I've updated the Digital Independence cheat sheet for leaving big tech
I've updated the Digital Independence cheat sheet for leaving big tech
I never imagined the original post would go so viral and be seen by +6M people. But I guess it shows there’s real momentum — and the perfect time to finally escape big tech’s grip.
I went through hundreds of reposts of the image and took in feedback from community comments. I’ve replaced USA-centralized apps like Brave and Bluesky with more open alternatives, and added self-hosting indicators.
As many of you recommended, I’ve also created an online version with descriptions that we can constantly update and improve.
Drop a comment if you have suggestions for a better alternative, improved description, or a feature for the site. Let's break free together!
IMO Gmail -> Thunderbird is a bit flawed since you'd still need a service provider. It could be Thunderbird + Posteo / others (please no ProtonMail).
As with all impromptu lists, this one is pretty flawed. For example, as much as I love it, lineageOS is not useful for "digital independence" in any meaningful sense, since it's just a more cleaned up version of android. Or PeerTube, which can't really be considered a realistic alternative to yt. It's fine in itself, but it's so small and so hard to scale that you might just be better off giving up the yt format altogether. And then there's Thunderbird. I love it but it's a CLIENT, you'll still need a mail provider.
If you search about it you can lock your bootloader with LineageOS.
LineageOS is worse than that. You can't have it and also have local security as you cannot lock your phone bootloader with an unsigned image. You can't protect yourself from anyone with physical access to the phone.
Any European email provider who provides free tier and allows more than one personal account, just like Gmail? No problem for me if the amount of free storage is low.
It's a start, but the goal should be to have multiple options. Any monopoly can either be bought or abused and we should work towards making those as hard as possible.
While I’d generally agree, I don’t think fediverse platforms having a monopoly is as dangerous.
Social media requires a sort of monopoly to work well, I think federation is a good approach here.
Perhaps. It's still early to tell.
LibreWolf is listed as an alternative web browser; not an alternative way to run Chrome extensions.
Similarly, listing Mint as an alternative to Windows is about having an alternative computer OS. It is not about having an alternative way to run your Windows apps.
And Lemmy is an alternative 'ranked forum' (or whatever you want to call this). It is not an alternative way to read reddit threads.
Any browser is an alternative to any other browser, IMO. They all have the same purpose.
Any browser is an alternative to any other browser, IMO.
But they can't run the same extensions, hence the fact that there is store for FF browsers and another one for chromium browsers. Since people can be very picky regarding their favorite extensions. So, suggesting some FF-based browser as an alternative to a Chromium-based one is the best way to disappoint quite a few potential users... for no good reason.
They all have the same purpose.
Like all computer or phone have the same purpose, still people will prefer one brand over the others, on even in one brand, one model of the other. Despite all of them being phones (or computers). Should we forbid people any choice because you consider it's not important in you use case?
Firefox is always & will be an alternative to chrome
As far as I'm concerned, it's the other way around. FF was there first ;)
What separates waterfox from firefox or librewolf?
Different Dev teams
Nice, but highlighting a particular Linux distro might not be great. I see the point in minimizing amount of choices, but many people may not like default Mint experience.
It's debatable, there's no perfect answer. As a dev I am always on arch and never tried once mint. Every opinions I read the last 5 years says that mint is solid and very friendly to windows users. I can live with such a recommendation in a cheat sheet for unaware people.
I agree. At least suggest both Mint and Ubuntu. I recently started using Linux just a couple of weeks ago. Started with Mint and I hated it! Then I moved on to Ubuntu and it’s way better for my taste.
For me it was Manjaro that helped me switch over, and now I'm on Fedora. Didn't like Mint either.
Droidify is just a bloated wrapper for F-Droid
I don’t think piracy is a proper alternative to paying for commercial content.
Free content is.
So it shouldn’t be on this chart IMO. It’s a separate topic. It’s not a good look to lump piracy in with open/free software ideology.
There's no piracy as alternative in the list.
Hello, very nice guide:)
I'd just like to bring to your attention, a very thorough comparison of messengers you might want to check😄
OpenSUSE Linux from Nuremberg!
Its a bit odd to suggest Nextcloud for Google Drive but then leave it off the replacement list for photos and Docs. Use the Memories App in Nextcloud ans add Collabora and you have those features in Nextcloud too. News app = Google Reader, RePod+AntennaPod = Google Podcasts, Nextcloud Talk instead of Google Meet and Zoom. (just add cloud hosted stun/tun server for performance video chat when hosting from home.)
Where can I find the best Android alternative for my old-ass devices that don't support Lineage OS?
For most of those devices, it depends what your goals are, but many privacy minded folks consider them unsalvageable.
If you can root the device, you could install the latest compatible version of the Android Open Source Project, and then use your newfound root powers to disable components you don't want, to the extent that the older versions of Android support doing so.
Technically, that's all LineageOS is doing for you. So if you're willing to put the effort in, the device can be salvaged. For most of us, it makes more sense to get a newer device, researching what OS-es are supported.
Last time I used thunderbird was many years ago, like 10 years or so. Can you create a mail adress there? How does it compare to other providers like Tuta, Proton, Posteo and others?
It's an email client, not an email provider. It can be used to receive/send emails from almost any provider, not to create new ones.
Yeah, as Thunderbird is just a mail client, and not a provider, it’s not really an “alternative”. It should list StartMail, Mailbox.org, Tutanota, etc. Since people are used to using web clients for emails, I don’t think suggesting a desktop app that still requires an provider is necessary, just creates confusion.
Yeah, I saw that one pretty quick and wondered why they did that. Mailbox.org is a better option than just putting 'thunderbird'.
I didn't want to mention this on Reddit because there's many more people there, but are you guys aware of P-Stream?
It actually replaces Netflix. The legality of the service is... Questionable, at best, however.
Treema. No maytrix
What was the original post? I could not find anything on your profile.
Nice, thanks!