Linux as a Hedge Against Monitoring

A while back, I read Means of Control by Byron Tau. It was a book that talked about all the ways the government is using various services like social media and ad tech to get around the 4th amendment to track us. One of the suggestions on how to help avoid said tracking was to stop using both MacOS and Windows.

I’d been keeping my desktop booted into Linux Mint rather than Windows 11 for a while, but had still used MacOS as my daily driver with my 2020 MacBook Pro. Since finishing the book, I have been sticking with my Linux Mint desktop as my primary computer. I know both Microsoft and Apple have built plenty to tracking tools in their respective operating systems and the book finally gave me the kick in the ass I needed to push towards Linux as my operating system of choice. So far, I have not been disappointed. The OS does everything I need it to do. It’s stable, and allows me to do everything I need to do, from development, to gaming.

I had a few hiccups with getting .NET 10 installed, and there were some annoyances with getting Battle.net and World of Warcraft installed, but other than that, it’s been mostly smooth sailing. Most of the software I use either has a Linux version or a good Linux alternative. I’ve really only had to make one substitution, which is going from Things to Todoist for tracking my tasks and todos. For the record, I still have an iPhone and iPad so I could stick with Things, but I want an app that can be used on desktop as well, which now means on Linux.

Overall, my migration to Linux has gone well and I have no regrets. I’m still tied to Apple with my iPad, iPhone and Apple Watch, but I can at least move one primary device type outside the big tech ecosystem.

The next question will of course arise when I go to replace my laptop or my phone…but until then…at least some progress can be had.