[–] heretolearn 0 points 2 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago
I don't know anything about tech, but I want to atleast learn some basics. figured this is a good place to start.
[–] 3dk 1 point 5 points 6 points (+6|-1) ago (edited ago)
A quick overview of a decent FreeTech setup... I make some compromises sacrificing freedom for practicality.
Hardware to consider when buying new: Purism Laptop, Fairphone 2, open-Wrt compatible router. If old hardware still works, try liberating it as much as possible.
PC OS: Linux with Libreboot
Free PC applications can be found in Linux distro repos and on code hosting sites.
Disk Encryption: LUKS
Get smart on cryptocurrencies.
Gaming: FOSS games (notable games: 0 A.D., Xonotic, Nethack, Dwarf Fortress), Gog because DRM-free, Wine to get many windows games working on Linux, Emulators (Dolphin, PSX2, Higan, Cemu)
Graphics drivers + hardware: Try using the Open drivers. With Nvidia this usually comes with a 10-30% performance hit compared to proprietary drivers. Open AMD drivers are the standard for AMD anyway. So for freedom: AMD > Nvidia (also for processor AMD > intel)
Browser: ungoogled-chromium, Palemoon
Brave
Ad-blocker: Ublock Origin
Use your own ad-block filters to block shitty sites and prevent them from getting your clicks, use the pipette mode to remove ads that slip through the cracks and web-UI elements that are annoying. You can still access shitty sites by archiving them: look for chrome extension "archive.is button" to make this convenient with a simple right-click.
Use a reputable proxy with open-vpn and have a look at TOR and I2P and decide for yourself, if they can be trusted.
Search Engines: startpage, searx (best idea but has issues), DDG, swisscows, dogpile
E-commerce: Openbazaar
Video hosting alternatives to YouTube: bitchute, hooktube, liveleak, ipfs
Cloud/Email (Careful here with network security always be up-to-date, do research and be sure to have a firm understanding here to prevent intrusion): OpenCloud, Samba, SSH
Router Firmware: Open-Wrt
Phone OS and Appstore: Lineage OS with F-Droid
F-Droid App "Yalp-store" can be used to install google play store Apps without a google account, although some apps still require google play services. There is a workaround for that.
For laptops with intel processors: disable the Intel Management Engine for more freedom (by doing this you disable something that looks suspiciously like a backdoor).
Never buy a phone or laptop with a locked bootloader.
Fuck Google, Apple and Microsoft.
Don't get overwhelmed, take one step at a time towards more tech freedom. Even if you only do half of this shit, you are way more 1337 than most people. Try doing all of it eventually. The most important first step is to get away from the tech giants.
[–] hang_em_high 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
Thanks. I didn’t know Dogpile still existed; that has been around a long time. I am slowly gathering ideas and programs to build a really solid Linux image (for everything but focused on Python and machine learning development).
http://without-systemd.org/wiki/index.php/Arguments_against_systemd
theres interesting quote there:
systemd defaults to Google's DNS nameservers. e16cb2e4ef, Debian#761658 systemd defaults to Google's NTP servers, which serve leap-smeared time. GitHub#437
it means that when i use my fedora linux right now, and i dont even use google services and my browser is waterfox soon will be testing catfox, theres still something happening with google while i run my OS? :(
Yeah, onward to freedom. Because we users have no money or funny few thousand pounds a month while we use websites everyday that are created by multibillionaire companies and make their billions thanks to us by selling our privacy. btw the gif in this sub is amazing how can i save it to my hdd?:D
[–] Realhero33 [S] 0 points 2 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago
That is actually one of the distinguishing characteristics of this site IMO. A disproportionately large percentage of voaters appear to be very tech literate (compared to other link aggregators sites). And that's especially surprising as right leaning individuals tend to skew older and (no offense) less digitally native.
[–] LostandFound 0 points 3 points 3 points (+3|-0) ago
It's got the word free in it, im in!
I'm also inb4 freedom not free beer! Either way this is something we all need to do, I'm tech savvy but need a good poke with a stick to change.