I would have suggested silent.link , while you can get a number not tied to your identity via esim, the main focus of numbers is a receiver for text and calls(also because it avoid people creating spam phone calls/txt). Which was originally for 2fa that only had cell # as an option. Also a number requires the user to be vigilant in paying their annual for it or they can lose the number. Also I think they can only cater for users in US, Canada and maybe UK.
I luckily remembered this link from a resource i stumbled across. There is a website called
It has several periferals and devices supported by linux that they sell.
Sorry for late reply
For about 4 hours i beleive. Though it used to be longer as i have had it for over a year and the battery not like it used to be.
Kde is the default desktop eviornment.
It helps that its a non systemd init system so it doesnt pull as much resources on the backend since systemwide is controlled via scripts.
If i were to run a lighter one such as xfce, qtile or dwm it would run longer(varies on configuration though)
As someone who runs VMs, i suggest you dont. Ivd been doing it for about 2 years and i still have moments where lets say i want to expand my storage and a bork it, or accidently removed a virt selection on virt manager by mistake.
An easy solution. Run conty.
https://github.com/Kron4ek/Conty
It creates a virtualized arch linux with all the needs for gaming without having you worry about the heavy stuff. All the list of programs already on the list including other launchers for other games.
Here is a video explaining it.
I also use them for voip #s. I have a calyx phone so thanks to micro g im getting the notifications as they come in. If you want to make it more private. You can buy google cards with cash at a store to upload to your google account. Also use private card service to create a virtual card for payments.
As an example, i use mint as the base of my kvm/qemu virtual machine since i run an arc 380 on base and nvidia gpu for the guest. I made the mistake of updating my experimental kernel and forgot to set quiet and mint menu on grub to select the kernel at boot time. I popped in the install disc i had used previusly and fixed it by using the inlcuded programs to edit the grub and undo my kernel update. Fixed and i saved a timevault snapshot of the fix in case i mess up again. Linux mint saved me from reinstalling my entire os from a simple mistake.
Most desktop enviornments work with most distros. There will be a selection of linux users that say it doesnt matter because though its true you can make any distro look like each other. The navigations can change depending on the distro you use. I agree with most of the comments here, since you are starting out, mint is a solid choice. You get the backings of ubuntu, + its very user frienldy. A gui for packages/drivers and good sweep of software for daily usage. Im using it now since my arc 380 gpu is supported on it to use as the host for my virtual machines. ( i virtualize other distros/BSD and windows [for those pesky windows only games/programs])
Im wanting my friends to try out linux, they are all windows normies. This is pretty aggressive approach. I applaud the enthusiasm, maybe there are some people who respond. Id try my own way by finding a distro that best suited to their use case. All an all, someone is doing linux spreading to the masses and at least we can call that a win.
I don’t think a person knows hummanity better than after working at customer service. I say that before sales and marketing because the as a service rep you are the filter for everything and the first one to interact with people. If they are angry doesn’t matter the reason, or any small inconvinience even if it was a result of the client themselves.
I concure, i had pop os with virtual machines for windows via kvm/qemu. Total noob but i got it to work somehow. Anyway several games i couldnt play due to anti cheat, i had destiny 2 on my steam account that i cant play do to this problem as i risk my account being banned just for having linux. Eventually after some tinkering i broke my pop os(wanted to use lightdm and lighter desktop enviornment to save ram/cpu).
Only use windows vm for non linux friendly titles i have already paid for. Everything else will be via linux vm for gaming. Since vm is my goto i like keeping my host computer minimum. Also i prefer hdmi audio for my vms as my switch box has an toslink(fiber optic) audio out. Keeps the audio part super easy to add using astros or equivilant gear that have optical support.
As stable or user friendly fedora and debian are, their whole structure due to the way they setup their ecosystem including their package management differ in how to change things system wide as you dont want to go too heavy on it to avoid breaking, especially if you tinker things to where you conflict with its package manegment. Aka your configs vs apts/dnf package managers configs, at some point a conflict will occur to where you will need to fix it.
Slackware lack of package managers creates the initial issue of well now i got to manually take care of the dependencies. However in exchange, the packages are close to the way they were initially developed and your config system wide has significant less competition on what happens to your configs systemwide.
You can make your debian or fedora your system, however slackware gives you that initial power out of the box hence its superb stability + even if i make a mistake i find slackware to be more forgiving to fix the issue.
One last thing for slackware for its birthday celebration.
If anyone wants to join slackware, this is a link to a post in the community as i dont know how to link the community directly
Had a low end laptop, i believe it was lubuntu that i installed because i knew ubuntu was too bloated for that laptop. However I was not aware that it used snap and running firefox kick started the fans on that old laptop. Resouce hog seen and searching for firefox direct binary from apt seemed like a chore so i replaced with mint. Snaps automatically i did not want to deal with for old computers. Was happy with mints removal of snaps and it is very user friendly.
Main desktop is fedora workstation due to the intel a380 and to get my gpu runnin out the box.
Pinebook pro has manjaro will be going slackware once i order the nvme adapter to install it there.
Old lenovo computer - testing and learning netbsd on it.
Overall im hoping to get good enough to just have slackware for linux and any of the 3 main BSDs on other devices.
ESIM using silent.link = a phone line that can only be used to receive messages and calls no outbound calls allowed. However you need a phone with esim support.
Physical sim on another device: great but you need a seperate hardware and have something extra to carry and charge.
Physical sim on a dual sim phone. Easier to carry however it runs the battery faster and sometimes you can forget which sim you are on if you are quickly calling or texting.
Mains sim plus VoIP line example is mysudo- use one phone, seperate your communication between your actual number and an app with VoIP. Seperate phones # via software since VoIP is all on app side. Requires you have an internet connection to work properly. Not all services are happy using VoIP and stop you from registering or changing numbers to VoIP.
Lots to think about, best of luck.