Your question was answered. You can't.

Sounds good.

I don't know who you mean by y'all. And you don't know what I care about. Assumption doing a lot of work there.

Again, WHY in the actual FUCK does a car need software updates?

Apart from maybe a stereo software? Infotainment? Make a good powertrain and leave it alone. Absolute insanity.

Staying on Graphene for the time being. AFAIK should be able to still install apps whatever way I see fit.

Graphene's team has stated that they are looking into OEM's to potentially work out a solution to make a suitable device to run GOS, since Google is locking things down.

If it really comes to it, (long term), I'll make the jump to a Linux mobile device, whether that's a phone or a custom solution.

Just because corpo's are making things difficult, doesn't mean I'm going to cave. I started this privacy journey 6 years ago and I'm not about to undo it because of greed and inconvenience.

Yeah I was using Garuda for a minute, but two broken installs later I figured my time would be better spent on an immutable distro for the time being.

Do you have to look for one that is OEM unlocked?

Thanks for the comprehensive reply. Agree on KDE being great. Idk if it is because it has more of a windows feel, or because it isn't as flashy as GNOME.

If my current Bazzite instance doesn't work out, maybe I'll try Cachy.

I haven't tried Pop or Cachy, what brought you to those?

My first experience with Linux was as a kid, when the family PC that was handed down to us breathed its last. Quite a bit of malware was on that machine, and it got left to sit in the garage.

I found Ubuntu and revived the Compaq, although the experience was limited, and me as a 10 year old didn't really know what all could be done with a PC anyway.

Since then, it's been a slow burn. 2022 had me dual booting Linux and Windows, and learning how to migrate everything over.

2025 and Windows 11 recall, AI everywhere, intrusive Big Tech had me pull the trigger and nuke the Windows boot from my machine.

Now I'm here. Enjoying a peaceful time on my hardware just like it used to be when I was a kid. The internet and the computer have the capacity to be wonderful again.