Thank you so much. Your knowledge is valuable to someone like me, at least!

I would assume the only thing I have exposed is Plex, since that’s the only thing I access outside of my home. I got the backups down pat now (through learning the hard way, unfortunately…). I use MFA for everything that offers it. I never use the same password for anything.

Seems like my trepidation for online stuff has helped me some in this case. I will definitely be checking out the w3schools, so thank you so much for providing that link!

All in all, your words have helped me today at the least, so I very much appreciate you taking your time to respond and help educate me. It means more than you will probably ever know. I don’t have tech people in my life, and have never had that. I’m the only one in any group I interact with that has any slight interest in technology. I learn best when it is under someone who knows what they are talking about or at the very least can provide ways to explain things.

Anyway, again, sincerely, thank you!

I’ll be honest, even this is all new to me. I’ve had troubles wrapping my head around certs and ports, so I’ve always just never even tried anything that would make a port available (as far as I am aware…) so your points have at least reached an audience who appreciates the examples you’ve provided.

Feel free to ignore if you don’t have the mental energy or will to, but where could I find a good source for learning this type of stuff without finding out the hard way like some of those poor people on Shodan? You’ve awakened a fear I didn’t even know I had. lol

If I were you, I wouldn’t even let the others flabbergast you!

Thank you so much for providing so much detail in your comments. I have actually learned a thing or two about Jellyfin. I, like you, am wanting to get off Plex ASAP, but haven’t had the time to sit down and go through with it just yet. Thanks to you, I see those Shodan examples you provided, and the fact that their freaking LOGIN shows up is beyond scary to me.

I appreciate what you have shared. Thank you!

Nope! I have my iPhone always updated to the newest version (unless it is a new revamp like iOS 26 will be).

I use a program called Sideloadly!

Obviously, just be careful on what you install, as with anything else! :-]

What field are you in, if you don’t mind a stranger asking?

I wish I could have an interesting backstory to why I wanted to switch to Linux, but mine is much more simple! I just saw how well the SteamDeck was running some of the games I was throwing on it, and was pretty impressed! So, I pulled a spare SSD out of one of my old laptops, chucked it into the desktop, and started the install for openSUSE Tumbleweed because I had heard it was “one of the most stable distros” and was sold since I have always messed my Linux installs up! (I was also dual booting on the same laptop I pulled the SSD from, so that could have been a lot of the issues I had)

Gaming is definitely more simple once you acclimate to the new OS you are using. It was like when I used a Mac for the first time, and didn’t find it very good to use, but now I can get on one and do a lot more things now that I understand the system a little better! If I need to look something up, I just always add openSUSE Tumbleweed, and generally find what I need.

I used some tools (ChrisTitusTech, and StartAllBack mainly) to make Windows bearable, but never liked not having the control over MY system. It is definitely weird when I am on Windows. I usually check to see if that nasty Recall system somehow installed itself on there, or something similar. Heebie jeebies!

Hey, Dani! I don’t have a lot of time to play games like I used to, so you and the others who have worked on wemod-launcher are a LIFE SAVER! I can’t tell you how cool it is to see the developer here, and actually saw my comment.

Every time I get done playing a game, and WeMod asks the “How was it?” prompt, I also always shout the project out through that, just in case someone sees it and they want to help or make the switch over to Linux. :)

I started running openSUSE Tumbleweed full time at the beginning of this year!

I truly must thank the folks at Steam/Proton, GE-Proton, and wemod-launcher on GitHub for allowing me to play my games exactly like I did on Windows. I can’t stress to anyone who isn’t playing on Linux just how good it really is (for me, at least)!

I have beaten at least 10 games while on Linux. Games like: Metaphor: Refantazio, Persona 3 Reloaded, DOOM: The Dark Ages, Wolfenstein: The Old Blood, Wolfenstein: The New Order, Mass Effect Legendary Edition (all three games), Oblivion Remastered, and recently System Shock (Remake). Just to name a few off the top of my head!

I still have a Windows SSD dedicated to anything I MUST use on there (mainly modding games, logging back into openSUSE, then pulling those files straight from the Windows SSD onto my openSUSE SSD, fucking love that!), but that is mostly being unused because I found the wonders of QEMU/KVM Virtual Machine Manager. I use the VM to sideload apps onto my iPhone, for save editing, or for testing a Windows only app before trying to run it with Bottles or something else.

Logging into Linux feels like home, while logging onto Windows feels like someone else’s home. :P

Thanks so much for this layout of everything. I wasn’t even aware of what was going on, and your comment put it all together. Cheers!

Remember when that useless bot was around here, objectively wrong, and getting downvoted all the time? Good times.