Out of curiosity, if you’re on a Pixel, why not choose GrapheneOS?

To add to this, I suggest sorting the comments by controversial on Reddit for another take.

Raivo is “source available” actually. No real way to verify if it actually running the code available either. There is also no legal way to fork it from my understanding.

For the moment I’ve settled on 2FAS as the best iOS replacement. I’ve used Tofu, but its inability to export is a dealbreaker, and the lack of updates is troubling.

So I tend to agree with the PrivacyGuides.org Team on this one. I’ll break it down slightly differently though. Brave isn’t BAD per se, but I strongly prefer not using a Chromium based browser unless it’s 100% necessary.

Most private and secure but frustrating to use: Tor Browser

Private and secure, still frustrating for daily use: Mullvad Browser

Able to be private and secure, defaults aren’t perfect. Firefox + uBlock Origin

Private and secure by default, potentially slowly updates and a smaller team might impact security. LibreWolf

Chromium Based Browser with good Security and Privacy, defaults aren’t perfect: Brave

Chromium based browser with good privacy, but potentially slow updates and a smaller team. Ungoogled Chromium + uBlock Origin

Happy to have introduced you! 🙂 Hope you find it as helpful as I have.

I don’t feel like leaving the PG community at the moment, but here are a few suggestions that come to mind after reading your list.

Search: SearXNG

MacOS Firewall: Lulu

DNS: NextDNS

Email Alias: AnonAddy

2FA: 2 FAS, iOS and Android

2FA: Remove Ravio (sold to sketchy app maker MobiMe). I consider this compromised until proven otherwise.

YT Proxies: Yattee (iOS App)

File Encryption: Cryptomator (File encryption app, optimized for the cloud)

Notes: Joplin

Podcast: Podverse

Graphics: Digikam ente

Oh for sure. The manual down ranking of Russian search results didn’t really bother me, but the undisclosed inability to block Microsoft tracking in their browser was enough to have me avoid it going forward. Not a good look, especially when there are already better options in the space.

Any reason for not just using PrivacyGuides.org instead? I like seeing a lot of variety, but PrivacyGuides seems like the cream of the crop in my opinion.

I find Brave’s dependence on Chromium (and therefore Google) to be troubling. They don’t have the engineering team to keep up with Google as they continue backtracking on the “Don’t Be Evil” motto.

For the same reason, I prefer Brave Search over DuckDuckGo. DDG relies almost entirely on Bing for its results. In comparison, Brave Search has a completely independent search index and does its own web crawling.

I realize there are exceptions to this, and you might fall into that category, but…

Most of the time when websites say they require a particular app, they actually don’t. Like if a website says to use Google Authenticator, you can actually use any TOTP app. There is even a workaround for using Steam’s TOTP without their app.

Don’t be scared to just try importing the QR or text based code into another app when you are signing up for a service. A functioning website won’t let you progress to the next screen without having the proper code in your app.

Edit: After digging into 2FAS, I think it is now my top choice. Seems like more of a drop in replacement for Raivo. https://2fas.com/

My second choice is (as of this edit) Owky. I’ve not seen anyone talking about it, but it’s FOSS and has the ability to export your TOTP codes.

Im a little worried about it not being maintained though, since it’s a single developer.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/owky-two-factor-authenticator/id1602245257

Other options I’ve considered:

Tofu Authenticator. Unfortunately it’s basic though and lacks the ability to export.

ente Authenticator. Account required, and I’m a little undecided on the company. Might be a serious option though.

I mean, currently I’m having less trouble using Arch to game than I was with anything else. I think the big thing is that Aech has a rapid release of updates, and the Steamdeck is based on Arch.

If you want those benefits without a lot of the annoying complexity during setup, there is always EndeavorOS. It’s pretty close to a basic Arch install, but it holds your hand a lot more.

One point for Brave, is that they have specifically said they will continue to support Manifest v2 in their browser.

What system are you on that Firefox is laggy? I’ve had no real issues on Windows, Mac, or Linux in the past few years.

Unfortunately, DuckDuckGo is just Bing with additional privacy these days. Effectively is is what Startpage is for Google.

Brave Search is one of the only independent search indexes available these days. Others include Mojeek and Qwant, but neither are as good as Brave Search.

You can with Firefox Focus! Though to be clear, safari with AdGuard is much better. Even better when used together NextDNS and the HaGaZi blocklist.

All I want from Digikam is support for Apple’s Live Photos. Not having a good way to incorporate those photos into Digikam, is a huge barrier to me moving fully away from Apple. It should be basic functionality at this point. Live Photos have been around for nearly a decade, and even rudimentary support for them would go a long way.

https://digikam.org/news/2023-07-09-8.1.0_release_announcement/

Wow, somehow this escaped me all these years. I feel like I’ve got a bunch of fresh XKCD to read now.

For the uneducated: On a mobile browser you just press and hold the comic (long tap). On a computer you hover over the image and the alt text will appear next to the cursor.

The alt text in this one was:

For what it’s worth, Apex Legends literally runs smoother on my Arch Linux install than my Windows 10 install. It was completely unexpected, but a very welcome discovery.