Over the past few months, I embarked on a rewarding digital journey to move away from US big tech and towards more European [EU], open source [FOSS], privacy-oriented [P], and decentralized [D] alternatives.
I’m sharing my experience here in case it can be useful to others, as well as to gather any additional thoughts or suggestions:
- Desktop OS: Microsoft Windows 11 --> OpenSUSE Tumbleweed + KDE [EU][FOSS]
- Web browser: Google Chrome --> Brave --> Vivaldi --> Mozilla Firefox + Strict privacy settings, uBlock Origin, Privacy Badger, Conset-O-Matic [FOSS][P]
- Email: Gmail --> Infomaniak Mail [EU][FOSS]
- Calendar: Google Calendar --> Infomaniak Calendar [EU][FOSS] + OneCalendar [EU]
- Files: Dropbox --> Infomaniak kDrive [EU][FOSS]
- Photos: Google Photos --> Infomaniak kDrive [EU][FOSS]
- Notes: Google Keep --> Notesnook [FOSS][P]
- Social Media:
- Facebook --> Nothing
- Twitter/X --> Mastodon (
mas.to) [EU][FOSS][D] - Reddit --> Lemmy (
lemm.ee) [EU][FOSS][D]
- AI Chatbot: OpenAI ChatGPT --> Mistral AI Le Chat [EU]
- Videos: Youtube --> Unwatched [EU][FOSS][P]
- Podcasts: Apple Podcasts --> Spotify --> Pocket Casts [FOSS]
- Translate: Google Translate --> DeepL [EU]
- Maps: Google Maps --> Organic Maps [EU][FOSS][P]
- Weather: Apple Weather --> YR [EU]
- Online payments: PayPal --> Revolut [EU]
- Password manager: LastPass --> Mozilla Firefox --> Bitwarden [FOSS][P]
- Online shopping: Amazon --> Cdiscount [EU]
- Travel booking:
Booking.com--> Direct booking
And here’s the list of things I couldn’t let go of:
- Mobile OS: iOS | I have a business iPhone which is also my personal phone
- Messaging: WhatsApp | The network effect is too big here: family, friends, local businesses, etc
- Streaming services: Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ | These come basically for free with my ISP and are too convenient for the moment (esp. w/ kids)
deleted by creator
Thank you for sharing!
Email: Gmail --> Infomaniak Mail [EU][FOSS]
Requires a phone number. If you live in an EU country, that phone number will be connected to your real identity due to recent laws in the EU forcing telephone companies to identify their customers. An “Infomaniak” email will most likely be connected to the user’s real identity.
From their website:
The free offer is available in the following countries: Suisse, France, Belgique, Luxembourg, Allemagne, Italie, Autriche, Espagne, Portugal, Monaco, Australie, Canada, Chili, Corée du Sud, Danemark, Estonie, États-Unis, Finlande, Grèce, Hongrie, Irlande, Islande, Israël, Japon, Lettonie, Lituanie, Mexique, Norvège, Nouvelle-Zélande, Pays-Bas, Pologne, République slovaque, République tchèque, Royaume-Uni, Slovénie, Suède, Turquie.
A telephone number corresponding to the country is required.
Not a good choice if you want anonymity.
Well spotted - I’ll look into it. What do you use? A self-hosted email server/domain?
mailbox.org - they even specifically state “there’s no need for you to tell us your real name”
I also use mailbox. It’s fully hosted in the EU as well.
For an anonymous email, Tuta should be good.
Protonmail is also an alternative, but that one requires you to have another email address iirc.
Both of these are European.
Be aware that if you use an email for personal business, like buying stuff online, your email address will be connected to your identity indirectly regardless. So it depends on what you are going to use it for. It might be that it won’t matter (in your case) that the address is linked to your identity through the phone number if you are already linking it to yourself in other ways.
I recommend using email aliases, such as SimpleLogin, addy
Perfect example for what I’m still pondering about. Maybe this will help my own journey.
I’ll check out infomaniak!
Good job! Also, just to clarify, there is bitwarden.eu (yes, it is official). Furthermore, uBlock Origin makes Privacy Badger useless.
Indeed, my account and data are on the bitwarden.eu servers.
I’ll look into the functionality overlap between Privacy Badger and uBlock Origin - thanks.
I don’t see Privacy Badger being mentioned on the don’t bother list though
third bullet point. or Ctrl+F.
Did you try Joplin instead of Notesnook? It’s from France and completely FOSS and for free.
I’ll look at it again but IIRC the interface was a bit too complicated and feature-rich for what I needed. It looks like Joplin is a full-blown alternative to OneNote while I’m just after an app to manage a few to-do lists.
Email & Calendar: Infomaniak
- Alternatives: Proton Mail/Calendar (Switzerland), Tutanota (Germany), Mailbox.org (Germany).
Files & Photos: Infomaniak kDrive
- Alternatives: Nextcloud (self-hosted or via trusted EU providers like Hetzner or OwnCube).
Social Media: Mastodon, Lemmy
- Tip: You should also try Friendica.
Podcasts: Pocket Casts
- Alternatives: AntennaPod (FOSS, Android), or gPodder (Linux desktop).
Maps: Organic Maps
- Tip: Try OSMAnd+ for more advanced features. Or MagicEarth from PlayStore.
Weather: YR
- Alternative: Breezy Weather
Sticking Points & Realities
Messaging: WhatsApp
- Network effect is real. For privacy, encourage Signal or Element (Matrix), but WhatsApp is hard to avoid for most.
If you’re looking for a unified, European alternative for your digital life, you might want to check out InlineStyle.
It’s a small, user-funded platform (no ads, no tracking) that combines:
- Video sharing (via PeerTube) — follow creators or publish your videos without YouTube
- Music streaming (via Funkwhale) — upload your library or explore the Fediverse
- Photo albums (via Immich) — sync your photos and manage your albums
- Notes and documents — write in Markdown or collaborate on spreadsheets
- Retro and indie games — play directly in your browser with cloud saves
- Personal website + email — get your own @inlinestyle.it email and me.inlinestyle.it/yourname website
All open-source. All hosted in the EU.
We’d love to hear your thoughts! The goal is to build a real alternative, not a downgrade.
Nice! And here I am, moving just 80 % of my Amazon purchases elsewhere and talking a lot about switching to Linux …
I found Mastodon not viable. Here are my experiences with it: https://lemmy.world/post/22012649/13473693 (tl;dr: my instance was shut down, all accounts deleted).
Followed the BlueSky people eventually. I kept my Twitter account, although unused, but to be honest, any account that I need for vital information is also - or only - on BlueSky. I left one last pinned post on Twitter, urging people to at least mirror whatever they think they must post there to Mastodon or BlueSky, so they don’t force others to stay, but I’m afraid those who still believe, after all that happened, that they can do more good than harm there will be hard to convince.
deleted by creator
Nope, not a bot. I did cross post to a bunch of relevant communities/instances - but always from my lemm.ee account.
