Hi all, this will be a pretty quick summary of the different things I have learned throughout my journey to cut out big tech and switch to the more open of the sourced apps.
Chrome -> (brief period with MS Edge) -> Firefox & forks
- There aren’t any extensions missing from Firefox addons and I particularly love the simplicity of the “Dark Background & Light Text” addon.
- On Firefox forks, I have tried Librewolf and Floorp. Librewolf is definitely more privacy focused and I would say is quite good if you’re looking for that. Floorp is super customisable and more fun, and also disables the telemetry stuff Firefox enables by default.
Gmail -> Proton, Tuta, and others
- no ads in my email (why were they there in the first place?)
- Proton Mail is quite good, but you have to use their apps since they do not support IMAP. I don’t like that since their apps are quite slow. Same goes for Tuta, with their apps being EVEN SLOWER.
- Now I frequently swap between different providers. I can say that both Mailfence and Disroot are quite good and pretty reliable and both use IMAP! Emails load quick and setup is easy.
- I’m sure there are plenty of other email providers that are great too, but these are ones I have tried myself. I would like to switch to a different email provider later down the line. Not sure why, but I actually like switching emails and such.
Spotify -> local music players!
- no ads when I’m listening to music
- works offline
- On Windows I used AIMP and now I use Gapless with Fedora Workstation. Both are awesome!
- what more do I have to say
Bambu Studio -> Orca Slicer
- I like the teal more than the Bambu green and orcas are cool
- Orca Slicer is basically just better Bambu Studio
Google Passwords/Apple Keychain -> Bitwarden and KeePassXC
- Bitwarden is cloud based and pretty good, and KeePassXC is local (but can be synced using things like Syncthing) and is also quite good
Google Auth -> Ente Auth
- Nicer looking UI, and also has a desktop app so I don’t need my phone to use 2FA
It’s the big one…Windows -> Linux (I chose Fedora Workstation)
- GNOME looks fantastic! Way better than the clunky Win11 interface with some glass elements, some flat ones, and some ancient looking ones they clearly haven’t updated in a long time. I’ve also tried KDE and it also looks very nice.
- Using the terminal to install + update stuff is really good, I no longer need to search for downloads on the web anymore! Also, looking at all the dependencies install is really cool
- NO MORE MS BLOATWARE!!!
- all my apps have linux versions and/or linux alternatives so the switch was seamless. Only thing was setting up games to work with Proton and Wine. Don’t play many multiplayer fps games so that was not an issue.
- Also, the file system is a bit easier to work with (no more confusing / and \…)
- Also, the level of customisation is insane! I can switch out the icons (I use Papirus), the shell theme, application theme, etc.
- Apparently GNOME is considered not very customisable by LInux standards, meaning KDE and Cinnamon are EVEN MORE CUSTOMISABLE!!!
- penguin is cool
Adobe Illustrator -> Inkscape
- Very similar UI, and also runs a bit faster
- Switched when my subscription ran out, stayed because it’s AWESOME
- still can’t figure out how to make a straight line, but that’s more of a me problem
VSCode -> VSCodium
- Exactly the same, except with some MS extensions unavailable and no MS telemetry
- No Intellicode or C/C++ extension
- I instead used clangd and it works fineish
Google Drive + OneDrive -> pCloud, Jottacloud, and Backblaze
- Google Drive’s app is kind of okay but OneDrive’s app is HORRIBLE. I’m not going to rant about it in this post since this is about the (much, much) better alternatives
- pCloud’s desktop app just. makes. sense. You select folders to sync and it does it in the background, No put-all-the-folders-into-a-ondrive-folder-and-also-there’s-two-of-them-for-some-reason like OneDrive does. OneDrive should be called OneFolder…
- Jottacloud is also nice and easy to work with. They don’t have a Linux app, but they do have an intuitive CLI that just needs to be started and then you give it the path of the folders to sync and that’s it! Again, no put-all-the-folders-into-a-ondrive-folder-and-also-there’s-two-of-them-for-some-reason like OneDrive
- I only use Backblaze for syncing my notes as it’s compatible with Amazon S3, and it syncs well. That’s all I can say.
- I use pCloud for backing up my phone, Jottacloud for my laptop, and Backblaze for syncing a few notes and such.
Google Photos -> ente photos
- Syncing is great, and there’s also decently helpful (local) AI that is, importantly, opt-in rather than opt-out, meaning you don’t have to use it if you don’t want to. whereas google scrapes all your photos to train their AI (probably)
- Their apps are also really nice!
- I am going to attempt to selfhost Immich, hopefully that goes well! :D
GitHub -> Codeberg
- Git still works perfectly fine as expected.
- Codeberg has a very similar interface to GitHub, which is nice
- Two issues though:
- No mobile app (at least on iOS, not sure about Android. That’s fine for the most part, only issue is not having a contributions widget with the little squares…)
- Codeberg Pages doesn’t automatically deploy Jekyll pages, so I have to run jekyll build manually. Not a huge deal. I wasn’t bothered to set up woodpecker cli.
YouTube -> Invidious + FreeTube
- Invidious lets me have subscriptions while not needing to log in to a google account!
- I can use Invidious as a web app, since there aren’t many iOS youtube clients.
- FreeTube is pretty awesome! You have subscriptions, playlists, as well as the ability to use things like external players. An amazing program that’s also cross-platform!
- Invidious and FreeTube occasionally don’t work, but that’s YouTube trying to block them. Huge props to the people who maintain the thing! It’s one thing to develop a really cool project, it’s another thing to protect it from multibillion dollar companies like Google from bamming it
[nothing] -> KDE Connect
- File sending and clipboard sharing is AWESOME, like a better more cross-platform version of AirDrop
i think that’s it. I might be missing a few though.
I kinda wish more people would look beyond the big email providers that rely on proprietary apps and tech. Email is a set of open protocols but it was never designed to be secure and never will be. Proton et al can only offer e2ee within its boundary (GPG works just as well if you really need it) - for everything else (most stuff), it’s pretty pointless to try harden that.
For the last 26+ years, I’ve been hosting my email on simple cPanel, with my own domain name, 100% managed by myself. I have a catch-all / wildcard mailbox, get almost no spam (and can blackhole any address that leaks, as they inevitably do), and can access it in my own way (Roundcube, Thunderbird ftw.)
Right now, I use old-fashioned POP3 (so it’s deleted off the server), but could if I wanted, set up a local IMAP server with something like fetchmail and chain it together for more privacy and convenience. (Remember, you’re never gonna approach ee2e levels unless it’s in a proprietary system.) The most important thing; since the hosting company is responsible for email delivery, they use reliable third parties (think mailgun, sendgrid, brevo etc.) as part of the package.
Total control, cheap, and don’t ever have to rely on a big tech company (or a CEO getting political).
What about something like Posteo or Mailbox? I’ve heard self-hosting email is hard for newbs, so I’ve been thinking of getting a domain and connecting it to something like the above. Getting a domain does reveal your identity, but email is also not really private. Also do you have a domain registar recommendation for email?
I currently have Proton unlimited, but I really only need the VPN for obvious reasons. While I do use the drive, I also have filen. For passwords I use a mix of Bitwarden and Keepass. I do use the hell out of simple login, but that can be replaced with Addy or something else. So I don’t really need Proton unlimited.
Do you happen to have a guide or something you can recommend about self hosting email? Got a spare PC and don’t want to pay for email bc I don’t want my bank to know what email I use etc.
The point is not to self-host email (not entirely anyway; you’ll always need an SMTP relay with good IP reputation, e.g. mailgun), but you can use a regular web hosting company and buy your own domain there or separately via porkbun etc… Your bank won’t have a clue what email you use, you’re just paying a web hosting co. / domain registrar.
Awesome recommendations. I would also add that you should check if your android phone is supported by LineageOS or GrapheneOS.
unfortunately I still use an iPhone and it probably won’t need to be replaced for a few years. Reducing waste and all that, right?
At least it’s still better than the shit most android phone manufacturers ship. Full of bloat that borders on ad- / spyware. But yeah, I’d also use it until it needs to be replaced.
I have tried as much as I can use things like Organic Maps, NetNewsWire, etc. on my iPhone though. Unfortunately Apple isn’t very keen on opening up its ecosystem and most apps are not so open. If I ever get a new phone (it will probably be a long while until I do need one) it will be an Android since they are more open, have way more choice, and much better hardware (cameras, battery, etc.)
Regarding Codeberg and the app: If you are on Android, there’s Gitnex: https://f-droid.org/packages/org.mian.gitnex
Also, if you’re on droid, the F-droid app repository should be your next adventure if you haven’t tried it out yet.
I currently use an old iPhone that likely won’t need replacing any time soon. I hate Lightning and I hate Apple’s closed ecosystem, but this is what I’m stuck with. If I do get an android, f-droid seems like a good place to look for apps!
Fdroid was my first step
To switch emails all the time do you have your own custom domain and you just setup that new provider with that domain?
no custom domain. I’ve switched between I think four different gmails, one protonmail, one tutamail, and one disroot (my current one right now). I have set up mailfence for a sibling. Don’t know why I do that, but I do. Changing up the email helps clear out any old accounts I don’t use. I also change between my email name to various different things and such which is fun.
Thank you for taking the time to write this all out and share it! This kind of thing is super helpful to people.
just sharing my experiences and such! :D
what more do I have to say
seems pretty cool. Never heard of Soulseek before, apparently it’s a peer-to-peer music sharing thing
There’s also quite a few epub books for some reason.
For private YouTube in iOS check out Unwatched - not perfect but the best I found so far
never heard of this one before, I might try it out! For me though, using invidious as a web app is perfectly fine, but Unwatched seems pretty cool
Cryptee is pretty decent, but I prefer using Joplin + Backblaze for syncing. Just my preference I guess. mailee and runbox seem quite good too, thanks for sharing!
Honestly, Proton is such a great alternative to Google in so many ways. For email, for the cloud storage, for VPN, and for password/2fa management.
Proton pass can store 2fa tokens using qrcodes just like Google or Microsoft Authenticator. And with the Firefox plug-in, it can auto-fill 2fa prompts. So your don’t have to stress about mis-typing your code or the timer running out lol.
Storing 2FA into your password manager kind of defeats the point of having two factors (one password to get all your passwords as well as 2fa). Besides, it’s just six digits.
Also, I don’t like the idea of “putting all my eggs in one basket”. Hence why I never really used Proton Drive, VPN, etc. Proton Pass is pretty decent though, but I like Bitwarden and KeePass more.
Also I HATE that Proton Mail doesn’t support the IMAP protocol that almost everyone supports (even Apple, the king of walled gardens, supports it!) and only kind of support it with their paid “Bridge”.
I was able to configure thunderbird with proton. But you need the mail bridge to decrypt your mail.
Yeah but don’t think you could get Proton Mail working, for example, on your favourite mobile mail app.
Isn’t Proton supposed to be end to end encryption between crient and server? And wouldn’t that rule out IMAP?
But that only works with other ProtonMail users, and most people use other providers
I don’t think so. The mail is delivered to the Proton mail server via unencrypted SMTP and then sent on to the client encrypted. The secure layer is between the client and the server. It might also be stored on the server encrypted.
Email is unsecure as hell in any event, but I think the idea is that once it’s delivered, it’s secured.
Email is always insecure, it was never designed for that kind of thing. If you want that, use a messenger like Signal or Element.
Proton Mail means that the email can still be read by malicious actors if you send or receive emails from non-Proton Mail users so it’s best not to use it for anything secure. No email is secure, and that includes Proton Mail. It’s still a pretty decent email though, if you’re okay with using their slow app over things like Thunderbird then it’s perfectly fine!
But w/ proton you are going the “all eggs in one basket” again so that is a big no for me.
It’s the opposite for me lol.
