"You need to try Linux"

"im a henchman for a bad guy....and lemme tell you...I think we might be starting to do bad stuff...not sure yet..."

Thanks bud

Unfortunately, not everyone has a choice in who they work for in end-stage-capitalism. Work is about survival, not ideology. The majority of Americans are not far-right capitalists, but the vast majority of CEOs are, and it's not really possible to survive long enough to start a small business in most of the US without investment from a far-right capitalist or inheritance (usually also from a far-right capitalist family member).
- If you have the skillset and CV to work at Meta, you have a choice to work somewhere slightly lower on the scale of exploitation.
People gotta earn money to survive, I don't blame the employees for this. And this is not just a case of Meta's privacy being bad. This is close government involvement with potentially serious impacts and implications across all US based platforms.
"I'm only following orders!"
- if they didnt know what they were signing up for, and they cant quit, you cant blame them
"Are we the baddies?!"
Dog, this Linux-Is-Best dipshit almost ruined and ran a local /r/massachusetts subreddit into the ground a couple years back. I remember it because I was there and had a role in getting them removed.
https://www.reddit.com/r/SubredditDrama/comments/11wsnla/mod_of_3_months_in_rmassachusetts_purges_members/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JS7gw2h5n2o
There's a bit more to it, someone found out who they were and I forget if they a) didn't work for FB or b) was just a lowly content control employee or whatever.
If this is the same person, I think they're legitimately unwell.
Hey now, he didn't say he was working close with Trump, he said he was working closing with Trump.
I'm sure there's a distinct difference.

It's funny how they're saying "You need to use Linux" and not "You need to get off Facebook". How's Linux going to save you from Facebook spying on you?

I think the be careful what you do on Facebook is implied. He's highlighting something that's less expected, where you may need to be careful what you do on Windows systems.
They mentioned Microsoft updating privacy agreements at the same time as other companies, and OP mentioned that the context was a discussion of a Windows ultra-keylogger type of feature, the implication is they're in on this shit too, and Linux is a way to not use Windows.
- Back in 2020 when I took my class for my A+ cert I remember the instructor directing us to a Windows 10 debloating video tutorial to speed up a Win10 computer. If I recall correctly In that video the host point's out that one of the Microsoft services that ran in the background of every standard distribution of Windows 10 was a keylogger. It was one of the many things that got permanently turned off in the in the tutorial.
They literally work for the Fediverse branch of meta, sure its an evil corp and zucks intentions aren't exactly pure (more than likely an effort to lower server costs) but it is something likely to put more eyes onto the fediverse which I definitely think will benefit the fediverse in the long run.
- I read the post like you at first, but I don’t think he works on the fediverse. I think it was just a poor/unclear sequence of clauses in his post.

That first comma is a bit out of place - 'why won't you just try, Linux?'
'seriously Linux, just try your vegetables'.

It can't. Its just a kernel. Maybe with the right gnu core utils...
- Or maybe with busybox :3 (I use Alpine)
- I was thinking one of those bio powered military robots

Its a bit odd to see an employee of a company that has always had a terrible privacy policy now be suddenly alarmed.

Things have changed. Before, the worst Facebook could do to its critics was ban them and those that they knew. Now Facebook can have ICE turnover your house without a warrant for a troll post. A private company is now working to suppress a specific kind of conversation that questions the judgement and actions of those in power. It's a subtle but very dangerous difference in why a bad EULA may not have previously caused concern but the new one is.
- I'd be leery about posting anything on any platform, especially one that has even your email or other personal info attached to it. Even on a random day that I go browse ahem the other place, I don't really comment anymore. I don't even have my email tied to that account, but I don't trust spez's greedy little pig boy ass, and I'm doing my damn best to fly under the radar while they build their databases. Nor would I trust MS, Google, or even Apple to not be tracking every thought and action online for resistance monitoring.
- Sounds like Facebook is the issue then
He is kinda whistle-blowing about the next level of evil. Up and coming.
See the context mentioned by OP. It was a reply to a post about Recall on Windows.
This is a big oof.

I've done OSINT research and that alone converted me into a privacy advocate. Seeing how Alphabet, Meta, and MS have allowed creep to get training data... Whew. It's breathtaking and complicated beyond the ability to explain in 114 characters.

Y'all, we are cooked. Currently. Present tense. If you aren't freaked out already, you're missing about 85% of reality.

Yeah OSINT existing is proof that no backdoor is secure, not even mentioning what you can buy from data brokers, something authorities wouldn't need warrants for.
- I didn't care before ai as i was nobody and scams were easy to detect.
  Now ai is running those scams and people are trying to use ai to target nobodies like me. All the while ai is stealing my creation and data that companies used to pay you, all while using it to generate money without compensating me.
- Well, to be fair it's also proof that people do not value privacy, and that the means by which actual privacy can be obtained are few and narrow.
  It also really drives home the fact that our systems of IDs, licensure, taxes, property purchase, etc. are designed for an analog 20th century world. We need new systems based on modern technology, bit not in a way that simply contracts out to the very companies that put us here.

Switching from Windows to Linux isn't going to block them from monitoring your use of online services. Facebook doesn't even do anything in the OS space.

I think what they are getting at is that Meta does this and they find it likely Microsoft might be doing something similar.
They have an agreement with MS, so they are definitely doing something there.
Yeah, this was a weird way for them to phrase this. You can use Meta stuff on Linux and Fediverse stuff on Windows.
Know what linux doesn't have? Your screen constantly recorded and sent to corporations who use this data to maximise shareholder value. Oh and the company is in a 3rd world dictatorial shithole with little to no user protection or regulations.
"But i disabled recall" Cool. They still use telemetry. You turned it off? Nice job, have you considered using linux so you don't have to do the advanced user bullshit(and if you do, it's way easier and more straightforward?)

It's called the Cassandra Complex, named after Cassandra/Kassandra of Troy.
If you think this is new, you're very naive. They just have better tools to spy on you now.
This is one of those cases where you'd really rather have been wrong.

If this is the same person I think it is, I would take their comments with a huge pile of salt. Not saying they're wrong, but...

A couple years ago this Linux-Is-Best dipshit somehow got onboarded as a mod of the /r/massachusetts subreddit, started banning a ton of users for pretty unreasonable reasons, brought a few other seemingly random moderators on board and almost nuked it out of existence by being an unhinged little weirdo. They claimed to have worked at Facebook/Meta and I forget which, but they were found out either to have made it up or they were just a bottom tier content moderation employee.

You can go find some posts about it, but this person's not well at all even if you happen to agree with them. If this is the same person. They're not trust worthy. Privacy's important, big companies are creepy, do what you can to protect yourself and use linux if that's what gets you there, but again I would take anything this dipshit says with a grain of salt.

https://www.reddit.com/r/SubredditDrama/comments/11wsnla/mod_of_3_months_in_rmassachusetts_purges_members/

https://www.reddit.com/r/Massachusetts_US/comments/11wnjsk/removed_by_reddit/

https://www.reddit.com/r/massachusetts/comments/11xw44r/linux_is_gone/

One should be have been assuming since Windows 7 and automated online updates that the Microsoft key used to sign OS updates is in the hands of at least the NSA (and hence probably the Israeli equivalent) and they can push whatever they want to your computer as an OS update, bypassing all protections.

In fact the same applies to Linux updates of certain distros - if they're maintained by a company based in the US they can be forced by FISA courts to provide the signing keys to the US Government.

More in general, just go read about FISA courts and their secret court orders - companies based in the US or hosting things in the US can be secretly forced to just "give the keys of the Realm" to parts of the US Government.

Since things like the Patriot act one should be treating companies based in the US as just as untrustworthy as companies based in China.

(By the way, some other supposed Democratic countries have similar or worse systems - for example the equivalent of FISA courts in the UK have things like secret court sessions were the side which is not the State is not authorized to have a legal representation, see most of the evidence or even know the decision of the court).

Have people already forgot most of what came out in the Snowden Revelations?!

Would stuff like Fedora be in danger, in this case? I couldn't find if Red Hat was US based
- In theory yes since they're essentially sponsored by RedHat. (RedHat is owned by IBM)
  Which is funny because the Snowden leaks actually showed the NSA likes using Fedora for their fancy spy tech lol.
  I guess a good alternative would be OpenSUSE.

To all the people who are criticising this guy for working for Meta, I would like to remind you of the phrase, "Keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer".

I am very much a left-winger, but I still read right-wing papers and articles, I like to know what the other side is thinking.

Keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer”.
Bruh, it's not game of thrones. People just need to work.
- If you can get a job at Facebook then you could easily find employment elsewhere. And no it's not Game of Thrones, but I would love to see Zuckerberg get the Joffrey treatment.
Less criticism and more pity.
Sheryl Sandberg seems like a Grade A asshole to work for - possibly the only woman CEO I've ever heard of getting #MeToo'd. Zuckerberg is an absolute baby-brain completely up his own asshole with delusions of grandeur, outright comparing himself to Roman Emperors.
But if you get into the tell-all released by Sarah Wynn-Williams, all you really take away from it is that this company is as corrosive to the body public as it is ravenous for economic expansion. There's no "keeping close" that's going to be good for you in the long run. Might as well try to keep a rabid dog on a short leash.
I am very much a left-winger, but I still read right-wing papers and articles, I like to know what the other side is thinking.
I'm not above peaking in on Citations Needed or QAnon Anonymous to see how the other side lives. But the actual right-wing material itself is really ugly stuff, particularly in the modern moment. When it isn't nakedly xenophobic or Mean Girls callously cruel, its just pumping your eyeballs and ear holes full of the dumbest fucking advertisements imaginable.
Not good to ingest that stuff.

The Linux Foundation itself is in the US jurisdiction - just sayin'.

Which is why I repeatedly called for the Foundation to move into Europe, potentially into Finland, back to its roots.

Do, or do not, there is no try.

Except there is... live environments
I don't try, I do. Wanna try me?
- I mean....if you're offering
Distrosea would just like to interject for a moment.

Why not both?

C++

    
std::vector ulUtil {"GNU", "Alpine", "BusyBox", "Toybox"};
int currentUtil = 0;
do
{
    try
    {
        OS(ulUtil[currentUtil], "Linux").use();
    }
    catch (USER::Bored & err)
    {
        currentUtil++;
        continue;
    }
}
while ((currentUtil < ulUtil.size()) || (findMoreUtil(ulUtil)));

FUCK YEAH, YEAR OF THE LINUX DESKTOP

What exactly in the privacy agreements is this person worried about? All I’m seeing is PANIC but without a reason given…

https://arstechnica.com/security/2025/04/microsoft-is-putting-privacy-endangering-recall-back-into-windows-11/?comments=1&comments-page=1#comments
I work for Meta (Facebook).
\ For example, the word "protest" will now get your account and activity monitored.

I switched from Fedora to openSUSE recently and it has been painless. Would recommend to anyone who are looking to get away from US companies and US jurisdiction. Edit: note that it uses RPM package manager though, I don't know yet if that is problematic or not. If someone knows then please elaborate on that.

Tumbleweed or Leap or something else?
- Most likely Tumbleweed. As it is the most modern of them. Because it is rolling.

Shit I was just about to install PopOs! Which is developed by a US company. It's maddening trying to find the right distro that fits all the requirements.

Edit: Opting for Mint.

According to Distrowatch mint and Zorin are from Ireland, opensuse and manjaro are from Germany and more was lazy for more searching
- Canonical/Ubuntu is uk
- Mandrake/Mandriva is from France
- SUSE is now garbage. Not sure about open suse
A lot of people are going to recommend you mint, I honestly think mint is an outdated suggestion for beginners, I think immutability is extremely important for someone who is just starting out, as well as starting on KDE since it’s by far the most developed DE that isn’t gnome and their… design decisions are unfortunate for people coming from windows.
I don’t think we should be recommending mint to beginners anymore, if mint makes an immutable, up to date KDE distro, that’ll change, but until then, I think bazzite is objectively a better starting place for beginners.
The mere fact that bazzite and other immutables generate a new system for you on update and let you switch between and rollback automatically is enough for me to say it’s better, but it also has more up to date software, and tons of guides (fedora is one of the most popular distros, and bazzite is essentially identical except with some QoL upgrades).
How common is the story of “I was new to linux and completely broke it”? that’s not a good user experience for someone who’s just starting, it’s intimidating, scary, and I just don’t think it’s the best in the modern era. There’s something to be said about learning from these mistakes, but bazzite essentially makes these mistakes impossible.
Furthermore because of the way bazzite works, package management is completely graphical and requires essentially no intervention on the users part, flathub and immutability pair excellently for this reason.
Cinnamon (the default mint environment) doesn’t and won’t support HDR, the security/performance improvements from wayland, mixed refresh rate displays, mixed DPI displays, fractional scaling, and many other things for a very very long time if at all. I don’t understand the usecase for cinnamon tbh, xfce is great if you need performance but don’t want to make major sacrifices, lxqt is great if you need A LOT of performance, cinnamon isn’t particularly performant and just a strictly worse version of kde in my eyes from the perspective of a beginner, anyway.
I have 15 years of linux experience and am willing to infinitely troubleshoot if you add me on matrix.
- How common is the story of “I was new to linux and completely broke it”?
  Gee, it's common even for 'experienced' folks. I just went to update to the 6.14 kernel this morning (everything that I use [and monitor for conflicts] was supposedly finally working with it), and apparently that didn't play well with my desktop manager. Cue the tty at boot and trying different DMs until I finally said screw it and went back to the previous kernel.
- I 100% agree. Immutable is the way to go for beginners. Source: started on Mint and actually had a few problems. Now I'm on Bluefin (previously Aurora) and I have none.
- You should be using OpenKylin or something like that.
Stop worrying about the country of origin. It's a FOSS project. The vast majority of Pop's components are developed independently of the company, and by citizens of various nations. Applying the "USA bad, so product bad" rhetoric is a seriously shortsighted approach. Consider instead the amount of influence exerted by the company. Does Ubuntu still seem like the better choice just because the company is headquartered in the UK?
Besides, if you really want to cut American software out of your life, start with Linux and GNU. Torvalds was born in Finland, but he is a naturalized US citizen, and Linux is developed on American infrastructure and includes significant amount of work from American developers.
- It's not “USA bad, so product bad”, it's the concern that the US government can do a lot more to US based projects and you probably wont know untill it's too late.
- They can still sanction your country and then you can't get updates anymore over official ways, like Fedora and Iran.
  It's just peace of mind to not deal with anything US Based right now
Try out CachyOS
OpenKylin, or one of the other Kylin(s) is what someone like you needs.

He clearly says "You need to try, Linux". He's talking to someone named Linux. Someone that needs to try.

What does linux need to try?

To stop overachieving
To stop insisting upon itself for like, five fucking minutes.

Funny how much longer my phone's battery lasts now after I flashed /e/ to it. No constant net traffic anymore.

What is /e/?
- A deGoogled smartphone operating system
- Sorry. It's a bit offtopic but in the same mission. /e/ is French AOSP fork, which cuts off Google from my phone. Google, Microsoft and META are the biggest root of evil in privacy world, META being worst.
/e/?

Does that mean that fedora is not recommended?

I've wanted to switch to OpenSUSE for quite some time now from Fedora for the same reason. Should really do it now

Its so beautifully stable, without giving you ancient software like Debian. Never had an issue using it n its got a grandma level installation.

I believe in the underlying message (use linux), but doesn't practically every big company change their privacy policy or tos every 10 minutes.

YEA I'M GONNA CONTINUE TO USE PLATFORMS AND TOOLS THAT EXPLOIT MY PRIVACY AND INFO FOR MONETARY GAIN WITHOUT QUESTION BECAUSE I'M A GOOD LITTLE CONSUMER
sheep pretend to be wolves
- "Knowingly" exploit you, not even a guess.

I use Ubuntu. Can someone tell me if that’s “independent and outside US jurisdiction”? I know it’s made/maintained by canonical.

What are some Linux distros that we should avoid? What are some that are independent?

Debian is a community distro. Ubuntu is downstream of it.
It's UK based
- I don't trust the UK either after they left the EU.

Look, Software shouldn't be free and open Source. I really like that we probably have a decade left of it before it gets bundled with ad services which it should have been from the start. The more people that adopt it means that it's only a matter of time as long as we all just passively watch it get usurped

The fediverse isn't ready for this level of sarcasm. Look at those downvotes, lmao.
- It's hard to tell sometimes. Especially when it's such a sensitive issue where normies will parrot the same ignorant crap over and over again. I one went off on someone, not even considering it was in-jest, because is was so convincingly written.
  The /s is important people. I know it slightly reduces the impact of the joke but some people believe that shit 110%.
Ok fed
- It's feRd
you should add a /s
Are you a not, a troll, or an idiot.

Was considering migrating from Fedora and getting a MacBook, but this is making me reconsider.

Point out in the image file where this is relevant to the topic in the OP, please.
A) what does this have to do with the post and B) im fairly sure the Israelis are committing as much if not more atrocities than before the election
!agedlikemilk

YOU CAN'T DENY THE WAVEEEEE

I'm been using linux mint for over a year now, and it is legit liberating.

Use docker

Let's see what people will do at October 14

Trump's regime. Stops reading.

Why not Haiku 🙃?

If your posting a message that has any importance at all, at least pretend to try to fix your before sending it.

"try, Linux"

"working closing"

I mean come on.

There's more but you get the point.

"try to fix your before sending it." uh huh
- Also “if your”

https://distrosea.com/ this is amazing for previewing linux OS flavours right in your browser, no need for a USB stick or installation! Linux Mint, Zorin, Ubuntu and Fedora are the winners for me in terms of being normie friendly.

Yeah, the government and corporations would never spy on us. What a ridiculous idea!

Just deleted my Facebook account. Now I just need any of my friends to install Threema (or maybe Revolt?).

I just finished my accounting course yesterday, but I'm not sure my assignments met the training guidelines so I'm hesitant to uninstall Windows if I may be asked to come back and redo some assignments (not sure I even need Windows for that though).

Reddit is still an issue, can't find Twitter manga and de-Americaification advice on Lemmy.

YouTube I've reduced my engagement on but haven't deleted. Discord I'm lurking in some essential group chats. Still on an 10-year old iPhone, gotta get a new open-source one. I'm sticking with Steam for games.