It’s for tinkerers yes but the RPi is popular because they try to facilitate the tinkering process. That means a lot of people will buy it in order to learn. That’s precisely why they sell the RPi400 and RPi with introductory books.

It’s not the same audience that’ll by a RPi5 without a case or compute modules.

Because it’s cheaper (barely but still), smaller (fits right into the Pi and its case) and more convenient (no adapter). When one just got a Pi that might even be sold with a microSD then they’ll use that.

I’m not arguing it’s the right thing for data intense usage but the “why” IMHO is pretty obvious.

… but if you take inflation into account if the price is stable then goods are getting relatively more expensive.

FWIW ThinkPad is not IBM anymore. I assume it’s obvious but just in case it’s not 100% clear, a Chinese company (Lenovo) bought the brand 2 decades ago https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ThinkPad

I’m not arguing that the quality or Linux support changed since then, just make it explicit in case somebody might ride on the nostalgia of once great hardware devices.

PS: I rocked an X31 with ratpoison a while ago, before the times of MacBook Air and I was convinced I was pretty cool.

Is Linux pretty much unusable with an Nvidia GPU?

So clickbait title?

Check your ISP might actually provide such packages. You might even already be benefiting from it but never used it.

I’d prefer if WebMonetization would be more broadly adopted so that all participants in the chain get their share, even if pennies indeed it still would be right and does add up.

Not my experience at all. Running :

• Ubuntu 23.10
• NVIDIA 525.147.05
• latest Steam stable (1705108172) with latest Proton

and I have been playing “flat” and VR games with no tinkering for years now. I honestly spent at most 1h on drivers or compatibility since I bought my desktop. In fact thinking back I probably spent more time on Windows years ago than now.

True but there are also DMZ options that allow to expose an entire machine. I imagine someone who is not familiar with networking or firewalls might “give up” and use that “solution” if they don’t manage to expose just the right port on just the right machine. I’m sure I did that at some point when I was tired of tinkering.

Also if the single port that is exposed has vulnerabilities, then scanning the other ports might not be necessary. If the vulnerability on the opened port allow some kind of access, even without escalating privilege (i.e no root access) maybe localhost queries could be made and from there maybe escalating on another service that wouldn’t be exposed.

Finally on your initial question I’d argue if the firewall rules are equivalent then it would be equivalent but if they are a bit more refined than “just” open or close a port, e.g drop traffic that is not from within the LAN, so a specific subnet, then it might still create risk.

Indeed was my first thought when I didn’t see on the list.

When you expose ports to the Internet. It’s honestly interesting to setup a Web server with the default page on it and see how quickly you get hits on it. You don’t need to register a DNS or be part of an index anywhere. If you open a port (and your router does forward it) then you WILL get scanned for vulnerabilities. It’s like going naked in the forest, you sure can do that but clothes help, even if it’s “just” again ivy or random critters. Now obviously the LONGER you run naked or leave a computer exposed, the most likely you are to get a bad bug.

chromium being poisoned last year

Can you please expand on that? I don’t use chromium except when I have compat tests to run but still curious.

So I could recommend a distro, as you asked (which would be Ubuntu) but instead I believe what’s better is making the switch… small!

In practice that means safety net and familiarity all around :

• backup your data
• backup your data… and not, that’s not a mistake, truly do it, now. Before you try something new, and scary. In fact… don’t touch your computer, get another one, a cheap one like a RPi4 or a relatively old laptop that a colleague hasn’t used for years.
• copy, don’t move, your data to whatever distribution you picked
• ideally have a dedicated hard drive in there for JUST the data, NOT the OS
• play… have fun, truly. Try to use YOUR data, I mean the copy you have now that you don’t even care if you lose, and try to use them with the stock software that comes with your distribution, e.g OpenOffice or Blender or Kdenlive, or whatever you are into
• delete it all! Don’t be afraid, you can do it, you have copies anyway
• do it, again, again, keep a logbook or wiki or .doc file where you write down what you learn
• rinse and repeat

this way you should find YOUR distribution in no time and you won’t be afraid of messing up!

Honestly it’s a fun adventure. I’ve been learning Linux and CLI tools decades ago and I’m still learning to this day so do not assume there is one solution you can find today and move, it’s a process, a long one, but a really empowering one IMHO.

Depends against whom you are protecting yourself. If it’s against

• your younger sibling then it’s probably sufficient
• some script kiddie or scammer running scripts against the most typical setups, might be just obscure enough
• a proper targeted attack, then it will depend on which zip software you are using. Most likely the stock one that might (I didn’t bother checking) relying on something that is far from the state of the art in terms of encryption. In that case it will most likely not be secure.
• a proper attack but you use something like 7z with encryption that is relatively resilient, then most like if you are not facing state actors with huge amount of resources to try to crack it, most likely secure

Note I’m NOT a security expert so… don’t believe me.

I didn’t try it (because I didn’t have the need for it yet) but maybe https://wiki.winehq.org/Hardware#USB could help.

I’d be curious if there are any equivalent to ProtonDB on both compatibility and performance. The NVIDIA drivers are some of the last closed pieces in an otherwise mostly open system. I know I can get by with nouveau for 2D but if I want to model with Blender or play Baldur’s Gate, even SteamVR games, I remain skeptical not just on absolute feasiblity (will it run) but also performances, i.g can I get more than 5fps.

Indeed, thanks for the mention because I wanted to go back on this. I wouldn’t quality any of this as evidence of Sync sharing usage data. Everything else is still correct, i.e defaulting to Google as search engine, some analytics, etc but it’s still unrelated to Sync. I don’t see how other browsers are relevant. It looks like they and OP are trying to show that Mozilla is not perfect, that they make money and share some private data and thus assume that any data used on any Mozilla product is shared with 3rd parties, including Alphabet, without providing any evidence for that. I’m not sure arguing more will help.

Are you saying Firefox shares data to Alphabet beyond Google as the default search engine? If so and if it applies to Sync (as if the question from OP here) can you please share sources for that?

Out of stock and Linux support is quite experimental.

PS: they both can handle PDFs, tried on mines.

ignoring the fact that I needed to get another usb wifi receptor because the one I had was not compatible

managed to get my printer working,

IMHO that’s one of the most important trick… namely, and sadly, don’t assume compatibility. Do 5min of Internet search to insure that the hardware you buy is actually supported, and ideally without any manual installation requiring to patch the kernel. This makes usage a lot more enjoyable, where you only focus on making your experience better.

PS: I said “sadly” because in theory, if hardware genuinely relied on standards, e.g Bluetooth, without their own extension, custom software as equivalent to drivers, hardware for PC “should” work everywhere. In practice it’s not always the case and that can be very frustrating.

Don’t get stuck into https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learned_helplessness or perfectionism! So :

• every step counts
• even if you are not entirely private in anything you do, you can still be more or less exposed
• you are not alone in that struggle, we ALL are, from CEOs to politicians to random folks, we are all threatened and must help each other
• alternatives DO exist (as a personal example, I don’t use Google, WhatsApp, TikTok, etc) and enjoyable
• it’s not just technical but also psychological. If you focus on the technology it can be daunting, if you focus on usage it gets easier, ideally you combine both while insuring you don’t burn out.

You can do it, WE can do it! :D