- Re: Building an (air gapped) offline Linux laptop as a newbie to Linux (mick)
What is your threat model?
A question I wonder too, but welcome to the Unix world. If you have been previously on Windows I suppose you would be worried about security, but I'd suggest you stop worrying now. Unless you are in a public position and disliked by many, such as being Donald Trump, since almost any networked system can be breached by a skilled and determined opponent.
If the threat to you is such that you need an airgapped machine then I wonder how you plan to protect the machine itself, as apart from some special products (iPhones?) it's usually possible to get inside a machine if you can get it to your laboratory bench. So the important questions are not software ones, they are:
Do you live in a bunker or in a house? How many security men do you have guarding this bunker or house? How many steel or six-foot-concrete walls are there between you and the outside? If you have glass windows, is the glass toughened and more than several inches thick? Do you ever leave the house with the machine inside and not guarded by a small army? Would you ever carry the machine outside without a military guard? Do you search and scan all your visitors? Will your machine have internal explosives wired to all the case screws?
If you don't apply the measures suggested by the questions above, the airgap could prove to be of no use, so much so that it's not worth bothering about.