Why pick Fedora for security and privacy?
Like other Linux distributions Fedora does not track you, it is open source and gets security updates. You should go for Fedora instead of other distributions because they have a big community and they get funding and support from Red Hat, this guarantees that the distribution is not run by a single developer and it is not going to become abandonware. Another worthy distribution is Ubuntu but I weighted towards Fedora because Red Hat is based in the USA and Canonical, Ubuntu parent company is based in the UK where free speech laws are more restrictive and surveillance is more omnipresent, for security and privacy I consider Fedora to be better.
Steps to do after installing Fedora Atomic, notice that non Atomic versions use dnf, these instructions are specific of the Fedora Atomic version which is more secure.
- Change font size to Large font by going to accessibility menu in Gnome
- Make sure your operating system time is synchronised or 2FA apps won’t work. In Fedora you can set up NTS (Network Time Security) a more secure NTP (Network Time Protocol) by doing this:
Edit chrony.conf using the command line with:
sudo nano /etc/chrony.conf
Inside the file use the add the following NTS serversserver time.cloudflare.com iburst nts
server 0.ubuntu.pool.ntp.org iburst nts
server 1.ubuntu.pool.ntp.org iburst nts
Make sure this line is uncommented in chrony.confntsdumpdir /var/lib/chrony
restart chronyd with:sudo systemctl restart chronyd
If you want to check if chronyd has been configured correctly use:chronyc sources -vtimedatectlchronyc sourcestats - Install the Brave browser from the official website: https://www.brave.com
- Install HP Printer software HPLip from HP official website:
https://developers.hp.com/hp-linux-imaging-and-printing/gethplip
In command line sudo rpm-ostree install hplip
Install HPLIP GUI: sudo rpm-ostree install hplip-gui
5. Install KeePassXC using the official Fedora repository
6. Install WindScribe from their official VPN site.
7. Standard Notes has a non official Flatpak their official Linux app is only for Ubuntu, for security reasons is best not to donwnload the non official FlatPak and only use Standard Notes web version, the Brave browser will give you an option to install it as app.
8. Install Shotime, the video player known as “Video Player” in Fedora official repository, make sure it is the FlatPak version not distributed by Fedora as otherwise it will not come with non free codecs needed to play some files.
9. Install Safe the secure offline password manager based on KeePassXC, it can be downloaded from Fedora official repository.
10. Other applications to install are LibreOffice to have a full featured Word Editor, Pinta as a graphics editor, Document Scanner to scan documents with HP Smart Tank 5105, Peazip to extract files and DéjàDup to back up your data.