Until you run a business that's based on confidentiality or high value innovation, and you talk to your insurance company... might as well get used to IT hygiene from the start then... most people that keep clean spyware-free systems don't do that for themselves, because they don't want to be spied upon, but they do that because they're being responsible towards others, on a microscopic scale they're being responsible towards their children and employees and customers, on a macroscopic scale they're being responsible towards society, by not relinquishing fundamental rights. If you think that that is overzealous, and thus necessarily think that those considerations are futile and not worth anything, well you have the right to that opinion. I personally try to keep insurance cost down, haven't had any liability incident yet and aim to keep it that way, and will not relinquish fundamental rights without raising hell...
Actually, some smart open source developers have developed the Google Apps browser. It's a browser that lets you run Google Apps on all linux-based platforms (Android and GNU/Linux) in a strictly insulated container, and you can destroy the container after you're done using the apps, so that no trace is left. If you use a VPN and a bogus Google account with that, Google will not have anything that can be tied to you.
that's awesome, will definitely look into that more.
Linux isn't the best platform for computers with everything integrated such as Thinkpads/laptops, some of the typical big names have decent support such as Dell etc.. But Lenovo ThinkPad is not your standard brand.
Is Lenovo the company that installs their spyware on your Windows installs all the time? Think they are, fun...
You must be... GNU to this.
sorry that was a bad pun :(
i thought it was a gnarbuckle pun bro
EDIT: hmmm... i think it might actually be spelled like that too...
Lenovo is by far the largest manufacturer, it's the biggest name in the business by far.
Lenovo is also a Chinese manufacturer. They deliver some Intel models with rootkits, but those are based upon the commercial functionality of the Intel platform. Every Intel system after Core 2 Duo is equipped with Intel ME (Management Engine), a rootkit that comes standard ex factory with best greetings from your friends at the NSA. Since Haswell, they've even built the Intel/NSA rootkit right into the CPU instead of into the chipset, in order to make sure that it's not circumvented.
So it's definitely a case of the pot calling the kettle black lolz... maybe the Chinese rootkit disables the NSA rootkit? Maybe we actually benefit from the Lenovo rootkit because they cancel out each other? Anyway, both are equally contrary to human dignity and democratic and human rights, both are basically cyber warfare against civilian targets, so both are basically terrorist actions.
The cool thing is, when you use Linux on your machine, something for which Lenovo machines are well known, because they typically provide very good Linux compatibility, and are the preferred platform for many Linux afficionados, those rootkits, either by the NSA or the Chinese counterpart, are not able to reinstall software behind your back, because that only works on Windows. So if you use linux, you don't really care about the cyber warfare that's going on, you just don't worry about it, you just live your life...
That is actually good info...Could you possible provide some sources for future reference?
Market stats are everywhere, and they all agree that Lenovo is by far the largest and most selling manufacturer in the PC business. Furthermore, over 73.000.000 new PC's were sold in Q32015, and in the same period, despite the "forced upgrade" strategy, only 110.000.000 PC's run Windows X sofar, so less than two quarters worth of new PC sales in a market where the PC sales have reached a historic low. The well-documented Intel-rootkit features, which coincidentally has come up a couple of times on the forum lately and I've posted links to it two times already in the last week or so, os feel free to look those links up, installs Windows software and locates devices and records sound and video and sends it over the internet, and allows full remote control after installing that Windows software. On machines that don't have a BIOS-based remote control feature (which exists too from Intel), that means basically that avoiding Windows means avoiding the possibility to remotely install the software that does all of that stuff. However, it needs to be said that there are non-open-source linux distributions (which de facto are violating the GPL license of course, which is why they only exist for "internal use" by agencies like NASA and companies that make them for themselves), and Intel, beside Microsoft, has one of those too. It's called VxWorks, and probably also has the "feature" that it can be influenced with the Intel rootkit. However, in open source software, such features are very hard to implement, which is why Intel has moved all of the rootkit software to the CPU itself since Haswell.
The last known safe Intel system, that is not liable to get you droned if someone presses the wrong button (or right button, depends on who you are of course and what interests others have), is the GM45 chipset with the Intel Core2Duo CPU. As it turns out, due to a "bug", this chipset remains fully functional without Intel Management Engine, so you can use it safely. Intel is not the only chip baker that does this. See the list of devices I posted a couple of times this week, Samsung, Qualcom, etc... they're all doing the same thing.
That's why AMD is in no hurry to make new CPU's... they have no competition when it comes to people that want a computer, but don't want a dormant NSA-cyber-warfare-weapon in their home. Even if AMD (well, GF, AMD has been hollowed out...) sells the same chips for another decade, and even if they up the price, people will still buy them...
What is the problem with skype?
its included in the repository´s and works fine.
What do you mean?
What repos?
You can install skype directly from your repository´s.
Atleast in Debian based distro´s.
It works totaly fine.
Not from the official repos, only from the non-free repos.
Skype has always worked fine on linux lolz, it has worked better than Windows and Android versions for literally years, and in linux, skype offer more options too.
Only issue I have with skype in linux is the fact video call controls push the video up and down whenever you hover over video. It can't integrate the video controls in the video like windows does.
I don't have that to be honest. Might be some obscure DE setting or something.
Oh Dear, it may be worse than what Zoltan said.
CPU rootkit exploit.
@turin231 @Zoltan
In this slideshow Igor Skochinsky explains how Intel ME works but I don't understand any of it. If there any electronic engineers here it would be nice if they could translate this to plain english.
WOW.... Ok that was cheesier than the The Cheeze Factory Restaurant.... But I get it.
It was clear that this can happen the day one could update microcode on the CPU.
And by today the IME got a huge proprietary software blob and its own mControler that hasn't undergone any serious audition (-as I am aware of) so.. I am not surprised.
tl;tr the IME bypasses the main CPU and main OS as well as 99% off all its security features. It has a direct link to the NIC and has its own power (standby power).
It can write directly into RAM and shares some parts of the BIOS/UEFI flash memory.
You can remote control the whole PC through that, lets call it back-door, it is mostly used in server management as you can control and even setup a OS over it on a headless machine.
Its also utilized for locking the machine in case it got stolen... so on and so on...
That is mental. Thanks for the explanation.
It's depressing that we as general public can make our own software but not hardware.