cross-posted from: https://futurology.today/post/1308742
Hey guys, first post here and on an alt, I hope I don’t get flamed. If there’s not enough info I’ll post another thread tomorrow.
Its been ~5-7 years since using Linux (Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Debian/Mint/Fedora/etc) as my daily driver. Windows since then for dev and games with kids, but now I have a laptop that can run my dev env in a VM.
I’m an advocate for privacy and security, but I’m also at the “config once, mostly work for a while” camp… I don’t like spending a ton of time fixing things. I don’t need Whonix or QubesOS-level compartmentalization (unless it runs Barbone’s now), but I tried OpenSuse Tumbleweed on a recommendation and the fine-tuning of flatpak controls seemed really nice. I’d love to be able to sandbox as much as possible without breaking things. Memory and exploit-hardened kernel/apps is a huge plus. Basically GrapheneOS as a Linux distro would be fantastic, even though it comes with its own issues.
Am I overthinking here? Should I commit to Debian, Fedora, or OpenSuse and learn to sandbox and harden properly (if so which has best docs and community)?
I forgot the copy-paste specs my laptop hardware info to my phone earlier, but its an HP Victus 15-fa0032dx
HP Victus 15.6" 144Hz FHD IPS Gaming Laptop (Intel i7-12650H 10-Core, 16GB DDR4, 512GB SSD, RTX 3050 Ti 4GB GDDR6), Backlit KYB, WiFi 6, BT 5.2, HD Webcam
I don’t use the Bluetooth or webcam, so those drivers aren’t necessary. Does Wayland work for this, and is that really necessary?
Sorry for the noob questions. Mid-30s guy with kids wanting to get this done this week if possible. Please excuse spelling and grammar mistakes.
SIDE NOTE: NOT AT ALL opposed to learning new systems, especially for security, as long as it doesn’t require hunting down obscure undocumented commands.
Thanks all
I’ve been having a great experience with Bazzite, which is a Fedora Atomic image. Super straightforward to install and use, and things like flatpak are encouraged. Best of all, it has distrobox built in, which can create docker containers of most distros.
Not only does this sandbox similar to flatpak,it allows you to run most software, even if it wasn’t written for Fedora based distros.It also allows you to pin a specific image if you find a particularly stable set of software versions (by default, updates happen once a day, not while playing games), while also having the previous 2-4 images available at boot in case something goes wrong during an update.
It might sound a bit complicated, but it really has been the most seamless and user friendly experience I’ve had on Linux so far.
To me it seems that Bazzite is focusing on gaming. You mentioned distrobox. I thought that Fedora focused on Toolbox. I’ve tried both Toolbox and Distrobox in the past and I remember that one of them came with a warning. Yes, I’ve looked it up : https://distrobox.it/
Bazzite also has toolbox as well, fortunately. Thanks for the heads up though, didn’t realize that.
The good thing about bazzite, while it is gaming focused, you can easily change to a different Fedora Atomic image which is tailored more to what you need. I suppose I’m recommending Fedora Atomic, rather than just Bazzite alone. Bazzite is just well maintained is all.
Thank you, I’ll read up on this more. My main concern is long-term usability (I ended up switching back to windows because an update would completely break the system and no amount of searching could fix it in an afternoon). This would happen every 6 months at least. So that sounds nice.