Mikelius

I know in the early years of my Linux experience, I didn't quite understand the underlining system and can agree that I had some catastrophic failures, but I can also say I've had probably just as many from Windows. Hell, even had a Windows update that was forced and then it broke my install and system restore, dcim, etc... Nothing fixed it. That being said, I've been able to resolve most windows problems without a factory reset, but I'm also super stubborn and will try to fix a problem for a long time before I give up.

Now, for the present... I don't remember the last time I had a Linux catastrophic failure that forced a reinstall. Yes I've run into huge problems from my own mistakes that made me fear potential reinstall, but in the end I was always able to overcome them for at least 1 of several reasons: 1. Just my growing experience of Linux (which I can say I am way more familiar with than Windows or Mac now), 2. Online Linux forums where others had the same issue with fixes that weren't "start over" like I've seen in so many windows forums, or 3. Linux IRC channels. Live support from experts who give their own free time to help for no cost. A lot of people give hate to people who are pro Linux, but the community is so much more trustworthy and friendly in my experience (can't say if that would be the same for everyone or not of course).

Join the Linux club. You'll never go back once you get the hang of it! Nothing in my house has Windows. Left it years ago and have had zero regrets.

Lol yeah I figured, but the very first thing that came to my mind was the generation slang so I felt the unnecessary need to comment on it xD

I won't lie, I had to look at the comments and do a real quick search engine check to find out that the kids these days call the old FPS games "boomer shooter". One hell of a way to remind me about my age by calling me a boomer for liking my childhood FPS games :(

I would argue a VPS is less secure than a trusted provider. Of course, the definition of what's trustworthy is up to each person. The reason I say it's less secure is for 2 reasons:

1. As you stated, the VPS provider sees everything. They also have direct access to the box themselves. Trusting them is just the same as asking to trust a VPN provider, the only difference being that a VPS provider will ask for personal information where a good VPN provider won't (i.e. Mullvad)
2. You're a part of the security of the device. If you're not 100% familiar with exactly what you're doing to secure the VPS, you're likely exposing yourself in some way to bad actors. I also say you're "part" of it because you also have the dependency of the VPS provider being secure so someone can't compromise your machine.

The belief that a VPN provider doesn't help privacy is a myth. But it's true that you can't depend on the VPN being your only solution to privacy. There are more steps you must take beyond just a VPN, but it's definitely a required step if you want to be truly private. As an analogy: if people said "drinking water won't make you healthy" that's not true... But it's also only a part of what you need to be healthy and the statement's only true if you ignore the other things you need.

Further on the privacy front for my personal opinion: I don't think there's a such thing as a trustworthy ISP with personal data since they definitely track everything you access and probably sell that data, but there are a few trustworthy VPNs who likely don't do this. I'd rather take the risk in a VPN provider that is probably not doing what ISPs do, also allowing me to further enhance my anonymity online.

For me, I've been using Mullvad for about maybe 5 years now, along with a ton of other things I've setup for privacy. Haven't seen a targeted ad in nearly that amount of time, websites always think I'm located somewhere else, and any data breaches I've been a part of where IP addresses are in the data are of no concern to me.

Be sure to also look into geo tracking. If the device you're using is wireless, chances are Google and such can get your exact location if you're exposing your browser or software to geo tracking on the web, or if you don't spoof your Mac addresses. How they do this: the Google maps vehicle that drives around collects the locations of wireless devices and their Mac addresses, so that when you have geo enabled, they can pinpoint you down to a very close lat/long coordinate.

Man I loved duckduckgo until they stopped working with DarkReader about a month ago. So now every time I do a search, I'm blinded by a large white screen lol. Even setting their dark theme option doesn't persist between sessions (for me) so I had to move on... Brave was what I went to but I'm not enjoying it too much. Thanks for this list, it gives me some other options to look into if I end up not liking Leta 👀

I like having the internet and technology. It's the abusive use of it that I don't like.I am also one who wishes phones were of no necessary use. Why do I need a phone number to sign up to an online service? Why must I have an email address and internet access just to see what lab results came in from the doctor's office? What use is my email address being "real" to some online community and services? I would be okay in a world where the phone and emails were just a nice thing to have and not required. I understand that everyone is saying "just turn off the phone, watch tv, unplug the computer"... But with how just about every company in the world requires this to even function, it's a lot easier said than done. I think the real thing folks on surveys like this are looking for is a world where the internet, phones, computers, etc are nice to have but not needed to live a life. Or maybe I'm just unique in how I feel, dunno, just had to share my thoughts lol.

I'm using both Mullvad and AirVPN. I use Mullvad for my network connection so all outgoing traffic is over Mullvad, who I trust. AirVPN on the other hand, I use for only port forwarding for personal services and hosted game servers. I haven't actually had any trouble or concerns with airvpn yet, but I also very cautious and skeptical with everything I use. That being said, I have zero Internet slowdowns with either service, but I also use the Wireguard protocol.

Been using rss for years now. It's always been the best way for me to filter into only the news I care about, away from political drama. That being said, I use nextcloud news so I can read and sync on multiple devices, as well as listen to podcasts that use rss feeds.

I'm not going to lie, I was a big skeptic from day 1 when the only thing we got was a title of the game... Up until the latest gameplay direct. I'm actually now looking forward to this. Still cautiously, but I'll probably pick it up after watching to see if it plays on Linux through steam without any issues. My opinions on games tend to not match a lot of other reviewers in general so I'll probably go with what I feel on it at the time.