[tde-users] Re: OT - installing whonix / qubes ?

Hi, Michael, Thanks for that response. I did search through the threads to find where that discussion came up earlier, and it wasn't so detailed. I also did some research online already, so I am not totally shooting in the dark, but it's nice to have an actual human being to talk with about what these words actually mean. At the moment, I have nothing but time, although I do have to use it wisely. Also I still have my working desktop machine, so that I am not cut off while going through the installation and learning process on Qubes/Whonix. I figure, hey, it's now or never. I had already got some extra flash drives, and also found some micro SD cards for super cheap (for my music collection, to put on my phone, and for portability of some data). Seriously, 256 GB of micro SD was the cheapest storage I could get; cheaper than flash drives with half or a third of that capacity. Since I will making a few trips with this machine, new risks and concerns arise. I am not so much worried about the MIBs breaking in and seizing my stuff (unless they are having a really slow day); but I do want to take care about securing my data for when I am "out there" on a train or plane, so that if something gets stolen or whatever, I don't lose my data along with my machine. One thing I neglected to ask: I am inexperienced with UEFI installations. When this first started to be implemented, a friend of mine bricked her laptop by trying to install Linux on a new machine. I had not heard about UEFI at that time, so I couldn't even give some warning. Since then, however, I've been building my own UEFI-free machines out of parts, but this here new machine I don't want to eff up with UEFI. My reading tells me that,Debian, since Buster (and maybe Devuan?), have adapted to these changes, that it's no longer a danger. But like I said, I don't want to end up with a brick; I know I could find somebody to restore it, but there's another big pain in the seat of my behind. Also, I was thinking of "upgrading" the machine, before installation, by replacing the factory-issued SSD with something much bigger; say, a 500 GB or 1 TB (because at present it only has a 128 GB SSD). I am voiding the warranty, technically, merely by unscrewing it and taking out the SSD, but then I can make an iso of the Windoze installation, just in case anything goes horribly wrong. But I was wondering, will this work? I couldn't find any help online by research, probably because no other fools have thought to ask such a question before now. I also came across somebody who suggested installing Qubes to a flash drive, then using it to boot any machine. I've done that before with Devuan, created a working portable version of my machine, which can stay in my pocket until I really need to use it. If I do this, I am hoping that I will create what is essentially a no-OS laptop, on which I can install Linux from scratch, without all those extra calories. My private email, by the way: doctor<underscore>contendo<at>zoho<dot>com (hoping to elude our pesky spammers) I forgot to include it earlier. Sorry for the OT post, but I hope that others may benefit from the discussion. Bill