If an unencrypted computer is now unacceptable on Android, then it should be on Linux too. No excuses.

When is the last time you carried your desktop outside? Forgot it somewhere?

Reddit, which hosts the r/linux subreddit, is a for-profit company driven by growth and engagement, like other numerous other platforms in the corporate members. I imagine this is precisely the kind of tension that prompted OP to ask the question (but I’d happily let them clarify).

I’m arguing that discussion on r/linux if you are working for one of those corporations and want to discuss technical questions is not incoherent.

If you are though interested in Linux for the moral and ethical aspect then it is in direct conflict with the moral and ethical decisions that such platform took and keep to this day. Consequently using r/linux is a problem in one case, not in the other.

Does it make sense?

Trivial on Debian, see https://wiki.debian.org/NvidiaGraphicsDrivers

Source : been gaming nearly daily on Debian with 2080ti for years now. Sometimes also tinkering with local AI via containers.

I’m not sure where you get the “corporate conspiracy” part. Is anybody in 2025 still not understand that platforms do everything they can for their users to consume any content available there constantly in order to sell more advertising because that’s one of the most profitable business model? Isn’t that public knowledge? If it’s not public knowledge are you implying it is “secret” despite those very corporations precisely publicly (at least during shareholders meetings) claiming that their strategy is simultaneously user base growth AND user engagement? If so wouldn’t that be more ignorance that conspiracy?

Anyway, that’s not even my point, rather I was trying to say that it seems OP is interested in Linux for the ethical aspect whereas the corporations listed there are, by definition and by their legal mandate of being for-profit companies, participating in order to improve their bottom line.

Please let me know if I misunderstood your point and/or if I’m still unclear.

Ah nice, I was aware of the remote ML instance option but I didn’t know it was optional, i.e. if it’s there rely on it, if not still work. I thought it was either do ML locally ALL the time or do ML remotely all the time.

Is it just an optional ML endpoint on the NAS instance pointing to the ML only container on the more powerful machine on the same LAN?

Reminds me that now that all my data is processed (in particular the heavy ML part) I should move the resulting container data to my (much less powerful but always on) NAS.

Look at corporate members at https://www.linuxfoundation.org/about/members

There is a difference between Linux, the kernel, as a tool and free software the ideology. A lot of contributors to Linux are there for the money. They contribute resources, including money but also usually staff, without caring for abstract concepts like “freedom”, or they might even actively (arguably) work against it when they are strategically establishing walled gardens and exclusive stores.

So… I’m not saying that’s OK but I believe by confusing the ideology with the tool used for profit by gigantic corporations we are being unrealistic.

Honestly it is going to take you longer to read all answers here than try yourself!

Get an extra HD, even a slow external one if you must, put Linux on it, install Steam and some games, try, decide for yourself.

Overall yes you can work and play on Linux comfortably, I’ve been doing it for year. No you don’t need to be an expert to use Linux BUT it can be an amazing empowering moment to actually learn how a computer work BECAUSE you are free to do whatever you want with it. Just back up your data first THEN go nuts. Break stuff and learn, it’s even more fun than gaming.

Well played NSA…! Anyway :

fabien@debian2080ti:~$ df -h
Filesystem                         Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/debian2080ti--vg-root   28G   25G  1.8G  94% /
/dev/mapper/debian2080ti--vg-home  439G  390G   27G  94% /home
/dev/sda3                          1.7T  1.6T   62G  97% /media/fabien/a77cf81e-fb2c-44a7-99a3-6ca9f15815091

/dev/nvme0n1p2                     456M  222M  210M  52% /boot
/dev/nvme0n1p1                     511M  5.9M  506M   2% /boot/efi
udev                                16G     0   16G   0% /dev
tmpfs                              3.2G  1.9M  3.2G   1% /run
tmpfs                               16G  168K   16G   1% /dev/shm
tmpfs                              5.0M   24K  5.0M   1% /run/lock
tmpfs                              3.2G  2.6M  3.2G   1% /run/user/1000

so basically NVMe for system and /home in .5T and HDD 2T for backups and rarely accessed files, ext4.

No dual boot, no Windows. No regrets.

I’m on Debian stable on my desktop but I tinkered with SteamOS on the SteamDeck, so Arch.

no more “oops I bricked my system” moments

I don’t actually know what that means. If the system because unbootable it’s because I explicitly messed it up, for example by editing fstab or tinkering with GRUB. I honestly can not remember an apt update that broke the system, and I don’t just mean my desktop (which I use daily, to work and play) but even my remote servers running for years.

So… I think that part mostly comes down to trusting the maintainer of the pinned distribution. They are doing their best to avoid dependency hell in a complex setup but typically, if you do select stable, it will actually be stable.

I do have discussions like this every few months on Lemmy and I think most people are confused about what is an OS vs. what is an application. IMHO an application CAN be unstable, e.g. Firefox or the slicer for your 3D printer because you do want the very latest feature for some reason. The underlying building blocks though, e.g. kernel, package manager, arguably drivers, basically the lower down the stack you go, the more far reaching the consequences. So if you genuinely want an unstable system somehow, go for it, but then it is by choice, explicitly, and then I find it hard to understand how one could then not accept the risk of “oops I bricked my system” moment.

Depends what you mean by “Linux” here.

It’s probably not the kernel itself, so do you mean

• a terminal e.g. a working shell where you can run commands e.g. ls | wc -l ?
• headless containers, e.g. services like Immich accessed elsewhere?
• a window manager e.g. KDE or Gnome?
• a software with a visual interface, or GUI, e.g. GCompris?

Based on that then one can answer if Termux is sufficient (or “legitimate”) or if something else is needed.

PS: You can read some of my notes on termux on different Android devices at https://fabien.benetou.fr/Tools/Android

long-awaited plans for an affordable car

You mean the 1, ONE, single, as in nothing else really matter, thing that gave any modicum of decency to Musk despite all this BS over the years and was again the very reason one could have been excited about him making Tesla so much more famous (not popular, as in… affordable) is actually not happening? Sorry, in Musk parlance, is happening next year?

shocked Pikachu face

I honestly feel disgusted because, even though I do not have a car, when Musk on ramped Tesla I was cheering for him. I do NOT think cars are the solution BUT if we have no other choice, I was naively thinking electric cars, specifically NOT fancy elitism expensive coupe or sedans, but rather affordable ones was one potential path. Meanwhile, years later, if I look by the window outside where I live, in Belgium, we do have electric plugs in the street (nice!) which are sadly used by a … fancy EV. At the same time in the city center the silent (literally) revolution have been electric bikes, especially cargo bikes and longtails. So many of those now used.

So tiring that CEOs of large company can claim vaporware constantly without any consequences. It’s damaging to entire ecosystem they overshadow. They already have economical power by their cheer scale but they also abuse the mindshare of potential customers and regulators. We need to hold them accountable to false claims, claims that are indefinitely delayed and it has to hurt the bottom line of their companies.

A group having rule is fine, in fact it’s needed for the group to sustain over time.

Unfortunately if this group is hoarding a resources, here a very popular meeting point for people who (in theory) care about “privacy” then the rule itself does not have to be “fair” or “right”.

So sure, when joining a group one must aware of the rules of said group, but it does not in itself means the rules of that group are automatically correct. I’m not saying here the rule is fine (I do have a personal opinion about it) but rather that this kind of event if precisely canary in the coalmine showing the genuine nature of the group, not what its name claims to be.

Glad I deleted my account last week.

Which isn’t standalone (or “all in one” as I imagine they meant). I have an Index and a SteamDeck. I can’t wait to buy something at the intersection of both.

normal window user who don’t know what a terminal is. Most of them even freak out when they see “the black box with text on it”.

Good point! That being said I’m wondering how we could help anybody, genuinely being inclusive, on how to transform that feeling of dread, basically “Oh, that’s NOT for me!”, to “Hmmm that’s the challenging part but it seems worth it and potentially feasible, I should try”. I believe it’s important because in turn the “normal window user” could potentially understand limitations hidden to them until now. They would not instantly better understand how their computer work but the initial reaction would be different, namely considering a path of learning.

Any idea or good resources on that? How can we both demystify the terminal with a pleasant onboarding? How about a Web based tutorial that asks user to try side by side to manipulate files? They’d have their own desktop with their file manager on one side (if they want to) and the browser window with e.g. https://copy.sh/v86/ (WASM) this way they will lose no data no matter what.

Maybe such examples could be renaming files with ImagesHoliday_WrongName.123.jpg to ImagesHoliday_RightName.123.jpg then doing that for 10 files, then 100 files, thus showing that it does scale and enables ones to do things practically impossible without the terminal.

Another example could be combining commands, e.g. ls to see files then wc -l to count how many files are in directory. That would not be very exciting so then maybe generating an HTML file with the list of files and the file count.

Honestly I believe finding the right examples that genuinely showcases the power of the terminal, the agency it brings, is key!

I recommend letting content creators about this and suggesting alternatives, e.g. PeerTube instances, Vimeo, etc.

Interesting, I knew they provide SIM for non eSIM phones (have a JMP SIM on the way with its USB adapter) but didn’t know about that service. Can you please explain a bit more how it works?

PS: for Europeans who worry about tariffs, mine wasn’t sent from the US, or Canada, but rather Netherlands, FWIW.

as how to change your default browser and search engine, suggestions for different OS’s and how to install them on any kind of computer, different options for Microsoft software, etc. For example, I’m on a Mac just because it’s still good and I don’t want to pay for a new one…I’d love either some simple ways to “harden” it and/or install Linux.

Wonderful, I can do that! I indeed assume that people just don’t “want” to install Linux because they think Windows, or other Microsoft products, is “good enough” for them but maybe they just don’t know how or imagine they don’t have the ability to do so. That’s a great suggestion I’ll try to address it soon, thanks!

buy the burner device in the US

Can you trust it then though?