Linux has a copy left license meaning no one person or entity owns Linux. It's open-source which allows any company to modify how it works or just a random person can change the code or fix it. The only restriction on this license is that anyone that makes changes have to share those changes if asked, this why everyone benefits. Anyone can submit those changes willingly to be approved and help contribute. This means that Linux is built and maintained by thousands of companies and 10s of thousands of people all across the world, not for a profit or bottom line (well for the companies like Google it's probably for profit). But to make something that works the best they can make it out of their passion.

I personally love Linux because I'm sick and tired of fighting my computer and phone to do what I want when all it does is force ads and pop ups down my throat and track my every move. Linux doesn't have any of that because the people that make it use it and don't want that, no one does. Since there's no profit motive we don't have shit like that.

[–] LadyButterfly@lazysoci.al 6 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Ah so it protects your data?

[–] squaresinger@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Beware, things are not that easy with Linux. If you use Windows, you use Windows. There are different versions but they are just differently old versions of the same thing. Same company, same people, same stuff. So you can say things like "Windows shares your data with Microsoft", because there's only 1-2 current versions of Windows at a time.

Since Linux is so open, there are thousands of different distributions created by thousands of different companies or even hobbyists doing that on their own time. And since it's so open, it can be configured any which way.

For example, ChromeOS and Android are two Linux distributions created by Google, and both of them collect and share your data like crazy.

Some of the more classical Linux distributions (like e.g. Ubuntu) also ask you if you want to share data with them, but most of them allow you do decline and many of them really don't share data at all (unless you run programs that do share data again).

So what you can say about data protection in regards to Linux is:

It's not Windows/Microsoft, which shares a lot
Depending on the distro, it can share just as much as Windows, or nothing at all, or a configurable amount
There are Linux distros that are very privacy focussed and share little to no data

But no, using any Linux doesn't necessarily mean your data is protected in any special way.

[–] Enkrod@feddit.org 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

It's not "protecting your data" in a literal sense, it just doesn't collect and share it. Your data isn't specially protected in Linux, it's just that Windows and MacOS do collect data from your PC and sent it to their owners. So it's only better for your data protection, because it doesn't actively share your data.

That's another thing, with Windows or MacOS installed on your PC, you do not own your operating system, you just bought a license to use it. But you DO OWN the Linux on your PC, it's yours and you are legally allowed to do with it as you please. And thus, the only master that it serves are you. Not the corporations trying to exploit you for profit.

[–] LadyButterfly@lazysoci.al 3 points 2 days ago

Ahhhhh thanks for explaining

[–] melroy@kbin.melroy.org 10 points 3 days ago

It's not just protecting your data. You can inspect the source code. It's open source after all. People can fork it or create new distributions. There are tons of distributions available for Linux. Like a distribution is combination of software, so linux is officially only the kernel. But the operating system 'Linux' is much more. Like tools and commands. And user interfaces.

Try to search for terms like: Ubuntu, Fedora, Linux Mint. And so much more. You will see screenshot on the internet how those distributions are looking. And you can customize everything.

And all the software is also free. Free in terms of money and free in terms like freedom of creating a copy inspect the code, change the code etc. See also gnu philosophy : http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.en.html