Sure but you still have to believe and trust Filen

Obviously, like I must trust anyone involved in the whole process of me using a computer/phone to do anything. From the maker of my device (that it doesn’t contain some spyware out of the factory, I remember an issue like that with Lenovo and another with Sony), to the app I use but also my ISP (that in France is legally required to keep all my online activities for a few years, btw) but also the maker (and the seller) of my keyboard hoping that they too did not add some spyware or keylogger.

As a matter of fact, one of the reasons I moved a lot of my activities offline is me realizing my inability to trust (corporate-owned) digital tools to actually respect my privacy. The simplest solution for me was to remove as much as possible of that tech from my workflow ;)

Depends what you use cloud storage for obviously.

Indeed.

This is not irrelevant if you just don’t want to bother with encrypting them or with having to deal with a locked folder (I think I understand what that would be, but I’m not sure). Filen does encrypt the folder(s) I tell it to encrypt and sync them to its cloud storage. I have nothing to manage once I’ve setup the sync(s) I need. Different solutions for different needs… and different types of users ;)

I use it too, as well as Infomaniak KDrive (not E2EE)

The two big things for me are 1. I don’t want to use the command window for everything, or really much of anything, at least at the start. and 2. I currently use Proton VPN and I’d like to use it on this new laptop too. Unfortunately, based on what I saw on the Proton website, if I want to use it on linux it looks like the only way is to get it on Ubuntu, Debian, or Fedora using the console.

• Complexity: have been using Linux Mint for a few years and I’m not an expert at all (50+ years old lifelong ex-Mac user, to give you an idea I got my first computer in the early 80s and it was an Apple). Everything worked out of the box (including my Airpods, and back then at least it was the only version of Linux that was able to connect to them). I don’t think I never was forced or expected to use the command line… but I slowly started to use it out of curiosity and I learned to appreciate it’s efficiency and now I love using it but that’s by choice, not out of necessity ;)
• Proton VPN: you need to understand that most distributions (version of Linux) are ‘clones with a few variations’ based upon a very few limited ‘originals’ distributions. Ubuntu is one clone that has become very popular but in reality it’s based on Debian, and therefore it uses Debian installer package (DEB). MInt being based on… Ubuntu also uses Debian installer. And so is Kubuntu. So, if there is a DEB installer, there is a real chance it will work on most Debian-based distributions.

Proton: it’s command line. I use it too (I’m a paid subscriber to their service, just not their VPN, which is good), but the VPN I use is Mullvad… which is at least as good and has a graphical installer ;)

Just for reference, uhhh how easy is it to fuck up the process of trying and then installing a linux distro? Like completely-make-the-computer-unusable fuck up? Because that’s my biggest fear

1. Testing from the Live CD/USB, there is zero risk of damaging anything. That’s one fo teh first thing I fell in love with testing Linux myself ;)
2. Installing Linux on the computer, well, shit can happen. They are not usual but they can happen. Hence the importance to test it live before to see that most things are working all right. Using a distribution like Mint things should dead simple just following the graphical installer. The last time I installed Mint, it took me less than 10 minutes total (from the first click to me booting on the new installed system) and most of that was the installer downloading packages and installing them while I was drinking my coffee) But that’s the exception if you use something like Mint (I preach for my own chapel here because I know how reliable it is) with its integrated graphical installer. You simply click a few buttons and answer limited few basic questions like what will be your user name, what is your time zone and do you want to encrypt the disk (you probably want that at least on a laptop so if it’s stolen your data will be safe from thieves). It’s real quick process. That also was impressive coming from macOS (installing any new Mac takes way too much time, a lot more than it used to back in the old days.
3. No matter what version you decide to use ALWAYS BACKUP your personal files before installing a new operating system. It’s a bit like opening someone’s chest and removing their heart before putting an new one. It’s… well, better be safe than sorry. Do you value your personal files at all? Then you should have backups, and not just during install. At any time.

Also, I’m kind of confused about how updating things works on linux

With Mint, you regularly will get a little pop signaling there are updates. If you don’t like Notifications (I don’t), you can simply ask it to deal with updates for you and to not bother you (I almost never have to update anything myself). Then, from time to time there is a ‘major’ upgrade, from one version of Mint to the other. Here again, Mint will kindly let you know when everything is ready for your computer (which will not be the exact same day the new version is announced to the world, there is no hurry), it will tell you if anything needs your attention (and why) and do the upgrade for you (reboot required).

For all my life I thought in terms of simplicity Apple was the way to go. That was until I tried GNU/Linux Mint ;)

P.s. I’m sorry to make another “what distro do I use” thread, but I had some questions that I didn’t see answers for in the other threads. And honestly, I’ll feel a lot more comfortable with switching if I feel like I’ve actually talked it out with people who know what they’re doing.

Don’t apologize. The best thing to do do would be to:

1. test the the live CD and
2. keep using a ‘noob’ friendly distribution like Mint (there are obviously others, I’m just totally bluffed by how well Mint worked out of the box, and how reliable it has been for the now 4 or 5 years I’ve been using it. And, yep, I tried quite a few other distributions before settling on Mint ;)). Being ‘noob friendly’ doesn’t mean they’re a lesser kind of Linux, say, not as complete as Arch (which is another kind of amazing distribution, just less easy to begin with). It just means that the technical part, at least most of them, have been taken charge of one way or the other. The moment you need the more advanced/powerful tools, they’re already there, waiting for you to start using them: it’s 100% full GNU/Linux just less intimidating ;)

They want to stay by themselves? That’s fine by me. But then they should also stop exporting their Hollywood and streaming turds (as well as their shit food). That would only be fair. And maybe also stop behaving like if they owned the entire planet?

We have people telling us the earth is flat. Them saying so doesn’t make our good old planet any flatter ;)

I mean one can find excess absolutely anywhere, that doesn’t demonstrate much imho.

Is that possible?

I used to do that on my desktop (swapping OSes), using a very similar bay.

“Together, we argue, these cases suggest that deliberate full extinction might occasionally be acceptable, but only extremely rarely,” the team states.

• Such humility.
• Too bad we’re extinguishing many species already, as we’re trying hard to destroy our very own ecosystem, without much consideration if it’s not the stupidest thing we can ever do and maybe the last we will ever do? And since we’re good at what we do, we’re doing it at a scale and at a speed that is not leaving much hope to be able to change direction, and that won’t leave much hope either to quite a few other living species we’re dragging to their doom alongside with us. At least, we can rejoice knowing we will have reduced economic waste in livestock.

Fuck jesus, and fuck you for following that fictional loser.

That’s not a thing. You’re just full of shit. You can’t even tell reality from this bullshit religious fiction.

That’s why you’re a voluntary celibate. Your religion talked you into devoting your life to them. Which makes you a giant fucking loser. Because everything you dedicated your life to is just stupid religious hate fiction.

I don’t know who is full of what or who hates who around here, but reading your comment I realize I would not like to be filled by what you seem to be so full of yourself it’s pouring out of your mouth every other word.

(Saying that as a non-religious person myself and as someone that has been happily living with his wife for the last 25+ years and counting, I mention it in case this helps you spare some insults but I doubt it will change a thing)

100% this.

It’s no secret that we trade our information for access to the Internet.

You tell me. I had this odd idea that I was already paying a monthly sub to access the Web and then, on top of that, corporations suddenly deciding it was their natural right to suck our data without our consent.

That truu, I’ve recently started my privacy journey,

That’s a great decision, imho.

I made the same choice a few years ago. Every little step counts. I will never be an expert or feel that safe using digital tech but I quit using many tools and services I realized I can’t trust at all, which is already something. And it all started by one small first step.

so im slowly switching to alternative to trying to show them to people.

Showing them is a good idea, preaching them to do what you’re doing is probably not that great an idea. Think about it, when was the last time you sincerely changed your mind because someone was forcing you to listen to them or was harassing you. What most probably happened is that you told more or less politely to funk themselves ;)

That article

… is terrifying, imho and it is certainly not the kind of society I want to live in.

There is also a much older story about Amazon deleting the novel 1984 from the kindle of customers having legally purchased it (they were refunded but still that doesn’t change what happened). This kind of events is what started my journey toward a more privacy and ownership-respecting usage of digital tools. That’s also what helped me switch back to analog wherever it was doable (Amazon can’t delete a printed book from my bookshelves).

“You don’t care about privacy? Why not give me your bank login, then”

More seriously, You don’t have to convince people of anything. Sooner than later some huge leak will happen or anythign more intimate that will still impact them, say, like the story of this dad sending a pic of some intimate part of their sick kid’s to their doctor and being flagged by Google AI and being arrested for sharing child porn. And then they will realize why it mattered to protect our privacy.

If they do that (it’s your hypothesis) it could also be for a similar reason people ask AI to do the thinking and do the writing for them.

Any suggestions?

Ignore the nuts, like we all do?

I have nothing to offer but some sympathy and one advice: I have two critical backups running: my personal files and the various folders containing my config files.

As I learned more or less the exact same way you just did how critical it is to backup those files too as, losing them by formatting my drive, I instantly realized they’re as personal and important as my ‘real’ files are.

As others have suggested: next door local shops. And then, other online shops.

For example, here in France, the law make it so books are sold at the exact same price everywhere, be it on Amzn or in one of our local bookshops. I’d rather talk to nice human being than fill a web form, and I’d rather do business with someone that can also do business with me than send money to some billionaire. So, I order at the local shop ;)

I find almost everything I need. It just requires me:

• to go there, or to pass a phone call (it’s nice talking to people or to re-learn to do it… and it’s never too late to start doing it either).
• to plan my purchase, as those small shops aren’t open 24/24 and don’t have a bazillion and a half items in stock and they can’t get it overnight either (which is good too as it helps me distinguish between what I need from what I ‘stupidly’ want to buy)

And for the rare few things I can’t get elsewhere (at the very least I will try to directly contact the seller on Amzn), well, either I will have realized I don’t really need them, or I will find some alternative or, then and only then, I will order it on Amzn which since January had not been that frequent, but that’s just me.

+1

just underlines that Russia and India are scared of their citizens taking their privacy back and perhaps even organizing.

They’re far from being the sole countries scared about citizens safekeeping any semblance of online privacy (hi from France, EU)

Safely? Do you have a backup of the files in that C drive? I f not, do a backup be fore you do anything else as there is always a risk (of losing all your files) when resizing a partition. Sorry that I cannot help more.

So what would it actually take to get you to switch? I’m all ears.

Nothing. I switched a few years ago. On Mint, from Mac.

What prevented me of doing it for many years was my own fears—it must be difficult, it’s too complex/geeky for me (hint: it was not)—and my own habits as I had been using Apple computers since the early/mid 80s. After my switch, what almost got me to switch back to Mac was all the ‘moral’ codes of conduct I saw popping out. I mean, what the fuck was wrong with people telling users what they could and could not do in a very similar way proprietary software with their EULA were doing!? thinking that if I had to deal with that same level of shit why not simply keep using a Mac? But then, I realized those were only a vocal minority.

I don’t miss much from macOS, beside Spotlight. This was so useful and so well integrated into the system.