this post was submitted on 25 Feb 2024

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Searching for a Linux distro (lemmy.ml)

submitted 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/12400033 (Thank you https://lemmy.ml/u/Kory !)

I first used Linux about 5 years ago (Ubuntu). Since then, I have tried quite a few distros:

Kali Linux (Use as a secondary)

Linux Mint (Used for a while)

Arch Linux (Could not install)

Tails (Use this often)

Qubes OS (Tried it twice, not ready yet)

Fedora (Current main)

For me, it has been incredibly difficult to find a properly privacy oriented Linux distro that also has ease of use. I really enjoy the GNOME desktop environment, and I am most familiar with Debian. My issue with Fedora is the lack of proper sandboxing, and it seems as though Qubes is the only one that really takes care in sandboxing apps.

Apologies if this is the wrong community for this question, I would be happy to move this post somewhere else. I've been anonymously viewing this community after the Rexodus, but this is my first time actually creating a post. Thank you!

UPDATE:

Thank you all so much for your feedback! The top recommended distro by far was SecureBlue, an atomic distro, so I will be trying that one. If that doesn't work, I may try other atomic distros such as Fedora Atomic or Fedora Silverblue (I may have made an error in my understanding of those two, please correct my if I did!). EndeavourOS was also highly recommended, so if I'm not a fan of atomic distros I will be using that. To @[email protected], your suggestion for Linux Mint Debian Edition with GNOME sounds like a dream, so I may use it as a secondary for my laptop. Thank you all again for your help and support, and I hope this helps someone else too!

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

@Charger8232 TROMjaro is a trade-free Linux distro. Meaning you do not have to trade your data, attention, or currency in order to use it and its apps. meaning, no ads, no bs free trials, no data collection and all of that crap. We also have over 700 curated trade-free apps at www.tromjaro.com/apps/ that you can install directly from the website.

We have a trade-free VPN, and a content blocker in order to stop the ads and tracking system wide.

On top of this TROMjaro is super easy to use and easy to customize. Please see the homepage www.tromjaro.com

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Be aware that secureblue is very secure!

Some kernel arguments may break boot (already have in the past) because of weird firmware and fedora not testing their kernel with those kargs.

Strange things may happen with Electron apps (for me its fine) and you might miss Firefox lol.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

Noted, thank you!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

For me, it has been incredibly difficult to find a properly privacy oriented Linux distro that also has ease of use.

First of all, most distros already offer adequate privacy. It'll always beat Windows or MacOS—that's for sure.

Second, ease of use and privacy don't go hand in hand. The more privacy you want the harder it gets to use. The reason I emphasised privacy is because it's more anonymity at that point.

What is it you want? If it's privacy you're after you can't go wrong with most distros and using FOSS. If it's anonimity be prepared to make a ton of sacrifices. Have fun putting your laptop in a Faraday bag, routing all your traffic through Tor, visiting eepsites, disconnecting your webcam and microphone, only wiring money with Monero, and so forth.

My point is, there is no best of both worlds.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I was going to bring up Kinoite, but others already brought up Fedoras atomic flavours in general. And since you like Gnome, you'll want Silverblue, not Kinoite.

I would add that Endeavour makes setting arch up much, much easier, and it became my personal main after I ditched Manjaro.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I second both your recommendations. I JUST installed Bazzite, which is a tweaked Silverblue for gaming, yesterday. I can already tell atomic style distros are going to be the future.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

I'll definitely see what the hype around Atomic distros is! Most likely, I'll be trying SecureBlue first. Thanks for your feedback!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

Qubes and opensuse are great for any VM needs. Not sure what the issue with privacy is exactly you can pretty much reconfigure any distro to be oriented the way you want it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

If you like the idea of Qubes OS and Tails, maybe Whonix has something similar to offer : https://www.whonix.org/wiki/Features

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

I've looked into Whonix in the past, as Qubes OS is one of the host operating systems for it. I plan to try Whonix when they release their own independent ISO that is under works right now. Thank you for your suggestion!

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