[Novalug] Linux on a chromebook - secure?

James Ewing Cottrell III JECottrell3@Comcast.NET
Sat Mar 7 15:48:09 EST 2015


Gee, looks like YOU can be a Jerk now and then too!

JIM

On 1/22/2015 8:34 AM, Rich Kulawiec via Novalug wrote:
> On Wed, Jan 21, 2015 at 05:39:55PM -0500, Roger W. Broseus via Novalug wrote:
>> Question is will Google be tracking me everywhere if I install, e.g.,
>> Ubuntu.
>
> I've been steadily excising Ubuntu from every computing environment that
> I touch, not just because of Canonical's braindead and tonedeaf technical
> decisions, but because they decided to crawl into bed with the spammers
> at Marketo:
>
> 	Privacy policy | Terms and policies
> 	http://www.ubuntu.com/legal/terms-and-policies/privacy-policy
>
> and because they decided to embed spyware in the operating system:
>
> 	Richard Stallman calls Ubuntu "spyware" because it tracks searches
> 	http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/12/richard-stallman-calls-ubuntu-spyware-because-it-tracks-searches/
>
> (Before someone points out that you can supposedly turn this off: it
> doesn't matter.  Responsible, ethical software professionals would
> never have built such a mechanism in the first place, since it's
> clearly ripe for privacy abuse and security exploitation.  I call this
> "pre-compromised at the factory": Canonical has done potential attackers
> the enormous favor of building a highly usable mechanism for them at no cost,
> thus considerably lowering the effort required on their part.  It's the
> software equivalent of Chekhov's apocryphal rifle.)
>
> Thus I recommend finding an alternate distribution.  One that I've tried
> and found reasonable is Linux Mint Debian Edition.  LMDE does *not* rely on
> Ubuntu, it comes in 32- or 64-bit versions, and it comes with either the
> MATE or Cinnamon UI's.  It performs reasonably well on smaller/slower
> hardware and seems to be adequately maintained: the set of observed
> updates matches up well with the set of expected updates (from upstream
> projects) and they show up in a reasonably timely manner.  You can find
> it here:
>
> 	Download - Linux Mint
> 	http://www.linuxmint.com/download_lmde.php
>
> Since it's a live DVD (or if you wish, live USB), you can try it out
> easily and discard it if you don't feel it appropriate for your needs.
>
> There are many other choices, of course.
>
> As to attempting to remain quasi-anonymous online, that's difficult
> no matter which distribution you use and it's mostly a matter of
> usage/operations, rather than software.  You can make at least a
> partial attempt by using appropriate browser extensions, staying
> off all so-called "social networks", not using any services associated
> with Google, Microsoft, Adobe, Yahoo, etc., and so on, but it's
> important to note that these will only be partially effective and
> that tens of thousands of people will wake up today and go to work
> with the sole objective of defeating these methods, e.g.:
>
> 	Remember That Undeletable Super Cookie Verizon Claimed Wouldn't Be Abused? Yeah, Well, Funny Story...
> 	https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150115/07074929705/remember-that-undeletable-super-cookie-verizon-claimed-wouldnt-be-abused-yeah-well-funny-story.shtml
>
> If you'd like to read up on the multitude of methods available to attempt
> to protect your privacy online, you may find these useful starting points;
> they all contain numerous links to other resources.
>
> 	A Complete Guide To Privacy Online - GreyCoder
> 	http://www.greycoder.com/privacy-roadmap/
>
> 	EPIC - EPIC Online Guide to Practical Privacy Tools
> 	https://epic.org/privacy/tools.html
>
> 	Why PrivacySOS.org? | Privacy SOS
> 	https://privacysos.org/
>
> 	4 Simple Changes to Stop Online Tracking | Electronic Frontier Foundation
> 	https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/04/4-simple-changes-protect-your-privacy-online
>
> That last one recommends AdBlock Plus: I think AdBlock Edge, which I believe
> was created after it was written, is a better choice, since it doesn't make
> exceptions.
>
> ---rsk
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