So you’ve decided to switch to Linux. But what’s wrong with Windows, anyway? And isn’t it hard to make the switch? Joining us today to walk you through the switch to Linux is Rob Braxman, aka The Internet Privacy Guy.
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Nice, have been on Kubuntu for just over 12 months now. The only time I went back into Windows was to degoogle my phone. 🙂
What is strange about this discussion is that we’re having it at the end of 2025. I switched to Linux operating systems back in 2003 and neither installed nor used Windows since 2005. Back then, the discussion among Linux users was how soon the tipping point would arrive. By ‘tipping point’ it was meant the mass switch to Linux (and the demise of Microsoft) due to its obvious inherent benefits (free, no virus threats, powerful and highly configurable, etc.)
Well the tipping point never arrived and it’s not mentioned anymore. However with the direction that Microsoft is taking (increasing control and surveillance of the hapless user) perhaps that elusive ‘tipping point’ will finally arrive? I won’t hold my breath.
In case anyone is interested, after many years of ‘distro-hopping’ I’ve settled on SparkyLinux, a Debian-based distribution maintained in Poland, running on a Raspberry Pi 5 with 16 Gb of Ram. Yes, that’s overkill, but it boots up in around 10 seconds and shuts down in about 3 seconds. Pi computers weigh around an ounce and fits into your pocket.
I’ve never got sucked into ‘smart’ phones, thank God. Smartphone addiction is main problem we need to discuss and seek solutions to in my opinion. But I’m wandering off topic so I’ll leave it there.
I flipped to Linux about the same time as you. We should hope there is never a tipping point, IMO. Once Linux becomes popular you know where it will go. There have already been initiatives to get Linux…intrusive? As it is, I have to disable a few things in Linux when I install it (I’m probably just paranoid). If Linux gets popular, then sooner than later, the PTB will start to mess with Linux through their BS and then we’ll simply get Windows 2.0. Yes, I know Linux/GNU is opensource but that won’t stop them. You’ll be given a choice to take it or leave it. It will be because of the “children”…for God’s sake, think of the children!!!! /s
In any case, mark my words, they will come for Linux soon.
Our only hope then is groups of free spirits putting out their own privacy concerned distros. But what happens when the gov starts to mess with those distros, putting out laws and following up with enforcement? You know, the children!!!!!!! /s
Anyway, I love Linux and would never go back to Winblows. Enjoy it while we have it.
BTW, much of this applies to your home wifi/network. Try to get a modem from your ISP and do you’re own routing and wireless. Those “all in one” boxes the ISP gives you are pure spyware.
kirm
If you listen to Bryan Lunduke you will know that they have already come for Linux…. luckily they cant mess the whole eco-system up and there will always be a decent distro out there.
Guix is easily the most interesting distro at present.
I like Rob, and he is quite knowledgeable. However, this video was rather scattered and difficult to follow, especially if one is new to Linux. It is a big subject to tackle and to try to fit in a small amount of time here. That said, I certainly do recommend Linux over Windows by FAR, for numerous reasons. There is a bit of a learning curve to it at first, but if one has a small bit of tech knowledge and a willingness to try, it is actually pretty straightforward. There are PLENTY of videos and other resources to help someone out with almost every facet of Linux, especially the major “distros” (distributions). If someone wants a near seamless transition from Windows to Linux, I highly recommend Red Hat’s Fedora Workstation using the KDE Plasma desktop.
The nice thing about Linux is if you have a spare computer or laptop you can play with, you can try out different distros to find one you like. Since many of them can boot straight from a USB drive with near full functionality, it’s simple to test drive a few to find out which one you prefer before you actually install it. Have fun!
I switched to Linux right before the “scamdemic” and it is my daily driver. I have a dual boot laptop because some specific programs I need, are not available for Linux.
Best choice I ever made. Try Linux Mint and the learning curve coming from Windows is non existent. Highly recommended.
The learning curve is very small but one thing people should know is that your personal files are in the HOME folder not “c” like in windows, lol, that was the only thing that confused me when I switched.
The guy just heavily reinforced my reservations against Linux.
Even if I’m a Coder, I do not enjoy doing Admin- work instead of coding useful stuff just to achieve functionality I deem basic for an OS.
I had to work a bit with Linux some 10 years ago and it was just awful. There is always a bit of knowledge that’s kind of gross you have to achieve to get basic things working while in Windows you just press a button and you are done.
It’s like you have to put your tires on your car every time you wanne drive to the supermarket for license reasons and what not.
I would spend my 5 bucks for a Win10 version license (one time fee) every day of the week instead of wasting my time to fix codecs to play a video. As long as there isn’t sth more useful and they let me avoid the spyware on Win, there is no argument for Linux.
Maybe the Harmony OS may become a valid alternative some day, but CCP isn’t exactly a beacon of freedom.
>”As long as there isn’t sth more useful and they let me avoid the spyware on Win, there is no argument for Linux.”
Windows is spyware.
SomeOneInGermany
“…Even if I’m a Coder, I do not enjoy doing Admin- work instead of coding useful stuff just to achieve functionality I deem basic for an OS….”
Lol….. seriously, I get if you just ‘like’ Windows (even if it runs like molasses) because its “easy” but LMDE, Mint or even Ubuntu all run just fine thru the graphical user interface.
There are plenty of weird distros that require your Coder Skilz to “do admin” but LMDE, Mint, or Ubuntu users NEVER need to touch the terminal or do anything “admin” like. …. maybe ten years ago Linux required some study but its at the point you can put it on your grandmas computer now.
What “admin” work do you think you need to do? The only admin work I need to do it open my settings panel and click a slider if I wanna change something.
Grandma doesn’t work with Unity or Unreal Engine or Visual Studio or makes .NET applications.
The guy even wasn’t even able to do video editing on Linux. He uses Windows for it. Bc there are a million apps you can choose from in Windows.
Many things have improved in the main stream editing buiz, like writing your docs with google drive instead of horrible MS Word. But now google knows all your docs.
Don’t get me wrong, I would pay top dollar for an alternative to MS, but I don’t see it in Linux.
>”Grandma doesn’t work with Unity or Unreal Engine or Visual Studio or makes .NET applications.”
A wise grandma indeed.
SomeoneInGermany
“…Don’t get me wrong, I would pay top dollar for an alternative to MS, but I don’t see it in Linux….”
If you have money to burn why not buy a Mac?
“…..Grandma doesn’t work with Unity or Unreal Engine or Visual Studio or makes .NET applications…..”
Lol, neither do most of us.
Anyone who wants to make movies in Linux can use OpenShot (for free) or any of the other free apps, or they can pay to use some app on Windows….. its works OK, I’m sure there is some specific use situation where you need Windows but most of us dont need anything else. You can churn out videos just fine on Linux.
“….Many things have improved in the main stream editing buiz, like writing your docs with google drive instead of horrible MS Word…..”
LibreOffice does anything 99% of people need to do, FOR ZERO BUCKS. Personally I like Abby Word to write with and its insane that people pay for MS Word.
“….. But now google knows all your docs….”
No one makes you use google, I dont even have a google account any more. I also hate google docs, but people use whats easy.
Yeah I know what you mean, I’ve always liked the concept of Linux but having dipped my toe in the water numerous times over the years I could never get it to the point where I could get it setup the way I wanted and then leave it alone. Until last year that is. I settled on Kubuntu and, thanks largely to chatgpt I am now a happy customer and rarely need to use windows.
So things are improving, installation was easy, the only tricky bits were figuring out how to add extra drives and nas shares using fstab (on windows they just mount automatically) and getting the printer working. After it was all set up it’s been great.
Worthy of mention is “Slackware Linux” distro – that is the oldest actively maintained distribution of Linux – here is their website : http://www.slackware.com/ The term ‘slack’ comes from the Church of The Subgenius ( a conspiracy, not of single plot, but sprawling satirical myths about control ). Rarely updated, it is simple, logical, and traditional.
In fact it uses the same installation tool as FreeBSD does. FreeBSD is a free version of UNIX but the name UNIX was trademark/patent given to AT&T in legal battle. So while there’s the joke that GNU is not UNIX, FreeBSD IS, it just cannot use the name due to restrictions. https://www.freebsd.org/ It is worth mention as it works great for servers, and is the basis of other systems such as Apple’s OS/X that are based on it.
Also worth noting Linux is ‘democracy’ in practical form. Yes, it’s not perfect, and it’s ever evolving constant construction. It is however for the most part open source, community made. There’s sites like GitHub where projects can be maintained, and bug reports filed – yes it also has ways to give authors feedback if you have problems. Furthermore there are community solutions to common problems. Users are able to participate in the development loop – offering feedback, and possible solutions back to the authors. As such practically it’s living democracy in active practice. This is the result of so called ‘viral license’ many projects have. If you update it, you should offer that update back to maintainers – so that the projects evolve more and more, based on their actual use. It is quite profound.
In contrast to that, FreeBSD is worth mention, as how it is ‘free’ differs from Linux, as there is no commitment or obligation. FreeBSD’s source code is free of all conditions about further use. Thus big companies can build on FreeBSD’s way of doing things. It’s not just Apple… in 90’s Microsoft took it’s whole network stack. BSD stands for the Berkeley Standard Distro. ( of UNIX ). It could be said that it is more anarchistic by comparison – because there’s no rules on what people do with it after it’s released.
It isn’t known for graphical interfaces such as X-Windows – in part because those are complicated systems hard to develop. That is why we see commercially developed interface on top. With that being said, many of the same tools work on BSD too, as where there is source programs can be recompiled for other systems.
These are great options where folks can participate in public discourse, and constructive work that benefits the commons in pervasive ways, and that may create an open and free future where people can take control for themselves of computational tools in constructive ways.
Thank you for a very helpful and informative discussion. Im seriously tempted. As I do virtually everything in Libre Open Office I see no problem with apps.
Started out in the 80’s on a MacPlus using system 7.5 that you loaded on the machine using floppies using a laser printer and a “monster” 50 Mb external HD 🙂
Once I got a Pismo G3 I used it on line till they started loading pages up with far too much for it to handle. Still use it for my music, books, slide shows, etc. on System 9.2.2 that I hacked with ResEdit and still using 3rd party applications from the 70’s and 80’s on it.
When the 20 year old gamers started working for Apple and screwed up every good thing possible I got an iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2009) 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo that tops out with High Sierra 10.13.
When that no longer can go on line I will just stop going on line.
Computers are just tools not something to be honored like a pet dog or a 1/2 acre garden. They are all part of the system of addiction and isolation from normal social intercourse and verbal communication that is a rabbit hole to the take down of humanity. You can see it how guys get woodies over this or that system and wasting life time boviating about statistics and such. My brain cuffs are better than yours…
GET OFF THE PHONE (song)
https://old.bitchute.com/video/2QbsxZOkIYjA/
Rob is great but I don’t think he clearly explained Linux for anyone curious about it. If I was a newbie coming from Windows, a lot of what he was saying as default would’ve gone over my head. I understood only because I’ve been on MX Linux since 2017.
Unfortunately, he didn’t make it sound easy to make the switch. The reality is that it’s much much easier than people would imagine. The best thing about Linux is that you can download it to a USB stick and run the entire operating system from the stick. You wouldn’t ever have to load it on to your hard drive if you are afraid of doing so.
Also, here’s a website that offers the possibility of running any number of Linux distros from a web page so you can check out the look and feel of various Linux distros.
https://distrosea.com/
Rob mentioned Lenovo sells a “Carbon” laptop. I have one of these. All hardware in the laptop is fully linux compatible. My wife has a Dell XPS “developer edition” which is fully linux compatible too, but I think they stopped selling this.
We have Beelink and GMKtek mini PCs, and raspberry Pis, that we have connected to all TV and stereos. These all have full linux compatibility.
We just replaced one of our media servers (mostly physical media rips) with a Zimaboard 2. The other one has a dozen drives so we needed to keep a full PC.
I run fedora KDE edition on my laptop. Every other PC and server runs Kubuntu LTS. Which is KDE version of Ubuntu with long term support.
The raspberry Pi’s run various things Like a custom OS from JRiver, and we have a Pi just for Pihole and recursive DNS.
I use GL.iNet routers which run linux too.
The media servers and networks we use function fine without internet. We basically just need to connect for updates. No smart TV has access to the internet, there are no apple or windows products, we do not stream except the wife has spotify, and everything works offline.
Yet here I am writing this on a windows PC that I use for work. Autodesk, Leica software, GIS software, etc. does not run on Linux. This year’s task it move my 30 year old microsoft email account over to tutanota with my custom domain. All this stuff takes time, but is ultimately worth it.
And my family all run Graphene OS on their phones.
I have rarely met another person in real life that cares the slightest about anything I just wrote. No one cares. I would guess the number of people that do not care about privacy is about equal to those that inject themselves with safe and effective things.
nathan
“….All hardware in the laptop is fully linux compatible. …”
Pretty much any normal computer is Linux compatible, esp if you cheep out and buy old laptops to run it on 🙂
I’ve only ever had a single laptop that had any compatibility issues (it ended up running ok on MX linux iirc) and that had some weird graphics card in it and it didnt run that good in windows 7 either , lol
Running Linux:
I have had 3 Microsoft surface tablets with major touch screen issues, no battery level indicator, and other issues.
I have a dell laptop where the screen has no brightness adjustment, so it is just full brightness.
I had a Lenovo laptop with no wifi, and the wifi card could not be switched out because the BIOS would not allow.
I just got rid of old motherboard, wifi did not work.
All above work fine under windows.
The benefit of a Linux compatible device is that it works as soon as you buy it, and no need to wait for driver support like Rob explained in the video. Maybe advanced users can fix some of these issues, but i am not one of them.
Look at raspberry pi’s for example. New versions require support from the mainline Linux kernel to function properly.
Not every piece of hardware will work with Linux. System76 and other similar companies ensure full Linux support for their hardware. The mini PC market also seems to have great support.
System76 is the worst computer I’ve ever purchased, though it has tons of space, memory, and processor speed. It is absolutely NOT compatible with Kubuntu, Ubuntu Studio, or Mint. (I spent over a month trying to get anything to work.) All that will work on it are the company’s clearly-kludged versions of Ubuntu or Pop_OS! factory installed. The Theo Mira is so problematic that their firmware update routines do not work; I have to send the thing back to them for that. And don’t get me going about their technical ‘support.’ I was a computer engineer for 30+ years and could not follow their line of reasoning, several times. And three times they sent the wrong commands to do things and later apologized after I had already trusted their advice. I DO NOT RECOMMEND SYSTEM76.
Interesting, and too bad. Thanks for sharing.
Maybe Framework is a good brand to try. They advertise using hardware with good Linux support.
It is difficult to trust things these days, as most reviews are actually promotions.
Nathan
What distro were you using? Esp regarding the Dell with no brightness control?
Like I said my computers are 2nd hand so maybe you were using new hardware tjat, as Mr Braxman said, had drivers nit intergrated into the Kernal?
In the past I was using Mint, as Debian takes a while to support newer hardware and did not work well. The Dell with issues is Alienware m15 R2 from 2019. I need gaming PCs for work, not gaming.
I haven’t used it for at least a year, but it is coming out of the closet so a family member can try to run Brighteon AI on it offline. I will be trying Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, and I will see if the screen settings will finally work. If not, I can still run Windows as the PC is meant to be offline anyways.
The laptop had issues with Debian, Mint, and Ubuntu around a year ago which was 5 years after the release of the laptop. Compare this to the Dell and Lenovo “Linux compatible Laptops” I have, which have had zero issues since day one. The Dell XPS laptop I have shipped with Ubuntu, and the Lenovo laptop I have shipped with Fedora.
The toughest thing about switching to Linux is the guides, forums, and instructional videos. They are all horrible, and over complicate everything.
Mounting a drive, and having it auto mount on startup, takes about 1 minute and is easy. It takes just a few clicks, no terminal. But good luck finding this shown online, and good luck finding someone to explain how you need the drive to be mounted to a folder, and how there is an interface to do this easily. Make sure you set permissions when mounting.
Permissions are another thing that will melt your brain if you research it. But again, it is just a few clicks to add, and edit, if you know what you are doing, no terminal.
I feel KDE makes all of these things much easier, but still I never find simple explanations.
GNOME desktop environment is a bit mental. I suspect this turns a lot people away. It is the default desktop for Ubuntu and Fedora. I suspect this is why people like Mint, it comes with Cinnamon.
Fedora now has “Spins” so you can install with the desktop environment of your choice.
https://fedoraproject.org/spins
Ubuntu now has “Flavours” so you can install with the desktop environment of your choice.
https://ubuntu.com/desktop/flavors
Linux is a bit of a rabbit hole, it can lead to self hosting everything, which I guess is called Home Lab. My goal is to get Tiny Tiny RSS or Fresh RSS running from home, and to do my own VPN (probably from Pi). This all takes time though.
“The toughest thing about switching to Linux is the guides, forums, and instructional videos. They are all horrible, and over complicate everything.”
Yes. So true.
And, for flashing to a thumb drive… just plain flat out didn’t work for me. I had to go to an old version of the recommended program… after doing some research online.
I had a really tough time with partitioning on the 1st PC I put Linux on. I was trying to put backups on its own partition. I ended up wrecking things with backups which got too big for the partition.
My solution. No backups.
If I need to… I’ll just install Linux again and start over. So, it’s important for me to do data backups to a flash drive occasionally.
I do love Mint, though.
I had trouble with Zoom. Zoom is not available in Software Manager. So, I subscribed to Zoom Workplace. That allowed me to get Zoom working. I started off with a subscription. Later, I quit paying… but so far it still works.
It’s my understanding that it’s safe to install anything that is available in Software Manager. But, installing stuff via terminal commands might negatively affect operating system security. I’m no expert. That’s how I understand it.
I love Thunderbird for email. I have a lot of email accounts. Thunderbird makes it easy to retrieve mail for all accounts via one interface.
The free Libre word processor seems more complicated to me than Microsoft Word. So, I just use the Text Editor app. That’s super easy. And, I can use ctrl-plus on my keyboard to make the words go big onscreen and easy to read.
I haven’t tried hooking up a printer yet. But, I plugged in an Rii lightweight USB keyboard and it works great. It’s better than the multilingual keyboard built into my Fujitsu lightweight laptop. I got this great used laptop super cheap at a nearby PC store. It works great with Linux. When I installed Linux via a thumb drive, I just obliterated Windows.
My question about the thumb drives available via mail to install Linux… how does that handle the part where you’re supposed to check that those files have the correct code?
Buy a Raspberry Pi4 and install KODI and then rip all your DVD’S to an external hard drive to watch on any TV around your house…..Pi4’s will run external USB plug DVD drives to play disks on (the blue ray disks , eh, ….’sometimes” )
I have my old Pi3’s running KODI in the other rooms where I might want to listen to an audio book or watch a show from a USB thumbdrive.
Now is the time to gather all your TV slop, as well as documentaries and other media, because the internet is getting skunked and soon you wont be torrenting much in the way of free stuff
I watched all of this and understood nothing. My life experience is that there is always a catch somewhere. Guess I’m stuck with the rest of the techno-ignorant sheep, waiting to be sheared, and then be on our owner’s dinner plate. Why haven’t any of the techno-smartypants people invented a no-brainer option to switch? I’d pay for it.
What do you use your computer for?
https://abovephone.com/#laptops
You can get a laptop with Linux pre-installed at above phone.
Danny Jay
“… Why haven’t any of the techno-smartypants people invented a no-brainer option to switch? I’d pay for it….”
If you have more money then time or inclination to learn you can just buy a pretty nice laptop over at System76.
https://system76.com/
There are plenty of good tech options, the issue is that the ” techno-ignorant sheep, waiting to be sheared, and then be on our owner’s dinner plate ” you speak of dont really care enough about privacy to avoid the plate.
As others have suggested before me, the explanations Rob provided in this video probably seemed a little too occult-ish for someone who wants to switch to Linux. It isn’t as complicated as it sounded: you’ll have to create a bootable USB stick, the OS in itself is very similar to Windows, as for the use of the terminal, it generally simply means copying and pasting the command lines you found online. Then when you’re really stuck with some issue, the forums are always helpful because others will have come across the same problems as yours before.
I’m no tech savvy, far from it, but I’ve been using Ubuntu since 2008 and I wouldn’t go back to MS – mostly because it reminds me of the ugly corporate universe! I’d even go further: I built myself in 2017 the PC I’m writing this comment from and to this day it remains my main machine. So it isn’t the fastest but I don’t really care as I’m not a gamer, and if I needed it to perform better anyway, I’d just change the necessary part(s). My point with this example is that in general, by using a little DIY, we can avoid their planned obsolescence (I don’t think my previous PCs ever lasted that long) and above all – at least in this specific case – it isn’t difficult at all: just like for Linux, you only have to watch a couple of tutorials and next, follow the instructions correctly.
On top of all that, you’ll have learned something new 😉
I agree with Danny Jay. It is thoroughly frustrating to see the tech community jump into these things and seemingly avoid the chaos waiting for the nontechies of the world. How about building something that will protect ALL of us from Microsoft’s evil empire?
l can’t help thinking that Linux is only there to make us think we have choice. If I were a control freak’s spook I’d be more interested in those who attempt to escape my surveilance. (“I might be paranoid but that doesn’t mean no one’s out to get me”.)
Well synchronicity I just switched to Ubuntu and I’m not tech savvy at all. I watched a few how to you tubes. My tech needs are basic so I am managing fine thus far. I was using windows and decided not to renew when my subscription ended mostly because I hate being tied to idrive/cloud. In the transition I decided to save all my work to a memory stick and will do this ongoing. I was a bit nervous in the transition but it was sort of fun having to work out things for myself.
Linux has definitely been co-opted. For instance, partnering with the World Economic Forum: https://www.weforum.org/organizations/linux-foundation/
I have a hard time believing that anything these days is secure and private–whether it be computers, operating systems, email, VPNs, email aliases, etc. I’ve been running Linux computers for at least 10 years but I do not trust them, like I do not trust Mac or Windows boxes. I also managed Linux enterprise systems under RedHat prior to the Tech Wreck. I’ve seen clear attempted hacks on my systems enough times to become very fast at 100% wipes and re-dos. But it’s tiring.
This video conversation with Rob Braxman is not as clear as it might be, because it is a conversation about the subject, not a tutorial. However, I would urge those interested in switching to Linux to go to Rob’s own videos, as he edits them so that they are logical and easy to follow. His latest video about dual-booting Windows and Linux gives step-by-step instructions about how to do it. If you follow along and take notes, you will end up much more knowledgeable about how to set up a dual boot system, and much less intimidated by the whole thing. Link (copied from the show notes):
https://odysee.com/@RobBraxmanTech:6/dualboot2:c
James, I think you’re on to something. I never updated from Windows 8.1 mainly because it ran programs I like that were “retired” in Windows 10 (MS Streets & Trips), so I never changed and now I’m bumping into login problems on some sites because of my old operating system. I’m ripe to switch over to Linux and I hope you’ll do more on this subject. I even have a spare older HP computer in the closet to do this.
Needless to say this is a very esoteric subject.
But then again, so is most of what James covers at this site.
First off I want to thank you folks for alerting me to the perils of Windows 11.
I wasn’t aware of its blatant spying capabilities.
I’ll tell you about my personal experience with computers.
Apart from a brief period in the 90’s when I used an Atari computer
solely to run Notator (a specialized music software that morphed into
Logic for Windows and then for the Mac) I have been running DOS and
then Windows on my computers.
Back in the early 2000’s virus attacks were the biggest concern for computer
users when it came to potential software threats.
I navigated the waters quite well by always staying one or two generations behind
the masses in terms of Windows versions.
I held off upgrading to WinXP for the longest time, and then jumped to Win 10 when the waters seemed safe enough.
In terms of the topic of computers and invasion of privacy is concerned, we’ve been
subjected to tracking and tracing for the longest time.
Whoever coined the term “cookies” as a euphemism for computer trackers was one
heck of a sly/dishonest programmer!
Cookies have been used for decades now and capture all kinds of nuances and information
about your computer use and life. So this Win11 ‘in-your-face’ tracking is just taking it
to the next level. And for the masses who already make use of Alexa or whatever ‘voice assistants’ are the ‘flavor of the day’, most wouldn’t blink an eye if they were told about Win11’s AI camera watching you and listening to everything you say.
It’s all a continuum.
First get the masses hooked. Then when enough are hooked they can slowly incorporate
the spying/AI control tech into other facets of our lives.
Sure we can delay the change by hiding out under Linux or another alt-operating system, but what happens when these systems are finally infiltrated by the tech giants either willingly or by coercion?
In the meantime, I do have a Linux partition I made recently on a new partition to use in case of an emergency. And I also have a couple of Linux USB sticks, also for possible emergency use.
And life goes on …
>”but what happens when these systems are finally infiltrated by the tech giants either willingly or by coercion?”
https://suckless.org/sucks/systemd/
Still better than windows’ built-in spyware, mass-media pushing and pricetag.
Still better than windows’ built-in spyware, mass-media pushing and pricetag.
Yeah that sucks. But still better than ‘fsck indirections’ 🙂
To those who have already invested the time and effort to
run Linux all the power to you folks!
Absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event I likely won’t be switching from Windows 10 any time soon. 🙂
Suit yourself. Running an EOL version of windows isn’t very smart either. There are a handful of distros without systemd e.g. guix and gentoo, along with the BSDs.
I’ve been running EOL versions of Windows for decades now.
The truth is that for me to make the switch to Linux would involve too much time that I’d rather use for other stuff.
Computers ain’t my life.
As long as you can avoid getting hijacked then good on you for opting out instead of capitulating to planned obsolescence.
However, I would not assume that windows 10 is any more respecting of your privacy than windows 11. The takeaway here is that you cannot trust microsoft – therefore you cannot trust windows 10. Most of the techniques/models that underpin what the media is calling AI have been around for decades. The video talks about windows capturing screenshots and extracting information from them using a “built-in AI”, as if it were a totally novel concept. LeNet was invented in the eighties. Hardware advances let them scale up models like this, but a windows 10 era machine has more than enough power for this type of surveillance. How do you know that it doesn’t do the same thing, just not as overtly or efficiently?
For instance, consider the “thumbnails” that your file manager displays as icons for all your image and video files. These are generated by down-scaling each media file to a smaller “preview”, all identically sized and cached indefinitely. This feature (which has existed since windows XP) is quite useless to the user, yet possibly quite convenient for things like feature extraction and subsequent classification/recognition/detection. After the thumbnails are computed (which happens in plain sight), the process could work slowly and gradually, or perhaps using the Intel ME (which has full access to all of your system memory) outside the system altogether. The end results (very small – perhaps a compressed plaintext file with classification/detection results) are then sent out on your network interface (the ME also has access to your network interface) along with the rest of the traffic (which, of course, the ME can filter/modify transparently). Of course, that was then, hypothetically. Apparently now even cheap machines are powerful enough to continuously feed screenshots into a computer vision pipeline, and their users either too ignorant and/or too habituated to care.
As I mentioned in an earlier post this Linux/Windows debate is a very esoteric subject.
Sure Win10 could be spying on me. If it is, it is doing it in an unobtrusive way.
I honestly can say in the decades I have been using Windows I haven’t suffered any serious ill effects from the system. I haven’t been stopped at border control as I traveled internationally, nor have the police knocked on my door as a result of anything nefarious Windows was doing behind the scenes on my computer.
For me, for the time being anyway, if it ain’t broke I won’t fix it. 🙂
>”As I mentioned in an earlier post this Linux/Windows debate is a very esoteric subject.”
Not among computer scientists and other techies, though I’m not sure I’d call it a “debate”. Windows was/is designed for selling/renting overpriced, vendor-controlled software designed for the tech-illiterate masses and ‘avid gamers’. Unix was developed by telecom companies as a computing utility. Modern linux distributions come with tons of useful development/research tools and utilities, and package many more. Many of these are more useful and better-engineered than any non-FOSS alternative (e.g. no IDE or editor designed for windows is even remotely as useful as emacs), historical cruft notwithstanding. Windows doesn’t even compare. Anyone who tells you otherwise is straight bullshitting.
Andrew computer scientists and other techies are by definition an esoteric group of people. 🙂
I agree with the rest of what you wrote above.
While I am likely not as sophisticated with computers as you are I don’t want to give you the impression that I am Windows slave or computer Luddite.
For example within Windows I tend to use
non-conformist, ‘alternative software’ such as Firefox (instead of Chrome, Edge etc.), VLC media (instead of Windows Media Player etc.), The Bat (instead of gmail, yahoo mail, hotmail, Outlook etc.).
And I use a bunch of ‘alternative software’ utilities to plug and fill the gaps that Windows does/can not provide.
The market drives commerce, in this case computer commerce.
It was inevitable that a few companies would rise to the top (Microsoft, Apple, Google etc.).
Smaller niche software developers know where they will earn the most amount of money. It is writing software for Windows/Apple and not for Linux.
That’s not to say that the Linux community isn’t robust and can’t fend for itself on the software front.
So basically yes I do use Windows, but I try to steer clear of as much Windows bloatware as possible and disable pretty much everything that Windows sets as defaults.
> “The market drives commerce, in this case computer commerce. It was inevitable that a few companies would rise to the top (Microsoft, Apple, Google etc.).”
That’s a rather euphemistic description of the real problem – the oligopoly of anti-competitive vendors and complicit governments. They exploit the public and waste tremendous labor reinventing the wheel. Here’s a thought experiment: supposing a free market, why would there be any demand for vendor-controlled, opaque, spyware-ridden software? None of those features decrease the amount of labor required to develop any given software – often just the opposite.
They’re running the nation into the ground.
FT
“….I honestly can say in the decades I have been using Windows I haven’t suffered any serious ill effects from the system……”
Is any one sure of that ?
I mean, the real thing about surveillance is that it tends to render you kinda a non-issue to the system.
If they know you from your reading and listening and shopping and travel then its pretty easy to know what info /news/ products to feed you to shape your thinking (and thus behavior) to better suit themselves.
“…. I haven’t been stopped at border control as I traveled internationally, nor have the police knocked on my door as a result of anything nefarious Windows was doing behind the scenes on my computer…..”
The Intel services kept breaking the Enigma secret for years, and allowed German bombing raids that killed thousands to happen unopposed, so that the Germans would never think of changing the system. If you were worried about a totalitarian Gov you’d have to worry about how much leverage they actually have when they decide to turn the screw.
Dont get me wrong- I dont trust any electronics – but people tend to forget the real threat is profiling more then actually getting caught for naughty behaviors
Well I am sure I haven’t suffered any ill effects from the system.
If I had it would have surfaced in my life. And nothing has for decades.
As far as “reading and listening and shopping and travel” habits are concerned, TPTB can and do get this information from sources other than your computer operating system.
We need not go much further than the Corbett Report!
You can bet your sweet bippy that TPTB are scooping up every single word you and I write here at this site and adding it to our online profiles. And you just happen to be a very prolific writer here, so there is much to compile. 🙂
FT
“….Well I am sure I haven’t suffered any ill effects from the system.
If I had it would have surfaced in my life. And nothing has for decades…..”
How would you actually know if you had?
Seriously, consider the average Boomer who watches CNN or FOX on their big TV…. THEY would tell you that they have never suffered any ill effects, but I can assure you I know people who voted for Bush2 (twice….) and now a days complain that Trump is “Too right wing”…… NOT defending Trump (or Bush) here but he is more left wing the Clinton.
So…. no, you dont know if the slop has changed how you think over time without your permission or notice. Most ‘humans’ are PRODUCTS of their media tank, barely people.
The old “the know what i do anyways” is just a cope, its pretty easy to maintain separation of your activities, maybe not from the Feds, but are the Feds actually after you???
As to people scooping up my text… lol, I say the same stuff in public and dont go round doing actual crimes.
I’m totally convinced you like to argue just for the sake of arguing here.
You go around and around in circles. 🙂
How would I know? Because nothing has changed in my life that I am aware of that is out of the ordinary. Like say being arrested in a Truckers’ Convoy etc. or having my bank account frozen etc. Or being arrested at the border as I mentioned. You know, BIG THINGS.
Seriously you are talking to the wrong fellow about this. I am not the average Boomer. I don’t watch CNN or FOX.
I don’t vote. I don’t watch or listen to Trump so there is nothing to complain about. 🙂
Duck you are barking up the wrong tree; With me personally, as I just mentioned above and with the topic of Windows vs. Linux.
We were discussing how Windows may potentially be spying on us and the negative effects we may suffer as a result of this.
Somehow you morphed this into a discussion of how any and all things in life (think advertisements outside of computers/Windows) are influencing how we think and behave.
And with this statement you have just proven my point. 🙂
Computers, operating systems are not our entire lives. We have lives beyond these silicon chips.
TPTB have a multitude of ways of spying on us far beyond our computer usage.
So for you or anyone to say “How do you know Windows isn’t spying on you?”
I say, how do you know TPTB aren’t spying on you when you are way from your computer?
And for the last part of your statement:
Again you are proving my point.
I said I haven’t been stopped at international borders when traveling and the police haven’t come to my door etc.
In other words I don’t go around doing actual crimes either.
But you were implying that you have nothing to fear if they do scoop up your text because you aren’t breaking the law!
In essence that is what I was saying, however you and I still find it creepy if they spy on us in ANY manner, on or off our computers.
FT
“…. You know, BIG THINGS….”
Sure…. if you dont think having your feed shape your brain into a shape desired by your overlords then nothing big has happened.
Mr Corbett himself has posited that the real threat of surveillance is that it allows the ruling class to gamify and program the plebs into thinking what their masters wish. You could go watch “The Selfish Ledger” …. or go back to sleep. I dont really care.
Keep patting yourself on the back because you dont watch the olde fashioned means of propagandizing you. I mean…. its not like half of alternative media is already in the pockets of your rulers is it?
Its not like the Alt Media is just the next layer of the media cave we live in, is it? Nah…. it’ll be fine
So what do you recommend I do? Be like you and use a Linux computer? Then all will be fine?
Or do you have any other suggestions to help me dodge the all-seeing all-influencing eye of TPTB?
These are not rhetorical questions.
Because you seem to have found nirvana.
FT
“…So what do you recommend I do?…”
Do whatever you like, I dont care if you wish to be a product.
The steps to actually DO anything are more then most people have the will for. I will list a few things, but honestly I doubt one in a hundred people would even do these few simple things.
“…. Be like you and use a Linux computer? Then all will be fine?’….”
NO
Linux is fine and dandy, but the real issue is changing your life and how you interact with the Internet.
The easiest is to just drop the internet, as a whole or in part. Then assume all TV, movies and radio are slop (which most are) and only trust stuff you know and see IRL.
If you dont wanna do that:
Cut your internet out of your home and grab all the slop you want at a different location for home consumption.
Learn virtual box and run “virtual computers” so that you spin up a “new pc” for every session on the net (or at least have one for email, one for stuff like this, one for boomerbook or whatever social, ect)
ACTUALLY LEARN WTF THE MACHINES YOU USE DO AND HOW THEY FKING WORK.
“…..Or do you have any other suggestions to help me dodge the all-seeing all-influencing eye of TPTB?….”
DOnt bother, its more work and doing without then you are interested in.
“….These are not rhetorical questions….”
Yes, for most they are. Most people need their slop to the point they cant stop netflix and have their kindle hooked in so Amazon litrally knows what page of the book their on….. there are ways to feed your slop habit, KODI media centers and home data storage and networks (if you really want them) but people have ‘better’ stuff to do, so they buy what the Oligarchy sells them
“…Because you seem to have found nirvana…..” ACtually heading back there in a bit when I post this.
>Learn virtual box and run “virtual computers” so that you spin up a “new pc” for every session on the net
I have doubts about this strategy. It seems better to use a smaller set of better-maintained/audited software, e.g. openbsd.
I assume you’d give the same advice to all Corbett Report members here.
How about James Corbett who makes his living working with the internet?
FT
another trick might be to keep a written paper diary of what media you consoome…. radio, TV, pod’s and youtubies (you know you can save them to your computer…right?) and what message each bit was giving.
FT
“….I assume you’d give the same advice to all Corbett Report members here…..”
Yes, indeed.
What do are you actually waiting to learn before you take steps to protect yourself?
“…..How about James Corbett who makes his living working with the internet?….”
He uses Arch (acthually…. 😉
But aside from that HE himself has said many times about trying to limit electronic inputs into his life – spending more time in real books and slow content.
Again…. what are you thinking you, as a long time, viewer, are going to learn that you dont already know?
Steps to protect myself?
Well I certainly didn’t take the vaccines. 🙂
Speaking about viruses…
Do you realize that in the 30+ years I have been using Windoze I have never used antivirus software.
All those antivirus companies would go belly up if they relied on customers like me. 🙂
But then the same holds true for the film making industry. They’d also go belly up if they relied on customers like me.
I may have seen just a handful of 21st century films.
The advice I was referring to was your advice to go cold turkey with the internet. ie. abandon it altogether.
That’s why I asked about James, as he would be giving up his major source of income if he did that.
FT
“…The advice I was referring to was your advice to go cold turkey with the internet. ie. abandon it altogether.
That’s why I asked about James, as he would be giving up his major source of income if he did that…….
I am sorry if I didnt make it clear that MOST people wont do that…. since I’m not using telepathy to post this its clear ‘I’ have not totally done that yet.
That said the day IS coming when wise people WILL abandon the regular net totally- or use their own systems (such as Mr Hancock was IIRC setting up , or the GhostNet on Ham radio)….. as to Mr Corbett, while I cant spek for what he will or wont do I DO recall that he said in an interview that when he entered the internet he thought it was a limited time window for use, and in another IIRC he said that things would change (perhaps thats why he wrote a book….?????)
Its a question of good vs bad…. the bad on the net is going to outweigh the good soon IMO. You do you, I dont care.
Yes I agree with you that the days of the internet as a useful tool are likely limited.
It has become more and more commercialized over the past couple of decades and there is no indication that this trend will reverse itself.
It’s difficult to predict exactly what the net will look like
in 10+ years time, but it likely won’t be a pleasant experience, especially if we are forced to use biometrics to log onto it.
Linux Mint user here. Easy to add the all kinds of software to it.
Never have to buy software or licenses.
Windows games work via Steam (Proton extension)
VLC player plays any video.
The best advantage is that most software is made with joy,
and sometimes you notice that.
Sadly, left extremists are trying to take over Linux.
They have the full support of Microsoft and IBM.
But I think that will fall apart slowly, because you need to be sane
to make programs work for a long time.
Linux alternatives like
https://www.openmandriva.org/
are aware of the extremism and have their own version.
I’ve been a member here for 5 years, this is my first comment, because it’s an important topic and i’m sure 99% people do not realize this sad problem with phones like Brax3 and other privacy phones.
The short version: you CANNOT use these in Canada. You can use them in Europe, no problem at all. You can use them in the US with some limitations. But Canada has already gone one step ahead with their WEF agenda.
There is one exception, by the way, but let me clarify first. I’ve used 4 or 5 privacy phones in 5 years now and I’ve been on Linux for 23 years. I’ve struggled for almost 2 years now to understand why my deGoogled Samsung Galaxy S10+ which took so much effort to get – there are only a handful of these in existence.. even if you know how to flash it yourself – why does data almost not work on it and why if they work, they’re slow as hell. And why does everyone complain they can’t hear me on calls.
I finally found the answers and the fact is, in Canada, all carriers check for your phone IMEI. And they will only provision LTE data (and calls! because calls are voLTE only), if they already know that particular phone – not just phone model – the phone unit itself. They have to have that phone and its IMEI in their whitelist database. ONLY THEN they will connect you to LTE (or 5G). No exceptions. And there is no 3G anymore, it’s done. There is no “bring your own phone” option in Canada anymore. All deGoogled phones will fail their LTE registration, and the only exception is deGoogled Pixels, which were originally sold in Canada as Google Android. So the carriers have those IMEIs in their whitelists.
That is it in a nutshell. Trust me, i’ve traveled and i verified, the Samsung that absolutely will not work in Canada even though it has all the LTE bands, works flawlessly in Europe. Because Europe does not use IMEI whitelists. You can bring any phone you want and it will work, if the bands match. In Canada, don’t bother checking bands. They don’t matter anymore. Only IMEI matters. You are only allowed to use a phone that the carrier likes. And they do NOT like Brax phones or deGoogled Samsungs, or…. or…
I’ve gone through so much pain to get to this point where i understand, and it cost me a lot of money and time, and i just want to share the findings here. Don’t expect a deGoogled phone to work in Canada, unless it’s a Pixel. The government (who controls all the phone carriers) is already one step ahead of the game. They realized how to clamp down on privacy in a way that no one could see coming.
@kimdotcom
I am not posting this to argue. I am not saying you are wrong.
I primarily use pixel phones with Graphene OS, but I also have blackberries, a pine phone with different Linux operating systems, and a couple samsung phones with Lineage OS. Also I have tablets and routers that run sim cards. All work for me through Bell in Canada. I can swap sim cards between devices whenever I want. i have never had a device that did not work.
I talked to Bell support before buying one of the sim card routers to confirm it would work. The router is $600 so I wanted to be sure. They were quite useless, but did explain something. They explained that most devices have automatic IMEI detection through the cell network. So you can just swap cards around. But some devices will not have this, and in this case you need to call support and provide them with this number, so they can enter it into the system, then your device will work.
The GPS I use even takes sim cards and this works for corrections, but not supported in my area.
I am primarily off grid, so sim cards are my only energy efficient solution for internet. i have had zero issues in the last decade with many devices thrown into the mix. The last thing with google play store on it was probably eight years ago.
kimdotcom and nathan you have an interesting discussion going there about IMEI numbers.
I won’t get into the nitty gritty details but recently I have had an issue with trying to get two new phones to work with a Canadian phone carrier.
As was mentioned, they only care about the IMEI numbers, nothing else.
They tell me that my phones are not compatible with their system but they are lying. They should be telling me “Your phones are not on our IMEI whitelist and so we won’t let you use them.”
I’ve been trying to work with the CCTS to solve the issue but so far they been useless.
So I’ve got a question for you guys.
If I take a SIM card from a whitelisted IMEI phone and place it into my phone will my phone work?
I was just at a mall today and asked this question to two different SIM card stores.
Both said yes, my phone would work!
They even said I could place an Apple SIM card into my Android phone and it would work.
@Fawlty Towers
Sim card has your number and account info. IMEI identifies your hardware, kind of like a mac address but for mobile. Swapping the sim card around should not make a device work that previously didn’t.
I find it strange that mobile companies ban hardware, but I believe it.
The last phone i bought from Bell was in 2014. When I sign into my bell account is still shows that i use a Samsung Note 3 (a 2013 model). Since 2018 I have brought my own device (and all family members too). This is because:
The CRTC mandated that all new devices sold in Canada after December 1, 2017, must be unlocked or come with instructions on how to unlock them at no additional cost
with an update of:
As of December 2025, Bell was recently ordered by the CRTC to immediately unlock all cellphones on its network, indicating ongoing enforcement of the 2017 rule despite previous attempts by carriers to revert to locked phones due to concerns over theft
source:
https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/bell-must-immediately-unlock-cellphones-on-its-network-crtc-says-after-ruling-60-day-lock/article_ac021bb0-d22a-4dae-bc6a-d49659882888.html
And all of my phones have also always worked in USA and Europe (France, England, Germany, Ireland). It is also cheaper to bring your own phone, and you do not need the mobile company apps installed.
I know buying used phones can be troublesome if they are European and locked to a mobile company, so used phones can be problematic.
In North Western Canada there is only one set of towers, most phones will work of these regardless of mobile company used. I do see the odd American with no service though, and I once in a while see city folk from Canada with no service. I do not remember their providers but it was small companies that apparently only work in the city. Like how Rogers used to be, but I think is better now.
Maybe is time to try a different mobile company. This feels like the solution.
I agree with you about the ridiculous extents cellphone providers are going to restrict certain phones over others (their whitelist).
I honestly don’t know how they can get away with it.
It would be the equivalent of grocery store owners restricting the sale of bananas thatdon’t originate in country X,Y or Z.
Or hardware stores restricting the sale of lawn mowers that don’t originate in country A,B or C. etc.
Back to my question though.
“Sim card has your number and account info. IMEI identifies your hardware, kind of like a mac address but for mobile. Swapping the sim card around should not make a device work that previously didn’t.”
I agree with the last statement, however I think you are missing the point I am getting at.
The device that “doesn’t work”, (currently my phone) is not because it is incapable of working. The phone company is trying to say my phone doesn’t work with their system because it is “incompatible”.
To me incompatible means the properties of the phone do not mesh with the properties of their phone system and hence will not work on it.
But my phone would work on their system! My phone is physically compatible with their system. It is VoLTE compliant and has all the bands that are required to work there.
So what’s the problem?
My phone was made in country X and the phone company does not like country X. They have decided to compile a list of phones (whitelist) they do like together with the IMEI numbers of those phones.
When you try to register your phone with this phone company the first thing they check is if the IMEI number on your phone is on their whitelist. If it isn’t they say your phone is “incompatible” and can’t be used.
So getting back to what you wrote at the start.
“Swapping the sim card around should not make a device work that previously didn’t.”
What I want to do is make a test. Take a SIM card from another phone that is running on this phone company’s system (it is on the whitelist) and place it into my phone.
If my phone works, which is should, it would prove to any sane person that my phone is in fact “compatible” with their system.
Do you get what I am after now?
Sorry for late reply.. been a busy time around xmas.
To your question – If I take a SIM card from a whitelisted IMEI phone and place it into my phone will my phone work?
i think the answer is “this depends on luck”, and even if it works, it will not work reliably. I’ve struggled with this for exactly 24 months now and it’s a really tough battle to win. Even now with my deGoogled Pixel 7, it’s not working 100% the way it should, even though that phone is one of the exceptions that works in Canada – again, if you’re lucky – with any provider. But only if that Pixel was originally sold in Canada, not elsewhere. It has to have been in the IMEI whitelist before you deGoogled it. And i’m not sure if mine was, but i got it from someone in Quebec, so I assume it’s whitelisted.
As you said, the fact a phone is fully compatible with a Canadian carrier’s network does not at all mean it will work with that carrier. Those times are long gone. It’s only the IMEI that matters, and you can go to any carrier in Canada – they all check it now. You can’t solve the problem by switching carriers, and you can’t solve it by switching SIM cards. Some carriers have an IMEI checker online and you can run your IMEI and see if it’s whitelisted or not, deGoogled or not – makes no difference.
They had blocked tens of thousands of phones back in July 2025 and most of them were not even deGoogled. That July incident was a really major milestone in the history of Canadian cellular service history. I could talk about it for an hour because i was deeply affected by it, and frankly what the carriers (like Fido / Rogers at the time) did, was in my opinion not just unethical, it was criminal.
What did they do? They bamboozled customers with confusing arguments that “you’ve been using 3G you bad little monkey, we will not only block all calls / data / texts on your line if you do not buy a phone from us, but we will also on top of it fine you $120 for being so bad that you’ve used our 3G network”. I don’t know how else to make it shorter.. they literally fined me $120 for “using 3G” which in reality meant “for using a phone not on their whitelist”, but no one would explain you even one bit of the actual reasons what they did and why, because almost no one in the entire Fido customer support knew – they were honestly not trained on any of it.
The same goes for SIM card stores at malls, they will very likely not know the real details and most won’t have a clue that any whitelists exists. Because all these are mainstream people using phones that are sold in Canada exclusively, so they never run into these issues, and never have to dig deeper.
I’m running out of characters to type more, but if you need more info, i can post additional comments later. I am not claiming i know exactly how it all works, but i know a lot more than i knew in July when this happened and no carrier customer service or mall store had any helpful information on this complicated subject.
Even for a tech illiterate, adapting to Linux is possible. It’s probably something like an Apple user learning Windows.
Years ago my perfectly functional iBook succumbed to the planned obsolescence of the Apple/Microsoft collusion. I replaced it with a Macbook Pro, but eventually, once again, the latest Apple approved OS for my aging Macbook was not compatible with a necessary Office upgrade, and Microsoft froze all of my files – read only until I buy the new version. This is extortion! So I installed Libre Offce, which can read even frozen Office files. You can open, edit, save, whatever you want, and thumb your nose at Microsoft. A couple of years later internet access became unstable, so I installed a later OS not officially supported. But finally, once again, I was facing a possible crash unless I bought a new laptop. I decided that continuing to use a computer at all would depend on not having to put up with the manipulations of Apple or Microsoft.
In the middle of my search for hardware and Linux distros I got some useful information from Mkey and Duck. After looking at a lot of distos and researching laptops I decided on a Lenovo Thinkpad and Ubuntu. I found a refurbished Thinkpad Carbon XI with choice of OS, so the 30 day/one year warranty (the same as for a new laptop) was valid, with the refurbisher-installed Ubuntu.
I needed a distro with a fairly intuitive interface. Mint is also one of the distros recommended for the IT averse. Ubuntu is widely used, so there is a lot of online help. You have to find your way among the geeky sites and the Bangladenglishy talking heads, but whatever explanation you need is there somewhere. You have to use Terminal commands to install some apps, but these are usually only a dozen or so characters. You have to observe carefully all dots, hyphens, and spaces, and sometimes it’s hard to see if there is a space or not, so you have to be fairly detail focused. If something requires more than one line of Terminal command I don’t need it.
If you need to transfer files from an Apple or a machine with Windows to one with Ubuntu, it’s very simple if you are already using Libre Office. And you don’t need the Cloud. (How much data is stored on each droplet? What happens when it rains? Seriously, who owns the server(s)?) You just copy the files to USB flash and copy them to the new machine. Libre Office can read both Libre Office and Microsoft files installed from anywhere. Firefox bookmarks can be transferred the same way. I’m not sure about other browsers’ bookmarks. Perhaps transfers can also be done with USB cable, but I didn’t try that.
Never again will Microsoft or Apple make me buy something I don’t want, on their terms, according to their timetable. We don’t need Apple or Microsoft. We can just ditch both of them.
I really really really dread switching to a new OS. This video is a good example of why that is. There is so much to learn. Spending hours trying to find out if something is even going to work is not high on my priority list of things to do.
Trying to find useful technical information using a search engine is almost useless.
Using forums is also almost useless. How long to wait? An hour? A Day? A week? Three months?
And how long will it take me to figure out which forums are worth following?
Technical information on line is spread out across many websites, and it is never complete, accurate, and unambiguous.
It makes my head hurt just to think about how much work it will take me, as a newbie, to track down just the products he listed in this one video. How many dozens of videos will I have to watch?
I’ve been downloading and saving content off the web for decades. Organizing, indexing and cataloging that is my priority right now. I don’t have the time to learn a new operating system and all the shortcuts and apps I need to be the power user in Linus that I am with Windows..
I just hope my Windows 8 and Windows 10 machines outlive me.
I really hope you won’t allow that presentation to put you off! Switching is nowhere near as complicated as Braxman made it sound! Once up and running Linux generally just works and it has the same look and feel as Windows but without the embedded spyware/AI. It’s actually quite easy to create some bootable USB sticks and just give some different Linux flavours a try – see if you get on with them. You have nothing to lose, once the stick is unplugged and your PC rebooted you are back into Windows as if nothing happened. I have been using Linux for a year or so, I use it for browsing, research, writing and a little gaming. I’m not a youngster and it was a big change for me but I will never go back to Windows! Best of luck 🙂
I bought an Above Phone laptop a year ago with Linux installed. I made myself use it to figure it out and then one day I put it in a drawer and reopened my 2017 Macbook pro. It isn’t updated since Ventura13.6.4 and I will use it until I can’t. Then I’ll go back to trying to figure out my Linux.
Three things that I have also done that have been wonderful are bought a Pixel and booted Graphene OS (Love it!) got rid of Wifi, 50 foot ethernet cable and adaptors for my phone and printer over here. It is good for my legs to have to get up and plug in the printer. And the best is I bought SLNT Faraday bags for all my devices.
That was an absolutely terrible presentation by Braxman. If I didn’t already use Linux I would run a mile from it after watching that. Seriously poor advice too, if you put Ubuntu on your device and it works, that doesn’t mean it’s going to work with other distros if you need drivers not available for your chosen distro. The answer is a bit of reconnaissance beforehand surely?! Not to mention that you can always live boot from a USB and discover if your chosen distro works on your hardware!! Braxman made something that’s actually pretty straightforward sound incredibly confusing, technical and difficult. I had to turn it off after a while, just couldn’t listen to it!!