For reference, this is what the “Checking for Updates” page on the Pop!_OS store looks like for me. This icon feels out of place, that’s why I assumed this is a placeholder that replaced the correct icon that went missing due to some kind of minor problem with my installation.

I assumed that’s the “no icon” placeholder for Gnome. I saw it around as well.

In my experience, a great portion of competitive multiplayer games work. Although I have to admit that I mostly play games meant to be played among friends rather than against strangers.

If you are not talking about Steam, which comes with Proton out of the box, I’d recommend to give Legendary a try. It’s basically the same thing, but with non-Steam games. And it’s very user-friendly, like Steam.

GrapheneOS is certainly on my wishlist too, but Pixels are quite pricey. I guess Rethink is the poor man’s version. Just a per-app firewall.

You should install Rethink and see how much garbage your phone constantly transmits and receives. And this is not even a kernel-level firewall, so who knows how much data Google actually exfiltrates…

I don’t know about a constant audio stream, nor about keywords, but I noticed that Google Keyboard sends out some data every time you type anything. It’s not even that subtle.

VM startup time can be skipped by saving state instead of shutting it down every time.

I would say the worst issue using a VM is with programs that need the GPU (e.g. CAD softwares or games), and software with aggressive DRM.