Image description:
Shopping for a laptop as a Linux user:
Screenshot from the Simpsons where Otto is talking to Marge and Homer standing next to a window in their house with a caption “Oh wow, windows!.. I don’t think I can afford this place.”
I hate that nowadays everything comes with pre-installed spyware and that they charge you for it makes it even worse…
- Want a TV? Suck on our Android TV with Google spyware embedded
- Want a phone? Get our Android with Google spyware, or go for an Apple with Apple spyware
- Want a computer? We’ll shove Windows spyware down your throat
Ffs I just want devices that I own to not spy on me, and I can’t even buy them anymore…
Each of them require flashing a custom privacy respecting OS onto it,
and that’s a real problem…Nice list, I would add routers (not everywhere). But for example here in Germany you get a device from your ISP for free but don’t try to change the DNS settings because your ISP wants to know what you are doing online.
Only alternative is a fritzbox which is highly overpriced for a simple router+modem. >200€ for a cablerouter.
I had to buy a used fritzbox, need to nearly hacked them for activating the deactivated bridge-mode and put a cheap Asus router on it with flashed openwrt.
I needed 6 months for the whole setup.
You can double nat if you want.
Apple spyware? Cute that you make shit up to justify your victimhood. The vendors that install actual spyware appreciate your ignorance.
Right, Apple is a champion of open source and transparency.
That wasn’t the accusation.
There are many who use Apple laptops as Linux laptops.
Same with Windows computers. You make no sense
There are a lot of smart people making sure Apple hardware supports Linux. There is a limited number of variations, the hardware itself has high built quality and Apple pushes support into the Linux community so the hardware can more easily run Linux.
The same cannot be said about any random windows laptop.
As others have noted, if you want a Linux first laptop, there are options.
However this idea that Apple spies on its users has no merit. It’s a claim I have only witnessed being made by the witless.
I’ve been in the internet long enough to know not to expect fools to accept they are fools.
Unlike the morons of the internet, I am always ready to be proven wrong. However, it doesn’t look like that’s about to happen here.
Have you considered that your approach may contribute to your difficulties dealing with such people? The tone of your messages is extremely aggressive.
Educate yourself fruity,
Apple does spy on youYou made the accusation, you back it up. I’m not doing the leg work for you.
Here are a few examples, but if you do some research like I told you to, you’ll stumble upon many more:
- Apple ignored/ignores disabling of “Share iPhone Analytics”:
https://gizmodo.com/apple-iphone-privacy-dsid-analytics-personal-data-test-1849807619 - Apple started scanning your local files even if you do not use iCloud / Apple services:
https://sneak.berlin/20230115/macos-scans-your-local-files-now/ - Apple (allegedly) left in a backdoor to iPhones (likely on purpose and in cooperation with government officials):
https://www.kaspersky.com/about/press-releases/2023_kaspersky-discloses-iphone-hardware-feature-vital-in-operation-triangulation-case
Click bait
Click bait
Hardware flaw
None of this is spyware. Not a single piece.
If I cared I could have guessed these were some of the examples you added to your “Apple is bad head cannon” but these still aren’t what is being alleged by the original poster, spyware.
At best you can claim Apple is using terms and conditions to add wiggle room but again, not spyware.
I asked if you know what spyware is but I get that it doesn’t matter. Your head cannon is unbeatable and it’s easier to dismiss me as a no nothing asshole. The crowd has spoke, this technology forum is more interested in groupthink than technology.
What are your sources for debunking mine?
Besides you just not liking to face the truth?Blanket surveillance is not clickbait,
it’s spyware, and a problem.But sure continue to stick your head in the sand,
that will surely help humanity beat this problem.
- Apple ignored/ignores disabling of “Share iPhone Analytics”:
Apple’s entire schtick is the walled off garden where they can control what you’re allowed to do and yes they spy on it
You keep making that claim about spying without attempting to back it up.
You’re confusing me with others, just the once, but hey, you’re free to lick apple’s boots. Fairly common knowledge that just about everything corporation that can include spyware does. You think Apple doesn’t track every purchase you make on their platform and utilize that data in reference to your name, phone number, email, geo-location, bundle it altogether and sell to advertisers?
Yes. Free to think it because it’s true. Apple doesn’t sell their users out, they get their money up front on the hardware…the thing people like you call the Apple Tax.
Buy a Framework, System76 or something else with first class Linux support.
Love their concept but I just can’t afford it. My problem isn’t finding a machine that works well with Linux. It’s finding a machine that I can afford. And the stupid windows fee for something I will immediately uninstall is a big deal to me.
I think most Lenovo and dell computers provide you with the option to go without an OS or something like Ubuntu.
Only select top-end models in my country unfortunately.
A lot of the time you aren’t actually paying for the license afaik. If you look at a pre built and spec it out on PC part picker, the pre built can often come at a lower price bc the PC is subsidized with payment from the bloatware that is pre installed (think McAfee). Microsoft also sells the licenses in bulk to the store for huge discounts. Windows business model is a lot more about selling you 365 and your data than the operating system.
Microsoft would make more from continued Windows usage (between selling data and products like Office) then that license key sold in volume to the OEM.
The bigger issue for me is every device advertised to be linux based and privacy oriented is >400$ usually around 700-800$
I understand that tech savy IT people are usually financially cushy enough that they can eat a almost thousand dollar bill on their laptop and not think twice about it but man I just can’t ever see myself willing to shell out that much cash for a fancy laptop with physical kill switches or modularbility. Bring that price tag down a couple hundred dollars system 76 and Purism, then well talk. Until then the dude on ebay selling librebooted ghostpads are more likely to get my money.
I don’t get it. I wouldn’t need to have Linux preinstalled. I could just get… Literally any laptop and then only ever boot up Windows to download my preferred distro, if I don’t already have a USB ready.
The point is that you have to pay for that windows that you’re going to erase anyways. It’s not free.
In my experience, unless it’s the professional version of windows, laptops with windows tend to be a little cheaper than blank laptops. Pretty sure Microsoft actually pays manufactures to use Windows.
I believe they pay OEMs as long as they exclusively use Windows, or at least they get a sizable discount
Not to be that “aktchually” guy, but Microsoft actually ends up paying OEM’s to ship with Windows, in order to drive costs down to be more affordable than competitors. You can still reimage with Linux, which I know, is an extra step from it shipping with Linux, but in a wild turn of events, we can thank Microsoft for driving down the prices of our to-be-Linux machines ;)
I think that was only true back in the 90s, when there were still other OSes to compete against Windows, like OS/2, Solaris and BeOS late in the decade. Once Microsoft effectively dominated the consumer PC market (2000s?), they turned around to threaten to never do business with OEMs that dared to bundle competitors’ OS. They also did something similar in Japan, which destroyed NEC (who created the PC-88 and PC-98, the most popular 80s and early 90s computers there) dominance.
I haven’t met a Linux user that would consider leaving the factory installed OS instead of immediately blowing it out and installing their own
