It’s my plan. Not in the mood to distro-hop on my laptop right now, and I got to get through my Epic Games backlog (and also the Steam demos I can’t be bothered downloading again) before I swap over my Windows 10 desktop.

OpenSUSE because rolling release and no IBM. Never used it though.

Currently I use Mint. It works but it’s not the best.

I’d be kinda shocked if in, in 2025, any download of a DE opened X org up to remote connections by default. But I will double check.

What kind of threats could affect Xorg? I can’t imagine anything really exploiting the display manager without arbitrary code execution elsewhere (not that I know anything at all about software security).

I guess the biggest risk is whichever browser I use becoming a Wayland exclusive and not getting updates.

Thanks, that’s a very clear response. I guess I basically can use it until X11 stops getting security updates. I wonder whether an X11 vulnerability can trigger a serious vulnerability even if it doesn’t get security updates.

No idea what that -nolisten stuff is about. Is that to do with the firewall?

I started writing out a question, but I realized I need a better understanding of what an insecure desktop environment even means first.

The question I want to ask here is, what does “secure” and “insecure” mean in the context of a DE. What distinguishes a secure and insecure DE from a practical perspective (physical access, privilege escalation, rootkits, etc.).

Looking at the FAQ, they do “maintain” their version of TQt3. Whether they maintain it to the extent that it’s secure is anyone’s guess. There’s always the question of what kinds of exploits can even exist in a desktop environment (which I should add to my original post).

It’s good that it looks to be still maintained, but I imagine their resources are limited with so little market share and it doesn’t look like they have the resources to switch to Wayland (which I assume is more secure).

I’m not sure my noob questions are worthy of asking the devs directly.

Guys, we’re losing big to mobile devices. Although I’m glad Australia is still going strong at 12% desktop computer.

I’m gonna dual-boot Bazzite and OpenSUSE once I get through a few games. I don’t trust Bethesda to not accidentally give me a VAC ban for using Linux, and there are three Itch io games I want to play first (Horror Vacui, There are Ghosts in these Stalls, Spookware, Corpse Ocean)

I’m not an expert but …

• I think Fedora and OpenSUSE are the best (with Fedora leading). Well-funded and they take security seriously.
• Arch and Bazzite are filling specific niches.
• ReactOS and NixOS I think are in beta, but I’m not paying much attention to either.
• In terms of desktop environments I think KDE Plasma leads the pack. MATE is strong on accessibility though.

Popular equals more money and more interest. In other words popularity and quality feed into each-other (not 1:1, but more than 1:0).

I would try doing this for my Intel WiFi/Bluetooth card that doesn’t support Linux (WiFi works anyway though). Since the CTRL key is dead (again) and the whole build of it is not to my liking I think I’ll get an old Windows 10 laptop to replace the whole system instead.

I opened it and was immediately taken aback at how refreshing it feels to open a page that is entirely (mostly) just HTML/CSS.

Mint is the best distro for people who need you to tell them the distro.

I use Mint on my Laptop but once Windows is done for I’m switching to:

1. Fedora, OpenSUSE, Secureblue, or something with KDE Plasma (security, stability, and ease of use priority)
2. Bazzite (for games, and dual-booted into to protect the security of my daily driver)
3. OpenBSD or something (so if something like Crowdstrike or Wannacry happens but for Linux, I have an alt)