pbleak
Active member
Prism-break (PB) have very stringent rules regarding operating systems. Naturally they exclude both Microsoft and Apple. Both companies are, as we know, part of the NSA's PRISM program. It is not entirely clear what their role is although we do know that talk of 'direct access' to serves was misleading. For the NSA to trade data with these companies a complex legal procedure must be followed (see FISA, 2008). It is unlikely that there are direct 'backdoors' to these operating systems although it is not improbable that hacking divisions (Tailored Access Operations) do have the means to access targeted users albeit this would be a concern for those of us who are not US citizens. However, more important than these concerns is simple security. Microsoft Windows is a notoriously weak operating system when it comes to security and this is especially true with users who are not schooled in the gaps it intrinsically possesses. The same is true of Apple OS X. Both are also popular and thus become broader targets for black hat hackers.
Naturally PB recommends a number of Unix/Linux operating systems. Of the many listed most would be considered relatively difficult to use by any casual user, e.g. Fedora, Debian, OpenBSD. Remarkably the most obvious choices - Ubuntu and Mint - are excluded based on the fact that Ubuntu integrated, since Ubuntu 12.10, an Amazon ads feature. This is a concern, certainly, but an easily solvable one. It is for this reason that I think we should continue to support new users transitioning to Ubuntu or, better yet, to Mint which does not have the Amazon integration and is simply excluded by PB because it is a derivative of Ubuntu. Ubuntu remains the easiest to move toward. To strip out the Amazon features in Ubuntu you need to perform a few minor commands. You can see here what needs to be done (you may need to perform a few of these just to be sure): http://askubuntu.com/questions/450398/how-to-remove-amazon Also run the following useful script: https://fixubuntu.com/
If you are running Mint this will not be an issue. However if you want to be extra strict and stick with the recommendations of PB then I suggest you first begin on Linux Mint 17, get used to it, and then transition to the slightly harder-to-use Linux Debian version which is just released and is not derivative from Ubuntu.
Naturally PB recommends a number of Unix/Linux operating systems. Of the many listed most would be considered relatively difficult to use by any casual user, e.g. Fedora, Debian, OpenBSD. Remarkably the most obvious choices - Ubuntu and Mint - are excluded based on the fact that Ubuntu integrated, since Ubuntu 12.10, an Amazon ads feature. This is a concern, certainly, but an easily solvable one. It is for this reason that I think we should continue to support new users transitioning to Ubuntu or, better yet, to Mint which does not have the Amazon integration and is simply excluded by PB because it is a derivative of Ubuntu. Ubuntu remains the easiest to move toward. To strip out the Amazon features in Ubuntu you need to perform a few minor commands. You can see here what needs to be done (you may need to perform a few of these just to be sure): http://askubuntu.com/questions/450398/how-to-remove-amazon Also run the following useful script: https://fixubuntu.com/
If you are running Mint this will not be an issue. However if you want to be extra strict and stick with the recommendations of PB then I suggest you first begin on Linux Mint 17, get used to it, and then transition to the slightly harder-to-use Linux Debian version which is just released and is not derivative from Ubuntu.
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