Tech Alternatives and Privacy
The other day I shared my daily #Junited2024 link on Mastodon:
Today's #Junited2024 post: "How not to quit Google" from The Art Of Not Asking Why
https://taonaw.com/2024/06/20/how-not-to.html
My comments on this: I understand the desire for privacy and *why* people want to do things like Quit Google, but these things (similarly to people who are able to live "minimalist lives") are done from places of privilege. Also, I see a lot of people say "I choose Apple because they don't sell your data" - sorry but they do...they have their own advertising game which is why they're so invested in helping you opt out of other people's advertising nets.
I thought about whether or not I wanted to expand on this in a proper blog post (and thereby open myself up for some heated discussion) or just leave it at that; I got one reply from Jake in the desert that was largely in agreement with me, so I'm happy my comment didn't turn into a huge comment war. I suppose if I had used other hashtags things might have been different.
But today I saw another post boosted:
Okay. We're gonna poke the bear.
We're currently on Windows 10 on all our machines. All our family members use it too. We're not going to upgrade to Windows 11.
We're sure there will be a Windows 12 at some point, with built-in stuff that we don't want and can't easily remove until someone hacks it out.
So, if we were to attempt to make a move to a Linux distro where:
- we'd get a Windows-like experience (minus the shitty bits)
- we didn't have to ever use a command line console except for very advanced tasks
- all our PC games would run
- we could find Linux compatible versions (or compatibility layers) for decades of WIndows-only software
... where the heck would we even start?
To me, these two things (ditching software and operating systems for privacy reasons or even just functionality) are intertwined. A big reason many people are switching away from Windows is because of recent AI additions (Copilot) and well - Windows 11 seems widely regarded as a downgrade to Windows 10. Personally I upgraded my Surface Pro to Windows 11, and I like it fine; but I would not upgrade my in-laws' computers to Windows 111. For them though, Windows 10 is fine. Some people opt for MacOS, but that is often cost-prohibitive. Can most people drop $5000 for a laptop? I don't know if that's how much they cost, but they're definitely in the thousands of dollars. I have an older Macbook Pro that I lucked into getting for free2.
In my comment I said, "these things ... are done from from places of privilege." The obvious privilege migrating from Windows to MacOS is what I mentioned in the last paragraph - the high cost. The price is a barrier to many people. I also compared this kind of act to people espousing minimalist living as coming from a place of privilege. Often the people that go on and on about how they ditched all of their "stuff" and live a life of minimalism are people who had all of this stuff in the first place which implies a life of relative wealth. There's also the privilege of station in life - where I work, there is a senior manager who says he sets his email to auto-delete messages whenever he goes on vacation. His privilege is that he has managers below him that can handle the things he normally deals with, so he is able to automatically discard email messages and take extended vacation. Many people below him don't have that opportunity (hey, that's me!).
Sorry, I'm getting away from my primary ideas for this post. What I was trying to get to was that some people throw out "just switch to Linux" when complaints about Windows come up. In theory this is a good idea: Linux is free, it has come a long way since the early days of constant tweaking to get things to work, and is actually quite easy to use. There's still a learning curve but it's arguably less steep than it's ever been. There are similar suggestions for people who don't want to use Microsoft products: There's LibreOffice, for example.
But let me go back to my in-laws (and even my wife). They are so familiar with Microsoft products that even though the basic functionality is likely the same, it would be hard to convince them to make the switch (and help them learn how to use the new software / operating systems). Heck, even I like Microsoft products, and since we use them at work 100% of the time it is easy to just use the same thing at home. But if I had the choice I probably would not pay the yearly subscription price and use free alternatives (well, maybe, OneDrive is pretty swell). I'm not going to convince my family to try different alternatives that represent sources of friction3 because I know that they are not the kind of tech users that are open to these alternatives.
I suppose what I'm trying to say is: it's all well and good to suggest all of these privacy-focused alternatives and ostensibly "better" software & operating systems, but you also need to keep in mind the audience you're talking to. Is this person technologically adept? Are they happy with their current setup and prefer not to change? Like I said - places of privilege isn't just about material things, it's also about skill and comfort levels.
Instead of jumping the gun and telling somebody they should switch to XYZ platform, wait until they ask (like Evie did in her post).
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