A better web

Tue, 01 Jun 2021 11:02:10 +0200

Use alternative services to make the web more healthy and to stay independent. This guide is separated into a Consumer and a Producer section.

Consumer

Tools and services for consumers.

Music Streaming

Buy the music of your favorite artist on https://bandcamp.com and use https://soundcloud.com to stream. Quit Spotify, Apple Music or any other Streaming services. Streaming services saved the music industry, but not the artists, only the linked providers ensure a healthy music industry.

Mail

Use secure independent mail providers such as https://protonmail.com/. Avoid Gmail, Outlook or any other tightly integrated mail service.

Chat

Use https://element.io/ or https://signal.org/ to chat with friends and family. Do not use Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger or Telegram. They do not protect your privacy.

Search

Search the web with https://duckduckgo.com/. Try to avoid Google and make DuckDuckGo your default search engine.

Browsing

Use https://www.mozilla.org to browse the web. It is the only independent browser that actually protects you.

Storage

Use alternative storage providers such as https://www.infomaniak.com/en/kdrive. Do not save your data on GDrive, OneDrive or iCloud.

Photo Library

Try to ignore the Adobe and its Creative Cloud, use https://www.darktable.org/ to manage your photo library. Ensure you have always access to the photo metadata.

Office

Create documents and spreadsheets with https://www.libreoffice.org/ or https://www.onlyoffice.com/.

Movie Streaming

Buy movies on https://vimeo.com/ and try to avoid Netflix, HBO, Disney+ and any other streaming service. Use a TV box from a local internet service provider.

Note Taking

Never ever take notes with OneNote, Google Keep or Evernote. Their note taking format is proprietary and you will never ever get your raw data back. Use https://obsidian.md/, https://joplinapp.org/ or any other plain-text note taking tool.

Operating System

Install a Linux-based operating system on your computer. Use user friendly distribution such as https://pop.system76.com/ or https://ubuntu.com/download/desktop.

News

Do not consume news from click-driven platforms. Use platforms that aim to restore journalism and believe that quality is greater than quantity. In Switzerland we have https://www.republik.ch/.

Maps

Use a map app such as https://transportr.app/ that is based on https://www.openstreetmap.org/.

Producer

Tools and services for businesses and creators.

Groupware

Office365 or GSuite make your more efficient, but also very dependent. Find a hosting partner and use https://nextcloud.com/.

Conference

Setup https://bigbluebutton.org/ on a server to host meetings and conference talks. Stay away from Zoom or Google Meetings.

Project Management

Ditch Microsoft Planner, monday.com, Basecamp, Trello or Asana and use https://www.openproject.org/.

Business Chat

Setup https://mattermost.org/ instead of Slack or Teams.

Business Management Software

Oracle ERP, Microsoft Dynamics or SAP ERP are big names, but they are not as big as you might think. Use https://www.odoo.com, https://erpnext.com/ or https://www.tryton.org/ to manage your business.

Identity Provider

Do not use Google Login, Azure Login or any third party login provider. Setup https://www.keycloak.org/ to manage identities and granting access.

Analytic

Use https://plausible.io/ to track visitors on your website.

Code Editor

Code with https://vscodium.com. It is the same as VSCode, but the licensing is different.

Hosting

Find a hosting partner that is not only fluent in Microsoft. The world runs on Linux and Java.

More alternatives

Find more alternatives on https://opensource.com/alternatives, https://degoogle.jmoore.dev/ or https://alternativeto.net/.

Backup and delete your Instagram account

Fri, 19 Jun 2020 12:41:48 +0200

For a while I had the idea that I need an account on all social media platforms in order to stay up to date. But as many other did, I grew tired of social media. Not only tired, but also bothered of having my personal data sold. Facebook is the elephant in the room. Not only have the failed to moderate their content properly, but they also showed an in-compliance with their own terms. This platform is no longer about connecting people, it is all about connecting data points and make it more useful for advertiser. The deal of getting social interaction and provide data in exchange has turned for the worse. I firmly believe that social media companies do not have a sustainable business model and therefore should not be supported.

The deal of getting social interaction and provide data in exchange has turned for the worse.

So why am I deleting Instagram? First of all I already deleted my Facebook account and second Instagram is owned by Facebook and therefore the same product.

The fear of missing out

There is this irrational fear of missing out once you are no longer on a social media platform. But I think the gains I had from using social media were merely an illusion of experiencing social interaction. The content peaks once interest, but never lasts to an actual action. And this simple argument should be enough to ditch social media.

Backup

Of course I don’t want to loose all the pictures/memories I have uploaded to Instagram. Therefore I need a backup.

A data request that contains all your images can be filed here: https://www.instagram.com/download/request/. Simply submit your email and you receive a link where you can download the content.

Delete

By default Instagram does not show any option to delete an account. Only a temporary deactivation is provided in the settings. This is bad practice. However, under the following link https://www.instagram.com/accounts/remove/request/permanent/ you get access to a hidden page where you can order a deletion of the account.

Thats it. Next will be Whatsapp and Twitter 😊