Homme_Tanks [he/him, they/them]

You can still download the old gui version for free. I use it to run a second simultaneous instance of AmScope software on a device at work. (Two microscope feeds on same screen for x y viewing)

I’m not totally clear on how sandboxie plus comes into play as one or both versions are open source

Not an expert, but I’ve been looking into this and it seems like grapheneOS is the way to go if you really want control and security on a modern phone with timely updates (you would have to switch devices). The timely-ness of updates/patches on other platforms is a big criticism that I saw brought up a lot in disussions online. Not sure how much of a problem that truly is, if at all, but it is something to look into before committing to a big change.

Also one thing to look into before doing anything drastic would be taking advantage of shizuku with something like Canta. As I understand it, shizuku is like an inter-app request mediator that is able to abuse wireless debugging access to grant root-like permissions to linked applications without requiring root access or an unlocked bootloader. This should allow you to do some serious debloating.

From what I have read, living without google play services is possible to an extent (using FOSS alternative), but can be difficult / not 100% due to how google has positioned the bundled play services specifically as an authority in modern android

I love lenovo laptops, but IMO only buy from them during their big annual sale (I believe it happens around this time each year) and avoid the “businessman” lines (like x1 carbon). I had an e220s (thinkpad) with a low wattage processor and it served dutifully for over 7 years (my older HPs, dells, etc only ever lasted around 3 years before shitting the bed). There may be other good options these days. If you are looking to spend $, I would get look for a professional “workstation” style notebook with discrete graphics rather than a gaming one. If you really need windows for work stuff, use massgrave to activate Win 10 LTSC for free

Do not step on that bug just put him outside

There is a new web fingerprinting technique that uses your GPU’s individual idiosyncratic performance characteristics to enable/boost efficacy of web fingerprinting: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/researchers-use-gpu-fingerprinting-to-track-users-online/

A team of researchers from French, Israeli, and Australian universities has explored the possibility of using people’s GPUs to create unique fingerprints and use them for persistent web tracking. The results of their large-scale experiment involving 2,550 devices with 1,605 distinct CPU configurations show that their technique, named ‘DrawnApart,’ can boost the median tracking duration to 67% compared to current state-of-the-art methods.

https://arxiv.org/pdf/2201.09956

I wonder if I’m not the only one: Nearly every time I fire up Teams at home for the weekly progress meeting, it tries to trick me into selecting an option letting ‘my organization’ have administrative control over my entire PC