Hey guys, first post here and on an alt, I hope I don’t get flamed. If there’s not enough info I’ll post another thread tomorrow.

Its been ~5-7 years since using Linux (Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Debian/Mint/Fedora/etc) as my daily driver. Windows since then for dev and games with kids, but now I have a laptop that can run my dev env in a VM.

I’m an advocate for privacy and security, but I’m also at the “config once, mostly work for a while” camp… I don’t like spending a ton of time fixing things. I don’t need Whonix or QubesOS-level compartmentalization (unless it runs Barbone’s now), but I tried OpenSuse Tumbleweed on a recommendation and the fine-tuning of flatpak controls seemed really nice. I’d love to be able to sandbox as much as possible without breaking things. Memory and exploit-hardened kernel/apps is a huge plus. Basically GrapheneOS as a Linux distro would be fantastic, even though it comes with its own issues.

Am I overthinking here? Should I commit to Debian, Fedora, or OpenSuse and learn to sandbox and harden properly (if so which has best docs and community)?

I forgot the copy-paste specs my laptop hardware info to my phone earlier, but its an HP Victus 15-fa0032dx

HP Victus 15.6" 144Hz FHD IPS Gaming Laptop (Intel i7-12650H 10-Core, 16GB DDR4, 512GB SSD, RTX 3050 Ti 4GB GDDR6), Backlit KYB, WiFi 6, BT 5.2, HD Webcam

I don’t use the Bluetooth or webcam, so those drivers aren’t necessary. Does Wayland work for this, and is that really necessary?

Sorry for the noob questions. Mid-30s guy with kids wanting to get this done this week if possible. Please excuse spelling and grammar mistakes.

SIDE NOTE: NOT AT ALL opposed to learning new systems, especially for security, as long as it doesn’t require hunting down obscure undocumented commands.

Thanks all

  • @themoonisacheeseEnglish
    10•2 months ago

    Imo immutable distros are what’s paving the future. Personally I’m a debian fangirl, but if you want to learn something new then I’d take a look towards these, otherwise you’re essentially just configuring all the things the same ways as before, which is fine but I think we’re moving away from this.

    Your laptop will be fine, although it has a Nvidia graphics card so that’s always a dice roll. You probably will have problems with brightness control and sleep mode.

    For your privacy goal, honestly just using a properly configured firefox on any Linux is fine. You’re already using linux, and for the rest your browser really shouldn’t leak that much info, so it’s up to the normal avenues of blocking trackers etc.