I understand where you are coming from but I would take the opposite approach, namely not how quickly and conveniently you get back to exactly the same state (because that’s actually really hard) but rather how quickly and conveniently you can get to work, or play, or do whatever you do, from the most generic of hardware and software, including of course yours. What this perspective suggests though is NOT to consider your stuff precious but on the contrary, to assume it will inevitably disappear, due to any reason, from a freak event, e.g stolen to the mundane, e.g. hardware failure over time.

IMHO it’s much more relaxing to consider hardware disposable. My own heuristic for this is to understand what a distribution does, save only MY data (e.g. things that I produce, for example in a data it would be my saves but not the game itself) and buy only well supported hardware.

In theory maybe but in practice documents viewers and editors are rather foolproof as they read content but they don’t execute. The file formats are specifically defined. Also each distribution might have a different default viewer per file format and the user might install a different default, so it’s very hard to target, unlike for other OSes with a well known default.

Targeting Linux distributions is even less likely because unlike Windows or MacOS there is no “official” viewer for a kind of document, being image, video, text, etc but rather only the one that the distribution picked but that even during the installation process the user might ignore or replace. So the attack on the media would have to work for any viewer which seems basically impossible.

Technically possible yes but practically impossible at scale, it would have to be targeting a specific user and then it’s a totally different situation.

I did at https://lemmy.ml/post/51917327/27475152 hope it helps

Backup your data so that you can restore what matters to you. There is no need for an antivirus on Linux if you stick to the distribution channels of your distribution because package are verified. Unlike in the close source world because the source of those packages are open, verifying, even though imperfect, is much simpler. Popular distributions, e.g. Debian or Redhat, have a very strong incentive not to let anything slip. Maintainer of packages also are able not just to track what changed but also by whom, that means if there is a problem it can be identified and attributed rather quickly and thus other maintainers can be warned. It is not impossible and supply chain attacks do happen, e.g. xz backdoor, but it is rare, specific and has been studied and thus partly alleviated even though it remains a challenge.

If you do download executables or binaries, not media e.g. videos or music, from random places though then all bets are off.

MAME

You might want to check into split tunneling.

mostly against geoblocking when I want to watch public TV channels from while I’m not in the “right” country, e.g. when I want to watch PBS outside of the US, Arte outside of Europe (even though I dont think they block anymore), FranceTV outside of France, Ray out of Italy, etc.

Sometimes also for blocked content, e.g. PirateBay in France or AnnaArchive in Belgium but typically for these public proxies are enough.

Ah I also use self-hosted VPN for my own self-hosted services when I’m on the move but it is typically very small traffic.

FWIW I’m not using a large commercial ISP, so trusting my ISP is a big part of my behavior.

I have some of her paper zines on my desk, warmly recommended.

Might look esoteric at first but if you think we will be using Linux at least on desktop, servers, consoles and more for decades then totally worth learning about.

Delete yourself

No because you can go to jail for that, like the dude with his GrapheneOS in the US. They’re probably working on that next.

no… you can not go to jail, in the EU or the US at least, for having a phone with a custom OS. They are facing charge for using a duress code which wiped their phone. It is very different.

Can recommend indeed. I have used both, GrapheneOS and /e/OS and can confirm both are great. If you somehow do not feel or do not want or can not setup yourself, buying from Murena is a great alternative to stay away from BigTech.

Make sure you do it on a chromium browser. I did it on FF a few years ago and was confused as to why it was failing, but when I switched to Chromium it worked.

no worries nowadays as it is in the instructions, even in red clarifying “Unavailable, as your browser doesn’t support WebUSB. Please read the prerequisites.” after a grayed out button.

thanks, which app though? Is it open source too?

Im trying to buy hardware that requires no proprietary app at all, even for setup, only relying on well documented protocols.

2 quick recommendations :

• do not focus on Linux itself but rather everything else. If you use e.g. Firefox on any operating system, it is basically the same on Linux. You can even bring your data over. Most software running on Linux runs on Windows too, so the transition will be much easier than if you stay stuck on proprietary Windows only software.

• try https://distrosea.com/ this way you don’t need another computer nor even a virtual machine

This provides HTTPS

Nice, I often end with with “weird” setups on mobile devices, that could help.

3 Sonoff cams

Nice, these https://sonoff.tech/en-eu/collections/security-cameras ? No HomeAssistant integration? Do they require any application from Sonoff or does LightNVR handles everything once connected to LAN?

if your concern is hardware support then buying from a Linux installed company like Tuxedo is a good idea. If following from that your concern is hardware failure or part availability ask a local repair shop their opinion, they’ll tell you better than us.

If you buy from buy brands, e.g. Lenovo, then in my experience checking online forums for the exact model is enough.

FWIW I’d also consider Pine64 (geographically closer to you) and a RPi5 seeing your power consumption concerns but that implies no very demanding workflows.

that’s like 80% of the reason I haven’t stopped using Google and Microsoft.

how can we help? Where are you currently stuck and what have you tried so far?