https://distrosea.com/ this is amazing for previewing linux OS flavours right in your browser, no need for a USB stick or installation! Linux Mint, Zorin, Ubuntu and Fedora are the winners for me in terms of being normie friendly.
this post was submitted on 27 Apr 2025
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Privacy
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He clearly says "You need to try, Linux". He's talking to someone named Linux. Someone that needs to try.
The Linux Foundation itself is in the US jurisdiction - just sayin'.
Which is why I repeatedly called for the Foundation to move into Europe, potentially into Finland, back to its roots.
They do have Linux foundation Europe, which has a hq in Brussels. Afaik, all of the Europe OS projects supported by LFE are hosted in Europe also. They also claim to be independent; though I'm not sure if that means from LF entirely. Checking the job boards show roles in California and Germany however; suggesting they are the same entity. (Though I suppose that could just be collaborative?).
The very nature of open source means someone else could just pick it up even if the entirety of LF were wiped out. (There are 5000+ collaborators on the Linux kernel git repo) But the reality is a large portion of those actively working on the kernel, are likely involved in LF in some capacity. Add the fact that LF fund multiple Open source projects, The impact of losing LF would be drastic for the future development of not just Linux, But the FOSS ecosystem as a whole.
This isn't the only threat to FOSS either; The fact that GitHub is owned by Microsoft is a concern imo.
Not only that, but it also affects the decision making. For example, quite recently Russian maintainers were removed from the Linux kernel, citing "compliance".
It's easy to imagine same thing happening to Chinese maintainers, for example. And then from other countries. This, too, can strongly affect not just Linux, but FOSS landscape as a whole.
Thanks for bringing up the European foundation, I'll look into it!
If this is the same person I think it is, I would take their comments with a huge pile of salt. Not saying they're wrong, but...
A couple years ago this Linux-Is-Best dipshit somehow got onboarded as a mod of the /r/massachusetts subreddit, started banning a ton of users for pretty unreasonable reasons, brought a few other seemingly random moderators on board and almost nuked it out of existence by being an unhinged little weirdo. They claimed to have worked at Facebook/Meta and I forget which, but they were found out either to have made it up or they were just a bottom tier content moderation employee.
You can go find some posts about it, but this person's not well at all even if you happen to agree with them. If this is the same person. They're not trust worthy. Privacy's important, big companies are creepy, do what you can to protect yourself and use linux if that's what gets you there, but again I would take anything this dipshit says with a grain of salt.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Massachusetts_US/comments/11wnjsk/removed_by_reddit/
https://www.reddit.com/r/massachusetts/comments/11xw44r/linux_is_gone/
Protests crack down on the internet has been going on for quite some time, don't just blame it on trump but on the whole government and its infrastructure.
And Facebook as an integrated part of the international surveillance state has been firmly established since Snowden leaked the PRISM program.
Like, there are a lot of reasons to switch to linux and plenty of them are compelling. But its an absolute fantasy to believe you're somehow immune to surveillance because you're using the same software as Amazon's EC2. Does anyone really believe the NSA hasn't cracked Linux Mint yet?
Or, for that matter, that using a linux desktop is going to insulate you from being spied on via a public facing 3rd party social media forum?
Like, there are a lot of reasons to switch to linux and plenty of them are compelling. But its an absolute fantasy to believe you’re somehow immune to surveillance because you’re using the same software as Amazon’s EC2. Does anyone really believe the NSA hasn’t cracked Linux Mint yet?
It's much harder for the government and bad actors to hide backdoors in open source software than making a deal with a private company
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Do, or do not, there is no try.
Why not both?
std::vector ulUtil {"GNU", "Alpine", "BusyBox", "Toybox"};
int currentUtil = 0;
do
{
try
{
OS(ulUtil[currentUtil], "Linux").use();
}
catch (USER::Bored & err)
{
currentUtil++;
continue;
}
}
while ((currentUtil < ulUtil.size()) || (findMoreUtil(ulUtil)));
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"im a henchman for a bad guy....and lemme tell you...I think we might be starting to do bad stuff...not sure yet..."
Thanks bud
At some point we need to start welcoming people to the Light, instead of demonizing them for having been in the Dark. It's pretty difficult for me not to dunk on people as they wake up to the nightmare that they voted for, but a lot them ARE actually otherwise decent folks. Making America Great is going to involve deprogramming a lot of people.
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I believe in the underlying message (use linux), but doesn't practically every big company change their privacy policy or tos every 10 minutes.
It's funny how they're saying "You need to use Linux" and not "You need to get off Facebook". How's Linux going to save you from Facebook spying on you?
I think the be careful what you do on Facebook is implied. He's highlighting something that's less expected, where you may need to be careful what you do on Windows systems.
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One should be have been assuming since Windows 7 and automated online updates that the Microsoft key used to sign OS updates is in the hands of at least the NSA (and hence probably the Israeli equivalent) and they can push whatever they want to your computer as an OS update, bypassing all protections.
In fact the same applies to Linux updates of certain distros - if they're maintained by a company based in the US they can be forced by FISA courts to provide the signing keys to the US Government.
More in general, just go read about FISA courts and their secret court orders - companies based in the US or hosting things in the US can be secretly forced to just "give the keys of the Realm" to parts of the US Government.
Since things like the Patriot act one should be treating companies based in the US as just as untrustworthy as companies based in China.
(By the way, some other supposed Democratic countries have similar or worse systems - for example the equivalent of FISA courts in the UK have things like secret court sessions were the side which is not the State is not authorized to have a legal representation, see most of the evidence or even know the decision of the court).
Have people already forgot most of what came out in the Snowden Revelations?!
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Funny how much longer my phone's battery lasts now after I flashed /e/ to it. No constant net traffic anymore.
/e/?
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To all the people who are criticising this guy for working for Meta, I would like to remind you of the phrase, "Keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer".
I am very much a left-winger, but I still read right-wing papers and articles, I like to know what the other side is thinking.
Keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer”.
Bruh, it's not game of thrones. People just need to work.
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That first comma is a bit out of place -
'why won't you just try, Linux?'
'seriously Linux, just try your vegetables'.
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Its a bit odd to see an employee of a company that has always had a terrible privacy policy now be suddenly alarmed.
Things have changed. Before, the worst Facebook could do to its critics was ban them and those that they knew. Now Facebook can have ICE turnover your house without a warrant for a troll post. A private company is now working to suppress a specific kind of conversation that questions the judgement and actions of those in power. It's a subtle but very dangerous difference in why a bad EULA may not have previously caused concern but the new one is.
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