Linux Laptop Australia: Why Australians Are Switching to Linux
By Tony · FreedomTech · 11 min read · Updated June 2026
The case for a linux laptop Australia can trust starts with a number the banks would rather you did not see. Between 2021 and 2025, at least 30,000 Australian banking passwords were stolen by infostealer malware.
The banks were never breached. The computers were. Sydney cybersecurity firm Dvuln traced where the stolen credentials came from:
- About 14,000 from CommBank customers
- 7,000 from ANZ
- 5,000 from NAB
- 4,000 from Westpac
More than 90 per cent of those infections targeted Windows. Dvuln's founder Jamie O'Reilly tested stolen passwords four to five years old, and they still worked to breach ASX-listed companies.
If you have started to wonder whether your operating system is part of the problem, this is the evidence that says you are right.
The short version
- The infostealer malware draining Australian bank accounts overwhelmingly targets Windows. macOS is more private, but it still reports back to Apple and locks you to its hardware.
- Windows and macOS both collect data by design, and the privacy settings do not fully switch it off.
- Linux runs differently: no mandatory data collection, no cloud account, and a fraction of the malware. Not invulnerable, but structurally safer.
- Every FreedomTech machine runs Linux Mint Cinnamon, configured by hand and built to feel familiar from day one.
How Bad Is It? The Australian Government's Own Numbers
The Australian Signals Directorate's Annual Cyber Threat Report 2024 to 2025 recorded over 84,700 cybercrime reports in a single year, roughly one every six minutes. The losses behind that figure are not abstract:
- $33,000 average cost to an individual, up eight per cent
- $56,600 average loss for a small business
- $202,700 for a large business, up 219 per cent in a single year
The ASD named infostealer malware as one of the most significant threats, in an advisory titled The Silent Heist. Infostealers harvest passwords, browser cookies, session tokens, two-factor backup codes, VPN credentials, crypto wallet data and saved documents.
It found corporate networks were being breached because staff logged into work systems from compromised home computers. The OAIC recorded 1,113 data breaches across 2024, the highest annual total since the scheme began in 2018, and a 25 per cent rise on the year before.
These are documented losses reported by Australian government agencies, driven overwhelmingly by the operating system most people run without questioning it. A computer running Linux removes the architecture that makes those losses possible.
Windows 10 Is Over. Eight Million Australian Computers Are Exposed.
Windows 10 reached end of support on 14 October 2025. Every vulnerability discovered after that date stays open. No patches, no fixes. Criminals deliberately target end-of-life software because the holes are permanent.
A TeamViewer audit of 250 million support sessions found 38 per cent of Australian PCs were still on Windows 10 at end of support, roughly eight million devices. Microsoft estimates 240 million PCs worldwide cannot upgrade to Windows 11 because the hardware lacks the TPM 2.0 chip it requires. In Australia that is 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 the first year, then a subscription, and only until October 2026.
- 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. A lot of Australians are no longer choosing option one. They go looking for a linux laptop Australia can actually own outright, and they find FreedomTech.
What Windows Actually Does While You Use It
Microsoft's own privacy documentation splits data collection on Windows 11 into two categories: Required and Optional. Required data is collected regardless of what you change. It is not a setting you can switch off. It is a condition of using the operating system.
Required data
- Device and hardware identifiers
- Installed software and configuration
- Error reports and usage information
What that means
- The off switch most people assume exists does not
- A national security agency confirmed data keeps flowing
- The collection is the design, not a bug
The German Federal Office for Information Security published a 30-page technical analysis of what Windows sends back to Microsoft. Their conclusion: data kept flowing to Microsoft's servers even after every available privacy setting was turned off.
Then there is Recall, a feature 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.
Signal built a specific feature into its Windows app to block Recall from reading private messages. Microsoft made Recall opt-in after the backlash, but the intent was there, and the infrastructure ships with every update.
Dvuln priced the result. Access to freshly infected computers costs criminals around US$400 a month for up to 200,000 devices, less than one cent per machine. Over 58,000 infected devices were reported in Australia alone.
macOS: Better Than Windows, but Still Not Yours
Apple's privacy marketing is consistent and well funded, and to be fair macOS is genuinely better than Windows in several real ways. But better is not the same as private.
Where macOS is better
- Apple's business is hardware, not advertising
- No Recall-style screen recording
- No ads built into the operating system
Where it falls short
- Every app you open phones home to Apple
- That check cannot be disabled in any setting
- You cannot remove macOS from the hardware
Michael Bazzell, a former FBI cybercrime investigator with over 20 years in federal law enforcement, has documented what macOS sends to Apple during normal use: the apps you open, your location, your network configuration and your connected devices.
A fully hardened privacy Mac costs more than most people expect, and even then it only reduces Apple's visibility. It does not eliminate it. A linux laptop Australia can actually own, without a corporate landlord, costs less and collects nothing. For the full side by side, read our Windows vs Mac vs Linux comparison.
Why Australians Are Actually Making the Switch
It is not one thing. It is a pile of things that finally tips over.
- Cost. A new Windows laptop or a Mac both cost more than a refurbished linux laptop Australia can buy from FreedomTech, and it runs identically to a new one.
- The breaches. Optus, Medibank, the March 2025 super fund attack. Linux cannot undo a breach, but it stops the operating system collecting data for the next one.
- Learning what Windows does. Once you know your operating system is reporting on you, it is hard to unknow it.
- The age verification laws. A new reason, and a serious one.
From December 2025, Australian platforms must 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 pass it to app developers in real time. Colorado followed in March 2026.
What these laws 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, and the code is publicly auditable. Over 400 computer scientists signed an open letter arguing these laws build surveillance infrastructure, not child protection.
What Linux Actually Is
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 and complexity for engineers only, comes from an era that ended years ago. For the reasoning behind open code, see our guide to open source. For a plain explanation of Linux itself, see our introduction to Linux.
Why We Build Every FreedomTech Computer with Linux Mint
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 touched Linux. The layout, the menus, the way software installs, all of it is designed as a stepping stone. It also happens to collect nothing.
An independent researcher published a detailed Wireshark network analysis of a fresh Linux Mint install in February 2025. The only traffic was a time-synchronisation check and a connectivity test. No analytics servers. No data sent to any corporation.
The Linux Mint team puts it plainly in their own documentation: Linux Mint collects no telemetry whatsoever. Telemetry means data sent back to a server about how you use your computer. Linux Mint sends none.
What makes that meaningful, unlike a corporation saying the same, is that the code is publicly visible. Anyone in the world can read it, audit it and verify that nothing is hidden. Mint is built by a small nonprofit team with no shareholders and no business model that depends on knowing what you do.
What a FreedomTech Computer Looks Like Out of the Box
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 its range. Each machine is tested before it ships, and it comes with a printed setup manual so you have a reference from the moment you open the box.
The layout is immediately familiar to anyone coming from Windows. Taskbar along the bottom, start menu bottom-left, system tray on the right. Installing software is point and click through a graphical Software Manager. Here is what is set up before it reaches you:
- Brave browser, pre-installed and ready to go
- Signal and Telegram set up for private messaging
- Cheese for video calls, GIMP for photo editing
- LibreOffice, which opens Word, Excel and PowerPoint files
- Firewall configured and running before it leaves us
- Automatic security updates enabled
Refurbished ex-corporate Dell builds are the entry point, with new builds and Pro machines above them. They run identically: same operating system, same configuration, same privacy protection. Only the hardware differs, and a refurbished ex-corporate machine is excellent quality at a far lower price. Whichever you choose, it is a linux laptop Australia can keep running for years. Current pricing is on the store page.
Configured by hand in Australia, shipped from New Zealand across to Europe. You open the box and start working.
Files, Software, and the Microsoft Office Question
Every FreedomTech computer ships with LibreOffice pre-installed. It opens and saves Word, Excel and PowerPoint files, and for most people it does everything Microsoft Office does, for free.
Want to test it first? Download it from libreoffice.org and run it on your current Windows or Mac computer. If you use Microsoft 365 for work, Word, Excel and PowerPoint run in your browser, identically on Linux. The only real edge case is heavy reliance on advanced Excel macros or Visual Basic scripts, which is not relevant for most people.
Your existing files come straight across, no conversion needed:
- Documents, spreadsheets and presentations
- Photos, music and videos
- Bookmarks and browser data
Banking is done through the web browser, not a bank app. That is a privacy advantage: a phone bank app can reach your shared storage, calendar and contacts. A browser cannot.
Will It Be Hard to Learn?
No, and we say that because the evidence backs it up, not because we are selling something. Cinnamon was designed specifically for people coming from Windows. The layout is nearly identical, installing software is point and click, and there is no command line required for everyday use.
That is Rhett, a FreedomTech client. Robert and Anita called the switch "a huge relief" and said they "only wondered why we didn't switch ten years ago."
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 machines we have built and sold, fewer than two customers have ever taken us up on it.
Linux Laptop Australia: Frequently Asked Questions
Can I still do my banking? +
What about Microsoft Office? +
Do I get instructions with it? +
Do I need a VPN? +
Is Linux safer than Windows and Mac? +
Can I still play games? +
Ready to make the switch?
Laptops, mini desktops and towers, all running Linux Mint Cinnamon, configured by hand and shipped ready to use. For a lot of people it is the linux laptop Australia has been waiting for. If this changed how you think about your computer, pass it to someone still running Windows or Mac. They probably have the same questions you did.
Questions, or just keen to talk privacy with like-minded Australians? Visit our Telegram community.
FreedomTech · The Privacy Experts · freedomtech.com.au