i use windows because its the only os i know how to use. i want to get into things like torrenting because free stuff is cool but im afraid to. ive heard of tails os, a os that boots from a flash drive, is that worth checking out or should i stick with windows?
what is your advice? what should i do?
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If you care about privacy and wanna use Windows… God help you…
You want Linux my friend
…and if you want to torrent then you need a respectable peer-to-peer VPN service like ProtonVPN
ok ill give linux a try then but is there a certain version of linux you would suggest? one person suggest mint btw. if i go with Linux do i need a vpn or am i good without one?
I use Ubuntu Budgie and that works perfect for me, but I hear Mint is good for beginners too.
And if you live in the US, always use a VPN when torrenting. But if you live in a country where you know no one will give a shit about you downloading a movie, then have at it.
In terms of digital security best practices, though, you should pretty much always use a VPN anyway. And follow this guide if you feel like you do need a VPN when torrenting.
Windows 10 IoT enterprise LTSC and disable telemetry. Don’t bother with 3rd party apps for privacy unless you are 100% sure they are safe.
And never install from an ISO that’s been tampered with. Get directly from Microsoft.
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Ameliorate your Windows 10 and Windows 11 installation.
Seems like an interesting website, thanks for sharing.
Tails isn’t really designed for daily driving. I’d go for a user friendly distro like Ubuntu if you an on switching from windows.
It is possible to make windows a little more private if you didn’t want to switch. Here’s a pretty good guide in modifying the the iso before installing: https://www.tomshardware.com/how-to/create-custom-windows-11-install-disk
Modifying window does help users gain more control and privacy, but windows is proprietary so a person can only do so much. Be careful on what you remove if you GI this route, windows relies on weird apps to function.
Another note, I wouldn’t be afraid of torrenting. The inky person that would care that your getting free movies and such is your ISP, and you can just flip on a VPN to clear their radar.
I dumped Windows for Linux bout 12 years ago, but because I wasn’t too sure, I didn’t do the jump all in one go. I spent about 12 months “dual booting”. What this means is that you install linux to a USB / pen drive (Mint seems a great option). Once you’ve installed Mint to a USB drive, you can boot your Windows machine into Linux Mint from that USB drive. That will give you the chance to poke around and try it out as often as you like. Just remember that it won’t be as fast as it would be if you installl to your hard drive. If you like it, then you can install it alongside your Windows system. This is dual booting. When you power up your laptop or PC, you get to choose whether you boot into Windows or Linux. All this was quite daunting for me at the time, as I wasn’t “techy”. But quite quickly I’d become quite comfortable as it is easy once you’ve done it. There are a range of tutorials online about creating a bootable USB drive with Linux and how to get your machine to boot from it. My best advice is to give that a try.
If you know how to use Windows, you can easily master a popular Linux distribution. It will dual boot with Windows so anytime you can’t do something in Linux, you can switch back or run an emulator.
If all you want to do is torrent just use a vpn, as it sounds like all you really want is to avoid DMCA notices.
This is a good lesson in understanding your threat model.
If Windows is the only thing you know how to use, don’t use tails. Use something that has a KDE desktop environment which is like Windows. Suggestions for distros in these comments are pretty good. It’ll look and operate like windows, except you install apps from app stores like you do on your phone.
I’m kinda in the same boat as you. There’s a Windows bloatware uninstaller (I forget the name) that strips many features you don’t want. And I’ve used BCuninstaller to forcibly remove things I didn’t want. Outside of that, you can use your own router with a strict Pi-hole to see a lot of the Microsoft telemetry getting blocked. Not saying it catches all of it, but it works for me
O&OShutUp
