Thanks for posting.
Unfortunately their “reset pack”, especially regarding Windows, appears to be somewhat lacking, as it only contains:
Pidgin Tor Firefox with Adblock Plus, Noscript, HTTPS Everywhere Thunderbird Enigmail https://encryptallthethings.net/docs/EATT.pdf
Maybe we could add some recommendations here, sAyer?
Kind regards, REBOL. 
A good first step would be to replace Windows (or OS X) with an open source-alternative. 8)
For secure email, [url=https://code.google.com/p/end-to-end/]End-To-End[/url] is interesting. [url=http://googleonlinesecurity.blogspot.se/2014/06/making-end-to-end-encryption-easier-to.html]Making end-to-end encryption easier to use[/url]
You’re somewhat right with this, JoWa, but do you really think that’ll ever happen on a large scale?
In the end, the “most secure way of communicating” would’ve to be “not communicating at all”, right?
Same goes for “trying to get information”.
Sad world of ours. What “they did to i.t.”, well, that’s a wound that probably never can totally be healed again. :-TD
Thanks for trying, though.
Kind regards, REBOL.
Somewhat right? :-\
Of course it will happen. Nobody wants closed source-software. Windows just happened to be available and established ~20 years ago, when people began to buy computers on a large scale. Open source-software wasn’t ready then, but it sure is ready now. And now we are more and more going into the Post-PC era, where Windows is marginal.
Why so pessimistic about communication? We need not stop communicating, we need only stop communicating insecurely. We can communicate securely today, but it’s not easy enough. Exchanging PGP-keys with everyone before sending an email or starting a chat? Probably not. Hopefully End-To-End will help making secure communication easy to use.
We need to keep trying.
I would personally disagree here, for example “Nobody wants closed source-software.” well honestly I have seen many people claiming they don’t care whether it is open source or closed source and I’ve also seen a few people being negative about open source, probably comes from ignorance but even then that doesn’t change the views of these people. Personally I prefer open source in general, but just because something is open source that doesn’t make it better than closed source software by default, which takes me to “Open source-software wasn’t ready then, but it sure is ready now.” where I will have to disagree again, at least regarding operating systems like Linux and Windows, I’ve time and time tried Ubuntu and a few other distros, and what I found was a laggy UI that doesn’t support 120FPS (at least it doesn’t feel like it) and drivers that you need but can’t install, like the nvidia drivers, had to install an old version of Ubuntu to get the option to install them and then update through all newer versions… Just to install the ■■■■ Nvidia drivers, and even then games run extremely sub-par when compared to Windows, assuming they would run at all. And lets not speak of the lack of games on Linux in general, of course that part isn’t necessarily their fault but rather is on the game developers, my point though is that open source operating systems are so far not even close to being good enough for me, but for others? Sure, for many? Sure but it’s still not at a point where it’s good enough for me.
Perhaps, but personally I don’t use web browsers for emails, I user thunderbird. I do have a cert I got from Comodo though that I sign most of my e-mails with, however I’ve also noticed that the vaaast majority of people don’t have certs of their own and hence I can’t use it to encrypt the message, since they wouldn’t be able to decrypt it, in my personal opinion certs like this are very easy and even if some users don’t understand it there is excellent documentation on how to use it… Iunno, really do we want to keep using an insecure service and slap security on there or should we instead build a new service with security in mind from the start? But then again, how would you ever get people to switch from normal e-mail services? Hmm… Perhaps a sort of thing as with IPv4 and IPv6, 6in4 or whatever it’s called, basically e-mail 2.0 where everything is made to be easy AND secure, it then checks if the recipient is using traditional e-mail or the new e-mail service and then… eehh perhaps too much work for something that probably isn’t good to be adopted. Meh, I’ll just stop here.
Edit: I forget line spacing when I’m ranting…
I noticed. 
Of course most people don’t care, and that means they do not explicitly want closed source software. Most people are not aware of software being open or closed source. Microsoft and Apple still dominate on the desktop. Both Windows and OS X are closed source, meaning that open vs closed is not part of the marketing or comparisons.
The people you have heard being negative about open source must have had their heads under a rock the last year…
Open source is better, simply because you don’t have to blindly trust the vendor. You have probably heard the rumours about an NSA-backdoor in Windows. Of course Microsoft has denied that, but can we trust Microsoft? Microsoft said nothing about being part of PRISM (since 2007) until Edward Snowden revealed it.
Well, graphics-performance is clearly !ot! her, but here are some comparisons that contradict what you said: Ubuntu Linux Gaming Performance Mostly On Par With Windows 8.1 and AMD Radeon R9 290 On Ubuntu 14.04 With Catalyst Can Beat Windows 8.1.
Why not? Oh, because that is also !ot!. But I will comment on that nonetheless. The game-industry is highly commercial. Why would any game-vendor develop games for a system used by ~1,5 % of all computer-users? Lots of work and few users. What’s the economic incentive? One could be Windows Store, launched with Windows 8 and RT, where Microsoft takes 30 % of the sale price. Sure, on Windows 8/8.1, vendors need not go through the store, but they do on Windows RT, and maybe soon on all versions of Windows. For any vendor of commercial software, that is of course quite scary. One such vendor is Valve. Almost two years ago Valve announced that they would support Linux (primarily Ubuntu), and Steam for Linux was released in February 2013. Currently there are 512 Steam-games for Linux (yesterday there were 500…).
Exactly, they are indifferent, in comparison to being against closed source software as “Nobody wants closed source-software” sounds like, perhaps just a misunderstanding.
Sure that’s one part, but looking at just one part and saying all of it is better than something else is simply not looking at the bigger picture, my point was that just because for example Linux is Open Source, that doesn’t mean it’s better than Windows, for example I haven’t been able to get the desktop to run in 120FPS in Ubuntu, this literally has a big impact on my day to day usage of an OS because the UI will feel slow and clunky, in contrast it works straight away in Windows.
So my point is again that simply because something is open source, that doesn’t make it better than the closed source competitor by default, of course it can be better, but it’s not guarantee.
Graphics & performance may be off topic but I still feel it’s relevant to “Open source-software wasn’t ready then, but it sure is ready now.”
A high FPS number isn’t the only thing contributing to how well a game works and even then their test show nothing of what I saw, then again in gaming it is extremely easy to pick titles that only show the results you want, not saying that’s what they’ve done but worth to keep in mind when looking at comparisons.
Throughout all the times I’ve tested Ubuntu for gaming (at least 4 different times) I’ve run into these issues:
- Graphics drivers are either a hassle to install and takes over 2 hours of troubleshooting OR They just won’t install at all.
- Steam was at the time of my testing in Beta and was crash happy, don’t know how well it works now.
- Many of the games I tried just crashed all the time.
- Those which did work usually had a lot of bugs, missing textures and what not.
- Those games that worked also ran considerably worse than on Windows (sub 40 FPS in many games in Linux compared to 120+ FPS in Windows.
- The games that worked also had a lot of stuttering issues.
Though I could admit that something might have gone wrong in my testing that messed up Ubuntu, however for it to happen 4 times with such ease… Is that really being ready?
Last version of Ubuntu I tried was 12.10, could possibly try a newer version soon.
Because there’s not much to talk about, I have around ~190 games on Steam and barely any of them are available in Linux, my point here being the general lack of games for Linux, and I am very happy to see that is beginning to turn around and more games are coming to Linux, but still I would be lying if I said I could switch to Ubuntu today and not feel like I miss out on any games, and that’s my point here, open source as an idea is ready, but that doesn’t mean the products themselves are ready, and that’s what my whole rant was about. I wouldn’t be able to switch to Linux today, tomorrow, next week, next month or even this year and simply because it’s not ready, it isn’t its fault (except the no 120FPS on desktop issue) but that doesn’t change the fact that open source products aren’t an option for many yet, hopefully soon but still I disagree with “Open source-software wasn’t ready then, but it sure is ready now.” to a certain extent.
But like you said, this whole discussion is off topic (as it isn’t about reset the web) so you may remove my posts here and we could continue via PM, btw if you want to help me set up Ubuntu to actually work with 120FPS on Desktop and drivers not being impossible to install and games crashed or otherwise missing textures, then please do because during 4 tries I haven’t been able to fix those issues.
Also since we’re already so off-topic, do you know of any HIPS products for Linux? And a good firewall? Essentially functionality of CIS in Linux? I feel a lack of control in Linux… :-\ (You can answer via PM)
I did not say that a product is better because its source code is open. I was not comparing products. I was comparing open vs closed, and open has advantages closed cannot have, such as being transparent, auditable.
When I said “Open source-software wasn’t ready then, but it sure is ready now.” (as alternative to Windows and OS X), I was primarily referring to the operating systems themselves and everyday applications, such as browsers, email-clients, office-suites etc. Much has happened in the last ten years.
However, there are always use cases where one system is a better choice than other systems, be it for the system’s own merits or third party products. PC-games is a good example, where Windows has historically been the system game developers have invested in, simply because more users mean more money. There has always been fewer games for OS X (Mac OS X, Mac OS, System x) and even fewer for Linux. But things change. In the last year, more has happened to gaming on Linux than ever before in the history of Linux, and it will only accelerate.
As it is now, I think we must accept that there is not one system that is best at everything. If you will not compromise with privacy and security, you might have to compromise with something else, such as your favourite games not being available. (Or you can use one system for playing games and one for communication etc.)
But again, things change, and now they change at faster pace than ever before.
All true hugs sorry for the way I acted, I don’t know why I do that…
I think open/closed sources are probably helping keep each other honest.
:-TU
Well, End-To-End is a Chrome-extension, but the source code is open (:)), so it should be possible to create a Thunderbird-addon, like Enigmail, and of course a Firefox-addon, like WebPG (which is also available for Chrome). It will also most probably be possible to create implementations for mobile clients. I don’t know how End-To-End will be different from the available products, but it sure will be thoroughly tested for both security flaws, compatibility issues and other bugs.
HTTP was not secure until security (encryption) was “slapped” on it, and we still use it. (Yes, HTTP/2 is being developed.) It would probably take years to develop and standardise “e-mail 2.0”, so I think we will have to live with the email we have, and keep “slapping” more security on it. Now TLS is used by default for most webmails (see also EFF: Encrypt the Web Report: Who’s Doing What), STARTTLS is gradually becoming more used (see statistics for Gmail), to protect emails during transfer from one provider to another, emails are also encrypted as they move between Google’s data centers (as on some others’, see EFF-link above)). And on top of that, we have PGP. However, PGP protects only the message, not the metadata. See here Why Metadata Matters (EFF).