With the rise in authoritarian governments, and Nazi-like supposed technology leaders (who in reality care about very little about anything or anyone other than the money they make), I'm embarking upon a project to reduce my use of technology, rather than increasing it. Information about its citizens is the lifeblood of dictators and other, similarly minded, individuals.
Richard Powers noted here a while ago that he wants his new radio station to run entirely based on Windows XP. I think that's a great idea, for any number of reasons.
I'm in the process of falling back to Windows 7 for all my computers (save one, which I will keep for emergency use only, and that will run Windows 10). I thought about XP, and may still implement a few using it, but there are just too many apps I use that require at least Windows 7. But maybe if I can find replacement apps...you never know. I invested in a bunch of XP licenses and product keys a while ago at a bargain price, so I certainly have the capability. And believe it or not, there are still relatively modern browsers that support XP. It's the other things, such as audio converters to more modern formats such as Opus, that I think I'd have trouble finding.
Neither of my 2 cell phones (one for calls & portability, one for reading with its e-ink screen) have the Google ecosystem on them. They do run Android, but they're much older versions, and shouldn't be affected by the device tracking that Google started implementing earlier this month. For those concerned about leaving the Google cocoon, you shouldn't be. There are plenty of other app stores (F-Droid is the one that I use the most). With later versions of Android, Google seems more concerned with placing additional restrictions on using Android, and having everything go through their apps (and now we know why).
I've been experimenting with doing radio automation for over-the-air transmissions on an older Android phone (running KitKat, i.e., 4.4.2). Unfortunately, I can't do exactly what I wanted using even modern automation tools for Android, but I can get close. Most of these tools are lacking in the area of controlling media play, and a lot are just intended for quicky automations, not anything complex. I'll keep trying, though, because I'm close with one tool (simply titled Automation).
There's other stuff, but those are the main points, at least that somewhat apply to Part 15 radio.
Am I being too paranoid? Maybe. But then again, thinking that they are out to get you (and track you) doesn't necessarily mean that they aren't.
I don't think you mention Linux, I played around with some builds a few years ago, mostly out of curiosity. There are good radio automation programs for Linux.
I want to use XP for the station only - dedicated only for that purpose, however I'm not absolutely certain XP will even properly run on newer computers. The only thing I'm worried about is potential driver issues ,- I also dont like losing the capability of automated basic weather announcements which rely on the internet (I plan for my XP to be offline for obvious reasons) - but I speculate that a personal weather station can send its data directly to Zara's input since the Weather Watcher software derives its info directly from such personal weather stations. (If I do go with XP I'll probably stick with Zara, otherwise Salamandra is my most likely choice.
On the matter of your eye strain, you know those Kindle's and similar reading devices have special displays that emulate reading pages on paper. It's special designed to dramatically reduce eye strain. Dont know if you've ever looked at them but it quite amazing. I suspect they probably sell computer monitors that use the same technology.
The laptop that I run Zara Radio on is not connected to the internet. It's currently running a copy of Windows 10 Pro. IIRC, I updated the OS during the initial installation and then disconnected it from the internet. Zara will run on Windows 2000, which I have a copy of, if ever needed. I don't have it disconnected from the internet due to a fear of governments, data collection, etc but simply because the update process could potentially knock the automation computer off the air. It runs well as is, so there is no need to update it.
My main PC though, is a different matter. It runs Windows 11 and is connected to the internet. I am active on Facebook and, like so many other people, use Google almost as often as I breathe, as well as YouTube and a bunch of other popular sites, and let them all store cookies on my computer. Perhaps I should be more concerned about big data.
If I was more protective of my online privacy, I'd probably look into Rich's suggestion of exploring Linux.
Heck, I guess I'm too stupid to realize that I'm being manipulated. Some worker bee at Google is probably getting a right giggle out of the weird things I search for at 3am....... 😀
Like Rugster the broadcast computer is never on the internet. But the main one I use for all else like being on here is of course. It has to be, so what can you do about whether you are being tracked or not? If I add cookies to the things deleted with the history which I do all the time, the computer won't remember me and keep me signed in and have to sign in constantly everywhere like on here and too much of a pain. If I want the convenience of being remembered on this computer, even when I shut it off I can't care about being tracked.
Even if I had XP or 7 Windows versions it wouldn't matter. I don't think I an being manipulated in any way, just having the computer keeping me signed in. No one else can get into the computer as it's passworded and after 10 minutes even if it is left on and unused it reverts back to the sign in screen. I usually use Yahoo, not Google but it doesn't matter, even if I use some off the beaten path search like Dog Pile it still gets it from Google.
There is cameras everywhere. Houses on my street have cameras on the porch and I am being recorded just walking outside. I can't care about this.
Years ago I did get Zara running on Ubuntu Linux using wine. I had to install windows media player in wine as well before Zara would have sound output.
I have got just Salamandra to run with a new Linux distro called wubuntu-11.24.04.2-x64.
I ran it from a live usb I made with Rufus. I used the standalone version of Salamandra, right clicked Salamnandra.exe file and run it. Wubuntu downloaded some drivers (you have to be connected the the net) and Salamandra started , I loaded some audio files and it played for hours with no problems, events worked as well. Wubuntu is based on Ubuntu but it is skinned to look like Windows 11 and 10. Wubuntu has some bad press about it on the net but I found it to be the easiest Linux to run windows programs. I mucked around with 2 other Linux distros and could not get Salamandra to work. I havent tested it on Linux Mint yet and I didnt try Zara in Wubuntu ether.
You can find it at https://wubuntu.org/
When I get some time I will try Zara in it as well. But Zara is not a program I will ever go back to using as Salamandra is streets ahead of Zara as an automation program. Those using Salamandra, there is an update to version 6.04 now if you have not updated for a while.
Years ago I did get Zara running on Ubuntu Linux using wine. I had to install windows media player in wine as well before Zara would have sound output.
Zara exclusively depends on Windows Media Player (long discontinued) for its output which must therefore still must exist in some form in newer Windows versions.