Here you can find reviewed, impressive and comprehensive European alternatives for digital products and apps if you wanna break from American (big) tech companies.
Have a look, you'll be impressed...
This is a good source, but why the fuck is Spotify listed as a suitable alternative? Spotify is one of THE apps that people are trying to break away from.
Wild guess: Spotify was founded in Europe.
It's now based in the US, and a lot of its revenue goes to alt-right loonies. Renewing their podcast contracts is why you're paying more year after year to stream music.
I like Apple Music because they pay artists more, but I might be a little biased as it came with my phone and computer and I have a family plan with others who enjoy it (and yes, they are family).
The true alternative to streaming anything is using Plex (or something like it) to make your own music streamer, buying all your media (that pays artists more than any streaming platform), and streaming it to yourself that way. It is illegal to rip CDs, DVDs, and Blu-rays in the US, but technically if you own the media it's fine to have it, you just can't have broken the copy protection. Kind of a catch-22. But it costs a lot more as you have to buy everything. If you already have a massive CD collection, it's not as big a deal.
Deezer is the way if one wants to continue streaming.
Wasn't there some kind of controversy with them? CEO being a trumpet or something?
People incorrectly assume "European alternative" means "better alternative" when sometimes, that's not the case. Privacy needs to be approached with skepticism, no matter what surface-level credential something has.
Things like these might be table stakes, but they should not be the end of your search for an alternative product.
I think you are absolutely right.
I totally agree with you. Especially since they tried to take down Anna's archive...
Anyway, besides that, this remains very instructing.
Call me cynical, but I don't expect these to be better alternatives for long. The main issue lies with the fact that these services are both centralized and profit-motivated, and I don't anticipate that the EU's privacy laws, though they are better than those in the US, will be much protection once even one of these competitors gets big enough to have a say in politics. Self-hosted, open-source apps are a far better solution than relying on yet another company that has full control of the software, especially with the barrier to entry for those apps getting smaller with each passing day.
There are multiple projects available that will let you turn even a mediocre extra PC into a platform for self-hosted apps with not a lot of effort. Yunohost and CasaOS are two that come to mind, but other options exist. Hell, even just running Nextcloud is probably enough to cover most people's SaaS needs, though it can require a bit more work than the other two that I mentioned.
You're too cynical. Yes, EU is not immune to lobbying but it's way better at regulating companies than US is. Those alternatives are clearly better now so not switching because "they may not be as good in the future" is not a valid reason to keep using US tech.
Moving to something that's still at significant risk of being enshittified is an objectively worse move than going to something that's not, though. I'm not saying to keep US tech, I'm saying to build your own now so you don't have to move again in a couple years.
This is a good source, but why the fuck is Spotify listed as a suitable alternative? Spotify is one of THE apps that people are trying to break away from.
So no smartphones.
Nokia is Finnish and I'm not sure if t hat's considered European. It's not American though. In fact the only American company left making phones is Apple. The problem is, the rest of them uses Android, which spies on you. Counterpoint: Apple won't let you install apps your government doesn't approve of. Counterpoint to the counterpoint: Android. Fucking. Spies. On. You. Counterpoint to the... you get the idea: Apple still hasn't shipped a working software keyboard. Pick your poison. Spyware or a broken keyboard and you can't use a few apps you may not care about... but you're buying from an American company whose CEO kisses Trump's arse and literally gave him a solid gold participation trophy.
I want to see real Linux phones that don't run Android and are somewhat competitive with Android phones, at least in the mid-range space. No one expects them to compete with the iPhone, or the equivalent Android phone that comes out 3-5 years later and stops getting updates while the iPhone it matches on performance is still getting them... but it shouldn't have to. We kinda hit a plateau a few years ago.
Otherwise, definitely worth a look.
Not all android spies on you. Have you ever tried GrapheneOS? It's very secure and pro-privacy. Technically it's not android (if you really want to nitpick), but you need a Google Pixel to run it.
Nokia is Finnish and I’m not sure if t hat’s considered European.
Pff of course they are!
I want to see real Linux phones that don’t run Android and are somewhat competitive with Android phones, at least in the mid-range space.
There's a large graveyard of attempts at this. The most recent and successful is probably Tizen. Prior to that Firefox OS. People just don't buy them so there's no market for them.
We indeed need to degooglize smartphones.
There are ways but difficult to implement for now...
i remember learning to degoogle with adb. it wasn't easy and i had to reset more than a couple of times
then i installed LineageOS, after adb it was easier. For somebody else it may be "difficult" indeed
then i installed GrapheneOS for a friend. It can't get any easier. Their web installer makes degoogling accessible to everyone.
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
