Yes. The phone is the real kicker. They're gonna cut you off from modern life unless you buy into the Google ecosystem. More and more apps are required to do mundane things, ride a bus or train, book a ticket to an event, charge your car, split expenses with your friends or handle money in general. Gadgets and appliances have companion apps to properly make use of them. I'd have 5 authenticator apps on my phone to do paperwork. And I won't be able to communicate with friends or find out if the shop is closed today unless I have an account and maybe the app of some platform. All of that is proprietary, part of surveillance capitalism. And it's getting proceedingly more difficult to evade Google, because they're slowly adding SafetyNet and device verification to many apps. And of course sprinkle some AI on top because that's what we do and it aligns with the rest of it. Or Google just changes strategy and asserts more control over every phone user as needed for their corporate interests.

We're not there yet. I still have GrapheneOS on my phone and I'm doing alright. It's not very comfortable, though, and I can clearly feel which way we're headed.

With the computer/laptop, it's easy. Backup your data, wipe it and install Linux. It's gonna take a while to get accustomed if you're used to a different operating system... But I don't think it's more difficult to use or anything in the long run. The initial extra work is an investment that pays off later. I'm fairly sure Linux is the one platform that will resist and keep coming with default settings without AI and corporate surveillance.

Interestingly enough, it's also used by big tech to power all the servers and AI services. But at the end of the day it empowers everyone.