Microsoft wants to know everything about you like all big tech companies and link it to your personal identity hence the mandatory microsoft account. They have one goal, to make as much money as possible. No ethics.
Linux is open source, built by the people for the people. Their goal is to protect and respect you as an individual. Sure there are a few nefarious actors out there but from my experience thus far, very rare. If you are looking for digital sovereignty and are moving from windows and want a good solid support community to help fix any odd issues you come across, linux mint is definitely a good choice.
Could you re-iterate you last question, I don’t quite understand. I have become aware that by using big tech feeds they are mentally destructive to most, especially the vulnerable. They know it hurts mental health, destroys lives and ultimately makes people miserable. But it turns a profit, and that is all they care about. The occasional fine is nothing to them.
As for myself, personally. Being more aware of this I am making changes, taking the time and effort to do my own research. Improving my research methods. Everything I have learnt about privacy and big tech, moving to linux, managing the different systems involved in this I have not been social and asked for help. I did it all off my own back, sought out the information from scratch.
This is not a “look at me” moment, rather I struggle deeply with social situations, even online. Joining this community is a change for me. I am challenging myself at this point in my life. I need to. I’ve found a place that appears to be aligned with my way of thinking. This community never even asked for an email, I consider that a bold statement sending a clear message about what this place stands for. I feel I could be comfortable here.
I’m not sure if that answers your question hence the request to reiterate but I think it is along the lines of it.
If you want digital sovereignty, linux is the place to go. I think the process helps to learn more about it and why you would really want it.
Out of curiosity, what has delayed your migration? Is it the effort, the lack of perceived need, not knowing where to start? Just wondering.
I’m not completely against it. I do recognise its threats to privacy, the planet, and intellect though. The average person trusts it too much.
Personally, I do not use it that much. I do however use it to help with research. I find being able to ask a question quite useful as a jumping off point for further research. I do not rely on it to answer correctly, simply to aid in pointing me in the right direction. Then I go off and do more specific research.
I have been moving from windows 10 to linux mint recently, it was quite useful in aiding with this at times. Not all the time, just at the right times. If there were a particular issue I was struggling with it could help point me in the right direction, though I would not trust it to simply spit out the right advise and commands to type to fix an issue without researching exactly what those commands did, how that would potentially help fix the issue and how to revert if it messed something up. I have seen many examples where the advise it gave was terrible and potentially destructive because I researched the advise it gave, had I of not it would have really messed things up. It must be used responsibly.
People are all to quick to talk into their phones, get a response and trust it to be all knowing. Their queries are forever recorded and logged to their personal identity without and option to opt out. I use privacy orientated search engines with ai functionality such as duckduckgo and ecosia. Ecosia makes it very easy to verify the sources of information given from their ai, also they put in efforts to be as green as possible. Very respectable.
So no, I am not against ai. I am against the usual way in which the average person uses it and the way the majority of companies are using it to exploit people and the planet to turn a profit.