had my doubts about it, but it worked! though i had a bunch of sim connection problems, worked after few reboots. multiple sims management is ass (at least on my samsung phone). i can't turn-off one SIM and work with the other, the internet tab ui in settings just starts lagging ( and my connection goes out the window). i have to reboot my phone every time i need to change anything in my sim connections. and the saftynet bullshit with whatsapp. otherwise its much better than one ui in terms of performance ( and of course privacy (; )

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/42654335

I remember the days (long past) when Google would refuse this type of work... back when their employees actually had a voice.

Yesterday on Digital Independence Day I've launched a small website suggesting sustainable alternatives to BigTech products.

I've started with five categories: Email, Search, Maps, Browsers, Messaging.

There are some controversial picks in there like Proton Mail or Brave. They do have a pretty wide adoption but have severe downsides. I'll probably remove them again. What do you think?

Which categories would be the next most important ones to add? Which services did I miss on the existing ones? Feedback welcome.

#DIDit #DigitalIndependenceDay

Canadians are also picking it up: https://thecanadian.social/@ElbowsUpforDigitalSovereignty/115995789975416607

cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/45042331

Hello again!!

Sorry for the big delay in the announcements. I know it has been a long time I have not made any announcements but I will try my best next time this doesn't happen again.

So, through the medium of this post I would like to share with you all the v1.24.36 major release version of the websurfx project which was released on the 26th of January.

If you are new, and you don't know what is websurfx then I would suggest taking a look at my previous post here:

https://programming.dev/post/2678496

Which covers in depth about what the project is and why it exists.

Credits

Before I share with you the changelog, what this release version means and a preview on what we are planning to work on for the next major release v2.0.0. I would first like to thank all our contributors and maintainers because of whom this was all possible. Specially I would like to thank spencerjibz, MickLesk and SchweGELBin who have been invaluable to the project. Also, Websurfx would not have been possible without alamin655 and xffxff early involvement.

Thanks 💖 to all the people involved in the project

Now, let's dive straight into what this release version actually means.

What does this release version means

This new release version v1.24.36 updates the hybrid caching api to take advantage of the two layer caching solution which eliminates the round trip time delay of fetching the same results from the cache.

Changelog

The changelog of all the changes can be found here:

https://github.com/neon-mmd/websurfx/releases/tag/v1.24.36

Preview of the goals for the next major release

• Different levels of privacy to choose from with the help of rust's conditional compiling features (In progress).
• Even more engines will be supported.
• Categories would be added to search results like images, news, etc.
• More themes will be provided by default
• More animations for the websurfx frontend will be supported.
• Multi language support would be added.
• I2p and tor support will be provided.
• Reduce animations would be added for those who don't want animations and effects on the frontend.
• And lots more ✨.

Call To Action

If you love our project and want to see it move ahead and progress in the direction you want, then we would suggest contributing at our project

cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/44816610

I just finished setting up the hardware infrastructure to start hosting but I cannot find any specific information in the official documentation on how to set up a public Invidious instance. I understand the guide as far as just hosting an instance and watching YouTube through that goes, but how do I, for instance, give it a publicly searchable domain name that - in the best of worlds - is listed on Invidious' website?

I assume there is a better way than to start posting my instance's IP address throughout any forums that I might be active on?

I'm using the same gmail (as recovery email) that i'm using in youtube and instagram. I was talking to someone using conversations about removing ads from smart tv, and when i logged to youtube after, found a vid about it. This was the second time, the first time was instagram, similair thing.

Update: I replaced my recovery email with proton and Big AND, deleted knox matrxi. No more suggestions. I think it was knox matrix.

[Announcement] PipePipe X (formerly 5.0 beta) is now available

Rewrite with a modern design, PipePipe X is now a separate app. It coexists with the current PipePipe installation

Both versions will continue to be maintained.

I must say it is convenient, but I'm sure Google keeps all dem screenshots, not just the things you circle. Any alternative? The long press at the bottom, I don't think can be replaced as it seems embedded in Android, but I will be happy with an app I can trigger with the side buttons, or from the settings panel.
Edit: also the ocr ability is useful, to copy text from a picture

I've posted this in Open Source as well, please remove if you think it's redundant.

Some time ago I started replacing all services and apps that I use with FOSS altnernatives. Most of them were easy to replace but some corpo/big-tech apps had ecosystems too advanced to be conveniently replaced. For example, substituting Google Maps on Android (or I guess Apple Maps on iOS) was a bit of a struggle as the most popular FOSS alternative app was OsmAnd. First of all mad respect and huge kudos to OsmAnd team of contributors but for me the UX was overwhelming and too customizable which is probably a huge bonus to power users but IMO that makes it very unlikely to become a large scale alternative to Google maps. Probably other people realized that too and some 6-7 months ago CoMaps was released, a FOSS app that is also based on OpenStreetMap layer but this time with a simplistic and smooth UX/GUI.

In case somebody is not familiar with OpenStreetMap (OSM) - basically it is a non-profit org, but its heavily maintained by community members and anybody around the world is allowed to contribute and enrich map content. Even if org can theoretically get corrupt I think anybody can make a fork and continue with community contribution. Creating an account is easy, you could start contributing in like 3 minutes. A huge number of services and apps are basing their map layers on OpenStreetMap, such as CoMaps above.

The quality of OpenStreetMap/CoMaps/OsmAnd is as good as the contributions to it are - so the more people use it - the better and more content it will contain. I would like to invite everybody to give it a chance and use https://www.openstreetmap.org/ on desktop and CoMaps on mobile devices. You should have enough motivation to abandon Google or Apple products, but final piece of motivation is that eventually Google Maps will start censoring content (like Reddit or Instagram) or just share your location history to ICE or perform some other serious violation like that (like Microsoft did recently).

CoMaps has a really nice and simple interface where you can add missing places (business, community services, recreation areas etc) while OpenStreetMap on web browser allows to update anything you imagine (e.g. see a missing street? Add it. A new building was developed - just add it!). If everybody enriched only their local neighborhood with features on the map we could really build something beautiful. Existing layer probably already contains 90% of the stuff you'd ever search for as contributors really did a outstanding job throughout all these years. But that additional 10% makes a real difference for it turning into a much bigger scale tool, and this feels like the right time to kick that off.

It is important not to get demotivated that not many people maintain and contribute as your neighborhood might remain a lonely detailed places for years. OSM existed for a long time now and is very likely to keep existing for decades to come, everything that you update or create remains a legacy that stays forever saved in the map (unless somebody further updates it). Perhaps, in 20 years time people will be grateful. And to tidy up and make max out of your neighborhood you really need one weekend or so.

For example, in my local area I've started adding location marks of recycling bins, dumpsters, parking lots, playgrounds, pathways, building tunnels and monuments, but also I've added missing shops and updated working hours and websites for shops that existed.

Also #1, be responsible when making changes, don't overwrite other people's work unless it is an improvement. Double check everything that you add, and also if you don't have any experience with map editors or GIS software take a watch of some OSM editing tutorial.

Also #2, I most likely omitted some other useful FOSS tools, and it doesn't matter which one you decide to use as long as it is based on OpenStreetMap or any other community driven layer.

Also #3, tell all your friends and family to do the same.

Yeah, this might not be the most important thing to cure the world at this moment but developing community-driven mindset where everybody takes a small or big part in it is the way to go. Cheers!

EDIT: Amazing input in the comments, I'll try to summarize additional suggestions provided by other people. Thank you for pointing out URL errors in my post too.

Very useful suggestion by illusionist:

We need more wikipedia images and content, there is still a lot to improve on maps just by contributing to wikipedia. Osmand added custom buttons and now you can enable wikipedia connections with one click which is great

Related lemmy communities:

• !osm@feddit.uk
• !CoMaps@sopuli.xyz
• !openstreetmap@lemmy.ml
• !osmand@lemmy.ml

List of alternative and open-source maps:

• On Android: https://alternativeto.net/software/osmand/?license=opensource&platform=android
• OpenStreetMap curated list of iOS apps that use it (https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Comparison_of_iOS_applications) + one additional map missing on the list: Mapply
• Send official OpenStreetMap as a shortcut to desktop and use web-view instead of an app (works on any OS)
• CartesApp (Only in French for now)
• Cardinal Maps (GitHub)

List of tools for contribution & content management:

• Street­Complete
• Vespucci
• CoMaps for simplistic POI edits
• Official OpenStreetMap website

First of all, thanks all for your tips on how to unravel my life from GMail. I've slowly started to migrate over to Proton mail (slightly controversial but I feel the full suite will be easier to sell my wife on, who loves her big tech corpos)

Now to the topic at hand, what are some good alternatives to Google maps for driving directions?

This service is run by online buddies of mine who ran VPS hosting for a long time. I expect it to be pretty good, though I'm not currently using it. mxroute.com is also around and comparable, though I think it is only sited in the US for now. Cranemail also has a US location.

Posting because people have been asking about non-Google email. I'm not connected with the company, I just know some of the guys running it. They have an affiliate program that I haven't signed up for, though maybe I should ;). The above link is non-affiliated.

Edit: link is from May 2025, not brand new, still works.

Let 2026 the year to really write... I want to start with an update on my apps as I (and we) use everyday our smartphones. And a smartphone without Google shit on it is always better.

If you have any recommendations, tell me.

Qwant Vs Kagi Vs Ecosia

I have been using Qwant for some time, but I am not quite happy with it. Both the quality of the search results, and the lack of a paid option to get rid of advertisement are annoying to me.

I used to have Kagi as my main search engine, and liked it quite a lot. I know that a few people have personal issues with the owner, based on some blog post that gets shared every time, but my own reason for not using it currently, is because it is based in the US. I don't know if I am willing to compromise on that for the moment, but I do feel like I was getting a better experience using that.

I haven't used Ecosia for some time, and might give it a try, but I am still concerned about the ads. It's not that I fear that they track my searches, the same way Google did, but I just don't like ads. I don't mind paying but as far as I know Ecosia still does not allow for paid plans to avoid the ads.

While browsing the web I look at the resources webpages want to load.

Sometimes (not that rare) they attempt to load scripts and resources from google owned domains:

• google fonts
• storage.googleapis.com
• ajax.googleapis.com
• gstatic (I assume this is also some google shit)
• youtube (obviously)

Are you more distrustful of such sites, do you block their resource loading attempts? What are other google services/domains like this, often embedded into 3rd party websites?

I use decentraleyes and block js from loading using no scripts, I use a few other extensions two but those are the main ones

The hope is that this guide and website can act as a simple way to introduce newcomers - whether it’s you, friends or family - into this space and try something else besides the default options.

There is also a community-driven, open-source site ( https://purchasewithpurpose.io/category/email/ ) that aims to make this even easier. This includes screenshots, ratings and a larger feature list.

I’ve also started tracking impact to help keep the momentum. If there are any other stats, please share them so I can add them to the guides and, eventually, the website.

As always, I more than welcome criticism and ideas!

Hello everybody! One of the last google software I use is my gmail, mainly since I've had it for so long and migrating seems daunting. It's time however.

I do eventually want to self-host my own email, possibly with something like this: https://docker-mailserver.github.io/docker-mailserver/latest/

But to do that I'd need to set up and maintain stability on a home lab for a short time first, something I can't do yet because of my living arrangements, which means self-hosted email may be a few years away.

In the mean time, I looked at https://www.startmail.com/ and https://tuta.com/secure-email (since tuta is very highly recommended on lemmy). Sadly, while tuta sounds great, it has the deal breaker (for me) that I can only use their clients.

That's why I'm leaning more towards startmail, though of course I'll take advantage of the 7 day free trial before committing to it.

Meanwhile, is there anything else that you can recommend which is:

• an EU company
• privacy and customer first
• crucially can be used with Thunderbird
• that will save me 59.88 Euro a year
• That allows for the creation of folders in the Inbox (I use this constantly for organisation)

A very big bonus would be if I could somehow import my gmail emails to it, in a sensible manner, like I see startmail offering to do. CalDAV support would also be really nice.

Also, I'm thinking for about a year I keep both gmail and whatever I switch to, while having gmail forward everything to the new one, so that I make sure everything has been migrated over there.

Thanks in advance!

Edit: While looking at reviews for various services, I came across a video offering a startmail discount link, so I can now get it at 29.94 Euro for the first year. This makes it a lot more attractive even if I don't stick with it for more than a year, but I would still love to hear your suggestions or thoughts :)

Edit: since i found that discount link from the video, i decided to try startmail. Im still on the 7 day trial (just meaning i havent been billed yet), but so far i really like it. Ive already started changing my apps/services/websites emails to aliases i set up (the unlimited aliases of startmail are a godsend in this regard), and the importing tool they have really easily copied my gmail emails/folders over to the startmail account. From there, it was a simple matter of moving the folders from the resultant gmail folder to my actual SM inbox where i wanted them, adding the account to thunderbird, and re-setting up the rules for the SM account in Thunderbird. Id still love to hear all your suggestions in case I do decide SM isnt what i need, but so far it seems like its a winner