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This was a great read! I think allowing aws/gcp hosted sites/apps and then also allowing apple would make this reasonably achievable for the average person. Apple is a tech giant, but they are very far from a monopoly. Allowing microsoft and google hosting might be a necessary evil at this point - too many valuable services rely on them.

That being said I would love to read this same article written by an average joe and not a wealthy san francisco techie. SF/Cali often forgets how the rest of the country/world lives - most of us don't casually get airbnbs, use encrypted chat apps, send large files, or chat with 5+ experts. Her <5 year old daughter has been on twice as many flights as I have.

Yeah, I liked this piece too.

It's a bit of an overreaction to block AWS and GCP, since in those cases google and amazon are not actively tracking you and you're blocking core infrastructure.

>since in those cases google and amazon are not actively tracking you

For now :-)

That being said I would love to read this same article written by an average joe

I assumed that it was written by your "average Joe", given the difficulty with sending a large file. The user is on a Linux laptop, and none of the half dozen ways to pull that off come to mind? Okay, fair enough, some people's necks can't even grow a beard. But if you're saying that's not the case, I'm a little disappointed in the author.

It was interesting however that it showed how centralized things have gotten. It shouldn't be so hard to disconnect from a mere 5 companies!

Edit: AWS in particular was interesting because it shows how much infrastructure has come under such centralized control.

ive basically done this, myself some time ago. quite a few places on the web are cut off but i make do fine without them. the problem with AWS is the infiltration into the backbone that has been progressing. the whole cloud thing was exactly what i did not want to participate in, it was just 3rd party hosting in a fancy zoot suit looking me right in the face. ive been selfhosting for sometime, and had little need for a machine in the middle except to make normal hops from node to node. i guess ya could call it fossil net, its the way ive done it since the 70's and its never given me any grief.

there is this on github:

https://github.com/GMG-Special-Projects-Desk/GoodbyeBigFive

found in the middle of this article :

https://gizmodo.com/want-to-really-block-the-tech-giants-her...

I did this on my mobile devices originally just to block Facebook, but when it ended up showing me how pervasive and obsessive the attention grabs were, I tried it for others.

It's kind of amazing how much better an experience surfing the web is without them, from load times to quality of content. Highly recommended.