Unfortunately, if I’m to use it as my daily driver I will need to use some non-FOSS apps. Mainly the 2FA apps like the ones from MS, Okta, Cisco etc. And Google maps because OSM didn’t work for me. And some chat apps because family. Rather than having MicroG in the base system for just this handful of Big-Tech produced apps, I wanted to contain all of them in a workspace. I don’t actually care about running eOS specifically, it’s just that running GrapheneOS means buying an expensive Pixel device. I want a privacy-foscussed ROM on which I can do this

Cons: no chance of an unlocked bootloader in the US

Not bad. I’ll take that if it loads without javascript. I’d like my instance to have a web UI that I can use without JS

I see. Is there a way I can use regular expressions to search? I.e. “SUP236”?

Am I a loser if I stick to POSIX?

I don’t need any of that. All I need isa privacy-focussed ROM which allows me the ability to install MicroG in a different workspace without bundling it in the base image. I think I’m being misunderstood

TBH if you’re OK with 12TB then shucking drives can be a good deal for TB/pound. 12TB usually guarantees the IronWolf/Exos/Red Pro drives

In theory that shouldn’t be possible unless the app runs as root. Although I’m sure somebody out there has a zero day for it. Yeah I don’t know, I don’t give any application permission to use location services, and the ones like maps I set it to “Ask me every time”. I hope that’s good enough for now

They’re both rock bottom, and that’s the best I can give. However, I will accept a concession in that my argument is more geared towards trying to escape Big Tech surveillance as a whole, not from any specific company. I admit that was a bold move from Apple but that’s our perception of the situation; you don’t actually know the discussions that happened and their inner workings because both companies aren’t transparent in their dealings

I believe they are equally bad, just that Apple takes the effort to present better optics of their actions whilst Google doesn’t care.

I’ve settled for using Thunderbird for POP + Recoll for search. I can’t believe how good Recoll is; in my opinion this is even better than Gmail’s search in their Web GUI. I will be using Recoll for a lot more things now, but my immediate need for search has been fixed for now. Though running Thunderbird just for downloading emails does seem a bit overkill. We’ll see

If I don’t give them permissions to use Bluetooth and cut off their access to WiFi (VPN based firewall), is this threat prevented or am I a fool?

Basically, you trust Apple to not be as bad as Google. I hope you realise how flawed your assumption is. Capitalism doesn’t consider morality in its wake

How does getting an iPhone not worry someone about privacy? Do you believe that Apple doesn’t collect as much data as Google?

Why should I be annoyed with Google if eOS bundles microG in the base image? I’m not frustrated with eOS, I just would have liked if they could give me a choice.

How has your experience been with Mutt? I’ve heard about neomutt from a lot of people but I’m honestly a bit intimidated to move to a completely CLI-based email client especially because it’s another configuration file which I’ll need to be mindful of

Can you name some distros which are FOSS only and would whine if I were to attempt non-FOSS software installs? Debian now bundles non-free software by default (it’s an opt-out now instead of opt-in)

Just coming back to say that I’m loving recoll. I’ve set up Thunderbird to download everything with POP and I’ve pointed recoll at the profile directory. Since Recoll also seems to be able to read PDFs, it is giving me amazing results at blazing speeds. Honestly if there was a decent application to just pull down email with POP I probably wouldn’t even open thunderbird other than to reply to stuff

It sucks that other ROMs are not as up to par in terms of security. That and the US doesn’t have any other options either. Europe has Xiaomi and Fairphone at least, if anybody wants variety

Good plan. I’m balking at having to pay 500 for a mobile device which I know won’t last me for more than 4 years at maximum (unless I spend more and buy iFixit repair kits which isn’t my forté). If the FairPhone was available in the US I’d consider it but I guess running Graphene is probably a better idea given the price you got the device at. Thanks