Should (and could) you ditch Apple, Google and Microsoft? | Hacker News Reader

Should (and could) you ditch Apple, Google and Microsoft?

thememo.com

24 pointsKittykn14 comments

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There are fundamental flaws in the argument

> He now uses a Lenovo ThinkPad laptop

And that is relevant in what way?

> with GNU and Linux software

Alright, fair enough.

> he’s swapped Microsoft Office for LibreOffice

As before, fair enough, if one believes in FOSS being "better" than commercial software.

> he doesn’t use Gmail but Mozilla’s Thunderbird

Apples with oranges. The former is mail provider, also offering a web interface. The latter is an email client, which is pretty useless without a place where you receive emails. So what is actually using instead of Gmail?

> and, despite considering the iPhone the best on the market, he uses an Android handset with the Cyanogenmod operating system.

Not only contradicts the "ditching Google" credo, but is also a useless move in this context. If he really wants to follow through with his FOSS approach he should be using Sailfish OS, Tizen, Ubuntu Touch or Firefox OS.

> Not only contradicts the "ditching Google" credo, but is also a useless move in this context. If he really wants to follow through with his FOSS approach he should be using Sailfish OS, Tizen, Ubuntu Touch or Firefox OS.

I kind of disagree, though those are all worthwhile projects. Running an AOSP or CM ROM with no GApps is a reasonable choice for mobile if you want to avoid Apple/Google/Microsoft services.

It seems like the distinction is between "Apple/Google/Microsoft" and "Apple/Google/Microsoft services." My gut reaction when I read it in the article was "so... not really ditching them."

Edit: someday I'll learn how to format text on here.

Sure, by running a fork of stock Android you can certainly reduce your exposure to Google but you also "severely" limit your experience -> no maps, no play store (= relying on limited third party stores) and so on, and these are just core applications (not including Chrome, Keep, Youtube, the other "Store" applications and all the rest here). Also there is no guarantee you cut all ties with Google. I am not sure I would dare to claim plain Android does not communicate with Google at all.

The desire to avoid Google and still using Android (whatever incarnation of it) does not go too well hand in hand I am afraid.

The other day I convinced myself to flash CM 12 on my HTC One M7 without GApps. However, within a couple hours had no choice but to flash it. Open Whisper Systems doesn't provide Signal's APK outside of Google Play (surprisingly Spotify does), and neither does Pebble. In addition there is some bug in messaging that prevents me from sending any SMS at all. I'd argue that GApps is a requirement for any Android device today. Unfortunately I see the iPhone as the only smartphone where it's even possible to avoid Google services.

At least for something like Signal you can compile it yourself. They even provide instructions. So you could avoid gapps for that one with a bit of work.

https://github.com/WhisperSystems/Signal-Android/wiki/How-to...

I've completely ditched Microsoft, mostly ditched Google, and haven't even tried to ditch Apple, yet. Of the three I think Google is the hardest to ditch entirely - and that's because of the ubiquity of YouTube. There's a lot of DIY, how-to, product information and conference videos on YouTube.

I've willingly allowed myself to be lulled into the Apple ecosystem because their hardware/software combination is so good. The wife and kids also like it and yet I still retain a Unix work environment. So ditching Apple probably isn't going to happen for me anytime soon though for me personally I'm thinking when my MacBook Pro dies I'll probably replace it with a ThinkPad and run FreeBSD on it. The family will more than likely still be running Apple.

I'm completely in bed with Apple, ditched Microsoft 20 years ago and am slowly weening myself off of google (primary reason I used google now is work requires uses google docs.)

I'm very happy with the stance Apple is taking regarding privacy and security. When the FBI director is bitching about a companies products being too secure, then that's a company I want to give money to.

Also, personally, I've been using Apple products for 30 years, and when they've had problems Apple has always gone above and beyond in helping. Recently, I ran into a problem, that I thought was a hardware problem, went to an Apple store, saw a Genius without an appointment and it fortunately turned out to be a software issue easily fixed- but that's much better than the 2-3 week turnaround I could expect shipping another companies device off to be serviced.

Apple puts the user first in a way that other companies do not (though to their credit Microsoft is clearly trying these days)... and I reward that with my money.

That said, I don't quite like my choices for laptops these days, and am considering going with a generic laptop running Linux or a hackintosh... I just wish Apple would offer 32GB in a laptop and/or more discrete graphics options.

Ditch the iPhone for Android, uhm, ok, apart from the fact that Android = Google.

You could use Thunderbird with GMail, so that argument doesn't make any sense.

etc. etc.

CM is based on OSS code largely developed by Google, yes. But if you avoid Google apps you're sort of ditching Google.

Google is one of the biggest contributors to Linux and also contributes to Mozilla in various ways, for example. You can't (practically) avoid all the fruits of Google, but you can avoid directly using them.

Well, nonsense in the article aside, sure you can, but only for isolated personal use.

As for myself, I've actively been avoiding all of them. Not because "everything FOSS is better", but because none of them are someone I like. Personally, I have never owned or used an Apple device or service (for my own need), the only Google thing I use is Youtube. As for MS, that's "worse". I need Windows with DirectX for entertainment and I need MS Office for some work, as much as I'd love to use LibreOffice if just because of the UX...

Most people work for a company that make software and hardware decisions, and the user cannot make such choices to ditch a brand, unless they also decide to ditch their job.

Computer ecosystem is a factor when I consider a job. Granted, it's not high on the list, but it's there. I suppose though that this consideration is far less important for, say, a waiter, whose reliance on Windows for their POS system doesn't really affect his job much.

I've gone the opposite and decided to jump into bed with Microsoft; I got the surface book and upgraded everything to windows 10. Besides the ads in the games, it has been delightful.

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