Ask Lemmy
A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions
Please don't post about US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world
Rules: (interactive)
1) Be nice and; have fun
Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them
2) All posts must end with a '?'
This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?
3) No spam
Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.
4) NSFW is okay, within reason
Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com.
NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].
5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions.
If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.
Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.
Partnered Communities:
Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu
view the rest of the comments
Sounds like you’re left with almost no modern conveniences or technology. I don’t mean this disparagingly, but I am curious how you live your life and ensure you are truly not using any of these companies or their subsidiaries, or even those shitlist companies if they are a white box supplier of someone else not on your list. Or even if a mom and pop shop down the street is using technologies, software, or appliances from one of these companies to run their local business…
Doesn’t seem possible in reality. Or at the very least seems like a full time job that would get really futile after a while.
You are right, I forgot one exception. I do use a Google Phone because these have the best support for alternative operating systems. I replaced the Stock Android which is filled with Google spyware with GrapheneOS, an entirely open-source version of Android which makes many privacy and security improvements and gets rid of any Google services. Watch this video to learn more about it: https://piped.smnz.de/watch?v=yTeAFoQnQPo
On my laptops/computers, I exclusively use Linux. I refuse to touch any bloated, ad- and spyware-infested Windows computer. Yes, even at work. As a DevSecOps and Senior Linux engineer, I am free to choose whatever operating system I want. Free and open-source software is the way to go.
I use Firefox (LibreWolf, a better version of Firefox to be percise) with DuckDuckGo as my search engine, I watch YouTube videos through Piped, I use Signal as my messenger, I use Proton for Email, I self-host Nextcloud for my files, contacts, calenders, etc.
For entertainment, I simply pirate the content which gives me much more freedom compared to shitty streaming services like Netflix. That way, I also don't have to give these shitty corporations any money. I use the open-source Jellyfin media server to consume content from my media library. I do the same thing using Navidrome for my music.
Regarding Social Media, Lemmy is probably the only thing I use. I don't need Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or TikTok.
And the list goes on and on. I could write an entire book about avoiding proprietary software and shitty corporations.
I do everything in my control to avoid it. I can't 100% guarantee it, but that's also not my goal. Not giving them my money or my data is enough for me.
Well, that's out of my control.
As someone who attempts to do the same, you're right, it's not possible to completely avoid doing business with these companies. But, I still make an effort to avoid them, I won't give up and start buying directly from Amazon's site, just because I can't avoid them 100%. Nothing is black and white, we all live in the gray zones.