May 2, 2025, 10:26 PMMany people are thinking about ditching various US tech giants so I thought I'd try out how far I can go. I tried living about a month with as little Google, Microsoft, Apple & co as possible!
Here's the video:
https://nebula.tv/videos/techaltar-1-month-without-us-tech-giants
(On Nebula right now, YouTube coming later)
May 2, 2025, 10:27 PMNebula viewers also get an exclusive bonus video going a bit deeper into what I'm actually planning to keep and ditch after the experiment:
https://nebula.tv/videos/techaltar-which-alternatives-am-i-sticking-with
May 2, 2025, 10:28 PMDon't have Nebula yet? You can get a 40% discount on signing up by using my affiliate link:
@Techaltar
I'm enjoying all this experimentation and I think it's some of your best work. It gives your channel a really nice point of difference.
Look forward to more content like this.
@Techaltar I'm on my second relationship with Nebula (for a few months now) and already I am debating if I should renew my annual subscription. More creators needed! At least from my point of view.
@Techaltar GIMP is the only thing I can't get used to on Linux either, but apparently, Affinity should (technically) work now: https://affinity.liz.pet
May 2, 2025, 10:53 PM@aronkvh Oh nice, I will try that out when I have a bit of time then!
@Techaltar @aronkvh Cane here to suggest the same thing!
You can try the GUI app "Bottles" as a nicer way to run Windows programs through Wine. It will try to configure the Wine for your software automatically, and you can easily tweak the setup if needed.
Make sure you use the flapak version if you do.
https://youtu.be/WpuwIo2y4a4?si=VGgztIls8sIRZpjh
May 3, 2025, 11:47 AM
@Techaltar I highly recommend Krita instead of Gimp. Krita is based in the Netherlands.
@Techaltar Loved the companion video, and I really understand your choices when owning a business.
With nextcloud, really consider using a fully managed instance if you feel unsure about administrating your own. I've been running my own instance from scratch on my own hardware for over a decade now (first as OwnCloud) without any significant issues.
You do have to keep the OS and install up-to-date and occasionally need to do some command line voodoo.
LibreOffice is a no-brainer for me too.
@Techaltar Sadly, I fear a lot of tech-savvy users are going to comment a lot of unhelpful things towards new Linux users. Somehow a substantial share of Linux users seem to think making things difficult is a rite of passage and you just "need to go through it" in order to be a power user.
That being said, a lot of things are being streamlined right now and most Linux distros have improved significantly over the years to a point where they're actually usable for newcomers. Good things are ahead!
May 4, 2025, 10:05 AM@pa3weg My usual workflow is to use a service like this as a secondary one for "nice to have" stuff for a year or two while all the mission critical stuff lives in something like Google Drive. Then with time I see if I can lean into it bit by bit :)
May 4, 2025, 7:13 AM@Techaltar regarding trusting yourself as an admin. You don't necessarily have to.
You chose @hetzner for your VPS but they also offer "storage share" one of those hosted nextcloud services you referred to in your main video.
May 4, 2025, 10:07 AM
May 2, 2025, 10:32 PM@Techaltar In my small bubble it seems as if local clubs self-hosting services are popping up and getting traction. I recently joined the Austrian @PrivateCoffee
Do you see a trend forming?
May 2, 2025, 10:33 PM@NE555 @PrivateCoffee Important to keep in mind that we are very, very much in a bubble, but yeah, I think in this bubble something is brewing
May 2, 2025, 10:37 PM@Techaltar @PrivateCoffee I would have hoped your bubble is a bit wider. 😅
Let's see if such projects can be made sustainable, we are working on it.
First advantage I immediately noticed: How low latency the connection was if the services are hosted in the same city. Something I wasn't used to except universities.
May 2, 2025, 10:53 PM@NE555 I remind you that accoring to fedidb.org the whole Activitypub fediverse has a bit over 1 million MAU. IDK how this translates to self hosted stuff, but it does show some kind of a limit to how widely stuff like spreads :P
May 3, 2025, 6:03 AM@Techaltar oh wow that’s lower than I thought. Thanks for the insights!
@Techaltar if you're looking for Linux laptops that have more up to date specs, you can try Lenovo! If you add a filter for operating system you should be able to see Linux options show up. Should be Ubuntu or Fedora that are available preinstalled.
Great vid!
May 3, 2025, 12:02 AM@Techaltar While not exactly European, you may want to try LocalSend. An open source equivalent to AirDrop and the likes, available for every platform including even Linux or iPads
Other option, @Techaltar, is @tuxedocomputers, an OEM based in Germany.
They ship computers with Linux pre-installed.
@juancaraujos
The laptop in the thumbnail is a Tuxedo ;)
@Techaltar @tuxedocomputers
@kainisenni
Indeed it is! 😀
May 3, 2025, 7:22 AM@juancaraujos @Techaltar @tuxedocomputers The video is a test of a Tuxedo computer and a Fairphone, plus services.
@glye @Techaltar @tuxedocomputers Sounds great, indeed
May 3, 2025, 12:09 AM@Techaltar Nextcloud and KDE Connect were immensely helpful when I migrated from macOS to Linux (I use Fedora KDE Plasma Edition, btw 😜). I had been using LibreOffice for a while and had already started to learn Krita and Inkscape.
@Techaltar One key aspect I thought in this movement was that people are concerned that their data could be accessed by the us government, but to my understanding Signal hosts it server in the us. Doesn't that conflict in it self or what am I misunderstanding? Wouldn't services like Threema be a better option?
@GhostsShadow @Techaltar end to end encryption means that signal does not have the data, even if it's run by the CIA. And this is ensured by it being open source.
@gunstick @Techaltar Okay and as a second aspect, what about any kind of conflict where one side decides that eu citizens may no longer access us services. Is the idea we would just go for it as long as possible and try to minimize our data loss and switch to whatever service establishes itself in that moment?
@GhostsShadow @Techaltar our government has their own matrix server and there are also other private matrix servers hosted in the county. So the answer is yes.
@Techaltar to make LibreOffice look more like recent versions of MS Office, you can go View > User Interface... and select "Tabbed" instead of "Standard Toolbar". Nice video, by the way :)
@Techaltar Just watched your video, I noticed you mentioned KDE Connect and I wanted to add that this and a number of KDE apps run on Windows as well. I used KDE Connect on Windows instead of MS Phone Link before I even switched back to Linux (GNOME on Fedora Silverblue) as my daily driver for my professional work. So if people want to dip their toes in, they can start using KDE Connect, from the Microsoft Store (!!), or from Winget/UnigetUI or other tools like Kstars (star map) or Kate (programmers text editor). Another app I wanted to mention was Krita, also available from the MS Store as well as from Flathub which is a professional digital painting tool that is supported by a number of digital arts studios and has a way better UI than GIMP.
Edit: ah, just saw your follow up video that you were sticking with KDE Connect. Still recommend checking out Krita though, on whichever platform you use.
May 3, 2025, 7:01 AM@Techaltar Thanks, watched both on Nebula. I also don't like the isolationism that is spreading now, but I like even less to support US tech giants in the current environment. The freedom of open source is important, as is European digital independence.
I started leaving big tech post-Snowden with a big spreadsheet for my strategy. I moved to Proton as soon as I became aware of it. I left facebook early and twitter a few years later when it became too toxic, and joined mastodon.
May 3, 2025, 7:02 AM@Techaltar Leaving gmail completely was some work since I used it for so many accounts, but worth it in the end. I still use android, but with a throwaway google account used for nothing else.
May 3, 2025, 7:02 AM@Techaltar I used Linux on the desktop back in the late 90s when it was kind of painful. Later windows became so good that I started using it again, until now when it leaves older hardware with no upgrade path from win10. So I started the transition back to Linux, on my laptop first, with actually made it work better in some aspects. Linux these days is so problem free. Too bad Proton Drive has no official Linux support yet, that's the only thing I'm missing.
May 3, 2025, 7:06 AM@Techaltar The Android-Apple duopoly is the biggest hurdle to tech freedom these days. eOS sounds nice, GrapheneOS even better, but when the apps I need (mostly European ones) refuse to work on custom ROMs, it's sadly impossible. Seems it's time for some EU legislation against that!
May 3, 2025, 11:31 AM@Techaltar I read a bit more, and it seems GrapheneOS can actually work. The banking stuff I need works with it. Would be lovely to get out of the duopoly.
May 3, 2025, 11:06 AM@glye Yeah, I legit might have skipped the whole Nextcloud thing if Proton just had a few more features and Linux Drive support :D
@Techaltar
Techaltar linux video? Hyped!
@Techaltar
Actually bought nebula for it.
Before you torture yourself with GIMP: Let me say GIMP is NOT to Photoshop as Linux is to Windows. It misses impotant tools and and nodestructive workflows.
(That said: its improving and hopefully there in a few years)
From my experience its more comfotable to use Inkscape for your editing project and do only specific things in GIMP that are really raster specific. For digital images inkscape is a 90% illustrator alternative.
Really liked your video btw. It seems like a style change for you to give a brief overview of many things instead of deep-diving into a topic with expert knowlege about tech. Definetely would love to see a own in depth video about the things you don't have one already.
Curious to see how this style performs. Personally i think that some of the tech-altar value gets lost in this form, but it may open many new exiting rabitholes for some people.
@Techaltar
May 3, 2025, 11:04 AM@homo_particeps Yeah, it's a bit different from the usual stuff, but I thought it made sense for this topic. I'll return to my normal style with the next video :)
May 3, 2025, 9:48 AM@Techaltar Very cool experiment! I've been using the Fairphone 4 with LineageOS without any MicroG, but I'm going to be switching to @calyxos or @e_mydata so I can relock the bootloader.
For email I prefer @Tutanota over ProtonMail because of their cheaper plan, 100% open source app and using only renewable energy for their servers.
And even though I've used Linux for years I still don't particularly like Gimp, but there are alternatives, my favourites are @Krita (made by KDE) and @inkscape
@Techaltar Why you consider Signal as an European Alternatives? There Server are based in the US and also their Legal Standpoint. Better consider @threemaapp a great swiss alternative I am loving.
May 3, 2025, 11:56 AM@joshuabeny1999 @threemaapp I am happy Threema works for you, but I guess Signal is "good enough" for me. They are properly encrypted, open source and have a corporate structure that won't make them easy to crush, etc. My goal was to move away from the US tech giants, so EITHER European, or open source would be good enough for this experiment and I was already on Signal with many contacts
@Techaltar about your use of @e_mydata (wich I applaud, being a user myself), you should know that their sync service is actually nextcloud under the hood! That means you don't even need to install nextcloud apps : just register your server's address in the e/os settings and the sync will be transparent.
May 3, 2025, 11:57 AM
@Techaltar @jacabo @e_mydata @Techaltar regarding your NextCloud Management concerns I can really recommend the managed service from Hetzner. I‘ve been using NextCloud (and OwnCloud) before on several computers but went over to Hetzner when Video Calls got more important in 2020. It‘s 5,11€ for the basic plan with 1TB and I really enjoy not worrying about the Admin stuff. I‘m managing software for a living, but it‘s also nice to have one thing less to worry about. Plus it‘s really hard to find cheaper hosting that would justify managing it yourself. Though there are offerings from other providers of course.
@Techaltar Give a look to Immich app, veri good alternative for Google Photos.
@Techaltar Great video! I am in a process to move away from (US) tech giants, for a few years, too, and some services proved to be quite a hassle. Regarding your online storage, give filen.io a try (also German). As for the phone, LineageOS works great on Samsung phones, but it's worth checking if the apps you need are compatible..
May 4, 2025, 6:45 AM@Techaltar written+pronounced "your mileage may wary"
Be wary of how the correct expression may vary!
May 4, 2025, 6:49 AM@Techaltar Is this one of those expressions you once hear, but memorize incorrectly, and then keep using that way? Where listening/reading people think it's a typo or small pronunciation mistake, or don't notice it since it's such a small variation. I think I had some in the past and perhaps still have.
It's only because it was both written and pronounced like "wary", that I began wondering if it was a typo which was also literally pronounced, or if you sometimes mix them up without realizing.
May 4, 2025, 10:08 AM@vincentk Yeah probably. I was even suspricious of it while reading the script, but not enough to double check it, hehe
@Techaltar
I’m quite certain that you are familiar with Framework laptops, but it what immediately came to mind when you complained about the last gen CPUs in the Tuxedo laptops.