I’m the creator of this list of open source software. Most of what is on there is stuff I use. The list, unlike others, tries to factorize user experience into the mix, so one could realistically use all the software there. There are a few proprietary options in the mix, but those simply have no open source alternative.

I bike at night often. Very few turn off their blinders for me. It’s so bad that I have to come to a full stop until the car passes. If you have ever turned off your blinders for bikers at night: Thank you, seriously. We appreciate it more than you know.

Plenty, as well as the upcoming release of Toy Story 5.

Alright, thank you!

Btw, how is secureblue going?

Thanks for asking! I haven’t switched yet, because I want to run it on a separate SSD that hasn’t arrived in the mail yet. The SSD will not only be an upgrade from my current one, but it will make my Linux journey a lot less painful down the road.

the community was more absolutist when privacy was concerned.

Yeah, after the Rexxit (heh) started the whole r/privacy community lost a massive amount of quality in the community. Even before then, they pushed to tell people the clear disconnect between privacy and security (which, while there is, a threat model is a threat model, privacy or not). [email protected] has a much nicer community and is very open to the idea of services that are designed for security and not privacy. In my eyes, c/privacy is the more “mature” version of r/privacy. I used to occasionally check up on r/privacy after the Rexxit, and always left feeling very mad about a lot of the posts and responses.

Preface: this is written with less care than I do usually. I was writing one of my usual replies, but my phone chose to restart while the text was being written in its browser.

No worries, we’ve all been there! Was the restart due to annoying OS features (e.g. Windows used to restart immediately without asking, iOS restarts if your phone is locked and it’s night time, etc.)

Was that rhetorical 😅?

No, I’m just blind :,) I found it now

Edit: Here it is!

Would you mind sharing blogs/sites etc that you find exceptionally useful for finding out about these things?

Until the Rexodus (by the way, I’m apparently the only one to call it that. Please, people, it’s such a good name!), I had simply kept current with every post on r/privacy. I had occasionally read a few old posts, but it was mostly just keeping an eye on what the community was posting about and reading the discussions to learn as much as possible. I have a few old screenshots, like from this post and this one, but besides that it was just miscellaneous posts.

Edit: I found others calling it the Rexodus! Here is one

Do you recall the exact issue?

No, sorry. Some Reddit/Lemmy commenter.

Is it something fancy?

No, although invisible ink would be somewhat cool. Have any ideas for a “password pen”?

TIL. It’s definitely neat. Thank you for that!

No problem! :) You can also thank whoever on [email protected] posted it (I wish there was a search box…)

The exception, Qubes OS, has Fedora 37 (which has gone EOL since last december) in dom0

Yikes, any reason for that?

Is it what’s elaborated upon in this video? If not, would you mind elaborating?

More backstory time! I have never used a cellular carrier, and only watched that video about a month ago (because it didn’t exist prior). The first part of my life was spent electronicless (because kids really shouldn’t have phones… look at me now mom, I’m talking to strangers on the internet by routing through a global censorship circumvention network!). The next part was spent somewhat disconnected, only had access to a non mainstream social media (it has since been merged with another one made by the same company, and became paid. Capitalism.) through WiFi + never went out much. I then finally had unrestricted access, but still never went out much. Then I started to go out much more, and the places I went to didn’t have WiFi. That, in turn, led me to take up network hacking as a hobby. I never managed to hack the network in question (WPA2-E). Finally, I got my first job around the same time I learned about privacy. That meant I had the money to get a cell plan, but I had the knowledge to know why that was a bad idea.

It’s funny, my mother recently called me because she was stressing about trying to find me a carrier (apparently?) and started saying “Your sister offered to add you to her plan if-” and I told her “I don’t want a carrier, but thank you!” and she said “Oh… Well that solves that problem.” and looked very relieved.

Edit: I guess your question is asking ultimately why I don’t want a carrier, and it is due to the points that were also brought up in that video, yes.

it’s worth reviewing what Privacy Guides has to say on this.

Interesting! Considering my threat model includes my ISP as an enemy, it would make sense for me to use a VPN behind Tor: However my threat model doesn’t care if my ISP knows I am using Tor, as it would only be collecting data uncorrelated with my activities. Although it could cause legal trouble if a presidential threat (for example) over Tor happened at the same time as my usage of Tor. The change I will make is this: I will resume my current usage until I am able to use a paid VPN plan to speed it up.

but please consider to review Proton VPN on port forwarding

See above, no paid plan yet ;)

Unfortunately, at least for torrents, you’re no longer able to rely on Mullvad VPN.

Bleh, and I was really beginning to like them for allowing cash payments!

Easiest (and also one of the best options) is probably the use of a VM 😅.

Fair, although didn’t GNOME Boxes have some sandboxing issues?

there is merit in forsaking Anonaddy for SimpleLogin if decreasing the amount of trusted parties is desired. However, this comes at the cost at moving more into the the direction of putting all your eggs in one basket.

I am using Anonaddy for that reason specifically, plus the severe lack of features in SimpleLogin’s free version.

I hope an offline password manager is involved to some capacity.

As mentioned, I will switch to KeePass soon. Some of my passwords are stored completely offline, however. Pen and paper never fails, I even dedicated a specific pen for it! On a related note, take a look at this

Do you happen to know how they currently fare against each other in security/privacy features (beyond what’s found on the linked spreadsheet)?

Once I get an Android phone, I will try out Briar (because I am obsessed with the idea). I personally reached out to SimpleX regarding the spreadsheet, and the response I received back outlined that SimpleX pads the encrypted messages both during transit and in cold storage, which they said a lot of other messengers don’t do. A comment on the original post for the spreadsheet mentions that the spreadsheet doesn’t outline which services route through Tor (which Briar does, of course). The spreadsheet is very thorough, and SimpleX is still a relatively young project, so I don’t have much I can say. I’ve tried using it on iOS, and my friend and I both agree it’s terrible to use sometimes due to lag and choppiness. I currently testflight the app, but still no change. Either way, if you want, you can use SimpleX’s built-in support chat if you want to reach out to the team yourself. They are very friendly and don’t talk like a CEO, but there can be delayed response.

Ah, we’ve found the password manager, KeePass (be it DX/XC) is indeed excellent.

Yep! One related note, KeePass on Tails is outdated for some reason. Have any idea why?

I also planned to add this to my original message: I have never once had a cellular provider, which to me has been the biggest privacy boost since burning Windows at the stake.

Noted, thank you!

If I would have to distill your philosophy, it would be something like “be protected from attacks targeted towards low(er) hanging fruit”. Would that be fair?

It may help for me to elaborate a bit. My number one enemy (like most) is Google. I have been completely Google free for 1-2 years now (with the exception of YouTube on iOS, as the alternatives ultimately require a Mac to install, which I don’t have), but I haven’t used Google as a search engine in over 4 years. Besides trying to give as little information as possible (I am currently experimenting with setting up a hard firewall block against their IP addresses, if you have any recommendations on how that could be automated, potentially in Python, please let me know), I also try to give as little information to other companies (Microsoft, etc.) as I can. Now, certain authorities have the permission to request data from companies, not just privacy disrespecting ones. That means that part of my threat model entails certain defenses against such agencies, to make it hard enough to correlate that data with my person. I don’t go overboard, in case anyone is worried. I’ve seen the bondage between paranoia and privacy, and I’ve set myself clear boundaries I won’t cross. So, my main goal is to protect against companies trying to collect my data (bleh, how cliche), but it doesn’t hurt to put in place some decent practices in case the world turns for the worst. I am protecting against attacks from the government towards low hanging fruit, but when it comes to large corporations, I don’t play nice.

If you want an overview of my setup, here it is:

• Tails occasionally (because it’s fun)

• SecureBlue (Soon!)

• Tor Browser when using personal accounts (email, Lemmy, etc.)

• ProtonVPN on all devices 24/7 except when using Tor (for speed) or large downloads/torrents (may look into Mullvad VPN)

• Mullvad browser as a default browser

• Librewolf for functionality Mullvad Browser doesn’t have (Yubikeys, etc.)

• Firefox for streaming some videos that require a specific DNS configuration (Soon looking into how to put an extreme sandbox on it)

• uBlock Origin for all browsers

• GrapheneOS (Soon, finances be blessed)

• ProtonMail + Anonaddy, use disposable emails for accounts that “don’t matter”

• Very, very strong and unique passwords + 2FA/FIDO for everything applicable

• As much FOSS software as I can

• Signal as my main messenger (to help bridge the gap for my friends) until GrapheneOS, then SimpleX (Please take a look at https://privacyspreadsheet.com/messaging-apps !)

• SearXNG as my main search engine (with Google turned on, because my threat model does not go against them collecting data not correlated with me)

• Bitwarden as my password manager until GrapheneOS, then KeePass

• NextDNS as my DNS resolver (which gets overridden by the VPN’s DNS on iOS)

I’ve come a long way since I first (unknowingly) started my journey in 2019(!)

I’ll definitely see what the hype around Atomic distros is! Most likely, I’ll be trying SecureBlue first. Thanks for your feedback!

I’ve looked into Whonix in the past, as Qubes OS is one of the host operating systems for it. I plan to try Whonix when they release their own independent ISO that is under works right now. Thank you for your suggestion!

I have an unpublished blog post about my experience using Fedora Atomic that I’m more than happy to post here if you’d like.

Sure! I would love to read it!

Great questions! I’ll try to answer as best I can.

Is Qubes OS not ready yet for your intended workflow/usage? Or are you not ready to make the complete switch (yet)?

Qubes OS has a very steep learning curve due to its difficult usability, so the answer would be “both”. I am willing to tackle and overcome, but I’m not ready to put in that work yet, if at all.

Unfortunately, in almost all cases, increased security/privacy is achieved through the loss of convenience. Therefore, you should ask yourself what the minimum level of security/privacy is that you absolutely require/need. How’s your threat model defined (if at all)?

I have a really funny story regarding threat models. When I first got into privacy 2-3 years ago, I had the goal of getting as deep as I could (the “strictest threat model possible”) and work backwards to find out what I was willing to allow. I succeeded, but because I had gone too deep before I learned what a threat model was, I never made a clear threat model. I have a “subconscious” threat model. I have, over the past week, started working on answering the classic questions. I am trying to protect against “evil” corporations, and such, I must also protect myself against some low level government threats. My threat model “philosophy” is: I will not use a piece of software if it actively goes against me in terms of privacy. Windows, for example, is a pain to try to use while maintaining privacy.

You are the third person to recommend SecureBlue (I’ve been keeping track), and since it is a “Fedora Atomic spin” (Fedora Atomic as well as Atomic distros in general were also recommended three times each), I believe I will switch to it to see how it is. By the way, I love the mention of GrapheneOS, since that will eventually (finances be blessed) be my main mobile OS for the rest of my life. I wish there was a true “Linux alternative to GrapheneOS”.

I will, thank you so much!

Thank you! How are Atomic distros different from “regular” ones?