As far as the TDE devs know, there haven’t been any issues resulting in a user getting hacked, they’ve modernized the underlying code, and actively patch any reported vulnerabilities: https://redlib.tiekoetter.com/r/linuxquestions/comments/1f81hz4/is_q4ostrinity_desktop_environment_inherently/

That said, it is still a niche codebase with a small team, so they might not have the resources to be so proactive against theoretical vulnerabilities as a project like KDE or GNOME with Wayland. If you’re being targeted, TDE would certainly be a shiny attack surface, but otherwise, I don’t really see why a hacking group would go for something as niche as TDE. There’s a tradeoff, like the one I take with X11 because I refuse to give up my XFCE+Chicago95 setup for an arguably more secure Wayland setup.

Most of the issues of a desktop environment just come down to there being more code and therefore a larger attack surface. Lots of widgets, obscure processes, and nooks and crannies to hide malicious stuff too. And legacy code with expansive privileges from the days before security was as much of a concern. While not Linux, it is analogous with security being a big part of why Microsoft released Server Core, which stripped out much of the GUI.

An extreme case, I also know of a someone who used Windows XP to do rather important work on the internet until around 2020. Only thing that stopped them were websites getting too bloated to load on their computer. But they did follow the basic rules as you mentioned and seemed to be just fine.

Sorry for the triple post, refreshed a couple times too much when it didn’t respond

deleted by creator

Window roll-up can be disabled under Window Manager Tweaks > Accessibility > Use mouse wheel on title bar to roll up the window

Getting the bitmap font right goes a long way towards making the theme much more cohesive: https://github.com/grassmunk/Chicago95/issues/218

If you decide to return to any GTK-based desktop environments, I’d suggest trying out the GTK3 port of the Raleigh theme (https://github.com/thesquash/gtk-theme-raleigh). It’s a much less involved install compared to Chicago 95 but gets you most of the look-and-feel.

The Whisker menu properties menu also has settings to make it fit the Windows 95 style a bit better. Here’s how it could look:

Debian. Truly the universal operating system. Runs on all of my laptops, desktops, servers, and NAS with no fuss and no need to keep track of distro-specific differences. If something has a Linux version, it probably works on Debian.

Granted, I am a bit biased. All of my hardware is at least 5 years old. Also came from Windows, where I kept only the OS and browser up to date, couldn’t be bothered with shiny new features. A package manager is already a huge luxury.

Sadly, NOAA is prohibited from making their own weather app. God bless America.

What do you think of weather apps from F-Droid?

Do TOR Browser and Orbot have proprietary libraries?

Unfortunately, I’m only given a choice between Boot Display Devices under that menu.

edit: Apparently, there is a menu for it if the T510 is a later model with Optimus support. Early dGPU variants like mine are forced to use the discrete graphics, even if the BIOS is hacked to reveal the menu.

Neither laptop BIOS offers the option to disable discrete graphics :(

Don’t worry, I handed out my Instagram to some people who requested it and those connections fizzled out just as easily.

Could be down to me only ever checking it on a designated laptop once a week, but in my opinion, if it comes down to an Instagram account and regular app access, can’t even exchange SMS numbers to text, then it’s already a tenuous connection.

Funny enough, I didn’t even make my own Instagram account. My friend really wanted me to be on Instagram so he went ahead, made it under my name, and handed me the keys. You probably can’t do this nowadays due to security checks, unless you’re Meta making a shadow profile kinda like my friend did for me. I’m just sitting on the shadow profile that would exist anyway, trying to contribute as little as possible.

I’ve only heard recommendations for Macrium Reflect, but I’ve never used it myself. Never heard anything bad about it either, should be good if it’s what you are most comfortable with.

For the backup, you might want to try out Clonezilla or Rescuezilla (for a GUI option).

Absolutely. I likewise moved to Linux more out of frustration with Windows than any of my own tech ability. It needn’t be a concerted effort either. I had it on a separate SSD (for a more stable dual-boot) and dabbled for a couple of years until I found myself gradually booting into Linux instead of Windows more and more.

I’ve been using purelymail.com, $10 a year gets me just what I need, which is as many independent addresses and inboxes as I would reasonably need under a parent account. It is what it says on the tin, so there aren’t any extras like file storage. Granted, there is a bus factor associated with Purelymail since it looks like a one-man operation for now.

I’m not qualified to speak on cloud-based calendars since I design and print my own.

The one thing that stood out about Purelymail to me was having not just aliases, but fully separate inboxes. But I’d also suggest checking out Tuta, Posteo, mailbox.org, and FastMail. I had also used Proton and was considering upgrading my plan. What kept me back was the web interface getting heavier by the year and having to install Bridge to use another client wasn’t my cup of tea. E2EE is certainly a good feature, but I’ve never found myself sending an email to another Proton user and therefore have never taken advantage of it.

Try isolating anything unique to your installation by booting from a live USB of Mint 22.1 or 21.3 and go about your workflow. If it gives the same symptoms, boot from a live USB of Mint 19.3. Hopefully nothing bad happened to your hardware during the update.

Math, particularly snippets from larger manuscripts and documentation thrown around between colleagues. Can’t really predict when they send a .tex and when they send a .md for review.

Plain text is how I have it set up. I have the files named by date in one folder (made effortless with my small script) and a plain text editor on my phone, also pointed to a specific folder. The setup is pretty much ready for Syncthing if I wanted to automate syncing, but I haven’t bothered yet.

I was about to suggest disconnecting the disk until I read that you already tried that. What came up when you removed the disk? The fact that it doesn’t go straight to a boot device selection screen or the BIOS is very curious.

lol