Open source things you might like to know about

I thought I might start a thread to mention the open source software I find useful, and would recommend. Sometimes these aren't very widely known, but I think a few people might be interested, if they're aware.


GrapheneOS

First off, I got a new phone, and I chose one that's supported by GrapheneOS. That's a special de-Googled and security hardened version of Android. It may be surprising that they only support the Google Pixel phones. But, the irony is that although Google's software is obviously intrusive, their security hardware is excellent, and far better than most phones. So, with Google's framework stripped out, and a few things tightened up, it's an extremely secure device. We're obviously giving up Google's apps and services, but some of us gladly forgo those, to maintain our privacy.

Freetube

All of Google's services, including Youtube, are becoming more of a pest in terms of trying to force you to create an identifiable account and sign in, so that they can track you better. Freetube is a desktop client for browsing Youtube and viewing videos, by downloading the information and media outside of the usual web interface. It lets you setup favourites, subscriptions, notifications, etc - but this data is held privately on your PC, and doesn't use a Google account. It's also possible to route all traffic through Tor, for stronger privacy.

It's in beta, and still a bit clunky, but I find it very usable. If it plays up, a restart usually fixes it.

Searx

This one is a bit more technical, since it requires you to set up your own server. Searx is designed to be your private web search engine, searching whatever selection of search providers you wish, and aggregating the results. When it communicates with the search providers, it uses a different browser fingerprint each time to prevent tracking, and never exposes the user to their tracking scripts. It can also be routed through TOR, to make sure there's no tracking going on.

I hope some might find these of use. If they are of interest, there's a quite a few more.

Here's a site that diplays Reddit, but presents it in a cleaned up and readable form. I'm fairly sure they've made the Reddit site almost unreadable, to push people towards their software client, for better tracking.

Here's the Godot Reddit, through their frontend. You can also get browser addons that will always redirect Reddit to their version.

Ripper said:

Here's a site that diplays Reddit, but presents it in a cleaned up and readable form. I'm fairly sure they've made the Reddit site almost unreadable, to push people towards their software client, for better tracking.

Here's the Godot Reddit, through their frontend. You can also get browser addons that will always redirect Reddit to their version.

Click to expand...

The idea of libredd.it sounds good but the end result is atrocious, shockingly bad unfortunately.

I didn't allow scripts (and never would for such a service) and compared to old.reddit (also without scripts) the difference is more than night and day.

Comparison screenshots.
https://imgbox.com/g/yKhhuiqe3F

On libredd much of the links don't work, won't load images, clicking on a blank area could end up taking you to twitter, etc etc, it's a nightmare unfortunately.

I use a browser extension that redirects URLs, in the case of reddit it means I always end up on "old.reddit". The day they stop supporting old.reddit is the day I stop logging into reddit, though that's exceedingly seldom anyway. Without old.reddit I would then also deliberately avoid the site only using it when a search result for something specific leads me to a reddit page.

Frankly Reddit is by its design an echo chamber of confirmation bias. It has little use beyond entertainment and is a negative when it comes to anything controversial. I'd have pity on any poor soul that takes it seriously or uses it to be informed about events.

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As for youtube, personally I would never install any program to watch youtube, for a start it would mean giving one more program access to the internet, the fewer of those the better.

Instead I find myself using something like invidious (yewtu.be) or one of the other instances.

If I want to download something from youtube I use youtube-dl (yt-dl.org) as you can choose which audio/video stream, and download playlists or ranges of videos withing playlists etc. It also works with a number of other video streaming sites.