KDE is the way! I’ve heard KDE called the swiss army knife of DE’s, and I couldn’t agree more! I’d be curious to see a comparison of Gnome and KDE users previous OS. I’d bet KDE has more windows converts and gnome favors mac, but I really don’t hear about many mac folks switching to linux.

That’s odd, it seems fine on my end. But here’s another instance link: https://inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=4sfIBRTcRpU

I’d recommend https://privatebin.info, https://toptal.com/developers/hastebin, or https://rentry.co. All are open source and awesome replacement options. PrivateBin is a software package you download, while the other two are webapps.

That’ll make it so you’re not bothered by banners anymore, so I’d say yes. I activate everything listed and then import others filters from filterlists.com. Here’s a link which will let you add the Easylist Cookie Lists: https://filterlists.com/lists/easylist-cookie-list

I’d recommended adding EFF’s Cookie Block List, which you can find here: https://filterlists.com/lists/eff-cookie-blocklist

uBlock doesn’t block cookies directly but it can be setup to block the domains associated with cookies. Adding the EasyList Cookie will accomplish this. It will prevent websites from setting cookies when you visit them. As far as essential cookies go, I’d assume the Easylist blocks cookies which won’t affect the websites function.

It’s 100% a feature! Truly a horrendous approach to lock down a device someone purchased to the extent seen on Windows.

Linux can’t prevent you from permanently removing files. While in Windows it’s a chore to remove a number of files/bloat, which are then most often back after a system update.

Aegis is the move, my favourite option for sure!

I believe Joplin still doesn’t have a web app unfortunately. StandardNotes does and it could help here too. I’d think just making a new note for each entry will time and date it, but any editing of the note would change the time stamp.

In Fedora? I’ve had one or two issues with the updater if I postponed the updates for a while, yet sudo dnf update always fixed the issue. I feel like thats step one for terminal use really. It’s also nice when it’s done this way you typically don’t need to reboot, unless it’s kernel or driver updates.

I feel like Mint is the move if you never want to utilize the terminal. But while it can be intimidating initially, after using it, you’ll grow to love it. Truly makes life way easier. I learned by first finding threads on my issues to copy and paste commands. After doing that enough you’ll gain an understanding of the main commands pretty quick. Fedora is a great starter in my mind, as you can do everything through the GUI when first starting, but unlike Mint, you can still get nerdy with the terminal when you feel up to it. Using a VM is a solid option to learn the terminal without any risk, worst case just delete the VM and make another. But you’d have to mess up pretty thoroughly to need to do that in my experience. Fedora, or Nobara which is a gaming and media centric fork of Fedora, are amazing due to the ability to run great out of the box plus being able to dial in anything you want to alter for your needs down the road. Fedora’s Software center allows you to add flatpak and snap packages, so it’ll all be in one place. Fedora 40 makes NVIDIA drivers pretty easy to deal with too. But this is just my two cents, I’m curious to see what others recommend for you.

Using cash to buy a prepaid card is always a decent option. Makes it very difficult to associate the payment with the buyer. As far as a MySudo alternative, keep an eye on JMP.chat! They do work in the EU now, but they only provide US numbers. However, they are actively working on being able to provide EU numbers at least.

The researchers believe it affects all VPN applications when they’re connected to a hostile network and that there are no ways to prevent such attacks except when the user’s VPN runs on Linux or Android.

Once again, Linux with a win!

Aegis is my absolute favorite for 2FA’s, give it a try for sure. Pretty sure it’s only available on Android unfortunately though.

So Meta, Twitter, Snapchat and all the others who’ve redefined what data collection looks like and keep folks self centered is fine? The only reason the US is throwing this fit is because they can’t access the collected data like they can with US based data brokers, I mean social media. The key aspect of this ban revolves around freedom of speach more than anything else.

If you’re talking OpenWRT, then I totally agree. But something like Asus Merlin is a relatively easy change and still provides additional protection. While part of the Asus code is closed-source, most is open-sourced and Asus has implemented improvements developed by the Merlin team. This shows Merlin knows what they’re doing and are trustworthy too.

Running as much open-sourced privacy oriented software as possible. This includes on computers, routers, and phones. While this is 100% a marathon, not just a quick change, it’s well worth the time. Utilizing an encrypted DNS would be another solid move. NextDNS is a fantastic choice as it has a free option which still provides granular control of what is filtered online. A trusted VPN mixing your internet traffic with others is great, but like you said, it’s not a magic bullet whatsoever.

Fedora SecureBlue is hardened Fedora, and Fedora is also the base layer for Qubes as it’s all in all quite secure and private with some setting changes. I don’t know, but Qubes is top tier in my book. Tails OS could be another option if you’re that big on privacy and security though.

Qubes OS is Snowdens daily driver, Fedora SecureBlue is also designed with security and privacy in mind.

Best bet will be to purchase Monero (XMR) anonymously, it’s literally designed to be anonymous, then swap it into BTC. You’ll then want a hard wallet to keep it secure until you have a reason to transfer it. Ledger is a decent option for a hard wallet, just be sure it’s paid for in the XMR you bought anonymously or the BTC you swapped for XMR. NanoS is my recommendation for the specific wallet, but the tricky part will be getting it shipped to you anonymously as you CAN’T trust a used hard wallet.