ESIM using silent.link = a phone line that can only be used to receive messages and calls no outbound calls allowed. However you need a phone with esim support.

Physical sim on another device: great but you need a seperate hardware and have something extra to carry and charge.

Physical sim on a dual sim phone. Easier to carry however it runs the battery faster and sometimes you can forget which sim you are on if you are quickly calling or texting.

Mains sim plus VoIP line example is mysudo- use one phone, seperate your communication between your actual number and an app with VoIP. Seperate phones # via software since VoIP is all on app side. Requires you have an internet connection to work properly. Not all services are happy using VoIP and stop you from registering or changing numbers to VoIP.

Lots to think about, best of luck.

It does also have third party repos such as sbopkg. This does a bunch of the movement for you when installing packages though you still need to manually install dependencies, BUT If you also add sboui which is a front end package resolution for dependencies then the process is much faster. I like the stability of Slackware, and also because its helps me get better for when I try the BSD since its very much like them as well.

I would have suggested silent.link , while you can get a number not tied to your identity via esim, the main focus of numbers is a receiver for text and calls(also because it avoid people creating spam phone calls/txt). Which was originally for 2fa that only had cell # as an option. Also a number requires the user to be vigilant in paying their annual for it or they can lose the number. Also I think they can only cater for users in US, Canada and maybe UK.

I luckily remembered this link from a resource i stumbled across. There is a website called

www.thinkpenguin.com

It has several periferals and devices supported by linux that they sell.

Thata true, but you if used in a vm you should be careful as preset selections could end up removing functions on your guest vm.

Its still going strong.

Though there are a lot more tools.

Still sysinit system and as reliable as ever on its stability.

New things are stuff such as -sbopkg(can deploy slackbuilds a lot faster as it will sync, custom the slackbuilds scripts if you want, build and install applications[though you still have to install depenencies in there proper order])

• Sboui gui style package management tool that will work with sbopkg and take care of the dependecy resolution for the applications you want to install(includes previous mentioned details of sbopkg)

I can say even on me when i was new to using it, slackware is forgiving if you make mistakes.

Alien bob still making modern packages to use as an alternative package resource if you want stuff like vlc, libreoffice and such that do not come with the default package resource.

Lol i cracked up when i saw that too. Slackware user myself. Though i do dabble in mint, arch, artix and netbsd

Lol I have been guillty of this when i first jumped over. The only answer was to VM and thats still not the solution for every application

Sorry for late reply

For about 4 hours i beleive. Though it used to be longer as i have had it for over a year and the battery not like it used to be.

Kde is the default desktop eviornment.

It helps that its a non systemd init system so it doesnt pull as much resources on the backend since systemwide is controlled via scripts.

If i were to run a lighter one such as xfce, qtile or dwm it would run longer(varies on configuration though)

As someone who runs VMs, i suggest you dont. Ivd been doing it for about 2 years and i still have moments where lets say i want to expand my storage and a bork it, or accidently removed a virt selection on virt manager by mistake.

An easy solution. Run conty.

https://github.com/Kron4ek/Conty

It creates a virtualized arch linux with all the needs for gaming without having you worry about the heavy stuff. All the list of programs already on the list including other launchers for other games.

Here is a video explaining it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yugKXXzAdqY

Windows -> macos -> pop os -> debian -> fedora ↓ Now

• linux mint(desktop)
• slackware(laptop)
• arch linux(Kvm/Qemu for gaming)
• Netbsd(older hardware/for fun)

I also use them for voip #s. I have a calyx phone so thanks to micro g im getting the notifications as they come in. If you want to make it more private. You can buy google cards with cash at a store to upload to your google account. Also use private card service to create a virtual card for payments.

Im wanting my friends to try out linux, they are all windows normies. This is pretty aggressive approach. I applaud the enthusiasm, maybe there are some people who respond. Id try my own way by finding a distro that best suited to their use case. All an all, someone is doing linux spreading to the masses and at least we can call that a win.

Do you want it to be persistent(all your stuff is saved) or you dont mind it starting fresh everytime you plug in to devices?

I concure, i had pop os with virtual machines for windows via kvm/qemu. Total noob but i got it to work somehow. Anyway several games i couldnt play due to anti cheat, i had destiny 2 on my steam account that i cant play do to this problem as i risk my account being banned just for having linux. Eventually after some tinkering i broke my pop os(wanted to use lightdm and lighter desktop enviornment to save ram/cpu).

Only use windows vm for non linux friendly titles i have already paid for. Everything else will be via linux vm for gaming. Since vm is my goto i like keeping my host computer minimum. Also i prefer hdmi audio for my vms as my switch box has an toslink(fiber optic) audio out. Keeps the audio part super easy to add using astros or equivilant gear that have optical support.

When i was still really noob to onward i have jumped from ubuntu, pop os, fedora, linux mint, debian, manjaro, artix, slackware.

I go back between distros from time to time but for a noob and support with out the box experience.

Linux mint is the choice to go, out the box:

• removed ubuntu snaps(snaps seem way too bloated for me)

• nvidia drivers are easy to install via gui

• docs are simple and easy to follow, i had jumped up 2 versions in an old thinkpad w/ nvidia quite easily.

• it does have display refresh rate changes.

• since its based off ubuntu it does have support for games as well.

• really user friendly

Stuff most linux distros have

• tinkering out the box, only a select few remove that to have the distro set to read only for user or are heavily integrated to work a certain way where tinkering is a pain.

• programming-you can setup it however you like for programming, via ide or through text editor such as vim/neovim etc

• vpn remote access for media- its supported in most if not all distros as well.

One thing i want to know is what your computer specs are, since wether a stable distro such as mint or rollin release such as an arch based will depend on your hardware.