Dont forget the speed lines, flames and arbitrary number for the extra horsepower!

in all seriousness though the heatsink could attach directly to the backplate with thermal cement. since alot of phones are designed to disapate heat from there, great idea!

Hes saying that a HDD or SSD draws too much power for the usb port to handle on his mini pc. This would not be an issue if the drive was externally powered or, for example of he used a dongle that has a power input, the usb hdd or ssd “should” (maybe check the specs of the dongle) draw power directly from the wall and transfer data to the phone, so it shouldnt be an issue. This is actually very useful input even if the user does not plan to boot off the hdd. Definitely could have been worded better tho

I was assuming that the user would be using an older phone that would otherwise become ewaste (most phones have built in batteries now), some phones do clock down when at low battery but if you are consistantly plugged in it shouldnt be an issue. Alot of modern devices will draw from wall power before battery, but that doesnt solve the battery issue entirely since the l-ion batts are kinda dangerous when overheated or punctured so unless you have the skills to remove the battery and wire a bypass you are taking a minor risk. but imo ive used phones as permenent gps or as a wifi reciever and in those applications, i did not encounter battery expansion and or major overheating.

You can use mixplorer (6$ google play store) to quickly launch a local ftp or smb server. attach a hdd or ssd to the charging port, buy a dongle (<25$) that allows data transfer, charging, and ethernet. And you basically just made a nas. You could even port forward the ftp to make it accessible outside your network (i dont recommend this unless you are hosting a vpn).

do not expect good transfer speeds but as far as a persistant redundant secure storage this is a great solution. The phone used would optimally have usb c for better data tranfer speeds. But the phone itself may limit these speeds refer to your phones specifications data for that (just google it).

The phone might overheat so maybe slap a usb fan on it and remove the case. If possible make it “float”(put rubber feet on the phone or smthn idk) to allow airflow on both surfaces of the device.

Very cool Idea. Please make an update post and link it in this thread if you make it and test speeds <3

Edit no idea how i forgot to mention this, but ADB can also be used to send commands directly to the device over the network you have alot of fine tune control over the device, you can run, close, install and uninstall apps, run scripts, remove default unessary bloat and even the launcher! After setup you may never have to touch the phone again, barring power loss etc. If that seems like alot there are also methods of remote desktopping into the phone. But in my expereince those solutions are laggy and slow. But if you just need it for simple tasks this might be optimal for you.

Did you even read the whole comment?

just stick with the free version and find free viable alternatives. Libreoffice, kdenlive, etc.

If time is a factor and you just need a distro that “works” stick with what you have, and find FOSS alternatives for zorin. Best of luck

I respected their time and was simply making a suggestion because zorin seems scummy locking default features behind a paywall.

Most distros come with a built in software downloader. If you consider it “work” to type kdenlive and click download ive got nothing else to say to you.

Yeah fully agree, i just wasnt willing to outright call them scummy. If anything the 50$ price tag should drop to ~20$ since the software they are packaging is not even their own work.

Zorin itself is foss but paying for features like themeing and software Is imo against the spirit of linux, they should, (again imo) release zorin pro as the default and simply accept donations. Like most distro maintainers. Even more frustrating, is the advertised features are just normal features and software readily available for free on other distros being paywalled. Its very likely that a user could get all of the listed features on the free version without paying. I also misread the website, ms office and adobe premier are not even what is included. In fact they do not list the specific names of the alternatives that they use in the pro version. I would bet that the pro version Has all foss software that is being hidden behind the price tag. I will do more quick research and edit this comment if that is the case.

Edit: Yeah i nailed it, its all foss software available through most package managers or flatpak heres a list.

Additional Software Included in Zorin Pro: Office & Productivity:

LibreOffice: A comprehensive office suite compatible with Microsoft Office/365 documents: https://www.libreoffic…​

Scribus: A desktop publishing application: https://sourceforge.ne…​

Graphics & Multimedia: Krita: A powerful, open-source image editing and painting software: https://krita.org/

Inkscape: A vector graphics editor: https://inkscape.en.so…​

Blender: A free and open-source 3D creation suite: https://www.blender.org/​

GIMP: A free and open-source image manipulation program: https://www.gimp.org/d...​

Evince: A Gnome document viewer: https://apps.gnome.org…​

Foliate: A simple and lightweight e-book reader: https://flathub.org/ap...​

Kdenlive: A non-linear video editor: https://kdenlive.org/e...​

FreeCAD: A free and open-source 3D design application: https://www.freecad.or…​

LibreCAD: A free and open-source 2D CAD software: https://wiki.librecad…​

Darktable: An open-source digital photo management and editing tool: https://www.darktable…​

ALL of the listed features from zorin pro have free alternatives, unless you really want microsoft office, screen sharing, adobe premier, etc… just stick with the free version and find free viable alternatives. Libreoffice, kdenlive, etc. How did you land on zorin to begin with? Most new users are recommended to use fedora, ubuntu-gnome, and linux mint. To me, just looking at zorins website they do not share the most basic principles of the linux space (being free and open source). I highly recomend switching, if you could run

echo $XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP

This will output the name of your display manager like gnome, kde, etc. The version of zorin you are running is more than certainly using a popular one. Just find a distro that uses the same one. And your user experience will be almost exactly the same. Zorin might have some QOL features but definitely not anything you couldnt implement yourself.

Feel free to reach out here for more help if you run into any brick walls. You already dual booted your pc so i have faith that you have a pretty good grasp on what you are doing. If time is a factor and you just need a distro that “works” stick with what you have, and find FOSS alternatives for zorin. Best of luck

Quickly googled it and fennec is no longer maintained by mozilla, the new fork is called fennec f-droid which is what most users are using now so you were technically correct (the best kind of correct)

fennec fdroid is android firefox stripped of proprietary and data collection and i had not heard of it prior to being on f-droid so i was unaware that I even had to specify between the two versions i assumed mozilla had nothing to do with it

Waterfox is a solid alternative, fennec for android.

Agreed, but i was just speaking in general after mentioning specific examples. Sorry for the lack of clarity.

But to build on your point, You could make the argument that anything that has been uploaded to the internet cannot be scrubbed. most normal people use the internet completely differently than we do. Removing something from Steam, or Epic for most normal people its gone forever. I know for example my parents would never be able to find a movie/show again if its removed from Netflix or HBO.

Obviously just do a southpark ezpz https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/southpark/images/5/5b/Disclaimer.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20100911004506

I agree, but the issue is that theres already so much taboo content out there ready for the public to “enjoy”. Alot of modern crime content heavily idolizes and even sexualizes actual muderers and r*pists. Game of thrones has incest and child murder in the first episode (i almoat dropped the show based on this alone). The dahmer tv show was outright denounced by the victims and yet still many people “enjoyed” the non-consentual actions of a disgusting man. I agree with censorship when real people are being exploited or hurt. Thats a no brainer. But where do we draw the line? The original ben-hur movie has a actor die gruesomely on film. Do we censor that? Bottom line, humans are gross. I think its best if we just look away from whatever theyre doing in the dark corners of their minds. (assuming they arent hurting anyone mentally or physically)

Obviously I disagree with the content. But this just reminds me of the whole “hatred” debacle. the game probably sucks (like hatred did), and its content was very taboo but honestly if some sicko wants to “enjoy” these games i dont think they should be censored. I really hate the idea of people not liking something and it being scrubbed from the internet.

Like if I decided to make a oligarch assassination game with popular figgures as targets. id expect a strong reaction but pulling it from public availability is just plain stupid. And id expect most of the people who think that non-consentual game should be removed would advocate for the murder simulators right to exist. We cant just pick and choose what to censor imo its gotta be all or nothing.

Again, dont care about these games in particular. just playing devils advocate.