Wow, awesome! Didn’t know that, thanks! :)

Nothing. Besides hardware (better battery life, faster, etc.) only software has “improved”. There are a lot of “AI” features now in most standard ROMs, that’s what Google and Samsung have worked on mostly the last years, because they ran out of ideas and these gimmicks look like innovation.
But this doesn’t affect you, since GrapheneOS is pretty barebones by default. And that’s good. I don’t want this shit, I just want a debloated phone.

Now, enjoy your great camera, longer lasting battery and way better performance :)

Edit: If you want to get the “new phone feeling”, check out Kvaesitso. It’s my absolutely favourite FOSS home screen and very innovative and different from what you’re already used to. With your new phone, you can now enjoy the very smooth animations and features. That might make it less boring ;)

Edit edit: Also check out theming. Material You might look fresh and interesting to you. Play around with color schemes and see what you like.

No change.

EDIT: Fixed! Thanks a lot!

Android apps run via Waydroid?

You usually can access the settings from the status bar, can’t you?

Switching from a GNOME OS to a KDE OS or vice versa is problematic.

I did that a few times already on different installs and never had any problems, besides the window decorations/ theming being off and needing to set them again. What issues could be expected?

Cool thing is you can rebase anytime to any other flavour you want with one command and keep everything that’s yours!

You can use Ventoy and burn even more isos on it, for example rescue distros, Windows, etc.

What does it do better than Aurora/ Bluefin for example?

They offer the same pros - easy (no) setup, impossible to break, no maintenance, etc.

Just for personal use. I’m a creative person and have lots of time for that, but no money.

So I just use my skills (many of which I aquire by doing exactly that) and build them to my own vision 😇 I wanna play musical instruments, but just buying something isn’t personal enough for me. The DIY route gives me a very unique object in the end.

Doing that isn’t easy tho. I have absolutely no experience with making music or playing instruments, so everything is done by research. For example:

• The strings of the tagelharpa, opposed to for example a violin, consist of up to 30 individual strings each, with the correct ratio of nylon to sewing thread (and I even included a few metal strings on the drone), which need to be twisted to create the characteristic deep dark sound
• Or, the steelpan needs to be tempered very specifically and then tuned by hammering on the note fields. Also very hard to do, and that’s the step I’m currently struggling with 😬

I already built a tagelharpa cello. Sounds great, but I currently have to upgrade the tuning pegs to proper ones because they don’t hold the tone.

And a dulcimer-harp-thing out of my broken washing machine. Works great, but the tuning pegs are impractical and need to be exchanged for better screws. I also wanna try out different string patterns and materials. Has a very heavenly echo!

My rain stick is also almost ready. Only needs a few minutes more of painting. No pic yet.

Currently I’m also building a handpan/ steelpan hybrid. Very WIP

I haven’t had the chance to post them on c/DIY, but will do it once I feel they’re truly finished

There’s an official Eurorack variant available too! Here it is

Sure, you may have a point. Or not, I don’t know, really.

But can we maybe just agree that it looks fancy? You’re literally creating music out of thin air. That’s why it was called “Etherophone” at first, because you touch the ether itself and create harmony ^(or, in my case, weird mosquito noises and sirens...)^

You usually don’t “wave” your arms blindly in the air, you have a defined set of fingering positions and movements. Once you’ve learned them, they’re in muscle memory, just like typing on a touchscreen keyboard instead of a physical one.

You actually have a huge scale range. The octaves are defined by the location of your hand, the notes themselves are by the fingers. It’s supposed to be pretty accurate and makes sense from what I’ve heard?

I couldn’t think of always hitting the exact correct note out of hundreds just by a slider.

If you want something with a slider, theres the Stylophone Theremin

They are just the screw holes. No other use I know of

Regarding the stuff you want to do: it doesn’t matter what distro you pick, they can all run the same stuff anyways.

I would recommend something Fedora-based, because that’s most people recommend. It’s very sane and user friendly. Bazzite would be the best pick imo, but the classic Fedora KDE variant is also good for most people.

All other of your questions, like gaming stuff, are (or will) be answered anyways by a dozen other people here.

But I can give you some perspective regarding CAD and video editing.

CAD on Linux sucks. Most is made as Windows only, and many people have tried running it through Wine (Bottles) or other janky methods. Don’t even try it.
FreeCAD is also not the best choice in my personal opinion, especially if you come from other CAD software. But you can try it of course, maybe you’ll like it.

The only “proper” recommendation, and what I also use personally, is Onshape. It’s browser based, intuitive to use, has a good UX and many features. Downside: it’s proprietary and browser based, including all your files. If the company behind it decides to piss in your face, there is nothing that will stop them.

Video editing is a lot better.
As you already mentioned, there’s Davinci Resolve, which is available for Linux too.
I recommend you, especially if you choose Bazzite or any other distro where it isn’t available officially, to check out Distrobox and install it from there, so it won’t mess up the rest of your host OS.
But maybe try Kdenlive first. It’s a one click install and works great too, while being FOSS on top.

Cool! You should also repost this on !selfhosting@slrpnk.net, that would fit very nicely there :)

I’ve had something similar a while ago. Trying a different distro or doing stuff on the software side didn’t help.

What fixed the issue was getting a new hard drive because the old one was breaking down.

But maybe try other approaches first

None at all tbh, at least if you use the PC alone and don’t share a lot of stuff with Windows devices. If you do, then maybe scan .exe or other files (e-mail attatchments, etc.) with ClamAV or similar to prevent spreading stuff.

You usually don’t need AV software because you install stuff differently than on Windows. You don’t hunt .exe-files from random internet sites, thats irresponsible even for Windows.

You install your apps directly from your software center (a frontend for Flatpaks and repo software), where they usually are pretty safe.

Also, sandboxing is a thing. The prefered way for most people (and often default) is via Flatpak, where apps are restricted on what they can access and do. You can lock them down even further if you want.

There are more ways of sandboxing, but those are not so relevant here right now.

Also:

• If you run a script, check it first. I have zero clue in regards of coding, but even I can usually guess what each line is supposed to do.
• Don’t add 3rd party repos if you can, use containers instead
• Go for the easiest route, guides for “Linux” aren’t noob friendly. In your case, search for “Mint” instead, most stuff is pretty easy there.

Does it offer Nextcloud integration?