There needs to be some sort of EU directive that once a hardware device sells enough units they MUST provide the equivalent software features and functions available on windows for Linux, and not just a plain driver with no config options.

Imagine being able to buy hardware knowing you can configure it in Linux without relying on some unsupported thing made by the community.

I really would like to switch but can’t for one reason. It lacks a user friendly logon screen like literally every other similar system. I’ve tested jellyfin with my family. They liked it, but they all hated having to enter a username and password instead of just having a list of profiles to select, so they voted no. This seems like such a trivial thing to implement, and would improve accessibility for lots of people.

The obvious question that needs asking is, can we fork?

I thought the EU said that Google and apple have to permit other app stores? If that is the case they’d have to allow side loading in effect.

Anything skills based has to be practiced.

Are you able to enable the Air function or doing any routing on your focusrite? I’ve found a way to handle sample rates on Topping Pro 2x2, and on my old focusrite 2i2. But input delays through the audio layers in linux are slower than windows and mac.

I should clarify my original comment. I’m looking for full feature parity out of the box and not having to devise some sort of work around or relay on a 3rd party and hope they don’t stop maintaining it.

It is a real frustration, I use my linux install as must as I can but somethings are limited by the lack of 1st party support.

Adding my voice to the hardware compatibility issue. While most hardware just works, Linux usually lacks the ability to configure the device. Audio interfaces are a good example of this. They work but you can’t set the sample rate or enable any custom features on ANY of them.

I believe government regulators should step in and require hardware manufacturers to provide Linux support equal to Windows or Mac. This could be relaxed for low volume or highly specialised devices, but mainstream consumer stuff should be more universal.

I dual boot Windows and EndeavourOS. I’ve got a range of games running great on Linux, performance does take a hit in most cases but as long as you have good hardware and aren’t chasing ultimate FPS numbers, it is usually acceptable.

I wish I could make the full switch but music recording just isn’t a good experience on Linux. High latency, lack of audio device configuration, and a limited range of instruments and effects (VST files), all means a Mac or Windows are the only options.

For me the EU should make all hardware manufacturers provide open source drivers with the full range of configuration options available. This is one of the biggest hurdles to moving away from Windows.

I’m waiting for the day when these enhanced terminals go full GUI and mouse driven.

My torrenting level is very casual and (sry) I only leech. Also my ISP is a small one in the UK. Our Government seems to only force the big ISP to tattle on its users and block pirating sites. At least that’s how it has been for the last 10 years.

I have qbittorrent and Plex on my server. It is tempting to setup a VPN just for qbittorrent just to be sure.

I think the desktop is evolving, and may one day become effectively irrelevant, But there is still a long way to go before local compute goes away, which means a local OS is still needed.

In the server world, yes. The desktop is the place that needs to be won over.

I dual boot windows and EndeavourOS. Every 6 to 12 months I make a concerted effort to make the switch 100% but it hasn’t worked out yet. So while Linux is great windows is unavoidable. In this use case I suspect managing Windows tools will be simpler, though I agree that effectiveness next to Linux options won’t be equal.

That was kinda my point. Securing a laptop that will have access to data you want to protect from loss is a near bottomless pit of issues. There comes a point you have to do a risk assessment and apply a level of security that meets your legal requirements and contractual obligations. I’m sure this is all doable on Linux as well but the low cost / easily available tools are mostly for Windows.

I suspect that taking the “secured remote session” approach is probably good enough for their needs. It just needs a client app you can trust to respect the security rules they want to enforce (no screen shots, no screen recording, no data transfers for any sort, etc).

OCRing what is on screen is not really stoppable unless you force them to keep their camera on so you can monitor them 24/7. But if you try hard enough there is usually a way around most security measures.

Either way, they need to decide what the risk impact vs likelihood profile is, and what the business can tolerate. They’ll need to discuss it with legal and data protection folks to assess that.

One tip is to embed records and values that look meaningful, but are unique, into the copy of the data given to the specific employee. This can be used to potentially prove that a data breach was a result of something that employee did. We like to put QUID’s as invisible watermarks in document headers. These trigger our DLP systems which is always funny cos its usually an employee who is leaving and wants to keep something. I love those conversions.

“Easy” from the point of view there a lots of off the shelf tools to help you do it that are easy to understand.

This is the only reliable solution. To expand:

1. Provide a Laptop with Windows on it, because that is easier to lockdown.
2. apply desirable OS lock downs like blocking usb ports prevent storage devices, don’t give the user admin rights, etc.
3. Setup a VPN server (openvpn should do) and configure the laptop with a VPN client. Configure the client so it blocks network connections that don’t go via the VPN. If you want to give them internet access you’ll need a proxy and firewall and DLP solution. At this point it all gets very complex and expensive.

The real answer is you are probably screwed without investing a bunch of time, effort, and cost.

You might get away with more basic security measures if the user has very limited IT knowledge.

I suggest getting legal advice before you give the user access to your data in the manner you intend.

Interesting. I never solved the issue so I’ll give this a go.

Bastard.

I’m probably just being impatient. I’ll do the local build thing with pacman for now, but my curiosity is pushing me to consider the orphan request option. I’ll give it a couple more weeks though.