Are you sick of Google? Are you sick of relying on a platform which can ban you for silly reasons (Dumb AI algorithm, perhaps? Maybe you broke the ToS without actually breaking it)? Are you sick of targeted advertising, AI, and the same handful of websites (Facebook, TikTok, Reddit, X, YouTube, etc.)? Well... There is an alternative way to not only use the internet, but use your computer in general!
We all know Windows, and MacOS. Maybe also ChromeOS. But have you ever heard of GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, HaikuOS, KolibriOS, etc.? Okay, you don't have to know all these alternative operating systems, but Linux is by far the most popular alternative operating system to Windows and MacOS (We don't talk about ChromeOS, lol). Windows has been on a decline as an operating system for a long while now. The adverts, the AI being stuffed in your face, the slowness... It's so annoying having an operating system which actively fights the user. Windows 11 requires every computer to have a TPM module, which not all computers have. Even if your specs are decent, you will not be able to run Windows 11 if your computer doesn't have a TPM module. That means millions of perfectly-functioning computers will end up on landfills when support for Windows 10 ends. Casual computer users just don't know any better. Those computers are actually perfectly fine, but Microsoft gaslights its users into thinking they need to "upgrade" their computers. Linux changes all this. Whilst Microsoft makes bold claims about being eco-friendly, Linux actually walks the talk. Linux can breathe new life into old hardware that would otherwise have been thrown out. The best Linux distro for beginnners (One of many GNU/Linux flavours) is Linux Mint. This flavour of Linux is aimed at people who are just switching from Windows, and who want something that just works out of the box. Linux is very different in how it does things, though there are many similarities, as with any operating system. With Linux, you escape the spying from big tech, and you gain more privacy. Linux also doesn't get nearly as much malware as Windows does. I personally always felt dirty when using Windows, because I know I'm a prime target for malware, spying, advertising, etc. Linux doesn't have any of this, and doesn't tie your computer to an online account. Windows 11 forces you into making a Microsoft account, and setting up OneDrive cloud storage. With Linux, you just have a local profile for handling elevated actions (Just like Administrator for Windows). And the best part about Linux? It's completely free to download, modify, and redistribute. We call this "FOSS", which we'll tak about more in the next paragraph.
One thing I'm glad I hammered into my lifestyle is avoiding paying for things, and that includes Adobe Creative Cloud. I always found free alternatives for everything, from photo editing software, to even videogames! I don't pay for a single monthly subscription. And that's a great feeling. It will take time to get used to the FOSS ecosystem, but trust me, there are seriously good programs out there. Just because it's free, it doesn't mean it's bad. This is a common myth spread amongst casual computer users. When I talk about "free" software, I am of course talking about free an open source software only! I don't place my trust into free tools which can be turned into paid products at any time.
For the love of our dear lord and saviour, Richard Stallman, I hope you aren't saving your passwords in your web browser. That is arguably less secure than saving your passwords to a plain text file on your desktop! With the rapid rise of info stealer malware today, I cannot stress enough how important it is to take password storage seriously! Whilst online password managers are fine, I highly recommend local password managers instead. A prime example is using KeepassXC. You won't be dependent on some random website to keep your passwords safe. Instead, you are in complete control of your passwords, but that includes your backups! If you aren't comfortable with using a local password manager, then you can use Bitwarden. It's an online password manager, but it's vastly safer than saving your passwords in your web browser. Passwords saved in your web browser aren't even properly encrypted, so hackers can easily crack these files to harvest your passwords. To learn more about personal cybersecurity, visit this blog post I made on 8 March, 2025.
Google Chrome is one of the worst browsers to use in terms of privacy. The Google search engine is also bad. To have better privacy, use a Firefox-based browser, like Librewolf instead. As for search engines, I find Startpage to be the closest thing to Google. There are others, such as DuckDuckGo, Metager, SearXNG, Swisscows, etc., but these are severely lacking in quality search results, and they tend to even suggest fake websites, which Google and Startpage doesn't do. There are seriously many more search engines out there for you to try, each giving a different experience. Wiby.me is a good example of a super-niche search engine, with its own indexing. All this talk about internet browsing brings me to the next heading...
We are all familiar with "http://" and "https://", but did you know there are other protocols as well? In the 90s, there was a competing web protocol called "gopher://". Yes, that's true. There was a protocol outside of "http://" in the 90s. Now "gopher://" is just as insecure as "http://", but we do have an alternative for "https://" today, called "gemini://", which was released in 2019. No, no... I'm not talking about the LLM from Google. This protocol secures your connection between you and the website, just like how "https://" does. Instead of calling these pages "websites", you call them "capsules" instead. With "gopher://", you call them "gopher holes" (Like the animal). Now this isn't necessary for detoxing from the modern web, but it sure opens some doors to alternative exeriences! Please note that most normal browsers can't access these pages, because they don't support "gopher://", or "gemini://". You will have to download a specialized browsr for accessing these pages. If you are using Linux, a good terminal-based web browser would be "Amfora". For a GUI app, you can use "Lagrange". If you still want to browse "https://" websites for surfing the indie web, then look at Neocities.org, or Nekoweb.org. Trust me, you won't be disappointed. These two platforms keep Web 1.0 alive, and serve as an escape from the modern web we use today (Web 2.0). There are many personal websites beyond these two mentioned platforms, but you'll have to spend a lot of time trying to find them in Google search results.
If you want to get away from big tech, and especially Google, you will have to find an alternative email provider. You have Protonmail, Tutamail, and much more. You aren't limited to Outlook or Gmail. In fact, you can serve your own domain, however, this is not for everybody (Myself included). There's not much to this paragraph, but yeah, break free from big tech by using other email providers.
Yes, I know, you're trying to get away from Web 2.0, but there are some alternative social media platforms to try out, before you maybe switch permanently to Web 1.0. Mastodon, and Bluesky are the two most popular alternatives to mainstream social media. Mastodon is a decentralized platform, and nobody truly owns Mastodon. It's free and open source.