So you want tech corporations to Fuck Off
Cover: Stolen from Business Insider, because fuck them.
Everyone is sick of enshittification. Subscriptions everywhere, rampant data theft, AI in things that don't need AI for people who didn't ask for AI. It's frustrating to use your computer anymore. And yet, you need it for everything. We cannot give up our tools, and we should not be forced to. So let's see what's the easiest, fastest path to get as far from these corporate leeches as possible.
Important note: some of you may read this and go "actually this is a better solution if you're willing to compromise on bla bla bla". Congratulations, that means you don't need this article. I am going to assume that my ideal reader is someone who uses computers and phones as tools, they have full autonomy over what tools to use, and want to spend as little time and effort setting everything up as they can. This website is already too full of impatience about transitioning, we don't need to add to the fire. If you try one of these solutions and it doesn't work for you, by all means come back and tell us what alternative you found that's better.
1. Fuck Windows. Fuck Apple. Use Linux Mint.
I'm not going to give you the speech. There's many versions of Linux, yes. Do they all have their pros and cons? Yes. Do you care right now? No. Linux Mint is the 101 version, the easiest to move towards. After some playing around you may decide you want something different, and you can research that on your own time. Our priority here is to get you away from Copilot and Edge and background processes that kill your electric bill.
Linux will force you to learn a little coding. That is normal and good. Installing it can be annoying, but once you set it up you will realise how much better your life is now that your computer fans aren't trying to lift off in the background all the time. If you game, good news: SteamOS is a Linux distribution, which means anything you can run on a Steam Deck runs on any Linux Mint PC because Valve hates Windows as much as we do. For more specific software needs, keep reading.
2. Replace GMail with Proton Mail to get most of their suite equivalents.
This is the most temporary replacement in this list. Proton is still a for profit company, and it will probably get enshittified as well. What it does offer is a lot less invasiveness over your private data. They won't use your files to train AI, they won't send ad companies your search information, and importantly, they won't fold to whatever the Trump administration comes up with next week. I'm not endorsing their business practices but it does reduce the amount of creep Google has over all our lives, and I'm all for that.
3. Remove Microsoft from your life with Free Open Source Software (FOSS)
There was a time when Microsoft was the only safe choice for productivity software. That time was decades ago. You no longer need to depend on their bloatware and spy programs to do school or office work. Take a pick.
4. Get Adobe out of your creative work so they don't keep feeding off your art.
No one likes Adobe. No one wants Adobe. No one should have to pay for software they hate. Good news, now you no longer have to.
5. Android and iPhone are no longer your only options.
If you already have a functional phone, by all means take care of it. But eventually, you will have to replace it. When that moment happens, here's a guide with alternatives to check out. GrapheneOS is the best so far; start there if you don't know how. You can buy FOSS phones or you can load a new OS on your existing one; do that at your own risk.
6. Stream your own files with Jellyfin and chill
This is the one that takes the most setup, and the most compromise. Unless you have an existing collection of DVDs or a ton of cash, your only realistic choice is to pirate whatever you want to watch. If this is a moral compromise you're not comfortable with, here's a proposal: keep paying for your subscriptions, and just pirate the shows from the services you pay for and watch the high quality version on your own. It doesn't really hurt the company if you're paying for the service anyway; in fact they probably welcome users who just give them money and don't waste their bandwidth. But once you set up a streaming server, you never have to worry about your favourite show being taken down or reaching the screen limit for your devices.
7. Run your local AI without relying on data centres
We won't go back to a world without AI. Luckily, AI has gotten so much smaller and more efficient, you don't actually have to subscribe to anything for the most advanced models anymore. You can download them to your computer and run them directly on your RAM, and they take no more energy than a modern video game. I just installed the latest Gemma model; it weighs 9Gb and runs just a tad slower than the online version. Everyone pretending these still consume more power than a university is either ignorant or lying, which means absolutely no one should be paying for an OpenAI subscription.
8. Other software you may need
There's no way to cover everything in one post, but this should be a good start for almost everyone. I just want to see a world where five companies playing hot potato with a hundred billion dollars don't paralyse the entire tech industry every time they want a bonus. Now please go out there and spread the word of our lord and saviour Tux the penguin.
