I recently switched database solution for my hobby project from Microsoft Azure to Scaleway. I did this purely out of ideological conviction and I was even prepared to pay a bit more for a European service.
That turned out to not be the case. My monthly bill went from around 6€ to 1,3€. The performance was equally as good, if not better (I haven’t tested, just going off of feel) and the setup was very smooth.
This really made me think, and I began to reflect on all the other changes I’ve made and how they’ve turned out to be improvements - even though that wasn’t what motivated me to switch.
My old laptop was very slow and laggy. I wiped it clean from Windows and installed Linux Mint. Now it’s like it’s brand new, I’ve come to rely on shortcuts and features that don’t exist in Windows and I love how all the unnecessary resource draining bloat is gone.
My search engine, Startpage, gives me what I’m looking for, not AI summaries where my question was misunderstood or just straight up hallucinations.
And for all of the services where the European alternative wasn’t noticeably better (Proton mail, Le Chat, DeepL, etc) they’ve been just as good - only more privacy respecting. I haven’t replaced everything yet, and I expect some things to be difficult, but thus far I can honestly say that I don’t feel like I have made any sacrifices.
I feel like I’ve been subject to some psychological fallacy where I’ve assumed that the most popular alternative is the best and it’s been eye-opening to realize it’s simply not true.
I’m curious about your experiences, can you relate to this?
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Congratulations, well done!
My old laptop was very slow and laggy. I wiped it clean from Windows and installed Linux Mint. Now it’s like it’s brand new, I’ve come to rely on shortcuts and features that don’t exist in Windows and I love how all the unnecessary resource draining bloat is gone.
I did not wipe clean my old desktop running macOS, also I was not suffering much from bloat on macOS (I suffered of the lack of repairability). After 40+ years being an Apple customer, realizing they would not come back to selling upgradable/repairable devices, I just stopped replacing my Mac by a newer Mac and instead purchased a (much cheaper &) used Mini PC (HP ProDesk something) on which I installed Linux Mint and came to the same conclusion as you.
That was 6+ years ago and I did not miss the Mac once. My only regret? Not having made that switch a few years earlier…
- My Search engine is the French, like me: Qwant. It works nice (but it’s also still relying on US search engines for now) but I consider it less good than what I used prior: Kagi (which to me was the best search engine ever, worth its price (yep, it’s paid for) but, alas, being an US product their own POTUS made it clear last April and forward that as an EU-citizen I should not be relying on it or on any other US tech/services). A few months ago Qwant announced they had started working with (Ecosia) on building our very own EU-based search engine… I’ve yet to hear about nay progress being made.
- My Cloud is a mix of the Swiss (and cheap) Infomaniak KSuite and the German (and E2EE) Filen.io
- I also quit using all streaming platforms (but that was a few ago, already) moving back to physical media that I can fully own and control. And it has been great.
- After having been using Firefox for all my online life (I started using it when it was still called… Mosaic) my default browser for almost 2 years has been a UK-fork of Firefox that is privacy respecting and AI-free: Waterfox.
- My backup and chrome-based browser is and has been for years the EU-based Vivaldi. Also it is privacy respecting and non-AI soiled.
I feel like I’ve been subject to some psychological fallacy where I’ve assumed that the most popular alternative is the best and it’s been eye-opening to realize it’s simply not true.
I can share that feeling but I also feel like I also have way too lazy, personally, all those years by not bothering considering ‘local’ EU alternatives and sticking to US-based tech out of a lifelong habit of using them. In that regard that sad election and the (unsurprisingly) pitiful shit show that followed had a real positive impact by forcing to stop relying on as much US-based products as I could, and to check in my own part of the world what was available.
Side note regarding that dangerous laziness, probably also a very naive note: as a French, I hope our German friends will realize their government could very well be as lazy, at this very moment. How so? By insisting on keeping on purchasing an other very specific type of US tech instead of European-made alternatives (and yep, disclaimer, that alternative could include my very own French tech): US weapons.
The EU should question that choice which hurts real bad, and is only made in the hope of maybe preserving something that I think is already gone, for good. Something that will hurt the EU even more long term by weakening our key defense industries and any hope the EU can one day stand its ground against the US absurd demands and can one day stand alone. Maybe the US and the EU countries can remain partners, and members of NATO, I would see no harm in that, but we can’t rely on the US anymore and certainly not on something as critical as rearming ourselves. I mean, we should not rely on them even after (if ever) the Trump is replaced by another POTUS because, as we witnessed, there was barely any opposition from any US institutions or persons in power against his shit show and his wreckage of our 80-years old alliance which means we should take it as a fact that the US don’t give a fuck about our alliance, and we should stop hope for the good old times to come back. Those times are gone.
I couldn’t agree more. And as a citizen of a huge arms exporting country (Sweden), my hope is that the same revelation will apply in this sector too: choosing EU is a quality upgrade.
I’ve been subject to some psychological fallacy where I’ve assumed that the most popular alternative is the best and it’s been eye-opening to realize it’s simply not true
Long time ago I’ve heard an optimistic opinion that the current era will be called era of information. I’m afraid it’ll be rather called era of marketing. The most popular choices are the ones with biggest bucks spent on advertising. It doesn’t even have to be good
My general philosophy is that if I see it advertised, be very skeptical. That’s why I will never trust any vpn sponsorships, or deletme or incogni or anything, because they’ve been advertised a lot. Gotta be suspicious of everything.
I can relate. I’ve been on a privacy journey for months now, and I am constantly amazed at the quality of FREE and open source alternatives (many of them often come from Europe, so before I focused on European tech, I was already using a lot). You can have a better time and also have significantly better privacy for free, which I think has wonderful, and has made me feel much better and made browsing the internet a better experience.
