I used to run their closed cli client years ago, but only when connecting to grab wireguard configs, then I closed it and connected with that config without it, which worked well*.

I also remember strace showing it reading a bunch of stuff including /etc/os-release. So they at least knew what distro you were using 😉

It was okay for me because I knew how to deal with it, although I’m with a provider that provides configs directly so you don’t need to use any service-specific clients.

Nord was never, or should have never been, a “privacy” choice, unless you are the kind of person that falls for paid reviewers and comparison sites, or marketing bullshit like all the X eyes talk.

*you can do that with any client that connects through wireguard since you can run wg showconf on the connected wireguard device. Although you would have to do some scripting yourself to replicate other steps like DNS and routing. I don’t think I was the only one doing this.

A long time ago, there was this misconception that “linux” was terminal-only. You know, like the interface sysadmins and Hollywood hackers use.

A small long-defunct non-tech forum I used to be a member of had a tech sub-forum, and in that sub-forum there was a new post one day introducing “linux” and covering some basics. It was full of DE screenshots (GNOME 2 and KDE 3) specifically to dispel the “terminal-only” misconception.

That was almost ~20 years ago. And the rest is history. I never liked Windows or M$ anyway for both technical and non-technical reasons. So it wasn’t that hard to convince me.

I almost exclusively use the terminal for everything except web browsing now, and don’t use a DE. So you could say that I myself ironically became a perpetuator of the misconception 😉