Several Tech Privacy/Anonymity Questions

[TheClap]

I have several questions. I thought it better to combine them all in one threat instead of cluttering the place up with a multitude of different threads.

Question Group 1 - Nord VPN

So I've been using Nord VPN for my private browsing needs. It's super fast for a VPN (it used to be SO slow), and it has TOR servers which I think is nice, but it keeps disconnecting in Windows. Sometimes I don't notice that it has disconnected before I do my private browsing. I know I can turn on the kill switch, but I'd like it a lot better if there was a way to just keep it connected. Anyone have any ideas? Is there something in the settings I need to modify?

Also, can anyone tell me if Nord works well in Linux? Does it have a GUI/app? Or is it all command line shit? I'm making what I call "privacy drives" for several people. They are jump drives with a Linux OS installed (full install) that come pre-loaded with a VPN, TOR etc. They can just pop them into any machine that has a USB 3.0 port or better and go. I can handle a command line interface well enough, but some of the people I'm making these privacy drives for cannot. Does anyone have a VPN that they recommend for Linux that has an app/GUI? I know PIA has one, but last time I used them they were pretty slow.

Question Group 2 - Linux

I'm looking for a simple light weight Linux distro to build these privacy drives with. I don't really need the distro to come with TOR or a Whonix VM installed. I can put whatever crap on there that I want, to take care of that angle. What I really want is something light weight, and user friendly. Something for people with little to no Linux experience. I used LinuxLite in the past, but with so so many distros out there I'm thinking there has to be something even better.

What's a good PGP client/app for Linux? I can't seem to find an easy way to use PGP in Linux. I really want to find something as user friendly as gpg4win, that any noob can use with minimal instruction. I swear, Linux enthusiasts say everyone should switch to Linux, but then they go and make shitty apps that can only be accessed via the command line. Annoys the hell out of me.

Can anyone recommend a good crypto wallet that runs on Linux?

Is there an OS that's more user friendly than Linux to install on these privacy drives instead?

I had more questions, but I can't remember them now. I'll add to the list later.

Thanks,
TC

 

[gunslinger]

I have several questions. I thought it better to combine them all in one threat instead of cluttering the place up with a multitude of different threads.

Question Group 1 - Nord VPN

So I've been using Nord VPN for my private browsing needs. It's super fast for a VPN (it used to be SO slow), and it has TOR servers which I think is nice, but it keeps disconnecting in Windows. Sometimes I don't notice that it has disconnected before I do my private browsing. I know I can turn on the kill switch, but I'd like it a lot better if there was a way to just keep it connected. Anyone have any ideas? Is there something in the settings I need to modify?

Also, can anyone tell me if Nord works well in Linux? Does it have a GUI/app? Or is it all command line shit? I'm making what I call "privacy drives" for several people. They are jump drives with a Linux OS installed (full install) that come pre-loaded with a VPN, TOR etc. They can just pop them into any machine that has a USB 3.0 port or better and go. I can handle a command line interface well enough, but some of the people I'm making these privacy drives for cannot. Does anyone have a VPN that they recommend for Linux that has an app/GUI? I know PIA has one, but last time I used them they were pretty slow.

Question Group 2 - Linux

I'm looking for a simple light weight Linux distro to build these privacy drives with. I don't really need the distro to come with TOR or a Whonix VM installed. I can put whatever crap on there that I want, to take care of that angle. What I really want is something light weight, and user friendly. Something for people with little to no Linux experience. I used LinuxLite in the past, but with so so many distros out there I'm thinking there has to be something even better.

What's a good PGP client/app for Linux? I can't seem to find an easy way to use PGP in Linux. I really want to find something as user friendly as gpg4win, that any noob can use with minimal instruction. I swear, Linux enthusiasts say everyone should switch to Linux, but then they go and make shitty apps that can only be accessed via the command line. Annoys the hell out of me.

Can anyone recommend a good crypto wallet that runs on Linux?

Is there an OS that's more user friendly than Linux to install on these privacy drives instead?

I had more questions, but I can't remember them now. I'll add to the list later.

Thanks,
TC

I don't know about Nord, I've never used it. As for simple, lightweight Linux distros I recommend Linux Mint (any flavor: Mate, Cinnamon, XFCE) Elementary OS. All use under 1GB of RAM on cold boot. If resources aren't a problem I'd go with Fedora 34. Stay away from anything arch based such as Manjaro. (not new user friendly and updates will ALWAYS break the system) Linux Lite is also still a decent option. Although I'd recommend changing the theming to something a bit more modern.

 

[TheClap]

Thanks man. I appreciate you taking the time to reply.

I've never experimented with a Fedora distro actually. I've been playing around with Linux for a number of years now and I've never ventured outside of Ubuntu/Debian based distros. Now I seem to remember something about Fedora erasing your other drives sometimes during install. Possible I'm confusing it with another flavor of Linux though. And I guess I could just disconnect all the hard drives/DDS's in y desktop prior to installing it. Though it would be a bit of a pain to take out my M.2 SSD. I need to clone my OS to another drive anyway though. Then I could just leave the M.2 drive in its place and just clone my OS back to it if it gets erased.

 

[FlyingDragon]

Electrum Bitcoin Wallet

Electrum Bitcoin Wallet.

electrum.org

 

[gunslinger]

Thanks man. I appreciate you taking the time to reply.

I've never experimented with a Fedora distro actually. I've been playing around with Linux for a number of years now and I've never ventured outside of Ubuntu/Debian based distros. Now I seem to remember something about Fedora erasing your other drives sometimes during install. Possible I'm confusing it with another flavor of Linux though. And I guess I could just disconnect all the hard drives/DDS's in y desktop prior to installing it. Though it would be a bit of a pain to take out my M.2 SSD. I need to clone my OS to another drive anyway though. Then I could just leave the M.2 drive in its place and just clone my OS back to it if it gets erased.

Fedora is kinda like Ubuntu but faster, more stable and less bloated. Gnome 40 makes it more user friendly as well. The main difference is how you install software or updates. Ubuntu based distros use apt and .deb packages, fedora based distros use dnf and .rpm packages. When you install just be careful to select the correct drive (would be a good idea to have a backup image anyway) Fedora uses the anaconda installer instead of the ubuntu one. I'd recommend if going this route lookup "things to do after installing fedora" on youtube. Mint and Elementary OS are based on Ubuntu so nothing really different when it comes to software or updates.

Be careful with the imaging software you use. I been a fan of TimeShift for years but it let me down last weekend when I tried to restore my work machine. Had to end up doing a fresh install and pulling back in all my data.