Libb

We should also send our best wishes to anyone that was not yet freed from Microsoft, or from US service providers.

Today could be a good opportunity to make the switch to some EU-based service provider.

would help if you tell us what features you regularly use.
I mean, OneNote is so many very different tools at the same time…

I will wait for a big “try me out” button, which I could not find.

Meanwhile, I see no reason to not keep using LibreOffice like I’ve been doing for some years, as it does all I want it to and helps me peacefully write away from MS Office ;)

Thx a lot, I 'll reach to them.

But it’s five euros (!!) to test it for a month?! Do you know how much it costs to run a project like this?

I’m not affiliated with the project / the Devs at all, but I really think 5€/month is close enough to a free trial…

You’re more than welcome to think whatever you want and throw away money however you fancy. As long as I’ll have to put in any kind of effort to earn said 5 euros I will consider them not free.

And, no, that doesn’t mean I won’t be spending money with them (you should read my whole comment before jumping to any conclusion, or feeling entitled to tell me how I must spend my money), just that I don’t think this is the best effing trial there could be to invite people to test a products that is free everywhere else. And that I more unlikely to test it in those conditions. I had a similar discussion with Kagi a few years ago… Kagi, once again please read my entire comment, I was effing happily paying for as a user.

Are you one of the devs? If so, you should

1. Make it more obvious there is a free trial.
2. Reconsider the free trial plan, imho. Personally, I will never decide in a couple hour if I might want to use any new tool. This takes time even more so changing something as intimate as a search engine. Heck, it took me quite a few months of intensive testing and consideration before I decided to move away from MS Word to LibreOffice Writer, after 25 years using it ;)

Just so you know: I was a very satisfied paid user of Kagi… but that happened only after I was able to try them for more than a few days and to take my time to actually explore those many features I was thrilled about. Something I can’t and refuse to rush in a few hours. I think Kagi was offering 100 or maybe 300 searches for free, I can’t recall the number, but even that was not enough and I had to contact them.

I really enjoyed using their engine and, as a EU-citizen, I would more than wish to give yours a chance too.

Thx for the links.

Also, unlike Proton Drive, Infomaniak KDrive works great with GNU/Linux.

I did not know about Soverin. You may want to add Infomaniak to your list of alternatives. It’s Swiss-based/hosted (like Proton), offer some kind of encryption (I don’t think if it’s E2EE but don’t quote me on that). One can either get a free email account, with limited storage, or a paid plan for their KSuite that is online office suite + cloud Storage and email, available for both personal use as well as businesses at a reasonable price, imho.

Not “Fully” (US brand, I’m from France but they used to have EU office but it seems to be part of Herman Miller) I’ve had constant issues with their circuitry and now with the leg mechanism jamming itself. As soon as it finally dies I will replace it with another brand.

Checking on their GitHub page (the irony…) I see that (it’s a fork of OnlyOffice) it’s a web-based app, unlike say LibreOffice.

Talking about LO, I would have liked to know the reasons why they did not decide to use the most complete, and Libre office suite, whose Foundation is already European.

Depends how long is that list but wouldn’t a spreadsheet be enough to keep that kind of records? You could save it in a privacy respecting cloud too. And it wouldn’t need a powerful computer to be accessed.

LibreOffice is a Libre software (meaning its free as in free beer and free as in freedom: you can use however you wish) that comes with an alternative to Microsoft Word and one to Microsoft Excel. It works on Mac, Windows and Linux.

I have limited needs but it perfectly replaced Word and Excel for my use case.

If you don’t mind using Google products there is also their free (as in free beer) online alternative Google Docs and and Google Sheets, which work in most browsers.

Welcome onboard ;)

Excited to get something other than an iphone as my next phone when the time comes too.

That was the last piece of Apple tech I replaced too. I would have loved to buy an e/OS/ phone but it was too worrying to not be able to find reliable info regarding the compatibility of those very few specific apps I need. So, I went with a stock Google android… and since I tend to make the device I own last as long as possible, it seems it will be my phone for at least the coming 7 years ;)

Indeed, Europe have high value industries (and not just our respective countries, France and Sweden ;). We would not lose much quality-wise. Europe has only stopped being autonomous after WWI and WWII, we’re not doomed to remain like that. But we need the willingness to change that, no matter how painful.

My old laptop was very slow and laggy. I wiped it clean from Windows and installed Linux Mint. Now it’s like it’s brand new, I’ve come to rely on shortcuts and features that don’t exist in Windows and I love how all the unnecessary resource draining bloat is gone.

I did not wipe clean my old desktop running macOS, also I was not suffering much from bloat on macOS (I suffered of the lack of repairability). After 40+ years being an Apple customer, realizing they would not come back to selling upgradable/repairable devices, I just stopped replacing my Mac by a newer Mac and instead purchased a (much cheaper &) used Mini PC (HP ProDesk something) on which I installed Linux Mint and came to the same conclusion as you.

That was 6+ years ago and I did not miss the Mac once. My only regret? Not having made that switch a few years earlier…

• My Search engine is the French, like me: Qwant. It works nice (but it’s also still relying on US search engines for now) but I consider it less good than what I used prior: Kagi (which to me was the best search engine ever, worth its price (yep, it’s paid for) but, alas, being an US product their own POTUS made it clear last April and forward that as an EU-citizen I should not be relying on it or on any other US tech/services). A few months ago Qwant announced they had started working with (Ecosia) on building our very own EU-based search engine… I’ve yet to hear about nay progress being made.
• My Cloud is a mix of the Swiss (and cheap) Infomaniak KSuite and the German (and E2EE) Filen.io
• I also quit using all streaming platforms (but that was a few ago, already) moving back to physical media that I can fully own and control. And it has been great.
• After having been using Firefox for all my online life (I started using it when it was still called… Mosaic) my default browser for almost 2 years has been a UK-fork of Firefox that is privacy respecting and AI-free: Waterfox.
• My backup and chrome-based browser is and has been for years the EU-based Vivaldi. Also it is privacy respecting and non-AI soiled.

I feel like I’ve been subject to some psychological fallacy where I’ve assumed that the most popular alternative is the best and it’s been eye-opening to realize it’s simply not true.

I can share that feeling but I also feel like I also have way too lazy, personally, all those years by not bothering considering ‘local’ EU alternatives and sticking to US-based tech out of a lifelong habit of using them. In that regard that sad election and the (unsurprisingly) pitiful shit show that followed had a real positive impact by forcing to stop relying on as much US-based products as I could, and to check in my own part of the world what was available.

Side note regarding that dangerous laziness, probably also a very naive note: as a French, I hope our German friends will realize their government could very well be as lazy, at this very moment. How so? By insisting on keeping on purchasing an other very specific type of US tech instead of European-made alternatives (and yep, disclaimer, that alternative could include my very own French tech): US weapons.

The EU should question that choice which hurts real bad, and is only made in the hope of maybe preserving something that I think is already gone, for good. Something that will hurt the EU even more long term by weakening our key defense industries and any hope the EU can one day stand its ground against the US absurd demands and can one day stand alone. Maybe the US and the EU countries can remain partners, and members of NATO, I would see no harm in that, but we can’t rely on the US anymore and certainly not on something as critical as rearming ourselves. I mean, we should not rely on them even after (if ever) the Trump is replaced by another POTUS because, as we witnessed, there was barely any opposition from any US institutions or persons in power against his shit show and his wreckage of our 80-years old alliance which means we should take it as a fact that the US don’t give a fuck about our alliance, and we should stop hope for the good old times to come back. Those times are gone.

Isn’t there already enough labels?

And like you said: who will bear the cost of that nth label?

“Parent-proof” as in ‘they are old and clueless users’ (a bit like myself) or as in “I’m a minor and I don’t want my parents to get a look into my por… personal library of cute images” ?

Half-trolling here but not completely: if you’re a minor, there is very little ways to put any of your data out of reach of your parents.

As for cloud backups. I don’t know much alternatives to Backblaze (I used to one of their customers) but I now use European based cloud storages as backups. It works depending the volume of data:

• Filen.io is E2EE and relatively simple to use once configured for yours parent. If you purchase it during the Balckfriday sales you should be able to buy buy lifetime plans instead of the traditional subscription plans plans (that’ whats I did, 3 years ago, still going fine).
• If one tera of storage is enough: Infomaniak KSuite+ is very easy to use but not E2EE. It’s less than 2€/month including an email account, some other extras like an online version of the office suite. And you can purchase extra storage up to 6To.

They both have mobiles apps, if you need that.

Filen is the less ‘user friendly’ of the two (nothing that bad either, it’s just… less polished and somewhat clumsier) but the most secure and privacy respecting as far as I can tell. Both are working well once they’re configured. I really love Infomaniak’s simplicity to be honest. It’s also simpler to share stuff with other people.

My pleasure: I’ve been their customer for many years, before moving back to physical.

There is Qobuz (edit they do streaming and purchase). I used to purchase a lot of music on iTunes too, back when they went DRM-free but I went back to… physical media.

not deal with physical media (I’m not a collector, and I want to avoid plastic waste)

This probably not the ideal solution you are looking for, but you can purchase the disc, rip it and then donate it to someone else.

Bre…nter?

Exactly