Hardcore Apple User Goes Decentralized: Welcome
So this is it huh finally saying no to big tech and moving away from Apple a company that has housed my digital life for the past 17 years all the way back to my very first iPhone the original iPhone when I was just 15 years old. — no I wasn't in a rich family I dated a girl who got me one and herself one on a plan which was probably the worst thing to do not because the relationship ended and I had to hand back the device as I didn't legally own it but because it was the start of giving up my digital freedom, if only I could see how restricting Apple was but it wasn't until recently I said to hell with this and started a plan to move away.
I have always been into tech, it's always fascinated me on what it does and how we can modify it I was a big jail-breaker in the early days getting paid apps for free and then making tweaks to the system which was imaginable without it like some iOS features (Cellular Data Control, Delete Individual Calls, Detailed Battery Statistics, Go Back to Previous App, Screen Recording, Signal Bars Instead of Dots, Changing Stock Default Apps.) These are all things that now every iPhone does without the exploits and for most non-tech savvy individuals this is a great thing but also a master play from Apple — giving users the functionality they want, paying big bug bounties and paying exploiters/hackers to come work on iOS instead so they can harden the OS but there is a dark side Apple also achieved.
They market their devices as private but in fact they collect the same amount of data as Google does on android — and other OEMs but instead of selling your data (Google) they (Apple) want to keep all of your data for themselves mostly but will still give device data to ad trackers unless you install something like 1Blocker but you're not here for that I'm going to lay out the foundations of what Apple products and services I had, what I'm moving to both hardware and software and the struggles I have (or maybe ease) along the way. This was going to be a weekly series but it might be just monthly for as long as it takes but maybe a full year I don't know, this is my first time blogging so let me know via email or the posts on my social media on Mastodon as I'm only on there for social media on the Fosstodon instance what you would like to see along with any questions you may have.
The Outline
This is what I will be covering during this series.
- Apple devices I have and services I rely on. > What hardware and software I moved to.
- Migration of services. Initial set-up and struggles I have and how I solved them. — there may be individual blog posts on each service or ones that I have more struggles with.
- Compatibility issues with an apple user. — my partner insists she will always be an iPhone user and locked-in to the ecosystem.
The Hardware
For someone who was an Apple user for so long I never really upgraded my tech on a yearly or bi-yearly basis, if I needed an upgrade I upgraded others have been known to upgrade often but I have always been a big believer of "if it ain't broke why fix it." so here is a below of my upgrade paths and finally what I moved to.
iPhone > iPhone 3Gs > iPhone 6 Plus > iPhone 8 Plus > iPhone XS Max > iPhone 14 (Product RED) > Google Pixel 9a with GrapheneOS installed (no Google services installed)
Apple Watch > Apple Watch 3 > Apple Watch 6 > Apple Watch 9 > Apple Watch Ultra > Garmin Instinct® Solar – Tactical has stealth mode so blocks all radios (GPS, cellular, bluetooth) and not connected to my phone at all.
Macbook Air 15" > Lenovo LOQ Essential 15.6" FHD 144Hz Gaming Laptop (Intel Core i5)[GeForce RTX 3050] with linux installed (pop!_OS)
AirPods (1st gen) > AirPods (3rd gen) > AirPods Pro 2 > Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen)
AppleTV (1st gen) > AppleTV (3rd gen) > AppleTV 4K > Kogan Atlas H100 Core i5 Mini PC with No OS (8GB, 512GB)
iPad (1st gen) > iPad (4th gen) > iPad (8th gen) > iPad (11th gen) > No device. — device defunct.
The Software | Subscriptions
Now this is where I'm going to be a little shady with you all. As a big believer in privacy and security I don't think it's a good idea to say what some of the services I use are, maybe that's just me being too paranoid as I'm sure the whois lookup probably says the DNS/MX records for mail providers but anyway what I will do here is give options (including the one I use) that are good to move too that are more private and secure than the Apple alternative.
iCloud (storage): Filen, Internxt, Mega, Proton — services have a zero knowledge architecture meaning they can't see, copy or distribute your data but remember if it's not stored locally it's on someone else's machine so don't ever store data you don't want others to get a hold of.
iCloud (email): Mailbox, Mailfence, Protonmail, Posteo, Tuta — just remember email was never designed to be a private and secure method of communication. This is just so your infomation can't be sold off or used to target ads to you.
iCloud (keychain-passwords): 1 Password, Bitwarden, Dashlane, Proton — unless you self host or keep offline be careful what you save remember ultimate security means if it's in the cloud it can be compromised.
iMessage: Signal — should be the default for most people but unfortunately people mainly stick to the defaults or move to Meta's fork of signal which isn't secure WhatsApp ironically my work uses it which I refuse to on my personal devices with no tracking. If I wanted tracking I would've just stuck with stock pixel android from Google.
AirDrop: no service. — service defunct. No need for it.
Universal Clipboard: no service. — service defunct. No need for it.
Find My: no service. — service defunct due to privacy reasons.
Apple Photos: cloud storage (see above)
Apple Podcasts: AntennaPod
Apple Notes: Obsidian — markdown notes stored locally which I manually sync across devices.
Apple Books: no service. — service defunct. No need for it I buy paperback.
The next post in the series will go over the hardware side of things how it was switching to said devices, the method or how I switched and the issues or problems I have with the new devices. If you like this series you can subscribe if you wish to get content straight away or follow me on Mastodon to know when I post another of the series. More information about me can be found on my website. Thanks for reading!
Last updated 2026-01-10