{"id":1904,"date":"2014-10-21T16:10:49","date_gmt":"2014-10-21T14:10:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pasqualerobustini.com\/blog\/?page_id=1904"},"modified":"2025-03-21T12:12:18","modified_gmt":"2025-03-21T11:12:18","slug":"mi-chiamavano-superlinux","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.pasqualerobustini.com\/en\/mi-chiamavano-superlinux\/","title":{"rendered":"They used to call me Superlinux"},"content":{"rendered":"

ATTENTION!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tips for safer computer use!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Today the big companies that own the Internet, the so-called “Big Five” Google, Facebook (Meta), Amazon, Apple and Microsoft, track our online activity continuously generating an immense amount of data with very high commercial value (it is the bulk of their profits). By doing this they violate, or can have third parties do so, our privacy “legally” because we are the ones allowing them to do so by voluntarily providing the data. What’s more, instead of being controlled and regulated by their country (the U.S.) they are spontaneously allied with the government, which leaves them free to gain power at levels no private company should ever be able to afford. It is a dystopian movie situation in which the richest people in the world hold the most advanced technologies and are able to influence public opinion.<\/p>\n

How can we use our tools more securely? Ideally, we should avoid social platforms, never sign in to online services, use only Linux as our operating system, privacy-oriented browsers and free and opensource software. It may be impossible but we can at least try to limit the size of our “digital footprint.” Here are some suggested steps in descending order of simplicity:<\/p>\n

1 – Avoid using internet browsers provided with the operating system, whether on a computer or phone.
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Do not use Edge on Windows or Safari on Apple. Avoid Chrome especially on Android devices. Use Firefox or Brave, or any Open Source browser or Mozilla Firefox fork like LibreWolf. There is a particular browser, Tor, which uses the namesake network of servers scattered over the Internet so that accessing a web page makes it impossible to trace from it the IP of the computer from which we connected. Brave allows you to open private browsing pages on the Tor network. Many sites full of graphics, animations, videos (normally provided by Javascipt code very apt to be vulnerable) will barely work but sometimes it can be useful to use this system, except when making purchases or banking transactions because those are the cases when it is essential to be tracked!<\/p>\n

But beware. In the end it is the website that tracks us (if the browser allows it). Normally browsers are configured to allow it unless you use browsers that are already set up for more privacy, like Brave and the Duckduckgo app for mobile devices. Firefox has recently added terms of use that allow them to resell browsing data, maybe in order to feed AI learning processes. Librewolf is a Firefox fork already preset for maximum browsing security.<\/p>\n

2 – Avoid using Google and other search engines such as Yahoo or Bing
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\"\"<\/a>These track and store our searches for the above purposes. Use search engines such as Duckduckgo, Qwant, Startpage, Ecosia setting one of them as the default engine in your browser (but since the sites themselves do track you, the browser app Duckduckgo, mentioned above, is to be considered on smatphones)<\/p>\n

3 – Avoid e-mail services related to the big ones on the Internet (Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook…)<\/strong><\/p>\n

They also track behaviors by analyzing the text of emails with artificial intelligence, again for the above purposes, and messages are never encrypted: as if we were sending postcards and letters with open envelopes. There are secure e-mail services such as Protonmail and Tutanota, with servers in Switzerland or Germany, which are subject to GDPR as opposed to the U.S. ones, which allow messages to be permanently deleted. However, those that are archived are not available to third parties for commercial, marketing or other purposes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>4 – Do not use the same email address, especially your personal email address, to register for various online services
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E-mail services often allow the creation of aliases (different addresses that still report to the main one) or several free accounts. It is good to use a different address, if not for each site, at least for each type of service offered: shopping, banking, forums, etc….. Some of the secure services mentioned above may charge for these additional features. Always ask yourself how companies like Gmail make so much money: when a product is free, it means you are the product…<\/p>\n

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5 – Limit and when possible avoid the use of social platforms
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The heaviest profiling is happening on socials and it is becoming a serious problem with younger people. The best thing would be to close all accounts. Being rather far-fetched, it is advisable to keep only the ones we really like too much and limit their use as much as possible: the fewer interactions, comments and likes we put up, the less we help the artificial intelligence that analyzes our behaviors to profile us to send us advertisements and posts that convince us to stay longer on the same platform (how long we stay there depends on the value of the data they have on our online behaviors). Let’s avoid providing too much personal data such as phone, address, gender, age, religion, etc., etc.<\/p>\n

6 – Avoid the use of closed artificial intelligence systems and chats such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT – use Open Source alternatives!<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Artificial intelligence systems use massive resources and thus produce CO2 at levels greater than many of the activities we would normally consider polluting. The cost of producing and maintaining such computer systems has dimensions that are beyond our imagination. The most popular and well-known AI-based chat systems are the most expensive and polluting systems that currently exist. They are also absolutely closed systems that, like somewhat all existing online systems, track and store our behaviors and requests.<\/p>\n

There is no official word on how their memory was fed, how they learned human-like behaviors such as the chats themselves (one can easily assume that they are fed all our own chats). Workers from the third world, paid a pittance for having to watch and read things that a human being should never see, are often used to teach the wrong behaviors and topics the AI chat should not cover. And with no psychological protection whatsoever, of course. Chats like OpenAI’s have become the standard for the U.S. government and the engine of artificial intelligence used in Microsoft and Apple systems, much like what happened to Windows as a PC operating system. Better to move toward something open source….<\/p>\n

There are plenty of completely open (open source) AI platforms that are enormously less expensive and polluting and can be controlled by those who can. Many can also be run locally on your computer for maximum privacy. The French group Mistral has created a chat called Le Chat that works very well and can easily replace ChatGPT for any business or non-business application.<\/p>\n

7 – Avoid as much as possible the use of operating systems of the internet biggies such as Windows, macOS, iOS, ChromeOS and Android – install Linux!
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\"\"<\/a>This is the most difficult thing. Devices are sold to us with operating systems preinstalled and ready to use. They are the basis of the data collection that large Internet companies do on our online activities. They are far from secure from the point of view of privacy and anonymous browsing, despite the fine words contained in the license agreements that we accept without reading. Today the GNU\/Linux operating system is ripe for installation on both PCs and Macs. From the point of view of what people do most with a computer, surfing the Internet and using social (and maybe some more e-mail) does not change anything: the Firefox and Brave Internet browsers are available on Linux (there is also Chrome if you want) and once you open a browser nothing changes compared to other operating systems.<\/p>\n

I understand installing Linux is a bit more difficult than the other 5 recommended steps, but if we get a real sense of how Windows works maybe we’ll think about it…<\/p>\n

What about the smartphones?<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is where the fight gets tough! They are the computers we use most, constantly connected to the Internet and logged into Google and other platforms. On Android devices there is little you can do, they are Google. You have to configure Google account privacy by limiting tracking as much as possible. On iOS it is a little better (not that Apple does not track you!) but if we are logged into Google in the YouTube and Google Maps apps there is little we can do except the usual limitation to tracking in the configurations.<\/p>\n

There are only cell phones with Apple and Google operating systems. There is no escape but to go back to old GSM phones. A smartphone is Android or iOS. Linux-based phones are few but are getting better and better. The GrapheneOS operating system is already available but must be installed on an Android phone via computer following a series of procedures. This would result in the most secure phone in the world. But being for a few, what can be done is the same as what is recommended for computers: avoid preinstalled browsers (Firefox and Brave exist for both platforms), set up Duckduckgo for searches, and delete all apps we don’t use. Whenever possible, instead of using an app downloaded from the store, we can save the web page opened with the mobile browser in the background, thus creating an icon of it like normal apps – instead it opens the platform site directly: even if we are on the browser provided by the operating system it is still a safer mode than using the app downloaded from the store. Of course some functions might be lost so it is to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.For the rest, if we use a public Wifi connection while in a pub for example, it would be good to have an open source VPN app like ProtonVPN installed and activate it before connecting to that Wifi. It slows down browsing and does not protect as much if we use the cellular network or our home Wifi, but with free public Wifi it is advisable to protect ourselves with an open source VPN!<\/p>\n

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For insights on these topics and more on computers turn the page…<\/em><\/p>\n

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They use to call me Superlinux… (my IT bio)<\/a><\/p>\n

Nearing the end of my undergraduate studies (late 1980s) I needed a computer for my thesis in geology. An assembled one with DOS became a pre-graduation gift. From there I started my adventure with computers, moving from DOS to Windows, to Linux, to Mac and finally back to Linux. I am currently trying to use as much free and\/or opensource software as possible. It is the only kind that provides some privacy, anonymity and security on the internet. Also by installing GNU\/Linux of course.<\/p>\n

Yes because today computers are mostly for accessing the Internet. In fact, most users are better off with a tablet or a big smartphone for all the things they need to do. Internet browsing is now equivalent to being on social platforms. The convergence of computing and telephony has put a computer in everyone’s pocket (if not on their wrist). Yet not too long ago (or maybe it was since we are talking about my youth) one could not imagine what a computer could be used for in someone’s home. In the early days, one even wondered what a portable phone was for! And the same thing was with the Internet: it seemed to serve only large companies. Today, on the other hand, without computers connected to the Internet, we could no longer live. With the need to work or study remotely, the internet and the computer have become essential to everyday life. And once they were only in science fiction movies….<\/p>\n

Towards the end of high school, computer science, which in those days was taking its very first steps into the homes of ordinary users, began to fascinate me and I even considered studying it in college (had I done that! ;-)). I didn’t, okay, but the interest remained and most of all I have to thank that it allowed me to be always comfortable with any software or operating system. Which has been very useful to me in my working life. In those days computer was a word that was used in science fiction. I was fascinated with anything space-related; I had grown up watching Start Trek, UFO and Space 1999. To me they were exalting science and technology by imagining what could be done with them in the future. Only fictional characters used computers. Intrigued, I walked into a computer store, one of the first, something I had never seen! They were personal computers with 64 kilobytes of memory, far superior to those used by NASA to go to the moon! From there shortly my parents bought me a Commodore 64, same power! I tried to buy a booklet computer encyclopedia that also introduced Basic, the language used in the Commodore 64.<\/p>\n

I didn’t do much with it. I almost never liked games, I had no applications for writing or doing calculations. For my graduation my father gifted me with my first PC. I actually wanted a Macintosh, but the prices were much higher and it was out of the question….<\/p>\n

\"computer-Apple_Macintosh_Desktop\"<\/a>

The graphical user interface of the first Macintosh<\/p><\/div>\n

So in the late 1980s I found myself in front of a dark screen with the words C:\\ _ , the so-called “DOS prompt”. And from there I had to learn, starting on an amazing compatible IBM PC AT with Intel 80286 processor with 512 kb RAM, 5.25-inch 1.2 Mb floppy drive, 20 Mb internal hard disk and VGA graphics card with 640×480 resolution black and white monitor! I soon switched to color, 1 Mb RAM and 40 Mb HD with a mouse to use Windows from the very first trial version!<\/p>\n

Since then I have used all PC operating systems, from DOS to Windows 1, 2, 3, 3.11, 95, 98, Me, NT, 2000, XP, 7… and then no more! I never saw Vista! I got bored and installed Linux and tried, Mandrake, Mandriva, Red Hat, SuSe, Debian, Ubuntu… and then I entered a period of “computer fatigue” and decided to take the plunge: I finally bought a Macintosh! And I was captivated by its beauty….<\/p>\n

\"computer-Yosemite\"<\/a>

The somewhat newer Macintosh GUI…<\/p><\/div>\n

The first was a 2007 white MacBook with the best operating system then possible: Mac OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard. Snow Leopard is a beautiful feline. Its name greatly suits the beauty, fluidity and lightness of Apple’s operating system. The name OSX has a double meaning: it is the 10th version of the Macintosh operating system, which had always been called MacOS until 9. A lot changed with 10, mainly the operating system’s internal engine, which was based on a version of BSD Unix, the UC Berkeley variant. The X has always been the symbol of Unix, the first real operating system, solid, secure and powerful. On the Unix and open source core, called Darwin in Apple’s house, the eye-catching graphical user interface called Aqua was redesigned. Thus was born the new Mac OSX.<\/p>\n

I liked it so much that I even bought a handheld Mac (iPhone) in 2010. Then I upgraded the laptop to a 2011 aluminum Macbook Pro 13″, equipped with the feline Mac OSX 10.7 Lion. Ten years later, it’s not bad … today it still runs OSX High Sierra which flies on a 500 Gb SSD hard drive but is no longer upgradable. Unless…<\/p>\n

The fact that I have to compulsorily renew my computer to be able to access new versions of the operating system has slowly awakened me from the spell. No longer are the days when those who “thought different” used an Apple, not a Windows PC like everyone else. No longer are the days of saying “don’t buy Macs! The less we are using them, the safer they will be…” It’s true that Macs seem to be more durable anyway, and don’t be under the illusion that a “PC-compatible” laptop costs less: it’s true that you can find models for a third of the cost of a Macbook, if not less, but the difference in quality is apparent – if you buy another laptop of equal quality, the cost is also comparable.<\/p>\n

For the past few years, Apple has lost some of its ” cleverness” in setting up the ways in which certain of their devices can be used. Perhaps they miss the genius of Steve Jobs. In addition, the world of smartphones invented by Apple has brought the Internet into everyone’s pocket: we are all connected constantly and do not realize that this is often to our detriment, especially in the long run. Apple, like Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft have become the giants of the Web and as such are now driven to profit, and the privacy of our data is not assured by anyone, despite the fine words. It is no longer Apple that heroically countered IBM that was doing the heavy lifting in information technology. Then the “enemy” became Microsoft. Now who is it? Maybe it is them, the Big Five of the network. An operating system like Windows, MacOS or ChromeOS is certainly the basis of the control carried out by the big boys of the Internet over all our online activities. So?<\/p>\n

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Finally, after years, I am back to installing Linux on my PCs…<\/p><\/div>\n

Well, the best thing would be to start with the base: a secure and private operating system – GNU\/Linux! Today you can safely install it even on an old Mac and bring it “back to life”-that is the best way to overcome its planned obsolescence. With Linux you would have a perfectly up-to-date, current system and still many years of productivity. Over time I have come to appreciate it and especially to consider going back to using free software as much as possible.<\/p>\n

Why these pages
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In the early 2000s I happened to teach a technical English course at the Master’s program in GIS at the University of Roma Tre, where I had been working as a research fellow in Geology. I had the idea to base it on the history of personal computers and operating systems. So I “saved” and expanded on these pages the contents of that course.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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