this post was submitted on 02 Oct 2023
282 points (99.3% liked)
Privacy
32169 readers
377 users here now
A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.
Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.
Some Rules
- Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn't great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
- Don't promote proprietary software
- Try to keep things on topic
- If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
- Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
- Be nice :)
Related communities
much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
what are people doing w there win PC and tor browser? u ain't secure/private if ur on windows....anyway...π€· *Linux gang
Donβt let perfect be the enemy of good.
Windows might not be the ideal privacy solution, but itβs often not something that people can reasonably change.
It takes work to relearn an operating system. Peopleβs work applications may not function outside of windows. Virtualization and emulation are not perfect.
Well said. I use Linux on my main desktop PC and Windows on the laptop. I'm the "use the tool that works for you when you need it" type of guy. Windows may not be as private or as secure as Linux, but it sure does have its use cases. And like you said, a lot of people may not have the luxury of changing their os. Linux is not always ideal. For instance, the laptop I have windows on never worked well with Linux. It has always had problems because it has that hybrid Intel/Nvidia graphics. And that shit is an absolute nightmare on Linux. It works flawlessly on windows.
Totally agree. I have to use Windows at work and I dual boot Windows and Linux on both my home desktop and laptop. Pop_Os! hybrid graphics have been working great on my laptop tho FYI might be worth checking out
I have tried pop os and loved it. I just didn't like the battery life on it (on Intel only). Animations were very laggy without running on Nvidia 100% which drains the battery even more. I get very smooth animations and great battery life on windows. I have endeavourOS on my desktop and it's amazing. Went all out AMD on the PC because fuck Nvidia.
Iβm so glad yall found yet another βwindows bad Linux goodβ avenue.
This one's not really new. It's essentially the basis of the entire FSF manifesto and the purpose behind the GPL in the first place. If you don't have the source code to your tech, you have no real idea what's happening to your information while you use it.
Adding a TOR layer on top of a black box OS might provide some privacy for your network traffic, but the system calls being called by the browser are inherently untrustworthy to begin with.
Or, to sum up "Proprietary untrustworthy, open source more trustworthy," which still isn't as pithy as your quip.
there is little difference between "open source but you need formal education to be able to dig through and understand the documentation and code" and closed source. open source is still better for ethical reasons but for 9/10 users, it's not reasonable to check the source code and they are losing any potential "security" benefits that was provided.
You are correct for open source projects with only a few maintainers... But with a project as big as linux, there are SO many people with that "formal education" (which doesnt really even need to be formal) that the amount of eyes on the codebase DOES benefit the normies who dont look at it.
I 100% agree, I just think it's dangerous rhetoric to push because you end up with normies that have been told "open source is more secure" and end up running any script they find on GitHub without having a clue how to audit what it's actually doing. (this was me 5/6 years ago until I figured out what I was doing).
this is the same reason I find people claiming that Linux is more secure than windows dangerous. I can exfiltrate data from the average Linux install much easier than windows. you can harden Linux to a much greater degree but if you don't know how or that you even need to, you are in a much worse position.
I disagree that you are inherently in a worse position simply because you dont know enough to take a peek at the code or harden things. I think that again, simply being such a massive project linux gives a trickle down effect to normal users. Even as a normie, you are safer on linux than on windows, full stop. As for github scripts, thats an entirely different subject because yes, open source CAN be dangerous still (just like proprietary can).
what makes you suggest you are safer on Linux?
@free Yep, thats why people invest a lot of time which have much more technical understanding than you have to create products to improve the privacy problem on Windows, Privacy isn't a privilege which only a specific group of human is allowed to have, Privacy is a human right and should be accessable for everyone. If you miss the understanding for that, I would recommend informing yourself better then spreading false information.
*their
Do u think correcting spelling like this helps cos u clearly understant what was meant.
Grammar Nazis are about as helpful as those tiny biting gnats that never go away, even if you spray for them
I was hoping I wouldn't see so many here because I had my fill of them on r*ddit
idk m8, wut r u doin w ur pc tho
Windows default are more secure than Linux my guy
Not sure how sending everything u type in the start menu to Microsoft is secure but sure mate.
you're conflating security and privacy which are two entirely different subjects.
I love my security resting in the hands of a multibillion dollar corp, so that way when they get hacked I get lumped in! So secure!
who do you think is maintaining a majority of packages of linux? there are plenty of reasons to use Linux over windows, I haven't touched windows in a good year or two, but it is immensely less secure without significant hardening efforts that aren't exactly trivial to understand. Windows isn't great on security either, MacOS is ahead of it and ChromeOS is even farther.
I will concede, assuming you have the in-depth knowledge required, you can build a more secure platform with Linux due to the ability to compile the kernel with only needed features and being able to fully control what is allowed. out of the box, no custom kernels, basic user experience? Linux sits at the bottom.
I would say they are mutually dependant
not necessarily. you need security for privacy but you don't need privacy to be secure.
your data is more secure on windows from malicious 3rd party actors than Linux, but you have lower privacy due to Microsoft's ridiculously invasive telemetry. The telemetry does not decrease your security though.
I wouldn't agree the telemetry essentially increases ur attack surface to include all of Microsoft. Sure a Microsoft server might be more secure than something else but they are also a far bigger target
I'm sorry but no lmao. Microsoft getting hacked isn't increasing your risk for exfiltrating local data.
Yeah but with the proliferation of services like one drive u have no local data.
that is a fair point, I wish people didn't trust cloud storage as much but I blame Microsoft for putting it as the default home directory on windows unless disabled. even chromebooks default to local storage unless you select Google drive while windows defaults straight to OneDrive without any obvious signifiers
You're going to need to specify what Windows and what distro at least. But I would argue that most people's idea of computer security would include privacy. Not that they get it, but if you asked someone if they feel Facebook posts are secure because others can't edit them, I think you would get some head scratches and people saying they are available to the world.