Chances are, if you've found my site amidst the woes of the shoogle engine (or not! *wink *wink), you're already familiar with the anti-corporative sentiment, the endorsement of small creatives' expression against dehumanizing algorithms and, of course, reinforced privacy. Heck, you might even have a site to call your own!

In all of this, a silent and mature hero arises: Linux.

Personally, I can't say I initially chose Linux specifically to ditch any other mainstream option, but because no other OS met my needs. I've always used Windows 7, simple, stable, uncluttered - the best ground for every software I needed.

Eventually, my studies started to demand working with programs that required windows 10+. I had no other choice, so I dual-booted it just to use when I had to.

At first, everything went smooth, 10 wasn't as visually pleasing as 7, too many edges, no spark, opaque colors - it felt sad but it was functional and rather fast - until the updates attacked. I eventually changed completely to 10, but not long after, around the end of 2024, update after update, even if I went to configure my control over the system, it would simply crash. Blue screen after blue screen.

My struggles were very real, had to reinstall it a couple times only to realize I could not mess with any system setting. That damn thing didn't like it.

After the school year ended, I wasn't obliged to use any of those programs, and the ones I'd still use exist for Linux. Since I had time to experiment, that's when I started to think more about it. By then, I had already heard about its many pros, specially claiming back your ownership over your computer, control over its resources and the possibily to completely tailor it to the best performance possible, a complete ressurection of older machines.

That's when I got down the rabbit hole! Having a soft spot for coding, I fell in love with the terminal-base inputs (optional, of course), that flexibility on accessing everything - even swap file editing is so damn easy! You actually feel that you have a computer on your hands.

I first heard of Arch, which didn't sound very... functional, or rather, felt like a conversation starter to boast how you know how to shape a computer. Fun, but not it. Then I heard of kubuntu, its selling point being customization and most importantly, ubuntu/debian based, which is the distro I was looking for due to its stability and app repository.

One year in, and since my laptop is not the newest around, I noticed how it was consuming many, too many, resources. Some bugs in the installation (my fault, never had messed with linux before lol) but overall stable.

In the end, I decided to change to something even quieter: linux mint. More specifically, Linux Mint Cinnamon, and I have to say, it was my best choice so far. It reminds me of windows 7 in every detail, except that it's actually better!

So, for this first segment, my best advice, if you're looking to preserve your safety/privacy digitally and overall peace of mind: look up linux, study a bit about how its environment works, and then, even if just for trying out, install Mint. It's the most similar to windows, and lighter environment you'll find (based on my experience). Diolinux on youtube (use cc sub) is a great starting point to learn more about this universe.

Now, another reason to my change is a bit more territorial, and developed over time.

I'm EU based, so anything that furthers european independency from foreign influence, the better; but make no mistake, above anything else, this is a stand against monopoly, manipulation, bad actors, tyrants, all the awful things we witness everyday, which seem ever bolder with their questionable impunity. Defending cultural integrity, freedom of identity and sovereignty (to the best of our abilities) is a duty. So, everything from simple products all the way to digital services, search engines, etc. if there is a possibility to choose something where me, as a person, an european person for that matter, isn't a product, that's the way to go.

On that regard, site's like European Alternatives , GoEuropean, as well as projects like OpenWebSearch, EU Search Perspective and EU OSoffer a breath of fresh air on how all it takes to change something is getting your a** out of the shade and show some motivation. As for browsers, Ladybirdlooks promising.

I know I've marked this view as a seemingly eurocentric sentiment, but in truth, wanting sovereignty belongs to everyone, ideally. So open-source it is.

If we cut down their source of revenue, they'll have no other choice but to change (would they?), if they still want to keep a decent userbase. It's not easy, there's a long road ahead, these companies aren't monopolies for nothing, but it's possible. And it starts at home, with the simplest little things.