Link: https://www.zdnet.com/article/the-one-click-linux-app-i-use-for-instant-online-anonymity/

If you want anonymity and security on Linux, you should consider using the Tor network, and this simple app makes that easy.🤔

https://framagit.org/tractor/carburetor

Why not just use tor?

The problem with Tor is that, to some, it can seem a bit intimidating. Sure, you can opt to use the Tor Browser, but that only protects your web browsing, so it’s not global protection on your desktop.

There is, however, a simple app you can use to gain global anonymity/encryption for all of your desktop apps that send data packets beyond your LAN. That app is called Carburetor, and it’s only available for Linux.

I'm also curious how good/safe this is + if usage like this is something that the Tor network can handle.

the problem for me is that it's infuriatingly slow -- i'm confused at how other people can use it without going insane.

You can force everything into tor if you want, but if you then send every piece of identifying information that exists about you, then it doesn't really help. While you might not do that, all the identifying or otherwise privacy problematic behavior of random apps is still a thing. That's why Tor Browser is highly recommended, it's more than just a browser with tor, it tries to do something about fingerprinting, disables stuff like WebRTC that could leak your IP address, etc.

Also last I checked Tor doesn't handle UDP packets, which is a problem when you try and force all traffic through it.

this feels like a noob trap. if someone needs to send all their traffic through Tor for some reason, just use Tails. don't mix your regular activity with your Tor activity.

Thats what I was thinking. It’s not a good idea to mix that. If someone is using vscode telemetry + google chrome + gmail or whatever it may be, you are already identified and that defeats the whole purpose of tor. It’s just showing up as a different end ip.

Tor is inherintly slow. It is not meant for things like streaming videos, games or social media. This new product also will not help with this, it just defeats the purpose of using tor, doesn’t provide any benifit and with all of the downside.