Every year or so I try one or more privacy focused keyboards. I always end up right back on SwiftKey after a couple of weeks because most of the keyboards I try have the same problem: the predictions suck....
Didn’t realize they had one, appears a lot of functionality requires an account to use. I’d be cautious overall based on the privacy practices they use in their mobile app, doesn’t seem to be a big concern for them and I’d be careful giving them any trust. But if you do wish to use them, their mobile site with a good content blocker would definitely be the best option (preferably without an account if possible).
I 100% agree, its best to just stick to upstream Fedora imo. Glad you made this comment. The security issues of Nobara always put me off, especially since basically everything it does can just be applied to regular Fedora. I think Nobara would much better serve as a script or toolkit, similar to Brace, or something along those lines instead of an entire separate OS with the security issues it brings.
Hard for me to understand how blocking valid email providers like Proton, Tutanota, and Skiff, would actually mitigate any abuse. All it’s going to do is hurt the websites with this filter and prevent privacy-minded folks from signing up. Unfortunate to see, hopefully they get some common sense and don’t block these for no reason.
You can easily change launchers on the NVIDIA Shield and Chromecasts. Fire TV’s are really the only devices that actively prevent changing launchers and try to force you to deal with their advertising.
Personally my recommendation is generally the Shield, or maybe an Apple TV depending on your use case. Expensive but well worth it imo, you really do get what you pay for.
If you need cheaper, then I’d probably go the Chromecast. Lesser of the two evils between like the Fire TV imo.
If you don’t have it on your Sony TV, I’d recommend installing another launcher like FLauncher which effectively does the same thing and gets rid of the garbage.
Isn’t that a benefit of Linux, having all kinds of different distros and different options available? There isn’t a “one size fits all”. Just find the one you like and go from there.
broken repositories
How often does this actually happen? I can’t think of a time I encountered broken repositories within the last few years of using Linux as a daily driver, I feel like you’re exaggerating this. I think the repository system in general is amazing and installing software on Linux is so much better than Windows in about every way really.
software that doesn’t work on Linux
This is a fair point, it depends on your use case. If anything you need is only tied to Windows, then yeah you don’t have many options unfortunately. But I think for average people its probably fine since basically everything is on Linux nowadays, I guess biggest exceptions are like Microsoft Office and Adobe’s suite.
proprietary drivers
I assume you mean NVIDIA? You can just get a distro that includes them already installed and ready to go like Nobara, or just use one that makes them easier to set-up like Pop OS, if you’re uncomfortable installing them on a regular distro. (Though it really isn’t that difficult).
Overall Linux isn’t for everyone, but I do think it’s improving more and more and about at a point now where average users could probably get away with using it instead of Windows in a lot of cases. But it does depend on your use case for sure at the end of the day. Hopefully I’m not out of touch here though lol.
You can easily change launchers on the Shield and remove all of Google’s nonsense through ADB as well though, unlike Amazon who locks down the OS very tight. Plus like another commenter said, you can just flat out install LineageOS and you’re good.
If you have the money, I’d go for an NVIDIA Shield, or maybe an Apple TV. Well worth the money.
Otherwise, for budget, you could get a Chromecast, which gives you more control over it and has generally less garbage than the Fire TVs do for instance, since you can easily change its launcher and debloat with ADB.
Pretty much unfortunately. The good thing is its trivially easy to change launchers on the NVIDIA Shield or Google TV devices, plus you can even go a step forward and debloat them entirely with ADB. Amazon’s really the only manufacturer I’d say that forces home screen ads with no choice around it, since they actively prevent changing launchers and such. But Apple is probably the only one out of the box with no advertising.
Yeah, Chromecasts are much better than Fire TV’s, due to the more control you have over them and how easy it is change the launcher vs. Amazon actively preventing it. Basically same price and budget as well. Plus Google running a newer version of Android in general vs. Amazon’s, etc. Chromecasts are probably lesser of the two evils imo.
I agree yeah, I’d say in a lot of ways that Edge is much better than Chrome, due to its performance and also very good security, plus some tracking protection (though not a lot) vs. Chrome’s none, etc. Between the 2, I’d probably always pick Edge.
I prefer Calyx on my phone, for the sake of the extra privacy of Micro-G vs sandboxed Google Play Services.
You should give DivestOS a try tbh if you prefer microG to Sandboxed Play Services, since Divest’s implementation of microG is sandboxed/unprivileged unlike Calyx’s, which is a massive privacy and security benefit. Divest in general is a lot more private and secure then stock or Calyx, since it includes a lot of hardening and patches from Graphene, so I’d recommend it as the second best option to Graphene in general, and definitely by far the best option for using microG. Divest also covers most of the same phones Calyx and Graphene do, unfortunately no Pixel Tablet support though.
(I’m not trying to shill Divest or anything btw lol, I just think its a great underrated project that deserves a lot more recognition and support than it has, and seems to fit your use case)
Depends, but yes in most cases. Also just adds attack surface and consumes extra resources, so its generally a good practice to keep extensions to a minimum and only use what you need.
For microG (what I would recommend, since its much more private than regular GAPPS/full Play Services), you can just flash a LineageOS for microG build for your device instead of the official LineageOS. You can get them here. It covers the same devices that Lineage itself does. Same installation process, just using their files instead of Lineage’s.
Nothing Chats has already been pulled from Google Play over privacy issues / Nothing pulled the Nothing Chats beta from the Google Play store “until further notice” after reports that Sunbird sends messages in plain text.
Yeah, its just stupid on all angles. Nearly all security benefits of using iMessage over something like SMS go out the window entirely when using middleware like this. The only thing you gain is the color of your bubble and maybe some extra features. Overall its useless. If someone seriously thinks lower of a person or their social status of whatever because of the COLOR OF THEIR MESSAGE… that person has issues and I could care less about what they think of me, some self reflection could be nice.
Apple And Google Are Sending Your Push Notifications to The Government (odysee.com)
In this video I discuss how a recent DOJ letter revealed that Apple and Google were sending peoples push notifications to foreign governments.
Any *good* keyboard recommations?
Every year or so I try one or more privacy focused keyboards. I always end up right back on SwiftKey after a couple of weeks because most of the keyboards I try have the same problem: the predictions suck....
YouTube adds tracking parameters to shared URLs that can be traced back to individual Google accounts (nitter.net) German
venture capitalism goes brrr (feddit.de)
What is a privacy friendly application that you'd love to have, but no one has developed yet?
Windows 11 scores dead last in gaming performance tests against 3 Linux gaming distros (www.notebookcheck.net)
ProtonMail and SimpleLogin emails will be blocked from registering on websites (github.com)
This makes me 😭...
Amazon is now automatically playing fullscreen video ads on Fire TV (9to5google.com)
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Just a JSON file in Windows 11 enables Edge, Bing, and Search ads removal (winaero.com)
Amazon is now automatically playing fullscreen video ads on Fire TV (9to5google.com)
It's (usually) already installed (lemmy.ml)
Don't waste your money on an awful Android tablet on Black Friday (9to5google.com)
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LineageOS is currently installed on 1.5 million Android devices (9to5google.com)
Sunbird / ‘Nothing Chats’ is Not Secure. (texts.blog)
Nothing Chats has already been pulled from Google Play over privacy issues / Nothing pulled the Nothing Chats beta from the Google Play store “until further notice” after reports that Sunbird sends messages in plain text.