Smartphones are not a tool to manipulate and spy on tge population.

Oh boy, wait until you learn about Google-Analytics on Android phones, or how they predict (or lets say know) where traffic jams are. Does the Section 702 of the USA ring a bell?

They certainly started as a good idea, but they evolved into a widely used surveillance tool for companies and governments across the world.

True, but you can easily switch to Flatpaks and use them instead.

I think to start, Mint or Ubuntu is a good choice, it has support for most hardware and will probably run on whatever you install it.

Also something that I think most new Linux users should focus on; instead of distro pick the desktop environment (DE). As a beginner it does not really matter if you use, lets say, a Debian- or Fedora-based distro. Pick a DE that looks pleasing to you maybe GNOME or KDE and take the installation with that DE. Maybe do not start with Arch or Gentoo as they are for more experienced users that already have some Linux experience.

Distros will be way more interesting and important when you got a hold of Linux and you want to explore the differences of them.

Last tip: Make a separated /home directory, so when you want to change to a new distro you do not have to delete all your files and start over with an empty machine.

I wish you a good start into Linux and do not hesitate to ask questions if they arise!

Definitely not.

I think money can and will never play down the feeling of working for something/someone that is against your principles and ideology. Every day you get up to work, while drinking your morning coffee you will have thoughts and hate about the place you will start working after commuting.

And do not forget, you will mostly have friends with similar ideology, they will disapprove of this too. Good friends will stay nonetheless but discussions will arise portably more often than you’d like about your choosing a workplace that is against all you believe in.

When you just go and work wherever because the pay is good, then your ideology is not more than a façade you hold up for yourself.

The government’s use of Section 702 is subject to extensive and rigorous oversight by all branches of government. All of these reviews have universally concluded that the government is properly using this authority to conduct foreign intelligence collection.

It is from a presentation to justify section 702, the law that NSA uses to spy on any person world wide. Snowden leakes showed the reach of the surveillance under Section 702.

Wait, so people decide on a phone based of OS because of blue or green chat message colors? This is the first time I’m hearing this, is this something more of a USA thing or does this apply to other ocuntries as well?

Buying a phone based on chat bubble color seems something that occurs in a toxic society, where you are judged based on phone model. And why do they then change to an other platform to write you?

I never had a discussion about Andriod or IPhone based on this parameter, it was more about UI, services and design of the phone. To be fair we all use third party messengers like Signal or Threema.