Over the past few months, I embarked on a rewarding digital journey to move away from US big tech and towards more European [EU], open source [FOSS], privacy-oriented [P], and decentralized [D] alternatives.
I'm sharing my experience here in case it can be useful to others, as well as to gather any additional thoughts or suggestions:
- Desktop OS: Microsoft Windows 11 --> OpenSUSE Tumbleweed + KDE [EU][FOSS]
- Web browser: Google Chrome --> Brave --> Vivaldi --> Mozilla Firefox + Strict privacy settings, uBlock Origin, Privacy Badger, Conset-O-Matic [FOSS][P]
- Email: Gmail --> Infomaniak Mail [EU][FOSS]
- Calendar: Google Calendar --> Infomaniak Calendar [EU][FOSS] + OneCalendar [EU]
- Files: Dropbox --> Infomaniak kDrive [EU][FOSS]
- Photos: Google Photos --> Infomaniak kDrive [EU][FOSS]
- Notes: Google Keep --> Notesnook [FOSS][P]
- Social Media:
- Facebook --> Nothing
- Twitter/X --> Mastodon (
mas.to) [EU][FOSS][D]
- Reddit --> Lemmy (
lemm.ee) [EU][FOSS][D]
- AI Chatbot: OpenAI ChatGPT --> Mistral AI Le Chat [EU]
- Videos: Youtube --> Unwatched [EU][FOSS][P]
- Podcasts: Apple Podcasts --> Spotify --> Pocket Casts [FOSS]
- Translate: Google Translate --> DeepL [EU]
- Maps: Google Maps --> Organic Maps [EU][FOSS][P]
- Weather: Apple Weather --> YR [EU]
- Online payments: PayPal --> Revolut [EU]
- Password manager: LastPass --> Mozilla Firefox --> Bitwarden [FOSS][P]
- Online shopping: Amazon --> Cdiscount [EU]
- Travel booking:
Booking.com --> Direct booking
And here's the list of things I couldn't let go of:
- Mobile OS: iOS | I have a business iPhone which is also my personal phone
- Messaging: WhatsApp | The network effect is too big here: family, friends, local businesses, etc
- Streaming services: Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ | These come basically for free with my ISP and are too convenient for the moment (esp. w/ kids)
WhatsApp is the big one, that shit is a proven vulnerability. It was literally the vector for zero click access to Android devices in the Pegasus toolkit.
One way around it is to have a separate device for WhatsApp itself, then use WhatsApp4Web from F-Droid. It's basically a web wrapper for the browser version of WhatsApp, but it does run somewhat independently of the main WhatsApp device (unlike eg Threema where the website won't work unless the device has internet).
I realise this is not possible for iOS but may be useful for others: my neighbourhood chat is in WhatsApp so I keep it in a separate profile on CalyxOS. WhatsApp4Web sounds good though, so thanks!
It's only just about functional and clunky as fuck. But if you want to get rid of WhatsApp from your device but still need to talk to someone in it then it's a good shout.