Comments by "Perhaps" (@NoEgg4u) on "Mental Outlaw"
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The experts that put together the TOR network, and the TAILS OS, know more than the arm-chair, self proclaimed computer gurus saying that you should also use a VPN.
TOR was expertly designed to keep your internet activities private. Those trying to improve upon what the experts designed are unwittingly introducing vulnerabilities into their on-line activities.
They hear "VPN", and they get a woody. Without understanding how TOR works, and the vulnerabilities of VPN services, they just have a knee-jerk reaction to the VPN acronym, thinking they are putting a vault inside of a vault, when that it not the case.
I bet that most people that combine a VPN with TOR never even heard of the "five eyes".
Those people are putting all of their eggs into the VPN's basket, trusting that the VPN is not logging everything that they are doing. In fact, I bet that those people do not even grasp that their VPN can log and see 100% of their internet activity. They are taking, what would have gone directly to TOR, that no one can see, and first handing it off, in the clear, to some stranger (some VPN) in the middle.
Yes, your connection to your VPN service is encrypted. But it is 100% decrypted before it is handed off to TOR (or any other destination). After your data reaches your VPN, it gets 100% decrypted. Then, a new encrypted tunnel, created by the VPN's server, re-encrypts your data, and sends it on its way.
For privacy, you never want anyone else performing encryption for you. You always should have your own, local computer doing the encryption.
Use a VPN to reach services that are not accessible from your country or your region.
Use a VPN for when you want a presumed level of security and privacy, as well as decent speed (because TOR is slow, but TOR is secure and private).
Folks, if you buy a Ferrari LaFerrari, do not try to modify it the way you would modify a Camaro or a Mustang. TOR is the Ferrari, built and designed by brilliant people. Use it as designed by those brilliant people. Accept that you are not smarter than them, in this regard.
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It has been my experience that distros help out those folks (like me) that lack the experience to customize everything to their liking.
With a distro, others (that prepared the distro) have done the leg-work in preparing the look and feel of the distro.
And for advanced users, and even expert users, there are still distros that would probably be best for them.
For example, the "TAILS" distro.
It is unlikely that a single person, no matter how experienced they are, would be able to configure their distro to be as air tight (security wise and anonymity wise) as TAILS.
For me, my distro decision will be based on support in the user forums.
If the forum is difficult to search for answers, or the members are impatient jerks that get-off on making others feel stupid, or the members nitpick at questions that are not phrased precisely correctly (often the case when you need help is struggling with how to explain yourself to others), then they can keep their distro.
I loathe Windows (mainly version 10, for all of the spying), and will be installing Linux on my next computer.
But to Windows' credit, answers to most questions are easily obtainable.
In my search, by way of Virtual Box, of trying Linux distros, I have often found that most forums have trolls who, rather than trying to help, try to insult.
They are the reason that most folks would rather pay for Windows, rather than use a faster, more reliable, and more stable OS, for free.
Linux is fantastic. But it lacks the "anyone can use it" ease of use.
So when a fantastic Linux OS, which is better than Windows in almost every respect, and it is free, and yet it still cannot compete with a pay-for OS (Windows), it means that the Linux developers and the people in the support forums are failing to provide a turn-key alternative to Windows.
There are countless great people that develop and provide support for Linux. But it is not enough to counter the "Bow to me, I am a Linux expert" trolls that lurk in the Linux digital landscape.
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@roilo8560 I have never encountered that situation.
I suspect that there are postings on what happens on Linux operating systems when memory is exhausted (including virtual memory). TAILS does not use virtual memory, but it will probably exhibit the same stability symptoms as a standard Linux Debian OS that is out of RAM and virtual memory.
The system will probably become unresponsive in one way or another, until you free up memory -- that is, assuming that the system is stable enough to allow you to end processes that are not necessary.
The only time that I used TAILS was on an old Dell core duo laptop (probably in the neighborhood of 10 year old). It was slow (no fault of tails -- the computer was just slow). It has 2 GB of RAM, which is not much. But it ran TAILS with no problems.
I did not launch more than its browser, so the 2 GB of RAM was sufficient. If I launched many of its other included apps, then maybe it would have run out of RAM (but I doubt it)?
You will not be launching memory hungry programs, because it does not come with such programs -- and you cannot install such programs (well, with effort, you can, and you will defeat the privacy and security of TAILS and have other complications, due to such a non-standard use of the OS). You will not be running memory intensive games, or photoshop, etc. RAM should not be an issue.
As of a few years ago, I ran TAILS with 2 GB of RAM on a slow laptop with no issues. Note that I did not open scores of browser windows or scores of browser tabs. I have no idea how much memory each additional browser or tab would consume. I did open several browser windows and tabs -- but did not go browser crazy.
Since it is reasonable to assume that anyone running TAILS on a computer that was purchased in the last few years will have at least 4 GB of RAM (and probably more), I doubt that you will run out of RAM. But if you do run out of RAM, then closing programs will be the fix when you experience difficulties with launching new applications.
Your question is a fair one. But I doubt that you will encounter an insufficient RAM issue, unless you use ancient hardware.
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@roilo8560 When you install a Linux distribution, you can choose whether or not to include swap space (disk space for virtual memory), and you can change this after the installation.
I have seen videos where someone was having an issue with the performance with a specific program, due to it insisting on using swap space. So the user unmounted his swap partition and his program stopped having performance issues.
I do not know why, but some programs are written to put some stuff into virtual memory. Perhaps in case of a system crash, they use that space for recovery the next time you launch the program?
My point is that swap space is not necessary. It is advisable to use swap space for general computing. But TAILS is not general computing.
Years ago, when computers ran on 8 MB of memory, swap space was critical.
Today, for general desktop computing, if you have 16+ GB of memory, you will probably not need swap space. If you are a power user, then you might need 32 GB of memory to get away with no swap space. And that amount of memory is common today.
For business use, then you might need 500 GB+ of memory. Who knows? It depends on what the service is and the demand, etc.
If you launch endless programs and keep your computer running 24/7/365, then swap space becomes more important.
There might be some programs that will have problems if there is no swap space. I do not know of any, but I would not be surprised if some exist.
Will TAILS simply just automatically shut down programs if it runs out of RAM? I doubt it.
As to "...with no regards to data loss if the physical RAM is taken up".
When you run out of RAM, something has to give. You will lose something, if there is no way to store it all.
Stuff that is already running will probably remain running. But if an already running program decides that it needs a bit more memory, and there is no more memory, then it is unpredictable how that program will deal with not being able to consume more memory. It might become unstable. It might crash. It might freeze. Or it might simply not perform the task that needs the additional memory. Whether or not you will notice that some additional task did not occur is anyone's guess.
There are TAILS forums that could give you better answers than I can. I am a jack-of-all-trades pseudo expert. For in-depth analysis of how the TAILS kernel will deal with out-of-memory issues, you should seek out folks that understand the kernel code, or people that understand the code for the programs in question that you will be running.
Depending on how each one was written will determine how they will react if no more memory is available. And I am not sure how much testing is done for that issue, and even the results of those tests will vary, depending on what is being asked of the kernel at the time of the memory outage.
Lastly:
"...or if unoptimized programs are downloaded..."
TAILS will try to keep you from downloading and running programs.
TAILS goes out of its way to keep you safe from yourself.
If you install anything (if you use TAILS with any software that is not included in its distribution), then all bets are off, and you are on your own journey.
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Google is the biggest spyware company in the history of our planet. Sure, they make amazing applications. But that is unrelated to them being a HUGE spyware company.
Ferrari makes amazing cars. But you wouldn't let them put a camera over your toilet.
When you upload your data to Google's cloud service, you are handing them your data, for them to scan, and for them to compile a profile on you, etc.
But Google says that it is encrypted, right?
Yes. But that encryption is to keep non Google people from seeing your data. It is not for Google to not see your data.
When it comes to encryption, the only safe way to encrypt your files is for you, personally, on your own computer, to encrypt your files.
Think about it. If Google is encrypting your files, then Google has your files "in the clear", which is why they encrypt them. But before Google encrypts your files, do you trust them to not first make copies, in the clear, for their own business purposes?
But Google says that my connection between them and me is encrypted.
Correct. But that is used to keep non Google people from seeing your data, while you are sending it to Google. Once it gets to Google, it is 100% in the clear, for them to see and use as easily as you do on your own computer. After they do whatever it is they do with your uploaded files, they then encrypt your files. And Google can have a master key to your files. It is simple to have more than one password to unlock encrypted files. And Google, a huge tech company, knows that.
Unless you have nothing personal that you care about that you upload to Google, or unless you encrypt your files before you upload them to Google, you are nuts to share you personal files with Google, Microsoft, or any cloud storage service.
You are putting your personal files on other people's computers. Those people are complete strangers. You have zero knowledge of who they are.
Lastly, if you read the fine print in whatever legal agreements you are required to agree to, you will see that any data that you upload to Google becomes owned by Google.
You will have to search every document that you had to agree to, including any links in those documents, etc. And you have to catch the slimy legalese language they they use. They do not come right out and say that they own your data.
They own your data. They receive your data in the clear. They are the biggest spyware company on the planet. They are complete strangers.
And yet people are thrilled to hand them their personal data.
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