 Do you value your privacy? If you do, you should be running a free and open source operating system like Linux. Proprietary operating systems like Windows, Mac, Chrome OS, Android, iOS, they do not respect you, the user. I've made many videos in the past discussing the privacy benefits of Linux over the proprietary alternatives like Windows and Mac, and I get a lot of resistance from people. In the comments section, especially from Windows users, Mac users, DT, you don't really know what Windows is doing to its users. You don't know if they're really data mining us or spying on us or key logging us. No one really knows how can you be so sure that they're doing all this nasty, nefarious stuff to us. Well, yes, I guess I can't pinpoint exactly what they're doing to you because they're hiding it. But here's the thing, I can give you a bunch of real world examples of how Linux greatly benefits you as far as privacy over the proprietary alternatives such as Windows and Mac, and that's what I'm going to discuss today. So let me show you some tangible benefits, some real world benefits that you'll immediately spot. If you've ever used something like Microsoft Windows, I'm going to show you some stuff on Linux that will really make this click as how Linux respects you. So let me switch over to this virtual machine of Ubuntu. I'm using Ubuntu as an example here, but this could be any popular Linux distribution. I'm just using Ubuntu because Ubuntu is the most popular Linux desktop distribution. Typically, when you install Ubuntu and most Linux distributions, when you run through the installation, they ask you, do you want to connect to your online services? Do you have a Google account that you want to connect to or a NextCloud, Microsoft accounts? Maybe you want to connect to social media stuff like Facebook and Twitter and things like that. Do you want us to go ahead and connect you to all of that stuff, let you connect your operating system to all this stuff that you're already using? If you don't have these accounts, we don't care if you sign up for them, right? We're not asking you to sign up for them. We're not forcing you to sign up for them. They don't care if you don't have any of these accounts. It makes absolutely no difference to Ubuntu because Ubuntu is not making any money if you don't have a Google account or a Microsoft account, right? They don't care. But if you've ever tried to install something like Android, you have to have a Gmail account, right? To connect to the Android operating system when you go get a new phone and register, you have to have a Gmail account. Even if you're not a Gmail user, you're going to have to create a Gmail account just to activate your phone. That's crazy. Same thing with Microsoft. You're running through these Windows installations. They want you to connect to all kinds of Microsoft accounts, accounts you didn't have before trying to install Windows, but Windows makes you set up those accounts. Why? It's because the more services that you're tied to with them, the more they can actually spy on you, data mine you. They know everything you're doing on your computer and that way, the more they know about you, the better they can serve you, ads, the better they can sell products to you because at the end of the day, you're not a computer user to the proprietary operating system. You're not a user. You're the used. They're using you. And I know I can't be the only one that hates when these proprietary operating systems basically force me to sign up for these accounts that I don't want because you know as soon as they ask you that and they trap you into it, you know you're getting played. Everyone watching this knows that that is shady as hell and no one should be forced into signing up for these kinds of accounts. Well, you don't have to worry about that on Linux. The other big way that Linux respects you and your privacy is the apps that are installed on Linux. If I go into the app menu here, the apps that are here, they're all privacy respecting. They don't track you in any way. All the apps on your Linux distributions, they're typically free and open source applications. So if they were doing anything scandalous to you, anybody can look at the code and could figure it out. You would know about it, right? Also there's no Crippleware here. There's no just bloatware. There's none of these trial software programs that are installed on Linux. One of the things I love when I install Linux is all of the applications that are installed, they automatically just work out of the box for free. They're constantly updated. I never have to worry about anything where if you've ever installed something like Microsoft Windows, half the stuff that is pre-installed on Windows is trialware. It's programs that are just going to work for a few days or a few weeks and then you have to actually pay for the program or they stop working. So most of the stuff that's installed on Microsoft Windows is not really applications. You're going to use long term. Most of it is stuff you didn't want anyway. Again, Microsoft is actually just trying to sell you stuff. Obviously, the reason they have this trialware stuff is because they get a cut of the money, right? They're trying again to use you. And if they can't get you to actually purchase software, sometimes in their software they will include banners, pop-ups, advertisements of some kind. Sometimes they'll include ads in their start menus and things like that in the browsers. And Linux does not do any of this stuff. You're never going to be served these banner ads and pop-ups. You're never going to be annoyed with Linux because Linux being free and open source. If a Linux distribution treated you like this, well, you would just quit using that Linux distribution and move somewhere else. And Linux distributions know this. That's why none of them treat you the way Microsoft Windows treats its users. Microsoft Windows treats its users like that is because they know you can't really go anywhere. At least that's what they think. But that's not true. You can go to Linux. One of the things about the proprietary operating systems like Windows is sometimes some of the tracking and, you know, a lot of the spyware and stuff that they have installed on their operating system you can't get rid of. They really don't tell you it's there. Even if you knew it was there, there's no way for you to rip that stuff out of the operating system. If there was a way they would try their best to prevent you from doing that. But that's not the case with Linux. If I actually get into the menu system here in Ubuntu and let me open the settings manager here and in the left hand column, if I go to privacy, you see they even have a privacy dedicated settings manager here. For example, Ubuntu by default, I'm sending crash reports back to Ubuntu to help the Ubuntu team improve on some of their development things like that. But if I wanted to turn some of this stuff off, you know, I could turn off connectivity, location services. I don't have any enabled out of the box. But if I did, I could turn them off after enabling them file history and trash. Of course, I could, you know, delete all of my cache files and trash and things like that. I could set up a screen locker, turn off our own notification like you can do a lot here inside Ubuntu and any Linux distribution settings that are really not there for you guys that are using the proprietary alternatives. The other big privacy thing that Linux does that your proprietary operating systems typically don't let you do or they try to prevent you from doing is I can encrypt my drives on Linux. Like if I wanted to install Ubuntu and actually have an encrypted drive and encrypted file system, meaning it's password protected, if somebody stole my computer, stole my laptop and tried to access information on that drive, they couldn't actually get into it without the password, the pass key, whatever's locking that device, because I can set up encryption because Ubuntu doesn't care, right? Manjaro or whatever Linux distribution for door, they don't care if you encrypt your drives because they're not trying to spy on you. They're not trying to read what you're doing on your devices anyway, or some of the proprietary operating systems, they really don't want you to encrypt your stuff because they want to be able to read it easy. And, you know, if you're encrypting your drives with all these fancy encryption techniques, sometimes that makes spying on you a little more difficult and they would prefer you not to do that. And of course, the biggest reason why I love Linux over the proprietary alternatives is the fact that I can get updates. I can get updates every day. I just, in this case, I could open a terminal and type the command to update or there's a graphical update center here in Ubuntu if I search for update, if I can spell the word, right? You know, the software center here is actually going to go and search for updates for me if there's any available. I could install them and they're just free. All my applications just get updated to the latest versions for free. I don't have to pay anything, right? They're not locked behind a paywall. Like some operating systems and how that's really dangerous, not just for privacy, is for security. For security reasons, you want to be on the latest software. You want to have the latest kernel and the latest web browser because so many things, so many hackers are trying to get at you through the browser, right? You need up-to-date software. And the last thing you want is for your operating system to be holding you back from those updates. Ultimately, I use Linux because I know it's not funneling all of my information back to some evil corporation, right? Because that's what Microsoft's doing, right? They're data mining you. They have a file on you. They know everyone that's ever had any kind of Microsoft account, anybody that's ever used Windows, anybody that's ever registered for Windows, they're keeping up with you. You're a product to them. Same thing with Google. I know, especially in the open source community, a lot of people like to imagine that Google is our friend. They're not. If you have an Android phone and Gmail account and all these other Google accounts, trust me, you're being used by Google. You're a product to them. They have a file on you. Ultimately, I know some of the comments on this video. I'm going to get a lot of hate about being paranoid and, you know, if I didn't have anything to hide, why do I need to worry about privacy? Yada, yada, yada. You know, the same old tired argument some of you guys have, but I showed you tangible examples, right? Because at the end of the day, do you want Candy Crush ads in your operating system? I don't. And I bet you don't either. Now, before I go, I need to thank a few special people. I need to thank the producers of this episode. I'm talking about Dustin Gabe, James Matt, Maxim, Emmett, Michael Mitchell, Paul West. When you bought homey Allen, Armored Dragon, Chuck, Commander, Ringerie, Diokai, Dylan, Greg, Marshall, Erion, Alexander, Paul, Peace, Archon, Vador, Polytech, Realiteats, Red Prophet, Steven, Tools, Devler, and Willie. These guys, they're my highest tiered patrons. Over on Patreon without these guys, this episode would not have been possible. The show is also brought to you by each and every one of these ladies and gentlemen. All these names you're seeing on the screen right now, these are all my supporters over on Patreon because I don't have any corporate sponsors. I'm sponsored by you guys, the community. If you like my work and want to see more videos about Linux, free and open source software, privacy respecting software, subscribe to DistroTube over on Patreon. All right guys, peace. Linux doesn't force me to buy a antivirus program.