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Ask HN: Is Linux Safe to Daily drive in 2026?

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Re: Ask HN: Is Linux Safe to Daily drive in 2026?

#21

Post by nextos »

A_Random_Nerd wrote: post #12
nextos wrote: post #7

Linux comes in a wide range of distributions, so it is hard to make universal claims. One area where security defaults need to improve is sandboxing. If security is a major concern, bwrap or firejail can easily provide that extra sandboxing. NixOS and GuixSD make it quite trivial to sandbox applications in a declarative fashion using firejail. An alternative is to use e.g. Flatpak, which gets you sandboxing for free…

I heard about the sandboxing being especially sketchy, thanks for a point in the right direction for mitigation. Additionally, any thoughts on snap? (presently looking into Flatpak)

I wouldn't use snap or Flatpak, just sandbox using bwrap or firejail. They are really easy to use.

Containers also provide good development sandboxing. With distrobox you can run many distributions inside your own within a clean and isolated environment.

Re: Ask HN: Is Linux Safe to Daily drive in 2026?

#22

Post by iknowstuff »

nextos wrote: post #21
A_Random_Nerd wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I heard about the sandboxing being especially sketchy, thanks for a point in the right direction for mitigation. Additionally, any thoughts on snap? (presently looking into Flatpak)

I wouldn't use snap or Flatpak, just sandbox using bwrap or firejail. They are really easy to use. Containers also provide good development sandboxing. With distrobox you can run many distributions inside your own within a clean and isolated environment.

Just use flatpak. Let's not steer newbies towards barely maintained untested bespoke solutions.

Re: Ask HN: Is Linux Safe to Daily drive in 2026?

#23

Post by coldsunrays »

I would say yes! I would consider not sandboxing your internet browsers because the integration isn’t fully there yet, but everything else works. A lot of Flatpaks are maintained by their developers so you get releases faster with a layer of separation from an otherwise “slow” distro.

In my humble opinion, consider Fedora instead because of Ubuntu and Snaps. You’ll have the flexibility of Flatpaks, RPMs, Snaps if you really want, etc. Some suggested immutable distros (Silverblue), but you can adopt a containerized workflow incrementally with regular Fedora so that you don’t run into its sticky corners.

Re: Ask HN: Is Linux Safe to Daily drive in 2026?

#25

Post by 8bitsrule »

Using Mint, I've found the tools 'Timeshift' (for the OS) and 'Backup Tool' (for the Home folder) to be handy & assuring from the dangers of tinkering and/or an upgrade. Both allow saving their outputs to outside 'safes'.

Another benefit of Mint is a well-attended user forum (with swell tech support). That can important if your technical problem is rarer... with audio, say. (NOT a Linux strong-point.)

Unless your uses are bog-standard, I'd look for similar features to rely on in any distro.

Booting from Grub can be 'interesting' at times, if there's a weak point.

Re: Ask HN: Is Linux Safe to Daily drive in 2026?

#27

Post by dessimus »

keyringlight wrote: post #9

Assuming you're already running a PC with a desktop OS, you can use virtualization to 'get your toe wet' and try linux without diving in entirely with a real install. On windows virtualbox is free for non-commercial use and pretty simple to set up. If you've got a spare drive then install it on that leaving your existing install alone, or if you have spare space on your existing drive you can shrink a partition (back…

WSL2 is available to get ones toes wet as well, without needing to go through the install process of any Linux flavor, nor needlessly involve Oracle.

Sure it doesn't have a full Desktop Environment, but one can run GUI apps, and easily pass files between.

Re: Ask HN: Is Linux Safe to Daily drive in 2026?

#28

Post by chazeon »

My understanding of safety concern around Linux is mainly the security, namely, full disk encryption. Full disk encryption avoid an attacker unplug your harddrive and directly read the data.

While it is possible, it is definitely not easy to setup right, particularly if you want hibernation to disk properly setup. There is certain requirement on the disk layout setup, use LVM, setup TPM, setup bootloader parameters, setup hibernation and wake.... any step is wrong you have to use a boot drive to rescue, and it is very hard to fix if you don't have LVM in the first place. For example, Arch Linux's archinstall won't setup this whole suite for you.

This is really nessary if you are going to take the computer outside and it might get lost stolen. You definitely don't want other people to read the content after it was lost. I think this kind of security is default on Windows / Mac / iOS / Android right now already, but Linux is still so hard.

Re: Ask HN: Is Linux Safe to Daily drive in 2026?

#29

Post by bigyabai »

iknowstuff wrote: post #22
nextos wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't use snap or Flatpak, just sandbox using bwrap or firejail. They are really easy to use. Containers also provide good development sandboxing. With distrobox you can run many distributions inside your own within a clean and isolated environment.

Just use flatpak. Let's not steer newbies towards barely maintained untested bespoke solutions.

Flatpak uses bwrap, it's not esoteric folklore software. The OP asked a serious question and they're entitled to a serious answer.
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