or randos on the internet then?

I mean isn’t that practically everyone on the Internet that you don’t know personally? Or do you actually know the Firefox and/or Librewolf team, and audit their code as well?

If no to both…sounds like you are putting some measure of trust into “randos on the Internet.” Which is not abnormal. Trust is required at some point in most processes.

My thing against Firefox/Librewolf is lack of security…unless it’s improved?

Avoid Gecko-based browsers like Firefox as they’re currently much more vulnerable to exploitation and inherently add a huge amount of attack surface. Gecko doesn’t have a WebView implementation (GeckoView is not a WebView implementation), so it has to be used alongside the Chromium-based WebView rather than instead of Chromium, which means having the remote attack surface of two separate browser engines instead of only one. Firefox / Gecko also bypass or cripple a fair bit of the upstream and GrapheneOS hardening work for apps. Worst of all, Firefox does not have internal sandboxing on Android. This is despite the fact that Chromium semantic sandbox layer on Android is implemented via the OS isolatedProcess feature, which is a very easy to use boolean property for app service processes to provide strong isolation with only the ability to communicate with the app running them via the standard service API. Even in the desktop version, Firefox’s sandbox is still substantially weaker (especially on Linux) and lacks full support for isolating sites from each other rather than only containing content as a whole. The sandbox has been gradually improving on the desktop but it isn’t happening for their Android browser yet.

Ref: https://grapheneos.org/usage#web-browsing

We’ve heard this one in 2016.

He was a convicted felon who had the Supreme Court in his pocket who granted him immunity as well as an attempted insurrection in his honor and he saluted hostile generals?

I don’t remember if he promised to be a dictator on day one or had already praised dictators back then, so I’ll grant you that one out of…everything else he’s done since then which was not covered in 2016.

It’s a game of chicken now.

And if you’re not scared of a convicted felon who promises to be a dictator on day one and has the Supreme Court in his pocket who granted him immunity as well as a cult like following who stormed the Capitol to attempt an insurrection yet who also praises dictators and salutes their generals and has nothing to lose getting ahold of the Presidency then I don’t know what to tell ya. But sure, let’s play chicken with the saner and lesser of the two evils and help MAGA win.

CalyxOS lets me run most safety net stuff…

SafetyNet is deprecated.

https://developer.android.com/privacy-and-security/safetynet/deprecation-timeline

The pixel 8 was exciting because it was the 1st android smartphone which broke the usual 5 years of update cycle and jumped to 7 years.

The Pixel 8 also has MTE support.

Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro are ARMv9 devices supporting hardware memory tagging…Hardware memory tagging is going to provide a massive increase to protection against remote exploitation for GrapheneOS users. It’s the biggest security feature we’ll be shipping since we started in 2014.

https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/8439-mte-support-status-for-grapheneos

• The video is a return to the creator’s previous “Top 5 Linux Apps” monthly series, which was popular in the past.
• The first app highlighted is Boxy, a graphic design tool for creating SVG images and logos, with a user-friendly interface compared to more complex tools like Inkscape.
• The second app is Eyedropper, a color picker tool that works well in Wayland environments and allows users to get color codes in various formats.
• The third app is Iotas, a simple, GTK-based note-taking app with Nextcloud integration, focused on basic note-taking functionality without advanced features.
• The fourth app is Plexamp, an electron-based desktop music player that provides access to the user’s Plex music library.
• The fifth app is Sigil, a niche tool for editing metadata in eBook (EPUB) files, particularly useful for adding series information to support self-hosted ebook platforms like Calibre.
• The creator acknowledges that Sigil has some quirks, working better in KDE than GNOME environments.
• The creator encourages viewers to provide suggestions for future “Top 5 Linux Apps” videos in the comments.
• The creator provides links to their social media and support platforms, including Mastodon, Odyssey, and Patreon.
• The overall tone is one of enthusiasm for sharing useful Linux applications with the audience, while also acknowledging the niche nature of some of the recommendations.

Courtesy of Kagi’s Universal Summarizer.

Nope, I’m out.

From the person you replied to, emphasis mine:

You could also start with just one of these

if used for work…Features? Don’t care.

Most organizations care about maintaining document compatibility, especially formatting, and that usually means Office365. Microsoft is notorious for publishing a standard and then ignoring their own standard, making it exceedingly difficult to use other office suites.

I’ve heard OnlyOffice does the best at maintaining compatibility.

That’s the joke.

I’m hoping for a Pixel Tablet 2 with this (Pixel Tablet doesn’t have it, but the Pixel 8 does for some reason) and MTE security capability, and I’ll transition to that with GrapheneOS over a laptop.

I haven’t tested it personally, but I think GrapheneOS (easily the best Android OS for Pixels, in my opinion) has had it for Pixel 8s since the end of October 2023. Here’s a quick guide I saw: https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/9775-pixel-8-desktop-mode-guide-and-personal-experience

and Signal were Google proprietary.

I’m pretty sure Signal is not Google proprietary, and the person you replied to didn’t say it was.

The difference is that you are expected to pay. Louis and FUTO are very explicit about this.

I don’t really follow them, but I did skim the Grayjay FAQ, and it never says that. Just that they make money by selling licenses, no subscription, and it works identically without paying. I don’t suppose you have a source that is more explicit than the official Grayjay FAQ page?

https://grayjay.app/#faq

Is Eternity still in development? I don’t think there has been a release for 6+ months.

With most PC things (RAM, disk space, CPU, etc etc), too much is better than too little, provided you have the resources.

I have left, I just view Reddit…

So you haven’t left Reddit. Like saying you left Google but still Google search without logging in.

Yes, you need an Internet connection at some point. This can be a cafe, a library, an office, your house, friend’s house, etc. As for controlled by the government, well, that depends on your country.

Worst case, if possible, you can move countries. I understand that might not be feasible, but my point is, you can move countries to escape the government and Internet restrictions. But the government locks your account/bank? Moving countries doesn’t fix that, and you’re locked out of any money you had there.

But even if I have a server, I’ll have to have my own separate Internet if I really want to be able to pay unrestrictedly.

Separate Internet? I mean, yes, you do need Internet. Not sure what you mean by “separate.” And you don’t need a server (node), though they are handy for privacy. You could choose one that is reputable.

Otherwise the government would just shut down my internet connection, right?

If they knew where it/your Internet was. All you really need is your phone or PC. You could use a cafe or library or cell tower or etc.

Nobody is doing that now, with regular money, either.

I think it’s more for ACH between banks as well as some banks have limits. Also, a government literally stepped in to actively block people’s accounts. Just because you can swipe your card and buy a soda, doesn’t mean there aren’t restrictions or people being blocked.

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said Thursday financial institutions have moved quickly to freeze the accounts of people linked to the demonstrations in Ottawa, leaving an unknown number of protesters in financial limbo

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/ottawa-protests-frozen-bank-accounts-1.6355396