Cookies do not directly communicate your IP address, they’re just bits of data about your visit. Logging out of LinkedIn and closing your browser should clear them, unless they’re persistent cookies.

Using a VPN to create a new Spotify account maskes your actual IP address. Meaning spotify wont know your home IP address. But, if Spotify uses cookies from your previous sessions or if you log in with the same credentials, it may still serve targeted ads based on your previous activity.

So while cookies don’t transmit your IP address, they still influence the ads you see based on your browsing history and/or account information. For enhanced privacy, it’s usually recommended to set cookies to be wiped when you close the browser. I have a handful of sites I like to keep cookies for, but everything else is gone after each session.

For anyone new to the Linux world, I can’t recommend Learn Linux TV enough. He has a video walking through this exact process, here’s an Invidious and YouTube link for it.

As far as dual booting goes, issues can arise after updates. I recall this happening a few months back due to a Windows update. So just be aware of this possibly happening down the road. I need Windows for work at times too, but I strictly use a VM. I’ve hated Microsoft since Windows 8, their amount of user tracking is bonkers and a big part of why I just use a VM. This is just food for thought though.

JMP Chat works in the US even though they’re based in Canada. I highly recommend the service, it’s absolutely fantastic!

Definitely checkout JMP Chat, they’re actually based in Canada and offer super affordable alternative phone numbers. Using their Cheogram app even lets you incorporate it fully into your phone, so when you call, it’ll ask which number you’d like to use for the call. Calling has limited minutes each month, but the overage charges are very reasonable. It comes with unlimited texting as well. They encrypt everything on their end and it’s fully open source!

I ended that last chunck of text with /s. But at the same time, it wouldn’t suprise me at all if this was the case.

A virtual machine is the move, I’ve had a great experience with virt-manager. Strongly recommend debloating the windows VM if Microsoft is getting on your nerves. Here’s my go to software: https://github.com/raphire/win11debloat

Worksorks on both windows 10 & 11. It’ll allow you to remove telemetry, tracking, and even software Microsoft prevents you from uninstalling. I just can’t get it to remove Edge. But MentalOutlaw has a fantastic walk through of the process on his YT channel if you want some guidance with the debloating process.

Baby

NextDNS is the move, the clients are open sourced and they encrypt everything. Plus their free option covers all my devices, no problem. Highly recommended!

I’ve been really liking the KISS Launcher, it’s power is in it’s simplicity. It also looks relatively comparable with Smart Launcher. What’s super impressive about the KISS Launcher is that 93% of users that try it for a week are still active users after 3 years! So definitely worth a gander for sure.

I just learned the dev of Phoenix forked Mull! It’s called IronFox (https://gitlab.com/ironfox-oss/IronFox) and has a F-Droid repo. I’m pumped on this, thanks a bunch for highlighting all this and to the original commenter for providing the link to Phoenix!

I’m pretty sure just using the “sudo dnf update --refresh” command in terminal will fix this problem. It will ask you verify those packages new repositories. After that, you should be good using the store again for updates. This is assuming you upgraded from Fedora 40 before these errors occurred.

I love the KDE plasma theme Underworld. It’s definitely black and pairs well with a ton of stuff. I like Breeze Dark as the global theme, Ball10050’s Black color, and Underworld for the plasma style. This makes it all primarily black.

Be sure to include Nobara and Bazzite, both of which are gaming focused distros. Both are Fedora based, but Bazzite is known more as a SteamOS 3 clone. There’s also another gaming focused distro, it just escapes my mind. But I love Fedora KDE as is and then just installing the required software. So I’d say add Fedora, Nobara, and Bazzite for sure!

I’d say I’m one (1) eldritch scientist + Sat[censored]art

KDE is the way! I’ve heard KDE called the swiss army knife of DE’s, and I couldn’t agree more! I’d be curious to see a comparison of Gnome and KDE users previous OS. I’d bet KDE has more windows converts and gnome favors mac, but I really don’t hear about many mac folks switching to linux.

That’s odd, it seems fine on my end. But here’s another instance link: https://inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=4sfIBRTcRpU

I’d recommend https://privatebin.info/, https://toptal.com/developers/hastebin, or https://rentry.co/. All are open source and awesome replacement options. PrivateBin is a software package you download, while the other two are webapps.

That’ll make it so you’re not bothered by banners anymore, so I’d say yes. I activate everything listed and then import others filters from filterlists.com. Here’s a link which will let you add the Easylist Cookie Lists: https://filterlists.com/lists/easylist-cookie-list

I’d recommended adding EFF’s Cookie Block List, which you can find here: https://filterlists.com/lists/eff-cookie-blocklist

uBlock doesn’t block cookies directly but it can be setup to block the domains associated with cookies. Adding the EasyList Cookie will accomplish this. It will prevent websites from setting cookies when you visit them. As far as essential cookies go, I’d assume the Easylist blocks cookies which won’t affect the websites function.

It’s 100% a feature! Truly a horrendous approach to lock down a device someone purchased to the extent seen on Windows.