Never would I have thought Lemmy would advocate installing Linux.
this post was submitted on 03 Mar 2025
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Buy European
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๐ฌ๐ง UK: matrix.org & glasgow.social
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They're so entrenched in OS/2, it came as a complete surprise to me as well.
What happened to all the "Your games will run fine in OS/2", "it feels just like windows"?
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Signal is American
Opt for a Matrix or XMPP provider in Europe (magicbroccoli.de is a genuinely great XMPP provider)
While Signal's home base is the US, they are a non profit org that doesn't operate in the same way as for-profit corporations. Also, Signal collects basically zero data so there's no incentive to sell out, and who would want to buy them anyway when they have no data and the server and client are open source.
Matrix is great, but I wouldn't compare it to Signal. I use both for very different purposes.
Agree with the sentiment against signal. However, Matrix is terrible for anyone who doesn't want to bother with reading up on several hours of information just to use a text messenger. I will start recommending Matrix the moment someone actually manages to produce a feature complete client with usable UI/UX.
yeah been trying out matrix. Setup a server and tried various clients. They are all shit.
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Also simplex is a good alternative, it's decentralized:)
This? https://https/://simplex.chat/
FWIW Matrix and XMPP are also decentralised, much like e-mail is, which is why I recommended it. I'm immediately skeptic about SimpleX's premise of having no user IDs; they'll likely need some unique field for each user, this might as well be a UUID or something like that... So what's the benefit?
Since it's related, here's a good comparison:
https://eylenburg.github.io/im_comparison.htm
I think the other person here explained the thing about user ids. Matrix and xmpp are good too, they're just different.
Simplex is more of a messenger, while xmpp/matrix are more of discord alternatives.
Also simplex works with nodes. I can host a simplex server and it will be added to the network. In matrix/xmpp if I host a server it will be a new instance, like in lemmy (if I get it right). Simplex's approach is like tor's approach, each server added contributes to the whole network (they arent a separate instance).
If you check their page they have some bery good features, to me it seems like its signal, done (somewhat) right. Signal doesnt even have a proper way to migrate accounts across devices.. not to mention the phone number requirement which might scare people who aren't gonna waste time hearing my explanation as to why it's not an issue or the fact that until recently signal would notify everyone in your contacts who had a signal account that you made an account, bruh
There's also this comment here that throws some shade to matrix, havent looked much into that tho.
Oh that is a great explanation, thanks a bunch!
Each convo gets its own UUID, and the convos can be spread across different servers/companies too.
That said the notifications donโt work consistently for me on iOS, so thatโs a dealbreaker. Hopefully they fix that soon.
librewolf is still dependent on firefox for development, just like vivaldi is on chrome. there is no european web browser.
For FF and Chromium to, their source is open so if there ever was a need to make it fully European, it would be doable. Or did I miss something? (novice question, here)
in addition to the other reply, the teams working on browsers are massive. over 500 developers for each, and that's only the core teams without external contributors. you don't just put together a team like that in an afternoon.
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The problem is that Librewolf, ungoogled chromium etc are soft forks, meaning they are completely dependent on the original projects. If for example Trump made a law banning releasing software as open source because thatโs communism, Librewolf would likely cease to exist
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Threema is a European secure messenger.
It's also a paid product with multiple flaws found in a recent-ish audit:
Paid means youโre more likely a customer than the product.
I canโt verify the security claims either way, but this article is a counter point to the one one linked: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/threema-claims-encryption-flaws-never-had-a-real-world-impact/
"While some of the findings presented in the paper may be interesting from a theoretical standpoint, none of them ever had any considerable real-world impact. Most assume extensive and unrealistic prerequisites that would have far greater consequences than the respective finding itself." - Threema.
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For more varied and detailed recommendations, these might be useful:
https://www.privacyguides.org/en/desktop/
https://www.privacyguides.org/en/desktop-browsers/
So your suggestion to "buy European" is to download a bunch of free shit...
I tried Mistral and it's awesome, I am upgrading to the paid version
Last spring Mistral (free tier) was better for my usage (mainly JS programming) than ChatGPT (free tier). No idea which is better now (esp. after openai launched chatgpt 4, but Mistral improved too) but at least Mistral isn't bad at all.
I don't think I have to elaborate on Linux > Windows. If that's really needed ask for it please. Summary: It's simply better, the times where it was only for nerds are long gone.
Search engine doesn't matter too much. I usually use DuckDuckGo and it works fine (does what a search engine should do without displaying ads, unlike Google).
Signal over WhatsApp also is pretty obvious, but it's the hardest one to change because so many people simply don't want to switch once one thing is running and you want to communicate with those people.
LibreWolf basically is Firefox (which is far better than Chrome in terms of privacy, ad blocking, customisability, ...)
Isn't signal owned by a single company with backend infrastructure all Managed by them and only them?
The current CEO is nice, for sure, but she won't be there forever. Look at what Mozilla just did, this eventually WILL happen to signal too
What alternatives are there form something like signal?
You can self-host Signal, although youโd need your friends to sign up with your server.
What we really need is a federated messaging platform. I donโt think itโs been done yet, but encrypted email efforts are kinda in that direction.
Federated messaging we've had for ages: XMPP
A modern messenger based on existing technologies, including encrypted email which you happen mention: Delta Chat
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Startpage? (based in Netherlands). I mean itโs a frontend for google, but ecosia is a frontend for bing. And startpage has a no log policy which beats ecosia.
Startpage gives very good results, I recall reading somewhere that they use search results from Google, but I honestly don't know. I use it over Ecosia because it has slightly better results and is more privacy focused. Plus I never click any adverts, so Ecosia wouldn't generate an awful lot of trees from my usage haha.
I also used Qwant, but the search results weren't great for more complex search queries.
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Isn't ecosia paying ~~Google~~ Bing for its results?
Edit: changed Google to Bing.
Yes, but ecosia is currently building a European search index together with qwant. In my view, the two are therefore worth supporting
They're planning to eventually switch to a european index alongside Qwant.
So is Startpage, if I recall correctly.
Startpage is based on Google.
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Ew, Chromium
And why not DuckDuckGo?
Already done most of those, whatsapp is the hardest to replace for me from this category.
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Wait, wasn't Vivaldi bought by a Chinese conglomerate?
I need an european search engine that supports bangs
Qwant apparently supports something similar
No, it doesn't take you to the website you used the bang for. Doesn't behave like duckduckgo or brave search
Not sure if how they work in DuckDuckGo or Brave, but in Ecosia they have predefined bangs for some sites that open that site's search when you write them. E.g. โ#g woodpecker" would open a google search page for the result woodpecker, same for #yt for YouTube.
Yeah, they're not working for me either.
If you want to use large language models or other generative predictive models (I refuse to call it AI) then I suggest considering self hosting those models for ultimate control of the information you provide.
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It would've been perfect if it recommended matrix instead of american-owned signal.
As an american I am switching to European apps I am disgusted with being an american citizen and if I could I would move.
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