I don’t like how any of these big tech companies try and force us to use their spyware vs letting people make an informed choice. I don’t agree with the technique, but the silver lining may be that we desperately need competition with browsers and the reality is that this is how US predatory capitalism works now. Companies take advantage of people because we have no proper regulation in the tech space. Maybe some people will switch to from Chrome to Edge (reskinned Chrome) Ranking for privacy on a 1-10 scale imho

Chrome 0 Edge 1 Firefox 5 Brave 6 LibreWolf 9

Are you implying that Google's primary business model is something other than the collection and sale of people's personal data? Google services are discounted or "free" because they monetize user data through tools like their reCAPTCHA hardware fingerprinting technology deployed on System 76's website. My point is that System 76 claim's to be "extremely concerned with user privacy", but chooses a payment processor dependent on the Internet's least privacy preserving corporation and that is a contradiction of your "proclaimed" values.

Btw, I recently learned that Purism also deploys Google scripts with their payment processor and I wasted my money on a Librem 5 a year ago. It has the worst touchscreen and battery life of any device I own, so let me assure you I'm no shill for that company. I honestly buy my hardware from System 76 every chance I get, so when I feel they're being disingenuous about their values (privacy), I take it personal, since I'm typing this on a Galago Pro.

I'll probably relent and order the Lemur over the phone as Stetson suggested. I'm critical of System 76 because I want them to succeed and I think they should follow other companies (Valve, Discord, etc...) abandoning Google as their ship sinks because of shareholder greed.

https://www.pcmag.com/news/steam-ditches-google-analytics-over-customer-privacy-concerns

I'm sure a lot of people at System 76, like myself started using Google in the 90s and had an invitation only Gmail account, becoming enchanted with the company 20 years ago. Unfortunately, after their 2004 IPO, the shareholder's have clamored for the increasingly relentless collection and sale of user data to advertisers and even government tax and intelligence agencies to the point that Alphabet has lost much of it's goodwill in the tech community and many are now suspicious of Google like myself.

I made my post not to bash System 76, but to point out what I believe is a strategic error continuing to have Google as a business partner when payment processor's like Stripe will allow hCaptcha's (privacy preserving service) instead.

I'm a System 76 customer, as I stated in the initial post I made, which you apparently didn't even take the time to read. Receiving Google services at a discount in exchange for access to System 76 user data is profiting from using Google's discounted reCAPTCHA, versus competitor pricing models. Don't think linking Google's privacy policy that promises not to track your users is of any relevance, Google is currently under more litigation for violating their own privacy policies than any other company in Tech (research the case with Epic Games), not to mention the DoJ's anti-trust lawsuit currently underway.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/03/judge-finds-google-destroyed-evidence-and-repeatedly-gave-false-info-to-court/

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-sues-google-monopolizing-digital-advertising-technologies

Have you been to business school in the last decade Sir? Surveillance Capitalism is a mandatory subject in the contemporary world and I believe you're pretending that isn't Google's primary revenue stream. Please have a look at he link below expanding on Alphabet Inc's business model.

https://telegra.ph/How-Big-Tech-Revenue-and-Profit-Breaks-Down-by-Company-12-09

Yes, as I stated in the beginning of my post, personally I value privacy and ethical business practices and imo, if you sell hardware, make money on hardware while not additionally monetizing your customer's data through discounted web services. So the fact that they use services monetizing user as a way to increase profit margins is enough to make me choose another company. The only company I know of that sells a Linux Laptop not partaking in this sort of thing is Purism and they have very little selection. I'm open to other suggestions if someone knows of another company?