Typically a Linux operating system will create and use a swap partition that’s resident on the hard drive, and this would act as an extension to system memory. The swap partition and system memory are abstracted into a single virtual memory space, but the kernel, by default, will usually read and write data between the two in 4KB ‘pages’.
I’ve only recently had a personal laptop with an SSD (which can’t easily be replaced), and it occurred to me that having data paged continually to a partition might reduce its lifespan.
In the last post, I covered some very basic stuff for editing text in Vim. There are a few more advanced features I picked up while using it as an actual code editor.
Basic keybindings Use ‘Esc’ key to enter visual mode.
Select text, use ‘v’ and ‘Ctrl+Right’ Cut text: ‘d’ Copy text: ‘y’ Paste text: ‘p’ Line numbers Either use the :set number command, or add it to /etc/vim/vimrc.
Microsoft earned itself the rather descriptive name ‘Microslop’ in recent months, on account of having infested virtually all its products with ‘AI’/Co-Pilot stuff that nobody asked for and few want. It’s especially insidious and invasive enough in Windows 11 that one shouldn’t expect any privacy when using it.
Visual Studio Code was a decent editor that I’d been using since Atom got deprecated. Now it’s primarily an ‘open source AI code editor’, its official Web site declares.
Lenovo Thinkpads have historically been the ideal hardware for running Linux, so I was initially optimistic about replacing Chrome OS on a sightly older (but relatively decent spec) laptop. Unfortunately it turned out the laptop was a Chromebook, and the vendor (Google, I’m guessing) really didn’t want anyone replacing the operating system. I spent a few hours looking for ways around that.
The operating system I installed was Debian 13.2.0 (Cinnamon edition), and the installation media was prepared by using Rufus to flash the debian-live-13.
While everything in a Tails OS session is wiped from system memory after the laptop is switched off, the option to store data persistently in an encrypted partition (the Persistent Storage) is a critical feature for users, such as journalists, who, for example, need to create notes, save material and draft reports during a session.
The encryption used for this - LUKS - is the standard for disk and volume encryption in Linux.
One of the useful little applications that’s included with Tails OS is OnionShare, which enables the sharing of things on the .onion domain and the creation of hidden services. I think these are important options to have in a Tails-like setup.
Our freedom of expression, in practice, isn’t defined by laws or constitutions. It’s instead defined by what corporations’ terms of service and whatever arbitrary extra-legal pressures they’re subject to. And, unfortunately this applies to almost everything on the conventional Web, since almost everything is dependent on third party.
Though my views aren’t as extreme as Richard Stallman’s, he does have a point: A decade ago we’d be up in arms about relatively trivial privacy-invading crap in operating systems, but it’s since become the norm, with most smartphones and laptops having things pre-installed that send personal data in the background to Google, Microsoft and whichever assortment of corporations. A state of affairs brought about by a confluence of what we collectively surrendered for convenience.
