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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: 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.