Leaving Microsoft: A quick dip in the deep end

 I had a chance to do my first trial run "without the training wheels" (in a manner of speaking). I had a two-week trip to the UK, and I took the Linux laptop, instead of my Windows laptop. (I was going to post something before I left, but for reasons I may rant about later, I didn't).

It went well, no hiccups during the trip.

But then, another glitch when I ran updates after returning home.

Most Linux systems use one or more repositories - which are essentially the same as the Apple Store, or Google Play, or Microsoft Store - as the primary means to obtain, install and update applications.

Arch has primarily two repositories. They have a reasonably large set of applications in their main  repository, managed by a command called "pacman".  To update any and all software you have installed form this repository, you simply run the command "pacman -Syu". It then takes care of everything. It does a pretty good job too.

For everything else they have a repository known as AUR. AUR is a user generated repository. The stuff in there isn't quite so simple to maintain. For each individual application, you have to check for an update, pull the update, run a command to rebuild a new install package, then apply the new package. Of course, someone built an application (called "YAY") which attempts to handle AUR packages with the same ease as pacman does for the main packages. I decided to give it a go to simplify managing the half-dozen AUR-based applications I installed. 

But, it (YAY) has its own list of dependencies, and it installs a bunch of other stuff in the background.

One of these appears to be broken, preventing YAY from updating the system. It looks to be something similar to the prior issue - a library listed as a dependency, which is a different version than the one installed.

Now, I don't doubt I could spend some time in their forums and sort it out. However, as I noted in my first post. I don't want to have to spend a bunch of time under the hood of the operating system. And this is twice in as many months.

The best way to clean it up will be to do a fresh install and stay away from YAY. I might still be able to simplify management of the AUR packages using either a script, or better still, something like ansible.

That is going to take time to sort out, however, and I don't want to drag out my migration of my main system.

So, I believe I will press forward using Debian on my main system for now. I will continue to experiment with Arch on the test laptop. But for the present, Debian's build philosophy focusing on stability and security will be the safe route forward.

I may take the plunge before this weekend, we'll see.

I did prepare for that possibility this evening. I copied all of the data from my main computer to external hard drives, in preparing to erase windows.

 Most of my data, I keep on a separate drive (D:), which I copied that whole drive.

The C: drive is the operating system, most of which is pointless to copy. I did copy the following folders from my user folder (C:\users\<whatever your login name is usually, or some derivative thereof>):

Documents - Any files I don't have in one drive.

Desktop - I usually keep this pretty bare, just a couple files on here.

Downloads - Probably not much I really need to keep in here, but... just to be safe.

Favorites - A few useful bookmarks.

Music - I didn't actually grab this one as it is empty. I keep my music files on a network share. I am mentioning it, in case others use this as a reference.

Pictures - Not much in here either as most are in One drive.

Videos - Same story as Music.

Oh, and one more (which is hidden):

AppData - Mostly this is garbage, but there are a few applications which store data in here, which I will want to recover. The one I can think of right off is Thunderbird. My Archived email, and contacts are in AppData. There may be others, so I grabbed the whole thing (some files failed to copy, as Windows has them locked, but they were all executables or libraries, nothing I need bad enough to go to the trouble to circumvent windows and copy.)

I believe that is everything of importance.

I will need to take care to copy anything I change between now and when I pull the trigger on the Debian install, so the sooner I get to it now, the better.

A story about fear, power, privacy, and my life as a "terrorist"

 Many years ago, I subscribed to a magazine dedicated to the Linux operating system.  They ran a range of articles from beginner introductions to various applications, to in-depth reports on kernel development.

There was typically a social commentary or op-ed article in each issue, discussing some political or philosophical idea relating to open source.  Nothing subversive or nefarious, mind you. They were typically discussion of the potential positive impacts open-source philosophy had or can have on democracy, personal freedom etc..., and though there were certainly differing opinions from one writer to the next, I don't recall any being anti-establishment, nor was there a particularly noticeable overall political leaning. A variety of usually well-reasoned, thoughtful articles.

At some point a few years after the events of 9/11, and the resulting rise of the surveillance state, one or more fearful voices in positions of some degree of power sounded the alarm that Linux was a threat to security, that Linux users were extremists, a danger to democracy and order.  

And so, the powers that be implemented surveillance mechanisms targeting various parts of the Linux community, focusing on proponents of privacy.

It was around this time (unaware of the above events, personally), that I became aware of a curious trend. Whenever I traveled for work, I could count on being "randomly" selected for additional security searches or questions at the airport. It happened on every trip, both on outbound and return flights, with very few exceptions. At that time, I had a colleague who had dealt

A couple years later, I received an email from staff members of the Linux magazine I subscribed to informing me their office had been raided by officials from a government intelligence agency, and their subscribers list collected. They claimed to be sending the notice in violation of a gag order, to warn their subscribers that their names had most likely been added to a security watch list.

I really should have preserved that email. Unfortunately, I didn't copy it out of outlook and the outlook data became corrupted. I lost several years of emails (backups- you don't need them until you need them...).

I didn't really give it much thought at that time, in all fairness. The frequency of "random searches" suddenly made more sense, and while it is an inconvenience, as a law-abiding citizen, I have nothing to hide, so... not a big deal, right?

I went for about a decade with no travel for work, and had thus mostly forgotten about it, until a trip to Costa Rica last year with my son, for his Spanish class (we were both "randomly selected."). A few weeks ago, I had a business trip to the UK. I was pulled aside at security for an additional search of my luggage, then I was called to the desk at the gate for additional questioning. I was randomly selected for additional scrutiny a third time on my return flight.

Again, an annoyance, an inconvenience, but nothing world-ending.

However, I was recently asked about making a trip to one or more of our facilities in China. Given the unusual relationship between China and the US, I expressed concern about this, and suggested the company might want to use their resources to explore the potential implication for me.

I don't know if they have done anything yet, but my own research suggests I could be detained, and possibly imprisoned for up to 40 days, without formal charges, on suspicion of criminal activity.

So, while I may have nothing to hide, I do have something to fear.

A sweeping decision by some unknown, fearful person in a position of political power nearly two decades ago is carrying potential, lasting consequences for me - for my career.

Next time you hear some fringe lunatic ranting about the erosion of privacy and government overreach, and you are inclined to think "If you've nothing to hide, you've nothing to fear," remember this little anecdote of mine.