Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: Perd Hapley on February 26, 2021, 05:05:48 PM
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I got a cast-off, but still fairly recent computer last week, and I plan to use it in my garage, and put Linux Mint on it. I’ve dabbled with Linux before, but never stuck with it. It got me to thinking about whether I should ditch Windows, just from a privacy perspective, given the political/social climate these days. Or should I just start using a VPN, and not worry about the OS?
I also notice there are a number of privacy/security focused distros out there, some come with their own VPN software. Cool to know.
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I got a cast-off, but still fairly recent computer last week, and I plan to use it in my garage, and put Linux Mint on it. I’ve dabbled with Linux before, but never stuck with it. It got me to thinking about whether I should ditch Windows, just from a privacy perspective, given the political/social climate these days. Or should I just start using a VPN, and not worry about the OS?
I also notice there are a number of privacy/security focused distros out there, some come with their own VPN software. Cool to know.
I'd vote do both, although I'd prioritize the VPN. My wife and I are currently using Mozilla VPN, which is really easy to use and only costs $5 a month for 5 devices (two computers, a tablet, and two phones in our case). I'm considering Proton VPN, as the change would allow us to have a VPN operating at the router level, as well as individual devices. I believe Proton has a free option if you'd just like to give it a try. I already use the Proton e-mail service, trying to eject out of Gmail and the Google system eventually.
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...trying to eject out of Gmail and the Google system eventually.
I thought what this guy had to say was interesting:
https://youtu.be/mqSCmT5S-2w
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In my personal life, I've been Windows free since 2006. I run whatever Linux flavor of the decade. But I keep threatening to go to freeBSD since the Linux people are idiots.
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I have started tinkering with Fedora Workstation lately. So far I’m liking it.
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I continue to run Linux (currently Mint) as a VM on a Windows host. I mostly use it for web browsing and for downloading raw satellite imagery data, like Sentinel stuff, because it actually does it better than Windows.
I every once in a while think about completely switching, but I have prgs and devices that AFAIK, won't run or don't exist on Linux, and I just haven't taken the time to look at running those through Wine or whatever the current Windows emulator is.
I'm using Nord as my VPN.
BTW, thanks for that link Perd. Good information.
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I thought was this guy had to say was interesting:
https://youtu.be/mqSCmT5S-2w
Good info, I wish I had a phone that better supported Lineage OS. I'm considering ditching it for a (ironically) Google Pixel phone so I can install the Graphene OS (https://grapheneos.org/), once I've ejected out of the Google ecosystem.
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He has a store as well. I'm seriously considering one of his de-googled phones for my next phone. The prices are reasonable enough.
https://brax.me/home/rob
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I got a cast-off, but still fairly recent computer last week, and I plan to use it in my garage, and put Linux Mint on it. I’ve dabbled with Linux before, but never stuck with it. It got me to thinking about whether I should ditch Windows, just from a privacy perspective, given the political/social climate these days. Or should I just start using a VPN, and not worry about the OS?
I also notice there are a number of privacy/security focused distros out there, some come with their own VPN software. Cool to know.
Mint's as easy as it's going to get, and should be very familiar in how it works for a Windows user. Go for it.
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Now coming to you from the garage computer. 'Course, in the summer it will be too hot to run a computer out here...
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Now coming to you from the garage computer. 'Course, in the summer it will be too hot to run a computer out here...
Now do this, as an excercise.
(open terminal, copy and paste each line in one at a time. type your password when prompted.)
sudo apt install apt-transport-https curl gnupg
curl -s https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com/brave-core.asc | sudo apt-key --keyring /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/brave-browser-release.gpg add -
echo "deb [arch=amd64] https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com/ stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/brave-browser-release.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt install brave-browser
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I've been on linux only systems at home for about ten years. There's a bit of a learning curve, but the systems have come a long way. I like Fedora with an XFCE windowing system. Do let us know if you have any "How do I do this" kind of questions.
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I've heard about (and seen) an app called Kodi that makes streaming content available. From what I've seen, it makes all streaming content available, somehow. The creators recommend using a router-based VPN before using Kodi.
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Thanks for the help. I did end up going with Mint for the garage box. It's supposed to be ready to go for multimedia stuff, and music and videos is a big part of what I want it to do. Also, it's a pretty common distro, which should make it easier for me to customize it.
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He has a store as well. I'm seriously considering one of his de-googled phones for my next phone. The prices are reasonable enough.
https://brax.me/home/rob
Is de-googling the same as rooting, or are they two different things?
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Is de-googling the same as rooting, or are they two different things?
De-Googling means your phone isn't being tracked or data-mined by Google. A lot of apps don't work without Google.
Rooting means having administrator privileges on the phone's operating system.
“Rooting an Android phone means taking complete control over the phone, allowing you to change settings and install apps that you would not otherwise be able to do.”
https://www.rd.com/article/root-android-phones/