Windows 11 was the last straw.

Microsoft, in their infinite wisdom, decided to release a bug-laden “upgrade” to their OS in order to shove AI down our throats. The rollout was a joke and users revolted. I was already furious that they hiked Office 365 subscriptions to force Copilot onto our PCs. Did you know that you could keep the non-Copilot version for less cost? Yeah, no one did. The greedy pricks in the boardroom decided to chase AI market share by up-charging renewals.

And they’re far from unique. Remember when Google’s motto was “Don’t be evil?” I do. But they dropped it in 2015 while cannibalizing every company under the sun. Imagine that. They looked at a motto that advocated for basic human decency and thought, That doesn’t represent us. What conclusion are we to draw? If “Don’t be evil” is a sticking point, then you’re probably doing a whole lot of evil.

We have reached a watershed moment with Big Tech. As enshittification teaches us, they have abandoned their missions to make life better and embraced a dystopian hellscape that profits off rage, misery, and dependence.

This is all rhetorical, of course. We know that Microsoft and Google are evil companies, along with Apple, Amazon, Meta, X, and all the other tech behemoths that rake in billions by selling our private data. Couple that with a uniquely corrupt government and you have a tech industry run amok. Take your pick of the endless jaw-dropping scandals. These companies break laws with ruthless abandon because they know they won’t be punished.

Many of us are trapped in their ecosystems, be it for work or personal business. I have been staring at Windows screens since the 1980s. I rely on it for so much of my everyday life, and leaving it feels like the tech-equivalent of climbing Everest. But here’s the thing. I will happily deal with less-than-perfect tech if the company isn’t actively harming its customers. Google used to be great. Microsoft used to be great. They had superior products and loyal users, but now they abuse that relationship and profit off dependency.

It’s gotten so bad that many customers, like myself, are now gazing up at the Everest peak and saying, “Yes, it’s time to switch to Linux.”

This post is the first of a new blog series that I am calling “Breaking Up with Big Tech,” which will chronicle the great migration away from these dependencies. As a coder and a publisher with a decades-long career, I am perfectly poised to tackle this quest. I cannot simply abandon these products and start anew. They are woven into the very fabric of my work day. If I am to succeed, I need a detailed roadmap. As luck would have it, I already created one.

Here are the main steps that I envision, which I will break down in subsequent posts as I reach the various milestones. This is by no means an exhaustive list, just the main hurdles I need to get over before reaching the summit (a life without Big Tech).

1) Social Media, Web Browsers, and Search

This is more of a pregame than a major step, in that everything can be done in a single day. The goal here is to remove as much online tracking as you can. I took care of these a long time ago and the peace of mind is immeasurable.

Longtime readers know that I have a deep disdain for social media. I deleted every account and strongly suggest that you do the same, because these companies are some of the most evil on the planet. Don’t take a hiatus, just delete your accounts and be done with it.

As for web browsers, I use Firefox and Brave. Firefox is my workhorse, which I fortify with uBlock Origin. Brave is my media portal, which offers some of the best security in the game (despite being a Chromium build). If you want peak security, then use the Tor browser. It’s a tad slower due to the encrypted traffic routing, but that’s the trade-off. Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge are notorious for data harvesting and should be avoided at all costs.

No matter what browser you choose, be sure to disable activity tracking and set data to erase on close. Incognito mode does nothing to prevent tracking or monitoring, it only prevents the browser from saving history for the current session. It should also go without saying that you should never let the browser save your sensitive info. Disable it all, and for love of Tim, use a dedicated password manager.

As for search, there are many good options for privacy. My favorite is DuckDuckGo, which I always set as my browser default. These days, Google Search is little more than a behavioral tracker. AI is even worse and I avoid them like the plague. Stick to indexed searches because chatbots hallucinate and poison your ability to think.

2) Goodbye Gmail and Outlook, Hello Proton

The first big hurdle is adopting a new email platform. I have used Gmail and Outlook for decades. My original Hotmail address is my junk account to this day. But as we now know, Google and Microsoft use our personal emails to mine data and train their AI models. That’s a massive breach of trust, so I finally decided to tackle this beast of a task.

The answer for me was Proton Mail, a privacy-focused service based in Switzerland (and thus, bound to strict privacy laws). They offer free accounts with generous space, but I also wanted to replace Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive. I purchased a very reasonable plan, which is now my email account, calendar, and cloud backup.

Status: Complete

3) Goodbye Microsoft Office, Hello LibreOffice

This one will be tricky, because so much of my daily life depends on Microsoft Office. I have already cancelled my Office 365 subscription due to the price-hike nonsense. I could buy a standalone version of Office 2024, but that’s infected with Copilot. What I might do is buy a copy of Office 2021, the last iteration before AI. It’s cheap, stable, and should handle all my publishing needs until I find a viable alternative.

It’s not so much the writing part, which I now do in LibreOffice (Windows version). It’s the formatting part. Microsoft Word is widely regarded as a publishing standard, much to the dismay of writers with limited budgets. LibreOffice seems to be the best alternative. It’s free, open-source, and runs beautifully on Linux, but I need to thoroughly test it before jumping ship. I have some time before my 365 sub expires, so I’m highly motivated to kick some tires. The thought of giving another penny to Microsoft makes my blood boil.

Quick note on LibreOffice being free to use: I was initially skeptical of this, seeing as how “free” in today’s world usually means that the users are the product. But in this case, the company is a non-profit that makes money through donations, sponsorships, and enterprise software, all of which gets funneled back to supporting the product. Respect.

Status: Complete

4) Goodbye Windows, Hello Linux

This is the big one, and I’m actually looking forward to it. I have wanted to learn Linux for years, but never had a compelling reason. Now I do, because the Windows 11 debacle has galvanized the Linux community. Disgruntled users are fleeing Microsoft like rats from a sinking ship.

The plan is to dual-boot with the Mint distro, a beginner-friendly version that is easy to learn. Then, once I’m comfortable, I can upgrade to the popular Ubuntu distro. The reason I plan to dual-boot with Windows is based on the previous step. I already own Windows and may need to access Office, so that will be phase one. And then, once I can fully integrate into Linux, I will torch every Microsoft install and salt the ashes. Oh, glorious day!

Status: Complete

5) Goodbye Adobe Photoshop, Hello Canva Affinity

There are few companies in the world that I hate more than Adobe. (Yes, even more than Google and Microsoft.) Adobe is largely responsible for the subscription hellscape that we endure today. And unfortunately, they maintain a stranglehold on graphic design. When you need to create a book cover, it’s hard not to use Adobe … or so I thought.

Affinity is a graphics program created by Canva, a tech company based in Australia. Not only can it open and edit Adobe files, it can open and edit very old Adobe files. This is exactly what I need, as I have been relying on an older offline version of Photoshop because I refuse to adopt Creative Cloud. Canva saw a golden opportunity to eat Adobe’s lunch, and they took it. I am so happy they did because Affinity is an incredible replacement.

Status: Complete

6) Goodbye Streaming, Hello Physical Media

This is more of a bonus step because streaming has become one of the greatest examples of Big Tech enshittification. What began as a slick and affordable way to ditch cable has become a nightmare that’s somehow worse than cable.

I had parted ways with my physical media collection when streaming became the norm, and now I’m on a mission to rectify that mistake. Thankfully, I have found some highly gratifying ways to reclaim that collection. No more price hikes, crappy tech, and pause ads (still cannot believe that’s a thing now). I have gone back to Blurays, DVDs, and CDs.

Status: Complete

7) Goodbye Apple and Android, Hello Graphene

Last on the list is my phone. I have jumped between Apple and Android for many years, but their current privacy records are utterly abysmal. I want to transition to Graphene, a privacy-focused OS that replaces Google Android. The problem is, Graphene has a very high security standard (yay), so it only works on the hardware of a Google Pixel (ugh). Basically, you have to brick a Pixel and revive it with Graphene. Doable, but easy to mess up.

Thankfully, Graphene is currently developing their own devices. This solves the problem and allows us to invest in the full package (OS and hardware). The devices are projected to launch in late 2026, so I am happy to wait while I work on the other steps.

In the meantime, I have already wiped the Google suite from my Android and replaced it with Proton apps (email, calendar, drive). I have also installed F-Droid (replaces Google Play), which allowed me to install Heliboard (replaces Gboard) and Breezy Weather (open-source weather app that doesn’t collect user data). Other notable upgrades include Standard Notes (replaces Google Keep), Signal (replaces Google Messages), and OsmAnd (replaces Google Maps, one of the worst privacy offenders on the entire internet).

Status: Complete

So it begins …

And there you have it, my roadmap to digital freedom. This will be a long and tedious process, but I am deeply motivated to see it through. Big Tech has become a parasitic drain on society and I want nothing to do with them anymore. I would rather support companies who respect my privacy, value security, and don’t treat my patronage with contempt.

This post will serve as base camp. As I make progress, I will turn each “status” into a clickable link with detailed instructions. This is an ethical journey, and I sincerely hope you will join me. The best way to stop Big Tech is to stop using its products. Let’s close our accounts, close our wallets, and give these pricks the giant middle fingers they deserve.