Generally too one should not be using same hardware for work and personal use anyway for so many reasons.

Plus it kind of goes without saying, choose the OS based on the apps and the hardware based on the OS.

Does what work? If you mean GMS sandboxing, that is ROM specific. Up to what the ROM supplier does.

Why would one need another ROM. GrapheneOS is one of the best. So is Google hardware in terms of lifetime cost, capability, and security. What other supplier gives 7 year support?

Generally with android it is best to choose the ROM and then the best hardware for it anyway. The best ROMs often have limited hardware support. There are not that many reasonable ROMs anyway. Nor are there many hardware choices that aupport most ROMs fully.

Keep in mind GMS does not need to run as a system app. On GrapheneOS it does not.

At least for me only about 15% of my apps need GMS and I only run GMS in my private space which most of the time I lock.

So yes I do not like needing GMS but it is not so doom and gloom.

If they are public, why wouldn’t they be.

This is the answer. GrapheneOS still needs the binary blob updates from Google or probably more correctly Googles suppliers.

Head phone jack. My 8a sadly has none. Not sure any recent Pixels do. I use combination of some HP OTC hearing aids and a Senhouser headset, both blue tooth.

Files transfer. I mosly use Nextcloud or just plugin my phone to my computer directly with USB. I have used syncthing and ssh too. Debian should work but I have more experince with Ubuntu and the USB method works fine there.

I use GrapheneOS on a Pixel 8a. About 6 months in. The recent “a” series models are a pretty good deal as they come with 7 years of updates from initial release.

I love GrapheneOS. Pretty much just works. Many Apps do not even have to have google play installed. There are some apps that may not run. Typically those that require an original authentic device. My banking app did not run originally but now it does. Not sure but I think I had issues with the UPS app for some reason. I switched to the web for that.

Usually openvpn via tls port 443 is the least blocked.

This is why I do not use a rolling release distro.

Tables are a great starting point. So is something like alternativeto.net and just go down through the list by popularity until you get to something sane.

There is also going to be disagreements about what is best. There is no best app. We all have unique needs and concerns. I know I disagree with many things Op said in such an absolute way.

More of a rant. Post is kind of nuts. They are talking about a comparison matrix not a check list. How else are you going to compare.

I like Zim. Used it for years. The big advantages you can have many 1000s of pages and it just uses a folder tree not a database, so you have direct and attachment access if you need it. Zim is a true hierarchical wiki not a simple notes app. There a plugins you can enable for more advanced features.

Zim does get slower with more pages for some operations like searches and some changes. I have one wiki with 4500 pages and do feel it is getting a bit slower sometimes. You can however just create another notebook at any time as long as your content has reasonable dividing lines.

Actually the safest thing is probably to choose a main system and run the other in a VM like with VirtualBox. For you, you could just install VirtualBox on Windows then Linux inside of a VirtualBox VM. Windows does have a builtin Virtualization solution too you may be able to use, but I have personally never done that. Keep in mind too that VMs are not as performant as bare metal. For video probably NO, for images fine, for audio maybe but you’ll have to see if you get the real-time timing you need in a VM. Good way to play in any case. 2nd best if you have a workstation, not a laptop, you could put in a hot mount SATA drive enclosure, and just swap in the drive you want and get full bear metal performance. Dual boot takes some tech skill. Be sure to back everything up if you do that. Should do that anyway before fiddling. Also if you use bitlocker and secure boot make sure you have all your recovery keys and know how to work with your bios settings too.

Maybe I am missing something, not sure why you care about NTFS. If this is a separate computer you don’t really care about that, just the sharing protocol (SMB for example). If it is on the main box, then you’d probably convert this to Ext4 or something similar. No reason to stick with NTFS with Linux. There are a lot of great FS options on linux plus BTRFS, LVM, or RAID to if you want redundancy.

Regarding apps. The alternativeto site is great. Linux has a bunch of audio and photo software. If your a pro, you may not find any of it sufficient. Especially a lot of people cannot do without Photoshop. The common quoted photo programs are GIMP and Darktable. There are many other photo and image programs. Common audio program is Audacity. Again, there are many others. Looks like some handle vst but I have no personal experience.

Linux only, SSH works fine. Not e2ee. Nextcloud works fine but extra work unless you use a service provider. It can be e2ee but not normally so. Syncthing worth a look too. It is not cloud storage, but direct device transfer. Bitwarden send is useful too if you want to juat send file someone, and thunderbird is working on thunderbird send which might be interesting.

Maybe Synology if you want your own lan NAS?

All email services have vendor lock-in unless your using your own domain.

For what it is worth, I just moved my mail from my ISP to my own domain at a hosting service after 30 years. Took about 5 months to get everything changed but if I can do it anyone can.

Downside, using your own domain is probably less private but kind of depends.

That was my reaction. Since I use Cinnamon and Gnome I use gnome-terminal.

The features I like are cut/paste and the open in terminal feature in the file manger. Nice that it looks good in your DE too. What else does one need?

If you want 2D drafting like solution, look at Librecad. It seems quite good. It is 2D only.

Freecad is 3D solid modeling but there is a 2D component.

FreeCAD is the most common solid FOSS modeler. I do not think any solid modeling system is that simple. They tend to need training and continuous use. That was my experience with SolidWorks and NX anyway.

Every system has its own processes. If you want Apple software and services use Apple. If you want Linux use Linux. Do not expect either to be like the other especilly at such a micro level.

As far as Linux and beginner friendly, buy a device with Linux preinstalled just like you do with Apple. As far as user setting and apps. Get a notebook and write them down, and avoid deep customizations. As far as backup get 3 USB drives and backup your home directory with rsync or one of the other solutions. As far as restore, have install media and just reinstall from scratch then layer in your configs and apps and then restore your home directory files. For file sync and app sync functions, Nextcloud is helpful and you can pay for a commercial host, set it up yourself, or use a product like Synology. You frankly could use Dropbox, Proton Drive, or one of the others also. But think carefully what is actually needed. Cloud stuff is heavily promoted by the big providers presumably for lockin reasons and to mine your data but it is not really needed for most things. Get to know your distros builtin emergency startup tools and have a live distro like the live install media available and know how to use them.

Linux is about options but for simple beginner like processes it is best to stick to the basics.

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