citizensixteen

This video is a good share for non-technical friends and family to help them better understand the mass surveillance issue.

Nice timeline.

Regular (monthly) investments are available to nearly everyone. Investing is perhaps even easier- no points to pay with mortgage and investments are liquid and highly portable.

>In the end - apparently average Joe can use Linux today for browsing internet, viewing pdfs and doing Libre Office stuff just as well as on any other operating system (Windows, OS X)

Certainly true. Setting up friends and family helps them understand it's easier than they may believe. I find that most people have a view of Linux that is based on what Linux was a number of years back.

There are many (dozens) distributions that are easy to use and relatively stable. When I first had an interest in Linux I set aside some time and invested it to transition into Linux. It ended up taking less time and being easier than I thought it would be. I offer anyone with an interest in Linux to help them set-up Linux on any system they desire, unfortunately, most people want an out of the box system.

Thanks for the perspective, you made some good points. I was surprised to see there was a move towards forfeiture reform and then it swings back to business as usual. Even more surprised that, "it's not talked about much outside of the media."

Perhaps it's just one of those things we think will 'never effect' us and if it does there is not much you can do if you end up in a forfeiture situation.