My wife and I do not even allow Meta Apple and Google products or proprietary software in our home (unless owned by guests) because they are all predatory and endless alternatives exist.

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trollbridge 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

What software / hardware do you use? How do you get around binary firmware blobs?

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lrvick 4 hours ago | parent [-]

I use Linux and maintain my own Linux distribution. All software I directly touch and rely on is Open Source and does not spy on me. I do not own or use a smartphone. I do however permit the use of proprietary software for purely entertainment use cases, such as video games, but never for a -tool- that I use to do my job or live my life.

I even have a Talos workstation. Open hardware motherboard and open spec CPU both made in the US with fully open hardware. Also a Precursor which is similarly open.

I support these efforts as much as I financially can, but I admit open firmware/hardware is not a gap I have fully closed day to day. Yet. Deep down in some hardware is firmware I do not control, such as on the inside of my AMD GPUs. But I wallet-vote for those over Nvidia who require proprietary code in user space where it requires rights within my operating system.

	▲	joquarky 35 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		I sometimes consider going scorched earth, but then I realize doing so will leave a conspicuous void which may also limit my options in the future.
	▲	latexr 4 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		> I do however permit the use of proprietary software for purely entertainment use cases, such as video games How do you isolate those from affecting the rest of your machine? Do you use a different machine for entertainment? A different account? Something else? I’m not judging or trying to catch you in some kind of gotcha, I’m interested in your setup in case the idea is something I could use myself.

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bookofjoe 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Do you allow guests to use their Meta Apple and Google products in your home?

	▲	lrvick 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Begrudgingly if for short periods of time, on a dedicated wifi network, but if they are visiting my home I encourage them to interact with me and others instead of doom scrolling. Try as I might some are so addicted and gone now that they just come over, doom scroll for a few hours, and leave. Maybe they feel like they get something out of just being in the same room as other people. It confuses me, but I will not force my views on guests.