DontTakeMySky

A Windows VM running Windows terminal, SSH’d back into the host, obviously.

Honestly I stick with whatever the default is and never had a problem that led me to find anything else.

Look at Amazon and their Fire TV platform. It’s just android, with all of the Google stuff stripped out.

Sure, Google may not be getting any money for that, but they are getting more dev time and attention on the open source parts of Android which helps to solidify the base of the OS which helps them.

And Android got popular because it was open and manufacturers could build phones that support it without necessarily needing to involve Google (or at least without needing to certify it or meet strict standards) which let the platform grow significantly. If Google closed it up today it would likely cause a fork in the Android platform ecosystem and you’d end up with “Google Android” on pixel and “Open Android” on all others.

Many registrars let you buy a domain and set up dynamic DNS for it within their system so you can own a domain and get dyndns on it.

Otherwise you could accomplish it with a VPS but you’d only need the smallest one available because it would just need to run nginx to forward to your home ip (and a small tool to update that IP when it changes). So you could probably get something for less than $5/mo.

• what partitions do linux distros need to function ?

Many guides will suggest setting up separate partitions for a bunch of different Linux directories. It’s not strictly necessary to make things work properly. You can totally do it all on one partition (in addition to your windows one I mean). If you want to try something more fancy then keep a separate home partition, but honestly don’t worry about it much unless a guide or installer is suggesting it.

• is it bad idea to install linux on a single drive in its own partition ?

Nah. One big Linux partition isnt a bad thing and is a lot easier to grasp when starting out. (Though for dual boot you’ll need the windows partition somewhere still)

• what precautions should I take other than backing up my hard drive before doing dual boot ?

Backups are the main thing. Maybe a list of useful Windows software you have installed, just in case you accidentally break your install and can’t boot in to check what you had installed.

Make Windows recovery media and a windows install disk if you don’t have one. Just in case you need to go back and reinstall it can help avoid trying to do that without a working machine.

Test with a live usb first too. That way you can at least boot into the live Usb if things fail. And you will already have it prepared.

• How can I ensure my dual boot linux install won’t touch my windows partition at all if I install dual boot linux ?

I think you could mount your windows partition as read only if that’s a concern. I don’t expect any Linux distros to mess with anything though unless you’re reckless about running install scripts.

• Is there anything else I should be aware about ?

Linux guides vary between “here’s a hack to just make it work” all the way to “here’s a perfect Torvalds-Approved perfect bomb proof 100page configuration guide”. Make sure you know what you’re looking for first and don’t get too caught up on making everything perfect. Focus on keeping good backups so you can restart from scratch if you ever need to. You’ll probably end up trying a few Linux distros over the next few years anyway.

Sorry I don’t have any suggestions, but I’m very curious about your use case. What led you to needing this?

Are you doing web dev with just a phone? Impressive

I see you got your answer, but I’m adding on for anyone else that comes across this.

For me, I learned the most when I had a disposable and replaceable system. When I was dual booted I was too scared to touch anything in case it fucked everything up. Once I started poking round on a Pi, LiveUSB, etc it was a lot easier to learn because I could always restart.

Id start there with something like Mint or Ubuntu. Then set it up in a way where you can easily replace your OS so you can reset it often and fuck around. Then just learn as you go.

How long are folks planning to wait before migrating to something new? I suspect this is still safe for at least a few months before things fall out of date, right?

Or I guess it allows wire guard to update freely so it’s probably safe until something specifically breaks.

Just be careful you don’t get their “smarthome” line, at least for cameras. It doesn’t require Internet to operate, but it requires Internet for configuration and management.

I’m not sure if that’s the same with their doorbells, but it was true of their wifi cameras.