Amazon Devices Will Soon Automatically Share Your Internet With Neighbors

[Ninurta]

@"Ninurta" 

That is also the reason Microsoft is making it more and more difficult to install Linux on brand new computers. the only version of Linux they control is Android, via their Amazon partners.

Win10 can work with an installation of Ubuntu Linux that MS provides.  I have it on my machine.  The ironic part is that the Linux command line interface is a thousand times faster than any Windows operation.

Cheers

I did not know that, but it is good to know - MS appears to be trying to work it's way into the Linux market by gaining a version they control independently, apart from Amazon's Android. I guess if you can't beat 'em, join 'em, and try to seize control of the market. Microsoft's version of an OS for cell phones and the like appears to have flopped, so maybe they are exploring other avenues for monopoly.

I stopped using Ubuntu when they changed their default desktop to that unusable one they have now. You can install a usable one, but why bother with that when there are still viable desktops in other versions of Linux?

I recall not so long ago when the CCP was giving away their own version of Linux, too. It was called "Red Flag Linux". I have an old copy of it here somewhere, but never used it because I couldn't read enough Mandarin to get it installed. Once installed I would have been able to set it to English, but it was the getting it installed that was the sticking point. It seems to have been a flop, and my best guess is that is why. The CCP came out with it when they were at war with Microsoft over piracy issues of Windows that were prevalent in Asia. The desktop mimicked Windows to make it easier to use for folks used to Windows desktops. Now Zorin does that without the CCP spyware.

I have dozens of installers for various operating systems, but have settled on Windows 7 as the last usable version of Windows, and Zorin OS as my go-to version of Linux. I have both installed on this computer as a dual boot system. I bought this computer because it came with Windows 7, and those were rare birds by the time I bought it because Microsoft was pushing Windows 10 so hard. Then I installed Zorin on a separate partition to dual boot it.

I have also been known to use virtual machine systems, where you can run one OS in a virtual machine inside another OS and "sandboxed" from the mother OS, but the dual boot is, in my mind, the way to go. I use virtual machines to test other operating systems, and to provide plausible deniability for some operations - you can set up a virtual machine, do what you gotta do, and then if push comes to shove wipe the virtual machine with a DoD level wipe/shred/erase program, and erase all tracks since they were contained in the virtual machine. You get bonus points if you use a VPN in the virtual machine to bounce traffic around the world and encrypt it, VM's are also handy if you frequently "experiment" with your OS and are prone to break it every now and then - just wipe the old one and build a new one, and you are not locked out of the mother system if, for example, a hacker hits you with some ransomware or a bug.

Years ago, I used to hack computers here and there, and that sort of setup could be useful, but I've not done any of that in years. Nowadays I just use it when I don't think my traffic is anyone's business. I used to set up a virtual machine, salt it down with some interestingly named files to draw hacker's attention, then when they snagged that file and opened it, I owned their machine. I would make a clone of the virtual machine and store it away, air-gapped, from my main computer, so if a hacker got my virtual machine instead, I could be up an running again on the "same" VM computer, minus their hackerware, in minutes.

They are the bomb if you like to beard Indian hacker farms in their den, and lead them around by the nose. If they manage to lock your machine, it's just a virtual one you've set up for the operation, so nothing lost. I also used to use them at work (the company bought VMWare for us for that) to virtually run company software. That setup ran the virtual machine from a remote location, so the machine itself was never actually on your own computer - just a client to access it. That way, the company maintained control of it's own software, and could lock you out of it if you went rogue simply by changing your password and denying access. It also made it easier for the company to track your activity, since they controlled your virtual machine. They did mess up a bit by using a third party vendor for our e-mail. They couldn't rifle through that e-mail like most companies do, and I still have my  work e-mail account from them years later, because they didn't even have access to delete it.

This "internet of things" is a scary concept, to me. I don't want a far away corporation keeping track of whether I'm out of beer because they monitor my refrigerator. That ain't their concern unless they are buying my beer for me, and need to know when I'm low on it so they can have an Amazon drone drop off another case. Likewise for Alexa and the other various "virtual assistants". What they monitor ain't none of their business. That same job that used the remote virtual machines also made use of "Skype" for meetings. When Microsoft bought out Skype and force installed their "virtual assistant" to monitor meetings, I ranted and raved and told to company they were nuts for still using it, since that is a setup for easy corporate espionage, but none of the dumbasses listened. You couldn't "turn off" Cortana in it, so the program just sat there and swept up EVERYTHING going through Skype. That company (Frontier Communications) watched their stock drop from 87 dollars a share down to, last time I checked, around fifty cents a share.

Cell phones spy on us too. I had one that used to turn it's own mic on randomly and just sit listening to me, and everyone else in the room. I "de-googled" that phone, and it stopped that nonsense. I didn't just turn off the offending programs, I uninstalled them. They can't remotely turn on a program that is no longer there to be turned on. However, "de-googling" Alexa is an impossibility. if you de-google it, you just have an expensive paperweight, so why bother getting one at all?

Bottom line is that if you don't invite government - or increasingly their corporate "partners" - into your house to monitor you, they have a much tougher time getting it done.

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