unlike voting, learning to use linux has material benefits on your life. it's not really an option for everyone and I don't bother to recommend it to anyone who doesn't already have some basic technical competency but if you can clear that hurdle, it's just a better way to live. but I also recognize I'm the worst person to have this conversation because I made the switch 16 years ago and I just no longer recall what the process of getting proficient is even like. so YMMV
Using Linux will have almost no benefit on most people's lives. No non-tech person is going to learn Linux so they can use shell commands 🤡or for some nebulous "privacy" 🤡
The word "privacy" is sometimes used by techie people the way "freedom" is used by imperialists, AKA having no meaning at all.
I mean I don't know what those examples you gave are, every browser tracks history, and every browser lets you turn it off, and they aren't part of the OS. And no OS "tracks mouse clicks" beyond delivering them to programs, because that would be a keylogger lmao.
But what I mean is that "privacy" for 99.9% of people is literally meaningless. Because having no internet privacy will make no difference in their lives ever. It only matters if you could be targeted by the government. Or maybe if there's some kind of security breach and collected sensitive telemetry is retrieved, but that has only happened a couple times and I don't know that it was used for anything. A decent reason to have more "privacy" I guess. But also still meaningless in the case of whatever a company like Microsoft collects.
Having more "digital privacy" will change a person's life in absolutely no way whatsoever. So asking them to change to a new OPERATING SYSTEM for a non-existent benefit is ridiculously out of touch (and in all likelihood will actually cause more problems (like data loss) caused by the difficultly of using Linux desktops and the unfamiliar environment).
Honestly, a better suggestion would be to suggest Windows software that is a better alternative to Microsoft or other predatory-monetization software. Like suggesting people turning on some feature in their email client or using PGP, or switching to a different browser, or using a different messaging app. Using PGP email with friends with a desktop email client like Thunderbird instead of unprotected Gmail would do more for privacy than lots of other stuff. Or disabling certain ad settings in the Google account settings. All of these things increase "privacy" more than switching to Linux. Also, tell people what registry keys to change to disable stupid Windows features. I know I was able to use a registry change to get rid of the search bing from the start menu "feature".
If Linux was good enough for desktop use, there would be lots of companies or universities actually using it for that. There might be some tech companies like Google using Linux. Probably not much outside of that.
unlike voting, learning to use linux has material benefits on your life. it's not really an option for everyone and I don't bother to recommend it to anyone who doesn't already have some basic technical competency but if you can clear that hurdle, it's just a better way to live. but I also recognize I'm the worst person to have this conversation because I made the switch 16 years ago and I just no longer recall what the process of getting proficient is even like. so YMMV
Using Linux will have almost no benefit on most people's lives. No non-tech person is going to learn Linux so they can use shell commands 🤡or for some nebulous "privacy" 🤡
The word "privacy" is sometimes used by techie people the way "freedom" is used by imperialists, AKA having no meaning at all.
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I mean I don't know what those examples you gave are, every browser tracks history, and every browser lets you turn it off, and they aren't part of the OS. And no OS "tracks mouse clicks" beyond delivering them to programs, because that would be a keylogger lmao.
But what I mean is that "privacy" for 99.9% of people is literally meaningless. Because having no internet privacy will make no difference in their lives ever. It only matters if you could be targeted by the government. Or maybe if there's some kind of security breach and collected sensitive telemetry is retrieved, but that has only happened a couple times and I don't know that it was used for anything. A decent reason to have more "privacy" I guess. But also still meaningless in the case of whatever a company like Microsoft collects.
Having more "digital privacy" will change a person's life in absolutely no way whatsoever. So asking them to change to a new OPERATING SYSTEM for a non-existent benefit is ridiculously out of touch (and in all likelihood will actually cause more problems (like data loss) caused by the difficultly of using Linux desktops and the unfamiliar environment).
Honestly, a better suggestion would be to suggest Windows software that is a better alternative to Microsoft or other predatory-monetization software. Like suggesting people turning on some feature in their email client or using PGP, or switching to a different browser, or using a different messaging app. Using PGP email with friends with a desktop email client like Thunderbird instead of unprotected Gmail would do more for privacy than lots of other stuff. Or disabling certain ad settings in the Google account settings. All of these things increase "privacy" more than switching to Linux. Also, tell people what registry keys to change to disable stupid Windows features. I know I was able to use a registry change to get rid of the search bing from the start menu "feature".
If Linux was good enough for desktop use, there would be lots of companies or universities actually using it for that. There might be some tech companies like Google using Linux. Probably not much outside of that.