why defend defaultism or sexism? It may sound harmless to you, you may be used to it, but “alright boys” is exclusive and not, like some need to claim, a default greeting.
older women don’t care, they’re used to men being dickheads, but not being recognized hurts girls
alright girls, (that by default means you boys🤯) you can downVote this comment to hell now
Begin to de-google yourself. Research on FOSS alternatives to Google apps and services. Depending on your reliance, this may be a slow process. It’s OK. Build an understanding that there will be lots of sacrificing, especially convenience around the brand ecosystem that Google and Apple are known for.
Beside concrete suggestions, I would suggest having a look at the applications you use. (Decide whether you actually use and need them first.) Search for the application on AlternativeTo or similar sites and look for a FLOSS alternative there. And also search the internet for general FLOSS replacements for the use-cases of the applications you use. No need to rush anything. Even replacing one application a week is good progress.
What apps you install depends on your needs and preferences. It might help others if you include those in any future requests for suggestions.
I suggest not worrying too much about “removing your dependence on closed ecosystems” immediately. Just do as you did before, changing apps as you find better alternatives—only, this time, considering the advantages of FOSS. Simply by giving F-droid apps a chance before opening (I assume) the Play Store, you’re already doing better than the vast majority of people.
Regarding discoverability and security, I believe participation in the community helps:
The Venn diagram of “FOSS app users” and “software enthusiasts” is closer to a circle. People like talking about useful, good software they like. Word of mouth recommendations is how I got into this stuff.
You’ll be more likely to hear urgent actionable news (e.g. X app developer sold to bad company, here’s the fork that will carry the torch onwards).
And so that this comment isn’t completely useless… Mozilla are currently working on a mobile version of Thunderbird for Android, built on top of K9 mail. Been using the beta and liking it so far. If you want a FOSS e-mail app, keep an eye on that one.
P.S. I much prefer the dark side, and don’t forget the cookies!
My bad, I forgot you need to be careful using such metaphors when talking about software. It’s as the other commenter said: a rebrand, but they might keep the old identity around for people who like it.
K-9 is rebranding as Thunderbird for Android, indeed. But since many users of K-9 expressed their desire to keep the logo and name of K-9, Thunderbird agreed to publish both versions: one rebranded as Thunderbird for Android, and the other keeping its original branding as K-9. We will see whether that will complicate things for Thunderbird team too much yet.
My problem with Symphony and other music apps like Auxio is that they don’t work with audiobooks and file types like m4b. Simple Music Player worked for me when playing all my audio files but now I am waiting for the Fossify version to be published.
These are my main core apps. Not fully divested from closed ecosystems (YouTube & Google Maps are in there with alternative private frontends). But close enough for me.
Mull - Private Firefox
OrganicMaps & GMaps WV - Maps
Eternity - Lemmy
Meglodon - Mastadon
ProtonVPN - VPN
AntennaPod - Podcasts
Bitwarden - Passwords
Joplin - Notes
NewPipe Sponsorblock - YouTube w/o ads or in-video promotions
Fennec, it’s a type of fox in the real world, and it’s a perfectly fine fork of Firefox.
And Firefox for android is great, leaps and bounds better than the Chromes and Chromiums that many people use. Firefox for android allows you to install browser extensions!
I never have to leave home without my µBlock Origin again.
They also released a Fossify messenger and contacts app. You might have to enable or refresh the IzzyOnDroid repo to see them now, or wait until they come to the default F-Droid repo.
Apps are typically removed from the IzzyOnDroid repository if they are later added to the main F-Droid repository. While that makes sense (since the goal of that particular repository is to host apps before they’re accepted into the main F-Droid repository), it can leave you with installed apps which no longer receive updates.
They are using repeatable builds, so the fdroid version is signed by fossify. You can update between github, izzy, and fdroid, and in the future likely also google play, if they release there.
I dug up the meta discussion on it. Mentioned there is the issue to add reproducible builds to the phone app, which is marked complete since that was released on github and izzy last week.
Further for me the app is marked installed on both entries in fdroid, which means the fdroid and izzy repos should serve bit by bit identical apks, from my understanding (the installed mark being based off of the apk hash).
Google’s Messages and Dialer apps for Android devices have been collecting and sending data to Google without specific notice and consent, and without offering the opportunity to opt-out, potentially in violation of Europe’s data protection law.
According to a research paper, “What Data Do The Google Dialer and Messages Apps On Android Send to Google?” [PDF], by Trinity College Dublin computer science professor Douglas Leith, Google Messages (for text messaging) and Google Dialer (for phone calls) have been sending data about user communications to the Google Play Services Clearcut logger service and to Google’s Firebase Analytics service.
“The data sent by Google Messages includes a hash of the message text, allowing linking of sender and receiver in a message exchange,” the paper says. “The data sent by Google Dialer includes the call time and duration, again allowing linking of the two handsets engaged in a phone call. Phone numbers are also sent to Google.”
The timing and duration of other user interactions with these apps has also been transmitted to Google. And Google offers no way to opt-out of this data collection.
Am I wrong in feeling like if my phone isn’t completely degoogled, there is not much point in not using Google apps because Google has so much integration into Android when not degoogled? I kinda view Google spying on me as unavoidable until I degoogle.
I switched to graphene so these make sense. I agree, though, if Google is baked in to your OS you’re pissing in to the wind trying to stem the flow of data to them.
Damn, thanks for letting me know. I’ve been using the Simple suite for years and even bought some of them because I wanted to reward the developer. I’m saddened by the news of the acquisition. I’ll swap them with the new fork.
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