Not a whole lot has changed, but also a ton of things have changed. Let's dig in.

This is sort of a sequel to My DeepDive of De-Googling and Going into Opensource, Linux, Personal Cloud, GrapheneOS, and my own JARVIS?

I started home labbing, moving over to linux, and basically trying to get all of my data off of big companies. For example I downloaded all of my google photos, and then deleted it off the cloud completely. Here is what I am doing, and can do to keep this de-big-techifying my life (and you too!).

Why leave Google, Meta, Microsoft, and/or Apple?

All of them suck, truly they all are greedy, and are trying to siphon as much data out of you as they possibly can. This is by no means a dig at anyone who works there, I am simply speaking of them as a big corporation.

Google got in trouble for training their ai on your photos and emails. Apple constantly forces you to upgrade tech, and often its due to software purposefully being obsolete. Microslop has consistently shoved their crappy browser and ai down the user's throat, prevented local accounts, added more and more telemetry/diagnostic tracking, and much more.

Amazon is bad in other ways, but it is also different than the others. Might be harder for some people to get off of it. However the way they neutered kindle, and treat their employees. Makes me want to use them less. I'm not even going to get into the BS that is Meta.

Not only is ONE of these companies gaining a ton of data about you, and constantly selling it, or trying to get more of it from you. ALL of them end up sharing between each other, and creating a profile about you.

Sometimes even greater than you might have about yourself, hence the local ai and knowledge management angle I want too.

How do you leave them?

Each company owns one part of the hardware and software pie. You are going to be using at least one of them in the end. However which one, and how many can you get rid of is the question.

  • Apple/Google - Leave their operating systems for phones, although really the only other option is Graphene OS.
  • Meta - Don't be a content creator or use Marketplace, pretty easy (maybe not easy to leave whatsapp depending on where you live, but there's a self host option).
  • Amazon - Buy local, host Kavita instead of using kindle, and don't pay for their Prime.
  • Apple/Microsoft - Move to linux (really easy for Steam OS for gaming, for productivity it is a bit of a different route).

I'm not saying its easy to make a switch like that, but I'd argue that its not nearly as hard as you think. Regardless of age or technical know how. Its all skills or topics you can learn.

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I'm really not even touching on the whole AI thing today, and that is another trio of big tech to dismantle. Although that at least there are local LLM / AI options you can use if you want full cut off.

Starting a home server/home lab

The home server and the linux ideas are probably the two hardest on this entire list, and honestly they aren't that bad. For one you can use Ugreen NAS computers for your home server, and they make it really easy to get started (hardware and software wise).

Alternatively, I am using a small intel NUC with Zima OS (another easy combo to get started). Basically you get an old computer or laptop, and throw Zima OS on there. Not the greatest solution, but certainly will do MOST of what you would want starting out. Immich instead of google/apple photos, kavita for kindle, navidrome for spotify, etc. Where you might run into issues with the DIY route is just storage (I filled up my 2TB pretty quickly).

Using alternative/privacy focused tools

Such as what web browser you use, the email tool/client, or even the calendar you use! That last one is really difficult to switch off of. Notion mail/Notion Cal might be an option for some people, as it does do scheduling built in (poorly). However if you aren't on the notion platform/ecosystem like me anymore then it isn't helpful.

I opened an account with Proton today, and I'm going to check that out more. While there are some options for self-hosting. I don't always know if my server will be running, and I might need something more cross-situational.

Screw duckduckgo browser, or Brave browser, that limit your features and usage of the web browsing experience (especially the latter). I chose Vivaldi, which is a much better option.

Vivaldi Browser | Powerful, Personal and Private web browser
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Vivaldi BrowserTom Steurerthomas_steurer

Going with a different operating system

I'm going to lose some of you here, but hear me out. Mac sucks, Windows sucks, and Linux only sucks when you have to figure out a problem. The former two suck because the big tech shove either next product down your throat (i.e. new devices from Apple), or their shitty software down your throat (i.e. copilot with Microsoft).

Whereas with Linux you have none of that. One of my favorite "distros" is Zorin OS, which makes the process so much easier to switch. It even has interfaces copying old windows, new windows, old mac, new mac, ubuntu, and more. The only "promotion" type of message I ever got, was for Zorin PRO, which I might add is actually worth it for those aforementioned interface options. Free gives you 4 options, Pro gives you like 13, and I personally have paid for the pro TWICE now.

Its only $40 too.

My point is that I only ever got bothered once, for something that was actually worth it if you hadn't done it yet, and it doesn't pester you like Windows does. Before moving on, for those curious I am on Cachy OS now with Niri frontend, and its the most beautiful operating system I've ever used.

Trying out Proton Ecosystem

I'm not opposed to cloud, but when you self host then you have full control. Although that isn't to say that some cloud options are all bad, and Proton has continuously shown up on my radar. Today I finally made an account, and if I can replace my google calendar use case especially that would be huge.

Check it out here.

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Proton

This post isn't sponsored by them, but I did want to try and get the referral link at least.

Where to go from here?

Look I'm not going to tell you to go all "gray man" or "off the grid", its not really possible right now/nowadays. Especially with the highly invasive introduction of the Flock cameras everywhere.

Something I also want to really drive home, and this is also me telling myself this too! Is that you CAN'T fully decouple from big tech.

Let me just repeat that. Big tech is so heavily integrated into our lives, that even if you self-host everything you can, maybe go with Proton, or some other alternatives. It is a very low chance that you full decouple from the big five, and technically Notion is becoming big tech too. Not to mention is RAN on AWS, which are Amazon's servers. Can't tell you how many times Notion went down on me over the years I used it (way too much).

Personally, I am going for a really strict de-big tech plan, and I might fail a little bit. That is okay cause I'll end up farther than most, but I also know that I might need to stick with at least one big tech. Just to have an offsite backup, really its only for my Obsidian vault, which is so important to me that it supersedes my desire to decouple.

Other times it might be cause you're fully reliant on Amazon delivery for your groceries or supplies, maybe you're a windows user through and through, plus Xbox; Thus you really can't leave Microsoft fully. Personally I have 30gb free on Onedrive, maybe cause of having windows phone back in the day, but Google only offers me 15gb (despite LITERALLY having a Google Pixel).

I mentioned before new operating systems, one of the options also is Graphene OS for replacing stock android on my google pixel. Which is quite literally probably the BEST for privacy focused phones.

All in all, I'm only partly through the process, and its not like you HAVE to do this. However with how bad each of these companies are treating your data, and harvesting it from you without your permission. It just makes sense to leave them.

Just try to think of it like you are consolidating from having 4 or 5 companies having your data, to only just one, maybe 2 for redundancy.

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I am working on making my own local AI assistant, which would greatly relieve any dependence on cloud based solutions/data centers. Its not going to be the most powerful given my hardware, but it should do the work that I hope to use it for locally.