I used to be a try-hard. I'm not infosec or a programmer, I'm just a person with a computer. I would install every extension possible that claimed to do something, I encrypted everything, basically following every how-to article willy-nilly and fell down a rabbit-hole[1].
Now I keep things simpler:
- social media has been whiddled down to Fediverse and LinkedIn, phone is degoogled
- I do send many of my important emails encrypted
- My browser has minimal extensions installed --- because I learned about fingerprinting
- No cloud, no AI
- Never use public WiFi at McDonald's or hotels
- I've used Linux for the past 18 or 19 years as my daily, but that isn't a magic shield.
In short: didn't get into hardening; some encryption, no cloud; mostly avoiding social media (LinkedIn will soon be deleted).
Out of interest, during your try-hard phase, did you use VPNs?
The try-hard meta seemed to be the opposite of midwit meme e.g.
Newbie: Use the VPN it prevents tracking and password leaks on wifi!
Mid level: Don't use the VPN as the VPN owner could be tracking everything!
Elite level: Use multiple VPNs for different things, self host Tor and VPNs in other countries
I do remember Knoppix. In particular, being able to recover my very important data (ok, fine, it was pirated music) from a computer that wouldn't boot anymore.
I'm a professor. At my school we would never let a student record us. Hell, the school had to force some of the teachers to give out their PPTs so the students could study them. Those profs responded by printing them 6 slides per page.
We also stopped using YouTube for anything more than 5 years ago when the first pre-LLM summary apps appeared online and when students complained about paying to watch YT. Same thing for podcasts.
The subjects I teach can all be taught on the board, so I am lucky.
Within the next 5 years we will be phasing out written evaluations and exams.
- on one side recording a typical frontal lesson is next to useless because a classic frontal lesson is meant to be listened during the speech itself, where the teacher surveil the class and change the narrative according to his/her own feeling of the class;
- on the other IMVHO it's about time to deeply rethink the lesson model. We have IT, a "relatively new" tool and it's about time to properly integrate it, meaning instead of classic lesson recorded and carefully tuned lectio magistralis TED-format alike. Students listen the alone, perhaps in the evening and alone, listen, replay, take notes etc. In high schools, in the subsequent morning they develop a lesson on what they have learnt and got randomly chosen to teach that lesson to their peers and teachers, using teachers questions to drive/correct/show missing parts of their learning, at the uni teachers will only be available for direct interaction for all questions, meaning a kind of one-to-one dialogue where the student learn alone and have someone to ask for anything, than classic exams where students notes assembled became a small book to refresh all already learnt.
Most people today fails to act alone, really understand basing themselves on memory and repetition, to crack this obscene state of thing IMVHO we must force people to be active instead of passive/interactive spectator, so on one side they really show their competences and on the other they really have to learn.
Is this because you are forced to prepare your own course material for every course you teach? Because this whole setup seems insane especially for supposedly standardised courses.
> Hell, the school had to force some of the teachers to give out their PPTs so the students could study them. Those profs responded by printing them 6 slides per page.
Why? I never got why this is made so hard. Isn't the transfer of knowledge the whole point?
A lot of academics are precariously employed (short, term-time only contracts). They are often against the recording of lectures because they're concerned that the universities won't bother paying them to deliver the lectures again next year when they could just give students the recordings.
Yeah, recordings are one thing. But I'm asking about the presentation itself. If the teacher doesn't provide more value over reading the presentation... that's not a good sign for the teacher.
I was just thinking about Sonic Pi the other day and watched a few videos online. I only ever played with it briefly years ago(busted out the classic Old MacDonald and Hot Cross Buns jams).
A Linux phone might not be the best bet, yet. Especially if this is a daily driver. Any "degoogled" phone should be able to access f-droid and get the task app (I use the same app on my degoogled phone).
I think you should start by verifying what phones/bands your operator/network supports. From that list you can check which devices support alternative ROMs.
GrapheneOS is for Pixel phones and is viewed as the "best bet" right now for a variety of reasons. It ships without GSF or alternatives. That may lead to some issues with a handful of apps. I might be wrong here, but I think there are still some tap-to-pay apps that won't work on GrapheneOS and maybe banking apps (??? double-check that claim).
If you don't go for a Pixel and still want to change ROMs, there are options: Lineage, Calyx, /e/, Omni. Bliss, Arrow, iodé, Divest, Replicant, Paranoid, Pixelexperience,...
If that doesn't float your boat, any phone can be partially degoogled without root access. Ok, "degoogled" is a strong word here... But, using ADB you can get rid of lots of Google stuff in terms of apps, the underlying Google services will remain. That is a good starting point though. If you can handle a partially degoogled device without maps, YT, play store, etc., then moving to another device will be easy.
Even after degoogling, many apps will still be available. Signal provides the APK on their site, Anki can be used for Japanese, Aurora store helps out a lot here.
Sorry, that comment is solely based on "desk-study".
I've heard lots of positive and some negative about Linux Phones---and I do want one so bad. I think many of those comments come from Pinephone users who are happy with the device, but upset with battery life, camera quality, other nitpicks, etc..
The Librem is often reported as "overpriced".
And you are using this as your daily driver? Clearly my information is out-of-date.
UPDATE: I just watched some recent videos and read a couple of recent reviews. The librem 5 looks and works great. I guess I'll start putting some money aside.
If the number of articles in my RSS feed that I need to mark as read isn't an indicator of wasted CO2, it is an indicator of how boring my day will be.
Not the biggest distrohopper on the planet, but I have been using GNU/Linux since around 2006 so I will throw my hat in the ring with some comments and answers I have seen to similar questions over the years.
* Straight-up Debian is not always recommended as a desktop distro. I use Debian Testing as my desktop distro, though, and have had no problems. I did use Debian Sid, which works like a rolling distro in the sense that it does not need to be reinstalled for major version updates. I managed to mess it up during an update by carelessly pressing 'y' without reading what was written in the terminal.
* I have used Manjaro in the past, and it was fine. Just take it easy with packages from the AUR and everything will be OK. And remember: Manjaro != Arch. I tried Arch and used it for a long time. Not a single issue. Quite seamless, great wiki.
* I tried MX for quite some time. It might be worth looking at because you can access some newer packages through backports and the built-in tools can be helpful setting this up. I found it to be just as fast and seamless as Arch. MX is semi-rolling and Debian-based.
* Right now, I see a lot of people talking about Fedora as a great desktop Linux experience. It is one of the few major distros that I have never tried. Several of the big Linux YouTubers recommend it for Desktop use.
If I were you, I would stick with what works until it doesn't work. If you keep digging around, you'll start spending more time keeping your dotfiles in order than actually enjoying the distro. I stuck with Ubuntu for years until my hardware couldn't keep up with the demands of the DE. I lived in a minimal, tiling window manager for a few years. Like you, I like how Debian and apt work. So, my first pick for you would be MX.
Is this a "Curse of Knowledge" kind of feeling? Like, when you are talking to someone you begin by thinking they will understand, but then realise they do not. Or is it really just the feeling that you are surrounded by stupid people? How does this feeling you speak of compare to the feeling of speaking to someone on the same level as you?
I too, being of pretty average intelligence --- probably not above --- am shocked by the stupid things people say and do as well. Maybe what you are experiencing is normal, like giardini says [1]:
Now I keep things simpler:
- social media has been whiddled down to Fediverse and LinkedIn, phone is degoogled
- I do send many of my important emails encrypted - My browser has minimal extensions installed --- because I learned about fingerprinting
- No cloud, no AI
- Never use public WiFi at McDonald's or hotels
- I've used Linux for the past 18 or 19 years as my daily, but that isn't a magic shield.
In short: didn't get into hardening; some encryption, no cloud; mostly avoiding social media (LinkedIn will soon be deleted).
[1]: https://bbbhltz.codeberg.page/blog/2021/04/the-privacy-secur...