this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2025
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DeGoogle Yourself

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I don't particularly watch/like PewDiePie, but he is joining the train and spreading the word, which is awesome. He is self hosting services and using GrapheneOS now.

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[–] mycodesucks@lemmy.world 34 points 1 day ago
[–] CoyoteFacts@piefed.ca 69 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Pretty good video. It's not like he explains how to do anything or even picks very good software to begin with, but his genuine excitement is really all that's required. Getting people interested is the important part, and they'll learn much better by using their own motivation. This video also gives off a strong "I'm an idiot, and if I can do it you can do it" vibe which can be really reassuring to those who are just too intimidated to even dip their toe in.

[–] Nangijala 3 points 1 day ago (5 children)

My problem is that I feel like the idiot among idiots so I'm still intimidated by it. I want to eventually take the plunge, but I am genuinely so fucking stupid when it comes to tech that I'm afraid I will break something if I try, lol.

[–] faythofdragons@slrpnk.net 7 points 22 hours ago

My sweet, darling, luddite of a partner struggles with changing the ringtone on his phone, but didn't run into problems using linux.

You're fine.

[–] libre_warrior@lemmy.ml 3 points 18 hours ago

Tech is made to make us feel stupid, so you are not alone in feeling that.

[–] toynbee@lemmy.world 7 points 22 hours ago

If you're competent enough to use Lemmy, you're absolutely competent enough to run Linux for most purposes.

Honestly, it's a bit more of a stretch, but if you're competent enough to plug in a USB drive you're probably competent enough to install Linux. And most of Lemmy would be here to help you!

[–] comfy@lemmy.ml 4 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago)

A good thing about tech is that if you have a spare device (even a cheap single-board computer like a Raspberry Pi or similar cheaper one, or a partly-broken laptop) or a working virtual machine, you can break things. That's a core characteristic of the old-school hacker mindset, to try stuff and break stuff until you understand stuff. Usually, the worst case, you just reinstall the operating system and have a fresh clean environment (or, better yet, you restore a backup you made! Learning how to fail gracefully is a great skill)

I bricked a certain wacky laptop setup twice and had to start over (luckily with backups) just trying to get a custom startup loading screen. But once I realized why it was breaking and how to avoid it, I had a cooler looking computer!

[–] CoyoteFacts@piefed.ca 4 points 1 day ago

This video has a lot of self-hosting and somewhat advanced stuff being mentioned, but if all you want to do is start dipping your toe into Linux then it's not nearly as hard as you'd think. I would try running Linux in a VM (i.e. VirtualBox) to get a feel for how it operates and build up confidence that way, as well as maybe watching some videos on how people set up and use their Linux etc. It will be a learning curve, but as long as you pick a beginner-friendly distro (e.g. Linux Mint) it's really no more difficult than if you started using Windows for the first time. Keep backups of your data and/or put Linux on a secondary computer and you should weather the initial few weeks just fine.

On the upside, when you have problems in Linux there will be logical solutions with answers that can be searched for, whereas in an OS like Windows or Mac the solution is probably "I dunno! Reinstall?" or "You just can't do that, sorry". It's also understandable if you don't want to touch anything complicated, but I do think one of the best parts of Linux is really just getting messy, making mistakes, and learning. Because things in Linux make sense, over time you'll learn how to use a computer again. I feel strongly that Windows/Mac/Android/iPhones have (intentionally) dulled the average person's computing skills and put them into a state of learned helplessness. Everyone thinks computers are complicated wizardry because nothing on those proprietary operating systems makes logical sense, and trying to troubleshoot anything results in wasted time and frustration.

[–] passepartout@feddit.org 46 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (5 children)

Crazy to see people stating that they never saw a video of him, but I guess the intersection of his audience and the fediverse is predictably low, especially in a degoogle community.

His recent arc with Linux and now this are pretty nice though.

[–] geekwithsoul@lemm.ee 21 points 1 day ago (6 children)

Less nice: the arcs of nazisms and bigotry

[–] Nangijala -2 points 1 day ago

Here we go again 🙄

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[–] djsaskdja@reddthat.com 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I think it’s a generational thing. Millennials especially slightly older ones have not really been exposed to this guy at all.

[–] quetzaldilla@lemmy.world 21 points 1 day ago (1 children)

In fact, many of us have actively avoided him. 😂

[–] djsaskdja@reddthat.com 6 points 1 day ago

I just remember he made the baby talk videos back in the day. I was like wtf is this shit? Then avoided him forever after that.

[–] Obi@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 day ago

I never watched his stuff in his "glory" days of yore, but he popped up in videos from Magnus the bouldering/rock climbing guy, and that showed him under a new light. Then I saw his Linux arc and started gaining more respect for him. It seems he's kind of retired from the brain dead content and now has that new dad energy which I vibe with a lot more. Still not watching him regularly though, I don't know what the rest of his content is like.

[–] smeg@feddit.uk 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Is it that crazy? He's just a game streamer, right? Plenty of people have probably never watched any streaming, let alone from one particular guy.

[–] passepartout@feddit.org 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

He has been the most subscribed youtuber for a while in the past. But yeah, mostly gaming and he already "quit" YouTube several times.

[–] smeg@feddit.uk 11 points 1 day ago

Taylor Swift has been the biggest selling artist but plenty of people will never have listened to her music, football is the most popular sport in the world but many will never have watched a match, etc. To sum up with a statement of the obvious: the world's a big place so even very popular things can still be relatively niche!

[–] BassTurd@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

I watched a Primeagen reaction video to a recent video of Pewds, and that was the first I've seen a PewDiePie video. I've probably caught a couple of shorts over the years, but this was the first video, and it might have been last week.

[–] Core_of_Arden@lemmy.ml 4 points 23 hours ago

Never even seen PDP before - only heard of him. But this was a good video - he's on the same path as I am...

[–] ada@piefed.blahaj.zone 22 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Well, that was the first PewDiePie video I've ever watched...

Strange that he didn't mention leaving YouTube behind though!

[–] A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.world 23 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It was like the first thing, he said he can't escape that. But pretty much everything else.

[–] Steve@communick.news 22 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

I imagine he's one who could ditch YouTube.
He could spin up his own PeerTube instance just for him to post to. Then tell everyone to follow him there and Mastodon. If only 20% of his audience does it, he'd still make out like a bandit.

[–] kieron115@startrek.website 2 points 20 hours ago

I wonder if Floatplane would take him lmao.

[–] acockworkorange@mander.xyz 13 points 1 day ago

He gets a good chunk of money off YouTube.

[–] pr06lefs@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Like, where exactly is the revenue stream there? I'm on peertube and that isn't paying off for me yet lol

[–] Steve@communick.news 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Sponsorships, Ad reads, Product placement.
He doesn't need Google inserting ads, they pay pennies compared to other direct deals.

[–] RogueBanana@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

All of those venues wont be reaching out to you if you are not on YouTube or have enough reach on a different platform. I do hope content creators post on multiple platform but it is not reasonable to think that they can just flip a switch and start posting outside of YouTube.

[–] Steve@communick.news 2 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) (1 children)

Of course! Which is why I said 20% of his audience would need to switch with him. And obviously there would be a transition. Nobody said anything to suggest otherwise.

[–] RogueBanana@lemmy.zip 1 points 4 hours ago

My point was more on the sponsorship rather than the transition. Even if you manage to move 20% of the audience, the sponsorship amount would be less than 20%. Most companies play it safe and allocate budget for proven marketing platforms and wouldn't be willing to put much on a new platform. So while it takes someone to switch platform and convince their audience, there wouldn't be adsense money or sponsorships with no guarantee they would even make 10% of what they used to make on YouTube. Most youtubers are after the money and if anyone is doing it as full time job, that would be an unreasonable request.

[–] kepix@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

he would be stupid, even the passive ad revenue is crazy compared to my salary.

he might get into a weird place, cause youtube doesnt like to promote degoogling and asblocking and the channel might get tagged.

[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 1 points 1 day ago

Something tells me PewDiePie is not getting an invite to Nebula any time soon!

[–] Cruxifux@feddit.nl 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Google asks me to sign in every time I try to google something and switches to the google app. Google can go fuck itself.

[–] umbrella@lemmy.ml 13 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

i'm glad to see a proeminent mainstream person doing this, regardless of his controversial past.

[–] davel@lemmy.ml 14 points 1 day ago (1 children)

He’s collected fuck you money ten times over from YouTube already. He can be done with everything and never work again.

[–] umbrella@lemmy.ml 11 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

done with everything and never work again

at this point doing good things is a responsibility.

[–] icenando@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Had never watched anything from him. Still haven't - I got annoyed in the first minute.

[–] shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 day ago

I think he's some sort of gamer person. At least that's what I've heard of him.

rare youtube/google w

[–] lupusblackfur@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Never watched and ain't gonna now...

But when GOOG has positioned its business practices in a way that manages to piss off even this long-time GOOG supporter/evangelist... 🤡 🖕 💩

[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

hey me too. also, I still don't know who PewDiePie is.

[–] XLE@piefed.social 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

what I would give to be you

[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

bruh de-googling is way harder than not knowing what a PewDiePie is. I'm trying but not even close.

[–] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world -2 points 1 day ago

Apparently pewdiepie still exists and wants attention.

[–] shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip 0 points 1 day ago
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