Doesn’t even have to be Apple, the wife and I are on different carriers and I saw the same shenanigans happening.

Signal app or Threema or really any other independent messaging app (except whatsapp, strangely) solved the issue.

Just YSK, vlan is not a security measure. It enumerates Ethernet packages with a number different than zero, and you can see all vlans if the network card decides it. So if some other device on your net is compromised, there is a chance traffic to your vulnerable box can be too. ( it gets a little more complicated with vlan aware switches in the middle. But not impossible)

Edit: BTW I feel you I too have a bit of older hardware thats on their own net where I just hope nothing bad happens til I come around to replacing it…

Says here SGI demoed the coprocessor to both Nintendo and Sega. Sega bowed out after their engineers found / perceived problems with the SGI design. I do not remember any behind the scenes article about the realtionship between Nintendo and SGI but having heard a lot of stories, I suspect the read would be entertaining …

As someone who switched to Linux, and found reasons not to for literal decades, this has helped me:

Have a second ssd in your PC that is untarnished by the windows bootloader.

This way one can easily switch via BIOS / UEFI and no other annoying software.

Dual booting is also less annoying, if you switch via boot menu. It lets you test drive and configure Linux anytime you’re in the headspace for it and reduces pressure on yourself.

Install linux on it. My current favorite for your situation would be Fedora KDE Plasma Desktop Spin (what a mouthful). Have another exfat partitioned usb disk ready for file exchange with windows. Again, this makes handling windows easier, has nothing to do with linux.

Nvidia on fedora works good enough. third party repos also help a lot.

streamdeck is wonderful hardware, I know a friend who uses it daily with streamdeck_ui

• same with GoXLR Configuration Utility. Software is there, the only question is does it work for you.

This is to my knowledge as close to “official” as you can get. Good luck on your journey!