My way of rebelling against techbros and autocrats:

[_elena@mastodon.social]

My way of rebelling against techbros and autocrats:

December 2024: quit all Big Tech platforms and start #selfhosting essential services

December 2025: write guides for newbies about how to self-host

I'm also in discussion with a blogger I admire to start a podcast about tech... where we'll focus on solutions (instead of problems)... aiming to inspire others to join in...

It's been a really heavy year but these little acts of rebellion give me hope ✨

[andycarolan@social.lol]

@_elena I would love to move from a lot of the big tech services that I use.

The likes of Adobe CC, Webflow and Intuit are destroying me with the price increases. But they are all essential for my work.

[_elena@mastodon.social]

@andycarolan every once in a while some creator does a show & tell of tools they adopted as alternatives to Adobe. I know it's super hard to quit it... in my domain, I argue there is no sophisticated alternative to AfterEffects, especially when it comes to the wealth of ready-made templates. I'm lucky I'm basically on a filmmaking hiatus so I don't have to deal with that...

[iloo@mastodon.social]

@_elena Would definetely listen to a podcast like that 🤩

[andycarolan@social.lol]

@_elena I have looked into it on a few occasions, and was close to moving to Affinity. But then Canva bought them.

I remember you saying about AE. It's definitely most people's go-to app for that kind of thing.

Even between just Adobe, Webflow and Quickbooks, I'm paying over £100 a month 😩

[_elena@mastodon.social]

@Iloo thanks! Most people on the Fediverse will already be familiar with privacy and FOSS tools we'll recommend. But we think the podcast could be great for Fedi people's spouses, parents, siblings, cousins and friends who think that adopting these tools is "too hard" or "too time consuming".

Oh and the cherry on top is that we plan to use @Castopod for it 🤗

[_elena@mastodon.social]

@andycarolan £100 a month for these three?!?! OMGGGGGGGGG 😱

This is precisely why I switched to Pixelmator Pro for graphics and DaVinci Resolve for video editing.

These prices are extortionate!!!

[sturmsucht@mastodon.social]

@_elena oh, count me in!

[francoisprague@mastodon.social]

@_elena looking forward to these podcasts about self hosting…

[elopup@mastodon.social]

@_elena

Great idea 🙌🏻 !

I think a podcast could reach even more ppl, who rather listen to podcasts than reading longer blogs. Maybe even with guests sometimes 🤷🏻?

With your projects you’re not just giving yourself hope, but also others 😊 🚀

[amirbkhan@mastodon.social]

@_elena your departure from big tech and embrace of open source and foss mirrors my own personal journey also in timeline!

I’ve been a planting the seeds to get my professional livelihood from ethical tech consulting so that’s my primary focus for the 1st quarter of the year. Then alongside I’ll continue with my mission of raising aeoand helping regular people untangle themselves from big tech.

[amirbkhan@mastodon.social]

@_elena @Iloo @Castopod
This is a target audience that certainly needs the help and guidance.
I’m doing that for my family, in-laws, parents, friends and neighbours.
Will certainly tune them to such a podcast if I will provide non techies the tool, tips, insights and most importantly the courage to take the first steps themselves or purchase managed services from ethical providers.

[thecyberwitch@mastodon.social]

@_elena yep the cost and knowledge makes FOSS and self-hosting feel inaccessible to most. In the long run it definitely saves much more, but anything to make it feel like less of a hurdle to friends and family.

I say start with having them practice booting to USB and VMs, dip their toes in and build their confidence.

[snakeoilsalesman@mastodon.social]

@_elena its so fun switching off these mega-corp platforms and apps. you realize you don't actually need most of them at all.