I totally agree with your take here. I’d also like to add that I went the Synology route and since it is restricted to my local network, it did not require the creation of an account. Seems like it’s possible to be an anonymous Synology user for now.

I’ve had similar experiences moving to Linux on various machines. I don’t yet understand the pattern. Why do some distros work better on some machines than others?

I have an original MS Surface Pro. Ubuntu works best on it, imo.

I have a 10 year old Asus laptop that has all kinds of seemingly random issues - currently on Mint but about to migrate to OpenSuse.

I have a 4 year old Dell laptop and it likes Garuda the best.

Go figure.

I love Ventoy for this reason. I can try 8 different distros till I find one that works best on a particular machine.

This process sounds very flexible. Got a link about how to set this up?

I’d also like to learn how to do this but it seems like a steep learning curve for a non-expert user. If you have any resources to share to learn this kung fu, please post

I’ve tried a few times to use Timeshift to restore to a new disk. Once it worked without any issue. This last time it did not and I suspect grub just needs to be rebuilt. I’ve read that it is always possible but Timeshift certainly doesn’t make it easy in every case

I do something similar but my live USB is just bootable Clonezilla. I’d like to hear more about why you use a live Ubuntu ssd.

Regarding Timeshift on btrfs, is the idea that Timeshift makes it easier to backup to a different disk versus using Snapper?

I’m also on btrfs and miss the wonders of Macrium Reflect. For now, in addition to Snapper, I’ve been using Clonezilla to make a disk image on occassion. I’m in the process of figuring out something like Vorta to replace that process.

Well said! I really enjoyed reading this post. I’ve been interested in this topic for over 20 years but I feel like you delivered a bleeding edge analysis of the current state of affairs much better than anything else I’ve read. In particular, this post and the supporting docs crystallized the difference between privacy and security for me. I’m interested in both but had taken it for granted that enhancing privacy always benefitted security. Now I see how my own personal desire for control over my systems does involve some trade-off with security. There is a lot of food for thought here!

Unfortunately, I don’t appreciate any of the current options for a more secure desktop. I hate the direction Microsoft is taking Windows since 8.1. I’m familiar with the telemetry workarounds and found them to be volatile and fussy; it feels like I’m constantly swimming against the tide with them. And the new forced update paradigm is terrible. All too often their forced updates either remove functionality, control, or features, if not straight up break my system - worse than any Linux experience I’ve had. Not to mention forcing ads and “AI” into everything. Basically I don’t want to be an obligate beta tester or constantly manage workarounds for “features” I didn’t agree to. I could go on and on.

In my opinion, the Mac ecosystem is similarly terrible with respect to user control and transparency. I loved Mac back in the early 00s but since then I find them infuriating to use whenever I encounter a seemingly solvable problem. And I hate feeling trapped by a corporate ecosystem.

Google isn’t much different from the other two, with the additional issues of privacy violations, incompetent (if not hostile) leadership and anti-consumer behavior.

Qubes sounds problematic at best but I may explore secureblue. I had a terrible time with Fedora when I gave it a go last year. Trying to encrypt the boot drive with BTRFS and Snapper was apparently beyond my patience.

I’d love to see an Arch based distro take up the task of creating a security and privacy focused spin. And I eagerly await the day that Graphene works well on devices other than Pixels. That would be ideal to me.

I’ve saved your post and will be re-reading it. I would vote to make this a sticky for the near term, if that were a thing. Thank you!