utopiah

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?