Switch to software alternatives
March 3rd 2025With politics for the world at large and the tech sector in turmoil at the moment, more and more people are questioning their choices of apps and platforms. In my view, that is definitely a good thing ~ triggered by some worrying developments, of course. It is very sad that organisations we trusted, like Mozilla, are making dubious decisions, like changing their TOS, and worrying us all.
Mozilla doesn’t sell data about you (in the way that most people think about “selling data”), and we don’t buy data about you.
quoted from Mozilla, privacy FAQ
Not in the way that most people think about “selling data” — what does that even mean?! :-( Let’s be honest here – this does not sound great or instill much confidence… if not in the way we think about data selling, then how else…?! To add to this, there’s Mozilla’s stance on AI: A Forgotten Manifesto: Mozilla Betrays Its Own Values on Open Source AI (Sam Johnston, 3/3/2025)
Looking at alternatives
To spread the word on some excellent alternative solutions, I will update my posts on the tools of the trade in my handbook to include more of the options available. I am already trying to list mainly good software (including some of the popular ones for the sake of a complete list for browsers and search especially) ~ maybe I need to review my approach soon…
And the following are two great posts I came across on Mastdon which prompted me to join in the sharing of alternatives ツ
David Revoy is an advocate for Open Source and he shares his tools and setups (for his digital artwork) openly. I’m a huge fan of his wonderful work and use the brushes for Krita which he makes available for free ツ
David Revoy
@davidrevoy@framapiaf.org
How my Firefox became a LibreWolf
New blog-post: davidrevoy.com/article1065/how-my-firefox-became-a-librewolf
Here’s a great list pointing to other possible alternatives. The following is the original toot from Josef Davies-Coates, with the list of active links for easy access ツ
1. switching.software/
2. www.privacyguides.org/
3. alternativeto.net/
4. ethical.net/resources/
5. selfh.st/apps/
6. european-alternatives.eu/
7. prism-break.org/en/
There is also e.g. this nice bit of guidance too
optoutproject.net/the-cyber-cleanse-take-back-your-digital-footprint/
