this post was submitted on 18 Mar 2025

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

submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

60 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

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] [email protected] 31 points 2 months 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] 4 points 2 months 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.

[–] jnod4 3 points 2 months 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 months ago

Can install any software

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months 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.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months 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] 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

What separates waterfox from firefox or librewolf?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

Different Dev teams

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months 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 2 months ago (3 children)

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

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

Firefox is always & will be an alternative to chrome

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

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

[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 months 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 2 months 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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Perhaps. It's still early to tell.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago (11 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).

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

Ever tried Tutanota or Disroot ?

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago

Droidify is just a bloated wrapper for F-Droid

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

Session
Signal
GPG2
VLC
Tuta
OpenKeychain
KeePassXC
NetGuard
Mullvad
Ironfox
BLE Radar
Transmission
Obfuscate
Monero/Haveno

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months 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 2 months ago

There's no piracy as alternative in the list.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months 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 months ago (2 children)

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?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

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.

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

Yes, there are quite a few approximations in the list ;)

in the EU/Western Europe, as an e mail provider I would suggest in no order: maibox.org, proton, tuta and owning your own domain but that one last option (teh best one, imho) may already be too technical for most users.

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

Yeah, I saw that one pretty quick and wondered why they did that. Mailbox.org is a better option than just putting 'thunderbird'.

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

Where can I find the best Android alternative for my old-ass devices that don't support Lineage OS?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

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.

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

OpenSUSE Linux from Nuremberg!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (6 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 2 months 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 2 months ago

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

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months 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.

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

Total noob here, can stremio be used to escape big tech legally?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months 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.)

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