Spyke

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linux

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What's a good online store to buy Linux related merch from?

I buy all my Linux cloths from HelloTux: https://www.hellotux.com

Their statement on the about page wonderful!

We believe that free and open source software is better than proprietary. We also believe that we can change how people use technology. If you are the kind of person who likes freedom and fun, promote free software with us!

And they go on:

HELLOTUX is a family project of Gábor Kum, a Linux system administrator, a Linux user since 1999. His wife Maria and his children are Linux users too.

As far as they explain they only use free software to create the patterns for the shirts (and now also backpacks!).

They also support FOSS projects with every sell they make:

This is not all. From your purchase we support free software, usually $3-5 from each product sold. But not everybody can accept money due to legal reasons, in this case, we give free shirts to developers.

I had some mails going back and forth with them, as I thanked for the stuff I got and they are lovley.

The quality is good and conformable, the oldest thing I have from them is a Tux-Hoodie I bought two or three years ago. It is still good and has the normal wear signs a hoodie has after a few years of use and washing.

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Is having an Android really a deal-breaker for some people?

Wait, so people decide on a phone based of OS because of blue or green chat message colors? This is the first time I'm hearing this, is this something more of a USA thing or does this apply to other ocuntries as well?

Buying a phone based on chat bubble color seems something that occurs in a toxic society, where you are judged based on phone model. And why do they then change to an other platform to write you?

I never had a discussion about Andriod or IPhone based on this parameter, it was more about UI, services and design of the phone. To be fair we all use third party messengers like Signal or Threema.

privacy

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Best Linux Distro Privacy/Usability for a mid level user

I think to start, Mint or Ubuntu is a good choice, it has support for most hardware and will probably run on whatever you install it.

Also something that I think most new Linux users should focus on; instead of distro pick the desktop environment (DE). As a beginner it does not really matter if you use, lets say, a Debian- or Fedora-based distro. Pick a DE that looks pleasing to you maybe GNOME or KDE and take the installation with that DE. Maybe do not start with Arch or Gentoo as they are for more experienced users that already have some Linux experience.

Distros will be way more interesting and important when you got a hold of Linux and you want to explore the differences of them.

Last tip: Make a separated /home directory, so when you want to change to a new distro you do not have to delete all your files and start over with an empty machine.

I wish you a good start into Linux and do not hesitate to ask questions if they arise!

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I'm worried that in the future we will be forced to use smartphones just like in China

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Smartphones are not a tool to manipulate and spy on tge population.

Oh boy, wait until you learn about Google-Analytics on Android phones, or how they predict (or lets say know) where traffic jams are. Does the Section 702 of the USA ring a bell?

They certainly started as a good idea, but they evolved into a widely used surveillance tool for companies and governments across the world.

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[DISCUSSION] Federation with Threads?

In general I think everyone should be able to connect to any instance, as I'm a big advocate of a free and unregulated internet.

But as with many principles there are exceptions, and big data harvesting cooperation are my exception. The idea of the Fediverse is to have a decentralized, free (in both ways, does not cost and libre) and privacy respecting place in a world, where more and more governments and companies start to regulate and decide on what the users can do.

When I look back on the history of those companies I neither like nor trust them, and I think it would be not only a needed action but also a statement when instances defedrate them. We can not stop the data harvesting, as this can be done with simple web crawlers. But with gate keeping (and I do not like it when people do it, but here, I think it is necessary), we can maybe bring the Fediverse more into the public eye. Because when we allow the Threads instances to federate, most people will just see it as Threads. They will not understand what the Fediverse is and will not see it as a new way of using the internet. The same kind of happened with Android, most do not know it is Linux and just talk about Android. I think for Android it is not a big problem, but the Fediverse is a movement, a change and statement people are fighting for, and it shall be and stay that, not just another protocol that is used to transfer likes.

At the beginning of this instance, I once asked the admin and if I remember correctly, a defederation of such instances is not seen as an action to take. Maybe we need to mobilize in other communities on feddit.ch to raise our concern.

(Pinned your post, as I think this is an important discussion to have)

memes

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Of course, we follow the rules

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The government’s use of Section 702 is subject to extensive and rigorous oversight by all branches of government. All of these reviews have universally concluded that the government is properly using this authority to conduct foreign intelligence collection.

It is from a presentation to justify section 702, the law that NSA uses to spy on any person world wide. Snowden leakes showed the reach of the surveillance under Section 702.

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Would you work for a corporation that you oppose ideologically, if the pay is good?

Definitely not.

I think money can and will never play down the feeling of working for something/someone that is against your principles and ideology. Every day you get up to work, while drinking your morning coffee you will have thoughts and hate about the place you will start working after commuting.

And do not forget, you will mostly have friends with similar ideology, they will disapprove of this too. Good friends will stay nonetheless but discussions will arise portably more often than you’d like about your choosing a workplace that is against all you believe in.

When you just go and work wherever because the pay is good, then your ideology is not more than a façade you hold up for yourself.

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DuckDuckGo's Windows browser now in public beta

I'm very curious about it, as a Firefox user I will not need it, but will definitely try it out.

At the moment I do not see the need for yet another browser but everything that gives alternatives to Chrome is welcome. As far as I remember it does not use Chrome as its base, just the Blink-Engine to display elements (will fact check that when I got time).

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Do you use password managers?

Yes, I use KeePassXC (in my opinion a beautiful fork of KeePass Safe) toghether with a keypass file on a seperate USB-Stick. The database is on my Proton-Drive which is also encrypted inside a Veracrypt file.

KeePassXC hase some nice features like the auto-type, Categories and password generation. It also has a browser extension but I never used it. I like that it is open source and I can look at the code on their GitHub: https://github.com/keepassxreboot/keepassxc

I do not think that it is the most feature rich manager and there will be more user friendly ones, but I like the bare bones "You want password managed? Here you go" approach. It has what I need and not more.

I use a password manager because it allow me to have 30+ character passwords that are differnet for every account, and I do not even know the passwords because they are all generated randomly (which is also good, because then there are no patterns like birth dates etc.). This makes your account more secure and more resistant against brite force attacks.

Edit: typo

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Traditional media continue their decline in Switzerland

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I agree with the "any political direction they want to", but this also true with the YouTube algorithm or Twitter feed-filter. I see the danger, especially when the media is payed by the state, but it is important to keep in mind that media content companies make money too by pushing you into a direction. The more extreme the direction is, the more screen time a user gives the platform and therefore generates more money.

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Traditional media continue their decline in Switzerland

Kind of sad I have to say.

I know that TV and Radio is "old" tech, today you can watch everything you want at a click of a button and you have millions of different content creators. Maybe I'm getting old too but I like to just hit a button and listen what ever is on, I find this kind of media consumption relaxing. Mostly with SRF-4 where they talk about something and mostly it is interesting and is about a topic I never thought would interest me.

I get the personalized media consumption, but I think it is sometimes good to not choose specifically what to watch/see, helps to see stuff outside of ones bubble.