Calamity is great, but if you’ve never played any other games, I’d try others before running straight from Terraria to Calamity. If just for a broader experience

For example, people of color tend to post fewer pictures of themselves on the internet, mostly because remaining anonymous is preferable to experiencing racism.

That is quite the bold statement. Source?

It’s working fine for me. I like the improved icons and slightly adjusted layout, and the auto-hide panel feature is great.

Issues with my setup: window title applet isn’t yet updated to support KDE 6. I know there’s a version on the AUR that should work, but I’m waiting to see if it hits the Arch extras repo soon. My Papirus icons don’t seem to be applying, so all my folders are Green but Dolphin’s icon itself is blue. I also did get a weird temporary black box when moving a window out of the way from an auto hide panel, and the auto hide causes a stutter when it comes back into view.

1050 Ti laptop running X11 (optimus-manager) through HDMI with lid closed

What website? Sounds like a site issue.

Same with windows, Android, iOS, etc.

Windows is the only OS listed where you almost need to break those rules. You can’t easily keep software updated and basically need to install software from outside the store. Only winget and choco are promising in this regard, but these are power user tools. MacOS, and even many Linux distros, ship with a graphical app store that keeps packages updated.

On Android and iOS, most users can get away with never installing an app outside the Play Store or App Store. The app store keeps the apps updated.

Not sure when you last used windows, but there’s a built in store for most mainstream software,

Unless all you’re doing is web browsing, the Windows Store doesn’t contain nearly enough software. Users of Windows need to be used to installing software outside of the store. How many Windows PC’s have never run an exe or msi?

and I’m sure most games come from steam.

Perfect example. I need to find, download, and run an exe from a website to install Steam. Having this be a normal procedure that a user is used to doing is horrible for security.

Yeah probably lol. If it’s a Linux virus that you can detect with a scan, then there’s probably already a patch ready (or coming very soon) to fix the vulnerability. I could be wrong on this though.

I haven’t used Waterfox but didnt realize they’re independent again. Maybe I’ll give it a try, but I’m liking LibreWolf.

https://www.waterfox.net/blog/a-new-chapter-for-waterfox/

Waterfox was sold to an advertising company in 2019. However, the founder took back over in 2023.

Read that Wikipedia page from yourself. Anti-virus is recommended by the quoted Scott Granneman for Samba servers, NFS servers, and Linux mail servers. For desktop use, Linux has a clear advantage compared to Windows.

The use of software repositories significantly reduces any threat of installation of malware

As long as you keep your packages up to date, don’t install random packages found online, and don’t run random scripts, desktop Linux is very secure. No one is using a zero-day to target your home office computer behind your router’s firewall unless you’re a high value target.

On the other hand, Windows users almost have to install software from the wider internet. Windows also doesn’t have an easy way to keep everything updated. Your PDF reader could have a known vulnerability for a year before you finally update it. Add to the fact that Windows has more desktop users and is thus a bigger target for desktop-style malware, and the difference isn’t even close.

Most users do not need anti-virus on Linux.

I haven’t tried it but I think so. As long as it runs Android and you can connect via ADB, it should work. It might be a pain to connect via ABD either wireless or using a USB hub. You’ll also want to he extra cautious that you’re not disabling things that break the basic functions. For example, you can probably disable Google TV on your phone but maybe not on Android TV because it might break the UI.

Use this tool to automate it: https://github.com/Universal-Debloater-Alliance/universal-android-debloater-next-generation?tab=readme-ov-file

I’d still read the description it gives of each package before disabling and not instantly trust that their recommended list is 100% fit for you.

https://gitlab.redox-os.org/redox-os/redox/-/blob/master/HARDWARE.md

It can be found from the “Quick Start” page

It’s a cool idea and there are similar devices, but they never seem to catch on because most people would rather carry a laptop that’s still useful if something happens to their phone

Why not Aegis?

What’s the salary for Brave’s CEO again?

I’m in the opposite situation. I started on KDE but moved to GNOME. I sometimes think about moving back to KDE but I do love the design consistency of GNOME. KDE’s endless theming is great, but I only ever used the default them because I’d notice little inconsistencies otherwise. I’ll probably be on KDE Plasma 6 though, because I tend to jump ship to the shiny new thing that will solve all my problems.

“but you’re such a techy computer nerd guy.”

that’s the reason why

Package count is interesting to look at, but it doesn’t really give a good picture of software availability. Distributions will split or combine packages differently. For example, the AUR has both binaries and source versions available for many packages.

I like having email separate from my VPN provider to avoid putting all my eggs in one basket

I don’t currently use Proton VPN but have in the past and may in the future

With access to the AUR on Arch-based distros, I don’t have the need for it. Normally, I choose:

1. Distribution package
2. Flatpak
3. AUR
4. AppImage

I haven’t yet come across something which is available in homebrew but not in one of these options. I’d use it if I had a need. Currently, I haven’t needed to use any AppImages but have in the past when Flatpak has been slower to update for Ultimaker Cura.