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Developer Gavin L Rebeiro has posted[*see note below] a five-part article series at Techrights on how to deal with the ongoing Raspberry Pi fiasco by salvaging existing hardware with a replacement operating system.
- Part I: Acknowledgements
- Part II: Introduction
- Part III: Fundamentals
- Part IV: Doing The Task
- Part V: All The Rest
He covers the background, the technical principles, some methods for mitigation, proposes using NetBSD in place of the GNU/Linux, Raspberry Pi OS. Finally, he walks through installation of NetBSD.
We don't want to be spied on; what happens when we're faced with an operating system that spies on people? We throw it in the trash where it belongs! I am boycotting the Raspberry Spy myself (you're free to join me in doing so) but I don't want people to waste hardware that they already have. So we're going to walk through an interesting path of installing a different operating system on the Raspberry Spy; I want to show you a few things that will empower you to take greater control over your computing.
We'll gently walk through and explore the following: how to install an operating system on an embedded device (a Raspberry Spy, in this case) over a USB-to-UART bridge (UTUB). This is the main project we've got on our hands. Don't worry if you've never touched embedded systems before; everything here is accessible to people with a modest set of prerequisite knowledge and some basic apparatus.
We'll delve into things with more depth as we move forward with our project; if you don't understand something when you first encounter it, just keep reading.
NetBSD might be a bit of a leap for some, so it should be noted that there are other GNU/Linux distros for the Raspberry Pi which do not include the problems addressed above.
The focus of the series is on individual privacy, but a parallel threat exists for institutions because, after the recent changes, any use of Raspberrry Pi OS will show up at their most hostile competitor, Microsoft. The company has had a do-not-lose-to-Linux-at-any-cost attitude for decades and has various slush funds available to fund attacks. EDGI was one such program which did a lot of damage around the world and has been described in fair detail in the Comes v Microsoft case.
[* Ed's Note (2021-03-12): The author has let us know that his original article is available as a PDF, as techrights' version wasn't faithful. -- FP]
Previously:
(2021) Raspberry Pi Users Mortified as Microsoft Repository that Phones Home is Added to Pi OS
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 09 2021, @02:24AM (7 children)
I get paid a huge amount of money (over 20x my cost of living) to do work I enjoy, and even get to opensource a lot of it and get great benefits. Working for a large tech company is a huge privilege, not a punishment. I easily make enough money I could take 10 years off to find a new job if I wanted.
If you want to meme about Microsoft being evil, I suggest implying I'll suffer in my next life rather than implying my choice to work for them is punishment: that would fit the narrative much better.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Arik on Tuesday March 09 2021, @02:50AM (1 child)
This is where you are mistaken. Because karma.
"I easily make enough money I could take 10 years off to find a new job if I wanted."
If that's true and not a lie; if you're a human being and not a cabbage in drag; then do it.
Take 10 years off to make something that helps humanity, instead of destroying us to put more dollars you will never use in the bank. For your heirs, I suppose.
Who your heirs be my brother? How much of that loot do they need? If you were really in it for the people all along, then you spread that loot out to the people, capisçe? What do you need? A shirt on your back and a belly full of stew; and a muse. A reason to work, that's all you really need, isn't it?
So take 5 years off and hire someone to help keep you on track and producing something. Or, you know, use math from there. Fractions. That's still math, even if they quit teaching it.
"If you want to meme about Microsoft being evil, I suggest implying I'll suffer in my next life rather than implying my choice to work for them is punishment: that would fit the narrative much better."
The only difference is the presumption that you have a conscience. If you have a conscience, then showing up to work is a punishment as well as a source of income.
If you're a psycho/sociopath; then yes we must wait for the next life, or else a catastrophic failure from your dice.
If you have a guilty conscience, if your $opathy wavers... well then you just might wind up confessing.
Confession /is/ good for the soul.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 1) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday March 10 2021, @01:46AM
No, not because of karma. Because you're working for a big corporation. It wouldn't matter if they saved an endangered species every day and sequestered all the man-made carbon from the atmosphere weekly. The job would still suck compared to deciding your own future.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Funny) by aristarchus on Tuesday March 09 2021, @06:01AM
But, of course, you will not. You will never have another job. Do you imagine that any tech employer, seeing the Mark of Cain, and the NDA upon you, will even give a second interview? Not going to happen. Instead, you will have take your ill-gotten gains and apply them to your own interests, like transfusions of blood from Younglings (Thiel) or pretending to be a philanthropist (Gates), or hosting Parler after they get booted from polite society and taking pictures of snowflakes, like Nathan Myhrvold, the Bane of Aasgard. Karma, it comes around. No amount of money can save you from it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 09 2021, @09:47PM (2 children)
20x your cost of living? I gotta ask, what do you make and/or where do you live? I hate Microsoft as much as the typical Linux fanatic, but my monthly mortgage + property taxes + utilities + groceries is ~$3k, so 20x that is $720k on an annual. I'd sell my soul to the demons in Redmond for that kind of money, I could pay my kids' college costs and retire in well under ten years.
(Score: 1) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday March 10 2021, @01:58AM (1 child)
Mine's about $700-750 with a roommate, so I make somewhere between 4-5x cost of living over a year. I try and plan it out ahead of time and then turn down any work that's likely to push me up over 5x. Time's worth way, way more than money beyond enough to fund necessities and sufficient entertainment+hobbies.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 10 2021, @11:30AM
That's smart. I've got four kids. I've already started telling them they should only go to college or trade school if they have a specific career plan, and unless they get great scholarships they should use state colleges. And of course, I need a house or apartment for six people and a lot of groceries, and we use a lot of power just for showers, dishes, and laundry. Plus we're in a pretty good school district for my kids' sake, and as you know in the US that means housing is expensive here.
If I was single, I'd be trying to live a lifestyle as efficient as yours too.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 11 2021, @12:29AM
God willing, you'll be the first against the wall when the revolution comes.