Link: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/feb/26/how-to-replace-amazon-google-x-meta-apple-alternatives

A handful of companies monopolise the web, with unprecedented access to our data. But there are many more ethical – and often distinctively European – alternatives

they left out framasoft
(the greatest suite that most degooglers have never heard of)

Why doesn’t it mention the Fediverse at all???

Seems like they’re advocating using a Fairphone running e/OS, Ecosia as the search engine, LibreWolf as the browser, LibreOffice as the office package, and W for social media?

Maybe the author doesn't know the fediverse yet. We could try commenting there or maybe contacting him

curiously, he didn't mention linux as well

Yeah, that was my main criticism of the article, it completely omitted social media.

Also, the author mentions Codeberg as the “developer” of Librewolf, so it seems is not the most tech savvy around.

i knew it wasn't gonna mention the fediverse

Someone once said "don't let perfection be the enemy of good" ... or something like that.

Anyway, my point is it's good that this kind of stuff is starting to get into mainstream media, even if they don't go into as much detail as they could.

They might not have wanted to scare people off by giving them too much information all at once, especially things like the Fediverse which even lots of tech savvy people don't really understand.

And social media is arguably the main thing. The network effects make it sticky but the US has been amazing at exporting it's culture, social media amplifies that, and right now that culture is a bit fascisty with a hint of freedom stopping regulation of the rich and misleading. That said, but that lens, I'm not really sure Lemmy is a great alternative since it has a lot of people from the US already and I think it wouldn't scale well (either because of lack of instances, burn out from moderators, or the problems migrating here)

The steady exodus from Elon Musk’s X has benefited smaller, independent alternatives such as ... German-developed Mastodon

I indeed had never heard of it, but now I have!
I looks like a great suit of tools!

What's your experience using it?

There's a whole section on social media. That's where they discuss Mastodon and W, among others

Step one to moving to Linux should be switching to open source alternatives to the proprietary software you use while you are still on windows. If all the programs you use are already open source, then switching to Linux is so much easier.

Cookie-walled article.

Script extension blocks them all on firefox.

First thing I saw was "Subscribe via Google"

Don't forget to ditch Google and Apple pay as well.

Cody Berg was hired by Linus Tovalds after Gita Hub left his company.

What is the opinion on Vivaldi here as an alternative? I am using Firefox and Zen currently. But I wouldn't mind jumping towards a European alternative. I switched to Firefox to support an alternative to chromium based browsers, but I think EU/Nordic angle is more important to me.

I meant it barely touched the surface there when there’s plenty of alternatives, not mentioning it just mixes xitter with facebook, instead of mentioning alternatives for each “category” (ie: instagram / pixelfed, x / mastodon, facebook / friendica, etc.). If you read the articles it seems that there’s almost no choice here.

Personally I would days away from any chromium-based browser, if only on principle.

Zen is great and keeps getting better, if anyone tried it some time ago and had stability problems, chances are your experience would be much better now.

Huh, I wouldn't say, the article mentioned Codeberg as the developer of Librewolf.

It says:

An even more private (but still free and equally effective) version of Firefox is LibreWolf, which was developed on Codeberg, a German nonprofit.

To be honest this sentence doesn't make any sense at all: Librewolf wasn't developed, it is in active development. But it is true that it's being developed on Codeberg, which still doesn't convey a lot of information to the reader... I dont know if this article is very helpful at all...

I'm using Vivaldi and I really like it. The way I can group tabs into workspaces is really nicefor example.

It reads like AI slop in my opinion.

It previously said “by” Codeberg, so the author either catched the error or read someone else pointing out the mistake.

Vivaldi is basically Chrome but better, design is better, privacy 1000% better and there's a couple of extra cool features. But very similar to Chrome, for Chrome users it's the easiest swap, a true upgrade.

My gripe on a browser is I want one that whe. I click a link it's opened in a container by default so it can't scoop up all my cookies and browsing history.

Right now my flow is Firefox focus as default browser, then if it's a page I want to view later or keep open I share it to Firefox. Kind of annoying but ideally I have this in just one browser.

And as I write this and checked, Firefox for Android now does this lol. Vivaldi, the one recommended in the article does not. Not to mention I try and support something that is not chrome-based. We need alternatives

Mastadon was mentioned.

This is probably a much more efficient "mention of the fediverse" than if the journalist had started trying to explain that there is this federated network of independent social media sites bla bla bla.

The people reading this are looking for something they can understand. I expect naming Mastodon and leaving it to them to check it out will convert more people than if they started trying to explain what it is.

I'm a bit weirded out by all the attention given to w-social.eu by mainstream media, though. First of all it doesn't exist yet, second we have no reason to believe it will actually be decent, third we have good reason to believe it won't be.

LibreWolf doesn't open tabs in containers, but it is kind of hard coded to never save cookies, passwords, trackers. Every time you close and open browser, it is like to open a freshly installed browser on a freshly installed OS.

Now all it needs to do is randomize your fingerprint.

because your fingerprint can be just as, if not more identifiable and trackable, than your cookies and such.

Framasoft is not so much about providing the service itself, they have limited resources, but to show alternatives exist and are usable. They develop some of the tools (we own them Peertube!).

So they host services, and sometimes end them (with ample warning and instructions to migrate). As they explain: their goal is not to become an "open Google". It's to to make de-googling possible and usable by the many.

As service providers, you should look into the CHATONS.

These are mostly based on the Framasoft suite.

Random fingerprint is trackable. If fingerprint is the same as other users then they can't track you

Oooh! They made Peertube?!

Amazon is a hard one to find an alternative to. Mostly what I try to do now is buy directly from the brand. But they don't always have their own website.

Other times I can find the item locally. I'll buy it even if it costs a little more.

Also, sometimes the item is only available at Amazon or Home Depot online, for example. In that case, I'll pick Home Depot cuz they're a slightly smaller megacorp.

As a very last resort, I'll will begrudgingly buy from Amazon. Like if the item is only on Amazon or if the item is significantly cheaper there....

But, fuck Amazon Prime! That's a total scam. I canceled that years ago and never looked back.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/temporary-containers-plus/

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/temporary-containers-plus/

Yup, and it is working quite well.

I'm happily using it; just a tad annoying to remember to open certain links in specific containers or else you are blocked from their firewall.

Same, you are right. I find that Amazon just has many things that I cannot find on store shelves. Otherwise, I follow a similar process.

This is a case in which you want to blend in with the crowd of sheep. Being unique l, randomizing, let's them single you out.

Floorp, a Firefox fork, containerizes also. Floorp does it in the same manner, meaning you create the containers and assign sites, and only after that does that site automatically get containerized. I do something similar to what you're doing, but it's between Firefox and Floorp. I wish they'd start containerizing sites by default, but for now this is what I do.

Huh, I was just writing that I wished Firefox would do this, so thanks! I'll check it out. Much appreciated.

EDITED to add: unfortunately it's not for me. I tried it out in automatic mode (recommended) and while it worked perfectly, as soon as I enabled it my browser started to get unstable, pages would lock, mouse pointer would disappear, etc. And then as soon as I disabled the extension all went back to normal. So it's a no-go for now. But thanks for letting us know it's there.

i just want a linux phone

Great article, don´t forget ebay is 100 times better than amazon.
For who wants AI privacy we at Hugston made HugstonOne is free and European, Actually the only European AI local App maybe.

well those are really not supposed to be happening, weird

I wish they'd start containerizing sites by default, but for now this is what I do.

afaik strict tracking protection has been doing that for long

quite fortunately it's not at all hardcoded. there's a setting for it on the librewolf-specific settings page

Yeah, I wouldn't worry about the safety of the extension, though. I have a lot of extensions going already, and this is not the first one to go bonkers as a later addition. So chances are excellent it will work for others just fine.

I've been using Vivaldi for a few years now and it's been great. I really like it's tab management, tiling etc features.