Open Source @lemmy.ml My Password Is 1234 @lemmy.world 1 yr. ago

FOSS Software I use, proprietary apps alternatives

Hello everyone! This is my list of FOSS software I use 😃

Android FOSS alternatives to proprietary apps

Google Board -> FlorisBoard
Google Play -> Aurora Store^[1]
Termius -> ConnectBot^[2]
Discord -> Element
Xiaomi Fit -> Gadget Bridge^[3]
Google Gmail -> K-9 Mail
YouTube -> LibreTube
Google Authenticator -> Mauth
Google News -> Nextcloud News^[4]
Google Drive -> Nextcloud^[4]
Google Keep -> Nextcloud Notes^[4]
Spotify -> SubTune^[4]
YouTube Music -> ViMusic
Google Chrome -> Mull

¹- You need a Google account.
² - The UX is not as good as Termius.
³ - The UI looks like garbage, but does it's job.
⁴ - You need to selfhost a server.

Android FOSS alternatives to FOSS apps

Jellyfin -> Findroid
F-Droid -> Droid-ify

Desktop FOSS

Windows -> Fedora 38 Workstation
Firefox -> LibreWolf (telemetry free, hardened firefox)

Other software

Android -> Lineage OS
Linux server -> Debian (without GUI)
Smart home -> Home Assistant
SMS -> Signal
DNS -> Adguard Home (selfhosted)

Other services

Google -> Qwant (it's so good!)
YouTube (desktop) -> Piped

Suggest me:

Google Maps
Shazam

70 comments

Hasn't Signal dropped Sms support?
- I tried it the other day. I couldn't do SMS. So I think the answer is yes, it's dropped.
- They have
- Yes but I do not use generic SMS. I use it instead of SMSes
- Yes: source
- Yes. I use QKSMS for text messages now instead.
  
  @olof @OrthoStice Simple sms messenger ❤️
- I used signal for 2 years. Only got 2 friends to join. Dropped it when they removed SMS. I've settled for Facebook messenger lite and my social life is booming again.
Just a small note that K-9 is slowly bring turned into Thunderbird
- I wonder if it will get forked by anyone.
  
  Why? Why wonder, why should anyone fork?
Instead of google auth, i use aegis.
- i use aegis, prefer it to authy imo
- Why?
  
  Because it's opensource too. Works very well, vault is password protected and AES encrypted. Easy to configure, very lightweight.
  
  also open source, it was recommended on reddit, and I wanted an alternative to Authy, which backs up config in the cloud, encrypted.
Instead of using Gmaps. You can try

Organic Maps (Simple and clean app that just works)

OsmAnd (Full of great features but it may be too much for you). Supports realtime map update in pro version or the fdroid version.

Magic Earth but i think it is not foss

Mapy.cz uses Openstreetmap but it also does not seem to be foss. But the map is updated in real time.
- +1 for Organic Maps. Create an open streetmap account and contribute - its a game changer for me. Instead of a consumer, you're a contributor. (That goes for all OSM ofc)
- GmapsWV when you have no other choice
  
  This, in conjunction with OrganicMaps/Osmand is god.
- Is there anything other than Google maps that can pull google's traffic data? There's a lot of construction on my way to work right now so I rely on that to not get stuck in traffic.
Signal does not support sms
- Nobody cares about them outside the US.
  
  I care, I live outside of the US
- it does, though
  
  No, it really doesn't. https://support.signal.org/hc/en-us/articles/360007321171-Can-I-send-SMS-MMS-with-Signal-
  
  It used to; however, the functionality only existed on the Android version, and they got rid of it.
Just wanted to mention ViMusic doesn't seem to be getting updated anytime soon. The status is mentioned in this push request.

Consider trying out InnerTune instead which has several more features and active development :)
- I would recommend Navidrome + a subsonic player, but it is alot more effort.
  
  Problem with Navidrome is it organizes your music by the idtags. So if they are not in perfect order you will have a fragmented music collection. Which in turn ruins the experience.
  
  I recommend either Airsonic or the lightweight and fast Polaris that are folder based music players (both run in Docker)
- Thanks!
- Does InnerTune have Android Auto capability?
  
  Yup!
whats the point of discord alternative if none of my wow friends will get off discord?
- That's the thing I am having problems with currently
- I told my friends that I am ditching Discord. I gave them my matrix ID and deleted the account. It was also a test of who cares about me as a person.
  
  You would have stayed on discord if you cared about them.
  
  How many cared?
Google Maps - OrganicMaps
Is Floris Board still maintained? Latest stable release was in June 2022 and latest beta in September 2022.

Their GitHub says that stable versions are released "1 release per 1-5 months" and beta "up to 1-2 releases per week".
- From README:
  
  The current focus is on implementing next-word suggestions, which has become complicated/hit a snag and is taking more time than originally planned. Updates will come when this issue is resolved. Thank you for being patient.
- I use AnySoftKeyboard
  
  I do as well. I like AnySoft because it has the swipey typey shit going on like swype does, but without the spying. The feature is in beta and a bit buggy though.
  
  I'll check that one out.
Try open street maps. It's better than Google maps in some locations and worse in others. So ymmv based on where you live.

Open Street maps has a bunch of Android frontend apps, I use organic maps which is available on fdroid. You can use street-complete (also fdroid) to contribute to open street maps if you wish to do so.
- Actually I contribute to OSM with Street Complete already 😅
- I've already tried Organic Maps and OsmAnd, but they fall behind Google Maps :/ OsmAnd has super old UI and Organic Maps is buggy as hell.
  
  Try magic earth. It is good and privacy friendly.
Google Maps: Osmand~
Share Me/SHAREit - localSend

Stock apps - Simple mobile tools

book reader - librera

Video Downloader - seal
I prefer to use Fcitx 5 for Android instead of GBoard, not FlorisBoard. Because f5a has much better Chinese input experience than FlorisBoard, and I use Chinese.
Does anyone here have problems with K-9 background sync? I always have to manually sync the folders so I can get the latest emails
- I found Fair email to be more consistent than K9. I used both for 2 years or so before finally switching.
- No, mine syncs automatically. Maybe android is blocking the background activity?
  
  Yeah, probably that. Thanks!
Google Maps - Organic maps
What Xiaomi device are you using with gadget bridge? What's you're experience with it? What can it and cannot do?
Aurora store doesn't need a google account
On Android, I use OSMAnd if I want to use a map and the openstreetmap.org web app if just quickly checking a distance, because OSMand can be quite bulky and my phone quite slow. For public transportation (in Germany) I have Öffi.
For Google maps I've been using Organic Maps and has been a smooth experience.
Google maps the best alt is OSM (open street map) but personally I think it's not quite there yet direction wise.

Shazam is easy tho, Mousai is the shit
- it's a desktop program, while most of the solution OP has posted are Android exclusive.
  
  This looks like exactly what I want if it had an android app.
I would suggest Brave search. I've been using it for a year now and the results are very accurate.
- I'll try it. Thanks :)

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