Desktop

Privacy and security advice for desktop computers.

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Last edited: September 10, 2025.

This article aims to educate people about the privacy and security of desktop computers. It is somewhat opinionated, although I try to be as objective as possible. I will also not be taking any threat models into account — the advice is based on what I believe most people should be using.

# General

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I am going to quote madaidan here because I could not have said it better myself:

The desktop security model is very broken. It was not designed with security in mind — security was only a poorly implemented afterthought. (...) If you can, stay away from desktop and stick to mobile devices.

Please only use a desktop computer when necessary, and only for that specific, non-sensitive task that could not be achieved on a phone. There currently is no desktop hardware or software (operating system) that really compares to what most phones offer.

If you are not a power user and just want something that works on an external display, a supported iPad with Stage Manager—which has comparable security to an iPhone—might be a great choice for you. A great option in the future will be using a GrapheneOS device with Android Desktop Mode and the build-in Terminal app, but that could take a while before it is fully matured. Google also confirmed that they are combining ChromeOS and Android into a single platform, so hopefully were going to see more secure laptops in the future.

If you want to read more about the security of desktop operating systems, I recommend reading GrapheneOS's, madaidan's, and graphenelover's views on the topic.

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