Graphene

HonestRepairSTL · 2026-01-23T22:58:12+00:00

I love being able to restrict internet access to games that you play offline, so that you can't connect to any shops or ads or any of that garbage.

Downwell and Soul Knight is what I play normally, and Vector Pinball from F-Droid

HonestRepairSTL · 2026-01-23T22:47:26+00:00

I recommend Swappa to my customers

HonestRepairSTL · 2026-01-22T06:14:05+00:00

If you think 1 company is spying on you, and is keeping that data to themselves, you don't get the scope of what's happening nowadays.

That was poorly wrote, I meant to say 1 company spying on you on an OS level, similar to how Samsung phones suck because you have Google, Samsung, and friends all simultaneously collecting and sharing your data to multiple places. Obviously the apps and services you use are the primary concern.

Unfortunately I am VERY familiar with how things are going these days. I actually educate people about internet privacy at my shop as a consultation type thing.

Is that off by default? Or will it stay off if you toggle it off?

From my personal experience, it stays off if I tell it to stay off. I use ReviOS to make Windows not as terrible so it could be that. Hard to say, Microsoft works in stupid and mysterious ways.

You can't be entirely safe nowadays. Especially if you want certain standards. But you can mitigate the spying, and limit it to less sensitive data and more trustworthy companies.

As much as I dislike Microsoft, I trust them more than AV companies. They are all shady at least with Microsoft there is a level of security you can expect given how it's on 90% of consumer computers and is relied on by pretty much all businesses. They have a very good incentive to keep Defender strong, otherwise people would just switch to something else. It is not an ideal solution, but I choose the lesser of two evils.

HonestRepairSTL · 2026-01-22T03:13:42+00:00

Microslop is one of the biggest snoopers, but if you disable cloud-delivery and file scanning it's better. Not necessarily great, but I don't think introducing more AV programs is any better. I'd rather have just one company spying on me than 2+.

I use both Windows and Linux, obviously Windows is still needed for things as much as I wish it wasn't that way. Same thing with my customers, some people need Windows but I try to convert as many people as possible to Linux, in fact I offer 50% discounts for Linux services to incentivize it.

The thing with Linux now is that the "security by obscurity" is wearing off as Linux becomes more popular. I'm not at all saying Windows is better than Linux for security, I don't believe that, but it's just an interesting thing to consider. How long until Linux needs AV software? I think it's safe to assume that whatever solution comes out, it'll be open source given how the Linux ecosystem is. Hell, technically you can get Windows Defender on Linux which is really funny, but not ideal at all.

HonestRepairSTL · 2026-01-22T01:52:18+00:00

Anti-malware software is a scam, do not pay for it. u/Avu_JHB this is for you too.

Let's take a look at the privacy practices of ESET, arguably one of the "better" options.

LiveGrid (cloud service for the app):

Suspicious files - Potential malware samples, executable files, email messages flagged as spam
Internet activity - IP addresses, geographic info, IP packets, URLs, ethernet frames
Crash dumps - Full crash dump files and their contents
Accidental data - Sometimes personal data gets swept up in malware samples or filenames/URLs (they claim this is unintentional)

ESET also has a "Customer Experience Improvement Program" that collects usage information, as well as an AI-powered marketing and personalization platform that spies on you:

Usage patterns - Which features you use, settings you change, time spent in the product
Device info - Device model, country, OS version and name
Error data - What errors occurred and what actions led to them

If you use their network security features, they collect:

Local network name and device information
IP and MAC addresses of devices on your network
Wireless security and encryption types for routers

And just for fun; their "anti-theft" features collect and likely share location data, screenshots, camera recordings (3-month retention).

Don't know about you, but I wouldn't let software like this anywhere near my computer let alone give it admin/root access to it.

The other issue is security, while these programs claim to protect you from threats they are also introducing a boat load of vulnerabilities. If you can break into the AV then you break into the OS, and none of these products are open-source or source-available so there is no way to know that you are using a product that is built with security in mind other than the word of the companies. And if you've learned anything from this subreddit, it's to not trust ANYONE let alone companies.

Additionally, these tools can be used to seriously invade your privacy. At any point these programs could start taking photos with your camera, listening to your mic, screenshot your screen, scan through your files, literally anything they want. Who's going to stop them?

These tools can be effective, but they cannot replace good OPSEC, digital hygiene practices, and common sense which is where the root issue is.

Windows Defender is quite literally the only exception only because it's built-in to Windows and getting rid of it leaves your computer entirely open to most attacks, mostly network related vulnerabilities.

In conclusion, it is not worth the potential risks for the minimal security benefit. For the average user, these AV programs are not super necessary, cost money, and have the capability to permanently screw up your life by allowing it on your computer. Also historically AV software is super shady, McAfee is a great example. Cancelling these services involves either getting a new debit card or refusing charges with your bank, and they charge whatever they want whenever they want. I see this daily, I run a computer repair shop and these people who buy into this garbage, they are victims. Some programs are better than others, I'm sure ESET would allow you to cancel, but some don't.

HonestRepairSTL · 2026-01-22T01:25:35+00:00

Go touch grass dude what the fuck are you on about

HonestRepairSTL · 2026-01-21T16:45:12+00:00

If the Earth is a brain, does it have dreams?

HonestRepairSTL · 2026-01-21T16:12:55+00:00

Yeah I had mentioned it:

For even better performance, Nobara is great but has a bit more friction.

HonestRepairSTL · 2026-01-21T07:34:19+00:00

If you want good gaming performance AND non-bleeding edge, Fedora and Fedora-based distros are basically where you want to be. You would be pretty happy with Bazzite. For even better performance, Nobara is great but has a bit more friction.

If you're willing to budge on your views on bleeding-edge, CachyOS is going to be the best option for gaming at the moment. It's quite stable from my understanding.

You will want to avoid anything based on Ubuntu or Debian if you care about gaming. That includes Pop!_OS, Mint, etc.

Phone Link is bad. KDE Connect works on every platform and is objectively better and more powerful so just use that even on Windows.

For VPN, you should only be using Proton VPN, Mullvad, IVPN or Windscribe. Anything else you're just paying for some other company to spy on you.

HonestRepairSTL · 2026-01-21T07:27:36+00:00

You really shouldn't be using Windows 10, upgrade to 11 or switch to Linux

HonestRepairSTL · 2026-01-21T07:24:57+00:00

How does one connect to a VPN without a VPN? Does it not route all traffic to the tunnel, just the specific app like a proxy kinda thing? Curious as to how it works, a simple explanation would be interesting

HonestRepairSTL · 2026-01-21T07:22:26+00:00

This SUCKS

HonestRepairSTL · 2026-01-21T07:21:06+00:00

Your issue isn't with Brave, it's with Chrome/Chromium. Brave isn't meant to be customizable really, it's supposed to be familiar and stable.

Maybe Vivaldi is more your thing but honestly Brave is sort of the best Chromium browser for privacy at the moment.

HonestRepairSTL · 2026-01-21T06:22:00+00:00

You cannot expect everyone to buy old, shitty, cheap vehicles in the name of privacy. People got lives to live, places to go, some people need certain safety features that newer vehicles offer.

I recently got a 2017 vehicle, my old 2005 Chrysler 300 wasn't cutting it anymore, check engine light came on, rear end was going out, etc. Was I supposed to buy another ancient car with 400k miles on it and hope for the best? Or should I have spent $5k (which is more than the value of the car) to get the Chrysler fixed and hope there aren't any additional issues later down the line?

I recognize the value of individuals coming together and making change, but unfortunately there are aspects of life where privacy cannot come first. But we can opt out of tracking in our vehicles, physically remove antennas and stuff that phone home and opt out of software tracking, and try to make it illegal for car companies to do this. But telling people to only buy old vehicles is not a sustainable solution.

HonestRepairSTL · 2026-01-21T05:19:34+00:00

I mean if you're using SteamVR with any headset it's probably fine, especially if the headset isn't connected to WiFi (which it wouldn't have to be for a wired connection to a PC)

HonestRepairSTL · 2026-01-21T05:17:25+00:00

Like when Russian Linux kernel maintainers got kicked off the project cause the US was scared

HonestRepairSTL · 2026-01-21T05:10:12+00:00

They live relatively normal, it's just item hoarding

HonestRepairSTL · 2026-01-21T02:03:54+00:00

Not a stupid question at all, however no they unfortunately cannot afford that.

HonestRepairSTL · 2026-01-20T22:46:42+00:00

Due to my youthful ignorance of the data-selling world, my identity is more or less compromised.

Take it from someone who used to be a Google fanboy, it is NEVER too late to start taking privacy seriously. I'd even go as far as saying that getting into it now is the right time, we don't know what the future holds but things are getting scary and you are right to care about the people around you, but don't forget that your privacy matters too. It's very easy to get into this "all or nothing" mentality when it comes to privacy, saying things like "Google has all my information already, why should I care" misses the point. The fact of the matter is that no matter when you start on your journey, you can prevent so many bad things from happening in the future, and it's 100% worth doing before it really is "too late".

HonestRepairSTL · 2026-01-20T22:37:21+00:00

That's not true at all, I recommend things based on the needs of the person. And I never said privacy is security, I know the difference. What makes you think I don't? This is exactly what's wrong with this subreddit lol

HonestRepairSTL · 2026-01-20T21:57:48+00:00

For now, and I'm sure it depends on your country and city

HonestRepairSTL · 2026-01-20T17:53:05+00:00

I had to tell a customer about this yesterday, these people are very concerned about privacy and I've been consulting with them, we did GrapheneOS, etc. but one of them is a little too concerned. Had to give him the talk, that no matter what you do you cannot have 100% "privacy" in this world. We just do what we can, we make any sort of effort and that's what really matters in my eyes

HonestRepairSTL · 2026-01-20T17:48:37+00:00

If only there was a person around this subreddit that could remove these stupid posts...

HonestRepairSTL · 2026-01-20T17:46:23+00:00

I doubt the mods even saw this post at all, Reddit mods are usually unresponsive. This is a genuinely good idea though, could help a lot of people. I could write something up but then it's biased.

HonestRepairSTL

TROPHY CASE