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Suggestions
This is a collection of tools and platforms that help managing your online life without relying on big corporations like Google or Microsoft. Instead of including overwhelmingly many or technically intricate alternatives this list tries to give a simple path to a responsible use of online services. Everything in this list is Free and Open Source Software unless specified otherwise.
Some of the services listed here may not be free themselves, but fair-priced instances or providers of Free and Open Source Software. In those cases there are probably a lot of good alternative providers, but I try to choose one that I like to make it easier to get started.
Collaborative File Cloud
Nextcloud is a popular online file cloud. It has clients for Mobile and PC and a very big app ecosystem. Here is an overview of useful apps and integrations:
- Forms - an alternative to Google Forms and the like
- Calendar - online calendar with WebCal support (integrates well with pretty much any device)
- Nextcloud Office - integrates Nextcloud with Collabora Online, a collaborative office suite for your browser.
You can rent an inexpensive instance from Hetzner (they call it “Storage Share”). It costs about 5 Euros for 1TB of storage per month at the time of writing, being arguably cheaper than Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive.
Easy Online Collaboration
Cryptpad is an end-to-end encrypted alternative to a lot of online tools for day to day life. It supports live collaboration and among others features the following apps:
- Spreadsheets
- Forms
- Rich Text Editing
- Diagrams
You can find a hosted version at cryptpad.digitalcourage.de.
Password Manager
Using randomly generated passwords is not only more secure, but also much more convenient, than remembering dozens of semi-safe passwords in your head!
Password managers are therefore a very vital component of securing your digital life. There are lots of providers in this space, most browsers and smartphones even come with those integrated. Nevertheless I would suggest choosing one that features end-to-end encryption and Free and Open Source client (or even server) implementations. Just make sure to pick a secure master password.
Bitwarden features a free tier that should cover most of your basic daily needs. There are also inexpensive paid tiers with additional features like sharing and file storage.
Polls and Event Scheduling
It is often difficult to find dates that fit everyone’s schedule. Nuudel lets you create regular and date based polls with ease so everybody can submit their preferences.
Interesting Projects
This is more of a collection of interesting projects and tools that I haven’t necessarily tried out my self yet. All of these are Free and Open Source or at least somewhat align with the ideas of the community.