15 years Windows -> dualboot everything -> Ubuntu -> Fedora -> Ubuntu -> opensuse -> arch -> popOS -> arch -> fedora -> arch -> -> popOS -> arch -> nixos

I’m sure there’s a ton more hopping around in the middle that I can’t remember, but this is a good summary.

Hyprland is my favorite tilling manager for Wayland. Its really easy to customize or find dotfiles. I have some if you want them.

If you want something that just works, popos-shell gnome plugin

If you use a VPN it can also mask it too. That’s how I used to get around it before moving to Google Fi.

I use both. I have a self hosted docker compose instance of mailcow, which alerts me when an update is available.

I also use protonmail as well.

Self hosting was a pain in the ass to get working, but I’ve had no issues with it once up. I tossed it behind a reverse proxy to keep it from directly touching the internet.

Fedoras flavor with KDE. Fedora never caused an issue for me.

I use Comic Mono and love it. Code is 100% easier on the eyes and to read.

Not sure the popularity, but here’s what are essential to me:

AnySoftKeyboard - a custom keyboard that supports layouts like workman/colemak

Simple Gallery - Fantastic gallery app

Mule - Secure version of Firefox

OneTracker - simple bullshit free parcel tracker

Xplore - dual pane file manager, been using it for over 10 years. Can’t go back to regular ones

Yubico Authenticator - Used to get OTPs off my Yubikey.

I have more essential apps, but they’d fall close or in popular.