It is perplexing what happen to Finns this last decade, I cannot understand. I think it has to be a very well coordinated traditional and specially social media campaign that was able to override 3/4 of a century of pragmatism and wise decisions.
But it is not just Finns, all Baltics and Scandinavians fell for it.

How come Moscow is more than a threat now than has been the Soviet times where they were really powerful and messing with countries right and left, near and f. Once Finland guaranteed no NATO in the 50s, Russia left Finland to prosper like no other country in Europe did… and now, this. Russia has been, for a decade say, year after year, after year… that they would consider NATO in Ukraine as a no-no. It is not just that Ukraine cannot choose its destiny, but that we dismiss Moscow’s concerns after being invaded multiple times by the West through Ukraine… a claim they may have! Especially when certain politicians have been mentioning for a decade to partition Russia into different microstates!

Funny enough, after decades admiring the Scandinavians, the most sanity in Europe seems to be in the PIGS countries now. Probably due to their skepticism to governments’ propaganda, it is what saved them from the abnormal levels of Russophobia that social media had been flooded with all these years

That is funny, all IT systems Spanish government is using still completely US (and even Israeli) sphere, but just the fact of raising concern for the most suspicious systems of being straight data collectors to funnel to the US (like GDPR was ever properly monitored) they place Spain to the Chinese orbit.

This Spanish government just want to balance between the two powers (Actually, after the 1st Global Digital Rights Forum, I don’t even see the Spanish government wanted to be in the middle, just with a toe out of the US orbit.). Nevertheless, this is why “foreign entities” have since 2014 start financing the extreme-right in Spain (among several other actions) to destabilize that trend.

This is actually critically! I love little distros, but it does break my heart that they cannot give the same reassurance on potential malware as Mint would. Many here we are anti-AI but FOSS could benefit a lot from it… it can automatized checking for malware on peanuts. DistroWatch, Flatpak store, Debian backports, etc should be using AI already across the board to check for malware and that would level dramatically the plain field for all.

After the first year fully immersed in Linux, I would say most would agree with that statement “One can turn any distro into another”, at least in what matters to them.

To any newcomer I recommend to choose the environment (The tendency is for the tech-minded that come from Windows is to choose KDE, less tech-minded or straightforward thinking choose Cinnamon and exclusive Mac and Android users tend to choose Gnome).
The second thing to select is your stand on Stability vs Cutting edge. The rest of features are far, far less relevant and you can easily fine tune to your like and these is what people mean with that above statement (even the environment and stability could be customized too but most would not be able to do it).

At the end, the distro is a choice where you pick the first two parameters and the exact distro you pick is more based in convenience and/or philosophical criteria.

My case: I played with 5 environments and KDE is my cup of tea. Then, I choose a distro in the middle of the road with updates (OpenSuse Tumbleweed) and while extremely happy two updates within 8 months gave me two hiccups (nothing mayor) but I decided I needed more Stability. While I consider Fedora to be the “best” distro by just a hairline, since it has the most resources, but philosophically I am against due to IBM being its main backer, not to mention, US may cause problems “exporting” in a near future… yes you can fork, but you still being dependent in the main source for a while, not to mention supporting IBMś aims. So I am Debian (MX Linux actually) all the way now. However, I recommend to most Mint (for the most conservative) and TuxedoOS (for those looking for a more contemporary look) to most people I encounter.

The rest of distros, or are just niche (for instance Deepin and Kylin cater for Chinese language, Cachy for gamers, etc) or are distros with far less resources to do it properly, but I passionately applaud their existence since they all are contributing with the good cause.

As I mentioned more in detail in other post, Proton is not the pro-MAGA many had misinterpreted. It is just sloppy at the marketing campaign and its leader makes statements that can easily misunderstood too.

That said, Proton has decided to aim for the masses, which has proven to be a winning business formula here. However, in that quest, it’s natural that concerns from top-tier privacy users (Linux users, those wanting non-Google push notifications, too-many-eggs-in-a-basket, etc.) get relegated in favor of the bulk of their primary target customers, the regular Joe who simply wants to move away from email and web traffic scraping. We should all applaud that decision, but we also recognize the limitations and big risks of having a single company holding some 80% of this privacy market, both for us and even for Proton. It would be better to foster a healthy, diverse, and more equitable privacy ecosystem.

Thanks so much, this looks worth a deep look! Iĺl need time to interpret this properly.

Signal, I agree… it has flags for me in so many ways.

Tor. Unlikely though. For sure many nodes are controlled and now they are using massive power to unlock the traffic, but was not set up as a honeypot per se, it is now, probably, technologically quite compromised though.

Mullvad. Funny, your suspicions probably got enhanced when Mullvad makes a browser based on Tor’s. But I still not highly suspect of Mullvad. Quite steady organic growth, profitable, no much pronouncements or catering to certain “targeted” groups… No mayor red flags for me.

Absolutely! Location does not guaranteed anything. The only case against US, four eyes… etc is that they have the power to shut it down easily so they can use it as a threat. Switzerland has, for years now, showed the same drive as any other country to do just that.

Now, I have seen very principled individuals in the US, I would say even more than in the Europe! It is not surprise that we see cases like Lavabit where a right owner chooses to close shop rather than compromise its customers. I hope GrapheneOS will do the same.

Of course, nobody is going to have evidence here, if there was any the cover would be lifted. But one can guess chances here:

Proton: “Unlikely”… but there is a but. They never cater for the ultimate privacy and they make typical blunders of a company wanted to growth really fast. Now, that they want to be a behemoth in Privacy makes it more vulnerable to requests from law enforcement. Also, law enforcement and intelligence agencies have it easier to penetrate within Proton massive headcount growth.

Tuta: “Very Unlikely”. The people behind started very young and had a sustainable growth. The people are very visible (unlike Crypto AG) so least likely to be working for an “agency”.

Mullvad: “Very Unlikely”. I think their story is similar to Tuta (haven´t followed it that much though).

GrapheneOS: “Very Unlikely”. But in the last year I have raised some minor concerns, but I haven change my rating yet…

/e/: “Very Unlikely”. I know the dude behind for 2 decades, he wouldn´t. However, /e/ never claimed full privacy and from the beginning says he would comply 100% with “lawful” requests, but it is not a honeypot, not that would make much difference to an intelligence agency if they wanted it.

Signal: “Potentially”… yes, yes… audited, solid privacy code… but still does not make sense to me many aspects; financially solvent from day one, the extreme unquestioned massive and vast support from launching till today… if i have to bet in all of these providers, this platform would have been my take as potential compromised one. I still use it to communicate with family since I trust better than WhatsApp, but I would not use it for critical journalistic info.

I have not seen evidence of Proton “going the far right route” yet. They are just sponsoring channels that ever mention privacy and far right ones frequently does that too. You can blame proton for no scrutinize, but not of siding with the right or the left. Proton is just focusing in mayor growth and nothing else, for better or for worse.

Three things on Proton:

1. Proton mail has been in a rampage with sponsor YouTube channels and, in my opinion, that is a mistake. I would have kept it an organic growth, but that is me… a nobody, and Proton has become far more successful than no other email provider in the privacy world.

2. Considering even that, Proton is not vetting who is sponsoring. This is a fiasco. For instance they try to sponsor the channel “The hated one” that never takes any sponsors and even constantly criticizes channels that does it. That is a mayor blunder for Proton, there is no scrutiny at all with their marketing deployment. By the way, we learned that that youtubers get a juicy amount by Proton in these sponsorships (I think was $70 per subscription).

3. Proton, for years, has been aiming for the masses, not the most serious in privacy (for instance, androidś Proton email still uses Google push services). That is not bad per se, I still recommend Proton to many. But those with a more ideological approach to privacy or those requiring top notch on it, should be aiming for other service providers.

A bit old reference, but so glad to see informed people here!

There is truth to Israel’s claims: Iran has possessed the physical and human capacity to develop nuclear weapons for decades. This capability served as the primary deterrent against Israeli or U.S. attacks on Tehran, particularly after what happened to Iraq and Libya. However, the situation is a bit more complex though:

The Iranian leadership understands that if they were to accumulate nuclear stockpiles, Israel is genocidal enough to nuclear wipe those facilities and the entire Tehran itself upon a mere confirmation of such. Worse yet, much of the Western world would had accepted such an outcome, so de facto giving an incentive for Israel to do so (not that it needed one). Iranian intelligence also recognizes that even its top commanders are not criminal enough to use nuclear weapons first or even second, especially without extensive deliberation, and time in such an incredibly fast-scale conflict is something Tehran would not have. Therefore, Iran treats the nuclear option primarily as a negotiating card rather than an immediate or mid-term goal.

So, I believe Israel’s assessment is credible: Iran could potentially develop a nuclear weapon within weeks. However, the Israeli intelligence knows that Iran neither had nor has intention of pursuing this path since 10-20 years.

Meanwhile, Iran has focused in incredibly advanced its missile capabilities, which are now nearly unstoppable, and now also is probably getting assistance from China and Russia in purely defense technology. This provides Iran with sufficient deterrence for now; what remains necessary is securing counterintelligence operations to protect these missile systems.

For negotiations, control of the Strait of Hormuz has emerged as an effective strategic lever. This means Iran no longer needs the nuclear capability as the leverage and could potentially give it as a bone to Trump.

Things have shifted so much in the region that Iran now feels emboldened enough to demand that attacks on a third country, Lebanon, to cease; We once believed only two powers possessed such clout: the US and China, the only difference that the newcomer uses it for good (so far). The world has indeed changed!

It does not have anything to do with Palestine. The police in Western Europe has adopted a militaristic culture that combined with political and judicial endorsement has lost the reins on this abusive behavior. Police gets way too easily triggered to escalate things regardless of anythings else. US/Israel successfully exported that toxicity through media and political connections.

As mentioned by others, Sanchez does not control the Basque police, not that the Spanish police will be behaving any different anyways.

The problem with the Police in the entire Iberia is the toxic Hollywoodized culture they get in once inside. For instance, I take that one police officer over reacted and the rest, instead of mitigating that erroneous stance, jumped to defend that officer without no questions. After seeing all videos published, this could have been prevented 100% by mere sensible policing.

I like the OP comment with this. In the West, with no exceptions, the police has completely been going through a militarization culture. The Israel involvement with all these police departments is just part of it all since the US promotes that inter-police-collaboration and sources sharing, unaware Europeans that there is an agenda with it all. That started with US movies and series for decades keep portraying the “efficiency” of such models and then when Europe offer its hand to US after 9-11, US took the arm. Of course, Western governments welcomed it all and gave the funds for the total conversion. Israel/US are just very good at using movies, media and unparalleled inside access to filtrate into procurement channels of the Western Police departments.

But, unlike US, there is hope for a handful of European police forces to be retrained to serve the community back. I just don’t see it the political will thought, not even in Sanchez’s government (that is very fragile at the moment anyways). The reason for hope is that the people that join the Spanish police, for instance, are highly representative of the society when joining… it just gets the toxic culture of militarization and power once inside through politicians endorsement and police unions. In the US, the people that join the police forces come already with the toxic culture (and far less trained individuals too!).

Let’s see the Basque official statement in this event on Tuesday; I hope there will be a bit of criticism on their police action, since it clearly overacted with just someone “no obeying an order to stand back” in a mundane situation; but not much hope for even that concession to be frank.

Your opinion is not unpopular here.

For those that don’t know, yes, when Proton or Tuta sends an email to an unsecured provider, it is on the open… if you want it to be that is. You have the choice to tick if you want to send the mail and attachments encrypted or not. If you choose to send it encrypted, they have a link they have to introduce a password to get in. I use this multiple times with somehow sensitive data. At least their email provider won’t have the data… now, the recipient may place then that data in Google Docs and that is game over; but that is your party’s fault, not your email provider.

Proton has come with some not outright lies, but misleading advertisements. I understand the thin line that privacy companies have manage between appealing to a larger audience to get economies of scale but not mislead at the same time to achieve that. It is hard for them since we expect prices of other non-privacy oriented providers but with far more complex systems that required far more RAM, more storage, more audits, more special expertise, etc. Proton is a success at Privacy but Tuta I respect more.

From Posteo I cannot say much more since using my own domain is critical.

Tuta, it is indeed missing PGP and that is a problem if you are trying to communicate with someone that uses PGP. Now, Tuta’s encryption although no as universal as PGP, you could say it is better implemented since the subject is encrypted (unlike with PGP’s). The shortcoming is is that Tuta’s encryption only works seamless between Tuta accounts, or the recipient is offered a web link where he/she has to enter a password. In real life, a handful full know to to work with PGP.

So at the end depends on who you intend to send emails to… are part of them PGP users? If yes, get Proton, if not, either Proton or Tuta will be OK, use other criteria to choose between them.

Just a week ago I wrote my impressions of diverse email providers so I put it here with a few corrections:

Proton gives me some no good vibe I cannot explain, but it works really good and they really have the human capital to make it work the best. A big criticism is hosting some many services under one roof… specially VPN, drive and email, but it is very convenient for customers. They do also have policies of no-refund that makes that bad sentiment grow… Why no refunding non-used portion or even with a penalty? Regarding its founder, Andy, he did made 3 statements that appeared to support Trump, but I think they were misinterpreted; Andy criticized more the Democrats unrelenting support for the Tech Giants than praising the Republican administration. Let’s remember that, at that time, Trump was the only voice that appeared that was going to favor more the small business vs the mega corporations. Of course, that was the promise that Trump, as with all others he made, were a complete lie. I don’t recall any other statements from Andy beyond that topic of small business vs big tech. After listening to many of Andy interviews, he does not seem to me like a typical Conservative, let alone MAGA supporter.

Mailbox, has been static for a while, but they do offer a good service and now they are attempting to modernize. No full privacy by default but that could potentially be with some effort, but okay for most people. Still a bit German-centric. I still would recommend them easily.

Posteo would have been my first choice since 5 years ago, but the lack of no being able to use your domain, sorry to say it is inexcusable. They say because your own domain brings some privacy up to light, very true! So advise it, “look, we suggest to use our domains for better privacy for you, but if you want the freedom to move to another provider in the future at the cost of a bit of privacy, you are welcome to bring your own domain”. I want to believe the decision was genuine because they think it is for better privacy and not to create a lock-in for its customers.

Tuta… oh Tuta. I like the people, I believe and trust them the most! Yet, they probably still need to grow a bit so they can have the resources to do better (maintaining an email service is it very hard nowadays, even more a privacy oriented one). Their android client does not share data with Google for the push notifications (hello Proton?!) and that should be a fundamental requirement. For just email, it is fantastic and for privacy it is the best, period… if you are OK with the lack of support on IMAP and POP3 protocols that is; They should do some bridge like Proton does and I would put in top among all in a instant.

Other privacy oriented providers can be okay since they have a low profile and less targeted by 3rd actors, but at the same time also less prone to keep with security updates. It is sad, but I would not use in a daily basics. Same with self-hosting, free or non-free, don’t! As mentioned, it is very complicated not only from a security concern but also many email will get lost in the void by picky providers like Gmail.

On the concerns of the change of political colors in Germany, first regarding privacy, you are more at the wimps of the people of the provider than the leader of the time. I don’t really see any country as safe today, not a single one! Now, a right owner is someone like Lavabit’s that choose to close shop rather than given the SSL keys to the US authorities, that is why trust is so critical; I would rather use a provider based in the US with the right owner, than one in Switzerland with one I don’t know much about. Your only protections are the technology and the owner!

Once said that, unless you are a high targeted individual, maybe you should not only focus on privacy, besides, sometimes, the best defense is to blend-in among the no-so-top-notch-privacy providers. In any case, I trust the most Tuta, but recommend Mailbox for most people and Proton to those a bit concerned about normal privacy. I think there is room for a new player here that covers all the shortcomings, but it is not here yet.

Self Hosting