Late Stage Capitalism, Crony Capitalism, pretty much textbook.

Who turned up Google’s nazi dial?

I have been using VLC on linux and android since forever, but recently on my new Amazon Firestick 4k Max, VLC was having issues playing h.265 HEVC movies. So, someone recommended Nova Player, and it played them beautifully. Nice player, I may switch all my devices to Nova.

🤣 That is competition!

You are not alone. Many love its ‘restrained’ workflow, and DEs are subjective. It sounds like you are ready to move to KDE. KDE has a ‘Overview’ that mimics Gnome’s, so best of both worlds and the taskbar in KDE is actually functional. Don’t waste anymore time, make the switch to day. Operators are standing by. 🤣

KDE user so for my personal files I backup with both Kups and Bups (install both) and you get the choice of cloning type or only changed files with going back in time choices. Integrates into KDE taskbar/system settings.

For redundancy, I back up my main sync folder on the desktop to my laptop using Syncthing over my WiFi/network.

KDE eyecandy, oh yeah. Nice.

Skittles…taste the rainbow.

Yes, stick with Arch. Arch is not the issue if installed without the holding chambers Manjaro puts in place. Arch has a good installer on its own, but if you need a bit more, distros like EndeavourOS, Calam-Arch-Installer, ALCI (Arch Linux Calamares Installer,) and even Garuda are all fine options.

‘Classic canonical corporate move’…there I fixed it for you.

Red Hat is a corporation, putting dollars first. Not to mention Fedora is now starting to 'trample on user’s privacy with telemetry integration.’

Some are making the case that Fedora’s new telemetry integration isn’t like the bad telemetry like Google and others, it is ‘anonymised.’ Every corporation says this before they remove the username from the data collected and keep the unique user id. I don’t trust Red Hat…and now with this latest reveal, Fedora either. And privacy is all about trust.

This…all of it. I started with Arch using Manjaro, like so many do. There was a mass exodus that exploded, and the worst lot remained on the dev team. Beyond that, as you stated, they convice their users that holding back packages is for their benefit, when in reality, your system becomes unstable at times as a result, especially becoming out of sync with AUR. It is still one of the most popular Arch distros, and …well…I feel sorry for their uninformed users who believe it is a stable choice.

For information sake; Reasons Against Using Manjaro

You can find that info on their website.

GrapheneOS has two officially supported installation methods. You can either use the WebUSB-based installer recommended for most users or the command-line installation guide aimed at more technical users.

LOL, we can all come off sounding a little assholish, don’t worry about it. You made sound points. The OP came off sounding a bugle of fear without doing any research, or backing up any of their concerns. You stepped up.

TLDR being there is no reason to look beyond Fedora…

This whole privacy issue is about trust. And clearly your privacy recommendations are biased. For example, you seem to put all your trust in Fedora, a corporation owned by Red Hat…OWNED. A distro starting to 'trample on user’s privacy with telemetry integration.’

Now you might say that telemetry isn’t like the others, it is “anonymised.” Except that is what corporations always say before they remove the username from the data collected and keep the unique user id. Again, it is about who you trust, and usually corporations are working and focused on the dollar, not the user.

I encourage anyone to look at other privacy recommendation sites, and form your own conclusions.

I would not recommend this guide. It only recommends rolling releases, so basically Arch. I use Arch btw, Garuda. However, it then goes on to say that only moderate or advanced users should use Arch. It also doesn’t recommend Debian or any debian based distros. I find this funny as many corporate servers use Debian, and I don’t really see any huge security issues since the 90’s waving red flags of warnings and issues. By following this guide, it really leaves no option for beginner linux enthusiasts. I (we) recommend not folloing this guide as it reads like privacy paranoia propaganda piece.

Well said.

Curious, have you addressed this with the Garuda team?

No what you want is unstable Arch which you can freely do by changing the repos, but your user experience will be fraught with pain and issues. You can move to Debian and do the same by running their unstable branches, same results though, most likely a broken system.

Both will get you the newest releases.

Yes, they are Android derivities, but Android is basically Linux…runs off a linux kernel. If you want a pure linux system, I think there is a KDE platform for phones and Ubuntu (I think) but you can’t run regular Android Apps, do banking, etc. You are more open source, but limited in certain areas.