this post was submitted on 18 Mar 2025

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318

I've updated the Digital Independence cheat sheet for leaving big tech (lemmy.world)

submitted 3 days ago by lukakopajtic to c/[email protected]

62 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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!

top 50 comments

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 17 hours ago

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.

[–] asdfasdfasdf 12 points 1 day ago (2 children)

IMO Gmail -> Thunderbird is a bit flawed since you'd still need a service provider. It could be Thunderbird + Posteo / others (please no ProtonMail).

[–] MITM0 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Ever tried Tutanota or Disroot ?

[–] asdfasdfasdf 1 points 21 hours ago

No, I haven't tried Tutanota because I can't use a client I want. I decided PGP encryption is something I can do client side anyway on the rare case I want it.

[–] bobotom4444 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

What is wrong with Protonmail?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

They support ✨nazis✨

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (3 children)

They do?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

Yes

[–] MITM0 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Let me give you a more precise info; The CEO is a Trump supporter & the Compsny doubled-down

Of course it didn't impact the product, but still why would Trump "Stand up for the little guys"

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

My answer was precise, yours just added fluff.

Trump is a Nazi and proton did express support. Therefore they support nazis. This isn't complex math.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

No they don't. Their CEO is an idiot and said that Republicans are the party of small business and did so on the official Proton social media channels. But it clearly is their opinion and they never said they support Republicans and Trump on anything else.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

"CEO" is the company, we are still in a capitalist society. The board would also count but we can very safely assume they're agreeing.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Ok Nazi apologist

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 day ago

👍

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (3 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

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.

[–] MITM0 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Ok Zorin then

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Also controversial. Just leave Linux, and it would be useful to have a page outlining major newbie distros

[–] MITM0 1 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) (1 children)

Zorin, LinuxMint & PopOS are newbie-distros

Or would you rather have OpenSUSE ?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 17 hours ago

All are fine. Also, Manjaro if you're feeling adventurous.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

For me it was Manjaro that helped me switch over, and now I'm on Fedora. Didn't like Mint either.

[–] absquatulate 31 points 3 days ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

If you search about it you can lock your bootloader with LineageOS.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago

Not to mention the fact that a bunch of banking apps won’t work on LineageOS. You can try magisk as a workaround for some, but others just won’t.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

So the moment you get lineage anyone with physical access can install bootloader things in your phone? Eg cerberus?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

Can install any software

[–] lath 18 points 3 days ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 days ago (1 children)

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.

[–] lath 2 points 2 days ago

Perhaps. It's still early to tell.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (4 children)

LibreWolf is not an alternative to chrome, it's a fork of FF. It won't run Chrome extensions... which chrome users would likely expect to be able to run.

For a Chrome alternative, I use Vivaldi (which is based in the EU)
As a Firefox alternative, I use Waterfox

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Any browser is an alternative to any other browser, IMO. They all have the same purpose.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 day ago (2 children)

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?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 20 hours ago

If someone asked for EU-based alternatives to a computer or phone they already owned, I would make suggestions based on my knowledge of the quality and performance of the products without giving any special consideration to the brand. I do absolutely consider all computers to be alternatives to each other and all phones to be alternatives to each other within this context. Finding a product that meets one individual's specific needs is outside the scope of a chart like this, I think.

[–] MrFinnbean 3 points 1 day ago

Tbh people who care about their extensions is small (and loud) minority who most likely know how to search browser fitting for them without this chart.

If something works for 95% of people you dont need to cater for the rest.

[–] MITM0 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Firefox is always & will be an alternative to chrome

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

As far as I'm concerned, it's the other way around. FF was there first ;)

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 days ago (1 children)

What separates waterfox from firefox or librewolf?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 days ago

Different Dev teams

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 days ago

Droidify is just a bloated wrapper for F-Droid

[–] paraphrand 8 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

There's no piracy as alternative in the list.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

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.)

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago

Hello, very nice guide:)

I'd just like to bring to your attention, a very thorough comparison of messengers you might want to check😄

https://eylenburg.github.io/im_comparison.htm

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

OpenSUSE Linux from Nuremberg!

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