I would like to install some .deb applications which are not in the Pure OS repository. What am I risking when I do this? Does this make the system unstable?
PlayonLinux is an example.
You are installing a binary, the best, if you are concerned about you security is to check the source code and compile it, but it’s not an easy job if you are new in GNU/Linux.
Play on linux is not in PureOS repo because is in Debian contrib one, that means it relays on proprietary software to work.
I don’t know how PureOS works but maybe you can try to add the Debian Testing Contrib repo to your repo list, I would do that on a VM first so you won’t break anything.
That’s true I didn’t think about that.
Also, @PaulJ with apt pinning you can make the system just install what you need from Debian contrib, but remember you will be using proprietary software.
Thank you Yuno and uzanto. So I am understanding there is some risk to the system stability when installing outside of the Pure OS repository. It is my work machine, so stability is important.
If you need to use something outside of the PureOS repo without compromising your system stability maybe you can try another distro?
@PaulJ the prefered way of installing things - and the easiest - is through the oficial repositories. what this method offers compared to the manual (from deb or from source) is that you can issue commands from the terminal to the apt package manager in order to keep things clean when you update && upgrade then when you wish to uninstall/remove those packages from the storage unit - you can do so with apt remove or apt auto-remove or apt purge.
you can do so manually - there is no big deal - you just need to familiarise yourself with the commands.
this is a great place to start - if you don’t mind learning - 12h - ubuntu 17.10 - updated 2019/3 - should work on most debian gnu/linux distributions - free or non-free
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I experienced stability issues with PureOS on a Librem 15v4, having added only the Debian 9 main repos. The only package I installed from it (intentionally) was Firefox. I reported this stability problem thinking it was PureOS itself, and thought I had a solution moving from GNOME to KDE. My hangups became much less frequent with that switch, but turned out they were not gone. I went from multiple per day to a couple hangups per week.
I have since done experiments, and it seems that simply adding the main Debian repo will make packages available for update that the PureOS repo did does not (via apt update and install).
I then did a clean install of PureOS and have only added repos that provide a single application, such as the Riot.im repo. All of the stability issues I encountered before are gone. This was a little more than a week ago, and I have had zero hangups so far.
Short version: you can get away with non-PureOS repos, but you could end up with freezes / hangs if system packages are installed outside of the PureOS repo.
but you can do this type of experiments in a hipervisor such as VirtualBox so you don’t mess up anything. or you can just use QubesOS ( it has closer to bare-metal performance than type 2 hipervisors because it’s based on xen )
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This! I just didn’t have the understanding or foresight to do this first 
I have the Librem 15 V3. I’ve been figuring out how to use it for a while now. It’s been slow. I think I should look into that course on commands.
In any case, There was a post on this forum that led me to the “sudo apt upgrade” command and the “sudo apt update” command. I had the feeling mine wasn’t updating properly by going to “software”. I’m assuming it wasn’t since trying the commands through the terminal sure did download and install quite a bit.
Having said all that, I have a question?? Since I have used the terminal to update I now get a screen that says “attempting to decrypt master key” “enter passphrase for hdo,msdos2”. It just hangs there for a few minutes and then goes on to the usual login where I can enter my passphrase.
Please forgive my ignorance when it comes to Linux. I didn’t even have any idea idea what a “terminal” was when I fist bought this Librem.
If I switch to another screen it has a bunch of computer mumbo jumbo I don’t know anything about but it says it can’t find “luks” and that there is missing firmware. It also said something about a “kill switch”.
Could this problem be because I have downloaded or updated something I shouldn’t have? I’ve been having to restart to log in.
it’s irrelevant if you did something wrong or not - the best practice when dealing with PCs you aren’t sure about is to back-up and have an ISO you can restore from or jut train on the VM.
also it’s gnu/linux not just linux
I do have a backup and I will look at the links you posted. Thanks for the advice.