Between 2021 and 2025, at least 30,000 Australian banking passwords were stolen by infostealer malware — and the banks were not breached. The computers were. Sydney cybersecurity firm Dvuln traced the damage: approximately 14,000 credentials from CommBank customers, 7,000 from ANZ, 5,000 from NAB, and 4,000 from Westpac. Over 90 per cent of infections targeted Windows.
Dvuln’s founder Jamie O’Reilly tested stolen passwords that were four to five years old — and they still worked to breach ASX-listed companies. If you have been looking for a linux laptop Australia retailers do not stock, because you have started to wonder whether your operating system is part of the problem — this is the evidence that says you are right.
The Australian Signals Directorate’s Annual Cyber Threat Report 2024–25 recorded over 84,700 cybercrime reports in a single year — one every six minutes. The average cost to individuals reached $33,000, up eight per cent. Small businesses averaged $56,600 in losses. Large businesses: $202,700 — up 219 per cent on the previous year.
The ASD identified infostealer malware as one of the most significant threat categories, publishing a dedicated advisory in September 2024 titled “The Silent Heist”. Infostealers harvest usernames, passwords, browser cookies, session tokens, two-factor backup codes, VPN credentials, crypto wallet data, and saved documents. The ASD found that corporate networks were being breached because employees accessed work systems from compromised personal computers. Devices used for both work and personal browsing were at significantly higher risk.
The OAIC reported 1,113 data breaches across 2024 — the highest annual total since the mandatory notification scheme began in 2018, and a 25 per cent increase on the prior year. Malicious attacks accounted for 59 per cent. IBM calculated the average cost of a data breach to Australian businesses in 2024 at $4.26 million.
These are not projections. These are documented losses reported by Australian government agencies, driven overwhelmingly by the operating system most Australians run without questioning it.
A privacy computer running Linux removes the architecture that makes those losses possible.
Windows 10 reached end of support on 14 October 2025. That means every vulnerability discovered after that date stays open. No patches. No fixes. Cybercriminals specifically target end-of-life software because the holes are permanent.
A TeamViewer audit of 250 million technical support sessions found that 38 per cent of Australian PCs were still running Windows 10 at end of support — roughly eight million devices. Microsoft estimates 240 million PCs worldwide cannot upgrade to Windows 11 because their hardware lacks the TPM 2.0 chip Windows 11 requires. In Australia, that translates to roughly three to four million machines with nowhere to go.
Those owners face three choices. Buy a new Windows computer and accept the data collection that comes with Windows 11. Pay for Microsoft’s Extended Security Updates — free for consumers for the first year, then a subscription, and only until October 2026. Or install Linux on the hardware they already own and keep using a computer that still works perfectly well, without the tracking.
After Optus. After Medibank. After the 2025 super fund credential attack. After years of breach notifications arriving in letterboxes across the country. A lot of Australians are not choosing option one anymore.
They are looking for a linux computer Australia retailers have never stocked — and finding FreedomTech.
Microsoft’s own privacy documentation describes two categories of data collection on Windows 11: Required and Optional. Required data — device identifiers, hardware configuration, installed software, error reports, and usage information — is collected regardless of what settings you change. You cannot switch it off. It is not a setting. It is a condition of using the operating system.
The German Federal Office for Information Security published a 30-page technical analysis of what Windows sends back to Microsoft. Their conclusion: data continued flowing to Microsoft’s servers even after every available privacy setting was turned off. That is a national government security agency documenting that the settings do not do what most people assume.
Then there is Recall — a feature Microsoft built into Windows 11 that screenshots your screen every few seconds and stores the results in a searchable database. Passwords, banking details, private messages — all captured. Independent testing found the sensitive information filter failed consistently. The security community responded immediately. Signal built a specific feature into their Windows app to block Recall from reading private messages. Microsoft eventually made Recall opt-in after the backlash. But the intention was there — and the infrastructure ships with every update.
Dvuln’s research put a price on the damage. The criminal subscription cost for access to freshly infected computers: approximately US$400 per month buys 100,000 to 200,000 compromised devices. Less than one cent per machine. Hudson Rock reported over 58,000 devices in Australia infected with infostealer malware. KELA estimated 330 million individual credentials were compromised globally by infostealers in 2024.
Every linux laptop Australia receives from FreedomTech exists to break that cycle.
Apple’s privacy marketing is consistent and well-funded. And to be fair, macOS is genuinely better than Windows in several meaningful ways. Apple’s primary business is hardware, not advertising. There is no Recall equivalent. There are no ads in the operating system. Those are real differences.
But macOS is not neutral. Every time you open an application on a Mac, the operating system contacts Apple’s servers to verify the app has not been tampered with. Apple’s own support documentation confirms this. The request includes information about which application you are opening and when. You cannot disable it through any user-facing setting.
Michael Bazzell — former FBI cybercrime investigator with over 20 years in federal law enforcement — has documented in detail what macOS sends to Apple during normal use: data about the apps you open, your location, your network configuration, and your connected devices. His conclusion, published in Extreme Privacy: “If you are using ANY version of Linux instead of Microsoft or Apple, you are probably achieving better privacy and security in regard to your digital life.”
And there is one constraint that no amount of configuration can solve: you cannot remove macOS from a Mac. The operating system is permanently tied to the hardware. A fully hardened privacy Mac costs upwards of $2,100 for the most basic model. It reduces Apple’s visibility. It does not eliminate it.
A linux laptop Australia buyers can actually own outright — without a corporate landlord — costs less and collects nothing.
For the full side-by-side comparison, read our Windows vs Mac vs Linux breakdown.
It is not one thing. It is a pile of things that finally tips over.
Windows 10 ending support forced millions of Australians to make a decision they had been putting off.
For some, it was the cost — a new Windows 11 laptop starts around $800 to $1,000, a Mac starts at $1,799, a refurbished linux pc Australia-wide from FreedomTech starts at $875 and a new build at $1,175.
Same privacy protection either way. The refurbished machine runs identically to the new one.
For others, it was the breaches. Optus. Medibank. The super fund credential attack in March 2025. Each one arrived as a letter or an email saying your data had been exposed, and each one left people wondering what they could actually do about it.
Installing Linux does not undo a breach. But it stops the operating system from collecting data that could be exposed in the next one.
For some, it was simply learning what Windows actually does. The Recall feature. The mandatory data collection. The German government’s findings. Once you know your operating system is reporting on you, it is difficult to unknow it.
And for a growing number of Australians, it is the age verification laws. From December 2025, Australian platforms are legally required to verify user ages, with fines of up to $49.5 million per breach.
California’s Digital Age Assurance Act, signed October 2025, requires every operating system to collect your date of birth during setup and transmit it to app developers in real time. Colorado passed similar legislation in March 2026.
What these laws actually build is infrastructure: a permanent data pipeline from your operating system through every app store to every developer, tied to your identity. Microsoft and Apple will comply — they have no choice.
Linux Mint is open-source software maintained by a nonprofit. The code is publicly auditable. Over 400 computer scientists signed an open letter arguing these laws build surveillance infrastructure, not child protection.
Linux is not one thing. It is a family of operating systems built on the same open-source foundation, distributed in hundreds of versions. It runs most of the internet, the computers at CERN, and the International Space Station. The old reputation — command lines, complexity, only for engineers — comes from an era that ended years ago. For a deeper look at what open source means, our guide to open source covers the reasoning. For a straightforward explanation of Linux itself, see our introduction to Linux.
Of the hundreds of distributions available, we chose Linux Mint because it is the closest thing to Windows and Mac for people who have never used Linux. The layout, the menus, the way software installs — it is designed as a stepping stone. Other linux computers Australia users might explore later offer different solutions for different needs, but Mint is where most people start comfortably. It also happens to collect nothing.
An independent researcher published a detailed Wireshark network analysis of a fresh Linux Mint installation in February 2025. The result: the only network traffic was a time synchronisation check and a connectivity test. No connections to analytics servers. No data sent to any corporation. No advertising identifiers. No usage reports.
The Linux Mint team has confirmed this in their own documentation: “Linux Mint does not collect any telemetry whatsoever.” That word — telemetry — means data sent back to a server about how you use your computer. Linux Mint sends none. The Linux Mint privacy policy says it plainly: “If we don’t need to collect data, we don’t collect it.”
The reason this claim is meaningful — and different from a corporation making the same claim — is that the code is publicly visible. Every line of it. Anyone in the world can read it, audit it, and verify independently that nothing is hidden. Linux Mint is built by a small nonprofit team with no shareholders, no advertising revenue, and no business model that depends on knowing what you do on your computer.
Every FreedomTech computer — laptop, mini desktop, or tower — runs Linux Mint Cinnamon and arrives fully configured. We build on Dell hardware because Dell provides consistently strong Linux driver support across their range. The machine is tested before it ships.
The layout is immediately familiar to anyone coming from Windows. Taskbar along the bottom. Start menu in the bottom-left corner. System tray on the right. Files and folders work the way you expect. Right-clicking gives you the menus you are used to. Installing software is point-and-click through a graphical Software Manager.
Brave browser is pre-installed and ready to go. Signal and Telegram are set up for private messaging. Cheese is installed for video calls, and GIMP for photo editing. LibreOffice comes with Linux Mint and handles Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files out of the box.
The firewall is configured and running before the machine leaves us. Automatic security updates are enabled. The machine is tested, boxed, and shipped ready to use. You open it and start working.
Refurbished Dell builds start from $875. New builds start from $1,175. Both run identically — same operating system, same configuration, same privacy protection. The hardware is different; refurbished ex-corporate machines are excellent quality at a significantly lower price point.
Every FreedomTech computer ships with LibreOffice pre-installed. It opens and saves Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files. For most people it does everything Microsoft Office does, and it is free. If you want to try it before making any decisions, download it from libreoffice.org and run it on your current computer. It works on Windows and Mac.
If you use Microsoft 365 for work, you can access Word, Excel, and PowerPoint through your web browser — that works identically on Linux. The only edge case is if you rely heavily on advanced macros or Visual Basic scripts in Excel. For most Australians, that is not relevant.
Your existing files transfer directly. Documents, photos, music, videos — they copy across without conversion. Banking is accessed through the web browser, not through bank apps. CommBank, Westpac, NAB, ANZ, ING, Macquarie, Bendigo — all provide full-featured web banking. This is actually a privacy advantage: bank apps on phones can access shared storage, your calendar, and your contacts. A browser cannot.
No. And we say that because the evidence backs it up, not because we are selling something.
Linux Mint’s Cinnamon desktop was designed specifically for people coming from Windows. The layout is nearly identical. Installing software is point-and-click. Updates arrive as a notification. There is no command line required for everyday use.
Rhett, a FreedomTech client, said he was able to “jump on to it with minimal learning and continue my business operations straight away.”
Robert and Anita called it “a huge relief” and said they “only wondered why we didn’t switch ten years ago.”
We configure every linux laptop Australia customers order before it ships
If, after giving it a genuine go, Linux is not for you — we will revert your computer back to Windows for the cost of return postage and a small labour fee. In all the Linux computers we have built and sold, fewer than two customers have ever taken us up on that offer.
Yes. Every major Australian bank — CommBank, Westpac, NAB, ANZ, ING, Macquarie, Bendigo — provides full-featured web banking that works in any modern browser. Brave is pre-installed and configured on every FreedomTech computer. Banking through the browser is actually more private than using a bank app, because apps can access shared storage, your calendar, and your contacts. A browser cannot.
LibreOffice opens and saves Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files. For the vast majority of users it does everything Microsoft Office does. If you use Microsoft 365 for work, you can access it through your web browser — it works identically on Linux. If you want to try LibreOffice before switching, download it free from libreoffice.org and run it on your current computer.
A VPN encrypts your internet traffic so your internet provider cannot see what you are doing online. FreedomTech pre-installs Mullvad VPN on dedicated crypto computers. For privacy computers, a VPN is optional — Mullvad is our recommendation if you choose to add one. It requires only an account number to sign up — no email, no name, no personal details. It is independently audited, based in Sweden, and logs nothing.
Linux receives a fraction of the malware that targets Windows. The ASD’s infostealer advisory confirmed that over 90 per cent of infostealer infections target Windows. Linux Mint’s architecture — no mandatory data collection, no cloud account requirement, software installed through signed repositories rather than random web downloads — reduces the attack surface that makes those infections possible. No operating system is invulnerable, but Linux is structurally safer for everyday use.
Gaming on Linux has improved substantially. Valve’s Proton compatibility layer allows thousands of Windows games to run on Linux. If gaming is your primary use case, Windows remains the more straightforward choice. For everyday computing, productivity, privacy, and security, Linux Mint is our recommendation without qualification.
Every linux laptop Australia receives from FreedomTech — along with our mini desktops and towers — runs Linux Mint Cinnamon and arrives fully configured, tested, and ready to use from the moment you open the box.
Refurbished linux laptops Australia-wide start from $875. New builds from $1,175. Laptops, mini desktops, and towers — all running Linux Mint Cinnamon.
If you want to talk through your options before ordering, join our Telegram community. It is a relaxed space where you can ask questions, see what other Australians are running, and get a feel for what suits your situation.
If this changed the way you think about your computer, share it with someone still running Windows or Mac. They probably have the same questions you did.