I know it isn’t specific to just Linux but I use Linux anyway so my question is,
Is there a way you could use a VPN without them knowing that? Or if they outlaw them is it really just game over?
If they made VPNs illegal I suppose stuff like TOR would follow except TOR is partly funded by the US state department and the US is one of my countries closest allies (one of the five eyes). So surely they wouldn’t shut down something the US funds directly… Would they?
I’ve read very very little about Gemini and other protocols like Gopher, would this be the way forward if they do this? And is that even remotely close to the security and potential anonymity you would receive from a VPN?
Somewhat. They can certainly maintain a list of known IP addresses. Those IPs can be changed.
When they change, you as a user need to be able to find the new addresses. Whatever mechanism you can use, your ISP can likely disrupt too. For instance, they can DNS block the API that returns the list of possible endpoints (as sometimes happens to Proton where I live).
You can then counter by using private DNS. It’s a cat and mouse game.