For more varied and detailed recommendations, these might be useful:
https://www.privacyguides.org/en/desktop/
https://www.privacyguides.org/en/desktop-browsers/
this post was submitted on 03 Mar 2025
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Never would I have thought Lemmy would advocate installing Linux.
Why?
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.
XMPP is more comparable to Signal, yes.
Signal does need (yes, need) a phone number, and most people only have one so that is identifiable info.
This puts it at mostly the same level as some competitors, including WhatsApp which is often advised against.
Signal will operate until Elon Musk decides that everyone has to use X to communicate.
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 don’t work consistently for me on iOS, so that’s 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)
I got a security alert when clicking the link, I did not push further sorry ;)
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.
Yes, I can imagine that. Thx (too ;))
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 that’s communism, Librewolf would likely cease to exist
Oh, it makes sense. Thx a lot for the clarification.
Startpage? (based in Netherlands). I mean it’s a frontend for google, but ecosia is a frontend for bing. And startpage has a no log policy which beats ecosia.
System1 acquired Startpage and there are based in the US.
Well that's a bummer, but at least the company who owns Startpage will remain in the Netherlands for now it seems.
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.
Threema is a European secure messenger.
It's also a paid product with multiple flaws found in a recent-ish audit:
Paid means you’re more likely a customer than the product.
I can’t 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.
Paid unfortunately also means that it's way harder to convince anyone to use it, even though the price seems very low for what you get. The other problem that brings is that I don't know what I'm buying exactly until I bought it.
Already done most of those, whatsapp is the hardest to replace for me from this category.
Isn't ecosia paying ~~Google~~ Bing for its results?
Edit: changed Google to Bing.
They're planning to eventually switch to a european index alongside Qwant.
Yes, but ecosia is currently building a European search index together with qwant. In my view, the two are therefore worth supporting
So is Startpage, if I recall correctly.
Startpage is based on Google.
So is Qwant, yes.
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
Yeah, they're not working for me either.
It would've been perfect if it recommended matrix instead of american-owned signal.
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.
Communications: Wire (what's everyone's opinion on that?)
Search engine: selfhosted searxng if possible.
Fuck the Ai slop.
It’s a technology being used by capitalist around the world to take jobs away from people and to push fascist agendas!
https://newsocialist.org.uk/transmissions/ai-the-new-aesthetics-of-fascism/
Linux
Okay, is there any debugger with a GUI, that isn't just the command line interface in either a separate window or just a tab in VSCode?