In a lot of educational institutions over the world, they truly on eduroam for their bidding. While it’s not perfect, it does offer a python script by which proper connection to the network is established. I guess it’s unfortunate to know that it’s not eduroam then, as I wouldn’t know what the solution would be.

Is this eduroam?

To me, Endless OS seems to be the best fit for you; install it once and you never ever have to give it a second glance for troubleshooting or whatsoever. It achieves this through using “a read-only root file system managed by OSTree with apps installed using Flatpak.”. This translates to:

• The most important system-related files being protected from change by yourself and others.
• Ensurance that your base installation is exactly the same as the one tested and used by its developers. And thus an (in-)direct quality control and maintenance by the very people that work on it.
• As the base system is not changing beyond what is provided by the devs, installation of applications is relegated to flatpaks (see Flathub for the App Store).
  • Flatpak is a packaging format that doesn’t interact with the base system to install software; think of it like how applications are installed on your phone. With this, you can still install software you need without compromising changes to the base system.

Sorry to be that guy, but you should just sit down and go over Qubes OS’ documentation. Some specific entries that might prove useful:

• How to organize your qubes
• How to install software
• How to install software in dom0
• Creating a Kali Linux TemplateVM

If you ask me, read a lot more beyond these. But if you really got no time, then at least suffice with the aforementioned.

Wish ya good luck!

Nix, the package manager, is distro-agnostic. Add Home Manager on top of it and you’re good to go; both packages and dotfiles are dealt with.

If security is a serious concern of yours, perhaps consider NovaCustom’s offerings instead. Intel BootGuard is coming to their new models (i.e. the 14 inch V54 the 16 inch V56). Add Dasharo’s coreboot, the possibility to disable Intel Management Engine, (soon hardware-based) kill switches, open source EC, ongoing work to get it Qubes OS certified (like how they managed on their NV41) and perhaps even Heads (also like how they did on NV41). We haven’t even talked about how they’ll soon achieve HSI-3 and their plans to tackle Trenchboot next year.

It’s a lot of good stuff. And simply unheard of for vendors that are Linux-first. Heck, if their ongoing work on lvfs delivers and they manage to put out updates like industry leader (at least in this regard) Dell does^[1], they might even be a contender for most secure laptop for general use.

While it may seem as if I’ve been gushing a lot already, I have not even mentioned how they fare in other important aspects:

• Communication and support is excellent and a lot better than any other Linux-first vendor; including both Star Labs and TUXEDO.
• They’re committed to repairability and sustainability. While they definitely can’t compete with Framework in this regard, they do offer spare parts (including motherboard, CPU, fans, cmos battery and a lot more) for up to 7 years.

It’s a pity that they’re underappreciated and underrated for not putting as much money into advertising as they do on delivering an excellent product.

1. Dell is very competent in this regard. So, I honestly don’t expect NovaCustom to seriously compete with them. However, I’m already content if they can compete with Lenovo at this.

but photoshop/Adobe Creative suite is a must have… how is that on Linux these days?

We got you covered, fam.

This.

I could probably summarize your experience as “skill issue”.

I don’t understand the hype of immutables, or usability even.

I suppose this article/blogpost by Lennart Poettering should suffice. Though, this article/blogpost by Colin Walters is also cool.

I tried Bazzite today after Nobara nuked itself, and I couldn’t even paste my old Firefox profile since the actual folder apparently sits within the immutable folder structure.

This is simply false as pointed out by others already.

I didn’t even have time to reach the software limitations with how fast I tried the next distro.

You will have a very hard time on Linux with that mindset. And, to be honest, literally any OS you aren’t already familiar with.

Still hopping though, because apparently Fedora just nukes itself when you try to install codecs

I wouldn’t be surprised if you just searched this through your favorite search engine and settled with whatever random solution you came across instead of relying upon RPM Fusion’s documentation on the matter.

and I think I have about every major distro tested by now.

While this could be true, I wonder what prevented you from sticking with any one of them.

Linux is cursed.

It’s definitely a lot harder if you’ve got major skill issues.

Thanks for clarifying!

IMO immutable distros aren’t a best fit for a desktop computer. It can do so much more than gaming and turning it into a dedicated console is a step back if a normal linux distro can do just as well.

I would personally nuance this to: “Current iterations of ‘immutable distros’ that have evolved from traditional distros haven’t matured sufficiently yet to tackle 99.99% of the use cases ‘easily’.” The exact number on the percentage I don’t know. I believe most people that use their PCs as a glorified app launcher should be more than fine. But we start experiencing major difficulties the very moment that (a)kmods are involved; some of which are ‘supported’~ish, while others certainly aren’t.

But, I simply fail to see why a future iteration would not be able to solve related issues.

Those definitely amount to a major difference. Thanks for clarifying!

Thank you. This does give an idea.

It has been my pleasure.

Follow up question : Is Arch really that good?

Depends entirely on your needs. There is a use case for Arch. However, if you’re completely new to Linux, then it’s very likely that a ‘slower’-moving distro (like (anything based on) Debian (or Ubuntu)) might better suit you.

Wait for Ubuntu Core Desktop to come out.

It’s a steering wheel driver.

Could you perhaps be more precise? Is it a specific one? Or are there a multitude of steering wheel drivers that satisfy your needs?

And virtualbox.

Do you specifically need VirtualBox? Or would Qemu/KVM satisfy your needs?

IIRC VirtualBox requires kernel mods. Therefore, you would have to create your own images 😅 in which said kernel mod is included. FWIW, both uBlue’s templates and BlueBuild do a wonderful job at streamlining this process.

Or…, as alluded before, you don’t necessarily need VirtualBox. But, instead, Qemu/KVM perfectly satisfy your needs. Then, you can just run ujust setup-virtualization. After which you reboot, and you would be good to go.

What’s preventing you to install that single package through rpm-ostree?

Unsurprisingly, usage numbers for distros are hard to get due to lack of telemetry and what not.

However, some measurements do exist; like data from ProtonDB. These are used by Boiling Steam for their excellent reports in which some representation regarding usage across distros can be found. Their most recent report can be found here.

Note, however, that the following, as has been excellently touched upon by Boiling Steam, applies:

COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS

Since we hear some of the following comments EVERY SINGLE TIME, let’s address them here and now:

• “Duh, it’s not representative of Linux usage in general!”: And nowhere does it claim to be. As often as possible we make it clear this is Linux usage in a gaming context. The usage of Debian and Ubuntu on servers is safe for now, no need to panic.

They offer ovpn configs that I can just add to the Network Manager, but a part of me doesn’t want to give up!

Does running the .run script do substantially and functionally more than putting the ovpn configs in Network Manager?

I’ll be back the moment Wayland works better.

You mentioned in a comment that you used Arch, Debian and EndeavourOS. Though, historically, Wayland has been adopted first on Fedora. Therefore, I wonder if underutilizing Fedora (and/or derivatives like Bazzite/Nobara) might have been the main culprit in this case.

Been trying for days to install Private Internet Access’s client in a custom Bazzite image, but it’s slow-going to troubleshoot each failure to build, and I feel like I’m fighting GitHub more than the install script.

Have you contacted the Discord servers for Bazzite/uBlue and/or BlueBuild in hopes of resolving the issue?

They’re cool and very much willing to help out. They solved my issues a bunch of times with my own custom image. Perhaps, they are even capable of offering a solution to resolve the problem without requiring a custom image.

Wish ya good luck!

Thank you so much for correcting me! I’ll edit my earlier post to reflect this! Your work on Bazzite is much appreciated! Thank you!