best Linux distro (secure / private / no analytics / no tracking)

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IAmForum

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I am looking to move away from Windows 10, except for gaming.
What is the best linux distro that is
secure
private
sends no analytics
does not track me
 
ZodaEX said:
What could he be trying to hide :O
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Sh2AkfZ.jpg
 
IAmForum said:
Funny.
How people assume people are trying to hide something.
It could be I don't like being "the product" for sale to advertisers.
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Exactly, most people who think they have privacy or do not care usually come out with "but i have nothing to hide...." , that's not the point. And if that is the case, go live in a glass house, or remove all your curtains, put a nice window in your washroom and let every one and thing see into your house every second of every day..I mean, since you do not have anything to hide after all.
 
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IAmForum said:
I am looking to move away from Windows 10, except for gaming.
What is the best linux distro that is
secure
private
sends no analytics
does not track me
Click to expand...

Well, I use Ubuntu 20.04.2 on all 3 of my computers and it works for me. Just remember, we are speaking of local versions of all the things you listed. You should also consider using something like Brave Browser, stop using Onedrive, Google drive or any other online storage like that and get away from social media as well. True privacy is not just about what OS you use but it is a good start.

From what I understand, you can get Nextcloud if you need online storage. It allows you to setup a local server for that and share it online for your access only.

Edit: Checked out Switched to Linux on Youtube, he has some solid advice as well.
 
MrGuvernment said:
Exactly, most people who think they have privacy or do not care usually come out with "but i have nothing to hide...." , thats not the point. And if that is the case, go live in a glass house, or remove all your curtains, but a nice window in your washroom and let every one and thing see into your house every second of every day..I mean, since you do not have anything to hide after all.
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Honestly though, I do not care about what others who are not privacy minded think of me wanting my privacy. It appears that the OP is serious about his privacy as well and this is a good start.
 
ManofGod said:
Honestly though, I do not care about what others who are not privacy minded think of me wanting my privacy. It appears that the OP is serious about his privacy as well and this is a good start.
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I agree, but I feel like so many throw their privacy out the window with "I got nothing to hide" because they truly do not understand the value of the data they are freely letting every company have about them...

Just wait to the day (likely soon) that people get denied insurance coverage because of things they posted online like the time they were drunk and went mountain biking down a crazy trail!
 
MrGuvernment said:
I agree, but I feel like so many throw their privacy out the window with "I got nothing to hide" because they truly do not understand the value of the data they are freely letting every company have about them...

Just wait to the day (likely soon) that people get denied insurance coverage because of things they posted online like the time they were drunk and went mountain biking down a crazy trail!
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What people don't realize is their metadata alone is changing the face of markets and more, with AI being designed to consume everything possible, and providing it's creators with a path to manipulate all of society's actions. Once the AI has enough of a sample size and time to monitor cause and effect, it can essentially predict human behaviour. What is public right now, is they are using it for targeted marketing, it's what's not public that should concern everyone.
 
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ManofGod said:
Well, I use Ubuntu 20.04.2 on all 3 of my computers and it works for me. Just remember, we are speaking of local versions of all the things you listed. You should also consider using something like Brave Browser, stop using Onedrive, Google drive or any other online storage like that and get away from social media as well. True privacy is not just about what OS you use but it is a good start.

From what I understand, you can get Nextcloud if you need online storage. It allows you to setup a local server for that and share it online for your access only.

Edit: Checked out Switched to Linux on Youtube, he has some solid advice as well.
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I deleted ALL social media accounts years ago.
I do not really use online storage, as I prefer to keep what is important local only.
I found a portable version of brave, and I am looking to move to that.
I normally have used Firefox exclusively, with all the good add-ons.
I have a ton of scripts / reg hacks that neuter Windows ability to track me.
I have nothing to hide, but I see no reason to make someone else money with my data !

Tails looks very cool.
I am gonna install Kali and see how it is.

THX so much !
 
vick1000 said:
The Linux Kernel and associated GUIs are not going to be your probllem, all distros are bsically the same privacy level. It's the application layer you will have to get under control, which is the same as Windows.
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Great point. Linux is all well and good.. but once you start using Chrome , then what was the point :LOL:
 
MrGuvernment said:
Exactly, most people who think they have privacy or do not care usually come out with "but i have nothing to hide...." , that's not the point. And if that is the case, go live in a glass house, or remove all your curtains, put a nice window in your washroom and let every one and thing see into your house every second of every day..I mean, since you do not have anything to hide after all.
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When I split with my first wife she took all the curtains and I didn't replace them. If my neighbours didn't want to see the business, don't snoop. Made it pretty easy for her friends to keep tabs, though lol

But yeah, I agree.
 
Have you thought about not using Linux at all and instead something like FreeBSD/OpenBSD?
 
I mostly use KDE and you can enable/disable sending sending anonymous user feedback. I haven't looked into what/if any user feedback gnome/xfce/others report and if they can be disabled.

All distro's are generally secure by design. Privacy is mostly about the apps you use and how you use them.
 
Manjaro
https://manjaro.org/

You don't need to run a pen test distro like kali or black arch to be secure when running Linux. Manjaro is imo one of the best all around distro options out there. Its powerful and slim based on Arch... its semi rolling giving it a extra layer of stability compared to fully rolling arch. IMO its the best option for basically everyone.

Mostly what it will come down to is what browser you run and what permissions you set that way. I mean if you are going to run Linux and then just install Google Chrome... well Chrome is going to Chrome. I like Chromium myself... and almost every distro these days keeps a nice up to date Chromium build in their repos. You can also run firefox or any of the smaller lesser options.

I have heard good things about brave browser... and you can install it in almost any distro. With Manjaro its located in the AUR (arch user repository)... you have to enable the AUR in manjaro package manager then it would who up as brave-bin (think there are also beta and alpha channels in the AUR as well)
https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/brave-bin/
 
ChadD said:
Manjaro
https://manjaro.org/

You don't need to run a pen test distro like kali or black arch to be secure when running Linux. Manjaro is imo one of the best all around distro options out there. Its powerful and slim based on Arch... its semi rolling giving it a extra layer of stability compared to fully rolling arch. IMO its the best option for basically everyone.

Mostly what it will come down to is what browser you run and what permissions you set that way. I mean if you are going to run Linux and then just install Google Chrome... well Chrome is going to Chrome. I like Chromium myself... and almost every distro these days keeps a nice up to date Chromium build in their repos. You can also run firefox or any of the smaller lesser options.

I have heard good things about brave browser... and you can install it in almost any distro. With Manjaro its located in the AUR (arch user repository)... you have to enable the AUR in manjaro package manager then it would who up as brave-bin (think there are also beta and alpha channels in the AUR as well)
https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/brave-bin/
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I have to give another shout for Manjaro. I've been happily using it on my main system for quite a while now with no real problems to speak of. It's easy to install and a relatively lean install as well. Most of the basics are installed by default but not a ton of "useless" stuff which I needed or wanted to un-install. It's also been rock solid.

I use Vivaldi as my primary browser and it's in the Manjaro repos now although at one time I had to install it from AUR. I also use Brave for various things but as mentioned it has to be installed from the AUR for now but that could change in the future.

I even decided to swap from openSUSE to Manjaro on my server. There were a couple of updated packages and libraries which I wanted/needed and openSUSE didn't have them. After having no trouble at all with Manjaro on my main system I made the switch and haven't had a single issue.
 
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The Cave is the place for hiding :)

I hide what I can, but most of all I use as lees technologies as I can drop. And this helps not only to hide but it helps me purely psychologically and in this way, things clean my mind.
But after all, we are humans and we can't just sit and look in one dot as in the middle of a pandemic.
The Bible can help us to understand many aspects of our life and where we fail.
 
Mostly any Linux distro will be 10x better than Windows for security and privacy.

I use Ubuntu mostly (well dual boot for gaming, but I am using Win 10 less and less). I like Ubuntu because it is easy to use, and most tutorials and instructions you find online will be for Ubuntu (or Debian based distros).

Especially if you want to use software that is not in the repo, there will usually be a *.deb package but for other distros you might have to compile yourself (or you might just be out of luck). That said, if you stick to popular software it shouldn't matter which distro you choose out of the big ones.

However, you probably don't want to use Kali or Tails as a daily driver. Kali is mostly for pentesting, not to be used as your main OS. Tails is overkill, yes it is the most private, but it's not very usable as a main OS (by default it doesn't save anything, every boot is a new machine).

I would actually recommend Manjaro as others have mentioned. The interface and UI is very consistent (I like the KDE flavor) and it stays up to date with security patches. It is based on Arch, but for new users so it is not as complex to set up. And seemed pretty stable from when I tested it.

Also, you can game on Linux. With Steam Proton, a whole lot of Windows games (maybe 70% or more) work on Linux maybe with just some small issues here and there. Sadly not all games work (which is why I am still on Win 10 dual boot) but I'm kind of done with Microsoft at this point, on my next computer I will probably just switch entirely to Linux.
 
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The new version of Pop OS is really nice. You can install the beta right now. It’s been solid on my work machine and personal computer.
 
LFS and manually compile all programs. It's the only way you can be sure your distribution doesn't start doing shady things on you unless you take time to investigate everything that is pre-packaged for you. Also will be a good way to keep unnecessary junk off your computer, as you just won't want to bother with the tons of dependencies involved. Of course you might have a hard time running Steam or Chrome, but if you're running either of those programs, your privacy is out the window already.

Now I personally am a proponent of the BSD's, so if you want to try them out, FreeBSD or the desktop-friendly derivative NomadBSD are great places to start. OpenBSD is security minded, so you get assurances of security on top of the privacy. You won't be compiling everything from scratch, and you won't have to worry about the RedHat and Ubuntu takeover of Linux distro's going on that does who-knows-what to your system.
 
Void Linux is pretty good too, much better (and smaller) than Arch these days and includes a TUI installer.
Avoid Ubuntu at all cost if you want privacy - Canonical cannot be trusted anymore.

Others have mentioned it, but you really need to be careful with the application layer - hence my recommendation for something like Void which is completely barebones to start. I also recommend completely avoiding Desktop Environments like Gnome and KDE since the developers of those tend to bundle some sort of telemetry. I generally stick to "smaller" (as in codebase not necessarily popularity) dedicated Window Managers like i3wm or even icewm - the developers of those projects (at least historically) have not pushed for any telemetry.

If you want to browse the internet it gets very tricky. Firefox and Mozilla cannot really be trusted anymore either. I stick to a local build of Firefox with lots of Mozilla shit ripped out and disable javascript entirely. That's probably not feasible unless you are a somewhat experienced programmer (building FF is a nightmare). ungoogled-chromium might also be worth a look.
 
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IAmForum said:
What is the best linux distro
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What is the "best" and to what extent you can reach your goals very much depends how much you want to get involved in the intricacies of Linux, and where in the "user friendly" vs. "user control" camp you are situated. One thing to keep in mind is the "are you the customer or the product" issue. Commercially backed Linux distros have an incentive to monetize their user base one way or the other, by tracking them or turning them into beta testers for their enterprise products (as Windows user this might sound familiar). Community backed distros do not. So I think Ubuntu, openSUSE, Fedora, etc. are not what you want.

I would not recommend LFS, keeping it updated is a pain, and if you neglect updates that becomes a security concern. If you like to compile your software and make modifications to packages then look at Gentoo (uses shell scripts that download, compile and install packages), Guix (uses the SCHEME functional language to describe packages), or NixOS (uses a domain-specific functional language). These distros give you control where it matters, while keeping them updated is easy. Installing/using them isn't a 1-click process however, and you must be prepared to make informed choices.

I can also not really recommend specialty fringe distros like Qubes. Yes its security features read good on paper, but if you have only a very small community behind it, the distro packagers are more often slaves to upstream than not. That becomes a problem if upstream like Mozilla now tracks their users, cooperates with questionable companies, and shoves ads on the New Tab page. Also the software choice with fringe distros is often small. Avoiding Gnome/KDE for security reasons like a previous post suggested is a good idea due to the sheer complexity of these desktop environments and the myriad things they do automagically behind your back.

If you are not interested in compiling your packages, I would say that Debian is among the best at what you want. They do a reasonable job at removing anti-features from their packages. Use some lightweight desktop like Xfce or LxQt to get you started, if you want you can switch to something more minimal later. Void and with some caveats Arch will also do. In case neither are user friendly enough, maybe look at Linux Mint, they essentially try to remove Ubuntu's anti-user features while retaining their user friendliness. Their security record is less than impeccable though.

TL;DR install Debian with Xfce
 
FSCDiablo said:
KDEs telemetry (can be disabled) this is not like Google.
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You make it sound like KDEs telemetry is on by default. It is not. KDE is all OPT-IN only. They are off by default. Honestly though if people would get their head out of their ass and realize that the little bit of information groups like KDE would like to receive doesn't invade privacy in any way but helps the project immensely in updates, bug fixes, new feature creation.

Seriously how is any of this data that they would like from Kate (which is a wonderful little text editor) considered sensitive?

Kate (starting with Release 20.04)​

Opt-In Telemetry Information​

  1. Application version: to know which application versions are still in use
  2. Qt version: to know the underlying Qt version (e.g. to see how important workarounds for old issues are)
  3. Platform information: to know the operating system we are running on
  4. Screen parameters: to find out how common multi-screen usage is
  5. Start count: to find out how frequent users use our editor
  6. Usage time: to find out how many users are using the software heavily vs in passing
 
A text editor is a text editor and not some networked data collection tool (even if it’s “only” usage and completely benign). My personal objection to this shit is that all of these telemetry services bloat software and also create a much larger attack surface.
 
I personally went with Arch because I wanted to learn more about GNU/Linux and the install process.

Whether or not any OS is tracking you or not will always be a question I don't think anyone can really answer with 100% certainty.

Most vulnerabilities will happen once you start installing other applications and all bets are off the moment you connect to the internet, particularly through a web browser.

There are practical steps you can take to harden your GNU/Linux setup, and the Arch wiki has a lot of good resources. Just always remember, if they can hack multi billion dollar companies, the US government, and countless federal and state agencies, do us plebs really stand a chance at any real sense of privacy?
 
JSumrall said:
Just always remember, if they can hack multi billion dollar companies, the US government, and countless federal and state agencies, do us plebs really stand a chance at any real sense of privacy?
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Well bulletproof security is a pipe dream, that doesn't mean you can't do what you can to be secure.

I think just using Linux (any distro, the basic telemetry is not invasive IMO) and locking down your browser will go a long way.

As they say, if me and you are being chased by a bear, I don't have to run faster than the bear. I just have to run faster than you.
 
JSumrall said:
I personally went with Arch because I wanted to learn more about GNU/Linux and the install process.

Whether or not any OS is tracking you or not will always be a question I don't think anyone can really answer with 100% certainty.

Most vulnerabilities will happen once you start installing other applications and all bets are off the moment you connect to the internet, particularly through a web browser.

There are practical steps you can take to harden your GNU/Linux setup, and the Arch wiki has a lot of good resources. Just always remember, if they can hack multi billion dollar companies, the US government, and countless federal and state agencies, do us plebs really stand a chance at any real sense of privacy?
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I don't think your average home user has anything to worry about from "hackers". If they are not just some 4channer playing around, they are looking to be poolitically active, and/ or make money. Then they are ususaly a part of a group actively seeking fruitful targets, and your home rig with your bank login credentials is worhless. The way a user gets into trouble is trust. You trust when you give that website your CC info, that it will be secure on their database, it's not. Your personal data is in the 'cloud', and that's where you are vunerabe, not your worthess home PC. The problem then beomes, are you in control of your PC and what data it sends to other devices on the network.
 
vick1000 said:
You don't have to use their hardware, PureOS is a free Linux distro.
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Yes, it is. And the GNU/Free Software Foundation concept it is founded on is great. Just don't expect it to run well out of the box on all hardware.

It's one of the wholly free GNU/Linux distros specifically designed to not include any proprietary drivers. So if you're rocking an nVidia video card, or any hardware that requires a proprietary driver, it's going to suck out of the box.

And their documentation is woefully lacking.
 
cybereality said:
Well bulletproof security is a pipe dream, that doesn't mean you can't do what you can to be secure.

I think just using Linux (any distro, the basic telemetry is not invasive IMO) and locking down your browser will go a long way.

As they say, if me and you are being chased by a bear, I don't have to run faster than the bear. I just have to run faster than you.
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Yeah, I don't disagree it's a pipe dream. And I do take steps to be as secure as I can be. And I certainly recommend everyone take steps to do what they can to be secure.

Just be aware every time you access a website, or open an email, you are literally opening a door and inviting thieves into your system. Not just hackers, but legal business that are taking every piece of data you provide them by using their website and using or selling it to the highest bidder.
 
vick1000 said:
I don't think your average home user has anything to worry about from "hackers". If they are not just some 4channer playing around, they are looking to be poolitically active, and/ or make money. Then they are ususaly a part of a group actively seeking fruitful targets, and your home rig with your bank login credentials is worhless. The way a user gets into trouble is trust. You trust when you give that website your CC info, that it will be secure on their database, it's not. Your personal data is in the 'cloud', and that's where you are vunerabe, not your worthess home PC. The problem then beomes, are you in control of your PC and what data it sends to other devices on the network.
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I disagree 100%. I've worked on enough machines over the years that have been infested with malware, browser redirects, etc where people have either had to pay to unlock it, or pay me to fix it for them. They may not be targeted by a specific hacker group, but everyone is being targeted somehow. Just because it's not showing up on the headline news as a hot trending topic doesn't mean it's not happening.

I do agree trust is the issue. You can't trust any website, company, person, or organization with your personal data. None of them care; and none of them are safe. It really comes down to how much are you willing to be inconvenienced to protect yourself. Do I just use my debit card to order a pizza? Or do I just pay cash upon arrival? Should I use a prepaid debit card for all online transactions and have to deposit physical money on it periodically at a local bank/walmart? Do I trust a company enough to transfer money from my bank to a limited prepaid card? Do I trust one of these disposable credit card companies with my banking information?

Like security on your desktop or personal devices, it all comes down to how much convenience you're willing to sacrifice for security.
 
I used to think like that, but I've had hackers clean out my bank account. More recently I had my identity stolen. And like, I'm not anyone famous.

So I take security seriously. Yes, it is a little (or a lot) more inconvenient, but it is worth to to sleep comfortably at night.
 
Used to work IT, and the funniest virus I ever saw was this desktop takeover.

Basically there were all these yellow happy faces growing and bouncing around the desktop on Windows XP.

I wasn't able to remove the virus because it took over Windows, you couldn't use the mouse or keyboard.

Just wiped Windows, but that was the funniest I saw. Basically a troll, I don't think it stole any information.
 
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