I just acquired a new PC, and it hasn’t been turned on yet. I would love some advice and tips on what to do before I get started with it to protect my privacy.
I’m a privacy-conscious person, but not dogmatic about it. And honestly, this is the first desktop PC I’ve had since Windows XP was a thing. So it goes without saying, I’m very out-of-the-loop when it comes to Windows. I’m not opposed to putting a Linux distro on it, as long as it’s very easy for a beginner to learn on.
Really tho, I’d like to know if there’s anything I should or shouldn’t do as I’m booting the comp up for it’s first time. Im grateful for any and all advice here. Thanks!!
Edit: thanks for all the responses so far! I figured it’d probably help to list my use cases for the PC. It’ll mostly be used for gaming, music production & sound design, collecting music and movies (which will likely involve me regaining my old sea legs, hoisting the black flag, and sailing the high seas). At some point in the future, I wouldn’t mind learning how to host a media server for friends and family to access, but I got lots to learn before I dip my toes into that. My privacy concerns are pretty general - I’d like to prevent corporate data mining mostly, but since I may be screaming “yo ho ho” soon too, I’d like to be protected in those regards as well
Throw Linux on it or reinstall windows if you don’t want to learn Linux. I assume it’s a new PC, but you never know what may be on there regardless. A new install with a complete overwrite is the way to go imo.
For Linux, it personally use arch (btw) and love it but it’s not super beginner friendly. I’ve heard good things about Linux mint for beginners so that may be a good place to start
Thanks, I saw somewhere else that Mint was recommended for beginners too. I’ll look into that
Mint is great and feels very similar to Windows, and Pop OS is also very great and feels a bit more analogous to Mac OS if you prefer that.
Pop is in the middle of building their own desktop environment (moving away from Gnome) so the latest version is 22.04, but they’re still keeping kernel updates and packages up to date until the new DE is ready to launch.
When I first wanted to switch to Linux I tried out both on a USB stick and I was impressed with both, but I preferred the style of Pop. Both are based on Ubuntu so if you need to Google for tech support 99% of what you find will apply to you.
Mint is a great option not just for beginners. If you just want stuff to work without tinkering too much, it’ll fit the bill for most users.
Download Linux Mint/Fedora ISO.
Make a bootable flash drive with Rufus for Windows systems, or DD for Unix-like OSs.
Regardless of os full disk encryption is your friend and keep regular backups incase shit hits the fan. Rely on bookmarks as much as possible to minimize your chances of clicking on phishing links and stick to trusted sites. Lastly use a trusted vpn with a killswitch even if you dont think you need one it never hurts.
Well, for all of the above, I’d personally recommend using Linux Mint to get started. I’ve always found that it’s too much work to debloat Windows, and it’s considerably less secure than Linux (normally).
Most Steam games run on Linux, but there are a few that do not. Music production could also be a bugbear, as a lot of popular software does not run. You could always try using WineHQ to run the Windows versions, however, or try a compatible alternative.
If you simply must run Windows, you have two options. Dual-booting is a good idea, as this lets you select whether you want to boot Windows or Linux when you turn on the computer. Another option is using a virtual machine; this would allow you to run Windows inside Linux. For this, I’d recommend VirtualBox to start with.
If you can, always go for Linux. If you can’t, choose debloated Windows. Preferably one with telemetry disabled. Recommendations in other comments are quite valid.
If it were up to me, the first boot I would make sure theres no internet access either via Ethernet or wifi that ensures the computer cannot phone home to its mothership. From there either reinstall windows fresh or straight to Linux if you want to avoid spyware.
There is a de-bloated version of Windows that does not have all the telemetry data, they call it ReviOS for whatever reason. If you install this, you are as private as it get in Windows.
If you want to learn about this before installing anything, check this video: https://youtu.be/nwkiU6GG-YU?si=J8FdNEUMly1p8pPy
If I recall correctly from the last time I saw this posted, the problem with projects like this that they rely heavily on very small teams making sure that every security update gets included from upstream, often not a simple task. Privacy from Microsoft is important but if you’re running an insecure OS then you may as well not have privacy from anyone.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://piped.video/nwkiU6GG-YU?si=J8FdNEUMly1p8pPy
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Don’t. If Windows is so insecure by itself, imagine how secure some third-party mod of it made by some random bunch of people would be.
What is your threat model like ? Who are you intending to guard yourself against ?
Is it an assembled PC or a pre-built ? Pre-builts may come with some form of tracking. OS support also may be a concern on some pre-builts.
Maybe something like Debian 12 testing might be a good Linux option to consider, of course Windows or Mac are not recommended for the privacy conscious amongst us. Debian is not the most user friendly to get installer image of, but it has a fairly straightforward GUI based setup for a fresh install.
In case Windows is a requirement then probably look into the Tron script, helps automate a lot of things you might need as privacy settings (among other actions performed by the script).
Note: These are to be treated as opinions, not advice.
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