Leaving the Microsoft Plantation

In April 2018, I had a listener of the show reach out to me. I always enjoy when listeners contact me about the show, even if a certain (large) percentage of them contact me to tell me how I'm not a real anarchist.

This specific listener was from a former Soviet bloc. I promptly invited him on the show (even though some of my fellow Libertarian Union members suspected he was a FED) to interview him about what growing up/living in Belarus is like. You can actually go listen to this episode here.

One of the several topics of discussion was technology and encryption. Now I've never fashioned myself to be any kind of tech wizard, however I like to say that I "know enough to be dangerous."

In the episode, as Dtluna was want to do, he berated me for continuing to use Microsoft Windows (much love Dtluna). One of his reasons for doing so, was that the major operating systems, Windows and Mac OS, are known to share personal data through back doors to alphabet soup agencies and tech giants.

As an alternative, Dtluna suggested that I switch to Linux as my operating system for increased privacy and customization. True to his style, he smacked me in the face like I was a West Virginian coal miner and he was telling me to “learn to code.”

Well, ladies and gentlemen (and Dtluna) I finally took your advice. Of course, when I tell you what I did, you will most likely tell me that I'm doing it wrong or something (or that I am not a real anarchist). However, I view this as a worthwhile first step on my journey of techno-agorism.

With my Christmas money, I purchased a Canakit Raspberry Pi 4 Extreme with a premium black case. For those of you who are not in the know, the Raspberry Pi 4 is a credit-card sized desktop computer. Basic models run as little as 40 dollars. I am not kidding when I say credit-card sized. Best of all, the Raspberry Pi comes preloaded with alternative operating systems (which I understand are variants of Linux).

If you got this far and are wondering what Linux is (or even what an operating system is) follow these links: Linux and Operating System.

Ok, so what’s the big deal!? Why is Linux that much better for privacy than Windows or Mac OS? How user friendly is it? Can I take all my data and apps with me? Do I actually have to do some work and research?! Truthfully… I don’t know all those answers yet. Stayed tuned.

This should be the first in a series that I'd like to publish documenting my experience transitioning to Linux for my daily computing and taking yet another step away from the big tech plantation.

My Raspberry Pi 4 kit came in today. Although I don't believe that I will have much time to mess around with it tonight, I will begin the second entry in the series with some pictures and initial observations from setting up the Raspberry Pi 4.

For now please enjoy these unboxing pictures, and follow this Amazon affiliate link to the specific Raspberry Pi 4 kit that I purchased.

Of course, me being a complete NOOB and admittedly not a tech expert, the more learned members of the techno-agorist community will certainly laugh and/or cringe at this series. Who knows, maybe they will get excited.

However, the vast majority of my audience are people that most likely do not have any experience in this realm. I hope that this series will be useful to you to see just how user-friendly and uncomplicated this process is. Maybe it will even entice you into leaving the big tech plantation.

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