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?

my games from Steam and GOG.

Steam handles all that for you, you don’t even have to know about Wine or Proton.

But also want to continue to rip my bluray and dvds.

dvdbackup

Also be able to get my Audiobook from Audible to MP3. I have Windows program that does that but no Linux one.

maybe yt-dlp

https://support.nitrokey.com/t/unlocking-luks-volume-with-nitrokey-3-on-debian-12-2/5553/15 could be useful too

Checkout SplinterCon if you think about this seriously.

Honestly it’s tricky. The first time I switched from a “normal” keyboard to a relatively fancy Ergodox EZ I tried for a week, heck maybe even a month, then gave up for half a year, maybe even a year. Then I tried again with more free time to transition, trained a bit then was hooked. Then I moved to much small and thinner with a Corne-ish Zen. Initially it was again tricky then loved it to the point that using any other keyboard feels “wrong” now, even the Ergodox EZ or Moonlander. Now I’m going to try the Dilemma V3 and Piantor Pro BT and honestly I expect to dislike them both for a short while.

So… yeah, I don’t think finding the “perfect” keyboard forever is possible. We are all on a journey of both learning and training. It’s challenging but well worth it IMHO!

If you ask for a custom keyboard it’s always safer to ask. I would suggest once you settle on whatever is most important to you, keyboard itself, switches, caps, etc you stick to this and ask around for the next piece. Sorry for not being more direct but I dont want to be a bad influence.

you might want to try https://www.kailh.net/products/kailh-deep-sea-silent-pro-box-switch-set?variant=43645770334450