> Again, we're really sorry it's come to this, but all of the Linux
infrastructure and a lot of its maintainers are in the US and we can't
ignore the requirements of US law.
So the kernel running on my desktop is controlled by the US?
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https://lore.kernel.org/all/e7d548a7fc835f9f3c9cb2e5ed97dfdfa164813f.camel@HansenPartnership.com/
@skyblond That's why I'm looking into the world of alternative kernels for a few years. I'm familiar with FreeBSD. Recently I've started a new project completely based on OpenBSD — the server runs this OS and I've installed it on my PC alongside GNU/Linux to dual-boot into it when working on the project. GNU Guix is also an interesting OS because it officially supports the Hurd kernel, as well as Debian GNU/Hurd.
@skyblond In case of VM you use virtual drives, so there are no risks.
With USB you're safe until you run any program that may change your disks: the installer, fdisk, parted, disklabel, etc. But those programs are extremely dangerous to your data. When you run your GNU/Linux, your partitions are mounted, so nothing can access them directly. But when booting from USB your GNU/Linux partitions are not mounted, so any program with root privileges may change them.
Always do backups before any partitioning. And better use something like Gparted from GNU/Linux live USBs/CDs, because it is more intuitive.
@causa_arcana Thanks for that. I'm planning to run it in a vm first, or boot up with a USB drive. So should be fine I guess?