My Linux Migration Considerations: Privacy, Security, and Convenience for a Beginner

[Astatine]

My laptop is a ASUS VivoBook laptop with an AMD Ryzen 7 4700U processor (8 cores at 2000 MHz), 8GB of RAM, and integrated Radeon Graphics.

I already tested Fedora Workstation in a live session, and it works better than Windows. Much faster, in fact.

[Encounter5729]

Just try it I guess. Do a backup before ofc.

[crossroads]

@asanyan

I recommend against KDE. Some releases are solid and the project is cool, but for a new user it will be a PITA. Plasma 6 was broken on release. Now I hear it’s better but there are still a lot of issues that people complain about.

Kubuntu 24.04, openSUSE Leap 15.6 and Debian 12 are still on Plasma 5, and by the time they reach end of life, I expect v6 to be quite stable.
Also, KDE (at least in Plasma 5.27.11) has integrated flatpak permission settings in their own control panel, so no need for flatseal, though that’s not a big deal anyway.

I’m not saying new users should go for these distros, but just to have it in mind as an (good) alternative, as KDE is probably most Windows-like DE in default settings.

But I aslo recommend Linux Mint (Cinnamon) for new users

[Astatine]

Sorry for not responding to people’s posts! I’ve been quite busy these past few weeks.

@HauntSanctuary

My recommendation is that when you have a semestral break, I would recommend to try most of the major Linux distros that interest you and see if you like it. Also try all the desktop environments (your DEs) and window manager (WMs).

Thanks for the recommendation! I was thinking of installing Fedora Workstation on November 25th, as I have an entire week off. (From 25th to 1st December)

I’ve tried out most of the distributions I’m interesting in, and especially the desktop environments, in live sessions. Personally, I think GNOME is better for my use case than the others like KDE Plasma, Cinnamon, etc. I am, however, trying out a distribution using KDE Plasma. (More on that later.)

@HauntSanctuary

Before you do all that, I’d recommend that you have a separate /home partition in your drive to make it easier to move around while keeping your files and most of your configs. Not all distros put the configuration files in the same place and developers are very opinionated about the way they do things, but dont let that dissuade you.

I admit, when I initially read that, I had no idea what you were talking about . After some light research, I found this video from the Linux Experiment, and some articles and discussions on Reddit.

@HauntSanctuary

If you think you have found the distro that you want and would decide to stop distrohopping, you can start on the LUKS full disk encryption. It’s very hassle to do this each boot but I feel less worried if my laptop/computer gets stolen.

It’s fine, I’ll just use a diceware passphrase. It’s convenience vs additional security.

@HauntSanctuary

The only reason I use Fedora is that it breaks less as a desktop because the corporation backing it spends time and money on software testing prior to release.

I’m chosing Fedora Workstation as my first distribution because of interesting goals they have, in addition to it being a quite beginner-friendly distribution in my opinion. (1, 2)

@HauntSanctuary

Ubuntu is also good but they have funny and weird agendas that the Linux people seem to love to hate but for the most part, they work and they do try to make things work.

I might reconsider Ubuntu after I finish testing these distributions, but right now I want to try what I’m interested in, as you recommended.

Agreed. Very, very opinionated.

@HauntSanctuary

If your Windows is still around, I’d recommend that you grab all of the fonts in the windows font folders. Most of the open source document compatibility stems from formatting issues by not having your windows fonts. Do check your distro on how to import said fonts.

Sure, I’ll do that. I believe Fedora has a guide here?

@HauntSanctuary

Only Office development seems slow. I’d pick LibreOffice bloat any time over it because a lot more people develop it.

I would as well, but as said by a user previously:

@Anon3747594

Use Only Office, it has perfect compatibility with Microsoft Suite. No need to convince professors to use anything else unless you want to lead that cause.

But I’ll check whether LibreOffice has good compatibility with MS Office, which I believe so. I’ll do further research on that.

@HauntSanctuary

• Gaming is 80% there. If you dont play online competitive multiplayer with unsupported Linux anticheat, I’d say you’re 100% there. There are a lot of competitive online games on linux with working anticheat.

• I hope you are on a Radeon card though. While Nvidia is functional, Radeon is simply a lot less fussy, not like the petulant child that is Nvidia but things seems to be improving (?) I dont know since I only have Nvidia on a laptop and I dont play much on this laptop anymore.

To clarify:

@Astatine

I don’t game at all, so lack of gaming on Linux isn’t a concern for me.

@HauntSanctuary

I’d still think KeePassXC is superior to both Bitwarden and Proton Pass but if sanity demands that you use a cloud password manager, you cant go wrong with those two and I am inclined to use cloud syncing password manager for ease of use in the future.

Off-topic: My KeePass Experience

I prefer KeePassXC to Bitwarden and Proton Pass because I like not having my data synced on cloud servers, with me in control instead. But honestly, syncing my KeePass database between devices has been un cauchemar (that’s French for “a nightmare”. In case you’re wondering, I’m not French, but I just like to use certain words in the language).

Adding the new database to sync via Proton Drive…downloading the new database to overwrite my previous…rinse and repeat…what a headache…I should consider moving to Bitwarden…

@HauntSanctuary

Dont overthink on flatpak and sandboxing for now. Discussion about it certainly have a place but it is a bit too much and too deep for someone just starting. For me native distro provided binary > Official Flatpak/Official AppImage/Official Snap.

Okay, thanks for the suggestions!

[Astatine]

@asanyan

I don’t like gnome. But objectively it’s the best choice for a new user.

EDIT: also, a good thing about static release distributions like Fedora, is that they freeze the DE major version, meaning that you can wait on updating the distro until your extensions are fixed for the new major release of the DE.

I’m actually fine with vanilla GNOME, and don’t mind most of the changes they make. (Except this one, which is convenient, but I don’t mind that too much.)

@asanyan

Regarding your choice of distro - as much as I don’t like Fedora, it’s also probably your best choice, objectively. Linux Mint is probably good if you’re a casual user who doesn’t care about sandboxing and only runs trustworthy applications.

I’ve tried using Linux Mint once, and I honestly didn’t like it. In my opinion, the cinnamon DE is more worse than Windows 11’s. When I tested it on a different laptop, not using NVIDIA, I encountered some strange issues. For instance, when I hovered over text while typing, it caused conflicts with the text I was entering.

For example, if I typed ‘privacyguides best desktop environment’ and then hovered over some of the text while still typing, it would rearrange to something like ‘privacydesktop environmentguides best.’ This was very annoying, especially when typing my KeePassXC password.

@asanyan

Ideally I’d recommend an Arch derivative, but as a new user, it might be a PITA. I’ve had very few issues with it even when I was new to Linux but that’s just me.

It probably will be. I prefer more simplicity over complexity. Although, I may try out some Arch derivatives after testing out the distributions I’m interested in. Thanks for the suggestion though, and I’ll keep that in mind!

[Astatine]

@Encounter5729

Don’t overthink it and try it will be my advice.

I openly admit, I do the exact opposite

[Astatine]

Some final thoughts

My plan with “distro-hopping” is this:

Windows 11 (Current) → Fedora Workstation (To get familiarized with Linux) → Fedora Silverblue (For some exposure to an immutable distribution) → Fedora Kinoite (To see how the KDE Plasma DE fits into my workflow) → openSUSE Aeon (I strongly agree with this viewpoint on it) → Ubuntu (Out of curiousity) → openSUSE Tumbleweed (Something I’ve been interested in trying.

I’ve now solved issues such as not being able to use Element and Signal on non-Debian-based distributions: I can just use SimpleX on Linux, and keep Element and Signal on Android. I think all my issues have been solved, and I can research, verify, and troubleshoot any issues I have on the distribution’s respective forum.

I’ll probably do some research for suggestions like this, and others as well. I’m happy to hear any more suggestions or comments, which I’ll try to respond to when I can.

[anon33089522]

If you want an operating system that has good security, good privacy, is compatible with most software and hardware and requires least amount of tweaking after install go with Ubuntu.
People like to shit on Ubuntu but the fact is for beginners it is the best. You do not need to install any additional codecs, licenses, apps etc. The only thing you need to do is activate your firewall, thats it.
Is Fedora or some other obscure distro more secure and private? Sure, but how much? 5% more secure? 10? With all the headaches you will encounter it is not worth it.
Snaps are not bad, from my experience they work better than flatpaks. They are a little slow sure but i do not care. They are containarised and optimised to work with Ubuntu. Last time i checked my network connections no snap send any telemetry or anything of that sort.
Ubuntu counting how many users use their OS? - big deal, you can disable it.

I have tried Fedora workstation, Debian stable, Linux mint, POP os and a few others. The only distro that was set and forget was Ubuntu. It just works. Just slap Ubuntu and focus on other things, do not think about it so much. Your data will not be collected and sold/shared for the purposes of surveillance capitalism (that was your threat right?)

[HauntSanctuary (Privacy is Undead)]

@anon33089522

With all the headaches you will encounter it is not worth it.

The only headache I had with Fedora is installing the Signal desktoo app. I’ve discovered many ways to fix this since then but PG doesnt recommend installing it.

Meanwhile on Vanilla Ubuntu, I’ve seen news articles that Steam itself is having issues with people using the Snap version of Steam because it is fragile.

[anon33089522]

Yeah well, maybe you do not use your computer for much but the issues i encountered were:

1. Even after installing all codecs some media refused to play or played only sound. You have to search how and where to download the codecs which is not beginner friendly. Even the VLC could not play the media files while on Ubuntu they worked fine.
2. Installing printer drivers for my old printer was not as easy.
3. A lot of apps were not in the repos so i had to install and enable flatpak manually (this is not beginner friendly) while Ubuntu supports a lot of software via snaps.
4. Fedora updates a lot and many times it broke a few things. They were minor but still broke them.
5. Even after all thos things taken care of Fedora flaptaks crashed many times for some reason. My 1password flatpak got some wierd error messages while 1password as snap on Ubuntu works great!
6. I have to reinstall Fedora every year because the updater to the next version sometimes works, sometimes it does not…

Those are just some things on top of my head but there were many other minor issues which i do not have on Ubuntu. And you may not believe me that things break after update but you need to just go on the Fedora subreddit and see how many posts there are with people complaning that updates broke their stuff.

[Astatine]

@anon33089522

If you want an operating system that has good security, good privacy, is compatible with most software and hardware and requires least amount of tweaking after install go with Ubuntu.
People like to shit on Ubuntu but the fact is for beginners it is the best.

Thanks for the suggestion. Ubuntu has been added to my list of distributions to try out. (Above your comment) The new update, 24.10, was released yesterday as well.

@anon33089522

Your data will not be collected and sold/shared for the purposes of surveillance capitalism (that was your threat right?)

That was a threat, yes. Also, thanks for the suggestion, and I may try it out.

[Astatine]

@HauntSanctuary

The only headache I had with Fedora is installing the Signal desktoo app.

That was one of my only issues with Fedora before, in my research, but I’ll just use SimpleX on desktop, with Signal on Android.

[Astatine]

@anon33089522

Those are just some things on top of my head but there were many other minor issues which i do not have on Ubuntu. And you may not believe me that things break after update but you need to just go on the Fedora subreddit and see how many posts there are with people complaning that updates broke their stuff.

Thanks for letting me know, but I’ll start in the same order as before, with a minor change:

@Astatine

Windows 11 (Current) → Fedora Workstation (To get familiarized with Linux) → Fedora Silverblue (For some exposure to an immutable distribution) → Fedora Kinoite (To see how the KDE Plasma DE fits into my workflow) → openSUSE Aeon (I strongly agree with this viewpoint on it) → Ubuntu (Out of curiousity) → openSUSE Tumbleweed (Something I’ve been interested in trying.

[bqfls (burger queen, PG (privacy gamer))]

@Astatine

Windows 11 (Current) → Fedora Workstation (To get familiarized with Linux) → Fedora Silverblue (For some exposure to an immutable distribution) → Fedora Kinoite (To see how the KDE Plasma DE fits into my workflow) → openSUSE Aeon (I strongly agree with this viewpoint on it) → Ubuntu (Out of curiousity) → openSUSE Tumbleweed (Something I’ve been interested in trying.

I would only switching to Fedora Workstation and then recommend testing out other distributions in a virtual machine.

In addition to all that, flatpaks, by default, require broad permissions, like OnlyOffice, as an example, unless that is normal? I read that unofficial applications maintained by the community, such as flatpak Signal, may ship with malware or insecurities. Is a VM a viable option? If so, which VM would be fine? How do VMs work

1. Some flatpaks do need broad permissions, yes.
2. Unofficial flatpaks are not made by the developers so are indeed a bit risky.
3. VMs are usable but if you don’t have plenty of free space and plenty of ram (minimum 32 GB if you are planning on using multiple VMs simultaneously, and running apps outside of VMs i.e on the host itself), then I wouldn’t say it is viable.
4. On Linux, QEMU/KVM is the best hypervisor. Use it with libvirt and a graphical client like virt-manager (more powerful option) or GNOME Boxes (more simplified option).
5. VMs are separate spaces isolated from the host system (the OS running on your actual hardware) and therefore, isolate applications from the real hardware. They are great ways to sandbox applications that you don’t trust, however, VMs can have sandbox escapes. And VMs can be detected by some software, especially kernel-level anti-cheat or exam software.

[certainty (Sparrow)]

@anon33089522

Even after installing all codecs some media refused to play or played only sound. You have to search how and where to download the codecs which is not beginner friendly

Fedora doesn’t support some codecs OOTB. This can be solved by installing those from rpmfusion.

[Lukas (Lukas Dutovas)]

You guys have to worry about codecs?

(Said every Aeon user.)

[bqfls (burger queen, PG (privacy gamer))]

[archerallstars]

@anon33089522

requires least amount of tweaking after install go with Ubuntu.

My experience with Ubuntu is opposite. For example:

• With all codes installed, I can’t find a way to enable bluetooth’s AAC, only SBC is available. This works OOTB on both openSUSE and Fedora.
• WireGuard’s config file doesn’t work without PostUp line. openSUSE doesn’t have this issue.
• Firewall is not enabled by default. And when you enable it, you have to set it up to allow local connection. Unlike openSUSE, firewall is enabled by default, and it offers a GUI to set everything up right OOTB (it uses public profile by default, so if you want a local connection for Chromecast for example, there’s “home” profile along with many existing profiles for other purposes).
• Ubuntu is still using swap file in 2024 for some reasons. I need to disable it, IIRC in their systemd startup file. Then, I need to create or install a zRAM script myself, of which will never work. I reported a bug when I tried Ubuntu 24.04 (a nightmare).
• It’s the worst OS to work with containers. I usually layer my apps with Flatpak, Snap, and Distrobox. But Ubuntu ships an ancient version of Distrobox and Podman. I need to install Distrobox from Homebrew and compile Podman myself since Docker doesn’t work very well with Distrobox setup. Even then, the container creation process on Ubuntu takes forever for some reasons… On openSUSE, it’s a non-issue. Even Fedora would update Distrobox, and Podman without having to wait for a new release.

I personally don’t think Ubuntu is a good OS at all. They did good in the past, but nowadays I believe that many people steer away from Linux because of Ubuntu. There are too many issues that even for me couldn’t last a week on it.