MX Linux Forum

rs55 wrote: Thu May 16, 2019 7:22 am The way I see it is ; If you use the internet and want to use all the incredibly useful features ( like Maps , youtube etc) - you will be tracked. So, your browsing habits and your contacts and email are all fair game. So - the solution is to keep all important info in separate encrypted databases on your own machine ( not the cloud).

So - Google provides incredible value in exchange for whatever data collection they do. Chrome, gmail, Maps, Keep etc etc. Everything works , is slick and a pleasure to use. They also provide incredible machine learning software like tensorflow.

Microsoft on the other hand provides nothing of value - and provides a really really crappy experience in return. I really dont know why anyone puts up with the windows nonsense - random updates/shutdowns/failed updates - viruses galore. Why? Their software-as-service model requires them to have large open backdoors to your machine. You dont even own the software - you rent it. Just awful.

Apple - I dont know - never owned any of their products. Not a fan of their hardware design - all encased plastic - in that toilet bowl white. No proper thermal venting etc. And expensive .

As for the social media stuff - dont use them. Dont know why anyone would. never had a facebook acct.

AK-47 wrote: Thu May 16, 2019 5:33 am all of the desktops I've seen (apart from those with a rubbish HP BIOS) have a setting to disable Hyper-Threading anyway. Isn't that setting enough?

mx-2018 wrote: Thu May 16, 2019 4:41 pm My wounds from the Embrace, Extend, Extinguish strategy of MS are still fresh. So I put them at the top of the Evil list. Then followed by Big G (who stole my idea and destroyed the only existing proof it was my idea). Apple has not done anything bad to me (except made it hard to transfer files between my devices), so I put them behind Samsung (not in the list) who wanted to charge me $100+ to fix a $50 bluray player which stopped playing bluray discs after their mandatory firmware update.

GuiGuy wrote: Wed May 15, 2019 4:37 am Facebook, Twitter etc. should not be included in the list because you do not have to use them (I never have and never will).
The listed three are hard to avoid if you need a computer or smartphone.

GuiGuy wrote: Tue May 14, 2019 4:23 pm How would MX users rank them in order of evilness?

My own opinion is that Google takes the top position; followed by Apple, then Microsoft in bottom place.
In spite of that I use Google search and Android phones every day

j2mcgreg wrote: Wed May 15, 2019 12:49 pm I think that Microsoft and Apple were evil initiates for creating and pushing the concept that end users are licensees and not true owners of hardware and software. Google rapidly became evil by embracing and extending the notion that users' data is their data. I see Microsoft and Google as equal ongoing threats whereas Apple, due to their failure to meet sales expectations in the last few quarters, may be seen as a receding threat. Indeed, it may be that Apple has reached the market saturation point with its current market lines.