WILL BE UPDATE OFTEN Last update : 1/05/24
THE GUIDE FOR DE-GOOGLED APPS
(🏆 = just the best app ; ❤️ = a more than excellent app)
REMEMBER : Do not install every apps you find, for your security and privacy only install needed apps.
ANDROID
1- Phone and messaging
Phone --> Fossify Phone 🏆
Messages --> Quik SMS 🏆
Contacts --> Fossify contacts 🏆
Whatsapp --> Molly (Signal fork) ❤️ Briar (For advanced users, maximum privacy concerns)
2- Networking
Chrome (browser) --> Cromite ❤️ (must be configured) Mull (slower but not chromium-based, must be configured)
Discord --> Element (matrix.org client)
Reddit --> Jerboa (a Lemmy client)
3- Multimedia
YouTube --> Libretube 🏆
Spotify --> RiMusic 🏆
Google podcasts (podcasts) --> Antenna Pod ❤️
Gallery --> Fossify Galley ❤️ (Basic app) Aves ❤️ (Advanced gallery)
4- Tools
QrScanner --> Binary eye 🏆
Gboard --> HeliBoard ❤️ (OpenBoard fork)
IME keyboard --> Sayboard
Local sharing --> LocalSend ❤️
Google authenticator (2FA) --> Aegis ❤️
Lastpass (password manager) --> Bitwarden 🏆 (Self-hosted) KeePassDX 🏆 (local storage)
Gcam --> Open camera
5- Others
Clock --> Clock You
Google calendar --> Etar ❤️
PDF viewer --> MJ PDF
Office --> LibreOffice Viewer ❤️ (Only for reading)
LINUX
For more convenience, you can download your apps using the command line and flatpak (Flathub.org)
1- OS
Some Linux distributions recommendations :
- Linux Mint and Pop OS (for all levels)
- Arch (mainly for gaming but you can use it as working OS)
- Debian (for productivity (greatest compatibility) )
For most basic users I recommend using Gnome desktop environment
2- Softwares
Browser --> Firefox 🏆 (It's recommended to tweaks and the settings and use custom user.js (Explanations about user.js)) Librewolf ❤️ (For an out-of-the-box great experience)
Office --> The LibreOffice Suite ❤️
File sharing --> Local Send ❤️
YouTube --> FreeTube
Adobe Illustrator --> Inkscape
Lemmy --> Photon
Matrix --> Element
That's all, hope you enjoy, do not hesitate to save the post for future updates and comment your recommendations below ⬇️⬇️
I would also recommend firefox/firefox nightly as web browser and perhaps grayjay for youtube alternative (it still uses the youtube service tho)
Do not use default firefox version there are horrible, if you want to stay on firefox pls consider using Mull 😃 And maybe grayjay is a good option but I dont know exactly the app..
I'm currently using firefox nightly which seems somewhat hardened, browsing histlry and cookies are cleared on closing and adblocking is enabled by default. No add ons tho
Yeah this option is a bit tweaked by default but I wouldn't say that it's an option
you can configure firefox to be hardened pretty easily? I get that mull is preconfigured but the advantage of more fingerprinting protection becomes moot the second you change a setting. (as many are liable to do)
You cannot easily tweak deeply the browser, you can load user.js for example but you have to be rooted, Mull is almost ready to use (you just have to install some extensions and tweak some settings), so this is a better choice than default Firefox...
I appreciate this list. Half of them I've never heard of, so it's a treasure trove to me.
I tried a lot of keyboards but didn't find anything that felt just right until I switched to Heliboard and I've been really happy with it. The only thing I miss is being able to add gifs but I won't be switching back.
The problem is that there's no real Foss GIF platform... So you have to keep this
I've tried every FOSS QR scanner, and unfortunately, binary eye is total crap. They don't fully support all formats, and you need to get a near perfectly illuminated shot of the code. Also doesn't scan regular barcodes whatsoever.
Reverted back to a commercial app for lack of options. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.scanteam.qrcodereader (adfree, despite the "contains ads" banner).
Shame really, I would like to have a FOSS alternative for such a seemingly simple application.
I think I had, but it was crashing when scanning regular barcodes, which I'm doing at work quite a bit since our ERP prints them for version control on our quality documents.
I've just tested it again and it seems to work, will be using them in parallel for a while. Thanks!
Edit: Just checked the changelog, looks like that was a bug that's only been fixed this January, I've been trying to find a QR scanner sometime last year, so that was probably a buggy release then. https://github.com/SecUSo/privacy-friendly-qr-scanner/blob/HEAD/CHANGELOG.md
Maybe you can retry BinaryEye too, because its incredibly fast for recongnizing qr code even in dark environments and not straight on it
Yep, on it. So far so good! And I inherently trust projects coming out of German universities, so that's a bonus.
Why do you have this bad impressions of binary eye? Its maybe not the most feature rich, but it's working perfectly for me. And I wouldn't suggest this app from the play store.. So I'm going to search a bit more and maybe find something interesting
Like I mentioned, I tried every available FOSS app (on f-droid that is, plus a bunch of github releases, many sadly abandoned), and none of them was able to scan all QR and barcodes I tested it with.
Can you share a QR code that Binary Eye can't parse? I haven't come across any in all these years I have been using it.
Even though Sav is good, you should know that it has serious security vulnerabilities, which is most likely not getting fixed anytime soon https://github.com/Sav22999/sav-pdf-viewer-pro/issues/28
Many other FOSS PDF viewers have this issue as well. For this reason, I would recommend using MJ PDF reader.
Conversations (& forks) can work both as an E2EE text/voice/video chat client but also a UnifiedPush client.
It seem to be a good choice too but I think briar can be better for this usage
Not comparable. Briar is distributed & a battery drain even if it is private. Conversations is decentralized, but still uses servers. Conversations is a replacement/upgrade to Element.
You're right but in this case maybe you should envisage using Signal 🤷♂️ I don't really know this app but is it cross-platforms, has threads...?
Signal is centralized & requires you have a SIM card + an Android or iOS primary device just to open an account. The Electron app on desktop uses a lot of resources and only using the Molly fork on Android can you get some of the features that Signal should have upstream but don’t seem to be interested in making things more secure.
Yes and no, I do use it but sometimes it's too complex to understand and I just switch back to the basic default one!
What how is it complex ? Like at all ? i have found way more complex unuser friendly ones but if you do have any doubts you can dm me or ask here.
Yes and no, its really cool but the ui is ugly, too complex and not useful for just viewing PDF..
What ? Am i the only guy who thinks its really good ? Like its super simple to use and really customizable
I tried it more deeply and I will say my recap : It's a great app, not too complicated but the ui is ugly (a bit less when diving in the settings), it do not have more features than others, the actions are blocked by confirmation pop-ups. Not a recommandation for me, its more a e-book reader than a PDF viewer...
You can choose between the native clock app (not the native app in your phone but the native app of android) or this one https://f-droid.org/packages/com.bnyro.clock/
