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The Best Big Tech Replacements of 2021

Big Tech spies on you. Big Tech manipulates you. Big Tech treats you like a product instead of like a human being.

Let's face it... Big Tech sucks.

What follows are my current recommendations -- as for June, 2021 -- for replacing some of the most prominent Big Tech services and software platforms.

Note: I know there are others. These are the ones I recommend. And I recommend each for their own, individual reasons. Feel free to disagree with my list. That's your freedom.

YouTube Replacement

There are a few "YouTube Alternative" video sharing platforms out there. Some have good qualities. But only one of them hits all the right marks for me: Odysee.

Odysee is built on top of the LBRY network. And LBRY, itself, is a blockchain-y, Crypto-y, uncensor-y platform for sharing all sorts of content. Videos, blogs, images, and the like.

I publish nearly all of my content to Odysee (and, hence, LBRY) and it works like a charm. Lots of open source. Doesn't treat users like cattle. Can't go wrong.

GMail Replacement

Lots of email services out there. The one I have enjoyed using the most is, without question, Kolab Now.

It's a paid email service. Doesn't advertise to you or sell your data. Built on open source parts. Easy to back up and self-host (if you should want to).

I find paying a small fee for a high quality email service that doesn't spy on me to be well worth it.

Google Search Replacement

My current favorite search engine is Startpage. With DuckDuckGo right behind it.

But I'm also hearing great things about the upcoming Brave Search. Once that gets out of Beta I'm eager to see how well it'll work for me as my primary search engine.

Twitter / Facebook Replacement

Sure, you can replace Facebook or Twitter with an open, federated system like Mastodon (and "The Fediverse" )... but... why? It's almost as bad. Worse in some ways.

I say nuke the entire idea of a network like Twitter from orbit. We, as humans, were not meant to communicate with 5 Million strangers -- with 99.9999% not knowing or caring who you are -- at all times. It just doesn't work.

If you need a social network -- and there's nothing wrong with that -- I recommend smaller, focused groups. Locals-based social networks are the way to go.

Patreon Replacement

Patreon has some funky policies. And they've censored some people in seriously uncool ways. But the core idea is a good one: subscribe to and support independent creators. Podcasts, authors, artists, developers. This is good stuff! If only Patreon weren't so stinkin' yucky.

Locals. Locals is the way to go here, too. Lots of community options, no crazy censorship.

Dropbox / Google Drive Replacement

Dropbox. Google Drive. Microsoft One Driveinator (or whatever it's called). And there's Apple's thing. Used to be called iDrive (part of their .Mac / iTools suite).

Anyway, all of them are owned by Big Tech and have funky policies.

If you have data to store, you deserve to have control over that data. Keep away prying eyes... and make you responsible for, well, your own stuff.

Nextcloud -- preferably self-hosted -- is the way to go. Though there are some great Nextcloud hosting options out there as well. While those don't give you as much control as self-hosting... they're also a lot easier. And, honestly, are wildly more powerful and private than the Big Tech online storage options.

Microsoft Office Replacement

Don't use Microsoft Office. I used to work on Microsoft Office. And, let me tell ya, it's not what it used to be.

Need spreadsheets and presentation tools? The answer is simple.

LibreOffice. Just use LibreOffice.

Windows / MacOS Replacement

Looking to replace Windows or macOS? If you'd asked me two years ago, I would have said "Use Linux."

Nowadays? In 2021? There are some concerns there.

But Linux is still a better way to go. Regardless of which Linux distribution you choose. Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch, PCLinuxOS... all great.

I replaced all of those! Now what?

Rejoice! Pat yourself on the back! You are now quite a bit more private, your data quite a bit more secure. There are now less companies treating you like cattle. Your humanity, at least partially, restored!

But aren't there more problematic Big Tech services and whatnot?

You bet! Tons of 'em!

But, think of it like this...

You don't need to eat 100% healthy for every meal... in order to get the benefits of eating a few veggies at dinner.

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The Case for 486 Support in Linux (And Everywhere Else)

Linux is dropping support for 486 CPU's. Heck, I'm still upset about losing support for the 386. We should bring it back. Let me explain why.

More from The Lunduke Journal:
https://lunduke.com/

00:15:23
Rust Coreutil Re-Write Dev Says Project "So Subpar I Don't Even Have Words"

The developers of Rust UUtils, which is now shipping in Ubuntu by default, have realized re-writing battle tested code "full of edge cases" is actually hard.

More from The Lunduke Journal:
https://lunduke.com/

00:17:21
If Memory Safety is The Goal Rust is Not The Solution

Every significant Rust program (GNU Coreutils re-write, System76's Cosmic Desktop, etc.) is filled with "unsafe" code. If being Memory Safe was truly important, Rust is a terrible solution.

More from The Lunduke Journal:
https://lunduke.com/

00:30:14
November 22, 2023
The futility of Ad-Blockers

Ads are filling the entirety of the Web -- websites, podcasts, YouTube videos, etc. -- at an increasing rate. Prices for those ad placements are plummeting. Consumers are desperate to use ad-blockers to make the web palatable. Google (and others) are desperate to break and block ad-blockers. All of which results in... more ads and lower pay for creators.

It's a fascinatingly annoying cycle. And there's only one viable way out of it.

Looking for the Podcast RSS feed or other links? Check here:
https://lunduke.locals.com/post/4619051/lunduke-journal-link-central-tm

Give the gift of The Lunduke Journal:
https://lunduke.locals.com/post/4898317/give-the-gift-of-the-lunduke-journal

The futility of Ad-Blockers
November 21, 2023
openSUSE says "No Lunduke allowed!"

Those in power with openSUSE make it clear they will not allow me anywhere near anything related to the openSUSE project. Ever. For any reason.

Well, that settles that, then! Guess I won't be contributing to openSUSE! 🤣

Looking for the Podcast RSS feed or other links?
https://lunduke.locals.com/post/4619051/lunduke-journal-link-central-tm

Give the gift of The Lunduke Journal:
https://lunduke.locals.com/post/4898317/give-the-gift-of-the-lunduke-journal

openSUSE says "No Lunduke allowed!"
September 13, 2023
"Andreas Kling creator of Serenity OS & Ladybird Web Browser" - Lunduke’s Big Tech Show - September 13th, 2023 - Ep 044

This episode is free for all to enjoy and share.

Be sure to subscribe here at Lunduke.Locals.com to get all shows & articles (including interviews with other amazing nerds).

"Andreas Kling creator of Serenity OS & Ladybird Web Browser" - Lunduke’s Big Tech Show - September 13th, 2023 - Ep 044
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6 hours ago

Interesting things about Ada and Spark...

One member of the Praxis staff has said: "Our defect rate with Spark is at least 10 times, sometimes 100 times lower than those created with other languages."[4]

I bet Iron Oxide never saw that one coming!!

SPARK, which is based on Ada, offers unparalleled safety and security through its design and support for deductive formal verification. You simply can’t write better code.

Oooohhh...I'd have to see it to believe it!! Them's fighting words for Iron Oxide!!!

Absence of Runtime Errors
Run-Time errors include issues traditionally found by automatic checks at run-time and defensive code, such as out-of-bound array access, division by zero, overflow and more. SPARK proves that no run-time errors are possible in your code.

I seriously do not think that the developers of Iron Oxide saw this blurb, otherwise they would get the Spark!

Memory Safety
Through a combination of mitigation of dynamic memory usage, borrow-checking analysis and advanced ...

April 08, 2026

Do you feel boxed in???

Last call for the "Amiga" Lifetime Subscriber Wall. It's almost full!

Holy smokes, that was fast.

The 6th Lunduke Journal Lifetime Subscriber Wall (aka the “Amiga OS 3.1” Wall) was introduced… what… a week ago?

I kid you not, the darn thing is already almost full! I was wildly unprepared for how popular this would be!

There’s enough space left for maybe 5 or 6 more names. Tops. Then I’ve gotta declare “Wall 6 (Amiga) is Full” and start Wall Number 7!

Here’s what all of the Lifetime Subscriber Walls look like (each shown at the end of every Lunduke Journal video):

 

If you want to get onto the Lifetime Subscriber Wall (and have any chance of making it onto the Amiga Wall before it’s full) here’s what you need to do (and do it quickly):

  1. Grab a Lifetime Subscription to The Lunduke Journal (if you don’t already have one).

    1. A Lifetime Sub includes all the standard perks (plus a few) and can be picked up via Locals, Substack, or Bitcoin (whichever you prefer).

  2. Email “bryan at lunduke.com” and let me know how you would like your name displayed (“Joe A.”, “Joseph Arnold”, “JoeyPants”, “SirJJMcManly”, etc.)

It’s first come, first served.

If you’ve already emailed me about being added to the wall, your spot is secured.

For the rest of you: Chop chop. At the current rate, I would be very surprised if the “Amiga Wall” wasn’t full by some time this weekend.

“Lifetime Wall 7” will be unveiled after the final name is added to the Amiga Wall. And, yes, it will be a different (awesome) retro computing platform.

As always, a huge thank you to every subscriber to The Lunduke Journal. Absolutely none of this would be possible without your support.

-Lunduke

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Amiga Lifetime Wall & March Lunduke Journal Stats!

Hello all of you amazing Lunduke Journal subscribers!

With March now behind us, I wanted to give you crazy kids a quick “behind the scenes” look at the stats for The Lunduke Journal. Because Inside Baseball stuff is fun.

The Amiga Wall!

But before we dive into charts and numbers… behold! The brand new 6th Lifetime Subscriber Wall of Shame Awesomeness! The AmigaOS 3.1 Wall!

 

Every Lifetime Subscriber Wall (which I show at the end of each video) is a real screenshot from a different computing platform. Mostly retro. All awesome.

 

If you’d like to see your name listed on the new AmigaOS 3.1 wall, grab a Lifetime Subscription (if you don’t already have one) and toss me an email. I update the walls about once each week with new names.

The last few Lifetime Walls filled up incredibly quickly. So if the Amiga Wall interests you, I wouldn’t wait too long. Hint, hint.

March 2026 Stats

The big news: Total “views” were way, way up in March.

A fair bit beyond what was anticipated. A hair over 19 million during the month.

 

That’s in total, across all platforms. As usual, the audio podcast and X lead the way in terms of total views/listens for shows (by quite a lot).

Interestingly, we saw significant “views” growth on even the smallest platforms in March (Facebook and TikTok).

Free subscribers also took a major jump in March, with the largest one month gains ever (I’m pretty sure, certainly the largest this year or last). Up 7,623 over the month before.

 

Again, new subscribers grew across the board. The biggest gains were seen on X, but all platforms saw a significant bump.

Hard to complain about that!

The top 3 shows for March were all focused on the Age Verification laws:

While those were the top 3… it’s worth noting that the top 10 (and, really, the top 15 or so) shows for the month were all incredibly close in terms of viewership numbers.

As always, a huge thank you to all of The Lunduke Journal subscribers. You make all of this possible.

-Lunduke

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Lifetime Wall Number 6, Plus How to Access MP4s & Forum

A few quick reminders for all of you amazing Lunduke Journal subscribers:

First: If you have any kind of payed subscription (Monthly, Yearly, or Lifetime) there are a bunch of cool perks available to you. MP4 Downloads, PDF eBooks, and access to the Lunduke Journal Forum. All the details on how to gain access to everything is right here.

Enjoy.

Second: At the end of this next week I’ll be unveiling “Lifetime Subscriber Wall of Shame” number Six at the end of all new Lunduke Journal videos.

 

At that same time I will be updating and permanently locking down Walls 1 through 5.

If you are already a Lifetime Subscriber, and would like to be added to the new Wall number 6 (or to one of the couple remaining spots on Walls 4 and 5), email me (bryan at lunduke.com) with how you would like your name to be displayed (full name, first name only, nick name… any way you like).

  1. CRT Linux Pico Wall: Full

  2. DOS Word Wall: Full

  3. Win 3.11 Notepad Wall: Full

  4. MacOS 9 Wall: 2 Spots Left

  5. PalmOS Wall: 1 Spot Left

  6. Mystery Wall: Open

Those final spots on the MacOS and PalmOS Walls are first come first served. The first people to request those spots get them.

Everyone else will roll over into Wall 6. Which is a secret, retro computer platform. You’ll dig it.

If you have already contacted me regarding being added to one of these walls (or changing the way your name is displayed), I’ve already got you on the list for the changes later this next week.

If you don’t already have a Lifetime Subscription, grab one and get yourself on the wall.

It’s pretty sweet.

-Lunduke

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