Wise words!

“Genauso, wie Ost und West untrennbar miteinander verbunden sind, erkennen wir an, dass der Islam ein integraler Bestandteil Deutschlands ist.”

Oh man, kann man Religion nicht einfach verbieten? Fördert nur Hass und Ungleichheit.

Then you should really only consider mass surveillance via cameras as a “big” concern. I’m not much of a travel guy, cause being handicapped has it’s downside, but afaik there aren’t many cameras spread across Europe, mostly near/on main train stations, public transport and similar public places. Use a cap/hat and maybe sunglasses. I haven’t heard of any AI/biometrical real time/logging/analyzing being used in production yet (but it’s being discussed). Don’t use public wifi, get an anonymous simcard (roaming data esims for some crypto-dollars) and a GrapheneOS Pixel smartphone (use it only when needed). Pay by cash and be nice to other humans. And don’t think too much about stuff you can’t control! Don’t let you get mad and restrict your life too hard because of stupid politicians and governments xD

Have fun exploring Europe! Take a look at Italy, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, France, Belgium, Netherlands. Poland and the Czech Republic are nice too, but it’s harder there to communicate in English IME.

oh: and as a drug user, usually prescribed opioids (no abuse, I need them and have a prescription), but (a)busing weed (got a script too, but usually buy from the dealer/vape HHC currently) and hallucinogens/“fun”-drugs (LSD, Shrooms and Special K), I only had problems in Germany because of THC (haven’t had a script at this time). But usually it’s OK to party, but don’t be too open about your use. Funniest moment was in Amsterdam. Some friends and me were sitting on a bench near a little garden, drinking beers and smoking some Js. When the police drove by, we first wanted to hide the Joint, but remembered ah, no public booze in Amsterdam, and had to hide our beers instead. It’s usually the other way round :P

I wouldn’t call him mental ill. Maybe he’s a small time crook, sells and smokes weed and has a little bit of paranoia.

Truth be told, in my criminal past (mostly online fraud, but some real life crime too), I have had similar thoughts. But hey, don’t do stupid shit in countries which you don’t know.

Not it’s Red Star OS!!! Looks like you don’t like communist leadership! To the gulag with him!

Depends on your threat model… What do you think could cause problems while traveling through Europe in your opinion?

Jon-Do-Nym is a paid proxy provider with a similar structure to Tor. But nodes aren’t hosted by volunteers, they are hosted by themselves. There was one free server the last time I’ve tested it and it was a German IP in Dresden. Speed was slow. And afaik they do log user IPs.

Wouldn’t recommend them. I would use a VPN like Mullvad combined with Tor. But maybe a VPN or Tor alone is sufficent in your case.

Edit: Looks like there was an option to selfhost nodes (link doesn’t work anymore), the whole project looks dead too (old website, old entries). And no info about the AN.ON app…

I would recommend creating a Ventoy USB drive and download some live ISOs of your choice. Then boot them and let your BF try them. Because then he can choose a distro by his liking to the overall experience.

Ich bin mittlerweile deutlich über 30 und ich will eine Workstation. Computer sind Werkzeuge, die funktionieren sollen. Wenn ein Betriebssystem allein vom existieren kaputt geht, dann ist das für mich Abfall, denn ich habe keine Zeit dafür.

Genau so sehe ich das auch. Daher Debian als Server und Fedora Silverblue als Desktop. Aber wer was anderes nutzt, das ist halt seine Präferenz, damit muss und kann ich gut leben :) Älter werden ist schön btw^^

VPN and cryptos are your friend in that case!

Flatpak ftw!

1-2 months ago. But it was the Gnome version.

Maybe rolling from stock Silverblue to Bazzite works better. Haven’t tested it yet, and I think I won’t, happy with my setup for now. Some tweaking has still to be done (can’t control everything with my Xbox S BT controller, getting it running took 2 extra settings in the bt main.conf (AutoEnbale=true and Privacy=device)).

Yeah, it’s a Fedora Silverblue spin, but unofficial. I have used the ubuntu spin (now deprecated, and has a new name), and it was buggy and then didn’t work because of the deprecation. Could have roolled back, but switched back to Windows for a while and Debian for my laptops. Now I only use Silverblue and have customized everything how I like it.

I tried the Bazzite-Gnome-installer for a HTPC, and it didn’t work (after-setup was/is bugged). It’s running stock Silverblue too now.