The political situation in the US, and the last decisions of some companies make it less and less bearable to use products from the GAFAM and their friends. Also, old and reliable service now enshittify more and more.
Here I will list some of those services that I use or used to use, and what is the alternative solution I chose, when it was possible
Microsoft
Windows
On the OS side, I still have a Windows 11 partition on my desktop, but barely start it, only for some games. But thanks to Valve and Proton, I can now play 99% of my games directly on Linux. I can also play some games from the Epic Store with project like Heroic Launcher and Lutris, so I guess I will be able to get rid of Windows completely soon.
Windows 11 is a privacy nightmare, now fueled with ads and AI nobody asked for, so even I have to stop playing some games, that's a sacrifice I will do with a smile on my face.
GitHub
GitHub was the place to be, and still is. But now, Microsoft push its Copilot bullshit everywhere, so thank you but no thank you, I can generate my own buggy shitty code all by myself. All my projects are now created on Codeberg. I kept some old projects on GitHub but barely touch them anymore.
I became an active member of the Codeberg project last year and will continue to do so. Join us! We are nice!
Minecraft
Well, I bought Minecraft more than 10 years ago, when Mojang was still Mojang. Now I have a son, he likes Minecraft a lot, so we play together. I bought a license for him, and had to create a Microsoft account. I know some alternatives exist (like Luanti), I need to test some of them with him to see what is his opinion on that.
One of the cancer of the internet. I created an account years ago out of curiosity and could see that it was not for me at all. And now it's even worse, I can't bear this corporate tech-bro vibe. I have disabled my account and I don't regret it at all. If I need to look for a job, I may have to re-enabled it again, but I think there is a lot of less annoying alternatives.
Search Engine
Google became less and less relevant with a lot of AI generated slop, or clone of stack overflow. This decline in quality started before all the AI hype, with a lot of SEO shit, but now it's a nightmare.
I'm now using DuckDuckGo, which is basically Bing with a mustache and is US based. Result are OK, for now, but it's still a US based solution. We have an European alternative called Qwant, but last time I tried it, it sucked, and it was also Bing with an (old) mustache, as it was using an outdated Bing index, Maybe now it's better, I will try again.
Gmail
I have a gmail address since 2003, so it's hard to get rid of it completely. Now I use Proton as an email provider (which also comes with controversy now) and redirect my gmail emails to Proton. I need to list all the remaining services using my gmail address to do the change, but this will take time and I'm affraid I will need to keep this email address for a while.
I also created a gmail address for my son. It was mainly because Google have a Familiy account stuff so I keep an eye on his account activity (no, I'm not spying). I will probably create a tuta account for him instead and close the gmail account.
I tried self hosting emails, but it became near to impossible to be sure that an email sent by a tiny, unknown SMTP server won't be treated as spam, or even can reach its destination. Also, installing and managing postfix and dovecot is a pain in the ass.
Android
This is a tough one, because here the choice is basically either iOS or Android. There is some alternatives like PinePhone which are not android based, but then good luck to be able to use your RATP or SNCF application.
So the solution seems to be a unGoogled Android like /e/os. I will probably try that on my Pixel 7a, but before I need to check that my favorite apps are working on it. Oh, and also, I'm afraid to brick my phone.
YouTube
I don't watch a lot a YouTube video and produce none. Here I have to follow the creator's choice and for now it's YouTube all the way. Dailymotion is a joke, Vimeo kinda disappeared and Peertube is a great idea, but still basically unknown outside the open source folks.
Chrome
I used Firefox for as long as I remember and this will probably won't change. I keep an eye on servo through.
I created an WhatsApp account years ago, when my wife used to live on another continent. Now that we live together, we still use it, as my family and some friends. Signal seems to be a reasonable alternative and I use it with some other friends. Now, all I have to do is convince everybody to use it, so let's say it won't happen I will probably leave WhatsApp none the less and tell people it's either Signal, or the good old insecure SMS.
Amazon
I order a lot of thing online because I live in the countryside and I am lazy, and with Prime it's even worse. The Amazon alternatives are not great, to say the least (AliExpress, Wish and co, no thank you). So I guess I will have to use LDLC/Materiel.net for computer stuff, or some other European alternatives (I heard that German retailers are cheaper than in France). It will be a little bit more expensive cause I will have to pay for the delivery, but maybe this way I will buy less useless stuff.
Spotify
I was a Spotify Family member for a while, but the recent declarations (French article) and their support for Trump investiture make me cancel my subscription. So now I'm a Deezer Family user! It's a french company, it seems OK-ish, and all the people that were leeching my Spotify subscription are now leeching my Deezer subscription.
Netflix and others streaming services
Perfect example of enshittification. Not so long ago, with one paid subscription, you were able to access a reasonable amount of movies and shows. Now you need 3 or 4 accounts, and even with a paid subscription, you have to watch ads from time to time. So last year I canceled Disney+, this year I will cancel Amazon Prime, that will probably leave me with just Netflix... and a torrent client with a VPN service and Jellyfin.
I once created an account for work (I needed to use their API, this was before Musk), and deleted it soon after that. I always found this platform toxic as hell, even before it changed its name. But at least now I discovered Mastodon, and so far I like it. For sure it's an echo chamber, but an echo chamber without ads and so far, full of intelligent people that don't insult each others just for fun.
Apple
Nothing to see here, I have 0 Apple device.
Conclusion
I think it's possible to get rid of the GAFAM, but the cost is high. I know I won't be able to get rid of them completely, I know my friends and family won't be either and I'm pretty a lot of them don't see the point anyway.
I hope that with Trump and Musk going bat-shit crazy in the US, Europe will finally wake up, invest a lot of monney and provide good, privacy focused solutions.
I want my internet back.
Please give us Internet companies that want to please their customers more than their investor, that respect their employees.
I want internet to be nice again.