Privacy is a human right.

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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 6th, 2023

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  • I buy all my Linux cloths from HelloTux: https://www.hellotux.com

    Their statement on the about page wonderful!

    We believe that free and open source software is better than proprietary. We also believe that we can change how people use technology. If you are the kind of person who likes freedom and fun, promote free software with us!

    And they go on:

    HELLOTUX is a family project of Gábor Kum, a Linux system administrator, a Linux user since 1999. His wife Maria and his children are Linux users too.

    As far as they explain they only use free software to create the patterns for the shirts (and now also backpacks!).

    They also support FOSS projects with every sell they make:

    This is not all. From your purchase we support free software, usually $3-5 from each product sold. But not everybody can accept money due to legal reasons, in this case, we give free shirts to developers.

    I had some mails going back and forth with them, as I thanked for the stuff I got and they are lovley.

    The quality is good and conformable, the oldest thing I have from them is a Tux-Hoodie I bought two or three years ago. It is still good and has the normal wear signs a hoodie has after a few years of use and washing.






  • Sadly I can’t find the comment-feed I had with the admin (was a year ago +/-), but yes as far as I remember the admin does not want to defederate other instances. Which is also a stance I understand, especially with the neutral mentality Switzerland has (and this is a Swiss instance after all).

    I hope the admin comments so we can see the thoughts itself and not some phrases I remember hazily :)


  • In general I think everyone should be able to connect to any instance, as I’m a big advocate of a free and unregulated internet.

    But as with many principles there are exceptions, and big data harvesting cooperation are my exception. The idea of the Fediverse is to have a decentralized, free (in both ways, does not cost and libre) and privacy respecting place in a world, where more and more governments and companies start to regulate and decide on what the users can do.

    When I look back on the history of those companies I neither like nor trust them, and I think it would be not only a needed action but also a statement when instances defedrate them. We can not stop the data harvesting, as this can be done with simple web crawlers. But with gate keeping (and I do not like it when people do it, but here, I think it is necessary), we can maybe bring the Fediverse more into the public eye. Because when we allow the Threads instances to federate, most people will just see it as Threads. They will not understand what the Fediverse is and will not see it as a new way of using the internet. The same kind of happened with Android, most do not know it is Linux and just talk about Android. I think for Android it is not a big problem, but the Fediverse is a movement, a change and statement people are fighting for, and it shall be and stay that, not just another protocol that is used to transfer likes.

    At the beginning of this instance, I once asked the admin and if I remember correctly, a defederation of such instances is not seen as an action to take. Maybe we need to mobilize in other communities on feddit.ch to raise our concern.

    (Pinned your post, as I think this is an important discussion to have)


  • Why did I not got wind of that, thank you for bringing it to my attention!

    I see the thinking behind it and that a state needs some tools to find and prosecute criminals, and that they did not follow the UK with E2E-Ban is good to hear.

    But, that the council made changes AFTER the criticism shows that we need to be more on edge and look even closer on them, and maybe even start to launch more referendums. It could be a good idea to launch an initiative that clearly states and sets surveillance laws that protect the privacy and integrity of Swiss citizens. I’m very worried that as many other countries in the last few years, Switzerland too starts to value surveillance higher than privacy.

    Does any one have the legal texts, I can’t find it somehow…

    Edit:

    I can’t check if this is the same but what I found:

    Source: https://www.vischer.com/en/knowledge/blog/modernisation-of-surveillance-law-at-ordinance-level-part-1-39485/

    Firstly, (three) new types of information are to be created for the purpose of querying longer-term and short-term identifiers (addressing elements, device numbers, subscriber numbers, etc.). These include (1) the query of the time of the last access-relevant activity of an e-mail service in order to determine when a communication process has been completed, (2) information on the last access-relevant activity of another telecommunications or derived communications service and (3) information on neighbouring networks for telephony and multimedia services in order to solve identification problems which occur when the telephone number is forged or unknown.

    In addition, (four) new types of surveillance are to be created, with which in future the exact position of a terminal device can be determined once or repeatedly (up to now, only the approximate position could be determined, for example, in an emergency search for a missing person or in real-time surveillance).











  • Encryption@feddit.chtoAsk Lemmy@lemmy.world*Permanently Deleted*
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    1 year ago

    Switzerland

    A bit late but I was reading the comments and thought I share too.

    Overall we are doing good, as far as I can tell, if not a little better than 20 or so years ago. But we also have problems that seem to getting bigger but not many seem to be concerned about them, as mentioned in an other comment people seem to be more disconnected and just follow their bubble interests.

    For one, there is the global opinion the world has of us, the war in Ukraine really shook us and how we see our identity as a neutral nation. Our neutrality is now a big topic in discussions, especially the youth is very divided about it. Neutrality is something we all grow up with and see (or saw) it as a big part of our nations strength, how this will play out will show the referendums and initiatives that are planned for the next years, votes will decide.

    Then there is the looming finance crisis that seems to come closer. Overall we are still doing good, as our inflation is very low in comparison to other EU countries (we even managed to lower inflation to a new low since a few years). Some now start to get financial problems, rents get raised yearly, public transport prices too and overall living gets even more expensive.

    A new kind of crack floods the illegal drug market, and you can see junkies (sorry I do not know a better word) more and more. They not really bother others at the moment but you can sense a coming pandemic of this substance. Together with the financial problems I see a big danger in that.

    There are other problems too, but those are the ones I see most present at the moment.

    There are also good things of course, wages are high and steady when you work in specialized industries, going to university costs at most 700.- per semester, our government does not follow surveillance trends like the UK or EU. Overall I would still say, Switzerland is a good country to live and work in, I especially like our approach of direct democracy and our culture of privacy.


















  • I think to start, Mint or Ubuntu is a good choice, it has support for most hardware and will probably run on whatever you install it.

    Also something that I think most new Linux users should focus on; instead of distro pick the desktop environment (DE). As a beginner it does not really matter if you use, lets say, a Debian- or Fedora-based distro. Pick a DE that looks pleasing to you maybe GNOME or KDE and take the installation with that DE. Maybe do not start with Arch or Gentoo as they are for more experienced users that already have some Linux experience.

    Distros will be way more interesting and important when you got a hold of Linux and you want to explore the differences of them.

    Last tip: Make a separated /home directory, so when you want to change to a new distro you do not have to delete all your files and start over with an empty machine.

    I wish you a good start into Linux and do not hesitate to ask questions if they arise!


  • Definitely not.

    I think money can and will never play down the feeling of working for something/someone that is against your principles and ideology. Every day you get up to work, while drinking your morning coffee you will have thoughts and hate about the place you will start working after commuting.

    And do not forget, you will mostly have friends with similar ideology, they will disapprove of this too. Good friends will stay nonetheless but discussions will arise portably more often than you’d like about your choosing a workplace that is against all you believe in.

    When you just go and work wherever because the pay is good, then your ideology is not more than a façade you hold up for yourself.