Tech Choices

Of course it’s okay to criticize people for their tech choices — for returning to X, for instance, as MacStories recently did.

I’m not on X and there’s no way I would return. Fuck that place and fuck Elon Musk. (Yes, there’s a brentsimmons there, but it’s not me. I deleted my account.)

But it’s not like my tech choices are free of fascists and collaborators — and yours almost surely aren’t either.

Do you have an iPhone? A Mac or iPad?

Do you order from Amazon, buy groceries from Whole Foods, or use any of their other properties (Prime Video, Twitch, Audible, etc.)? Do you use AWS or any websites that rely on AWS?

Do you use GitHub or Office or Windows or Azure or Typescript? How about DuckDuckGo, which uses Bing?

Do you run Linux, which now includes AI-assisted code? Do you use Claude or ChatGPT or any of those?

Do you use any Meta social networks (Facebook, Threads, Instagram)?

Do you write Ruby code? (Which features DHH prominently on its home page.)

Do you have an Android phone or use Google search or Gmail or write code in Go?

(Etc.)

* * *

I use Apple stuff and write apps for Mac and iOS, after all, which means my work benefits Apple, which is doing far, far worse things than the MacStories folks could or would ever do.

And yet here I am continuing to write apps for Apple platforms.

Again, yes, it’s not just okay but proper to criticize public people for their tech choices, but I try to remember my own imperfect choices before I do. And, more importantly, I try to remember who the actual enemies are. (Trump, his oligarchs, ICE, Stephen Miller, every single Republican politician, etc.)

These days we need all the righteous fury we can rally — and we also need the clarity to know where to focus it.