[2OEH8eoCRo0]

Can we go back to buying software? This free software subsidized by big ad money has fucked the whole market up.

[hn_acc1]

Agreed. Would much rather pay $100-200/year for ad-free OS / productivity software that is patched and secure and doesn't sell my data.

Alas, very people put that high a value on their privacy.

[pabs3]

You could switch to a Linux distro for that. Most of them are gratis, but accept donations or contributions. For example Debian & LibreOffice.

That said, even well intentioned distros that don't sell your data will have some privacy issues, inherited from upstreams.

https://wiki.debian.org/PrivacyIssues