FYI: ctrl + shift + t brings back closed tabs.

While true, the last task is to create a general purpose machine so there’s no puzzle anymore. Only thing left to do is to make it go faster.

Use a hex editor to read binary files. I recommend ImHex https://imhex.werwolv.net/ because it includes all sorts of advanced analysis stuff.

Now my question is, how should I deal with these pacnew files?

Install pacman-contrib which includes pacdiff. Meld is easy for beginners.

DIFFPROG="meld" pacdiff --sudo

See https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Pacnew_files#Managing_.pac*_files for more options.

For documents: https://docspell.org/

For media files: https://hydrusnetwork.github.io/hydrus/index.html

While somewhat correct it still needs someone hosting your data, even if it’s you.

Slightly off-topic:

I never get why Ipfs is using these false claims about “uploading” to the Ipfs and having it “permanently” stored. In reality it’s just Torrent, someone has to have the file - if no one has, there is no file. In theory one could make the same file available again in the future but all the hashing settings have to match with the previous or you’ll get a different reference hash.