Easy solutions to all of those vendors: don’t use them.
Adobe and Java are not MANDATORY to browse the web. You don’t need them for FR, for example. Likewise, Microsoft may have a stranglehold on the new PC market, but that doesn’t mean you can’t blow away the OS on your shiny new laptop and install Ubuntu or some other variant of Linux.
I’ve gone over to Linux almost exclusively. The one exception is my gaming PC, but I’ve configured that machine to not permit communication with the rest of my network and I do not browse the web with it nor access email or other private information.
There are hundreds of roadblocks and dead ends any competent person can place on their private home networks and on their machines. If you’ve gone so far as to change your default SSID on your wireless router, configure your home network devices with complex passwords/phrases, and implement restrictions in modern web browsers, the NSA isn’t going to be snooping on you anytime soon.
Just note what Schneier is saying here: the NSA is not directly tapping your home Internet connections... yet. They still MUST get a warrant to watch your communications across “secure” subscribed lines such as those provided by your ISP. The NSA is essentially snooping on anyone using insecure browsers, not practicing safe browsing, and/or otherwise putting their personal data out there through social networking and insecure personal communication (i.e. not using HTTPS). They’re no more cloak-and-dagger than your average Russian or Chinese scammer... for now.
You have good points.
For me personally, the inconvenience of not using Adobe products or running Linux vs. Windows is not worth avoiding the (small, in my judgment) risk of NSA spying on me. (I haven’t been using Java for some time now so that one’s moot.)
Of course, all that could change next month. I have been on probation in the deep cover cell of my local right-wing paramilitary group, and they’re voting on my full membership at the next meeting. Once I’m a full member I’ll have access to their weapons cache and be in on the operational plan, so I’ll probably want to be much more careful with my personal computing.
(Just seeing if the NSA guy is awake.)
Linux is just as compromised as OSx or Windows. It’s foolish to consider it secure.
bkmk