Not at all. If you're a Linux user, you are more than welcome to use my lawn.

I thought Windows XP was a great OS when configured for the Windows Classic desktop, not the ugly default one, and I still use it as a VM on my Linux daily driver machines now.

Windows 7 did nothing for me, it was "change for change's sake" with the ugly and unconfigurable Aero interface that was a downhill step for Microsoft - but it was at least "bearable" to use.

Unfortunately, my company considers Windows 10 to be the "corporate standard" which seem to be lower than my own personal standards given that that terrible OS is not allowed in my home - except for one of my work-provided laptops where I have to use it for 30 minutes each week for a timesheet app and, at that point, it gets put in its own VLAN on my home network where it can't talk to my "proper" machines running adult Linux OSes.

I've worked with computers for almost 40 years now, I started my computer knowledge programming machine code on Z80 CPUs back in 1982 and I've deployed and supported all manner of UNIX, Linux and Windows OSes through that time. I can honestly say that Windows 10 is the first OS I have come across that actually has slowed down my productivity - the interface is horrific, it is far too wasteful of screen real estate, and there are so many unnecessary features in Office that ultimately I just do all my work in LibreOffice on a Linux laptop and move it over to Windows if I have to check it there. I simply do not care to learn it because it's interface makes absolutely no sense to me whatsoever.

I genuinely feel sorry for the poor schmucks that are forced to use it and who don't have the escape route to a proper Linux OS.

AOSP does a lot of that stuff already. Privacy Guard is built in and lets you control on an app-by-app basis what each one can do and has access to - but that's things like "access to contacts", "access to make phone calls", etc. etc.

I personally don't care about allowing data access to entities, I simply want to block them all from taking my data from the phone. But I should also add that I don't treat phones and tablets as anything more than "convenient toys" that I make phone calls on, do a few texts, a bit of email and a few network access and monitoring tools, given the IT job I do.

I certainly don't treat them as "serious" computing devices, I carry with me a small Lenovo Thinkpad X220 laptop running Linux for all my serious computing stuff - if I do any form of Google access on those, then it's through segregated browsers that keep Google away from cookies and histories of any other web browsing that I do.

I simply don't use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, WhatsApp or any other of the "popular" social media tools - I've had all of those at various points in the past but I stopped LinkedIn the moment that Microsoft purchased them and the others have all gone in the interim few years, with Facebook being the last one about three months ago. Good riddance to all of them, it's a liberating feeling knowing that Zuckerberg has no access to my data now.

Admittedly "easy" is a relative term but if you use official Lineage OS, the instructions to install each version are straightforward. I've recently done a Google Pixel 4A phone and a Motorola G7 phone - you can upgrade both of those just by installing the Google ADB tools. They are fully supported for OTA (Over The Air) updates afterwards, plus there's no reason to root the phones. The only thing you have to do is unlock the bootloader to allow the custom ROM to be installed. It's all in the instructions, you can normally do it in about 30 minutes.

I've also done a few Samsung phones in my time but they can be more complicated to do. Most of them are not officially supported in Lineage OS due to their very closed nature, but you can find unofficial builds that mostly work. Samsung phones need a tool called "Odin" to do the upgrade with, there can be issues with versions of that tool and Samsung driver versions. Some of them I have done have taken several attempts and half a day or so to complete.

it's also extremely important to get the correct model number for your phone. I'm based in the UK, outside the USA you can put a custom ROM on most phones. However, I understand that some phones from some of the cellular providers there have totally locked bootloaders and there's no way of putting on a custom ROM. It's important to do your research first.

Absolutely nothing. Google don't want you installing a Google-free Android build on your device, that's the reason they are using this "flowery language" now.

Correction. The Google Android system (containing Google Apps) tracks everything you do.

The AOSP-based Android system with no Google Apps installed tracks nothing by default - there is no Google Play Services layer in it to initiate that tracking.

If you install Graphene or Lineage OS, you don't even log into the phone with an identity - which you always have to do with a Google Android phone.

The Aurora Store app that can be downloaded from the Android F-Droid repository allows anonymous access to any free apps in the Google Play Store. When you use it to search for an app in the Play Store, it shows how many trackers are built into each app and the name of the trackers - of course, most of them are owned by Google.

This is probably the most important piece of information you need when it comes to security and privacy, yet no mention of Google themselves giving you that information.

It's a moot point anyway - if you run an AOSP-based Android build with no Google Apps on it, then Google can't track you anyway, and if you stick to Open Source apps anyway, there's no likelihood of any data being stolen.

So just don't use Google Android in the first place.

It's easy to avoid Google entirely.

You go to the Lineage OS web site, look at the list of supported Android devices, buy one and then rebuild the device with Lineage OS by following the instructions.

After installing Lineage OS, you do not install the Google Apps package - the Google Apps package puts the Google Services tracking layer on the phone and forces you to assign an identity to the phone whenever you use it.

At that point, you have an Android phone that Google has absolutely no capability of tracking.

You just need to want it bad enough and not sit there with an "I've nothing to hide so nothing to fear" attitude.

Facebook used to block me regularly, they don't seem to like you calling someone a "racist" even though when I used it, the target was making openly racist statements.

Once you get blocked once, you go on a "naughty list" and they'll ban you more and more regularly - in the end I found it amusing and considered it a "Badge of Honour".

It's matters nothing to me now, I closed my Facebook account three months ago and am a happier and feel more liberated now that Zuckerberg doesn't track me any more.

I am merely communicating what I know to be the case based on my knowledge and experience. You can choose to listen to it or ignore it. A fanboy will ignore it, or even rail against it - that's no surprise to me and it has no effect on me.

Whether or not I like or don't like Apple is irrelevant - if anything, I consider Google and Facebook to be far worse than Apple because at least Apple put some constraints around letting the personal data of their "products" out into the wild (at least as I understand it, given I never have been or ever plan to be one of their products).

Google and Facebook have no such constraints - but evil is still evil, irrespective of how much evil they are.

You should try proudly wearing a "tinfoil hat" like I do - it's a good way to earn a living, my clients pay me good money to advise them on such things - and the same kind of stuff you are getting here for free.

But you can thank me later.

Shared accounts cause one major problem from a security perspective...

Let's pretend that person A and person B share an account that has automatic password expiry after 60 days. Person B logs in one day and is immediately forced to change the password on the account before being able to use it. Person A doesn't know this, tries to log in with the old password and locks the account out after around three invalid access attempts. Then it's a call to the help desk to get the account unlocked, it may have already kicked off a security incident within the organisation if they see repeated invalid access attempts in their management centre.

Otherwise, person B has to communicate the new password to person A. How's that going to be done securely by a mechanism that ensures a third party can't get to that password.

It is never a good idea to share accounts for any reason.

Any form of shared account is frowned upon in corporate environments because security auditors have a remit to be able to track the ownership and use of any account to a unique individual.

Whilst I accept that personal and home users probably do this all of the time, for email it's much better to create something like a mailing or distribution list so each user gets the same emails to their own accounts.

If you have an unmodified Android phone with a Google identity on it, then trust me - they have your phone number, IMEI number, email address, home address and know your exact location at all times. Don't kid yourself.

Indeed - "American Management Methodology" and don't the rest of us poor schmucks in the rest of the world regret it rearing it's ugly head about two decades ago. "Empowerment" and "you decide how you do your job" to "micromanagement" and "do as I say unless it goes wrong and then it's your responsibility" in just 20 years.

If you log into your phone with a Google account then they know exactly who you are and where you are at all times - so 2FA becomes redundant at that point anyway.