I am worried and you should be too!

[Adis]

Lately I've been reading more and more articles and watching videos regarding the privacy issues from the big guys, which we are surrounded by, I am talking about Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook and I have been trying to avoid using their hardware and services but it is really hard. I am a system administrator/integrator during the day and some kind of web developer during the night and for my workflow I have been using all kind of devices, for example I am currently using:

• MacBook Pro 13"; 14,1; i5; 16GB, noTouchBar; - mainly for the real work;
• Surface Pro 4, i7; 16GB; - mainly for the media consumption and reading;
• OnePlus 6, 6GB; - my daily-driver phone for everything;
• iPhone 7 Plus; - jailbroken, for testing and pailing up the dust;

Please help me to find a nice laptop (phones suggestion are also welcomed):

Must have:

• Excellent screen, no intention to game, so 60Hz is fine;
• 4 core processor;
• 16GB+ RAM;
• 256GB NVMe storage;

Prefer:

• Minimalistic design;
• 2K screen resolution;
• 6 core processor, AMD;
• 32GB RAM;
• 1TB NVMe;
• Good keyboard;
• Excellent track pad;
• 6h+ hours of battery life;

Sorry for the click-baity title, but I am truly worried about my privacy and will move services to other platform, preferably open source, like: Tutanota, NextCloud... so all suggestions are very welcome.

 

Thank you!

[lewdicrous]

Wtf is this even about?

[Alexzz_]

9 minutes ago, Adis said:

Lately I've been reading more and more articles and watching videos regarding the privacy issues from the big guys, which we are surrounded by, I am talking about Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook and I have been trying to avoid using their hardware and services but it is really hard. I am a system administrator/integrator during the day and some kind of web developer during the night and for my workflow I have been using all kind of devices, for example I am currently using:

• MacBook Pro 13"; 14,1; i5; 16GB, noTouchBar; - mainly for the real work;
• Surface Pro 4, i7; 16GB; - mainly for the media consumption and reading;
• OnePlus 6, 6GB; - my daily-driver phone for everything;
• iPhone 7 Plus; - jailbroken, for testing and pailing up the dust;

Please help me to find a nice laptop (phones suggestion are also welcomed):

Must have:

• Excellent screen, no intention to game, so 60Hz is fine;
• 4 core processor;
• 16GB+ RAM;
• 256GB NVMe storage;

Prefer:

• Minimalistic design;
• 2K screen resolution;
• 6 core processor, AMD;
• 32GB RAM;
• 1TB NVMe;
• Good keyboard;
• Excellent track pad;
• 6h+ hours of battery life;

Sorry for the click-baity title, but I am truly worried about my privacy and will move services to other platform, preferably open source, like: Tutanota, NextCloud... so all suggestions are very welcome.

 

Thank you!

Seems like your only option is to use linux as os if you dont want to use windows or mac OS.

[nox_]

26 minutes ago, Adis said:

NVMe

What's up with that, do you move around big files constantly that it's a necessity or what? Other than that, get a laptop that suits your needs hardware wise and install linux, many distros to choose from. Easy. Linux is pretty good these days. I like Solus, but use Manjaro Budgie these days, would easily recommend it, even for gaming, tried Pop!_OS too, not for me, many great options out there.

Edited April 28, 2019 by noxdeouroboros

[Adis]

48 minutes ago, Alexzz_ said:

Seems like your only option is to use linux as os if you dont want to use windows or mac OS.

Exactly, I have been using Ubuntu and Red Hat/CentOS a lot. So Ubuntu would be my distro of choice, but I am open to test anything.

[Adis]

42 minutes ago, noxdeouroboros said:

What's up with that, do you move around big files constantly that it's a necessity or what? Other than that, get a laptop that suits your needs hardware wise and install linux, many distros to choose from. Easy. Linux is pretty good these days. I like Solus, but use Manjaro Budgie these days, would easily recommend it, even for gaming, tried Pop!_OS too, not for me, many great options out there.

Regarding NVMe, I have best experience for node modules, which are small files but there are many of them. I am looking for hardware for which I will not spend eternity to adjust it to work properly (MacBook, Surface which I already have). Regarding Linux, I like Ubuntu and for desktop environment, I like KDE. I will try Manjaro as soon as I find good hardware.

[Adis]

1 hour ago, lewdicrous said:

Wtf is this even about?

Please help my find good laptop for my needs. Thanks!

[nox_]

12 minutes ago, Adis said:

Regarding NVMe, I have best experience for node modules, which are small files but there are many of them. I am looking for hardware for which I will not spend eternity to adjust it to work properly (MacBook, Surface which I already have). Regarding Linux, I like Ubuntu and for desktop environment, I like KDE. I will try Manjaro as soon as I find good hardware.

Have you looked at Lenovo ThinkPad P and X series laptops? I think one of those should tick all the boxes for you. I have only good experience with ThinkPad, owned few of them over the years, own one right now too.

[Chunchunmaru_]

1 hour ago, Alexzz_ said:

Seems like your only option is to use linux as os if you dont want to use windows or mac OS.

You will never be completely "free" and your privacy respected even if you use Linux, your BIOS is closed, if you got an Intel processor with ME you got a "backdoor" and a closed OS booted, your devices firmware are not free, Ubuntu has some small tracking options too, the OS in this case is the last of the problems, the commonly used torvald's Linux kernel contains proprietary blobs too which are not entirely free.

Most android phones have also the google services on it which is the worst privacy-friendly thing ever, an iPhone or an android phone with Replicant is your way to go, as for a computer, you may require a Libreboot compatible laptop (some old thinkpads) or computer and a completely free OS like Trisquel which use linux-libre kernel

You can forcibly disable tracking on microsoft with some debloat programs like OOSU10 and get the same experience as you are using Ubuntu Linux for example

[Adis]

31 minutes ago, noxdeouroboros said:

Have you looked at Lenovo ThinkPad P and X series laptops? I think one of those should tick all the boxes for you. I have only good experience with ThinkPad, owned few of them over the years, own one right now too.

I owned T440 couple years age with 1600x900 screen, which was bad experience for me. X series would like to try.

[Adis]

4 minutes ago, Chunchunmaru_ said:

You will never be completely "free" and your privacy respected even if you use Linux, your BIOS is closed, if you got an Intel processor with ME you got a "backdoor" and a closed OS booted, your devices firmware are not free, Ubuntu has some small tracking options too, the OS in this case is the last of the problems, the commonly used torvald's Linux kernel contains proprietary blobs too which are not entirely free.

Most android phones have also the google services on it which is the worst privacy-friendly thing ever, an iPhone or an android phone with Replicant is your way to go, as for a computer, you may require a Libreboot compatible laptop (some old thinkpads) or computer and a completely free OS like Trisquel which use linux-libre kernel

You can forcibly disable tracking on microsoft with some debloat programs like OOSU10 and get the same experience as you are using Ubuntu Linux for example

I read about that Intel's backdoor, that's why I prefer AMD. Thanks a lot for all the advices, very helpful!

[nox_]

11 minutes ago, Adis said:

I owned T440 couple years age with 768i screen, which was bad experience for me. X series would like to try.

I own ThinkPad X1, really love it.

[NunoLava1998]

1 hour ago, Adis said:

Regarding NVMe, I have best experience for node modules, which are small files but there are many of them. I am looking for hardware for which I will not spend eternity to adjust it to work properly (MacBook, Surface which I already have). Regarding Linux, I like Ubuntu and for desktop environment, I like KDE. I will try Manjaro as soon as I find good hardware.

'which are small files but there are many of them'

Most entry-level NVMes don't improve on 4K speed at all compared to a regular SATA drive, and they probably use that.

If you're VERY impatient, you can also get a Optane 800P which has the best 4K performance compared to any other NVMe (however overpriced) but the max size is 120GB

[NunoLava1998]

35 minutes ago, Adis said:

I read about that Intel's backdoor, that's why I prefer AMD. Thanks a lot for all the advices, very helpful!

AMD has the PSP, but it's not as bad as Intel ME.

[aezakmi]

1 hour ago, Adis said:

Exactly, I have been using Ubuntu and Red Hat/CentOS a lot. So Ubuntu would be my distro of choice, but I am open to test anything.

Ubuntu (canonical to be precise) sold itself years ago, it's not exactly "private" anymore, they got greedy and stopped caring about truly free software. They tried to clone Windows or Mac OS by adding a "friendly" interface and known programs, if you used it pre 9.04 you'll know how it was and how it's not even the shadow of that now. Oh anyway, CentOS is quite robust. You should try Arch or Manjaro as well.

 

About your privacy, replacing services will do nothing honestly, Tutanota as well as other encrypted email (Countermail, Proton and the old Hushmail) services only work if you message people within the same server, if you message someone with google mail or microsoft the whole point of having an encrypted mail goes straight to the bin. 

 

And NextCloud... oh... cloud cloud, it's everywhere now, why would you trust this and not Google? you're still sending your personal files to somewhere in the world, does it really matters who controls it? not really, from the second you're willing to use something like this instead of offline local storage you're saying "hey, look! I don't give AF about my privacy anymore! take my files and learn about my life!" and I mean it.

 

I don't own a phone but it's said you can replace the OS on some devices to disconnect them from google, but once again, GPS, you have a tracker, a camera and a microphone on your pocket 24/7, unless you know how to hardmod and disable these things which requires a set of professional tools and the precision of a brain surgeon you'll be exposed no matter what.

 

Laptop... try a Dell, some of their models are pretty neat if you replace the windows OS for a linux distro.

[Adis]

5 hours ago, NunoLava1998 said:

'which are small files but there are many of them'

Most entry-level NVMes don't improve on 4K speed at all compared to a regular SATA drive, and they probably use that.

If you're VERY impatient, you can also get a Optane 800P which has the best 4K performance compared to any other NVMe (however overpriced) but the max size is 120GB

Can I combine Optane with SATA for best results? If I remember there is even Linus' video about how Optane can work with AMD?

[Adis]

5 hours ago, NunoLava1998 said:

AMD has the PSP, but it's not as bad as Intel ME.

To wait that silly open source processor?

[Adis]

4 hours ago, aezakmi said:

Ubuntu (canonical to be precise) sold itself years ago, it's not exactly "private" anymore, they got greedy and stopped caring about truly free software. They tried to clone Windows or Mac OS by adding a "friendly" interface and known programs, if you used it pre 9.04 you'll know how it was and how it's not even the shadow of that now. Oh anyway, CentOS is quite robust. You should try Arch or Manjaro as well.

 

About your privacy, replacing services will do nothing honestly, Tutanota as well as other encrypted email (Countermail, Proton and the old Hushmail) services only work if you message people within the same server, if you message someone with google mail or microsoft the whole point of having an encrypted mail goes straight to the bin. 

 

And NextCloud... oh... cloud cloud, it's everywhere now, why would you trust this and not Google? you're still sending your personal files to somewhere in the world, does it really matters who controls it? not really, from the second you're willing to use something like this instead of offline local storage you're saying "hey, look! I don't give AF about my privacy anymore! take my files and learn about my life!" and I mean it.

 

I don't own a phone but it's said you can replace the OS on some devices to disconnect them from google, but once again, GPS, you have a tracker, a camera and a microphone on your pocket 24/7, unless you know how to hardmod and disable these things which requires a set of professional tools and the precision of a brain surgeon you'll be exposed no matter what.

 

Laptop... try a Dell, some of their models are pretty neat if you replace the windows OS for a linux distro.

I will try Arch.

Mail is for my piece of mind, I am not using it that much. NextCloud is privately hosted, for now I am using it to automate backups of my media.

Even if I don't use Google play services on Android, on a custom ROM, I am giving away my data?

Also, what about Apple's privacy on iOS, how bad is it?

What about Dell XPS 9360 Developer edition?

Thanks a lot, you rock!

 

[aezakmi]

3 hours ago, Adis said:

I will try Arch.

Mail is for my piece of mind, I am not using it that much. NextCloud is privately hosted, for now I am using it to automate backups of my media.

Even if I don't use Google play services on Android, on a custom ROM, I am giving away my data?

Also, what about Apple's privacy on iOS, how bad is it?

What about Dell XPS 9360 Developer edition?

Thanks a lot, you rock!

Is nextcloud local? I just copy and paste to a NAS that only works on a local network with no internet access.

Google isn't the only bad guy out there, dunno what you do irl but most phones are vulnerable to hackers that can use them to track or record you, android is a really bad OS in terms of programs that are constantly running on the background instead of only when you open them, this allows viruses to run in a layer underneath the UI.

iOS works in a different way (doens't means it's safer though) by pinging background processes every minute to check for changes or updates, this allows the OS to show you notifications about a new text for example. The way the store works is indeed better compared to the one from google, downside is that you can't jailbreak new iPhones like the X or XR, at least not without paying a lot of money for tools or the jailbreak itself which is usually done in a black market.

 

This one looks pretty solid

https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-laptops/new-inspiron-15-5000/spd/inspiron-15-5585-laptop/nnbuc5am104s

 

it's not 2K though and has 16GB memory

[Adis]

On 4/29/2019 at 2:57 AM, aezakmi said:

Is nextcloud local? I just copy and paste to a NAS that only works on a local network with no internet access.

Google isn't the only bad guy out there, dunno what you do irl but most phones are vulnerable to hackers that can use them to track or record you, android is a really bad OS in terms of programs that are constantly running on the background instead of only when you open them, this allows viruses to run in a layer underneath the UI.

iOS works in a different way (doens't means it's safer though) by pinging background processes every minute to check for changes or updates, this allows the OS to show you notifications about a new text for example. The way the store works is indeed better compared to the one from google, downside is that you can't jailbreak new iPhones like the X or XR, at least not without paying a lot of money for tools or the jailbreak itself which is usually done in a black market.

 

This one looks pretty solid

https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-laptops/new-inspiron-15-5000/spd/inspiron-15-5585-laptop/nnbuc5am104s

 

it's not 2K though and has 16GB memory

NextCloud is open source project and I have great resources at my daily job to host it there, so why not.

I am mentioning Google because I used almost every of their services and really liked them, I even had all Nexus devices and first Pixel, and when their goal was to build great eco system (gmail, drive, docs, photos, etc), I felt OK, but now they are not introducing anything new and milking EVERYTHING what they can for more profit, which I do not like, but business is busniss, I can understand that, so as my freedom of choise.

That Dell looks solid, I will take it in consideration.

Thank you!!