#europe #european #europeanalternatives #europeanalternative #privacy #opensource #software #freedom

  • whaleross@lemmy.worldEnglish
    44·
    7 days ago

    Arch Linux as the alternative to Windows will make people never try Linux again. It should just say Linux, no flavours or personal preferences needed, alternatively a listing of the most newbie user friendly distros ever. Everybody already into Linux know what they want.

  • birdwing@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    7·
    4 days ago

    Update, but it appears that Trump’s Gestapo now has access to Graphite, which is Israeli spyware, designed with zero-day exploits. Apparently it can also hack Signal.

    What we need is to criminally prosecute all who circumvent robust privacy laws using third countries. Especially companies and secret services. And if that means we need to arrest prime ministers, so be it. If Israel’s terrorist Mossad arrests people on other countries’ borders, who’s to say we cannot do the same for their fascist terrorist leaders?

  • M137@lemmy.worldEnglish
    16·
    6 days ago

    Nope to proton, it’s weird how they always show up in these kinds of posts.

    • FinnFooted@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      5 days ago

      People say nope to proton and signal in here without offering a better alternative. I’m open to shitting on them (proton CEO really pissed me off by praising the trump admin), but just saying nope to them without functional alternatives isn’t helpful.

      • dogs0n@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        1·
        5 days ago

        Nothing, but my opinion is the pricing is too high for their mostly incomplete apps. Other services usually offer more for less when you get them individually.

  • birdwing@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    15·
    7 days ago

    Can also recommend Qwant besides Ecosia.

    For AI chatbots I’d recommend Ollama, Kobold.cpp or Llamafix.

    for mail, Mailbox and Tuta are great too.

    For delivery services, Bol.com is better indeed (has better labour rights too), but ideal is to just go shopping in the city itself. It benefits local smaller stores too!

    For YouTube, I’d recommend PeerTube.

    For OS, it depends on how well you know Linux types. If you’re new to Linux, and just want something that works, Linux Mint.

    In general, the best bet would be as decentralised, open source, and horizontally organised as possible. Defederate from large companies. The less chance then, that a bad agent will be able to embrace, extend, and extinguish.

    • blinfabian@feddit.nlOPEnglish
      3·
      7 days ago

      i had a bad experience with Qwant, i also wanna try peertube but they gotta let me make an account😭

      • Niquarl@lemmy.mlEnglish
        2·
        7 days ago

        You coule just follow Peertube channels from Mastodon if you can’t find an instance that you like.

  • Joe Bidet@lemmy.mlEnglish
    13·
    7 days ago

    How and why is Signal not “American big tech”? It even runs on Amazon’ servers!

    • rustydrd@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      6·
      6 days ago

      I read “American/Big Tech” as things that can be either the one or the other but not necessarily both. Telegram is a for-profit, publicly traded company based in Dubai that recently announced a partnership with xAI to include Grok into its services. Signal on the other hand is based in California and has been entirely non-profit so far. Pick your poison, I guess, but I know what I’m gonna pick.

      • Joe Bidet@lemmy.mlEnglish
        2·
        6 days ago

        You make it sound like there are only these two possibilities, that’s where it gets misleading…

    • XM34@feddit.orgEnglish
      4·
      7 days ago

      Exactly, putting Telegram under American big tech, but not Signal has to be a bad joke! Telegram has its issues, but being American big tech ain’t one of them!

    • blinfabian@feddit.nlOPEnglish
      21·
      7 days ago

      imo its not that hard, but if its your first time with linux i’d suggest starting with a linux mint/fedora vm or install it on a spare laptop if you have one. this way you could learn it a bit before making the switch

      • notsosure@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        3·
        7 days ago

        I used it 20+ years ago. Is arch Linux now the “new” free/federated version? And on what non-US laptop can I run it?

        • blinfabian@feddit.nlOPEnglish
          9·
          7 days ago

          wdym by free and federated? i just use arch because i like it, but mint for say is also free. i personally have an ACER laptop running EndevourOS, but Tuxedo Computers is a German company that ships their machines with linux pre-installed

        • PixelProf@lemmy.caEnglish
          2·
          5 days ago

          Most Linux distributions are free (free as in beer and free as in free speech and freedom to modify). Some are backed by big corporations with questionable activities (e.g., Ubuntu owned by Canonical adding ads and data tracking by default).

          Federation is a different concept (relating to the interconnecting of content platforms, such as email or Lemmy).

          Linux itself is the underlying kernel code which programs talk to act as a mediator between software and hardware. Each Linux distribution is basically a software suite built on-top.

          Arch is specifically notable for having a very fast software update cycle.

          In contrast, Debian is a distribution with the “slow and stable” mantra. Software officially supported and distributed for it only receives updates every few years after extensive stability testing. The goal is to never have a random update break anything. This also means it is slow to receive support for new hardware unless you manually install it. It often supports running newer software but it won’t be nicely managed by the OS and you’ll be doing manual work to maintain it. The consequence? I have a new graphics card, and booting into Debian just gives me a black screen. I needed to use the terminal to download and install Nvidia’s driver myself.

          Arch isn’t so concerned with stability. It’s still tested, but their goal is to make sure new hardware and software advances can be used right away. Think weeks instead of years. This means it will support newer hardware and any news about Linux advancements will be on your machine before long. It also means that sometimes things slip through the cracks and one piece of software might break, or break another one. You might need to pay attention to Arch news before updating to see if there are any incompatibilities before updating.

          There are different distributions building on top of these. Arch itself must be installed from scratch, a tricky process. Debian is more streamlined. Ubuntu is built on Debian, having lots of stability, but has alternative software repositories to keep things a bit more up to date. Arch has variations that make it easier to install.

          Arch gives more flexibility in what you install and more control of your system. Debian has lots of flexibility as well. Ubuntu has a bit less. Mint is a popular choice, built on Ubuntu, and it removes some of the “chaff” people complain about being added into Ubuntu.

          Linux distributions can run on basically anything. A smart toaster might run Linux. If it can run Windows, it will probably run a Linux distribution with a quarter of the memory usage at double the speed because Windows hogs resources with unnecessary and unkillable software in the background.

    • Rose56@lemmy.caEnglish
      11·
      7 days ago

      You could also start with a dual boot windows-linux, and then slowly slowly transition to Linux. That’s how I started and I never booted windows after.

    • seraphine@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      6·
      7 days ago

      depends on what you use your computer for. for video editing, you propably should learn davinci resolve sind adobe doesnt work, which could take a while. For me, i use my pc for software development and gaming, and the switch was practically “instant”, anf i have been using arch (btw) for half a year now. it took maybe a week to get used to the terminal and after then it has been getting better and better. i suppose the “getting used to it” period is faster on something like mint

    • zhenbo_endle@lemmy.caEnglish
      5·
      7 days ago

      I’ve been using Linux for more than a decade. Modern Linux is quite easy to start, compared to the old stereotype.

      I highly recommend an easy way: for the daily softwares you use, you try to replace them with cross-platform ones, like libreoffice, thunderbird… when you want to try Linux someday, the migration path could be more smooth than you expected

    • blinfabian@feddit.nlOPEnglish
      3·
      6 days ago

      yeah i already use that too, i didnt rlly register it as an alternative which is why it isnt here ig😅

    • blinfabian@feddit.nlOPEnglish
      5·
      7 days ago

      Bol (formerly bol.com) is a website where stores sell stuff similar to amazon, only downsides are the increased amount of dropshippers and they only deliver to the netherlands and belgium

  • pathos@lemmy.mlEnglish
    4·
    7 days ago

    Don’t use Bol. They rip you off exactly the same as Amazon, even though you find the exact same product from exact same factory listed on Temu/Ali at 10% of the cost.

    I generally recommend to avoid Dutch retail. East European retails tend to be more efficient, though still not as efficient as the Chinese.

  • PDFuego@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    7 days ago

    What’s the benefit in using the Aurora App Store? It just looks like an alternate interface, according to their site you’re still using Google Play and you still need to log in with your Google account. Same with Vivaldi, isn’t it just Chrome? I’m asking sincerely, these aren’t attempts at gotchas or anything.