So… I’ve done that May 2023 for a holiday trip.

I left with my RPi4 and few gadgets but no Internet.

There I built https://git.benetou.fr/utopiah/offline-octopus/ and my main take away is

• you can build what is missing

and more importantly the meta take away is

• you need to iterate preparations

because just like first aid you need to be actually ready when needed and knowledge change over time. You need to actually try though, test your setup and yourself genuinely otherwise it is intellectual masturbation.

Have fun!

There are Spanish equivalents yes

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 understanding 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

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.

Same here, I’m not a pro but I tried few years ago and it wasn’t that stable. Now I can’t remember the last time it did crash on me, kudos to people behind Kdenlive!

Valve’s Debian based SteamOS

Not to confuse with the Arch based SteamOS running on the SteamDeck which is very functional.

I haven’t dig into it but I’d check https://lucaweiss.eu/post/2024-06-24-esim-manager-for-mobile-linux/ i.e. yes, in theory “normal” distributions as you list “should” support it… but rarely do modems on desktop (or even laptops?) support eSIM. Consequently it’s more on other devices, e.g. phones, and those tend to have dedicated distributions, e.g. PostMarketOS on a FairPhone but not on PinePhone as it doesn’t have eSIM support.

Angry update.

Nice, how does it compare to Kdenlive?

oculus software for my vr

Check https://lvra.gitlab.io/ for plenty of options. I’m playing VR on Linux but it’s using SteamVR with the Index.