Join us as we explore a real-world experiment: living for a month largely without American tech giants, relying instead on European and open-source digital alternatives. We used a German Tuxedo laptop running Tuxedo OS (a German Linux distribution optimized for the hardware) and a Dutch Fairphone 5 with mostly French /e/OS (a de-Googled, privacy-focused Android fork). Discover how essential services like cloud storage (Nextcloud), email (Proton Mail), search (Ecosia), and messaging (Signal, Threema, Wire, Matrix) were replaced by European options known for their focus on privacy, GDPR compliance, and sustainability. While the experiment showed that this is quite feasible today, it also revealed challenges like a learning curve, some apps feeling basic, the responsibility of self-hosting, and compatibility issues with certain third-party apps. Despite requiring effort and involving trade-offs, the experiment proves the viability of alternatives reflecting European values. Nordic-Baltic Alternatives to Big Tech: A Practical Guide - The Northern Voices
