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Yeah, don’t trust your most critical passwords to a browser when you can instead use a dedicated bit of software designed for saving passwords securely and which will also work on your phone and any other browser you may care to use.

The last time I tried to install Windows 11 on a VM (Nutanix AHV), I had to fiddle with a virtual TPM and lost the live migration feature as a result.

Dos this mean I can install the LTSC version, not need the TPM and have a working, live migrate-able machine?

Something to test next week…

It’s like… I want to disagree with you, but you’re making me think.

Why are we ok with having required services that are only provided by third party companies?

They’re not specific - No government says you must have a Facebook or Twitter account. But you’re right - you have to have a bank account and you’ll not get far in 2024 without email.

What about a step further? If you want a phone number, you need a landline or mobile. Both of those are only provided by private companies too…

While I don’t disagree with you in principle, I do find it a bit funny that you’ve picked one of the easiest services to change between as your hill.

There’s no reason you _ have_ to use Gmail, or Hotmail. There are a billion email providers and if you have enough technical knowledge, you can even run your own (I really don’t recommend this though, it’s harder then it seems to do it safely and securely).

If you pick a provider outside the US, your government can’t do dick about getting it shut down, and if you pick one in a particularly privacy-conscious country, you can have everything encrypted to the point where the provider themselves can’t read your messages.

Also, I assume this is similar in the States, but I’ve seen government IT projects in the UK and some of them are truly awful. I wouldn’t necessarily trust them to look after important emails for me. Plus a single source of email would be an awfully tempting target for hacker groups around the world.

Yes, a label is just a more versatile folder. If you don’t like that, you can just use a single label per email, but I genuinely can’t see any value in that. But you can if you want.

If the government can get your current email or bank account shut down, why do you think they couldn’t/wouldn’t do that on a government-provided one?

53 and looking for someone “of age or with parental consent”?

Excuse me while I go and vomit.

I want to use my main mail address everywhere, even public places.

No you don’t. It’s not quite as simple, but buy your own domain, get an email provider such as Fastmail that will let you use a catch-all, then use a unique address for every site you visit.

Then if one starts receiving spam, you can block that specific address and voila, no more spam. Plus you know what sites have either poor customer detail hygiene or are actively selling your details.