Let’s be clear: I don’t know all the details, don’t have a full range of understanding in computer technology. I’m pretty much a duffer. But I know what I like and what seems to work for me. What I do understand is human nature, particularly government and bureaucratic human nature. I’ve worked in it extensively. The biggest threat to any of us remains the combined mind and desires of human governments. It makes me just short of paranoid, but feel free to pretend I’m over the line, if it makes you happy.
I run Linux to be secure. There are OSes more secure than Linux, but they don’t work as well at the same time. It’s a compromise between security and function within my habits. If I was truly paranoid, I wouldn’t bother connecting to the Internet. As it is, the Net is currently my best venue for publication. I don’t have to charge anything because I don’t have to mess with expensive ways of getting my message to the masses. My ideas might be utterly stupid, but they won’t cost you anything. You can find my books linked here, no ads, and the pages load quickly because I write the code by hand, without images or JScript.
The stuff I write tends to poke at The Establishment in several ways. For example, a primary element in my writing says we don’t need organizations to do religion and please Jesus. We need to organize when we involve more than two people, but what we have in terms of mainstream organization is utterly contrary to what Jesus commanded. Another thing I attack is the epistemological assumptions which allow Evangelicals to assume they are obeying the commands of Jesus, when they aren’t. But I won’t bore you with the details of all that here. In doing all that poking, I’m also poking at the relationship which has churches sucking up to government. I also attack government — in short, all Western governments. I try to present a reason to find they are all illegitimate in God’s eyes.
There was a time the US gave lip service to the notion criticism was a good thing for government. But that was a myth some time ago, as the government here seethes at the temerity by which anyone would dare to complain. While I don’t support any part of what most people think of as democracy, nor even the particulars of a republic, I’m hardly the only one saying we don’t even adhere to those flawed principles which are widely advertised as the foundation of the federal government. You might say the whole building has slipped off the foundation and is resting on something else. That something else does not include a respect for the will of the people. In every way you can imagine, it is very much a case of us versus them.
As a part of all that mess, I have seen some things happen which make Linux a much better choice for doing what personal computers do.
As a former Military Policeman, I am painfully aware of planted evidence. Do not doubt for one second it’s not happening. It’s been part of the scene for a long time as the way to get rid of someone who annoys the system, but has clean hands. Put dirt on their hands for them. It is now a primary tool of federal law enforcement. One of the easiest ways to plant evidence on someone is to find in their possession a computer running Windows. Yes, Windows can be locked down to some extent, and Linux can be wide open, if you change a lot of things out of the box. But most people don’t. So when it comes out of the box, Linux is more secure. It’s harder to plant evidence because the majority of the tools for that don’t work well on Linux, but are all designed to work with Windows, and maybe some with Mac. If I were a real target, I’d already be gone, but until I cross that threshold (it does keep moving), I’m able to avoid most threats of planted evidence.
In fact, it’s pretty hard for just plain old snooping. For example, recent federal government websites, to which you are very much invited to visit, have begun requiring unconscionable levels of trust. For now, it only applies to auto dealers who attempt to participate in clunkers program: “When logged on to the CARS system, your computer is considered a Federal computer system and is the property of the United States Government.” Given what I know about such things, this is just the start. That provision will soon appear on every site where contractors, vendors, and such interact with government. Eventually, it will surely become the policy for every citizen attempting to use any government service. At that point, what the feds say about the clunker program will apply to every federal activity:
Any or all uses of this system and all files on this system may be intercepted, monitored, recorded, copied, audited, inspected, and disclosed to authorized CARS, DoT, and law enforcement personnel, as well as authorized officials of other agencies, both domestic and foreign. By using this system, the user consents to such interception, monitoring, recording, copying, auditing, inspection, and disclosure at the discretion CARS or the DoT personnel.
They will assume your computer is part of their system, and you have extended an open invitation for snooping. It’s not enough the NSA eavesdrops on every electron of traffic across the Net, reads your unencrypted (and some encrypted) email messages, and notes every URL you request. No, they will demand full access to the whole thing. And while I have nothing to hide, there is a difference between secrecy and privacy. What is on my system is simply none of their business. For now, it’s more likely if they take an interest in the contents of my harddrive, that interest will appear on one of several levels. It’s not all one thing, and each agency does things a little differently. Between routine traffic sniffing and confiscation of the hardware, there are multiple levels and methods of snooping which might apply. So while I know the feds have left their IP addresses all over my site logs, they haven’t done much else. Yet. They could come right through my hardware firewall and try to scan the system, but most tools are frustrated if the target is running Linux. So if they want my stuff, they’ll have to decide it’s worth a little bigger investment in man hours. That website would hardly offer them full access to my laptop.
I’m no threat to the government, but they are most certainly a threat to me. My whole point is warning people they are a threat to everyone. While I give people a reason to believe resistance is no sin, I don’t call for direct action which constitutes anything criminal under current definitions. I don’t have any dirt on anyone important and I don’t hack into their systems looking for it. I doubt I could, but I’m not interested. Along those lines, I am content to observe what comes into plain sight. And I’ll probably talk about it, because I can’t avoid warning people when something harmful is on their path. At some point, I’m sure things will get more dicey. History shows governments always run from bad to worse in how they treat those they govern. Until then, just running Linux is pretty good protection from low level threats.
