I don’t think I’ve used any cleaner product since the Windows XP days. I don’t view it as necessary anymore.
One of the other programs to see file size on disk recommended on this thread should be enough.
I would highly recommend O&O ShutUp10++ to reduce built in spying in Windows. It’s good at explaining what each option you’re doing is. The only thing I would caution on is changing the Edge browser policies with O&O. That will lock it down into enterprise mode and you won’t be able to change certain settings through the UI anymore.
Printing in Linux has mostly been plug and play for years now. I just gave it the IP of my printer and it automagically set everything up. Scanning was a bit of a bitch.
CUPS is dated for sure, but most modern OSes (OpenSuse here) have wrappers around it to make the setup pretty straightforward.
Yes, and my printer was found immediately through the network and the print quality was great. Guess it depends on the brand though, and maybe the distro you’re using.
I’m making a joke about how if he’s ever used printing in Linux, he’s likely a “fool with no brain” as it uses CUPS, which is maintained in large part by Apple.
Anything poisoned by the hand of Elon Musk. I loved Twitter ten years ago... now it's a toy for a vain, self-consumed fool, a stupid child allowed to play with power tools. I deleted my accounts months ago and studiously avoid visiting the site, or any links leading to that site. It fills my mouth with bile just thinking about what it's become.
All of those shitty Big Tech companies including Apple, Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, Oracle and many others, all corporate Social Media platforms (including Reddit of course, fuck Spez), those shitty Hollywood media corporations, CDNs like Cloudflare or Akamai, Tesla and everything related to Elon Musk, Starbucks, basically all fast food chains, every Chinese or Russian company, every Israeli company, The Coca-Cola Company, PepsiCo, Nestle and many others. I also try to stay away from PayPal, banks and insurance companies as much as possible, they are criminals.
We shouldn’t just focus on shitty companies. Foundations like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation are basically tax-exempt billionaire investment funds in disguise. This is a great video about the lies of billionaire philanthropy: https://youtube.com/watch?v=OH4uh8cHuto
Sounds like you’re left with almost no modern conveniences or technology. I don’t mean this disparagingly, but I am curious how you live your life and ensure you are truly not using any of these companies or their subsidiaries, or even those shitlist companies if they are a white box supplier of someone else not on your list. Or even if a mom and pop shop down the street is using technologies, software, or appliances from one of these companies to run their local business…
Doesn’t seem possible in reality. Or at the very least seems like a full time job that would get really futile after a while.
As someone who attempts to do the same, you’re right, it’s not possible to completely avoid doing business with these companies. But, I still make an effort to avoid them, I won’t give up and start buying directly from Amazon’s site, just because I can’t avoid them 100%. Nothing is black and white, we all live in the gray zones.
Sounds like you’re left with almost no modern conveniences or technology.
You are right, I forgot one exception. I do use a Google Phone because these have the best support for alternative operating systems. I replaced the Stock Android which is filled with Google spyware with GrapheneOS, an entirely open-source version of Android which makes many privacy and security improvements and gets rid of any Google services. Watch this video to learn more about it: piped.smnz.de/watch?v=yTeAFoQnQPo
On my laptops/computers, I exclusively use Linux. I refuse to touch any bloated, ad- and spyware-infested Windows computer. Yes, even at work. As a DevSecOps and Senior Linux engineer, I am free to choose whatever operating system I want. Free and open-source software is the way to go.
I use Firefox (LibreWolf, a better version of Firefox to be percise) with DuckDuckGo as my search engine, I watch YouTube videos through Piped, I use Signal as my messenger, I use Proton for Email, I self-host Nextcloud for my files, contacts, calenders, etc.
For entertainment, I simply pirate the content which gives me much more freedom compared to shitty streaming services like Netflix. That way, I also don’t have to give these shitty corporations any money. I use the open-source Jellyfin media server to consume content from my media library. I do the same thing using Navidrome for my music.
Regarding Social Media, Lemmy is probably the only thing I use. I don’t need Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or TikTok.
And the list goes on and on. I could write an entire book about avoiding proprietary software and shitty corporations.
ensure you are truly not using any of these companies or their subsidiaries
I do everything in my control to avoid it. I can’t 100% guarantee it, but that’s also not my goal. Not giving them my money or my data is enough for me.
Or even if a mom and pop shop down the street is using technologies, software, or appliances from one of these companies to run their local business…
EA, Ubisoft and Blizzard are kind of on my soft-blacklist, if that counts. My greylist, I guess you could say. I can’t say 100% I’ll not give them money in future, but I don’t want to. And they make it so easy to boycott them because they aren’t making anything I give a shit about.
Carl’s Jr. because of that awful sexualized man campaign. Awful ad campaigns also for Dove, Axe, Jimmy John’s and Jersey Mike’s. I’m sure there are others I’m not remembering at the moment.
Burger King and Chili’s because of cavalier attitudes towards food poisoning.
McD’s, Twitter, Susan G. Komen, commercialized fundraising of any kind, and Reddit for obvious reasons.
Lots of games I won’t play and apps I won’t download because of their ads.
I remember CCleaner being good. But that was a long time ago. Looking at the site now, I feel like I wandered into a Tel Sell advertisement.
I was gonna ask you what made CCleaner bad before I took a look at the sites. But CCleaner literally sells you privacy as a pro feature, whereas BleachBit puts privacy in the second sentence as a core aspect of the tool.
Apple. Vendor lock-in and anti-competitive practice. I’d boycott Google too but at the time of writing I can’t dump the mail for example.
Tesla, until they sign an agreement with the Unions in Sweden. I’m voting right, I’m not a member of an union, but if you want to do business here you follow our culture and norms.
I can show/help you how to self host for about $6/month + $10-15/year, if you’re interested. Could be cheaper if you’re willing to bet on a less reliable cloud provider.
If you’re looking for an alternative to Gmail, may I suggest Port87, which will also organize your email automatically. I created it because of how terrible my experience with Gmail was.
Back when they implemented Real ID and forced people to provide real namr and identification for playing the games they paid for, these motherfuckers locked me out of my account for account sharing because someone logged in from another country. That was me, logging in for my lunch break at work, about 1 hour away from home. They demanded I not only gave them my real name, but even send a copy of my passport to them by email. Obviously I refused. I had the original box and the game code, but they didn’t care. There were no other fraud indicators. Just me logging in from work and using a pseudonym. I never got any of my games back. Fuck them
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