The current state of bigtech is depressing… But

Do you ever think about
How to replace it
Now the night turns in
Into a poker tell

(How to replace it, by dEUS)

With our current use of the Internet we have made a number of companies incredibly rich and powerful. Companies like Apple, Google, Meta (facebook) and Amazon have benefitted immensly from the network effects tech creates. Although a lot of smaller companies have benefitted from the platforms the companies provide, right now I think the balance is completely of. Companies like Apple are incentifised to fight the EU on issues like privacy and fair competition, but coorperate with the Chineses government and financial support an authoritarian president elect.

As some sort of new years resolution I am stepping out of the walled garden that Apple created. And that is kind of hard: I am an all things Apple guy. Mac + iPhone + Apple watch + iCloud. My love of Apple runs deeps: when Steve Jobs returned to Apple I immediately bought a Mac, and loved the journey from outcast to cultural force. But right now Apple is everywhere: music, books, payment, cloud service, series, mail.

So how to replace it?

Here are some thoughts..

1: Vote with my money…

Right now I’m spending money on cloud storage, Apple music, and offcourse everything purchased via an Apple app store/ book store. I will pay less to Apple and pay more to artists.

To make it more practical:

• On everything I buy, I strive to buy it from a local company
• I will try to buy it in such a way that the maker benefits
• For SAAS products: I prefer to buy not from the App store, but from the company itself.

Even more practical:

• Physical product that I need, I will buy at local stores. Even when it means paying more.
• I will buy vinyl, preferably at concerts. Or from the artists website
• I will buy ebooks from a company that supports the local bookstore like libris.nl. You can buy an ebook from your local store here.
• I will rent movies from a company that supports local theaters (picl.nl)
• I will move Apple pay to a local provider once it is here
• I will buy refurbished hardware
• I will move my data from the cloud, so that I don’t have to rent it back

2: Community mindset

I prefer that important everyday (technical) knowledge that we need as a society lands with open organisations. Organisations that give back to society and take a humble supportive stand.

In the physical world this means, doing stuff that supports the local community. And the local economy. I strive to buy physical goods from companies that I value, even it means paying more. I am a strong believer in “use it or lose it”.

Online this means supporting open source or community initiatives like:

• Signal
• Nextcloud
• Mastodon
• FairPhone

For other fields in life like banking I will try to pick out providers that are in line with these values. Like: Lendahand, ASN bank

3: Having an exit strategy

Companies go rogue all the time. When this happens you should be able to move your data to a new service.

Nextcloud for instance gives you the opportunity to move your data to a new provider. Without losing information, or having to learn a new interface. Mastodon gives you the opportunity the move to a new server, taking your posts and social graph with you.

Stuff to take into account:

When a program works locally on your computer and stores data in an open format, you can always replace it. Obsidian for instance, stores your data in markdown files. When the company ceases to exist, your data is not lost.

When data is stored open formats, you can always replace your tools.

4, Small steps

I started with just reducing the amount of data I put on my iCloud drive. And moved on from there so:

There are many ways

How to replace

These tired lines

Of these modern blues

(How to replace it, dEUS)