• VisionScout@lemmy.wtf
    291·
    7 days 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.

  • exposable_preview@slrpnk.net
    22·
    7 days ago

    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

    • timestatic@feddit.orgEnglish
      3·
      6 days ago

      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.

  • timestatic@feddit.orgEnglish
    9·
    6 days ago

    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.

    • Niquarl@lemmy.ml
      2·
      6 days ago

      Qwant is a disaster. Just go read their Wikipedia page. Gouging public money for essential being an ecosia without sending money to plant trees…

          • timestatic@feddit.orgDeutsch
            3·
            5 days ago

            Yeah I agree. I went from Google -> Startpage -> Qwant and I’ve been getting pretty good results honestly. Couldn’t be happier. Only thing bugging me now is them, wanting me to install their browser extension when using Firefox but I just blocked that with uBlock

  • lb_o@lemmy.world
    101·
    6 days ago

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

    • Marty_Man_X@lemmy.world
      71·
      6 days ago

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

      It’s not E2EE encrypted by default.

      The list is not named appropriately “US etc” but it’s not a bad list either

    • Comment105@lemm.ee
      36·
      6 days ago

      These lists are almost always stupid.

      The worst part is that usually the maker hasn’t used half of the things they recommend… If they had, they wouldn’t have recommended them.

      I’m guessing they tend to make these lists because of a personal connection to one or two companies they put in their list. Just as bit of free marketing.

  • Leeuk@feddit.ukEnglish
    51·
    7 days ago

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

  • Fonzie!@ttrpg.network
    3·
    7 days ago

    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 “secret chats”.

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

      • Fonzie!@ttrpg.network
        3·
        6 days ago

        I was thinking the same, but I’ve not seen anyone seeming like a weed dealer so far. I think it’s just a case of German humour 😋

      • Fonzie!@ttrpg.network
        1·
        6 days ago

        Hm fair point!

        XMPP is focused on personal chats, calls and group chats. It’s a better drop-in replacement for Messenger, WhatsApp, Telegram and Signal.

        Matrix is great too, although it’s focused on channel-based, administrated chat rooms. It’s got a higher barrier of entry but is an excellent replacement for Discord, Teams and Slack for managing companies and other organised groups.

        They fill in different use cases and are both excellent decentralised services with the possibility to avoid non-European digital services!