’s getting better. The proprietary driver (version 555 and above) supports Wayland HDR, but expect more edge cases — flickering in some full-screen games, weird behavior with multiple monitors. If you have an Nvidia card, make sure you’re on the latest driver and using a distro that ships it cleanly.

Monitor: look for DisplayHDR 600 or higher

Not all HDR monitors are created equal. A DisplayHDR 400 panel will technically work, but the experience is underwhelming — low peak brightness, poor local dimming. Aim for DisplayHDR 600 or better. OLED panels are ideal because each pixel controls its own brightness, giving you true blacks and vibrant highlights.

Your monitor also needs to support HDR10. That’s the standard Linux uses. Dolby Vision and HDR10+ are not supported on the desktop yet.

Cable: DisplayPort 1.4 or HDMI 2.1

This is the part people forget. A cheap HDMI 1.4 cable will bottleneck your HDR signal. Use DisplayPort 1.4 or HDMI 2.1 to get the full 10-bit color depth and high refresh rates. If your monitor and GPU support DSC (Display Stream Compression), even better — you can push 4K at 144Hz with HDR enabled.

Step-by-step: setting up HDR gaming on Linux

Let’s get practical. These steps assume you’re on a distro that packages recent software — Fedora 40+, Arch Linux, or openSUSE Tumbleweed. Ubuntu 24.04 LTS works too, but you’ll need the KDE Plasma 6 backports PPA.

1. Install KDE Plasma 6

If you’re not already on Plasma 6, switch to it. On Fedora: sudo dnf groupinstall "KDE Plasma Workspaces". On Arch: sudo pacman -S plasma-meta. Make sure you log into a Wayland session, not X11 — you’ll see the option at the login screen.

2. Enable HDR in display settings

Open System Settings → Display and Monitor. You should see an “HDR” toggle if your monitor supports it. Turn it on. The screen will go dark for a second, then come back with noticeably richer colors. You can also set the SDR brightness slider here — this controls how bright standard content (like your web browser) appears while HDR is active.

3. Install Gamescope

Gamescope is available in most distro repos. On Fedora: sudo dnf install gamescope. On Arch: sudo pacman -S gamescope. On Ubuntu: sudo apt install gamescope (if the version is too old, grab it from the Kisak Mesa PPA).

4. Launch a game with HDR

Open a terminal and run something like this:

gamescope -W 2560 -H 1440 -r 144 --hdr-enabled -- %command%

Replace the resolution and refresh rate with your monitor’s specs. The --hdr-enabled flag is the magic part — it tells Gamescope to pass HDR metadata to the game.

For Steam games, you can set this as a launch option. Right-click the game in your library → Properties → Launch Options, paste the command above. For non-Steam games, wrap the executable the same way.

5. Check the game’s HDR settings

Not every game automatically switches to HDR mode. You may need to go into the in-game video settings and enable HDR manually. Titles built on modern engines — Unreal Engine 5, Unity HDRP, or Vulkan-native renderers — usually detect the HDR signal and prompt you. Older games with HDR patches (like Resident Evil Village or Cyberpunk 2077) require you to toggle it on.

Which games actually work?

The list is growing fast. Here are the titles I’ve tested that work without major issues:

• Cyberpunk 2077 — HDR looks stunning on an OLED. Bright neon, deep shadows. Needs in-game HDR enabled.
• Horizon Forbidden West — Native Linux port. HDR works out of the box with Gamescope.
• Baldur’s Gate 3 — The UI can be a bit bright in HDR, but the game world benefits hugely from the wider color range.
• Forza Horizon 5 — Runs via Proton. HDR needs the --hdr-enabled flag and in-game toggle.
• Doom Eternal — id Tech 7 handles HDR beautifully. Smooth, responsive, and vibrant.

Games that use DirectX 12 with HDR can be trickier. Some need Proton Experimental or GE-Proton to get the HDR path working. Check ProtonDB before you buy.

Troubleshooting common HDR problems on Linux

HDR on Linux isn’t perfect yet. Here’s what you might run into and how to fix it.

Screen goes black when enabling HDR — Your cable might not support the bandwidth. Try lowering the refresh rate to 60Hz temporarily. If that fixes it, upgrade to a certified HDMI 2.1 or DP 1.4 cable.

Colors look washed out in desktop mode — This is usually a color profile issue. Go to System Settings → Color and make sure you have an ICC profile loaded for your monitor. Without it, the desktop can’t map SDR content correctly into the HDR container.

Game crashes on launch with Gamescope — Try adding --mangoapp to the Gamescope command. This enables the performance overlay and sometimes stabilizes the compositor. If that doesn’t work, run the game without Gamescope first to confirm it launches at all.

HDR toggle is grayed out in display settings — Your GPU driver might not be reporting HDR support. Check that you’re on a Wayland session (run echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE in a terminal — it should say wayland). Also confirm your monitor is connected via a port that supports HDR — some monitors only enable HDR on specific HDMI inputs.

The verdict: is Linux HDR gaming ready?

For the first time, I’d say yes — with caveats. If you have the right hardware (AMD GPU, decent HDR monitor, proper cable) and a distro that stays current, you can get a genuinely good HDR experience. Colors pop. Highlights shine. Black levels stay black.

It’s not as frictionless as Windows, where HDR has been a standard feature for years. But Windows HDR has its own problems — auto brightness, inconsistent app support, and the infamous “washed out desktop” issue that Microsoft still hasn’t fully fixed. Linux’s approach, while newer, is more technically sound: a clean pipeline from compositor to game, with no mystery processing in between.

If you’ve been waiting for the right moment to try HDR gaming on Linux, this is it. Grab a recent distro, install KDE Plasma 6, and let Gamescope handle the heavy lifting. The future of PC gaming is open source — and it’s finally bright.