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My napkin plan: * Ditch Apple products. I was going to upgrade my iPad and MacBook, that's not going to happen. * Switch to an Android phone, install only min
by browningstreet 5y ago
My napkin plan:
* Ditch Apple products. I was going to upgrade my iPad and MacBook, that's not going to happen.
* Switch to an Android phone, install only minimal apps and minimal cloud services. I need MFA for work, banking, and a few apps for travel. Photos, of course, but I can manage manually offloading those. As few apps as possible.
* Ditch my Apple Watch, get a cheap dedicated running watch for maps/GPS. I had one before, it was quite enough. The Apple Watch is lovely, but not essential.
* Ditch Google Mail except for my one online purchasing account.
* Switch to another mail providef, maybe Fastmail, to segregate and distribute my email paths. I'm a heavy calendar user..
* Switch to NAS and a backup NAS for file storage.
* Keep my Windows machine for photo and video editing, but stop using OneDrive and Google Drive. Migrate back to Linux (need to figure out a desktop machine that has some decent hardware power management support) for my personal ecosystem. Do more on the desktop, and do less on mobile.
* I'll keep my FireTV for TV watching, and if I can't watch shows on a Linux laptop, so be it.
* Minimize the use of integrated platforms (Apple iCloud, Google, cloud services). I've been out of the FB world for years, it'll take a bit more work to de-Apple and mini-G my life.
I need some tech in my life to create and to make a living. But the whole "online life" thing will be getting scaled back. Tech for consumption and delight will be very much less so.
I don't know how else to resist (yet). I've been in the Linux, privacy and encryption thing for decades, and it feels like an anachronism in the current political and social climate. I'm at an age where I can upscale my analog life and not think too hard about how that complicates my future. My son, who'll enter college next year, has already sworn off a phone and social media. Not sure how long he can live without a phone, but for however long he wants to live without one and wrestle with the discomforts out society will create because of it, he can adapt without have to un-wind the tech that has already encroached in his life.
- cucumb3rrelish 5y agoAndroid user here: 90 % of Android devices have all the stuff you think you avoided by switching preinstalled and running in the background. Either because it's in the Google contract to use Play Services or because the manufacturer uses proprietary solutions they want to push. And they certainly aren't always removable
- browningstreet 5y agoI understand that. I don't think I can cut it off entirely, but I'm going to segregate my usage of the platforms as much as I can. My personal cloud archive won't be on my phone, that's one thing I can do. I may not be able to take down the beast, but I'll try not to feed it much more than crumbs.
- cucumb3rrelish 5y agoI don't see why you switched to Android then in the first place, because only iCloud uploads will be scanned on iOS. Also I can't think of a single manufacturer with better privacy practices than Apple except for custom ROMs.
- netizen-936824 5y agoIsn't the obvious choice to use custom ROMs then?
- browningstreet 5y agoFor now… I think it’s easy to imagine what v5 of this tech can do, what additional databases come into scope over time. The potential of abuse by governments, and the principle of on device scanning. Cloud scanning doesn’t bother me as much… but this feels like a step too far. Some things are reasonable, this doesn’t seem so.
- nextos 5y agoThese days things are much better thanks to Treble. Device-independent ROMs are a reality. You can easily flash pure AOSP on any modern phone.
- yagya 5y agoWhile that's in theory, reality is much more harsh. Treble implementations vary greatly between OEMs. For example, Samsung phones don't have mobile data working because of proprietary RIL used by Samsung. Also, Treble compatibility often breaks on newer versions of Android, especially for Pixels (which is quite ironic). Treble is really meant to make the job easier for OEMs and ROM devs to continue supporting a device. The GSI is really meant as a way to certify Treble.
- c-cube 5y agoFor the pictures I recommand using syncthing. Works very well, and if configured to upload only on wifi it won't kill your data plan.
- t0bia_s 5y agoYou'll need custom OS on Android as well. LineageOS (many android phones) or GrapheneOS (only Pixel phones).