I hear ya!

Microsoft is subject to US authority because they’re a US-based business. Meaning the gov can fine them or take away their business license or demand access to information they have stored, or any number of other things that Linux is simply not subject to, because they’re not a business and don’t store any user data at all.

You skipped my question: How exactly are the US-based stewards of Linux development subject to US authority?

How are they?

Linux has developers from all sorts of countries. But then, so do Windows and macOS.

Microsoft and Apple are subject to US authority. Linux is not.

You think Linux is an American product?

It won’t directly affect them because they will not be “Google Certified” devices.

Welcome to the Threadiverse

It’s not negligible

I don’t like GitHub either but the large userbase ensures increased attention, which means more adoption, which means more contributors. That’s why devs are always begging for “stars”.

Privacy needs to be the default in order to be recommended, in my opinion.

That’s a fair clarification but hardly meaningful, and arguably much worse.

Most of the security is in the kernel so you can make sure you have the latest kernel. Also secureblue is a security focused distro that makes use of GrapeneOS’s hardened malloc so that’s the most secure one that I’m aware of.

In the browser or the app

Probably mostly dead, honestly

Are you logged into YouTube?

Is YouTube opened in the browser or the app?

Need more details. What device?

Brave also offers a few additional, very valuable things:

• the only app that reflects fingerprinting protection in PrivacyBadger, in my experience
• works on most webpages
• selective use of first-party cookies, per site.

Must not be important to them then.

You haven’t provided any evidence. Only an anecdote.