Guess we all know what we have to do

Cant say that I have, but will now!

I used to run LineageOS with a lot of my own tweaks to meet my privacy needs; however I reached a point I decided it didn’t fit my needs for security. So, I went back to GrapheneOS. Which, I am 1uite haply with. Ultimately, I dream of a fully operational Linux phone of sorts; but we aren’t there yet.

I ditched reddit, and most centralized social media. I ditched many big tech services in place of self hosting my own. And even that is mostly locked down. Very little exposed to the web. Ad blocking, as well as my own underlying upstream DNS, with a fallback that isn’t Google or Cloudflare. Services being firewalled off. Reverse proxy setup limiting access via IP:Port while also including SSL certs for local only https.

And this list goes on; it’s a constant journey. But the hard part is to still be social. Hahaha

I get that. We all make choices to decide what we do with our time.

Thank you for the laugh, I didn’t catch that. Will edit my comment

Its not that complicated: options.

You are presented with the Steam Deck UI by default. You don’t have to use the desktop.

Installing non-steam games on desktop is handy.

Some people use the steam deck as more than just a game system.

If it’s not for you, don’t use it. Simple as that.

I didn’t play those more than the first gym. ORAS was infinitely better.

I can totally understand where you are coming from.

I eochold the view that if you can read, you too can install GrapheneOS, or try Linux; but that doesn’t make it right for everyone. It’s a self imposed journey. I can’t expect everyone to make the same choices I do.

That is where I will educate people as to why I chose what I chose; however I will not try to force someone down the same road.

So totally understood.

I have taken my own approach; there are things from each layer that I use. Some begrudgingly but others gladly.

The problem I faced when starting this journey is it does cut out a lot of people. And it becomes isolsting. So I did reel back a bit.

I really stopped caring for Pokemon after X and Y, and Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. The switch games were big misses. I kinda liked Sword and Shield, but they had no lasting power on me. Scarlet and Violet are by far the worst Pokemon games to have ever come out of mainline Pokemon.

I didn’t play through Marcus Arceus at all, even though I own it. Maybe I will give that a shot.

I self host as well as use bitwardens service.

I pay $10 a year, and never have I had access issues with it.

My self hosted instance houses everything for my other self hosted services.

I can also have my Bitwarden duplicated to my self hosted instance.

However, the only way to access my Vailtwarden instance is via my network. And for my use case, this is perfect.

Neither of them have I had any downtime; like others have said it’s anecdotal.

The left. It’s far superior.

I personally love pacman. And of course AUR wrappers like yay.

Pacman is simple and just works. No fuss.

I think one of the biggest hurdles for Linux is that Windows comes preinstalled. People are lazy, and want things to just work.

If companies could sell systems at a reasonable, competitive price, with Linux preinstalled; I do believe we could see folks use it.

The average user does not see a computer the same way a tech-savvy individual does. They want to push the buttons and the computer do the thing.

Sure steam has helped make it more viable for game enjoying folks to hop on board, even if it isn’t just click and play for every game; it has made strides.

We also need support from big entities, but that is likely an uphill battle. For as much as I love open source software, and the entire ecosystem surrounding open software standards; we have players like Microsoft, adobe, and I am sure more that will push back. Including DRM and Anti-Cheat from other companies as well.

The average user isn’t going to know, let alone fight things like kernel level anti-cheat, DRM, and closed standards.

Unfortunately not everyone has the will, the time, or the intelligence to learn something new.

And add in many folks inability to deal with change well.

This is just some of my thoughts on the subject…

The reason videos aren’t recommended is because they quickly go out of date. Text is easier to update, and so are screenshots.

The wiki is the most comprehensive guide you will find.

However if you don’t know what you are looking for help on, it is best to search up what issue you are having, then consult the wiki when you learn the terminology you needed to find the page.

I don’t do a lot of coding, but to write out any of my scripts or config files; VScodium works well enough for me.

2560x1440 and fractional scaling works for me. And even on my odd resolution 2240x1400 on my laptop it works well.

Using Pacman and Yay for AUR I have never had to dabble in adding other repos. AUR usually has anything I could want. When it doesn’t, I build it myself from source.

I’ve tried KDE, and Gnome, as well as many other desktop interfaces; but KDE always happens to be the one I go back to. Hell, I’ve even dabbled in Hyprland. I can’t say I love or hate it; it’s just got a learning curve.

But the fact that I can have many desktop environments/window ma ager installed and switch is a beautiful thing.

So, I made the full switch to Linux about a year ago.

My journey has lead me down the Arch rabbit hole. And I feel KDE has the most complete feel. And you can make it as close to what you’re used to with Windows. Hotkeys included. KDE is improving vastly. I have no issues with fractional scaling on KDE backed by Wayland.

As far as package management goes. Sounds like you’re comfortable in CLI, so between Pacman and Yay package management is fairly simple. I have an alias “yeet” to uninstall.

As far as for coding, you can use VSCodium

I’m quite happy with Arch, and KDE on Wayland

I have an older lenovo T590 that work great. And a T15. They can be had at reasonable prices. T590 has an 8th gen i7. The T15 has a 10th gen i7. They work well for me.

But yeah, absolutely get your point.

Not saying it can’t be done. I know it can. And glad it can. Gives people who locked into buying a M$ product the option. That’s part of the beauty of Linux and open source.

I just would never recommend anyone to go buy a surface for the sole purpose of running Linux.

I ran Arch on mine when I had it. And it had its drawbacks. When I bought my next machine, a Lenivo, I had so much better support. It made the whole experience that much better.

I hate Microsoft. And I hope they crumble. Every last bit of them.

First mistake was using a microsoft device.