Tech Freedom – Page 6

12 Steps to tech freedom

by admin Featured Basics, Degoogle, Live Free, Tech Freedom, Welcome

12 Steps to Tech Freedom: A Guide For You, Along the Way

12 Steps Explained

Step 1: Admit that you have a problem with Big Tech dependency.

Step 2: Learn that there is a way to break that dependence.

Step 3: Trust the Way.

Step 4: Come to understand the depth of your Big Tech dependency.

Step 5: Take inventory of how many of your digital rights you sacrificed on the altar of Big Tech convenience.

Step 6: Chose to be ready to regain those rights.

Step 7: Follow the way.

Step 8: Make a list of all of the accounts and services that need to be shut down & replaced with ones that will respect your rights.

Step 9: Backup all of that account data, then delete it (to the best of your ability) from their servers and either disable or delete those accounts.

Step 10: Research and open those new accounts.

Step 11: Ditch your iPhone/ standard Android and switch to a degoogled Android.

Step 12: Live free & help others through the process.

This is the way to tech freedom, all. I hope you embody it for yourself and others.

thoughtful young black man working on laptop in outdoor cafe and drinking coffee

How to get Tech Freedom, One Step at a Time

by admin Featured Basics, Tech Freedom

Below is the Way to Tech Freedom through Linux

As we begin the journey toward tech freedom with our computers, it is important to take things one step at a time.

Jesus saves and so do we

1) First things first, back up all of your files (docs, music, pictures, videos, etc) to some external media (flash drive, network storage, external hard drive/ssd).

2) Then, research about distributions (distros) and display environments (DE)/ window managers (WM) to see which ones strike you as workable for you, Linux is all about variety and making your computer work for you.

Quick suggestions:
Most distros have multiple DEs.
The DE is what you really interact with, and many can look either very similar to either windows or MacOS by default. Some are more easily customized than others, and some may overwhelm you with that (here’s looking at you, KDE), and others are becoming less and less tweakable (hey there, GNOME). Others are forks of one of these two (Cinnamon and Pantheon are both forks of GNOME that go in opposite directions).

There are 4 main families of distros: Debian/Ubuntu based (Mint, any spin of Ubuntu, Pop!OS, DraugerOS, Elementary, ZorinOS, etc), Arch (Manjaro, Vanilla Arch, Garuda, etc), RHEL (Red Hat, Fedora, Silver blue), and SUSE (OpenSUSE [desktop], and enterprise). There are others, many, many others. Don’t get overwhelmed. Talk to me, my brother, Lone Ranger, or Dale Gribble for help sorting it all out.

3) take your pick, or maybe 2 or 3, and download them to your computer.

4) Then download

Balena Etcher

insert a blank >8 GB flash drive or SD card, and install or open the program you selected, and flash the distro and DE of your choice.

5) reboot your machine.

5a) in win 10+, hold the shift key as you click reboot, to bring up the system restore menu, then click “Boot from device” and select the media you just flashed and hit OK.

5a1) if in an older version of windows, reboot and enter either the boot selection menu (ESC or F1, usually, as it initially powers back on) or the bios setup utility (F8-F12, depending on the system manufacturer). And go to boot options, then select the first option and change it to boot from USB. Save & exit. Reboot.

5b) if on Mac, reboot, then as it power cycles, hold the option key and select your USB (will have the USB logo on it, and should be orange)

6) Boot with proprietary drivers, just in case

7) explore the live environment to see if it is good for you. The live environment will give you a pretty clear picture if your hardware will work out of the box, and whether your combination of DE/WM and Distro will work for you.

8) if it isn’t, reboot, unplug the flash drive, and go back to Windows, as you haven’t made any changes to your system yet, then repeat steps 4-7 until you are happy with what you see in the live environment, then

9) double click install or run installer on the desktop.

9a) if you don’t have any apps or programs on windows that won’t work in Linux, or can’t be replaced with FOSS, then you’re likely to need to dual boot. I will post a separate guide on that later.

9b) if that is not the case, then you can just install it over the top of windows and wipe that sucker out. 😉

Once it finishes, you will be prompted to restart the computer, and as it shuts down, it should tell you to remove the flash drive, so that it can boot from your hard drive/ SSD. If it boots, this leg of your journey is a success.

When this is complete, your computer will have tech freedom, but what about your mobile device(s) and the rest of your digital life?

Why Should I Bother?

by admin Featured Basics, Degoogle, Live Free, Tech Freedom

So, last time I mentioned that is is actually easy to do this. This time, I’ll be making the case as to why you should do it. Tech freedom (the concept, not the company) is the cornerstone of personal freedom, moving forward. Why do I say that? Look at the power to silence people Big Tech has… Twitter and Facebook can delete and disable your account, even to the point of blocking you from creating another account, but that is only the most extreme thing… the more insidious thing is that they operate algorithms to sort what they believe you should see and know. I’m sure that you have heard about Donald Trump and many of his supporters being de-platformed on Twitter and Facebook services in early 2021. This could happen to you, if you persist in speaking something contrary to the accepted narrative.

What else can they do? Well, the reality is that they, along with Google, see YOU as the product… YOUR private data and personal attention are the primary commodities that they trade. How does that strike you? Are you ok with constant surveillance just to use a “free” service? Each “free” account connected to the Internet of Things (IoT) is constantly using those devices to track your movements, conversations (they claim that they don’t record these, but how do we KNOW?), and internet activities. Is this what you signed up for? Well, technically, yes, you did, when you agreed to the End User License Agreement (EULA… that thing that everyone agrees to, but almost no one ever reads) upon account creation. That goes for Facebook, Twitter, Google (Gmail, Docs, Calendar, Youtube, Nest “smart” thermostats, and Search are all tied to this), and Amazon (Fire tablets, mobile apps, Prime membership, Alexa, Dot & Echo).

That’s only the web sites and services that we all use to some extent, set to spy on us from the get-go. We want to trust our devices, right? We want to believe that Android, iOS, iPadOS, MacOS, and Windows are all benign, right? You can probably guess that I am about to give a resounding, “No!” Aren’t you? Well, that is the theme, isn’t it? Big Tech = EVIL. Not saying that ALL tech is evil, not in the least, but the alternatives to these platforms, services, and Operating Systems are something that we ALL should look into at the least. What about these OSes? They all have elements that track you, and or keep you tied into what they approve of in terms of applications. Apple’s offerings are the most obtrusive and closed-off of the bunch, but as I said ALL of them have elements that “phone home” so to speak, and report on usage, possible errors or crashes encountered, and who knows what else; this is called “Telemetry” and they all claim that it is essentially anonymous, but again, how do we know, with their closed-systems? I could go on and on, but don’t want to completely bore you to tears. If this has you clutching your pearls and you can’t handle the thought of figuring this all out yourself, check out my Freedom Consultation.

Come on in, We’re talking about Tech Freedom

by admin Featured Basics, Tech Freedom, Welcome

Speaking Of Tech Freedom, Welcome.

Whether you found me because you are tired of Big Tech, and my site popped up in a search, or however you found me, Welcome! Most of my posts here will also be shared on my Telegram channel. But for those that aren’t, and for those who are not yet on Telegram, thank you for coming by and reading my content on Tech, Freedom, and other tidbits that occur to me. The truth is that there is a thriving community of people who are like-minded and would love to help you get free from Facebook, Twitter, and Google… not to mention Microsoft and Apple.

Let me start with a few basics:

Most devices can be released from the clutches of the Big Tech overlords… the only ones that can’t, for sure, are iPhones.

Most Macs, iPads, many Android devices, and All PCs can be set free.

The next thing is to make the decision to change your habits: Tiktok, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Search and Suite, and a good chunk of social media makes YOU into the commodity… Your data, your preferences, your desires, your emails… they all get packaged and sold to the highest bidder for that sweet advertising dough. Many of them also have deep ties to the CCP, which really is that bad. If not directly, if you look into who funds the people who operate these “services”, you’ll find 3-letter agencies which may or may not phase you. The way to beat all this is tech freedom, breaking free from their prisons that track & trace & profile us.

By the way, even your operating system (Windows, MacOS, regular Android, or iPad/iPhone OS) all spy on you by sending various data back to their respective head offices, whether Redmond, Cupertino, or Mountain View (the locations of the HQs for each of these companies). They dress it up by calling it something that sounds innocuous: Telemetry. The bottom line is that they see your computers and devices as data mines. These mines are how they gather more and more data on you, to the point where they may know you better than you know yourself. If you want to blow up that mine, then stick around and talk to me about tech freedom.