Yes im aware that my search engine choice is not the best option.
If you’re already moving to Graphene, just use Vanadium as your browser. It ships with GOS and is an excellent privacy choice.
Also, proton mail kinda sucks. I used it for a while but switched to fastmail because an email account with zero interoperability is kinda a lousy used experience.
Edit: same with proton calendar. I like the concept but in practice having a locked away calendar isn’t a great feel.
Didn’t see anyone else say this: DDG is certainly a great choice for search engine, though I’d recommend brave search:
- If you use bangs, it has them.
- Actually operates an independent index so the search queries aren’t reliant on Microsoft Bing.
Due to several of the companies issues (and it being chromium) I don’t recommend the browser but I do really like the search engine.
Why not Startpage?
I would recommend changing everything Proton with Infomaniak’s KSuite: https://www.infomaniak.com/en/ksuite/myksuite
+1 for leaving Proton. Bad company, the CEO is a Trump bootlicker
Keep away from Infomaniak!! Had a problem with my keyboard and miss the password 3 times and get account locked. OK, no stress let’s do a revovery with the alternate email. I received the email to change the password, follow the link and choose a new password. Error, account is locked! OK, let’s do a recovery using phone number. Receive SMS and same thing as the email!! WTF?! So, I have to contact Infomaniak and guess what? In order to protect my account I have to send them my government issued id!! WHAT?? How can that thing protect me? This is blackmail. They have my data and want exchange it for my ID. Why they have email and phone recovery if I cannot successfuly use them? If an hacker has my alternate email and my phone, he probably also has my ID, right? How I solved it? Well, send them a fake ID and guess watch? Five minutes later a have access to my account! They don’t have the means to validate it, was what I though. So, I get all my data back and never look back. What a disappointment, I have moved because it was cheap and I even told all my family and friends. Have to took a step back and leave them because that is all wrong.
Maps is the hardest thing to replace. I like comaps but it’s hard to find any businesses on it. They should probably start scrapping google maps because there no way to get ahead at this point.
I use Mapy (EU)
Murena Workspace and kDrive instead of Gmail/Gdrive
AlterSend (P2P) instead of DropBox
vgy.me (UK) instead of Google Photos
Search - Mojeek, Startpage, MetaGer
AI - Andisearch
Vivaldi Browser, it’s Calendar, Mail and Mail Client, Feed, Notes
Zen Browser
Mandatory Portmaster on Desktop (Windows/Linux) and InViziblePro (Mobile)
Have you tried Magic Earth Navigation. I tend to switch between Magic Earth and CoMaps but tend to use MAgic Earth more
Its not on fdroid?
It’s unfortunately not truly FOSS, it’s still closed source. But literally every map app with traffic data is so, I just use it to avoid Google… Use Aurora store to get it.
Arent you using too much proton
Ecosystems which are easy to use are great for users and the reason why Google has a monopoly. If proton is a decent privacy centered alternative then more power to them.
Obsidian is closed source or not fully open source iirc. Try Notesnook if you need sync.
Logseq is a good alternative to Obsidian
Apparently Emacs is on F-Droid so you could use org-mode as well, although IDK how well it works
My preference was Joplin synced through self hosted Nextcloud
Yeah or standard notes if they like the proton products
Standard Notes was written by a different company (largely just one developer) and is not like other proton products.
Proton simply bought it so they didn’t have to write their own.
Yeah good call out. I just meant that there are many people that don’t trust/dislike proton. OP though seems cool with proton so then they might be cool with standard notes.
Depends on how much privacy you need and how much tinkering to get things to work that you’re willing to put up with.
In general, using a variety of services will be more private than going with a single entity like Proton.
Bitwarden is self-hostable, which makes it potentially more private than Protonpass… assuming you actually set up the self-hosting.
Signal isn’t a good long-term plan, as it’s entirely hosted in the US. I don’t think there are currently any known compromises to the encryption model, but iirc the company can see all your communications metadata (which means the government could potentially as well). I don’t mind it for talking with friends, but I would recommend against it for extreme privacy needs (e.g. the government starts getting overzealous with who it counts as enemies of the state, and you or your friends become targets).
- ChatGPT -> llama.cpp
- Dropbox -> Syncthing + ZFS
- PayPal -> Atto
- Google Home -> Home Assistant
- Google Docs/Sheets -> Collabora Office
Some of these require self-hosting, so you might need Headscale or WireGuard to connect to them
Browser based wallet? Good god, no thx
Netbird is also good for connecting to them
I prefer Comaps over OSMand.
OSMAnd has a lot more features that I personally use
different purpose in my opinion
How so? Isn’t it a fork after a dispute about direction?
You’re thinking of Organic Maps
Comaps is not a fork of OSMAnd… OSMAnd is a high powered offline maps and trip planning toolkit with many layer options, custom layers, multiple map views, and a range of plugins.
Comaps is… Well an offline compatible Google mapsish clone. It doesnt have anywhere near the capability of OSMAnd. Its more “general user” focused.
The difference is a navigation app vs a maps app
I don’t trust proton.
Get a 5$/ month Nextcloud instance on Hertzner or selfhost it. You’ll get 1 tb drive, calendar, notes, office suite, sync with phone, and much much more.
Or Tutamail
Anyone have thoughts on mailbox.org? I have been thinking of switching. Anyone with experience with the service?
I use it. Nothing but positive experiences so far.
Switched a few months ago from Gmail. Own domain. Works great so far. A bit of setup required ofc. Thunderbird on phone & just the standard calendar app because the apps I tried I didn’t like. Calander & Contact sync through DAVx⁵, costs a few bucks, but it works just fine.
Have been using it solely for mail with my own domain for a few years. Absolutely nothing to complain about. Always worked flawlessly.
First off: you’ve come a long way. Great setup, keep it up!
As others have said, I’d reduce your reliance on Proton. I’d particularly ditch their password manager in favour of something like KeepassXC and combine it with Syncthing (which you’re already using) in order to keep your passwords out of the cloud, but synced between your devices. Always think in terms of blast radius: if an attacker gets access to your Proton account (either because you fuck up or they do), they will have access to anything that’s in there. Having your e-mail + pw manager there increases blast radius dramatically and allows not only for access to, but full takeover of your accounts in case of a breach.
As others have said, remove all proton stuff that you can. You are just replacing one centralized service with another. Google started out good too and look where we are now. Never put too many eggs in one basket.
My answer to this is to use a custom domain with an email aliasing service.
I’ve gone through about half of the 400 accounts in my password manager and moved them over. I’ll migrate the rest over the next week or so.
So, I’m switching from Gmail to Proton for now, but if Proton starts to get worse or Tuta catches up on functionality or there’s a better provider that emerges or I decide to try to self-host, it’s one easy change at the alias provider to redirect all of my mail to a new email provider.
You should try migadu. Thats the most no-bs provider with custom Domains I could find
Just recently discovered Migadu and it’s all I ever wanted!
Thanks. Since I’m just starting my privacy journey, I’m sticking with the mainstream options for now, but using an aliasing service will make it easy easy for me to switch in the future. I’ll check it Migadu and I appreciate the suggestion.
As others have pointed out, having so many Proton might be an issue. However, that line of thought only works if you’re really concerned about having a single point of failure. Most people value convenience much more than that.
The way I see it, this setup is somewhat noob-friendly, but relying heavily on Proton makes it a lot more convenient for many people. Using a greater variety of providers would make sense, but you can’t expect everyone to be ready for a hassle like that. People seem to expect you to be a hard-core privacy warrior who is willing to make significant sacrifices for philosophical reasons.
Most people aren’t like that. Just switching to DDG is hard enough for them, but at least it’s a step in the right direction.
If you take only 1/10th of this diagram, you get the simplified newbie version. Take all of it, and it’s for a person who is clearly interested in security and privacy. Modify a few things here and there, and you get a version for a serious security enthusiast. Different versions for different audiences.
Using Proton Mail, Calendar and Docs is a lot, lot better than using the Google suite. We shouldnt put people off changing, as you said the convenience is important and often forgotton as the major reason people stick with Google.
Just use tutamail - better track record and hosted in Germany
What track record? They are both the same.
Proton is just more user-friendly.
tuta hasnt sponsored a single far right influencer to my knowledge
That would have been my recommendation as well. It also diversifies the setup a bit.
However, I can also appreciate Proton as a convenient gateway drug that leads people away from Google.
In my honest opinion? Nothing. There is nothing worth changing here, all the other advice is just different kinds of extreme.
based on your selection and the fact that you asked this question is good a indicator that any other alternative people would suggest won’t do you that much benefit while carrying a much higher chance of being highly inconvenient.
