I’m thinking like a programmer about what a basic blog has to do and the computing resources necessary to accomplish it. Software that needs more than a few tens of megabytes to accomplish that is not lightweight regardless of its merits.

This comment seems to be arguing that one should not demand blog software be lightweight because there’s inexpensive hosting for something heavyweight. That’s a fine position to take, I guess, but OP did ask for lightweight options.

It wants a gigabyte of RAM. Maybe that passes for lightweight in 2025, but given the fundamental things a blog has to do, I’d probably put the cutoff at less than a tenth that amount.

Some people have privacy expectations that are not realistic in an unencrypted, federated, heterogeneous environment run by hobbyist volunteers in their spare time.

It you have something private and sensitive to share with a small audience, make a group chat on Signal. Don’t invite any reporters.

Kind of defeats the purpose

That’s why the why matters. Some people might just not trust Windows to keep private data secure, but be comfortable running certain software on it in a VM, possibly a VM that isn’t usually allowed network access.

If you’re sufficiently motivated to get off Windows to invest time learning different workflows, there certainly are options. It sounds like you’ve tried some for image processing and found gaps. People might be able to help fill them if you go into detail about your current workflow, but there is no 1:1 replacement for Photoshop on any platform. If you’re a heavy Photoshop user, there may be no path to happiness for you.

There’s surely a 1:1 replacement for Visual Studio outside of Windows-specific development (which wouldn’t make much sense to attempt on Linux anyway).

I really want this to work out.

Why?

I don’t ask that to talk you out of it. I like desktop Linux. I’m typing this on desktop Linux. I’ve been using desktop Linux for most of my adult life. I ask because your reasons will inform the advice people can give you.

I do a lot of .NET programming and photo editing [with Windows-specific proprietary software]

There isn’t necessarily a good solution to this. Those are large, complicated programs with very deep workflows that are almost certainly going to be dissimilar in any substitute software, which is itself going to be large and complicated with its own ways of doing things. Using those specific programs may be more important to you than what OS you run them on.

It looks like Photoshop is probably usable with Wine, while Visual Studio isn’t. Using Wine means putting up with occasional instability and reduced performance. If you spend a lot of time in Photoshop, this may not be for you.

Another option is to run Windows in a VM for those apps. This will likely work smoothly with regard to the apps themselves, and generally performs near native, but does mean a less polished interaction with the rest of your desktop.

If you’re patient and want to gain a deeper understanding, try Arch itself rather than an Arch-based distribution that’s easy to install.

You’ll spend a long time on the initial installation and setup and you’ll read a lot of documentation in the process. When you have a usable system, you’ll understand what’s installed, how it’s configured, and why. Expect to spend a couple days just to get it usable though - this approach isn’t for everyone.

The Arch docs are top tier, but they’re not necessarily step by step guides because there’s more than one way you might choose to set things up. The docs tell you how the pieces can fit together, but it’s ultimately up to you to to do the assembly.

It makes my phone just as secure or insecure as my PC. I’m good with that.

If I was at higher risk of being directly targeted for attacks, I’d probably rethink that.

I insist on having root on principle; if I don’t, the device isn’t really mine.

In a practical sense though, ACCA is probably my biggest use case for it. I could work around most everything else.

Thanks for your lists. It’s hard to find mobile games that offer fun and a fair deal.

See also https://nobsgames.stavros.io/android/

Many of these are paid, but they’re one-time payments and usually a reasonable price.

The article only tests whether the batteries get hot. High electrical loads, both charge and discharge can also degrade batteries directly.

I’ve been setting limits with ACCA for years on my Pixel 4A because its battery is difficult to replace. I didn’t expect to keep it for five years, but there isn’t a new phone I would like better.

My standard limit is 60% charge and 500mA charge rate. Sometimes I increase the limit to 80% or the charge rate to 1000mA for convenience. I rarely allow 100% or the full 3000mA charge rate, and it’s set to pause charging in response to temperature.

While it’s essential for keeping devices safe, it can sometimes interfere with third-party app installations.

That’s… kind of biased language. I can’t keep my device safe without Google playing sysadmin for me?

A larger phone is nicer to sit down and use with both hands, and while that is a primary use case for many people, it isn’t for me. I want my phone to emphasize portability and one-handed use.

I think there’s a viable market niche for a small phone, bi but I wonder if small phone customers might be unprofitable for other reasons.

I’m not surprised that small phones aren’t a big market segment, but I am surprised there’s not a single maker trying to dominate that niche.

Sony used to, as the article mentions. I suspect their sales were low in large part because their prices weren’t competitive. Some other niche player could easily have that market, especially if they did a little better on the value proposition. Alternately, Samsung launched 29 phones in 2024 or 2025; it’s surprising that they don’t include a single small model to address a market segment that, while not the largest, seems very devoted to that preference.

My best guess is that we’re an unprofitable segment for other reasons. I, for one am not going to regularly buy new phones just because they’re new. I’m also not going to use any bundled bloatware; I’ll change defaults; I won’t subscribe to many, if any services; I’ll block ads aggressively. I’ll even try to pay developers for apps outside of the built-in store, though that’s rarely possible. Anybody who sells me a phone is probably not going to make any profit from me other than the margin on the purchase price, and while I’m willing to pay a little extra for the phone I want (5" screen, headphone jack, unlockable bootloader), I’ll balk at an extreme premium.