My hope is actually that standard compliant (that’s the important bit) hardware keys and passkey, e.g. WebAuthn, get more broadly accepted. This way open source and hope hardware solutions, e.g NitroKey, would allow anybody on any OS supporting those standards (which does include Linux without proprietary blobs AFAICT) to work.

Thanks for doing that.

IMHO it’s show, don’t tell. I’m assuming you have few laptops laying around here but ideally :

• have a working Linux computer and let them play with it. You can have few documents on the desktop to help kickstart the process, few browser tabs opened with e.g. ProtonDB to show that most games do work, etc. A little “trick” you can do is have an email client (Web based or not) opened so that they can (if they want) email to themselves a message like “I wrote this on Linux!” and a link to some documentation your wrote online about the event.
• have another one where you can do an installation live (or play in loop a few minutes video recording where disk formatting, package download and installation, are sped up, easy to do with a VM)
• have yet another one where … they can install themselves! I’d suggest a VM there so that they don’t fear they would wreck your computer

Few “gotcha” I would warn people who are genuinely interested in (as I wouldn’t waste time with this for people still doubting) :

• backup your data (documents, family photos, work, etc but NOT games, music, downloaded movies) on a USB stick before you do anything!
• you might have to tinker with BIOS settings but that is not scary BECAUSE you backed up your data
• there are plenty of distributions, even though that’s beautiful, … just pick a popular one at first because that’s how you get help more easily
• peripherals are not all made equal, even though the vast VAST majority do work with Linux, they don’t have little stickers to help customers buy them so rely on standards (like BlueTooth or WiFi) AND if it’s something expensive or bulky, do check online reviews with product name + linux in a search engine like DuckDuckGo.

Now… the actual argument I usually share with people is the browser. Most people don’t use their computer, really. They use their browser to connect to the Web THEN do their “work” or entertainment. In that case then it should be no problem because browsers are properly cross platform. I would let them potentially use Chrome (sigh) or Chromium just to show how familiar it is and hope that, as they learn more about freedom, they do consider other browsers, like Firefox or WaterFox, Pale Moon, etc but just like with distributions, starting with whatever is popular and they feel comfortable with.

• for the Lynx (that can’t be bought rooted already but takes about 15min to root) I wouldn’t buy it right now but wait for their AndroidXR release… and see if that would be rootable. I personally share my Lynx with hardware and software hacker friends nearby because I know it’s a relatively rare device.
• NorthStar is AR, not VR, and by default isn’t mobile but there are compute pack explorations and opaque covers. Honestly if you are not into hardware tinkering I would not recommend it. If you are though then you probably don’t need a lot of hand holding, just connecting with peers to learn from each other.
• SimulaVR https://simulavr.com/ is very tempting but the price tag is quite high and to be honest I worry that they are following the Lynx delivery delay path. I also haven’t put my actual hands on an actual product so I can’t comment on it.
• Valve itself has been leaving hints for mobile VR and they did IMHO an amazing job with the SteamDeck, namely something reliable (it “just works”) while running Linux proper (even though most players will be totally unaware of it) … but it’s Valve. So they will release it, if they ever do, whenever they will believe it’s ready. This is also pure speculation! They have not announced anything but they did sell the Index, SteamDeck, SteamVR on Linux, and there are bits of code hinting at a standalone HMD.

I would consider that VERY sophisticated. One needs to basically conduct identity fraud, so have enough information to port your SIM via your phone company. I imagine that if you do not call your phone company with your existing number they have a few extra steps to allow anything to happen.

Anyway, beyond that, which as you shared (thanks for taking the time to put those links) is indeed not infeasible (but still requires targeted work and skills) this is only 1 step out of 2 for authentication against a bank. One still needs to know the bank and the login/password pair the Website requires.

Even once that’s done, I believe most banks do not allow large transfers, e.g. above 10K EUR, without another verification. Typically transfers have a daily and weekly limit that can be modified temporarily.

So… IMHO it’s sophisticated (in the sense that a “script kiddie” or scammer without technical skills can’t do it) and has limited economical value.

I will remember it (again, thanks for pointing it out) but I won’t lose sleep over it.

PS: I’m wondering what’s the consumer law on this actually because arguably some steps, e.g. no limit transfer or SIM porting would be on failure on the side of companies, not consumer. I wouldn’t be shocked if companies had insurance for that and might have to pay back whatever amount would be stolen. Obviously this would be regulation dependent.

solar helps that number even more

Wouldn’t that assume you are not using all the electricity coming from your panels?

Private? I’m pretty sure any of the existing means are private in the sense that I, a random stranger, will not know about that transaction.

Do you mean anonymous? Pseudonymous? Hidden from your government or the government where MullVad is established?

I’m not trying to be pedantic here but rather to genuinely understand so that I can try to answer.

Edit for TL;DR as this became lengthy : agreed, do NOT buy “an expensive Facebook paperweight” but also, open source VR exists today! Depending on your definition and needs, there is a lot that can be done and you can help.

Rooting isn’t open source…

Anyway Valve Index runs perfectly on Linux, that’s how I finished Half-life: Alyx. I also do already have a rooted Lynx XR1 and a Project NorthStar which is open hardware (even though not OSHW iirc).

There are also :

• open source runtimes for OpenXR like Monado,
• runtime managers or switches e.g. xr-chooser or openxr-explorer
• window managers (ish) like xrdesktop or Stardust XR
• browser like Wolvic (with Gecko and now Chromium backend) with cross-platform supports with WebXR
• streaming from desktop to standalone HMDs e.g. WiVRn or ALVR
• some distributions have dedicated documentation e.g. NixOS for desktop and PostMarketsOS mobile
• plenty of tools that run on standalone HMDs as most are “just” Android devices, e.g. termux letting you install NodeJS then run your own on device Web server to code on device, standalone, offline, alternative launchers e.g. LightningLauncher, removing some telemetry and plenty more I’m not even aware of.

IMHO one of the best resource covering that and more is https://lvra.gitlab.io/

So… I’m a bit confused, maybe I misunderstood, what did you mean by being “a decade too early”? Which functionality specifically is missing today?

A device in my hands is my device.

Could you then please help root the Meta Quest 3? So far I believe nobody managed.

Linux applications can access your entire home folder

That’s the default because that’s what most people want, or at least expect.

You can perfectly start an application within a container or even a dedicated user.

Nearly nobody does this not because Linux does not permit that, it does, but rather because most people believe (rightfully or not) they do not need this level of separation.

use SMS but that can be hijacked by social engineering attacks

Can you please share an example? I’d be curious how that would work, especially if it works while understanding how it works.

Android does not have that much “hackers” as “proper” Linux has

It’s hard for Android to have hackers precisely because Google and manufacturers are trying their best to prevent that. They do not allow rooting, they blocks features on rooted devices, etc. So they do their absolute best to keep on exercising control despite collaborating on open source software.

Absolutely but even their high end model has just a RK3588S 8-core 64-bit with a Mali-G610 MP4 … and that’s not exactly a powerhouse if you check benchmark with like an i7 which would already be several years old, not even high end.

This is not a “fair” comparison and yet, in practice if you sit down with that setup and you start to use Blender and Firefox with a tutorial running in the background, it’s going to feel sluggish quickly IMHO.

Well you could plug a PinePhone on… pretty much anything with a USB-C dongle. I did plug it on a large (like… 70") screen and a mechanical keyboard and mouse mostly for testing purposes. It was cool. Still it felt under powered compared to even an entry level laptop modern laptop so… conceptually yes, in practice, meh.

we need a quality/seamless way of running Android apps on Linux

Like Waydroid? There was a thread recently on that and it seemed (even though not necessarily a representative sample) most people used it for… games, not “actual” applications. They were NOT used for banking apps also (at least I don’t remember anybody mentioning that) because I bet most people just go on their bank website for that.

I don’t have that need but if I were to do that I would

• boot normally
• identify which applications I want
• make a directory on the USB stick calls Apps/ and put them there
• I would run them from there directly, not copy them then run
• I would check which files are created in my home directory (e.g. using find filtering by files created during the last 5 minutes)
• I would stop the run apps, move the new files to my USB in a new directory named content/
• I would reboot, mount USB stick, move files from content/ in the right location, run the app from Apps/ and see if it works

Assuming that would work I would make a (bash) script to automate all that, probably relying on rsync and find. I would then try to find ways to automate more with USB rules (namely mount the right USB stick automatically, run the script too, unmount prior to shutdown, etc).

My main point being that I’d be iterative about it, try, test, document as live script and try again because it’s quite a specific use case.

I can’t talk for others I’m personally interested in Linux phones (I have 2, PinePhone and PinePhone Pro) because I do not want to rely on Android because it’s lead, maintained and basically in practice owned by Google.

I would also much prefer to have “just” Linux because I know it better and because IMHO we reached a point, already few years ago, where “mobile” does not mean much anymore. “just” a computer with a battery is enough due to the power available.

IMHO the SteamDeck is the existence proof of that.

Linux desktop apps are not exactly secure.

Can you please clarify?

The instant any such report were to be made public anybody who cares about privacy would switch to another DNS.

I’m not saying it’s not possible, or won’t happen, but rather the barrier to switch is so low I have a hard time anybody would accept that “compromise”.

Maybe I’m missing something but the EU isn’t mandating ISPs to use this DNS.

Here it’s up to anybody, if they want to, to use this DNS instead of their ISPs, or NextDNS, or corporate Americans alternatives e.g. Google Public DNS or Cloudflare’s. I don’t think any average citizen, in EU or elsewhere, is directly hitting on ICANN’s servers.

Interesting, I’d be curious to know if they have quality of service reports, benchmarks against existing alternatives.

It’s tempting but if performance, e.g. latency or reliability, sucks then despite the effort I wouldn’t use it.

“dns0.eu is a French non‑profit organization founded in 2022 by Romain Cointepas and Olivier Poitrey — co-founders of NextDNS.”

whereas

“Supported by the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA), the European Union’s DNS4EU secure-infrastructure project”

so AFAICT the 1st is by (EU) citizens with the technical expertise and selling a related product whereas the 2nd is by the public EU administration.