12:18pm

For those of you who have known me across more than a few years, this post might surprise you.

I have reached the point that I don’t like Windows. It’s slowly getting to the point that a more accurate statement is that I don’t like Microsoft. The latter isn’t *quite* true yet, but they’re working on it.

In my past life, I was a Systems & Networks guy in the IT world. ‘Systems’ is just a glorified way of saying computers and supporting the software they run. (Yeah… I’m oversimplifying a bit, but meh.) ‘Networks’ is how computers exchange information… how they ‘talk.’

And for most of that time, I was a Windows Systems Admin. I have delved deep into Active Directory. I have delved deep into Group Policy I have… well… if you know, you know.

I left IT for the most part back in 2018, and I haven’t really looked back. I’ve taken the occasional gig that mainly served to reinforce my decision to leave IT, but I’ve always kept a Windows machine.

Mainly for gaming.

Somewhen around 2019-ish, I made the switch to an Apple MacBook as my daily driver. I write my novels in Scrivener. I format my books in Vellum. Scrivener has a Windows version that, frankly, lags behind the Mac version to a considerable degree. Vellum is Mac-only and will probably remain that way.

I am less enamored with macOS than I used to be. There are at least two reasons why, and even though I classify them as separate reasons, they are intertwined to a certain extent.

1. Apple isn’t as devoted to privacy as they want you to believe
2. AI & Apple Intelligence

Let’s deal with these one at a time.

Apple Privacy Concerns

I’m not quite sure how I stumbled across this individual, because it’s been sufficiently long that I straight-up don’t remember. The person is Jeffrey Paul, and he has posted a number of articles on his website (https://sneak.berlin). The first three articles I list below opened my eyes to Apple and introduced me to a fellow geek I can appreciate. I don’t know if he’d appreciate being called a geek, but to my eyes, it’s a compliment.

*** Disclaimer ***

The articles I’m linking below are techy… like the rest of his articles. But I believe the code snippets and command examples are for those of us like him (and sorta-kinda like me) who get that. They’re proof… in a way… of what he’s saying.

I don’t think you need to fully understand what he did to grasp the results. Feel free to flame me in the comments or send me hate email if I’m wrong. (FYI… I’ll file ’em right next to all the hate email I get about Fires.)

*** End of Disclaimer ***

Part of Apple’s brand (at least for those who don’t look too closely) is that they are all about privacy. These articles have led me to conclude that–while maybe not outright lying–there’s definitely more to the story.

Here are some links…

• Jeffrey Paul: On Trusting Macintosh Hardware
• Jeffrey Paul: Apple is Still Tracking You Without Consent
• Jeffrey Paul: Apple Has Begun Scanning Your Local Image Files Without Consent
• Jeffrey Paul: Apple OSes Are Insecure By Design To Aid Surveillance

I’m sure–out of the three or four people who reach this point after reading the above articles–at least one person will raise the anti-privacy argument, “But what does it matter if you have nothing to hide?”

Oh, but I do have something to hide. I have quite a bit of things to hide.

Things like my birthdate, my Social Security Number, my mother’s maiden name, my father’s middle name, the name of my elementary school, the make and model of my first car, my pet’s name… recognize these things yet?

You should, and you should want to hide them, too.

In case anyone didn’t recognize them, they’re either Personally Identifying Information commonly used to verify one’s identity (such as birthdate and the last four of the SSN) or they’re common security questions used in case we need to reset passwords.

And honestly? Personal privacy isn’t something we should question.

It’s not about having something to hide. It’s about not being the product in the modern, digital economy.

Here’s the problem with the problem.

For all that I don’t like how technology spies on us every minute of every day… at least those hours and minutes we use it… the functionality provided by the Apple ecosystem is damned handy.

There’s an old saying. It was probably ancient even when I first heard it as a kid. “Handier than a pocket in a shirt.”

I can sit at my computer and chat with my friends. Then, when I’m sitting at a table in a restaurant somewhere, I can open the exact same messaging app and have my entire conversation with that person right there.

All of Apple’s devices just work together. I don’t have to tinker. I don’t have to search three different forums across two different Google searches just to do something that would’ve been a five- or ten-minute job on Windows. The Apple ecosystem simply works.

It’s the ages-old conundrum. Convenience and functionality versus security and privacy.

So, I could go back to Windows, right? Well…

That leads us into Major Issue #2.

The Big Push for AI

Okay. I get it. AI is the shiny, new thing. I’m also a tech geek, so I totally 115% understand the “ooohhh, shiny” response to something new that’s neat or interesting or fun. I’ve felt that way about a lot of tech in my life.

I am not a fan of the major software companies giving AI-aware–if not outright AI-enabled–apps whether we want them or not.

Microsoft has been playing around with digital assistants for years, possibly decades. I remember when they first trialled a digital assistant named ‘Cortana.’ I think the name came from something in Halo? I wouldn’t know without communing with Google, as I never played that franchise of games. You might even argue it started all the way back with infamous paper clip assistant ‘Clippy’ in Office… uhm… 97, I think?

Well, with the most recent version of Windows 11, they have something they’re calling Copilot. There was a major kerfuffle when it was first announced, because it had a feature named ‘Recall.’ This “feature” takes periodic snapshots of your desktop that will act as a kind of “photographic memory” for your computer.

On one hand, this might not be so bad, especially since I know I’ve lost files deep, deep in my directory structure. If I looked hard enough, I could probably find something I created or downloaded while I was a college student over… well… it was a long time ago. Let’s leave it at that.

But what is Microsoft having the computer do with those screenshots besides act as a photographic memory? That’s what I don’t like.

I’m not quite sure when it started, but in my mind, Windows has gone progressively downhill ever since they introduced “log in using your Microsoft Account” functionality. Heck… if you’re doing a fresh install of Windows 11 and you make the mistake of connecting it to the internet early “to get the most recent updates,” you don’t have any choice about whether you’ll use a Microsoft Account to log into Windows.

A writer friend of mine recently told me that their Office 365 apps updated, and now, Copilot is annoying the living daylights out of them. To be clear, this particular writer friend exclusively uses a Mac… which means Microsoft is including it in their subscription software, too, and not just their operating system.

On top of all this, Apple recently unveiled their newest version of macOS, iOS, and ipadOS. The major feature? Apple Intelligence.

If you didn’t read the articles I linked in the first section, go back and read them now… please. Don’t let yourself get lost in all the techno-babble, focus on the information he’s sharing and not how he obtained it.

Apple has been compiling an app footprint of its users and referencing that footprint with the source IP address. Just so you understand, every device that communicates with the internet has an IP address. The most common analogue we have in our daily lives is our physical mailing address.

Now, combine this with Apple Intelligence?

So, what now?

Well, first off… I want to be very clear about something.

I’m not suddenly going to turn into a radicalized hacktivisit. I’m not going to start standing on a street corner somewhere and wave a cardboard sign that says “The End is Nigh” while shouting about the evils of Big Tech. That’s not who I am.

Once all this is over, I will be where I am while I’m typing this. Sitting alone in a room, banging away on a keyboard. Telling my stories.

But I am disappointed.

I will confess that I bought into the hype. I believed Apple was better.

I don’t like being wrong.

I now can’t help but wonder if Apple goes to such great lengths to ensure their products just… simply… work in much the same way spiders create such intricate webs. Have everything work so well together so seemlessly to keep their users in their ecosystem.

It’s a good strategy… because it works.

Like the section header said, so what now?

All is not lost. There is one operating system that doesn’t give a rat’s ass about sharing my data. I’ve tried switching to it before, but it wasn’t really mature enough yet to be my daily driver. I think it’s time to revisit that conclusion.

Yes. I’m talking about Linux.

As for where I’ll install it? Well, damn… I have a desktop sitting beside my computer table gathering dust. I’ll grab a couple cans of compressed air, evict any dust bunnies that may (or may not) be squatting inside the case, and get rid of the Windows install. I can’t remember the last time I actually turned the thing on to game, so it’s not like I’ll miss the “gaming box” all that much.

Yeah… I think that’s a good plan. Explore modern Linux to see if it can become my daily driver after all these years.

Right, then.

We’ve made it to the end (for now), and I’m thinking this will be the first installment of a group of posts.

If you’ve made it this far, thanks for hanging in there. I hope the post has been meaningful or valuable to you.

Best wishes to you and yours. Stay safe out there.