My Dream Userland

September 17, 2022

Photo Credit: Archlinux

I wanted an operating system that provides me with these features and userland utilities:

No account with my information stored in the cloud
No built-in promotional or advertisement components where I am opt-in by default
Automatic backups when the system changes, including whenever new software is installed
Easy method for reverting to a last known good state
Zero DNS leaks
All network traffic encrypted (not just relying on https).
Out-of-the-box hardware support for most common peripherals (printers, bluetooth devices)
Disk Encryption
Disk Compression
Hibernation
POSIX and Filesystem Hierarchy Standard
Central Package Manager
Open to extension for a tiling Window Manager

Archlinux with btrfs, automatic snapshots, LUKS encryption, zstd compression, swapfile, wireguard, pihole, and the Linux kernel provide me with that dream. I've been running it on my personal desktop for a few years now. Here is the set up I used for a clean base install. You can then install a Display Server, Display Drivers, and set up a Desktop Environment or Window Manager. I use i3 with xorg. I did not cover that setup -- GUIs are a matter of personal preference.

I chose to host my wireguard and pihole server on a VM in the cloud. I connect my mobile phone and laptops to wireguard and automatically get zero DNS leaks and encrypted network traffic. That way, I can SSH to any peer connected to my wireguard VPN without exposing a port. Additionally, for quality of life, I set up pihole with local DNS names that resolve to wireguard peer IPs. I have a profound appreciation for virtual and private in the acronym VPN.

You can find my archlinux setup steps here. You can find my pihole and wireguard setup steps and dotfiles here.

And of course, an obligatory link to