Possibly new user. Lots of noob questions

How to edit the original post?

8 - trisquel has a diferent browser. doesn't that make stand out more from the "crowd"? Not Google DNS right?

1. Of course you cannot install Windows without getting a malware: Windows is malware! You can consider that Microsoft (and who has enough power over Microsoft such as governments) own all Windows systems and the data on them. It is not hypothetical: the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSAKEY is/are known since Windows NT4, Microsoft can remotely install whatever it wants on a (usually specific) Windows system, it was shown that every search in Explorer, the title of any media played on Windows Media Player, etc. is sent to Microsoft. Etc.
2. Any proprietary software (including firmware) potentially is malware. You are denied the right to know. That is not acceptable. Trisquel is 100% free software.
3. You had better talk to your teachers, raise the ethical issue you have with proprietary software, and ask for the permission to use equivalent free software (LibreOffice instead of MS Office, GNU Octave instead of MATLAB, FreeCAD or LibreCAD, etc.) even if that means a harder work. Teachers are sensible to students who are prone to work harder.
4. Wifi may be problematic (but you can buy an adapter at ThinkPenguin or Tehnoetic and be sure it will work). It depends on the chipset. You had better try Trisquel from a Live system and see by yourself.
5. See https://trisquel.info/en/wiki/installation-guide and https://trisquel.info/en/wiki/setup for installation instructions. The installer proposes the encryption of the sole /home partition. It proposes a reasonable partitioning schema by default but you can make opt for a manual partitioning. Yours is reasonable as well and you can execute 'df -h' on one of your systems to see your actual usages of the system partitions (double these digits to be at ease). I do not see much point to have /boot separated from / unless you want different filesystems for them. The drawback is obvious: a bad dimensioning and you will end up with one of the two partitions full although the other one is empty. I believe (I do not double boot) Trisquel's install will overwrite the MBR. GRUB will therefore be configured from Trisquel (and list all your systems: do not worry). You can then reinstall GRUB from another installed system if you wish.
6. In Trisquel, you get the option to delete a bar with Alt+Right click on it. But you may want GNOME Shell where the "Activity" view can show the icons of frequently used programs. Maybe GDM too for a few additional functionalities such as the ability to lock the screen. They are a few clicks away in the "Synaptic package manager" (in the "System parameters").
7. The only laptops that are free down to the BIOS are sold at http://minifree.org but if you compromise on the BIOS for more recent hardware then get it from http://libre.thinkpenguin.com and have the guarantee that it will perfectly work with Linux-libre hence Trisquel.
8. No Google DNS. Because I use https://github.com/dillbyrne/random-agent-spoofer/releases I am not sure whether Abrowser's default useragent identifies Trisquel. If that useragent is the generic Firefox one, I do not think Abrowser can be set apart from the generic Firefox. If you are really concerned about your anonymity on the Web, you can download and use the Tor browser (that tries to be as generic as possible to avoid fingerprinting).

[1]
not quite sure what your asking but it is definitely a real concern that there are backdoors in windows 7
[2]
Elementary OS contains non-free binary blobs which definitely could be a privacy issue as you can not see the source code
[3]
"libreOffice warned me of compatibility issues on formatting when I used MS file type and stuff"
do you have the specific file that gave this warning on libreoffice? because i have never had a MS office file fail to load in libreoffice
"MATLAB (linux version exists I think)"
you could try these free as in freedom programs:
https://www.gnu.org/software/octave/
http://freemat.sourceforge.net/#home
"Decision Analysis software (MACBETH),"
i could not find any free as in freedom software for this hopefully someone else on this forum knows of some
"CAD/Modelling (SOLIDWORKS)"
http://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Category/Business/cad
also the program Blender may be good for this
"Will I have a rough time with specific software when I need it?"
there are very few non-free programs you cant get a free replacement for so ask on this forum and we will try to help
[4]
"Any problem with this?"
if your worried about whether Trisquel will work with your computer you can just try it first from a live CD without installing it once you have checked everything you need to work works from the live CD (wifi, bluetooth etc etc)
you can install it without worry
"Can't make it libre boot I guess?"
sorry but currently no one knows how to run libreboot on this machine
you can look at a list of compatible systems here:
http://www.libreboot.org/docs/hcl/index.html#supported_list
[5.1]
"Would it allow encryption (since it's not entire disk)?"
its definitely possible to just encrypt certain disks partitions
"If it allows, would I be able to resize partitions later if I need to?"
again i think its definitely possible i am not too knowledgeable about resizing encrypted partitions but other people on this forum should be able to tell you how
"would it be messed up after substituting OS?"
i don’t think so but id recommend asking others on this forum that could answer you better
[5.2]
"With this scheme, can all partitions be encrypted?"
if your running a librebooted machine is possible to encrypt everything including the boot partition:
http://www.libreboot.org/docs/gnulinux/encrypted_trisquel.html
as for other machines i don’t know but others on this forum could answer you
[6]
"I hate bars, no idea why!!"
if you hate bars you should try gnome 3:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/97/GNOME_Shell.png
you can install it with this command sudo apt-get install gnome-shell
and then you can chose which Desktop Environment you want at login
[7]
"I would be interested in one IF it was quite lightweight/portable (my laptop is already a bit heavy when carrying around all the time o.o)"
take a look at the Thinkpad x60 or Thinkpad x200 which can run Libreboot. i own both(well one is my sisters) and they are very lightweight
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnC9MAAK8sw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YILJLtkx5tM
the x60 is by far the easiest to install Libreboot on and you can pick them up quite cheap
you can also buy computers pre installed with Libreboot here:
http://minifree.org/

1 - wingobs **is** malware. Yes, backdoors and security threats are quite real. Depends how much of an interesting target you are for an attacker. Spyware and adware are the most common form of malware (they are everywhere on the average joe computers..) but they are fortunately tied to proprietary software, not the free software.

2 - I wouldn't trust a private company for my computing and in fact I don't. I trust only community developed OSes or OSi whatever that writes..

3 - Virtualization. Yes.

4 - Download ISO and dd if of the USB stick and see if the live runs well. wifi bloody wifi.

5 - My partition schema

/ 2 gb
/usr 7 gb
/var 3 gb
swap as ram (I actually set it to half ram that is 2 gb)
/tmp 3 gb
/home all the rest

6 - Tweaking your desktop is easy. You say you used Elementary. I like very much its style so I made Xfce look like it. I posted here about it (instructions included) -> https://trisquel.info/en/forum/share-your-desktop?page=5#comment-76929

7 - I plan to buy one. I don't have one yet but as far as I know X200 from minifree is an excellent lappy and it's very portable and lightweight.

Welcome to the community!

One thing to note about resizing partitions: I'm pretty sure Trisquel uses XFS for /home by default. XFS has some advantages over ext4, but it has a disadvantage in that you normally can't reduce it in size. So if you want to make sure you can resize it, you should set up your partitions manually and make /home an ext4 partition (or some other file system that can be downsized).

WOW!! Thanks A LOT for these answers!! And so fast. Really really, it were so many questions that I almost felt as if I was offending by asking them ahah
I'll take a second careful look at all you said!! Precious information (I always keep stuff like this aha)

So I can maintain the 2 win partitions untouched and encrypt the others possibly. nice. I'd want both the root and home; Windows is so bhlaaggg that I can access everything on it from my freya.

SuperTramp, you have / 2Gb, that's root right? Where does all the OS and programs go for? I don't know the var, usr and temp well enough but I'll investigate. Univers starts again tomorrow, so I'll make good use of the week to try this.

Just one more thing, Magic Banana, no google by default right? Which one is then? You can add those add-ons to Abrowser and IceCat? I tried the fingerprint webpage at fss or eff or something: less plugins, less fingerprint (but more info sucked out of you); more plugins, bigger fingerprint (stand out more from the crowd but less information leaking). How to deal with it? Plus, Abrowser and icecat are gigantly less used then default firefox and chrome, so won't they be more obvious around the net? I know some stuff on TOR but would only use for sensitive information search. I'd have to get bridge to conceal or vpn or something.

Once again, thanks a lot for the support :D :D Good night everyone!! (or not so bad in case someone's having a rough night to sleep)
Best regards from King of Halloween JackSkellington

> As for privacy ... it's actually a real concern or remote/hypothetical issue

Trust me- privacy under Windows is definitely a real concern. Read this:
https://www.fsf.org/windows. Even if it was a 'hypothetical' concern (whatever
that means) the simple fact that Microsoft (or whatever organisation) has the
power to abuse its users and the users are only not being directly abused
because Microsoft allows it, is grounds enough in my mind to reject Windows.
That is the nature of proprietary software- regardless of whether the user (the
company) is selling out its useds to the NSA, the fact that proprietary
software gives corporations the power to do such a thing without the user even
knowing about it is grounds enough to reject proprietary software. I would urge
you to, and wipe the last vestiges of Windows from your machine.

>Elementary OS is Ubuntu based [concerns, etc.]

Elementary OS contains non-free software, and doesn't really seem to
distinguish between free and non-free software in its repos. You would be
better of using an FSF-endorsed free software only distribution, such as
Trisquel. Trisquel too is based off Ubuntu, but has all the non-free and
ambiguous bits taken out, including blobs in Linux.

> microsoft office ... (libreOffice warned me of compatibility issues on
> formatting when I used MS file type

Why are you using the MS file types then? For they are secret formats stuffed
with evil. Use the OpenDocument formats (ods, odt, etc.) native to LibreOffice
if you want perfect file creation and compatibility. Sure, there may be some
minor issues when it comes to opening these files in MS Word, but it isn't the
Document Foundation's fault that Microsoft uses a secret format that is
fiendishly difficult to implement and for which the specification is thousands
of pages long. It's Microsoft's fault that they continue to stick to their
formats and have failed to implement open formats properly. ODF is an open and
universal standard. If MS Word can't handle it, that just proves that MS Word
is shit.

I use the ODF formats for everything school-related, and have never had any
problems- either on my side, because LibreOffice can create them perfectly, or
on the school side, because MS Office can actually handle ODT quite well these
days. At least for the few seconds it takes me to print the things.

> toshiba laptop Tecra M11 almost 6y old

The older the better, generally speaking. I have a 6-year old ASUS N43S.
Everything seems fine with yours except

> nvidia nvs with cuda card

No idea what that is- but it sure sounds scary. Look up the exact model on
https://h-node.org/ and see if it works with only free drivers. If not, don't
sweat- it'll probably have Intel Sandybridge integrated graphics or something
of the sort, which should be fine if you're willing to live without the best 3D
acceleration. I use integrated graphics without any real problems.

So, I tried trisquel 7.0 Live a while ago and I had no wireless connections available. From terminal trying to see the hardware I got (lspci commands) the following info:

00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset HECI Controller (rev 06)

00:19.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82577LM Gigabit Network Connection (rev 06)

03:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Centrino Advanced-N 6200 (rev 35)

So my hardware doesn't support trisquel right? I guess I won't be able to install and substitute elementary (which has to be re-installed anyway due to lots of kernel stuff pilling up in boot partition...).

So any of these USB sticks would make it work? And many choices too

https://www.thinkpenguin.com/catalog/wireless-networking-gnulinux

8 - trisquel has a diferent browser. doesn't that make stand out more from the "crowd"? Not Google DNS right?

what do you mean exactly? The DNS server your system will use does not depend on the browser. You will have to set it either by file config or directly in the router settings.

I connect to the nets always through the VPN and use my VPN provider's DNS server now. In the past I used Openic and in particular these two:
95.85.9.86
151.236.29.92

Very responsive and fast. I live in Italy and these two gave me better performance than my ISP's DNS servers..
And, besides, I still prefer something like openic to my ISP easily logging lists of the website I visit..

go to the openic website and see the two that are the fastest for you.