XiJinpingStanAccount

So for a long time pretty much every computer used the traditional like windows layout with moveable windows that minimized or maximized and had a taskbar and start menu and whatnot. You had some minor changes with Mac and stuff, but now you can really have some radically different ways to use a computer.

Personally I have differing preferences if I'm using a laptop or a desktop.

On my desktop I prefer a dock and to use the mouse to click around. More of the windows style. Then on a laptop (which I use most often) I use a heavily gesture based navigation.

Currently I have Gnome modified so that when I am in a program, like the web browser I'm in typing this, it is full screen. The top bar is hidden, and there's no dock of any kind. Not even one that pops up when I move the mouse to the edge of the screen. Instead I have everything for navigation hidden inside the task view. I swipe up on the trackpad with 3 fingers to bring it up. That's how I see time, battery life, and the other topbar stuff too. If switching quickly between two things I put one of them in a 2nd desktop and use a 3 finger side swipe to move back and forth.

I'm curious to know what other unique or highly custom navigation methods people are using on Linux. I know tiling window managers are pretty popular. Is there a general consensus on what's best these days? Or is everyone doing slightly different things?

So I saw a post about Obscura VPN and went to do a deep dive and some reasearch on it. Then I came back to comment and the post was gone!

So, anyway, I wanted to share what I found since it actually is quite interesting and there are a few red flags.

Obscura is owned by Sovereign Engineering Inc. registered in the United States. Willingly chose to register the company in the US for some reason. This is a major issue due to the US being one of the few places in Five Eyes, and being able to issue log mandates and gag orders without allowing a company to get a lawyer and fight it.

The founder, Carl Dong, talks in multiple interviews about how his inspiration was the Chinese Great Firewall: https://www.truefans.fm/bit-buy-bit/6a980688566a94f95bc291b1?tab=transcript https://noderunners.network/en/media/podcasts/hell-money/bitcoin-core-dev-walks-away-to-battle-the-great-firewall-of-china-with-carl-dong/187302

They also take VC Investor money:

Yes, we do have VC investors.

This may be a concern when choosing between “Traditional VPN” providers (Single-Party Relays) since you need to trust them wholly.

However, I believe this is much less of a concern with Multi-Party Relays like Obscura since a MPR provider will never have both your personal info and your traffic.

Additionally, it is much easier to switch between VPN providers than it is to switch between “cloud drive” providers (for example) since VPN providers don’t store anything you’d need to transfer.

Source: https://discuss.privacyguides.net/t/mullvad-has-partnered-with-obscura-vpn/24860/175

And when asked who the investors were:

We specifically chose investors who’d be strongly supportive of our stance on Privacy and Digital Freedom, so I’m not sure they’d appreciate us listing their names on a public forum :sweat_smile:

Source: https://discuss.privacyguides.net/t/mullvad-has-partnered-with-obscura-vpn/24860/179

He refuses to answer.

I hope this info on them helps anyone who might have been considering them make their decision in a more informed manner.

So obviously it's good to read Communist works. Lenin, Engels, Marx, Stalin, Mao, etc. But I'm curious how many people have ventured out into other things? I think personally that it can be useful when you are doing a materialist analysis of the real world to have different frameworks to pull from as well. Even if they aren't communist, and at times the methods within are used as tools of oppression by the capitalist class. Some still have useful knowledge and insights, or at the very least aid you in analyzing the way an enemy might think.

Have you/would you see value in reading these sorts of texts?

Some examples: The Art of War, The Arthashastra, The Analects, Meditations, The Prince, Discourses on Livy, The Book of the Five Rings, Common Sense, Candide, etc