School computers are riddled with spyware & proprietary software, the fact that they use windows is bad enough, but then you are forced to use edge or chrome and other proprietary software and often you are blocked from installing open source alternatives like librewolf or duck duck go may be blocked.
What I am asking is, how can we get around this, do i just need to bring my own laptop using FOSS privacy respecting software. or is there another way around this. Thanks for the help.
You don’t.
Seprate your work life and your personal life.
There’s nothing wrong with advocating for FOSS alternatives; but you don’t get to decide what you can or cannot use on work devices, that’s up to your employer. You should not be entering personal info/performing personal tasks on work devices.
If you’re unwilling to perform work with the tools (software) your employer provides/requires, find a new job. Refusing to do the work or tampering with the equipment provided is a great way to get fired.
For school; personal laptop. Or again strictly school tasks on their devices.
you dont. but worry not, having a second “digital identity” for school and work, that has no connection to your private one is actually a pretty solid way to stay anonymous. false data is less identifying than no data at all
Yeah, as tempting as it is to personalize the work / school computer, it’s probably better to not mix the two.
Most likely can’t and shouldn’t bother. Keep your private stuff on your private devices.
But if you really really want to, go to IT well prepared with all the changes you want to make and see if they allow it.
This is the correct answer. It may be worthwhile to advocate for more privacy conscious IT in public institutions but you’ll be up against a huge amount of corporate lobbying.
I have run into this issue of needing Microslop for school. I’m allowed to use my own hardware if I install their spyware. So I have two setups:
Portable: Win10 on an old lenovo laptop that just runs their tracking software. I can access the sharepoint, outlook and teams with LibreWolf on that machine, if I must.
When at home I have a virtual machine that also runs Win10 for their spyware. I use LibreWolf on fedora for the sharepoint, outlook and teams.
A lot of already great advice here, often clarifying that a computer that is not yours… is not yours.
What I would still add though is that you are NOT, and I’m very confident in saying this, the only one there, in your very school, to ask that question. In fact I would argue MOST users have the exact same concerns but they might even be aware that alternatives exist.
So… do not push back, or even just avoid, all this alone. Find others who have similar problems and solve them together.
There might be a Linux User Group already, join them. If there isn’t one, consider making it. It might just be you for few weeks, even month, but at least you will dedicate time and space to improve YOUR situation. Chances are though that others, even if only curious at first, might check what you are up to, if they can replicate that, etc.
Don’t feel isolate, move the needle for yourself first, in your corner, but be welcoming to others who are eager to contribute.
It’s a challenge, but it’s a fun challenge while trying to tackle it with others.
MOST users have the exact same concerns
Yeah… no, most users do not concern themselves with these things. Most users are focused on the tasks and not the tools, for better or worse.
You could argue that an increasing number of users do, but most is way too far.
Use a Linux LiveUSB. Sometimes it works. They’re dead simple to set up, too.
Edit: I’d appreciate an explanation for all these downvotes, given that this was literally how I got around the nannyware in high school.
I cannot stress enough how bad of an idea it is to try and use a boot or portable apps usb.
Schools and companies are generally very alert about that kind of thing due to many many high profile incidents of malware, ransomware, data exfiltration etc, and also all the movies and tv shows.
Bring your own device is the only way. Bring your own network is often a necessity, so be prepared to tether your phone to your device for internet access.
You also probably want to look normal too. Swallow your pride and use a mac when you do this and no one will bat an eye. Break out the duct taped together thinkpad at your own risk.
Man, back in my day I used to drop portable apps (I was one of the devs) on our network shares and use it that way because it didn’t work from a flash drive. Bur I helped IT so even when they found out many months later, they left me alone.
I got banned from the school computers one year back in high school for the “crime” of using portable apps off a flash drive! This was back when IE6 was the standard and I wanted to use Firefox. Maybe 2006? Sounds funny now in retrospect but it was pretty annoying at the time.
I once booted Linux off a flash drive on a school PC just to see if I could in like 08-09 and nothing happened to me lol.
so i have did more horrible things, when i was in school, so i just tried to flash gentoo near windows 7 on fu**ing leagcy hardwareduring a lesson called “informatichs” just for fun, when i did that i have weak linux terminal experience and forget about first to shrink fs then the partition, and their fat partition is unresponsive and they have spftware for remote control on it, old laddies that who not even hear anything of pc start to scream at me, saying that if i not correct i’ll get right to the school “administrative red carpet”, but somehow i attached it back and get mark 2 of 10 at rest of the day, then i have no laptop even chip shit to bring by have no work and parents not spend on me except food and clothes, they leave me paper and pen and i wrote “programs” pascalABC on it)
