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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) by DannyB on Tuesday March 09 2021, @06:09PM
You should have stopped right there. Added the part about Microsoft's support of SCO. Then you wouldn't sound too over the top. Arguing to not trust Microsoft's ability to later maliciously "update" software with malicious code would sound more reasoned. (even though it is absolutely true.)
For the record: I haven't trusted Microsoft since about 1982. I can't pinpoint an exact year when it happened, but I don't trust Google. (by "don't trust" I mean suspect of working against my best interest and computing freedom.) There was a time I didn't perceive Microsoft or Google as being against my best interest and freedom. Microsoft was a harmless software vendor who provided BASIC interpreters, development tools, and Adventure ported to micros. Google was an internet search company who didn't own YouTube.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.