How I unshittified my digital life. Big Tech alternatives

Habits, muscle memory, familiarity of the apps, ecosystem of friends and family, all push you not to change. But the change doesn’t need to be an “all-in” from day one. And, it’s normal to research and think about it. What I can tell you is that most of the time, after you make the change, life goes on, you discover new tools, and you are still connected to the wider web. The problem with Big Tech solutions is that for convenience and familiarity, we are paying with our private data, and with different levels of enshittification.

Operating Systems

My main workstation is a macOS. I would like to move completely to Linux, but there are apps that only work with the mainstream systems. The same is true for the iPad for my design tools. This change is tricky, but it’s worth following the future developments in the space, like the Asahi Linux Project, which has a lot of potential.

All of my backup laptops are running ZorinOS Pro and I try weekly to have a few “Linux only hours”, when I test workflows and applications. Zorin is the most user-friendly for ex Windows/macOS users, with desktop layouts, app store and workflows. A typical installation is around 15 minutes and requires a few settings like network, time zone, location, etc.

As my mobile system is Android, I’m not using iCloud or other Apple apps. The Punkt smartphones are looking as a viable alternative to Google’s ecosystem.

Office Suite and Email

Proton email is a great alternative to Google Email or Microsoft Outlook. It has folders, rules, tags, and a nice view called Newsletter — where you can see what newsletters you subscribe to, move them to a folder, or unsubscribe. You can pair it with its aliases emails for a more organised experience.

The Proton calendar has evolved nicely and has recurring events, time zones, reminders, colours and different views.

Proton Drive encrypts everything I upload. It can back up mobile images, so no more Google Photos. Moreover, I can control what it’s shared and add expiration dates on shared items.

Recently, Proton launched Sheets, and together with Docs, I can say I have what I need from an online Office alternative.

For video calls, I’m oscillating between cal.com (which is an open-source scheduler) native video feature, Nextcloud Talk, and Zoom. Proton has a video call feature, currently in beta testing.

On my laptops, I use LibreOffice, an open-source office productivity suite, developed by The Document Foundation, a nonprofit registered in Germany. With a few UI tweaks, I find it more powerful than Google Docs or Microsoft Office.

If you’re starting now, Nextcloud (open-source German company) has the most features, similar to Big Tech solutions: Docs, Sheets, Talk (like Teams, but better), calendar, contacts. I’ve tested it, it can be self-hosted on a server and has more features than you require. Because I’ve already started with Proton, it was a bit chaotic to fully use them both.

I wanted a PDF reader that wasn’t asking me every time to use AI, so I looked for Adobe alternatives. For editing and reading PDFs, on Mac I’m using Skim, an open-source reader. On Linux, Xournal++ is more than enough. I still have Adobe Reader on my computer for those two documents per year that I need to prepare for my taxes. (Yeah, they only work with Adobe).

Technical Tools

For my websites, I’m using Kirby (a German company)- a nice file-based content management system. It’s GDPR-compliant, fast, secure, and flexible.

Infomaniak (a Swiss company) is my hosting company. They offer web hosting, cloud computing, domain names, office suite and events and marketing tools. They use local renewable energy and offset 200% of their carbon emissions. If you start now, their offer will give you many apps with one invoice. I tested their Office Suite, and it’s working as intended, including with LibreOffice formats.

Web analytics are provided by Pirsch, a cookie free, open-source solution. Hosted and created in Germany.

For forms, Tally is powerful, even on its free plan. And, yes, it looks great. Also, European and headquartered in Belgium.

I moved nearly two years ago to Vivaldi as my main browser. With a bit of customisation, you can make it the perfect browser. Vivaldi comes with its translator feature that can handle text in multiple languages. At the same time, I choose Ecosia as my main search engine. I changed my local queries by being more intentional and explicit, but apart from that, I feel Ecosia's results are better.

The maps alternatives are trickier. The alternatives don’t have the capacity of Google to map the world, and don’t have the troves of user-generated content to keep them up to date. I’m still testing between HereWeGo, OpenStreetMap and OsmAnd.

VSCodium is my choice for opening code, Markdown, R, and LaTeX.

For following RSS feeds, across devices I’m using Miniflux. You can self-host or pay a small yearly fee for the hosted version. It doesn’t have bells and whistles, but it works great on the web and mobile with over 1k feeds. In my Miniflux feed, I included the Scouring feeds, a tag content aggregator, and the Feedle feeds, an RSS search engine focused on blogs.
For bookmarking, quick reading, and annotations, Raindrop is perfect.

Creative Apps

Like most of my generation, the first digital manipulation apps I tried were Adobe Photoshop and Corel. Quickly, Adobe engulfed nearly everything. Their push to the cloud and the subscription model made me search for alternatives. The Affinity Suite is a good competitor, with photography, illustration, and design options. Time will tell how the new Affinity all-in-one app will evolve under Canva’s leadership.

For Linux, I’m slowly learning Darktable, Krita and Inkscape. The last ZorinOS update (Zorin 18) should offer the possibility to run web-based apps like Affinity, Canva, or Adobe.

I still use Figma, especially for collaboration, but I started to get the hang of Penpot, so I can fully move my files.

VLC is the trusty media player for macOS and ZorinOS. Simple and get the job done.

For newsletters, I’m using SteadyHQ from Germany. I can create subscriptions, donations, and custom drip campaigns. For more complex email flows, CRM, and list segmentation, Brevo (France) is accessible in terms of price and features.

My reading apps are Zotero (with their last update, it works on mobile), and Moonreader++ for Android. I managed to stay out of the Kindle ecosystem, but the iPad is more than enough for reading and drawing/design. To be honest, I’m thinking of buying a PocketBook e-reader.

Notes

All my note-taking, lists, tasks, archives, and book notes are in Obsidian (a Canadian company). A local first, file-based app, text editor. With its complex plugin ecosystem, one can spend a lot of time tinkering with it.

When I need to edit articles and blogs, Ellipsus (a German company) is a collaboration editor with comments, version control, merge, and writing-focused features. Ellipsus is web-based, so it works across operating systems.

Ulysses (a German company) has the best editing and proofreading assistant. Of course, it can be used for long-form writing and organising artefacts. Unfortunately, they have apps only for the Apple ecosystem. Markdown trivia: they have their Markdown flavour, called Markdown XL. It’s a bit different from Obsidian’s markdown.

Chat

My main chat app is Signal. It also has a Linux desktop version. I still have groups on WhatsApp, Slack, and Discord.

Security

Included in my Proton plan, I have their no logs VPN, password manager and their new open-source Authenticator.

For antivirus, malware, and web security, Bitdefender is the best solution, especially when you need to manage more devices.

Conclusion

The whole research process helped me discover new tools, join new communities, and reevaluate the extractive corporate business model. The change doesn’t need to be something brutal, made in one go. You can make a list, see the most sensitive services, search for alternatives and make incremental changes. Hopefully, and in the end, you can say you’re supporting tools that are more eco-aware, that are giving back to the community, and are more private.

Cover Photo via Azopan.ro/Urmașii lui András Sütő / Redacția Új Élet