“When given a choice between independence and dependence, always choose independence; you will never regret that choice!”—Luke Smith

Whatever you may believe about the YouTube personality Luke Smith, the quote above summarizes a core principle of mine. Much like many people have religious principles, I have Independence.

My choice to use Linux as my primary operating system, host my own website, own my own domain name—all of these are directly related to this core principle of independence.

I never want a man, or a company to have too much power over my life. Just like I would not trust just any person to be able to read my emails, know where I live, where I am going, who are my friends, what do I believe; in the same way, I do not trust a company with that same information.

“If you want to find out what a man is to the bottom, give him power. Any man can stand adversity — only a great man can stand prosperity.”—Robert Ingersoll

Take control of your own digital life:

1. Own your own domain.
2. Hookup an email and a website to that.

That’s it!

Without this, any of your internet privileges can be revoked at any time by Google, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, or even an angry Twitter Mob. Maybe because they hate your skin colour, maybe they hate your religious/political views, or maybe you got caught on a technicality.

If you own your own domain, however:

Your email provider goes down/bans you: change your provider; keep the email.

Your website is pulled for controversial views: switch hosts.

Protect yourself; give yourself choices. Why give others that power when you could have it for yourself?