I don’t see any drama. It’s just people working together, having different priorities yet still getting things done. Some friction is to be expected.

Would it be possible to use a “thin” Windows VM as “client” for One Drive? Meaning that the client would be responsible for synchronization of mounted directories which are actually used on the host machine.

We’ll go with bare-metal Linux—no Halium, no libhybris. We want to stay as close to mainline as possible and actively contribute upstream.

We’ll develop everything openly. Our policy is to publish code, collaborate with the community, and be transparent. Free software, for us, is a matter of principle—not just legal compliance.

IIRC that’s not accurate. You only need that “pro feature” if you want to be able to apply activate kernel updates without rebooting. Unless you have that requirement and an armada of devices matching that profile you don’t need to pay anything.

You’re right. But I’d rather have limited Linux options than no option at all.

Testing a normal Linux installation sounds like a good idea. In my opinion it’s better to transition to Linux than switch. That way you can go back to your previous system setup and see what you are missing or need without having to open your computer and swap hardware. If you can add the old or new SSD as an external drive and so that you can can boot then your plan might work out.