Why you should uninstall Windows right now.

And other software that takes away your fundamental human rights.

Introduction

Welcome, This guide is written to enhance our fundamental human rights as stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights[www.un.org], It is a short overview of why proprietary software is bad and using Windows or Mac unless you absolutely have to is just plain stupid

It is also a nice guide to shut up trolls in various discussions claiming immoral and unethical statements, Let them all come here and discuss it in a single place. Any comment, positive or negative will contribute to this guide. I do not care about the rating, Trolls gonna troll, All claims are backed up by sources which are backed up by evidence I imagine anyone is capable to come to their own conclusions.

For Game Developers, This guide will explain in detail why Linux ports are important, Building a Linux version might not be the biggest profit, Ofcourse Profit is the driving factor, But porting to Linux is the right thing to do, It shows you care about the future of humanity, It shows you love your game, that It is not just built for Profit. It helps enhance our human rights, It is not hard, It is just something you need to keep in mind from beginning to end. And when people become more aware of the unjust that is proprietary software Those Linux ports will become more profitable by the day. Gabe Newell said; Linux is the Future of Gaming. Optionally using an Open Source Game Engine like Godot also has tons of benefits. Like no royalty fees, Absolute ownership of your complete game, You can even legally fork and adjust the engine to exactly fit your needs.

Proprietary software

Windows and OSX are both proprietary operating systems. This means the code is never really yours, You can not see the source, you may not reverse engineer anything. And this sounds useless. Why would you need to own software instead of a license, Why would you need to see the source or Why would you reverse engineer it? It all comes down to our fundamental human rights, Our right to privacy, And our right to freedom of association for example. To ensure the commitment of a piece of software to our human rights we need to audit the code, Which is impossible unless you reverse engineer it, which is illegal, and very hard to do.

And you may say, Yeah I don't care[en.wikipedia.org], But that is a very thoughtless statement, Ofcourse you care, our Right to Privacy[en.wikipedia.org] does not exist without reason. it is to protect people from from misintepretation, If i want to learn about certain subjects that does not make me a suspect. If i say I killed him with a shotgun to the face, I could be talking about a game. There is also a reason any good laywer[www.vice.com] will always tell you to not talk to the police[www.learnliberty.org] even if you are innocent[www.latimes.com]. Lots of innocent people get locked up because someone sees words in a completely different context. It is also to prevent abuse, Imagine if everyone knew everything about you, Criminals, Salesman, Employers, Everyone could prey on your weaknesses and trick you into things you don't even want to.

Sure it is a matter of trust, But can you really trust a company in securing your rights? Would you put your life in their hands? Because that is what most people are doing. it might sound silly, But your digital life is enough to take everything from you. your identity, Your money, even your friends. People can set you up for a crime you did not commit You can even go to prison in real life for something that your online identity did.

And you may think, Yeah governments, They are here to protect us from stuff like that, Well guess again. Governments are actually the leading cause of digital insecurity. The NSA for example forces companies like Apple, Google, Facebook and Microsoft to implement PRISM[en.wikipedia.org], Which is a piece of spyware that infiltrates Social Networks and Proprietary software. They are not allowed to disclose this information, And are forced to deny any claims of cooperation or existance of PRISM. Australia[www.zdnet.com] and China[en.wikipedia.org] made something similiar forced by law, Which is why the US bans Huawei, If the five eyes[en.wikipedia.org] (US, UK, CA, AU, NZ) track people it is ok, but if China does it, that is a big no no. More on Global surveillance Later

You buy a license instead of a copy, You sign an agreement instead of getting ownership and control over your hardware. I understand companies have to protect their IP, And if something is Open Source anyone can fork it and use it however they like. But doesn't that drive innovation? Doesn't that push companies like Microsoft to push the best Windows they can? Yes it will, Else someone else will. It might be a risk, But it ensures progress, It makes something for the greater good. Microsoft, Apple, They are not in it for the greater good, They are in it for the money, They will never have enough, and sadly money talks, People say Epic is anti-consumer, Well take a good look at Microsoft. They both do good things, But that does not compensate for the evil. Tim Sweeney saves forests and destroys PC gaming with his fortnite profit model for his own gain. Bill Gates has a great charity and destroys human rights with his proprietary OS for his own gain.

I am not saying you should abandon everything that is proprietary, But your Operating System is the base for everything you do, I don't know about you guys, But my PC is an extension of my brain, It knows everything about me, It might even know me better than I know myself. Every key I ever pressed, Every page I ever visited, All my personal files, literally everything goes through the Operating System. Having this vital part of your system infected with spyware is just bad on so many levels, Like what is the use of SSL or any security measure when you use Windows?

Sure Steam is Proprietary, And i wish it was Open Source, But I understand we are far from a digital utopia. Steam is also not my major concern, Sure i chat through Steam, I write reviews, I play games, But everything I do is public, I do not write personal notes in Steam, I do not store Passwords in Steam, I don't store private photos and Valve doesn't even need to know your real identity. Sure there is a big possibility PRISM is in Steam, But i don't care they know I am a gamer, They can read my review, because i chose to publish it. It is also hard to mask malicious intent for a program, An OS can mask anything it pleases when it is not Open Source.

Sure most games are proprietary, But this is kinda obvious, If games where open source people could just compile the games themselfes without paying for it, Honestly i would be more likely pay for a donation DLC of a game on Steam if it was Open source, But sadly I am not most people, so I understand that this is not an option for game developers that expect certain profits. But games are not very likely to contain spyware, Any game has too low of a userbase to be interesting, A game does not collect much usefull information and if it did the risk would be very high for the company itself.

Privacy, Security and Global Surveillance

The problem with proprietary software is that it can claim security, It doesn't matter what companies claim about their software, If it is proprietary that's all it ever will be, claims without anything to back it up, We need to put our trust in companies that they ensure our safety while being forced to do otherwise by governments, Open source software has the security advantage because anyone can audit the code for potential security leaks. If they use it, they have good reason to. Especially in the case of Linux, This is being audited by millions of skilled people all the time.

Governments also force companies to not patch security leaks so they can abuse it, They even know of Zero days and won't share them with the public. But if they can abuse it, anyone can. Any black hat hacker can abuse these same leaks and get access to systems to do all sorts of evil. Why do you think Spies, Journalists, Diplomats, Hackers, these government agencies and security focused people in general use Linux? Because proprietary software can not be trusted, Even if the company's motto is "Don't be Evil" then the government will make sure of it.

Windows has full control over all your hardware, it has a built in keylogger that registers every keystroke you make, It also listens to your voice all the time in the case you want to search something, Sure you can disable these functions, But really? It also has access to other connected devices, like your hard drives, USB Sticks, your Phone, Other devices in the network, They can even remotely install software and watch the webcam on your computer without your permission or knowledge. Mac, iOS, Android all do the same thing, It would be hypocritical to only look at Windows.

What if this data leaks, Maybe they get hacked, Maybe they make a mistake, Maybe A war breaks out and they take physical control over the data centers, All this data would ensure a flawless victory, Knowledge is power, Nobody should have this amount of power over anyone. It is a security risk and this is exactly why the right to privacy exists. All this data should be destroyed

This is becoming more and more of a pressing issue, Now we have GPS enabled internet connected cameras and microphones in our pockets, But IoT is becoming more and more of a thing, Smart homes, smart watches, Smart TVs, IP Cameras, All kinds of sensors, Face recognition, voice recognition, Heartbeat recognition. And 95% of all this stuff is proprietary. It is not yours, it works against you, to abuse and manipulate you

This raping of our human rights is all being done in the name of "war on terror" Funny when you realize John Hanke Founder of Niantic (The company behind Pokemon GO) has been funded by the NSA for several of his projects and augmented reality in general. The NSA does not need Pokemon GO to get access to your location your camera or your microphone, But they sure work better when they are held in front of people all the time. Terrorists don't go playing around some augmented reality game. The NSA is nothing without Google, And Google would not have existed without funding from the CIA, Google was pushed to be spyware from the beginning.

This war on terror only costs money, People lose their freedoms over it, they blur the lines of ethical and they never actually stopped a terrorist attack, Terrorists sadly are smarter than to use proprietary spyware. This war on terror is an excuse to spy on people It is not about the war on terror, It is about world domination through information. In the truest form of the word Terrorism, The war on terror is Terrorism.

Freedom of Speech/Thought, Censorship

Even your thoughts are affected by the software you use. Proprietary social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, etc literally control the world media. It allows for idiots like Alex Jones to get a hold onto "useful Idiots". I am not saying social media is a bad thing. But it is a bad thing when they control what is relevant and what is not, Nobody should have that control. It is putting people in bubbles showing them what they want to see and not actually giving them what they need to see.

Allow everything or allow nothing. Sure fake news is a bad thing, But censorship is even worse It also allows real news to be censored. And Search bubbles are exactly the same, Google shows you want you want to see, It does not list reliable sources first, It lists the people who pay first, And the rest of the results are just results that align with your believes. It is a form of censorship, We find what we want to find, not what we need to find.

Without anonymity we can't have free thought, Because we all get placed in our own bubbles, With that we all get our own "facts" that confirm our believes, our thoughts influence what we talk about and with that said, Are your thoughts even your own? Do you have free thought? And is your opinion your opinion? Do you have free speech, Or is it a manifestation of pushed propaganda over the years?

It is extremely hard to battle this, And nothing can protect you from it, Else it would be another form of censorship. The best thing you can do is fact check everything, Confirm it with multiple trustworthy sources, use your brain. Inform people to do the same. The only way we can get our rights back is to stay anonymous, Stop feeding data to social media, Stop funding proprietary software, Vote against any depreciation of our fundamental human rights.

Icing on the Cake

Windows is pre loaded with all kinds of Malware, PRISM ofcourse, Advertisements or Adware, Then there is the telemetry, And you can turn it "off" But really? The software will still be there, You can't remove it. Just expect Microsoft (and its 3rd parties) to track every little bit of you regardless of your settings.

Windows is just annoying, Looking for a particular setting? Well search probably won't help, It probably is somewhere in one of the thousands of setting menus. Do you want to run software? Well not before pressing yes 3 times. Oh you need your computer? Well better press not now every 15 minutes or your computer will reboot and take forever to install 2 updates.

The way you have to install software is just a security risk, If you search for any program on google you can be sure 50% is malware. Then there is the issue of updating every piece of software on your computer seperately. On Linux it is all done with 1 program, and it installs hundreds of updates within minutes.

Most software on Windows costs money, Which is fine if it where actual useful tools, But the amount of crappy "freemium" software out there is astonishing. People buy it and install it because they paid for it, They might even use it while it displays ads, hogs up resources or while there are much better alternatives availalbe.

Virus scanners hog up resources and most of the time they give false alerts and if you have foreign malware (as in not pre installed malware) like ransomware it fails to detect it because Hackers just use a crypter and it wil repackage a program so that anti virus software doesn't recognize it anymore. Even if you have 10 virus scanners installed, it will just execute the malware.

If you run Windows, there is a big chance you are someones "slave" And they are just waiting for the right moment to blackmail you, You can buy slaves for a few cents, They watch slaves trough the webcam, listen to them trough the microphone. They just watch what you do with your on and around your computer, and if they find a way to exploit you they will do it.

The average Windows PC has 14 weaponized vulnerabilities[www.forbes.com], Which is just insane to me. The fact that some people choose to pay for and use Windows just to have their human rights violated is just out of this world.

Sources

I know Anyone can edit Wikipedia, But Wikipedia also lists sources, Double check everything. Don't take my word for it. Come to your own conclusions.


Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
https://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/index.html

TV remotes integrated microphone
https://www.theverge.com/2017/4/25/15421326/smart-tv-hacking-cia-samsung-weeping-angel-vulnerability
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/07/world/europe/wikileaks-cia-hacking.html

Internet Companies track all your data
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/28/all-the-data-facebook-google-has-on-you-privacy
https://www.ibtimes.com/facebook-keeps-getting-sued-over-face-recognition-software-privacy-groups-say-we-2082166
https://www.wired.com/story/amazon-echo-and-google-home-voice-data-delete/

Never talk to the police, even if you are innocent.
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-duane-dont-talk-police-20160826-snap-story.html
https://www.learnliberty.org/blog/advice-from-cops-dont-talk-to-cops/
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/mvkgnp/law-professor-police-interrogation-law-constitution-survival

Government server breached
https://www.pcmag.com/news/341818/breach-exposes-data-from-thousands-of-dhs-employees
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/09/us/hackers-access-employee-records-at-justice-and-homeland-security-depts.html?_r=0
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/10/us/office-of-personnel-management-hackers-got-data-of-millions.html
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/sep/23/us-government-hack-stole-fingerprints
https://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2010/10/22/wikileaks-reveals-the-biggest-classified-data-breach-in-history/#7242792a6353

NSA funds Niantic (Pokemon GO)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In-Q-Tel
https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/yvepdx/pokemon-go-moral-panics-satanism-infosec
https://sociable.co/technology/cia-backed-pokemon-go-privacy/

Bad EULA
https://www.eff.org/wp/dangerous-terms-users-guide-eulas
http://asyd.net/docs/misc/comparing_the_gpl_to_eula.pdf
https://1025kiss.com/no-one-reads-the-terms-and-conditions-and-heres-why/
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/TECH/web/05/06/itunes.terms/
https://www.foxnews.com/tech/7500-online-shoppers-unknowingly-sold-their-souls

Five Eyes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Eyes
http://cdfai.org.previewmysite.com/PDF/Canada%20and%20the%20Five%20Eyes%20Intelligence%20Community.pdf
https://web.archive.org/web/20140202105224/http://usacac.army.mil/cac2/call/thesaurus/toc.asp?id=37622
https://web.archive.org/web/20140201113535/http://www.doncio.navy.mil/ContentView.aspx?ID=3978

Echelon
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECHELON
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/820758.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/sci/tech/1357513.stm

RAMPART A
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAMPART-A
https://web.archive.org/web/20160313201540/https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1200865-uodds2overview-v1-1-redacted-information-dk.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20180722111501/https://www.information.dk/udland/2014/06/nsa-third-party-partners-tap-the-internet-backbone-in-global-surveillance-program
https://web.archive.org/web/20180321194347/https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1200860-odd-s3-overviewnov2011-v1-0-redacted-information.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20180321194335/https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.documentcloud.org/documents/1200866/foreignpartneraccessbudgetfy2013-redacted.pdf

Bullrun
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullrun_(decryption_program)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/05/nsa-gchq-encryption-codes-security
https://www.propublica.org/article/the-nsas-secret-campaign-to-crack-undermine-internet-encryption
https://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/06/us/nsa-foils-much-internet-encryption.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1
https://www.ibtimes.com/edward-snowden-reveals-secret-decryption-programs-10-things-you-need-know-about-bullrun-edgehill

Edward Snowden
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Snowden
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Snowden#United_States
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-charges-snowden-with-espionage/2013/06/21/507497d8-dab1-11e2-a016-92547bf094cc_story.html?utm_term=.d83dab4ab6af
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/25/edward-snowden-nsa-wikipedia-founder
https://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/why-edward-snowden-is-a-hero

Weeping Angel
https://fossbytes.com/wikileaks-friday-weeping-angel-by-cia-a-hacking-tool-for-your-television/
https://wikileaks.org/ciav7p1/cms/page_12353643.html
https://www.wsj.com/articles/wikileaks-reveals-cia-hacking-projects-from-weeping-angel-to-hammer-drill-1489017814
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/mar/07/wikileaks-publishes-biggest-ever-leak-of-secret-cia-documents-hacking-surveillance

China
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_in_China
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_surveillance_in_China

Australia
https://www.zdnet.com/article/australias-anti-encryption-law-will-merely-relocate-the-backdoors-expert/
https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2018-10-02/proposed-surveillance-laws-draw-international-criticism/10300170
https://www.zdnet.com/article/whats-actually-in-australias-encryption-laws-everything-you-need-to-know/

EU
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_and_surveillance_in_Europe
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Retention_Directive
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/ALL/?uri=CELEX:32006L0024
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence_Act_(France)
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/11/04/german_secret_service_taps_phones/
https://privacyinternational.org/sites/default/files/2017-12/Data%20Retention_2017.pdf
https://edri.org/edrigramnumber2-14wiretap/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_surveillance_in_the_United_Kingdom

Russia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_surveillance_in_Russia

How to fact check
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8dPuuaLjXtN07XYqqWSKpPrtNDiCHTzU

Warrant Canary
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warrant_canary

You can not even trust yourself
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_thought#History_of_development_and_suppression

Too much fake news
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fake_news
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/fake-news-twitter-spreads-further-faster-real-stories-retweets-political-a8247491.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/06/us/fake-news-partisan-republican-democrat.html

Free Speech?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_speech_by_country

Free Thought?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_thought#History_of_development_and_suppression

Libre Software
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software
https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/philosophy.html

Linux
https://www.gnu.org/gnu/why-gnu-linux.html
https://fsfe.org/freesoftware/transcripts/rms-fs-2006-03-09.en.html
https://www.wired.com/2004/12/linux-fewer-bugs-than-rivals/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho/2019/07/17/these-windows-10-vs-pop-os-benchmarks-reveal-a-surprising-truth-about-linux-gaming-performance/#cce0dc15e747
http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/linux/faster-zombies/
https://beardedgiant.games/benefits-of-supporting-linux-if-you-are-a-small-indie-developer/
https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=june-2018-gpus&num=1
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho/2019/03/01/windows-10-versus-linux-6-steam-games-benchmarked-on-intels-hades-

Security Advantages
http://www.albion.com/security/intro-7.html
https://dwheeler.com/oss_fs_why.html#security

Who uses Linux?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Linux_adopters#Scientific_institutions

Why use an Adblocker?
https://www.pcmag.com/g00/news/307680/online-advertising-more-likely-to-spread-malware-than-porn?i10c.ua=1&i10c.encReferrer=&i10c.dv=18
http://www.sectheory.com/browser-power-consumption.htm

Some more
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_surveillance
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRISM_(surveillance_program)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XKeyscore
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nothing_to_hide_argument
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_privacy
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/national/black-budget/

Sources 2

https://www.forbes.com/sites/daveywinder/2020/04/21/the-average-windows-10-pc-has-14-weaponized-vulnerabilities-new-research-finds/#2b74c33f2fd9
https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=june-2018-gpus&num=1
https://beardedgiant.games/benefits-of-supporting-linux-if-you-are-a-small-indie-developer/
http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/linux/faster-zombies/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho/2019/07/17/these-windows-10-vs-pop-os-benchmarks-reveal-a-surprising-truth-about-linux-gaming-performance/#704e38985e74
https://www.wired.com/2004/12/linux-fewer-bugs-than-rivals/
https://www.lifewire.com/windows-vs-linux-mint-2200609
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho/2019/03/01/windows-10-versus-linux-6-steam-games-benchmarked-on-intels-hades-canyon-nuc/#7ed2c61c78ce
https://www.diffen.com/difference/Linux_vs_Windows
https://www.techrepublic.com/article/5-fundamental-differences-between-windows-10-and-linux/
https://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000575.htm
https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/nsa-linux-journal-extremist-forum-and-its-readers-get-flagged-extra-surveillance
https://daserste.ndr.de/panorama/aktuell/NSA-targets-the-privacy-conscious,nsa230.html
https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/are-you-extremist

Conclusion

I hope i have convinced you to at least put a bit more thought in the software you use, and how you use it.

If I have convinced you to try Linux, Check out my other guide, How to choose the right Linux Distribution.

Any Questions, Suggestions, Comments are more than welcome. The guide is far from complete and any help is greatly appreciated.

[GNU+Swag]

my operating system is easily hackable and that's a good thing!

[The Xenoblade guy]

Linux is a unix like.
And Linux never saw a hack like wannacry.
There are almost no viruses and tho who exist are much less efficiant.

[StealthMode]

Well hell. Lets go away from the CLOSED SOURCE secure coded Winblowz....
To the Open Source easily hackable LINUS LINUX.

No thanks.
Id run UNIX before I ever ran Linux.

[tyl0413]

Yeah i think it's a better idea to run games and all the spyware they require on Windows than on your main linux system.

[damir]

I run WIndows on my PC gaming machine. I don't run other applications but games.

Why should I uninstall Windows and play games on emulation in different oprerating system for which games are not designed or supported?

Why should anyone ruin his Linux security by installing games on it?

If you want privatness and security use two machines. One for gaming, one for work. And do not trust that Linux is entirely private as you think.

[veki]

waiting for better vr support on linux before im back to using it again

[The Xenoblade guy]

From what i know, at least here in german or the eu (at least one of both) actually allows you to reverse engineer apps/platform if it "minders the usability of the application" or something like that.
So you can reverse engineer everything???

And the spying by all those 3 letter agencies only started, well, after a certain day in the early 2000's.
America just thought, that the best way to stop it, would me mass surveilance, without letting anybody know.
At least not letting anyone know, until someone in 2013 told it to the world and now has to live in russia.

[-[CFH]-GHOST53]

i now have Streamos

[-[CFH]-GHOST53]

i all ready took windows 10 off most of computers tryed of it tell me what i can do and what i cant i paid for windows and should beable to run it the way i want

[B1tF1ghter]

@ Melinge
[P 6 F]
Linux isn't scary ;) But you cannot possibly expect everything to be "Windows grade ootb ready". Plus you need to finally fathom that there's a whole plethora of guides/info/blogs online that are misleading and are making people frustrated through lies that make those people expect something else than happens in reality.
It's just that but it is also that much.
Some guides crush dreams. Arch Wiki explicitly states to not follow unofficial guides btw, a "detail" that many people who make guides openly dismiss (ergo: Arch Wiki is very comprehensive and is ENOUGH in 99% of cases, but if anyone wants to make an unofficial guide then the guide should be totally "BLANK SLATE" and not a "BIASED MESS with 'personal choices engraved in the guide'" like the one you followed here).
Hope you understand.
Good luck.