cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/37022178

As a result of this discussion in !degoogle@lemmy.ml, there is now an IRC channel about degoogling!

/join ##degoogle on irc.libera.chat:6697 (TLS). The channel name begins with a double hashtag (according to the namespace policy).

Come on down and join us through your local IRC client or the web client web.libera.chat!

Looking for places to have realtime chats.

After seeing the AI age verification bullshit that was the last straw for me after literally witnessing Google slowing down my videos because I use an adblock; I made an Odysee account and migrated over to it from YouTube.

(Surprisingly, a lot of channels that I follow upload there as well.)

And I think it is a pretty solid video streaming platform. I have had zero issues with it. Apparently there are no ads, it's decentralized, you can see the dislikes and actually discover a lot of interesting niche channels to watch. After a week of using it I realized I am not going to the YouTube anymore and Odysee is becoming more and more my "go to" place for watching a few videos and relaxing after a long day.

What do you think of it? I am not tech-savvy, so I might be missing something, but I just wanted to say that I am having a pretty good experience with Odysee.

cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/36778872

Comments

• Hacker News.

230-page PDF.

Today, the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division won significant remedies in its monopolization case against Google in online search. In United States et al. v. Google, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia prohibited Google from entering or maintaining exclusive contracts relating to the distribution of Google Search, Chrome, Google Assistant, and the Gemini app; ordered Google to make certain search index and user-interaction data available to rivals and potential rivals; and ordered Google to offer search and search text ads syndication services to enable rivals and potential rivals to compete.

The court’s ruling today recognizes the need for remedies that will pry open the market for general search services, which has been frozen in place for over a decade. The ruling also recognizes the need to prevent Google from using the same anticompetitive tactics for its GenAI products as it used to monopolize the search market, and the remedies will reach GenAI technologies and companies.

Anyone here from the reddit degoogle im looking for something thats not reddit

Looking to try installing a GSI to a device without any third-party ROMs ported to it yet. Want to back up the stock ROM in case something goes wrong. Manufacturer doesn't offer the stock ROM for download and the only copy online is from a website that looks pretty shady. Can unlock the bootloader, but no reports of anyone rooting or installing a custom recovery environment for it. Every tutorial says to just look for a ROM on the internet, but how do people extract them in the first place?

EDIT: Thanks everyone for the awesome support! I left Reddit for Lemmy a few days ago and I’m already glad I made the switch! 🤗

Yo yo!

I’ve been working on making my life more private and need some assistance picking suitable replacement options. Please let me know what you think of my list of if there are any opportunities for improvement! Here’s where I’m at …

Apple Maps -OSMandMaps. Seems like a good option, but it’s not ready out the box. I need to do more tweaking with it. -Magic Earth. Haven’t tested it yet, seems good. But I’m looking for free options first before I dabble with paid stuff.

AI (ChatGPT) -Lumo. Chat is really good. But I understand they are good because they syphon data illegally, so I’m ok “downgrading” when switching AIs. Lump seems pretty good so far. I can tell it’s not as advanced but it will do me fine for what I need. Also, i assume once I pay for lumo pro it will be more “powerful”. -Maple AI. Seems dope, also I like the pay model, pay for what you use over “x” amount of inquiries. Does anyone know how I owledgable/powerful it is? -local AI OR Ollama. These 2 are beyond my knowledge. I don’t understand how I run these on my own server? If you know anything about these please ELI5.

Google Docs -OnlyOffice. Seems like it does everything I want. -cryptpad. Just heard of this today, need to explore more. Seems dope, but it doesn’t have an app? From what I’ve seen definitely a strong contender.

Photo App (I haven’t looked into any of these yet) -Protón Drive. -ente photos. -I’mmich.

Google Drive -protón drive.

cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/36573242

Full Complaint-88 Pages.

• Who: Dotdash Meredith Inc. (operating People, Better Homes & Gardens, Investopedia, and 37+ other brands) filed the lawsuit against Google LLC and Alphabet Inc. The publisher serves 175 million monthly users with completely free digital content funded through advertising revenue.
• What: Comprehensive antitrust lawsuit alleging Google monopolized publisher ad server and ad exchange markets through systematic manipulation including Project Bernanke, Last Look advantages, Enhanced Dynamic Allocation, and Unified Pricing Rules that artificially depressed publisher revenues while increasing Google's profits.
• When: Filed August 29, 2025, following the April 17, 2025 Eastern District of Virginia ruling that established Google violated federal antitrust laws by monopolizing digital advertising technology markets through exclusionary conduct over more than a decade.
• Where: Southern District of New York federal court, targeting Google's worldwide monopolization of advertising technology markets that affect both domestic and international publisher revenues through integrated manipulation systems.
• Why: The lawsuit seeks monetary damages and injunctive relief to restore competition in advertising technology markets worth hundreds of billions annually, aiming to protect content creation funding and ensure fair competition for the millions of advertising impressions that support free digital publishing across the internet.

Basically the title. I’ve installed Lineage already, however, I don’t know if it’s better than GrapheneOS

cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/36436559

• Backgrounder: Timeline of events related to the investigation of Google and de-listing of online information;
• Report of Findings: Investigation and recommendations concerning Google search engine service’s compliance with its obligations under PIPEDA.

Given the recent news about Google's hardening of sideloaded apps, I need to speed up my efforts to get rid of Google services.

However, there are a few apps/infrastructures that I'm really struggling to find a replacement for, because I happen to be in a long distance relationship with my girlfriend and I often travel to South-East Asia.

Banking

Maybe the easier part is the banking: currently I use ING, Revolut and Wise.

• ING is my main account that I trust. Employers in Germany sometimes require a German bank account, it's not enough to simply have a German IBAN. ~~For this, I've been thinking of N26. It seems like they have a full-featured web interface, so the app is probably not mandatory. Does anyone have any experience with them?~~ Edit: as someone pointed out, N26 requires a smartphone app for Android (with Play Services) or iOS. So N26 is off the table.
• Revolut's web interface is not complete, so I cannot use it in the future.
• Wise does have a full-featured web interface, but I still need to experiment whether I can actually transfer money to Asian bank accounts.

"Asian infrastructure"

Now this is the real headache. In South-East Asian countries, people only know WhatsApp. It's considered as a must-have. If anyone wants to contact you, it's either WhatsApp or it's not happening. And the other thing is Grab for an Uber-like service plus for food delivery, as well as groceries. Since in many of these countries it's simply not an option to walk, this is an important app. I'd be interested in some insights from locals, how do they manage to live there without Grab and WhatsApp.

Thanks in advance!

Edit: typo

cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/36316138

Comments

• Hackernews;
• Lobsters.

Pre-installed Google apps that can’t be uninstalled can be incredibly frustrating. But not everyone can afford a new phone (also not to mention the environmental impact), and rooting your device is not for everyone. The good news is, there is a simple solution for Android users: open-source launchers that let you hide those apps for good. Below, I’ve rounded up some options to help you take back control of your home screen:

• Kvaesitso
• KISS Launcher
• Olauncher
• Lawnchair

Unfortunately, it is not that easy for iOS, but if you have more suggestions, I would love to read them in the comments

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/35171067

Have you ever deleted a google account before? Any Experiences? What should one know about this? Do you trust them to really delete everything?

[I thought of posting this question here since it's the result of my avoiding direct use of Google search. Moderators feel free to delete it if it doesn't fit (apologies in that case).]

Just noticed something curious and somewhat funny with SearXNG: if I repeat the search, say by pressing several times enter in the search field containing a specific search string, then I get every time a different batch of results. Note that I'm using an existing server.

Can anyone explain to me why this happens, and how to avoid it? Does it depend on my specific settings?

In my opinion we need to support other websites like odysee and peertube. If everyone here continue to watch content on yt we won't have a real alternative. This is my thought. For me the best alternative right now is odysee and I'm trying to watch only creator there. (If u want a list of content creator I can write it down)

Recently I've been looking for a phone that will allow me to install an google-free OS. I've never installed a different OS on a phone before. I've been looking online but haven't really found a clearly best option.

Problem with standard recommendation

From what I've read GrapheneOS seems the best alternative OS. Unfortunately they only support the Pixel devices. I want to have local, offline access to my files (e.g. music files, documents) and don't want to be dependent on cloud services. The Pixel with the most storage comes with only 256GB and no slot for an SD card.

Possible options

There are some other routes that may be feasible that I've listed here.

Fairphone 6

• No USB 3
• Pricey for what you get, both in terms of hardware and in terms of fairness, at least according to this post).
• It has an SD card slot
• You can order it with e/os installed, very convenient
• No GrapheneOS

Fairphone 5

• According to this post, the FP6 is a lot snappier
• Not significantly cheaper than the FP6
• It does come with USB 3
• It has an SD card slot
• Can also order this with e/os.
• No GrapheneOS

Sony

According to the Bootloader Unlock Wall of Shame Sony isn't the worst of the bunch.

• Many Sony's from the LineageOS list of compatible devices have an SD card slot
• Have to install the OS yourself
• No GrapheneOS

Pixel

Get a refurbished Pixel anyways and get a separate dumb MP3 player for music.

• Might be an option but 256GB is still cutting it tight with what I want to have available offline.
• The 256GB option is a lot more expensive than the 128GB option compared to the cost of a 128GB SD card
• Extra costs from buying the extra MP3 player
• Have to install the OS yourself
• Can install GrapheneOS

DumbPhone:

Get a dumbphone for calls, texting, banking, govt stuff, 2FA app, and music listening. Have a separate linux phone for all the other stuff.

• Not sure how privacy friendly the dumbphones are, might still be using Google Play services?
• Two devices instead of one to carry around
• Extra costs for two devices
• Tinkering with a linux phone could be a fun project

Bonus option: don't get the linux phone

• Less screen time
• Only 1 device to buy/carry
• Can't go on the internet while traveling

Questions

• What would be your recommendation that allows plenty of storage on the phone?
• Do you have good/bad experiences with any of these phones/operation systems?
• Are there any good options I've missed?