The way I see it, using these software, even without paying anything and even if you could somehow shield your data from telemetry, strengthens their hegemony.

Growing the pool of users in Open Source project, talking about them, maybe filing bug reports if needed, helps make them more viable. The growing user count makes developers more enticed to release software for these platforms.

I don’t think Microsoft’s hegemony suffers a lot from losing a user … But they do suffer slightly more from Linux gaining a user.

Yes, but no way I’m sharing them.

Blue sky is based in the US tho. There may be instances elsewhere, but it’s still dependent on a US company (unlike Mastodon).

One of the big reasons why it’s considered unsafe to swim in floodwater is the hygien: Remember the sewers must be overflowing. Plus, the water can have engulfed any amount of chemicals (oil, gaz, battery acid…)