N.E.P.T.R

Combine this with Librera Reader and you can listen to eBooks easily.

If I had to guess, they probably don’t use the APIs, inside using scrapping of some sort.

Maybe a setup FIDO2 LUKS unlocking, but that requires a security key: https://www.privacyguides.org/en/security-keys/

You could setup LUKS TPM unlocking.

To be more clear, antivirus in general are mostly scams because they are advertised to do much more than they are actually capable (especially proprietary ones that act as spyware such as Norton or Avast, which have been caught selling user data). Hash based antivirus solutions (such as ClamAV) aren’t effective either because they rely on “badness enumeration”, in which you try to determine all the bad samples (through a sample list(s)) and alert or delete them when detected. This isn’t a good solution because a threat actor only has to add for example a single whitespace character into the code and it will produce a wildly different hash (which has not been sampled before). Badness enumeration is shit way to deal with real problems, much better is an allowlist approach, such as a permission system where to minimize the access given and soften the security until the app runs.

TLDR: Antivirus bad at job of stopping malware, and sandboxed apps good for security of your device.

An antivirus is mostly unnecessary when care is taken to not install or use untrusted software. If you install everything as a Flatpak (and modify some of the default permissions), you can avoid allowing software to gain much access to her computer.

While I think people suggesting Linux is immune to malware is stupid, for reasons such as it is “too secure” or “too niche” to be effected by malware, anti malware is like a bandaid to a gaping wound. If you have malware, it is already too late and you should first unplug the device from the network and any connected devices, backup any important data, and fresh reinstall by overwriting the infected install.

If you still think you need some way to defend against malware, use the VirusTotal website, or a native Flatpak called Lenspect, to upload and scan files (such as an executable binary). Lenspect requires no permissions other than network access, so it is safe and the only risk is if you input a file containing personal data it will be uploaded to VirusTotal.

Though to stress again, antivirus is a bandaid! The real solution is to be smart about what you install and only take stuff from trusted sources. Try to make sure everything is a Flatpak and avoid apps with excessive permissions, which weaken the security of the sandbox.

Definitely agree. If they could somehow make it a Flatpak with minimal permissions I would def check it out. Otherwise, I don’t use any unsandboxed software to avoid apps having arbitrary permissions.

I personally don’t like LTS Linux distros because Linux is always changing, and unlike Windows, overwhelming for better. Plus security patches are not always backported because the threat severity of fixed bugs isn’t always properly categorized. I don’t like the following LTS distros: Ubuntu/Mint, Debian, Leap. I also don’t like distros which don’t have good defaults in respect to security hardening. Fedora and openSUSE are my ideal distros.

For example, I recently installed Mint for an older family member and it has been alright. X.Org kinda sucks and she has encountered buggy behavior with apps crashing or desktop freezing. I personally used the desktop I gave them with openSUSE Tumbleweed and encountered no such issues. I just went with Mint, against my best judgment because it is so widely recommended.

Since GNOME and KDE Plasma have first-class Wayland support, I basically only recommend those two DEs. I personally like the look of GTK4 apps more than Qt, and GNOME apps over KDE, but the freedom of KDE Plasma is superior.

The distros I recommend are as follows:

General Use: Criteria: general purpose, SELinux, modern technologies (Pipewire, Wayland, close to upstream kernel)

• Fedora Workstation/KDE
• openSUSE Slowroll/Tumbleweed

Gaming: Criteria: gaming focus, baby easy install process, modern version of Mesa and kernel, first class Nvidia support

1. PikaOS (rolling-Debian)
2. Bazzite (Fedora atomic)
3. Nobara (Fedora traditional)
4. CachyOS (Arch Linux)

Full KVM in Docker but doesnt require a Windows license.

I dont know

What you want is Xournal++

It allows creating a layer which can be saved as a separate file and edited later, then if you want a modified PDF with the overlaid changes just “export as PDF”

Link: https://xournalpp.github.io/

I completed up to rule 13 but couldn’t do 14 because I couldn’t load the image of the country.

Here is my attempt, with the CAPTCHA at the end: Hqh$mayVVIIshellyPb🌖55-y5w28

I liked qdirstat

Probably a good idea. I decided to learn Rust after using Python for a couple years. I took a semester of C++ but barely remember anything. Maybe I should write a project in C and rewrite later in Rust. I personally only learn when I get inspiration to make a program, which means I learn on the spot. I don’t think it is the best way to do things (if I knew the language better I may make better decisions), but it is the only way I can motivate myself to learn.

If all you need is a simple note taking app, I recommend Notesnook. It is free and open source and offers E2EE cloud syncing. That is what I used as a Google keep alternative. Silverbullet is good, but may be too feature-full for something as simple as a Keep replacement.

Good

Varia is a download manager written using GTK4. Simple, easy, and best of all speeds up downloads significantly on most sites. There also is a extension for Chromium and Firefox, but I haven’t tried them.

Yes

The link to the Joplin’s website is https://joplinapp.org/

I recommend Notesnook. It is open source, cross platform, and cloud synchronized E2E encrypted. I know cloud based wasn’t something you wanted especially, but I thought it was worth mentioning because it is encrypted.