Sovereignity

The development of global and especially US politics in the last decade made it clear that Europe must become more sovereign and independent from the US. And the same applies to everybody in the world regarding big tech.

This here should be some kind of dashboard to reflect my current efforts and challenges. Maybe this inspires you to replace some technology with a better one.

But beware: this conflict is not a personal one. Politics need to act and implement ntives to drive change. That beign said, take all this with a grain of salt, but maybe this might help you, too.

Apple

I still own an iPhone and Mac. I will continue using these as long they still fit my use cases.

• AppleTV: still streaming.
• iCloud: canceled subscription. Self-hosted NextCloud for files and Immich for photos.
• Apple Music: canceled subscription. Moved to Spotify long ago.
• macOS: proud Linux user at work. arch btw
• Mail/Calendar: switched to Proton. There are other great alternatives.

Cloudflare

This is a tough one for sure. Due to the architecture of my homelab and the fact that I do not get a public IPv4 address, I use Cloudflare Tunnel to expose my services to the internet. That paired with DDoS protection and great firewall capabilities (looking at you Facebook) switching away from it currently does not make sense for me. Nonetheless I stop using more services.

• S3: self-hosted Garage.

GitHub

Let’s be honest GitHub under Microsoft kind of sucks with all their bugs and AI stuff. Sadly there is no realistic way to get rid of it entirely. I depend on it at work and privately.

Here is what I’ve done so far:

• Self-host Forgejo at code.knabel.dev.
• I moved nearly all my repositories there. Including private and public ones. Only a few that cannot be moved remain.
• I have a local CI/CD runner that is GitHub Action compatible.
• GitHub Pages: still using. Going to move to self-host using Garage as well.

Google

• Search: I switched to Ecosia long ago. Seems less of a harm for the environment, is German and does not track me. Win-win.
• Drive: Self-hosted NextCloud.
• Photos: Self-hosted Immich.
• Mail/Calendar: switched to Proton. There are other great alternatives.
• Youtube: account deleted. Still watching there, but more and more videos are available on Spotify.
• Account: deleted.

Netlify

Currently I still host zirric.knabel.dev there, but I am going to move it to self-hosting with Garage as well.

Microsoft

Besides GitHub, I still own an Xbox.

• Xbox: buy Games second hand or hard copies.
• Mail/Calendar: switched to Proton. There are other great alternatives.
• VSCode: switched to Helix.
• VSCode Marketplace: can’t delete account yet to keep extensions up.

Social Media

Depending on the person, this might be easy or straigt up impossible.

• WhatsApp: hard to get around this in Germany. I switched for most chats to Signal. A few group chats sadly cannot be moved.
• Twitter / X: account deleted. Move to Mastodon.
• Instagram: account deleted.
• Reddit: account deleted.
• Youtube: account deleted. Still watching there, but more and more videos are available on Spotify.

1Password / Password Manager

After long years of using it, I just wasn’t happy or comfortable anymore. Switched to self-hosting Vaultwarden.