Supporting Goals of Free Software Foundation while using Apple hardware

I just rejoined the FSF (https://www.fsf.org/) recently after almost ten years of not being a member. For decades I relied on Linux for work and writing and being a member of the FSF made sense. However when I decided to simplify my life and use a MacBook, an iPhone, and an iPad I let my FSF membership drop. I am enjoying being a member again.

I am not recommending that anyone adopt my setup, but it may still be of general interest:

Apps vs. Web Browser

On mobile devices (and my MacBook) I don’t like to install apps unless it is something like a Chess game app. Services like Email, Mastodon, Facebook, YouTube, and X all work fine in a web browser, even with the DuckDuckGo browser which is usually my default.

Email

I use my own custom domain on Apple iCloud email. Convenient enough. I use backup ProtonMail and Gmail accounts.

I use the DuckDuckGo web browser, even on my iPhone, for these three services.

AI vs. No AI

Well, I have been a paid AI practitioner since 1982 but I believe that modern (LLM based) AI should be used purposely, keeping in mind “productivity vs. playing around issues.” The resource costs of overuse of AI might cause an economic crash (a favorite little conspiracy theory of mine).

I like to have AI available only when I specifically want it. Usually I just code in plain-old Emacs for coding and writing my books. If I specifically want AI help with something then for an IDE experience I will use the TRAE coding agent. For command line, I will use gemini-cli or codex. I like to use AI coding help 4 or 5 times a week. As an example, today I wanted some Python code that used a few libraries converted to Common Lisp (using several popular CL libraries). TRAE one-shotted this for me in two minutes. I think it would have taken me over 20 minutes to write it myself.

AI is OK for easy stuff you can do yourself, and save time. I prefer to use it less, rather than more often but I love writing open source software and Open Content licensed books (https://leanpub.com/u/markwatson) - no strong desire to over-automate my work. But I appreciate AI tools when I do use them.

AI / Web Browser Integration?

In general I say NO! After reading their privacy docs I did experiment a few hours each with the Perplexity Comet Browser and OpenAI’s ChatGPT Atlas and I have read the docs for Opera Neon and Brave with Leo. (I used Proton’s Lumo AI for two months which is not really a browser integration and decided I didn’t want to pay for it after two months.)

I am a human being, I like to think for myself, and just use AI sparingly.

One option I am investigating is the “AI tab” on the DuckDuckGo browser that seems very useful and is privacy preserving. I am evaluating DDG’s subscription paid plan month by month, haven’t subscribed for a year yet.

Software Development

I find macOS almost as good as Linux for coding. I do keep one or two small Linux VPSs running on the web when Linux is better than macOS.