> DuckDuckGo provides better search results than Google.

DDG is getting better at about the same rate that Google is stuffing new ads and sponsored content into results. It's not a stretch to say that I'm more productive with DDG as my default.

Google is no longer as focused on delivering what I ask for as they were when they weren't a monopoly. Maybe they're still the best, but there have been tons of HN articles recently about biases in Google results.

> where the executive director of the Software Freedom Conservancy admits to having proprietary software embedded inside her body, because that was the only option for a defibrillator. She advocates open-source software, and yet despite her best efforts, she’s a closed-source cyborg!

Ignorance is a bliss, so I'm sure she would have felt better not being aware of the issues.

> She advocates open-source software, and yet despite her best efforts, she’s a closed-source cyborg!

What a hypocrite. If she truly believed in free software, she would tear out her defibrillator and die. /s

Having no free options is a sad state to be made aware of, but without such awareness no action could be taken to correct it.

Man that nicely spoke to a lot of my own struggles with ethical software... My wife gets it and appreciates the control we have over our tech lives, my son doesn't mind (yet, though he has been whining that he wants "a google wifi"), and my parents are proud that I've resisted a lot of the negative tech trends I grew up in.

But oh boy, explaining to anyone else that I refuse to own a system I cannot change is like telling them I worship a space donkey and only eat tunafish every odd numbered saturday. They just do not get it, and I'm in too deep to be able explain it kindly and plainly. :/

I'm a software engineer who does not practice "tech veganism." I use an iPhone, iMessage, Gmail, Google, Google Docs, etc. I'm interested in understanding why people who do practice this feel so strongly that using these products and services is bad. So what if Google reads your emails? Why is it bad if they correlate those and your search results to offer a more personalized service -- even more personalized advertisements -- for things you might actually be interested in buying some day? Is it fear of public embarrassment? Of being blackmailed? Of being discovered doing less than legal things? Have you been slighted by the company before so it's a matter of never doing business with them again out of principle?

No need to worry about explaining it kindly and plainly to me :)

You can choose to depend on them if you wish, but I choose to be responsible for my own data in any way I can. I believe that it is the right thing to do, and I must do it to the best of my ability. It's not a fear thing. It's a constant annoyance thing. I just don't want to play their one-sided games.

> I use an iPhone, iMessage, Gmail, Google, Google Docs, etc. I'm interested in understanding why people who do practice this feel so strongly that using these products and services is bad.

You mean services from American conglomerates, why don't you use Huawei, Yandex, WeChat, etc?

Probably because they are in America. What you’re trying to insinuate is not correct.

Quite simply because I am an American living in the US and those are the most accessible to me and the people I communicate with regularly.