Thank you!

I love the explanation of how software is written, read and whether we can ‘see into it’ and verify there’s no nasty stuff going on.

For that reason of course we do try to recommend FOSS whereever possible. However, we’re not totally against proprietary software, so long as the build in privacy-by-design features e.g. E2EE.

We actually want to build sofware ourselves, and are looking into how to build it open source. Any advice welcome!

A Fairphone with e/OS/ on it.

I use them, and recommend them. Full E2EE is my number one requirement - after learning what can be done with just metadata.

Lack of 3rd party clients doesn’t bother me.

That they allow integration with your phone’s contacts app is a big win - Proton don’t allow that.

Hi everyone, thanks for your comments.

Our main aim is getting large numbers of people away from the main big tech companies. We’re less bothered about precisely which alternatives they choose, just that they do make a move.

For the comments about Vivaldi - their anti-surveillance and anti-AI stance, coupled with their great functionality, makes them a perfect off-ramp from big tech browsers. We’re aware that there are hardened browsers with even more privacy, but they can be restrictive - certain sites not opening - and right there you’ve lost a bunch of people who aren’t ready for that kind of trade off (yet).

Our focus is trying to convince those who really don’t care about privacy, that there is a larger problem created by ad surveillance. It’s a tough sell. Probably I’m too far gone to explain at that level. All suggestions welcome!

That’s a good idea. Fancy helping me word that definition?

By big tech we mean the big ones: Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, Apple. But you can widen that as you see fit e.g. the AI companies, Netflix etc

Anyone having any luck running Bazzite for VR gaming?

This is excellent! Good work!

Totally! When you see someone else’s phone or laptop and you’re like “ew!”

Does anyone know how Valve rate on privacy? Do they aggressively data mine and sell it in the surveillance economy?

That is an entirely valid point - and exactly why I wrote that blog post. To help people to explain to those around them that they also need to do something about their privacy. Otherwise they’re giving you away by association.

Come to think of it, I probably should have mentioned that in the post 🤦🏼‍♂️

Good points.

Similar to the other reply - I haven’t moved to a privacy OS on Android yet because of money.

My fancy Samsung is not supported by those OSs (yet).

oh wow the salute was from *above *the heart… which, for me, rules out the ‘from the heart’ defence.

Which was always bullshit, but you know… better to be able to debunk it properly.

Does anyone know if it’s possible to run VR games on Linux? I’d love t ditch Windows for the gaming pc…

ah damn, I didn’t know that… I really like those dropdowns as they shrink the article a bit. ok will have to consider not using them.

FYI when you get the blog by email they are expanded by default.

Have you tried viewing it in an RSS reader? (Ghost blogs you just append with /rss)

yeah i’m here. You mean without the ?tracker part to the URL…?

It’s a Ghost blog and that gets added automatically - I’d rather it wasn’t there but I don’t know how to stop that, sorry.

Showing that they blocked right wing stuff in the past, and now align with the right wing, demonstrates that big tech doesn’t care about sides - they just want money and power.

My non-profit the Rebel Tech Alliance is working on a series of blog posts that will look at self hosting for begginners. If you sign up for the blog you’ll get them when they’re published:

https://blog.rebeltechalliance.org/

Or our main website is at https://www.rebeltechalliance.org/

But really what I’ve got going (if you exclude Transmission) is the simplest stuff. Jellyfin, Calibre and Syncthing are just ‘click and install’ - they are all self contained so they don’t need all that Docker stuff. I suggest just tinkering with them.

Also running Calibre, Syncthing, Transmission and Filen. all on Linux Mint.

I can’t cope with TUI-only OS’s - the command stuff makes no sense to me at all. I’ve learned some of it, and am trying to get Nextcloud running in Docker behind Nginx Proxy Manager, but I can’t work out DDNS yet so… 😂

I was keen on Proxmox or Yunohost, but put off by the fact that they totally replace the OS. I’d be more comfortable with something that runs on the OS, like Docker does.

https://www.gmktec.com/products/nucbox-g3-plus-enhanced-performance-mini-pc-with-intel-n150-processor

This is going well for me - Jellyfin etc