this post was submitted on 24 Apr 2025
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Buy European

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[โ€“] bettertecheu@lemmy.world 99 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

I would rather see people use Firefox than Vivaldi. We need a more diverse browser engine market to keep the web open. More here: https://better-tech.eu/web/article/switch-browsers/

[โ€“] cm0002@lemmy.world 26 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

We need a more diverse browser engine market to keep the web open.

We definitely do, but it's a tall order considering making a fully functional and daily usable browser engine is one of the most difficult programming projects to under take

At least we got Ladybird with its brand new from scratch engine coming up though! (In 2028....)

[โ€“] bettertecheu@lemmy.world 31 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

It's absolutely not a simple thing, but if we let the web turn into Chrome-only then Ladybird doesn't stand a chance. For now, more market share for Firefox and Firefox-based browsers is the only argument against making websites only work in Chrome.

[โ€“] taladar@sh.itjust.works 9 points 2 weeks ago

Especially if Chrome is bought by OpenAI or some of the other players who want to enshittify it even faster and have shown interest.

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[โ€“] blinfabian@feddit.nl 7 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

i use librewolf on PC (which is a firefox fork) and vivaldi on phone :3

[โ€“] orbituary@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Fennec or Vanadium are good alt phone browsers, too. I do my best not to use chromium stuff at all, but keep the latter around on the work profile of my phone.

[โ€“] Coldcell@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 weeks ago

Waterfox too!

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[โ€“] agavaa@lemmy.world 43 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Not sure it's a good idea to recommend Arch Linux to newbies migrating from Windows; maybe prioritize Mint or similar?

[โ€“] blinfabian@feddit.nl 37 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

this is not a recommendation post. this is what i personally use as i said in the title. i would always recommend Mint to a Linux beginner

[โ€“] agavaa@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago

I misread, my bad. Good for you ๐Ÿ‘

[โ€“] VisionScout@lemmy.wtf 32 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

OP writes "instead of their american counterparts", and then puts signal.

Firefox as well any opensource doesn't have a country. You can build it and use it. Avoid any centralized service.

The 4 freedoms of software are:

Freedom 0: The Freedom to Run

    You can use the software for any purpose, without restrictions.

Freedom 1: The Freedom to Study and Modify

    You have access to the source code, allowing you to study how the software works and make changes to suit your needs.

Freedom 2: The Freedom to Distribute Copies

    You can share copies of the software with others, whether for free or at a cost.

Freedom 3: The Freedom to Improve and Share Improvements

    You can modify the software and share your changes with the community, helping others benefit from your improvements.

as long as these freedoms are observed it doesn't matter the country of origin.

[โ€“] Telorand@reddthat.com 28 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Signal is based in California, but they're a nonprofit.

[โ€“] potter2010@lemmy.ca 15 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I thought it was odd to see it in an European alternative list.

[โ€“] Telorand@reddthat.com 12 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

I don't personally have issues with nonprofits or FOSS as exceptions to my own personal boycott of US companies, but if anyone is looking for an alternative to Signal, SimpleX is probably the closest analog.

It's decentralized and funded globally. It's based in the UK.

[โ€“] exposable_preview@slrpnk.net 26 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Some of these products would not exist without their American counterpart, which directly fuel their existance.

Librewolf is just a hardened version of Firefox. It would not exist without the Firefox team continuing to develop Firefox and to fix its security issues.

Ecosia primarely uses Bing and Startpage uses Google for search results. Both would not exist without the search engines backing them.

I'm not saying these are bad products and I don't mean to criticiseze. I'm actually a librewolf user myself. I just think it is important to point out that the European label might be deceiving in this instance and might mislead people into thinking they are using something different than they actually are.

It might also not be so important. Perhaps focusing our energy on good open source projects and NGO-backed initiatives is desirable regardless of their origin?

idk food for thought

[โ€“] timestatic@feddit.org 5 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Ecosia is actively developing their own search index together with Qwant. They are rolling out French and German results this year actually. AFAIK only like Mojeek and like Swisscow have their own search index (as well as Brave which is US based). But their current search results aren't really that great which is why I will stick to Qwant.

I also don't fully trust Brave because of their whole crypto involvement but their search engine is pretty good from experience and definitely much better in terms of privacy than google.

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[โ€“] gutter564@feddit.uk 21 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

Awesome stuff. Also don't forget European DNS companies like Quad9.

[โ€“] asudox@lemmy.asudox.dev 14 points 2 weeks ago

And Mullvad

[โ€“] OrganicMustard@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago

You can also easily host your own DNS with Unbound

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[โ€“] tauren@lemm.ee 13 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

American telegram? ๐Ÿ˜‚

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[โ€“] lb_o@lemmy.world 12 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

How is Telegram US based? It is a Pavel Durov's offshore company from some Virgin islands. Not European, but not US either.

[โ€“] Marty_Man_X@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago

In this case, I think the creator just avoids Telegram, for good reason:

Itโ€™s not E2EE encrypted by default.

The list is not named appropriately โ€œUS etcโ€ but itโ€™s not a bad list either

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[โ€“] timestatic@feddit.org 11 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

Startpage got bought by System1 in 2019. System1 is an American advertising company. I personally use Qwant for privacy reasons - They're also in the process of building their own search index together with Ecosia.

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[โ€“] SunshineJogger@feddit.org 8 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

I switched from chatgpt pro to lechat and have been using lechat for several weeks now.

It's so bad comparitively that I am considering to just not use AI anymore.

I used chatgpt daily many times and minstral le chat is just.... Incapable of understanding contextual things. It has still a long way to go before it can really compete, sadly.

[โ€“] lord_ryvan@ttrpg.network 6 points 2 weeks ago

It's so bad comparitively that I am considering to just not use AI anymore.

This is the way.

[โ€“] blinfabian@feddit.nl 4 points 2 weeks ago

i barely use AI anyway, so to me Le Chat is just as good :3

[โ€“] huppakee@lemm.ee 3 points 2 weeks ago

I found this too and looked if there is something I could do to use chatgpt anonymous. I figured that might be better than continuing to use them in cases I expect le chat to be subpar. DuckDuckGo has an interface for this, although i haven't figured out much 'better' of a solution this is. You can go to http://duck.ai/ chat anonymous with:

  • GPT-4o mini
  • Llama 3.3 70B
  • Claude 3 Haiku
  • o3-mini
  • Mistral Small 3

According to DuckDuckGo (which is also US-based) your chat will not be used as training data. If someone here has more knowledge please provide it because I'm just not sure if this is much better than using ChatGPT directly except that openai doesn't get to build a user profile of me.

[โ€“] 20nat@feddit.it 5 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Did't know HERE we go, seems very good, thanks!

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[โ€“] LordOfLocksley@lemmy.world 5 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

I thought Bol only serviced Belgium and Netherlands?

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[โ€“] Leeuk@feddit.uk 4 points 2 weeks ago (6 children)

Decent list, but I'd recommend Threema instead of Signal

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[โ€“] pewgar_temp@feddit.uk 4 points 2 weeks ago

well looks like estonians will be proud of bolt now

[โ€“] gruzi1gais@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (4 children)
[โ€“] blinfabian@feddit.nl 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
[โ€“] gruzi1gais@lemmy.world 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Seems startpage is partly owned by Americans (system1). Seems they own even more than 50%. So how can you say its eu search website?

[โ€“] blinfabian@feddit.nl 6 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

i didnt know.. its so hard to find a good search engine thats also european๐Ÿ˜ญ

[โ€“] gruzi1gais@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
[โ€“] blinfabian@feddit.nl 4 points 2 weeks ago

yea i switched back to ecosia instantly after learning what i just learned

[โ€“] kaarne@leminal.space 4 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

I've had good results with Qwant so far, been using it for some months now.

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[โ€“] lord_ryvan@ttrpg.network 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

EDIT I misunderstood the post, this is what you're using, not what you're recommending, sorry about that!
I will still include my original comment below.

Still, I use and can recommend XMPP and the provider magicbroccoli.de! Arne the admin is also a swell guy!


Bold move recommending US Signal over European Telegram!

I'd personally trust neither very much; one's US funded and the other clearly not as secure outside โ€œsecret chatsโ€.

But what about Threema? Or a European XMPP provider like the excellent magicbroccoli.de?

[โ€“] Zwiebel@feddit.org 5 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

magicbroccoli.de

Tell me you're for weed dealers without telling me you're for weed dealers xD

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