De-Westernize your technology as much as possible. Consider going with Huawei or Xiaomi or OnePlus for phones (or stuff like laptops, which there's also Lenovo (seek out a model that is made to support Linux)), Aliexpress for shopping, and Huion for art-related hardware. China's always producing better and better shit, and they very well may extend their satellite mobile and (potentially) internet services to the global market. Keep in mind protectionism is escalating in the West, so expect interference and sabotage at some point.
Those who are on Windows and Mac, consider getting something really cheap like a raspberry pi or dual-booting a Linux distro and slowly developing the skillset to leverage it to your everyday needs, then start carrying your workflow over gradually until the other two are obsolete.
Especially keep an eye out for 100% indigenous Chinese technologies like CPUs, RAM, GPUs, etc etc. Shit the West can't backdoor in the production process because they have no control over it.
Those of us who are already here on Hexbear, which is basically reasonably sovereign territory not controlled by the CIA, are already in a much better position than fucking Reddit.
For videos, consider using something like https://www.bilibili.tv/en/ if you can't afford to host or trust any existing PeerTube instance. Odysee is technically an option too (based on the LBRY protocol, decentralized video hosting), but it's currently full (and I mean full) of chud content (and possibly nsfw shit).
For file hosting I highly recommend something like IPFS if you want to guarantee file authenticity and make it impossible for someone else to censor (you control when and for how long you host the file). IPFS has been used to host a copy of Wikipedia in the past (yes, can host static sites) when the Turkish government (I believe it was?) basically yeeted the site in an act of censorship. The latter is just an example, nobody should ever rely on NATOpedia for anything political or historical, at all.
Those of you who feel are lacking in technological warfare literacy, you can follow the news at https://www.eff.org/ to understand the trends the state has used and is using to undermine the proletariat.
The West wants to be able to easily rug pull you, so make it a big ass fucking chore for them to do so.
What's Hexbear's hosting status? Presumably the servers live in a country that won't respond to a US/UK/EU court order or subpoena?
This I do not know, hence why I say reasonably sovereign and not completely sovereign. I have been worried about this for some time now. I seriously hope @CARCOSA@hexbear.net and the admin team have contingencies and hosting options to pivot to outside the jurisdiction of all Western countries (it would be total heaven to host from China if we can), because I absolutely see the US empire trying to seize the domain, server hardware, or whatever else sooner or later. I believe China offers some rather cheap hosting, but I forget the exact details about which companies.
Correct me if I'm wrong but aren't Chinese phones just as bad for privacy? Since most if not all run on Android. Shouldn't we be de-googling and go for GrapheneOS?
This is something to consider, certainly. What I do know is Huawei has developed its own operating system called HarmonyOS (proprietary, and we know proprietary models are less advantageous than FOSS ones) that it's been integrating into its products (and, from what I understand, shares no code with AndroidOS). I can see other relevant Chinese tech companies doing the same, if not eventually settling on a universal standard. That being said, I would trust a device running HarmonyOS more than a device running AndroidOS. I've not delved terribly deep into mobile operating systems, so forgive me for being a little bit lacking in this area at the moment.
You are absolutely right, though. We should be de-googling and moving to something much more secure (like GrapheneOS). There's always room to improve OpSec.
Thinking of going to Xiaomi as my ancient Pixel phone is starting to crap out. Seen some horror stories about updates not working or messing up devices on though, anyone have good long-term use experiences with them? Would rather not mess with custom roms because I need to use mobile banking apps that tend not to play nice with them.
I love this brand so much the phones are incredible but none of the carriers like them, and I did everything I could to make it work but it got in the way of my self employment and I had to switch to a Google.
It worked flawlessly back home In Central America tho
Yeah. Not a huge fan of the goog especially lately for obvious reasons but at least you're somewhat limiting the number of western companies spying on you to the one, and they do offer good hardware for the price... Might go that way again too if I can't be convinced the potential issues are worth it idk
Dropping Realme here as well. My entire fam has their phones, they perform extremely well. They got me hooked on the side fingerprint reader (and still offered a headphone jack) for a very good price.
I love my OnePlus phone, I got my SO one of the newer ones, they charge so fucking fast, literally 0-100 in 27 minutes, and 0-50% in 12. Mine is a couple models ago but it's still like 35 minutes to 100 or something like that
Like you can be getting ready to go and you notice it's super low, just plug it in and get dressed and put your shoes on, and in like 5 minutes it's got enough battery to last for a while
Do you have any experience with those? I was thinking of getting one of their Kamvas screen tablets on my next payday, probably the Pro 16 4K version.
Those who are on Windows and Mac, consider getting something really cheap like a raspberry pi or dual-booting a Linux distro and slowly developing the skillset to leverage it to your everyday needs, then start carrying your workflow over gradually until the other two are obsolete.
I too encourage people to at least try out Linux in a VM for a few days. Modern distros are really not scary to approach, especially if you go for something like Mint which is aimed at individuals freshly migrating from Windows. EndeavourOS is also a good alternative if you want to lean into something Arch-based. Most things will either work or have alternatives that do. Your video games will work too, apart from certain multiplayer titles using specific implementations of anti-cheat. With Proton it's as easy as clicking play on Steam and letting it work its magic. Sometimes you need to tinker with launch settings, check the game's entry on ProtonDB, users post the settings that worked for them in the reports section. If you are willing to do some research and tinkering with protontricks and wine you can even get more complex things running, like heavily modded setups running through Mod Organizer.
Yes, sometimes things might break on you, especially if you use a rolling release distro. Fixing those issues is usually a matter of doing a few quick internet searches and following instructions. If you are willing to put up with it, those moments will end up boosting your learning process. In my case, using Linux also helped me build up my general IT skills quite a lot. I'll also give a shout-out to Linux Journey, it was recommended to me when I started using Linux and it is a solid resource.
De-Westernize your technology as much as possible. Consider going with Huawei or Xiaomi or OnePlus for phones (or stuff like laptops, which there's also Lenovo (seek out a model that is made to support Linux)), Aliexpress for shopping, and Huion for art-related hardware. China's always producing better and better shit, and they very well may extend their satellite mobile and (potentially) internet services to the global market. Keep in mind protectionism is escalating in the West, so expect interference and sabotage at some point.
Those who are on Windows and Mac, consider getting something really cheap like a raspberry pi or dual-booting a Linux distro and slowly developing the skillset to leverage it to your everyday needs, then start carrying your workflow over gradually until the other two are obsolete.
Especially keep an eye out for 100% indigenous Chinese technologies like CPUs, RAM, GPUs, etc etc. Shit the West can't backdoor in the production process because they have no control over it.
Those of us who are already here on Hexbear, which is basically reasonably sovereign territory not controlled by the CIA, are already in a much better position than fucking Reddit.
For videos, consider using something like https://www.bilibili.tv/en/ if you can't afford to host or trust any existing PeerTube instance. Odysee is technically an option too (based on the LBRY protocol, decentralized video hosting), but it's currently full (and I mean full) of chud content (and possibly nsfw shit).
For file hosting I highly recommend something like IPFS if you want to guarantee file authenticity and make it impossible for someone else to censor (you control when and for how long you host the file). IPFS has been used to host a copy of Wikipedia in the past (yes, can host static sites) when the Turkish government (I believe it was?) basically yeeted the site in an act of censorship. The latter is just an example, nobody should ever rely on NATOpedia for anything political or historical, at all.
Those of you who feel are lacking in technological warfare literacy, you can follow the news at https://www.eff.org/ to understand the trends the state has used and is using to undermine the proletariat.
The West wants to be able to easily rug pull you, so make it a big ass fucking chore for them to do so.
What's Hexbear's hosting status? Presumably the servers live in a country that won't respond to a US/UK/EU court order or subpoena?
shodan puts us in france
hosting is cloudflare
when i checked last time (~6months ago) we were in arizona
think cloudflare bounces us around
not good, folks
At least it's not Five Eyes.
They don't impose limits on themselves when it comes to surveillance. If something was needed from those servers, then they would get it.
Servers are French, but we don't use Cloudflare (haven't since we moved back upstream a few months ago).
This I do not know, hence why I say reasonably sovereign and not completely sovereign. I have been worried about this for some time now. I seriously hope @CARCOSA@hexbear.net and the admin team have contingencies and hosting options to pivot to outside the jurisdiction of all Western countries (it would be total heaven to host from China if we can), because I absolutely see the US empire trying to seize the domain, server hardware, or whatever else sooner or later. I believe China offers some rather cheap hosting, but I forget the exact details about which companies.
deleted by creator
This is something to consider, certainly. What I do know is Huawei has developed its own operating system called HarmonyOS (proprietary, and we know proprietary models are less advantageous than FOSS ones) that it's been integrating into its products (and, from what I understand, shares no code with AndroidOS). I can see other relevant Chinese tech companies doing the same, if not eventually settling on a universal standard. That being said, I would trust a device running HarmonyOS more than a device running AndroidOS. I've not delved terribly deep into mobile operating systems, so forgive me for being a little bit lacking in this area at the moment.
You are absolutely right, though. We should be de-googling and moving to something much more secure (like GrapheneOS). There's always room to improve OpSec.
Thinking of going to Xiaomi as my ancient Pixel phone is starting to crap out. Seen some horror stories about updates not working or messing up devices on
though, anyone have good long-term use experiences with them? Would rather not mess with custom roms because I need to use mobile banking apps that tend not to play nice with them.
I can't use a Xiaomi in SoCal, USA :(
I love this brand so much the phones are incredible but none of the carriers like them, and I did everything I could to make it work but it got in the way of my self employment and I had to switch to a Google.
It worked flawlessly back home In Central America tho
Yeah. Not a huge fan of the goog especially lately for obvious reasons but at least you're somewhat limiting the number of western companies spying on you to the one, and they do offer good hardware for the price... Might go that way again too if I can't be convinced the potential issues are worth it idk
At least they aren't apple
They're great products, it's just obvious they're being blackballed in the US market
OnePlus phones are great btw, love my 8t
Dropping Realme here as well. My entire fam has their phones, they perform extremely well. They got me hooked on the side fingerprint reader (and still offered a headphone jack) for a very good price.
deleted by creator
I love my OnePlus phone, I got my SO one of the newer ones, they charge so fucking fast, literally 0-100 in 27 minutes, and 0-50% in 12. Mine is a couple models ago but it's still like 35 minutes to 100 or something like that
Like you can be getting ready to go and you notice it's super low, just plug it in and get dressed and put your shoes on, and in like 5 minutes it's got enough battery to last for a while
Do you have any experience with those? I was thinking of getting one of their Kamvas screen tablets on my next payday, probably the Pro 16 4K version.
I too encourage people to at least try out Linux in a VM for a few days. Modern distros are really not scary to approach, especially if you go for something like Mint which is aimed at individuals freshly migrating from Windows. EndeavourOS is also a good alternative if you want to lean into something Arch-based. Most things will either work or have alternatives that do. Your video games will work too, apart from certain multiplayer titles using specific implementations of anti-cheat. With Proton it's as easy as clicking play on Steam and letting it work its magic. Sometimes you need to tinker with launch settings, check the game's entry on ProtonDB, users post the settings that worked for them in the reports section. If you are willing to do some research and tinkering with protontricks and wine you can even get more complex things running, like heavily modded setups running through Mod Organizer.
Yes, sometimes things might break on you, especially if you use a rolling release distro. Fixing those issues is usually a matter of doing a few quick internet searches and following instructions. If you are willing to put up with it, those moments will end up boosting your learning process. In my case, using Linux also helped me build up my general IT skills quite a lot. I'll also give a shout-out to Linux Journey, it was recommended to me when I started using Linux and it is a solid resource.
Death to windows.
Not personally, but I've heard nothing but good things from friends who own tablets.