Its the only one worth using i say. I use proton on my laptop, desktop and phone. Free account. I think its meant to say "connected on one device at a time".

So I did a slightly more detailed "test" (used 10 connections on and off instead of jumping to conclusions from one or two) and it's for sure the ads I'm seeing are basically the same either way. Medicare ads dominate (lots of Humana Medicare Advantage and AARP Medicare Supplemental Plan) and that website that sells viagra. But a couple of Liberty Mutual, Lume, and pharma ads popped. But it looks like it always did.

The biggest difference I could see on a performance level was when I was on the Japan site. All sites (this one too) loaded noticeably slower, and when streaming TV or movies, loading the screen to start takes a whole lot longer for some reason, and during streaming it drops out of HD quality more often.

And then there's the one I should have foreseen but didn't. I don't own a TV, but I live with a family member and as a household, we do have a cable TV plan with Comcast/XFinity, and I watch TV on my computer by using their streaming service where I get all the same channels that everyone outside of my room do on their TV'x.

Except when I have the Proton thing on. When I have that on, there are lots of channels that won't stream, mostly "premium" channels, like HBO, Showtime, etc. And apparently MLB Network (I'm a huge baseball fan) is considered "premium" because that's I learned all of this. They have two "tiers" of streaming, one tier called something like XFinity Go (or something I forgot already lol) and "In-Home". So, certain channels, mostly premium channels it looks like, can only be seen when you're physically at home (the "In-Home" tier. The other "Go" tier, can be seen as long as your logged in from anywhere (like on smart phones on the subway or something). When I had the VPN on and tried to watch MLB Network, I learned this lesson. It would NOT let me watch that channel. Turned VPN off, and am able to watch it.

Sorry for this lame thread but I find all of this stuff so interesting. I wish I had been born 30 years later than I was and maybe I would' know more about all of this stuff. My first video game I got was the original Pong. My first desktop I used was a Wang, with IIRC an OS called Wangdos or something. The first software packages I used on a daily basis were Word Perfect and dBase II. I kept up pretty well into MS-DOS (which was really incredibly similar to the WangDos) and into Windows 3.1 and finally Windows 95. After that, it just seemed to explode so quickly I couldn't keep up and where once I was likely "above average" in terms of computer knowledge to waaaaay below average now. I think if I had been born 30 years later it would be very different. I envy you young folks, more so than for just being young, as you live in a fascinating technological time. At the same time though, and even more so, I pity you though, not for anything you did, but for the world my generation has left you. We failed you. Badly. For that I can say I am sorry.

This is/was not a 'lame' thread! With your posts, you liven up the forums, and your threads are obviously of interest (otherwise, there would be near-zero feedback). You are the one to be envied. You had experienced the elegant simplicity of a countless number of so-called 'legacy' platforms. Now, technological developments have (in my opinion) devolved into overly-complex heaps of bloat that will soon be replaced with even worse iterations. The never-ending cycle continues.

By the way, I was unable to find any information on WangDOS. Would you be willing to provide a bit more information about it (I know that you were uncertain of its exact name)? Was it a Chinese imitation of DOS?

Well this talks about it some: I remember IBM dos (which also came before MS-DOS IIRC) and how it was sort of "compatible" with the Wang OS (I could've sworn it was called Wangdos but I'm not finding any reference to it either). But in 1982 I started work at the Pentagon and was hired as an administrative assistant, but my curiosity about new things drew me to the boxes of unopened, unused "Desktop Computers" (which was a new term at the time, before that we had "Word Processors" which were computers, but only operated as a word processor. These new "Desktop Computers" came with the ability to install and use many different programs, like database management and spreadsheets, which fascinated me greatly. Anyway, I opened up the boxes, set them all up on everybody's desk, got them to talk to the printer(s) (which by then was a lot more than just clicking on something and installing drivers, no, you had to put in specific instructions depending on the specific hardware for it to run, usually connected with a serial port I think they were called then (big wide ass plug with lots of pins and holes).

Anyway, I did that "on my own" and the bosses were so impressed they sent me to Wang School to learn the Wang OS and I then got put into a new job of setting up a "network" (another new term then) so that all of these Wang separate PC's could "talk to" each other. And everything was wired then of course. And it was in a highly, highly classified area (I actually worked in a vault, in a vault, in a vault lol) so we had to insulate every wire, every machine (even though the walls were also insulated) and yet still be able to have all of the desktops being able to talk to a central one which stored all of the information. It had a "hard" disk that looked like a set of about 5 old LP records (if you know what the old 33 1/3 RPM LP's looked like) that was huge, heavy, and had to be physically removed every night and locked in a safe and put back in every morning.

Fun times then. lol

I was actually surprised that it was founded in the U.S. by a Chinese immigrant. The surname had caused me to believe that it was an establishment based in China. : )

Do the contents of this article seem familiar? Their computers seem to have quite the (positive) reputation.

Yeah, it does, except for the MS-DOS part. Maybe it was just a Pentagon thing (which is possible) but I know for a fact these had their "own" OS that I went to school to learn. And while it was similar to IBM dos or MS-DOS, there were a few differences. I suppose it's possible the Pentagon contracted them to come up with their own OS specifically for networked computers in classified settings, I dunno. I do feel as certain as I can that the OS was different, because those of us in the office who played with these new toys more than others used to talk about when we would find a difference between IBM dos (or MS-DOS) and the Wang OS.

But I've tried searches and can't find it anywhere. I know I'm nuts, but I swear I'm not making this up. And I'm almost sure it was called Wang Dos because we (being childish) used to laugh about the name.

I dunno. That all sounds a lot like the machines I was working with, except for the MS-DOS part. In fact, I could have sworn that when I first started working on them, MS-DOS still wasn't popular.

ADDED: IBM DOS. This is what it was called before it was called MS-DOS, I guess I thought they were different but maybe it was just the naming because I remember vividly dealing with IBM DOS before dealing with MS-DOS.

This part is conforming to my memory that there were differences (differences between IBM PC DOS and MS-DOS):

Hi OldFatGuy

one thing about VPN's which may have been skimmed over or not given enough importance in this thread, is the physical location of the VPNs servers and whether or not the VPN keeps logs.

For instance, any VPN that keeps logs and is based in or has ties to any of the 5 eyes, 9 eyes or whatever the latest count is, if pressured the VPN will have to give up those logs legally and you privacy is gone.

It might be best to assume that all VPN providers keep logs, regardless of local laws. That line of thought may seem unreasonable, but, humans have proven themselves to be untrustworthy, especially with user data.

Anybody who is serious about privacy is not going to make assumptions.

But I agree with the general principle.

A VPN is no guarantee of privacy.

The issue might be the open vpn daemon.

Ive had to cleanly uninstall proton before (thanks to a wonky windows update) and they do have a tool for it on their site somewhere (or did).

I've tried a few VPNs, including the one from Firefox you're talking about. Basically, a VPN hides where you're really browsing from. You can pick a place, like if you want to look like you're in France, and change it anytime or keep it the same.

But even though the Firefox VPN deal seems okay, I've found better ones. Still, I wasn't super happy because my internet got slow and it would cut off sometimes. So, I decided to try something different and went for an individual proxy. It's been way better for me, making things more reliable and only costs me about $1.4 a month. I like it more because it gives me what I need without slowing me down or disconnecting.