Goodbye Big Tech

4 April, 2025 - Categories: bigtech

Someday, I will have to write a blog post explaining why big tech is shit. but for now, a quick summary will have to do: Ads, Upsells, Tracking, Lobbying for terrible policy, etc...

But this article will be for practical solutions to get away from bigtech, aimed at people who enjoy a bit of self-hosting, tinkering, running their own independent services.

TODO: Make blog posts for each service explaining how to set it up.
TODO: try to make a nice table format for better visualisation?
NOTE: these are the services i've been using for years without issue, including easy updates.

Section: Mobile phone related
Photos: you don't want to lose your photos when your phone gets lost.
Bigtech solution: Google photos/ Icloud.
Selfhost: Immich

Contacts/Calendar: similar to Photos, you don't want to lose your contacts or appointments.
Bigtech solution: Google/Icloud
Selfhost: Baikal

Section: General stuff
Notes: some kind of note taking app is surely useful for most people.
Bigtech solution: google keep, probably some icloud stuff, MS Onenote, Notion, Evernote, many more....
Selfhost: Trilium-Next

Email: Incredibly important, whoever you use for your email likely knows your entire life.
Bigtech solution: gmail, icloud, microsoft...
Selfhost: Impossible. I am currently hosting a Mox server, but there are some issues.
Alternative: try to use something not bigtech... mailbox.org maybe? protonmail might be ok, but the constant upsells put me off.

Operating system: by now everyone in tech should know Windows has gone to shit. Apple might still be usable but is crazy with the vendor lock-in, if you're rich go apple.
Bigtech solution: Windows, Apple, Android...
FOSS: Linux. Mobile phones: difficult, but: /e/OS, GrapheneOS, postmarketOS