If you’re going to use nvidia, don’t even touch wayland. Truly an awful experience.

Bloat does matter it is extremely important, not because having a bunch of apps slows anything down or has any tangible impact in that regard. Because it isn’t as sexy as somebody’s hyper specific gentoo install compiled without some specific module.

The reason bloat is such a big deal, particularly if you’re new to it, is because it’s confusing. if you’re trying to fix a problem that you have run into / possibly contributed to, a dozen different programs running in the background that you didn’t put there is going leave you frustrated and disenfranchised.

Pick a modular distribution like Arch, take the loss that is your weekend putting it together and develop an understanding of how the pieces fit together. If you really don’t have time choose something like eg endeavourOS. ( or even Void is quite nice (but non systemd so less conventional))

I would personally recommend avoiding something like fedora or Debian. They are both fantastic distributions that work very well. They are not good at teaching new users how to fix problems and that should be your primary goal here.

Try bare git repos over chemo, I’ve been much happier with that over chezmoi

Just use anything and set up a good workflow with snapshots.

Have a “current” snapshot, rollback to it before using and then re-snapshot over it.

Now your system is immutable in practice but you can still edit /etc to debug.

Re your update.

My framework has been great, I’ve had no issues with it and I’m quite happy. Make sure to go with the matte screen though.

In saying that, I think I was happier with my thinkpad, but I have no good scientific reason for that, I suspect the nipple and keyboard are a big part of it.

Framework and ThinkPad have both been a really positive experience.

Yes it’s easy, install WireGuard in a container, port forward to it and copy the profile to your other devices.

When you connect to the WireGuard network on the second device, you’ll have access to your internal network and hence your nas.

I also use a reverse proxy so I can remember computer names rather than ip.

It’s much the same where I come from.

The high quality institutions have Linux in their labs (either a separate lab or dual boot) and a server with say access for training ML models etc.

The dodgy ones have only Windows with no software and require students to buy a second laptop and install Linux. If they don’t the students fail. Those tests were done in handwriting but they are still an accredited university :(

Although, Mull is only 60hz. If you do a lot of reading on your phone this can be frustrating.

I often install both.