There are 3 issues with this:

1. This is a third-party project, not an official part of Bluesky. Bluesky was never meant to work with ActivityPub, that was a clear design choice. This is just a workaround.
2. It's opt-in, meaning most accounts will never get federated, because people just aren't aware that something like this exists. This especially applies to new users.
3. It relies on a centralized service, Bluesky and ActivityPub servers don't talk directly to each other, which would be required for true federation. Federation is always decentralized, this is the exact opposite.

I don't understand why anyone should use Bluesky with cheap hacks to attempt to fix Bluesky's poor design choices and or utter incompetence, if they could just use Mastodon and federate with the Fediverse over ActivityPub by default.

From a user perspective, Bluesky is just Mastodon with a recommendation algorithm. There is no other protocol required for this, everything could easily be done using ActivityPub exclusively. I will never care about Bluesky, since it tries to be the new Twitter, but the enshittification of Twitter began when they introduced their crappy algorithm, instead of just displaying tweets of accounts you follow in chronological order (like Mastodon does it).

For my fellow fish shell users: git log --graph --abbrev-commit --no-decorate --date=format:'%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S' --format=format:'%C(8)%>|(16)%h %C(7)%ad %C(8)%<(16,trunc)%an %C(auto)%d %>|(1)%s' --all

This is their stupid excuse. They could still implement ActiviyPub as a secondary federation protocol. (Bluesky <-> Bluesky via ATProto, Bluesky <-> Fediverse via ActivityPub). They decided against it. It's an intentional choice, and they're just making up excuses.

your emails aren't hidden from Google as much as you think.

You're wrong, Proton encrypts notifications before sending them to you through Google or Apple push services. The notification is then decrypted in the Proton client on your phone, and only then displayed to you.

Probably an unpopular opinion, but I've never seen the point of PWAs. I don't want a crappy website as an icon on my homescreen, I want a proper native app. If the app is privacy-invasive, I will either find a FOSS alternatives, or isolate it in a separate user profile.

The main reason I think they may need google services is the banking app. Mine will refuse to launch without google services installed.

That's true, I also need Play services for mine, but I have a special user profile for it.

No, this is specifically for DNS over UDP (Port 53). What you're looking for is just an HTTPS proxy. There is no difference between a DoH connection and any other HTTPS connection.

Hell no, fuck Bluesky. There is no reason not to adopt ActivityPub when trying to build an open, federated Twitter alternative. Except for power and control over the platform, its core protocol and ecosystem. Screw these guys, use Mastodon or anything on the Fediverse.

Tell me more about Beehaw, I know about the trouble with lemmy.ml and lemmygrad, but so far haven't heard anything about Beehaw.

They can recieve security updates if you use an alternative ROM such as Lineage or /e/OS.

They can only receive OS updates, but firmware updates are just as important for maintaining the security of a device. These can only be provided by the device manufacturer.

Can you please explain how e/OS/ is insecure?

Sure. It's based on the already insecure LineageOS, you can read more about that here: https://madaidans-insecurities.github.io/android.html#lineageos

On top of that, the /e/OS devs don't release updates in a timely manner, often taking 1-3 months to releases even simple but important Android Security Bulletin patches.

The new Element X is really great, but only available for iOS and Android. Unfortunately no desktop or web version.

Google services shouldn't even be needed for the apps OP listed above. Instagram works just fine without Google services, just like Discord, Telegram and Steam. I don't know about GitHub, but there are FOSS alternatives for it on F-Droid. Spotify (xManager) also works just fine.

A Google Pixel with GrapheneOS is the best thing on the market for privacy and security.

GrapheneOS is a privacy and security-focused operating system, which is based on Android and retains full compatibility with Android apps. There are no Google services by default, but you can install Sandboxed Google Play services, which have much less access to your device, because they are running in the normal Android application sandbox, just like any other app you install, and can be removed at any time. GrapheneOS offers many other cool features, such as a network permission toggle, which lets you revoke internet access from any app (like e.g. the Google Camera app).

I'm glad you already know about F-Droid, because there are so many amazing apps there. After looking at your home screen and the apps you currently use, here are some quick recommendations from me:

• Before you start using F-Droid, add the IzzyOnDroid repoisitory, as it contains even more awesome apps that can't be found in the official repo
• Switch to a better F-Droid client, such as Droid-ify
• Revolution is the best IRC client I could find on F-Droid, it looks a little older (doesn't use the newest version of Material Design), but still works very well
• LibreTorrent is an amazing torrent client
• AntennaPod is IMO the best podcast app on Android
• The official Wikipedia app is available on F-Droid: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.wikipedia
• Element X is a new, rewritten version of the Element client (it's officially made by the Element team, and you can even try it out on iOS right now)
• Clock You is a good and modern looking clock/timer/stopwatch/alarm app
• There are a few Telegram apps on F-Droid. I have found Nekogram X to be the best. If you prefer the experience of the stock Telegram app, you can get Telegram-FOSS from F-Droid.
• For Signal, you can either use Signal-FOSS (requires a third-party repo), or an improved fork of the app called Molly (you can either get it from Accrescent, which is available in the GrapheneOS App Store), or by adding their custom F-Droid repo. Molly is officially recommended by the GrapheneOS project over the normal Signal app.
• The official GitHub app works just fine, but you can also try FOSS alternatives from F-Droid such as FastHub-Libre, or OctoDroid.

The other apps you mentioned in your post are not available on F-Droid, but I also have a few recommendations there:

• xManager for Spotify (it's a modded, patched version that removes ads)
• Aliucord for Discord (it removes some of the telemetry and tracking)
• Instagram and Steam can easily be downloaded from the Google Play Store. You can use Aurora Store, to download apps from Google Play without creating a Google Account.
• If you only need Steam for the authenticator, there is a way to get the verification codes in a FOSS TOTP authenticator like Aegis, without having to install the Steam app: https://help.ente.io/auth/migration-guides/steam/
• You can either use FFUpdate to download the Brave Browser, or use Obtainium to pull the APK from GitHub

Also check out Lawnchair launcher, since I at least find the stock launcher kinda lacking in features and UI/UX.

Feel free to ask me any further questions, either in this thread or via Lemmy DM