> Every bad day for microsoft is yet another glorious day for linux.
Nah. If that were the case, Linux would dominate personal computer statistics. The reality is that most mainstream users just don't care. But, of course, that won't stop us.
I would also argue that _what_ personal computing means to most people has also evolved, even with younger generations. My gen Z nephew the other day was faberglasted when he learned I use my Documents, Videos, Desktop folders, ect. He literally asked "What is the Documents folder even for?". To most people, stuff is just magically somewhere (the cloud) and when they get a new machine tbey just expect it all to be there and work. I feel like these cryptography and legality discussions here on HackerNews always miss the mark because we overestimate hiw much most people care. Speaking of younger generations, I also get the feeling that there isn't such a thing as "digital sovereignty" or "ownership", at least not by the same definitions we gen x and older millennials internalize those definitions.
Across the generations, there are always a few groups to where cryptographic ownership really matter, such as journalists, protesters, and so on. Here on HN I feel like we tend to over-geeneralize these use cases to everybody, and then we are surprised when most people don't actually care.
As my family's tech support department, i switched them over to linux long ago. For the last decade, my elderly parents used linux laptops and much prefered the stability.
And before that and before Trucrypt many used Jetico BestCrypt [1] not free... It can pretend the OS disk is invalid until a passphrase is typed. Only useful to fool smash-and-grab trash level thieves but I found it entertaining.
Either way once the Windows OS volume is unlocked it's all moot. There are many other ways to access ones machine remotely such as pushing a targeted update to the specific machine OS agnostic but easiest on Windows as Windows update fires off all the time despite patches being on a specific Tuesday. This method applies to phones as well, beyond the JTAG encryption bypass at power-up. Then a gag order is applied.
https://linuxmint.com/
https://ubuntu.com/download/desktop
https://archlinux.org/
https://www.kali.org/get-kali/#kali-platforms
https://fedoraproject.org/
Every bad day for microsoft is yet another glorious day for linux.
> Every bad day for microsoft is yet another glorious day for linux.
Nah. If that were the case, Linux would dominate personal computer statistics. The reality is that most mainstream users just don't care. But, of course, that won't stop us.
I would also argue that _what_ personal computing means to most people has also evolved, even with younger generations. My gen Z nephew the other day was faberglasted when he learned I use my Documents, Videos, Desktop folders, ect. He literally asked "What is the Documents folder even for?". To most people, stuff is just magically somewhere (the cloud) and when they get a new machine tbey just expect it all to be there and work. I feel like these cryptography and legality discussions here on HackerNews always miss the mark because we overestimate hiw much most people care. Speaking of younger generations, I also get the feeling that there isn't such a thing as "digital sovereignty" or "ownership", at least not by the same definitions we gen x and older millennials internalize those definitions.
Across the generations, there are always a few groups to where cryptographic ownership really matter, such as journalists, protesters, and so on. Here on HN I feel like we tend to over-geeneralize these use cases to everybody, and then we are surprised when most people don't actually care.
I bet most mainstream users thinks it good that FBI can access suspects data.
It's just a matter of time. It's obvious the tides are turning.
You forgot to list Slackware :)
http://www.slackware.com/
http://slackware.osuosl.org/slackware64-current/ChangeLog.tx...
And MacOS, which I suspect may be the more obvious choice for many users.
MacOS has basically the exactly same problem, ADP isn't enabled by default and your data gets backed up to iCloud unencrypted.
2 replies →
macOS and iOS both send Push Notification data directly to the US federal government, according to Senator Ron Wyden: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/12/apple-admits-to-...
To people on HN considering the switch, maybe. My family has zero interest or intention of trying any of these. It stops with me.
As my family's tech support department, i switched them over to linux long ago. For the last decade, my elderly parents used linux laptops and much prefered the stability.
One could almost say "Embrace the penguin"
And before that and before Trucrypt many used Jetico BestCrypt [1] not free... It can pretend the OS disk is invalid until a passphrase is typed. Only useful to fool smash-and-grab trash level thieves but I found it entertaining.
Either way once the Windows OS volume is unlocked it's all moot. There are many other ways to access ones machine remotely such as pushing a targeted update to the specific machine OS agnostic but easiest on Windows as Windows update fires off all the time despite patches being on a specific Tuesday. This method applies to phones as well, beyond the JTAG encryption bypass at power-up. Then a gag order is applied.
[1] - https://jetico.com/data-encryption/encrypt-hard-drives-bestc...
Let us not forget that the predecessor to VeraCrypt, TrueCrypt, was suddenly discontinued and users were told they should migrate to BitLocker.
There were questions about their motivation at the time. There still are questions.