I often advocate for using open-source and unconventional tools, especially when alternatives include products and services owned by large corporations like Google or Apple. These companies offer a suite of products that lock you into their ecosystems. Aside from trusting one corporation with almost all of your data, it increases the risk of centralized data exposure. I don't want one company to have access to my location (Google Maps), emails (Gmail), web searches and history (Chrome), among other things. Instead, I prefer alternatives that prioritize user privacy and ownership, such as using Obsidian over Notion, or choosing Signal over iMessage and WhatsApp for messaging.
I grew up an Apple fan; my first computer was an iMac running OS 8.6. I very much respected Apple until the introduction of the Touch Bar and the forcing of dongles, which marked the beginning of the end in my eyes. I believe that today, Apple no longer prioritizes quality products or customer care. In 2021, I switched from Apple to GNU/Linux and from an iPhone to Android. I would like to switch to a mobile device that allows me to install a Google-free operating system, such as GrapheneOS or LineageOS, but for some reason, the phones with the best support for de-Googled operating systems are made by Google. Go figure.
Beyond software, I also believe in owning my media rather than renting it. Instead of relying on services like Netflix or Hulu, I use Plex to manage my music, movies, and TV shows. This way, I have complete control over my media library without being subject to the limitations and potential data collection practices of streaming services. I do not want to live in a world where I won nothing: I do not believe I would be happy.
Aside from free open-source software, I would rather pay for software and services than get them for free. I believe that if the product is free to use, more often than not, you are the product. Take Gmail, for example, which has been caught on numerous occasions scraping user emails in order to serve targeted ads. I happily pay for Proton (affiliate) for email, drive, and calendar services, as I value my privacy and the quality of service.
I also leverage various tools to enhance my privacy and security. For instance, I use Privacy.com to generate single-use credit cards with spending limits, which helps protect my financial information. Proton Mail's Passinbox feature allows me to mask my email addresses when signing up for services, so if a website is compromised, I can simply disable the generated email, preventing me from reusing emails across multiple sites. I prefer WeGoHere over Google Maps due to its open-source nature and use Tile instead of AirTags for tracking. I use Burner to generate temporary phone numbers, limiting the exposure of my real phone number, and DuckDuckGo as my search engine to maintain my privacy while browsing. Signal is my messaging/calling app of choice, and something I am trying to get more people to use.
I do not submit to Apple or Microsoft - I run GNU/Linux because I have full control of my computer, and I am not forced to create an account when installing it. I don't need to provide a credit card to install applications (see Apple's Appstore). In fact, I vowed years ago that I would never buy a new Apple device again. I own an iPhone 10, bought used on Amazon for about $100, with little to nothing installed on it, because in the USA, for whatever reason, having iMessage (blue bubbles) is very important to people. So until I can convince everyone I know and meet to use Signal, I must continue to use that when texting hot babes.