Always Have a Digital Exit Strategy
Part 1 of the Exit Strategy Series
When you think about your life and what you’re doing, do you ever ask yourself What if things go south? It may seem like a pessimistic thought but it’s one that would serve you well to consider in all different areas of your life.
Working at a job you love? What if ownership changes hands, or that boss you like who treats you well gets replaced? What if they just start trying to change your job without addressing the title and pay change that should go along with it? What if you start to notice parts of your job being automated by machines and you know the writing is on the wall?
Now consider your technology use. Are you a smartphone person? Do you like the convenience of that little computer in your pocket? Are you okay with all of that data collected going back to Apple, Google, and the other tech companies who sell it to advertisers? What about your car? Do you like the high tech features that we’re seeing rapid development in? What about your primary operating system? Are you a Windows person? Maybe an Apple fan? Maybe it bothers you that Apple1 and Microsoft2 are scanning your local filesystem and phoning home with your data, or maybe it doesn’t.
But the real question that needs to be asked is How far is too far? How far are you okay with being pushed into giving up your expectation of privacy, and how far are you willing to go while allowing companies to gain access to you, your data, your family, and their data?
Are you okay with Amazon’s Alexa listening in all the time and harvesting your data more than any other digital assistant3 in exchange for the convenience of a smart speaker? Are you okay with Facebook and Instagram harvesting and selling your data4 and building shadow profiles5 of your loved ones as long as you can keep in touch with that old college friend who moved across the country just because they’re not willing to get on some other messaging platform or — heaven forbid — pick up the phone and call you? Are you okay with Tesla employees watching you in the privacy of your own home as long as you get your self driving car6? How far is too far, and what will you do when things get to that point?
Building an Exit Strategy
I’m not saying that you have upend everything and ditch all technology or go full Stallman and use only free (as in speech) hardware and software. It takes time to build an off ramp from workflows and lifestyles; and just like an addict breaking their habit, withdrawals can happen making it seem really appealing to return to those systems that made us want to quit them in the first place. With all of that said, it’s still wise to think about these things as well as where we’d ultimately like to end up so that we can take steps toward that end goal.
Remember, it’s a process. You don’t have to quit things that bother you cold turkey. Make a plan, stick to it, and implement new systems and technologies that respect you and your privacy.
Over the last few months I’ve found myself getting more and more unsettled by several things:
My growing dependence on the Apple ecosystem,
The increase in desktop spyware from the OS makers themselves,
The rapid development of new technologies and algorithms used to trace and fingerprint people across the web,
The growing commodification of our devices — meaning the trend toward treating devices as disposable — and big tech’s push back on things like FOSS, open source hardware, and right to repair,
The encroaching of governments around the world into our digital lives through mass surveillance and proposed legislation like the RESTRICT Act in the US and the Chat Control Bill in the EU.
For years now I’ve thought seriously about going back to Linux full time, but I just haven’t. I’ve been busy with work and home life. I’ve been focusing more on raising my kids to be good men and just enjoying this as a hobby. Still, as I write this I am going back and forth between my MacBook running macOS Monterrey and my desktop running Windows 10 and it’s starting to bother me.
Windows is it’s own can of worms when it comes to data privacy and I don’t use it all that much. We mostly have it just because I built it years ago in my A+ certification course and the license was free and we can use it to play Steam games. The Apple stuff is what really gets me. It’s a quality experience that makes it super easy to get sucked in, and it’s difficult to really replicate elsewhere. The way they integrate all of their products really makes you have to put in the effort to quit it, and Windows? Even Windows sucks you in with the sheer volume of mainstream software available. Let me explain what I mean…
Breaking Free
For the longest time a major complaint I heard when it came to using Linux or other open source operating systems was that you couldn’t get Windows or Mac software on it. While we thankfully have parity on the web browsing front, the same can’t really be said for things like office suites, creativity applications, and the like. We have those things, they’re just a little different and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Let’s consider some of the free software options out there.
Microsoft Office and iWork
Let’s start with the big one. If you’ve spent your whole life on Windows with Microsoft Office it’s honestly difficult to switch to something else. It was easy for me, but that’s really only because I don’t use advanced Office features. I just need a word processor to type documents, a spreadsheet app to organize data, and maybe a presentation app for making the occasional slideshow.
When I left Windows back in early 2010 I adopted OpenOffice and later LibreOffice, but for the person who has been using Office 2007 or later, something like OnlyOffice or FreeOffice might be a better option as those focused more on mimicking the ribbon UI. Sure some of the functionality may not quite be there, and you may have the occasional issue with formatting when opening Office files or when Office users open yours — which, to be clear, is a big freaking deal that LibreOffice still needs to address — but it doesn’t happen all the time and 98%-99% of the time you’ll have a flawless experience.
And if you’re an iWork user and you like the options that Pages, Numbers, or Keynote give you, I don’t know what to tell you. Either stick with macOS, use the web app versions, or just suck it up and deal with losing out on what you like. I personally prefer modern iWork to modern Microsoft Office. I’ve looked and have yet to find a good open source alternative to Apple’s productivity suite. It’s just what it is.
However, if you want to really lean into the free (as in speech) software side there are options like Abiword and Gnumeric to meet those needs. I haven’t used them in a while, but if you’re just doing basic things for yourself and you aren’t sharing documents with others that often, they’re solid and lightweight. I honestly like going with something like Abiword or OpenOffice Writer on my Linux machines, just because they still has that classic word processor feel to them.
Adobe Creative Cloud
If you’re a creative type, odds are pretty good that you have to think about the Adobe suite. You can try to get them working on Linux or BSD with something like Wine, but Adobe refuses to port them to anything other than macOS and Windows. However there are FOSS alternatives to each program, they look and feel different. You can’t just install GIMP and assume it’s going to be a drop-in replacement. However, once you learn these programs, I think you’ll find them to be quite powerful in their own right.
Use Photoshop? Try GIMP (the GNU Image Manipulation Program) or Krita.
Use Illustrator? Try Inkscape or Vectr.
Using InDesign? Try out Scribus. Sure the UI is dated, but it works well.
Using Lightroom? Give Darktable a spin.
Using Audition? I’d be run out of town if I didn’t suggest Audacity. I’ve used it since 2005 and it’s only gotten better overtime — though the UI is almost exactly the same that it was back then. It is worth mentioning that the new owners of the project stirred up some privacy concerns that I’d say are valid; but this isn’t the time for that conversation.
Using After Effects? Try out Blender.
Using Premier, or Final Cut Pro X? Try out Kdenlive, though I do prefer the non-free (as in speech) DaVinci Resolve.
I know there are other Creative Cloud apps that I didn’t mention here, but there are open source alternatives to those as well. And these are all available for Mac and Windows as well as Linux — heck, some of these have even been ported to free alternative systems like Haiku! — so you can test them out and learn them now to be ready for that soft landing down the road.
Get You Head Out of the Clouds and Go Skydiving
The last thing I will mention for this article is The Cloud™. Listen, I know I’ve made my preference for the older ways of doing things quite clear, but I’m a giant hypocrite who uses cloud services on a daily basis. I love my physical/digital media collection, but I watch movies on Netflix and Disney+, and I stream music on Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube. I like the way iCloud syncs my files across all my devices. I get it. It’s convenient. It’s also not nearly as private or secure as having your stuff on your own computers — preferably not connected to the internet when you’re not using the internet.
I’m not going to say to stop relying on cloud services… but you might want to reduce your reliance on cloud services. Make sure your only copies of older files you want to keep aren’t only on some company’s servers. We’ll talk more about what I mean by this in a future article. I just wanted to mention it here first.
A Series is Born
I really like writing, and I find that one of my problems is that I tend to make my articles quite long. I know that’s a turn off for some people — honestly, it’s a turn off for me if I’m not in the mood to read that much at that moment — so for the sake of brevity I have decided to turn this very long topic into a series of (presumably) shorter articles. We’re going to cover several topics including desktops and laptops, phones and tablets, wearables, cloud computing, gaming, and more. I hope that you are able to get something positive out of them, and I’d love your input as well
https://sneak.berlin/20230115/macos-scans-your-local-files-now/
https://www.extremetech.com/computing/342941-windows-11-collects-an-awful-lot-of-telemetry-about-your-pc
https://www.pcmag.com/news/amazons-alexa-collects-more-of-your-data-than-any-other-smart-assistant
https://cybernews.com/privacy/instagram-is-sharing-79-of-your-personal-data-with-third-parties/
https://www.cnet.com/news/privacy/shadow-profiles-facebook-has-information-you-didnt-hand-over/
https://www.reuters.com/technology/tesla-workers-shared-sensitive-images-recorded-by-customer-cars-2023-04-06/