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Ask HN: How can I prepare my digital life for geopolitical disruptions?

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Re: Ask HN: How can I prepare my digital life for geopolitical disruptions?

#11

Post by gmuslera »

Having local copies of your data may be a sane thing to do even without a geopolitical disruption. If you can't afford to lose something, have it backed up.

But your digital life is more than just photos. If there is hostility to everything that is US based, then everything made or hosted by US based companies may be compromised in ways that you may not predict now. Apple, Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, etc may have to comply with government orders, whatever they are.

Linux may be safer from that, you have Suse Linux if you want something supported locally.

Re: Ask HN: How can I prepare my digital life for geopolitical disruptions?

#12

Post by mwinatschek »

gmuslera wrote: post #11

Having local copies of your data may be a sane thing to do even without a geopolitical disruption. If you can't afford to lose something, have it backed up. But your digital life is more than just photos. If there is hostility to everything that is US based, then everything made or hosted by US based companies may be compromised in ways that you may not predict now. Apple, Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, etc may…

I remember installing OpenSuse on my PC from a random magazine CD over 20 years ago. Back to square one I guess. But how exactly would choosing a European-based Linux distro be better than a US-based one in the event of a Transatlantic war?

Re: Ask HN: How can I prepare my digital life for geopolitical disruptions?

#13

Post by gmuslera »

mwinatschek wrote: post #12
gmuslera wrote: post #11

Having local copies of your data may be a sane thing to do even without a geopolitical disruption. If you can't afford to lose something, have it backed up. But your digital life is more than just photos. If there is hostility to everything that is US based, then everything made or hosted by US based companies may be compromised in ways that you may not predict now. Apple, Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, etc may…

I remember installing OpenSuse on my PC from a random magazine CD over 20 years ago. Back to square one I guess. But how exactly would choosing a European-based Linux distro be better than a US-based one in the event of a Transatlantic war?

The code is open. The distribution, the binaries, are built on Germany. Maybe Redhat could be forced to add something in the case of such kind of war, but a German company will be out of this.

Re: Ask HN: How can I prepare my digital life for geopolitical disruptions?

#14

Post by markus_zhang »

I doubt there will be a direct military conflict between US and EU. I don't see how either side gains from it. I think what the current US government really wants is to extract enough $$ from the European countries by forcing them to increase military expenditures and deployments.

But in case it does happen, I think Apple is the least of your trouble. I would just stock everything into a hard-disk and store it somewhere underground.

Linux foundation is based in US but I'm sure Europe has enough talented developers to maintain their own branches.

Re: Ask HN: How can I prepare my digital life for geopolitical disruptions?

#15

Post by yeyeyeyeyeyeyee »

I don't believe we are facing a military conflict soon, but it is clear that something fundamental has changed, and even if suddenly the US government does a 180, it's a whooole lot of toothpaste to put back in the tube.

Essentially, start freezing US dependencies out of your tech stack and take control:

- Run Linux on your machines

- Run GrapheneOS on your mobile

- Select services from this list: https://european-alternatives.eu/

- Keep local and off-line copies of your important data, and maintain frequent backups

- Block companies that comply willingly with unfair practices at your network edge (e.g. with a Pi-hole for DNS-based blocking, and you get ad blocking in addition)

Re: Ask HN: How can I prepare my digital life for geopolitical disruptions?

#16

Post by runjake »

prophoto wrote: post #4

How about going for an independent cloud storage like Dropbox, they are not affiliated to any OS or Windows platforms

Dropbox has had a number of security concerns[1].

Dropbox is headquartered in the US and is subject to US law, and interpretations thereof.

Dropbox has a history of taking on US government bureaucrats for roles in the company, including members of the US Intelligence Community[2].

If any of these clash with your threat model, look elsewhere? Syncthing[3] might be your thing.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dropbox#Privacy_and_security_c...

2. No link, because someone "sterilized" Dropbox's Wikipedia article of those particular controversies.

3. https://syncthing.net/

Re: Ask HN: How can I prepare my digital life for geopolitical disruptions?

#18

Post by z3wasoft3r »

> Recent political tensions have made me question what might happen in the event of a military conflict between the US and Europe.

Chill out. That's not feasible. Europe lacks the military capability to sustain such a war.

Germany is still trying to figure out who was behind the Nord Stream II explosion, isn’t it? Considering that the German elite and political class have already sabotaged their own economy to please the Democrats, why would they behave any differently now? The real turning point came when Germany chose to align with the U.S. in the Ukraine conflict. The tragic irony is that despite the elites sacrificing everything for Washington, the new administration now seeks to push them out entirely and replace them with an outsider nazi Party - the AfD.

It’s wild how nothing went Germany’s way, but given what they did to Greece a decade ago… well, there’s a certain irony in how it all unfolded.

Re: Ask HN: How can I prepare my digital life for geopolitical disruptions?

#20

Post by ipaddr »

Go with one of these:

Debian – France, Germany, Switzerland Ubuntu – United Kingdom Linux Mint – Ireland Manjaro – Germany, Austria, France openSUSE – Germany Zorin OS – Ireland elementary OS – Denmark Kali Linux – Switzerland (formerly Germany) Tails – France Endless OS – Portugal

You can go Canadian: Gentoo Linux – Canada ParrotOS – Canada (initially developed in Italy, but has contributors in Canada) Redcore Linux – Canada LiteOS – Canada

Stay away from these: Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) – USA Fedora – USA CentOS (Discontinued, replaced by CentOS Stream) – USA Rocky Linux – USA AlmaLinux – USA Arch Linux – USA Slackware – USA Pop!_OS – USA Clear Linux – USA Tiny Core Linux – USA

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