LINUX GEEKS

In this post I'll be referring to "GEEKS" quite a bit. This is not entirely disrespectful, I do appreciate all the work geeks put in, creating open source software. 

But like so many people who have transitioned from Windows to Linux I have come to view geeks as a bizarre sub-species of computer users who take a perverse pleasure in exerting their superiority over NEWBS (New Linux users - I was a newb)

Making the shift from Windows to Linux is neither massively difficult, nor is it entirely easy. It's a bit of both, but a lot of the information online is biased, or badly presented, or created by geeks who are sometimes making things harder than they need to be.

Possibly some computer geeks place a value on themselves that partly stems from being the only ones who understand the technology, so making them gatekeeper tech gods. Which they get a buzz out of. 

Unfortunately this tends to mean that rather than making things easier for newbs by giving them simple instructions, they often give out incomprehensible instructions like "Just enter this simple command in Terminal". Their condescending tone of "this is all really easy" is infuriating and one of the main reasons so many newbs give up.

Geeks seem to be unwilling to accept that about 90% of people using computers are not other geeks, but regular people who want to have most, or even everything they do accessible through buttons and menus that they can click on. 

Personally I like to do everything on my PC using my mouse, and am about as anti keyboard command as it's possible to be. The very word "type" totally turns me off. "Copy & paste" I can do when necessary, but not "type" What I actually want to see are the words "click on".

Life often plays out in strange ways, and I have brain damage to the left hemisphere of my brain, so am very right brain dominant, but I still use computers anyway, and even sometimes seem to end up trying to explain computer stuff to other non-geeks who just want some basic instructions. 

My perspective from being a right brain computer user is a bit different to most of the people who are usually commentating on this stuff, so I imagine any actual geeks who see my posts might view me as a clueless idiot. Which I sort of am.

During the process of transitioning from Windows 7 (Yes, I was still using Win 7 up until 2024) to Linux Mint, it struck me that a lot of the information online is confusing rather than helpful, and I wish I could have read (Yes READ, not viewed endless badly done videos) web-pages that explained things in a way that made sense to me.

Now I want to leave some notes for my friends who at some point will be wanting to escape the clutches of Microsoft. Windows 11 is likely to be the final straw for a lot of people with it's obvious and intrusive spyware, so the end of Windows for non sheeple is looming close on the horizon. 

Linux is the only real option for anyone who wants to continue using a computer without selling their soul to the deep state. (Yes, Apple & Google are spying too)

As I've found from sticking with Windows 7 and refusing to use Windows 8 or Windows 10, it is possible to soldier on for years with an unsupported operating system. 

But installing Windows 7 on more modern hardware is a pig of a job, mainly because sorting out drivers can be really tricky, and there are ever increasing problems with software no longer working properly. 

Linux is the future and I think everyone who wants to use a computer with some degree of privacy is going to have to get the hang of it. So I plan to do some more Linux posts attempting to clarify a few things.

FINDING A TIMER

Really, how hard can this be? I started out thinking. All I wanted was a timer to encourage me to take regular breaks from using my computer.

But as I often seem to find, it was more difficult than I anticipated. I don't even want all that much really, I thought.

I'm running Linux Mint 22 so as far as Linux goes I'm totally mainstream 

To start with I was thinking I'd like an all in one app that included a repeating countdown timer, and a stopwatch.  

Maybe also with a clock, a world clock, and an alarm as well. And of course I'd like a cool looking moving analogue clock showing the time counting down. Also I'd like to be able to customise everything, and make it stylish and purple. 

And obviously I want it all free as well as ad free and open source.

But after trying half a dozen different apps that all sucked for one reason or another, I ditched all my expectations and just went for one that only did the repeating countdown timer part.

I decided upon "STRETCHLY" 

It's not flashy but it does the job, and yes it is available for Windows and Mac as well as Linux. 

Finally I found a timer that does the basics that I really need with no added stressors. But first I had to ditch any other extras and go full Swedish Minimalist.

Hovering over the logo (black & red yin yang) in the far right of my toolbar shows the remaining time until the next break.

I have it set to do a 3 min break every 30 mins. So every 30 mins it gives me a 30 second warning and then my screen changes to a plain blue notification screen telling me to take a three minute break.

At that stage I can't do anything on my computer, I can't even take a screenshot of the notification screen, so to get this picture I had to take a photo with my camera. 

And it works brilliantly. Because I have no choice, I actually do have a break! In fact I get up, bugger off and go and do other things often for a lot longer than three minutes. 

So I get other things done, and feel better after having a break as well.

When I come back to the computer my next 30 min session has started automatically, and already used up a bunch of time, so I right click on the icon and reset the session, starting it again from 30 mins.

I didn't quite grasp this before I tried it, but this basic app is exactly what I needed!

WEBSITE - https://hovancik.net/stretchly/

ONLINE PRIVACY

 Lately I've seen even more discussion about all the AI spyware that is currently being rolled out. But most people seem to be blissfully unaware that pretty much everything they do online is being monitored and recorded by big tech companies like Apple, Google and Microsoft, along with advertising companies, and deep state agencies like the CIA.

A common response upon being informed that they are being spied on, is to just accept it as "normal" and pretty much give up even trying to maintain their privacy. But as we saw with the covidhoax and the death jabs, unless people take responsibility for their own freedom, the deep state plans to enslave and kill us. 

Yes it is possible to maintain your privacy in a surveillance state, but not if you are using a regular "smart" phone or a modern commercial operating system. You can actually keep using computers, phones and the internet, if you want to, and maintain your privacy, but you will need to make the effort to stop using big tech spyware and switch to using different technology. 

If you want any privacy, Google, Microsoft, and Apple are total no go zones. They are all spying and have been for years, but their latest tech is next level. An example is Windows 11 which has a new "feature" called Recall that is essentially taking a screenshot every five seconds and using AI to analyze it. 

If anything, the AI on recent Apple I-phones is even worse, but some normies seem to be more open to the idea that Microsoft is spying rather than Apple, so calling out Microsoft is often a good entry point to the whole AI rabbit hole.

Normies are so addicted to their spy-phones they will pay thousands of dollars to be tracked, recorded, and monitored by the deep state. 

On average, an Android smartphone sends data to Google 90 times a day and an iPhone communicates with 51 servers per hour. 

So what do I recommend doing to maintain privacy? Here are some good first steps:

Switch to using a Linux operating system such as Linux Mint 

Stick to using Free Open Source Software (FOSS) such as GIMP

Use a "de-googled" phone such as a Brax 3

 Use a privacy browser such as Brave or Floorp (& especially avoid Chrome)

Use privacy mail services such as Proton Mail (& especially avoid Gmail)

Use online aliases and avoid using your real name, especially on platforms like Facebook

BTW I USE ARCH

LOL - I don't really use Arch, I only said that to troll some Linux geeks. In reality I wouldn't even be able to install Arch, and I actually use Mint. But geeks can be such plonkers sometimes, after looking at a bunch of Linux forums yesterday to solve some tech problems, I needed to post some memes today.

 

BTW I Use Arch is a catchphrase used to make fun of the type of person who feels superior because they use a more difficult Linux distribution. Memes about ArchLinux users being nerds have appeared online as early as 2011 and are likely inspired by troubleshooting posts by Arch users trying to maintain the OS. The memes became increasingly popularized on Linux-based subreddits around 2018.

 

DEEP STATE COMPUTING

COMPUTING WAS A DEEP STATE SET UP 

At some point in the past few years, the penny dropped and I realised  Apple, Microsoft, and Google, were all set up by the deep state, they were never real businesses – we can use their tools, but they are all playing us.

Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were both actors working for the CIA. Jobs faked his death and Gates was replaced around 2013. As was “Melinda” who is a very obvious tranny. “Bill” probably is as well – they appear to be inverts.

Linux – for years it has seemed like there was something not right about the development and marketing of Linux – by keeping it hard to use and underground for decades it has never posed a real threat to the deep state operating systems. It slowly improved, but was never really sorted out for mass use. 

 

In 2026 that seems to have finally changed, and some distros, like Mint, are now ready for mass use. I always wondered what was holding everything back? Did the deep state infiltrate Linux development too and deliberately hold it back?

Clearly that is not the case any more, as with Windows 11 Microslop have totally lost the plot, and I would happily bet on the reign of Microslop coming to an end now.

All those Windows software updates were not just for copying our data, one day all of those badly designed programs could “unexpectedly” create irritating and time consuming problems in unison – mass distraction at a key moment, and those Trojans were constantly being set up.

Logging us out of accounts and demanding that we SUBMIT (rather than just logging back in) is obvious mind programming. Any site that does that has revealed it’s true intentions. Pay attention to these little signs!

Another trick is spell checkers. Making spell checkers only work properly in US English has forced us to use US spelling – more programming. But it’s not just our computers that are trying to control us, nearly everything on the internet is a distraction, whether intentional or not, and social media is almost all just there to distract us – that is a major part of how we are being controlled.

Microsoft crossed the line after Win 7 – Microsoft is all spyware and I didn’t ever want to use Win 8 on, not for day to day use and certainly not for anything to do with cryptos. What I use these days is Linux Mint 22.

Mint is a good operating system, and like everyone who escapes the clutches of Microslop I will never go back.

Gimp and Krita are pretty good too. It wasn’t a good situation being locked into old software. Photoshop CS6 (2012) was the last version that you can use without having to rent it off Adobe for a monthly fee, which I would never do, so I was using an 11 year old program that I would never update. Same with Windows 7 (2009).