You have likely already heard of Digital Independence Day, an initiative that aims to highlight democracy-friendly digital alternatives to massive American monopolies on the first Sunday of every month. Fundamentally, however, it is about breaking free from dependencies and regaining ownership of your own data. While this is particularly relevant for government bodies and businesses—where a single oligarch could ruin a company overnight by shutting down its email, cloud services, or infrastructure—it is also something every individual should reflect on. What if Meta were to lock your accounts, leaving you suddenly unable to use Facebook, Instagram, Threads, or WhatsApp? This applies to every aspect of our digital lives, regardless of the hardware and software that make things easier for us: Apple (iPhone, iCloud), Google (Android, Google Drive), Amazon (Kindle, AWS), Microsoft (Windows, OneDrive)—and those are just the most obvious examples. The list is far longer than you might think, and the range of applications offered by each of these companies is alarmingly extensive. It is far too vast a topic for a single blog post; entire books could be written about it.
This is because almost everyone—at least anyone who uses a PC—is dependent on Microsoft, and recent history offers several examples that illustrate this well. For instance, after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US President Donald Trump imposed sanctions on the Hague-based court. Subsequently, Microsoft blocked the email account of ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan. When Microsoft blocks accounts, people can no longer log in to their own PCs—provided those PCs are linked to the affected account. Often, a single photo in a OneDrive folder is enough to trigger this.
Replacing individual applications is actually quite simple. The problem is usually not a lack of alternatives, but rather habit. We tend to avoid change whenever possible—despite the fact that humans are generally reputed to possess a great deal of curiosity. However, that curiosity applies primarily to new, unfamiliar things, and rarely to altering established routines. We are particularly adept at formulating reasons—or excuses—that serve only to silence our inner voice, even though we know deep down that all it takes is that first step. Microsoft is highly innovative when it comes to locking us into its ecosystem. While replacing a single tool for video conferencing, video calling, and chat (Microsoft Teams) or a personal information manager (PIM) and email client (Microsoft Outlook) might not be a major undertaking, the company bundles these into an all-in-one cloud solution, thereby tying them to a Microsoft account. Not only is it more complicated to replace such a suite of tools, but Microsoft also makes it harder to extract one’s own data from the system.
If we are going to tackle the task of breaking free from the stranglehold of the Redmond-based corporation, we should do it properly—because the operating system (Windows) is the real gatekeeper. With every update, Microsoft tries to make it harder to sign in with a local account or tricks us into converting our existing local account into a Microsoft account. Advertising is finding its way onto our computers; we are being spied on and "treated" to unsolicited software that is often difficult to remove.
Replacing the operating system is, of course, a challenge. I would recommend starting with a dual-boot setup, which allows you to choose whether to launch Windows or the new operating system when you start your PC or laptop. But what should this new operating system be?
The goal is independence, so Apple (macOS) and Google (ChromeOS) are immediately ruled out. There are still a few options, but logically, the choice will be a Linux distribution. But which one? How does one choose from the multitude of existing Linux distributions? Even the basic "flavors" (SUSE, Slackware, Mandriva, Red Hat, Fedora, Gentoo, Ubuntu, Knoppix, Debian, and Arch) are overwhelming for the layperson, and there are hundreds more built upon them. Let’s consider the average Windows user—someone who typically had no idea how their operating system actually worked. The system should be easy to use—ideally similar to the familiar Windows environment—and stable during both operation and updates. A large user base would also be helpful, increasing the chances of finding help online when troubleshooting. Next, of course, the intended use of the machine matters. What will run on it, and which functionalities should be prioritized?
For a dedicated "gaming console," SteamOS is certainly a good choice. If other applications are added to the mix, CachyOS is a viable option. However, I’m not entirely comfortable with either of these. Won't the machine end up back on my desk the moment an error message pops up? After all, they are Arch derivatives! Then there is the other extreme: Debian? Or something more up-to-date, like Ubuntu? Pop!_OS offers excellent graphics card support, while Zorin OS allows the desktop layout to be customized to resemble macOS or Windows. Ubuntu itself, or perhaps Linux Mint?
A few months ago, my recommendation would have unequivocally been Linux Mint. Based on Ubuntu LTS (Long Term Support), it was a safe bet. Recently, however, Canonical (the sponsor of Ubuntu) has made some decisions that give me pause, as they will sooner or later impact derivative distributions as well. To counter this dependency, the Linux Mint project has launched the Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE). This is a factor that needs to be weighed up. LMDE (Download) is the safer alternative, whereas the Ubuntu-based Mint (Download) provides certain tools that are missing in Debian. Today, I would certainly switch a family member's office PC to LMDE, while my own laptop still boots into Ubuntu-based Mint in a dual-boot setup. I plan to publish a separate post on the dual-boot installation; this will serve as a step-by-step guide to help even less tech-savvy Windows users perform the installation.
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