What non-FOSS software are you using that you wish you could replace?

For me its honestly a ton of my work software (digital forensics), shit is too niche to be replaced by good FOSS options. Cellebrite, Magnet Axiom, etc. Autopsy is great and free and has a linux version but it simply cannot get the same level of data without a pretty nutty level of custom code.

And the biggest side effect of this is FUCKING WINDOWS. God I would replace this nightmare OS in a heartbeat if the aforementioned work software would make linux compatible versions. We have legitimately wasted 10k hours dealing with windows bullshit that would not be a problem in linux. Though im sure linux would take a different 10k for its own problems.

What about you guys? Doesn’t have to be work related, thats just the thorn in my side right now.

JackGreenEarth,

Nationwide banking.

Lettuceeatlettuce,

Hmm interesting, I would have thought digital forensics would be a space that lots of FOSS would exist in.

For me, it’s Discord and Steam. There are some good alternatives for Steam in the sense of being a game launcher, but not with all the modding and friend join features, which I use quite a lot.

Discord is worse for me though, because Valve is a least a FOSS friendly company, but Discord isn’t the same. all my friends and family are on Discord and have no interest in leaving. There aren’t any FOSS alternatives that have all the core features that Discord has and work well.

And contrary to a lot of FOSS enthusiasts, I actually really like Discord, it works well most of the time for me.

lolomgwtgbbq,

Firmware in all the consumer devices I want to hack, but don’t want to reverse engineer.

Ertebolle,

iOS

John_Coomsumer,

I freed myself from these chains years ago now, It was definitely worth it. understandable if you are locked in for work though.

TehPers,

There are jobs that require iphones? Now that sounds like a nightmare (unless you’re developing apps for ios or something).

Evkob,
@Evkob@lemmy.ca avatar

I’ve never had one which required a specific phone, but I’ve been excluded from the work group chat at two different jobs because it was on iMessage and I was the only Android user.

I honestly consider this an advantage of using Android though :P

TehPers,

Wow, that is a uniquely idiotic problem caused by a dumb societal trend and perpetuated by a malicious company more interested in locking people into their products than innovating in an actually competitive manner. It’s sad that this is even an issue.

nestEggParrot,

Possibly lock-in to their ecosystem of wearable devices. Those often poorly integrate with android.

Aopen,

Paradox of Windows 10 MS will soon end support and my cpu is “too old” for update to win11 so Ill be forced by Microsoft to use linux

Also Google Play Services, because my phone didnt allow me to flash MicroG

nyakojiru,
@nyakojiru@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

For android you have f-droid

Aopen,

I know

I have deleted all google’s dogshit “system” apps and replaced some of them with fdroid alternatives

The thing is I had to keep play services so some unavoidable apps still work: Gmaps YT

Aopen,

I know

I have deleted all google’s dogshit “system” apps and replaced ones I need with fdroid alternatives

The thing is I had to keep play services so some unavoidable apps still work:

  • Gmaps - google has monopoly
  • YT - find video>share>newpipe>enjoy
  • Play Store - give back aurora 😭
nyakojiru,
@nyakojiru@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Yeah I think one can take care of privacy at a reasonable level without being like Sauls Goodman brother . The issue if we try unnecessary to disappear completely, you have to spend an enormous effort and time and it becomes in some kind of obsession. I personally take basic core measures like giving myself free to data cross of the different well known algorithms from companies and fraudulent sources. I don’t complete desiapoear but I’m like a puzzle for them .

Lemongrab,
@Lemongrab@lemmy.one avatar

Aurora can be used with a gooe account, still better then nothing imo

For gmaps replacement, I use either organic maps or magic earth (non foss but privacy respecting). For gmaps search results I use GmapsWV (sandboxed gmaps web view)

Auster,

On that matter, if you haven't dug on the topic yet and if I may suggest, look for Linux systems ("distros") with either the Xfce or Wayland desktop environments, since they're some of the lightest around (Xfce being the most stable of the two, but Wayland seems pretty promising already).

gratux,
@gratux@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

About the Cpu being “too old”, did you launch the update app in windows 10, or did you create a USB stick? I just installed Windows 11 on my first gen Ryzen using a USB, even though the Windows 10 updater told me it’s too old

jabib,

I’m running W11 on a first-gen i7-930, no TPM.

Aopen,

My pc has i7 4470k and its not listed on supported by wondows 11

…microsoft.com/…/windows-11-supported-intel-proce…

XpeeN,

Did you try microg installer revived?

mrh,
@mrh@mander.xyz avatar

firmware/drivers

shortwavesurfer,

The financial system. If i could i would use monero all the time since its FOSS money. Banking software, visa, slavercard, discover, etc APIs all proprietary.

JaxiiRuff,
@JaxiiRuff@pawb.social avatar

That ship has sailed unfortunately since everyone was conditioned to hate all cryptocurrency during the dogecoin and nft crazes. Though whenever anyone mentions crypto to me I am not afraid to mention monero as a serious option that I use even if no one knows about it or thinks its a shitcoin.

shortwavesurfer,

Eh, i dont think the ship has sailed. The people who stay in crypto during “crypto winters” are generally the real ones who actually want to see a world where governmyth monopoly money fails.

CapedStanker,

But there in lies the problem, money is solely the domain of government, and anyone who thinks it isn’t is extremely ignorant and naive of how money actually works. The crypto bros have been lying to you, and while the cypher punks meant well, they are woefully ignorant about things like history and jurisprudence.

There is a path forward with crypto currency, but it isn’t through private endeavor. Otherwise we would be trading in wampum shells.

shortwavesurfer,

Governments have not always been in control of money. Gold and silver are hard assets that have retained value for thousands of years. Only recently have we been subject to governmyth monopoly money that can be inflated to oblivion by a few secret people in a room who are responsible to nobody but themselves.

CapedStanker,

Absolutely “governments” have always been in control. How do you think they get the gold out of the ground? An elite hires people to do that work. The elites are the government in these ancient times, and they always controlled the mines. That is literally the very first thing they go for, and we have plenty of evidence for this. The precise locations of these mines was not unknown to these peoples by any stretch of the imagination.

Further, these gold mines were not simple operations, they required skill and aptitude to extract and form the metal into it’s required physical form, indeed just the process of what the physical form should be is itself a complicated political process. It’s also a myth that this is something recent, we simply don’t have the archaeological or written evidence to know what they did, but that doesn’t mean that local elites weren’t controlling the monetary supply through various rhetorical, political and/or physically coercive means just as their distant Sumerian progeny would end up doing. We have evidence of direct economic control going back almost to the very beginning of civilization.

N1cknamed,
@N1cknamed@feddit.nl avatar

People don’t hate crypto because of NFTs, they hate crypto because it’s all smoke and mirrors. Crypto isn’t money, it’s a speculation market with an excellent ad campaign. You can’t buy things with crypto.

Want to spend money without the government tracking your every purchase? Just use cash.

mamotromico,

This so much. I hate all the speculation and grift around it. If some crypto stay stable enough to use as a currency I’d be up to try it. I’ll look into monero, I’ve never heard of it.

ililiililiililiilili,

I use Blue Iris for capturing IP cameras. I’ve tried ZoneMinder, iSpy, and Motion (via MotionEyeOS) but just can’t find something that works as dependably well. It could definitely be user error (and not getting the alternatives dialed in). But I always go back to Blue Iris. 😔

leetnewb,

Blue Iris is terrific software. I’m curious though - what tended to go wrong with the alternatives?

ililiililiililiilili,

Mostly too many false positives from shadows. Its definitely user error, as I know motion detection is completely configurable. What FOSS IP cam software do you guys run that I should commit to trying and sticking with?

leetnewb,

If it’s mostly about motion detection and false positives, it’s hard to avoid the object detection stuff if you aren’t doing that already. I stopped using Blue Iris before it started integrating object detection and I can’t speak to it at all. I liked the setup I had with ZoneMinder, Zoneminder Event Server, and the associated machine learning hooks, but the developer behind the event server and ML stuff left and it isn’t particularly well integrated. I like how quickly and comprehensively Viseron (github.com/roflcoopter/viseron) has progressed. Very sleek software, engaged developer, uses YOLOv7, and even supports an openvino backend. Well worth a look.

jetsetdorito, (edited )

I’ve been liking Shinobi, but I just ordered a Corel USB to try Frigate

fulano,

Whatsapp

And no, I can’t simply stop using or ask friends to move to an alternative. I’m from Brazil and that thing is so popular and mainstream, that even stores or public services use it.

Just this week, I had to report an animal abuse case to the authorities, and the official communication channel I had to use was through whatsapp.

It’s sad to see how dependent of a single proprietary service for something so important we allowed ourselves to become…

thingsiplay,
@thingsiplay@kbin.social avatar

@fulano Oh my, that's terrible! At least they should give another option to communicate!

fulano,

Sometimes they do, but then they will take much more time to give you a response.

Sometimes, they simply don’t have n alternative, like my city’s local service for reporting broken streetlights.

nyakojiru,
@nyakojiru@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

I second this . It’s really frustrating having 5 or more different messaging apps

Auster,

Likewise from Brazil and likewise would rather see whatsapp gone from my devices. Sadly, I still need it for work and other official matters. Still, I'm slowly but surely abandoning whatsapp, by either convincing people I talk to to migrate to other, less anti-consumer services, migrating myself to sister groups or alternatives in other services, and/or abandoning a group or chat altogether. And all the while being vocal about it by raising my concerns about whatsapp (just saying "I don't like it and you should move too" can be pretty counter-intuitive with our countrymen). Hopefully, this way, I can drop it altogether once it becomes clearly irrelevant.

But this reminds me I haven't deleted/left any chats for a few days, so I'll take the opportunity to do just that.

fulano,

But what do you do when services and institutions in general require you to use whatsapp? That’s what is mostly keeping me from deleting that app.

asap,
@asap@feddit.de avatar

You can use a FOSS app at your end to chat with WhatsApp users, if this isn’t something you’re already aware of. Element.io plus a bridge. Beeper.com is a turnkey platform that sorts it all out for you.

It doesn’t help replace WhatsApp as a platform, but perhaps it would suit you?

fulano,

I have been looking at this possibility, but running a bridge means that I will need to self host a service, which adds one more point of failure, while not really removing whatsapp from my life, so I’m not convinced it’s a good alternative.

asap, (edited )
@asap@feddit.de avatar

That’s what beeper.com does. It’s also open source, but they handle running it for you.

But absolutely I agree that it doesn’t remove WhatsApp from your life, and that’s a pain point for me also when I’m working with services in Asia, who like Brasil predominantly work from WhatsApp.

If you don’t like Beeper, you could try these guys who host a managed solution (means you don’t have to deal with any issues), and let’s you offer the service to others:

etke.cc

fulano,

In that case, won’t the server have access to my credentials?

asap,
@asap@feddit.de avatar

No it won’t have your credentials, but you will authorise the bridge as a device, like you would with the web app.

fulano,

Ah, I see. But in that case, won’t the server have access to my messages in plain text?

asap,
@asap@feddit.de avatar

Yes and no. No, in that the bridge code is published, and it takes no action other than re-encrypting your message with the destination auth. But you have to trust that server. If you don’t trust the server, then you can run your own. Running your own Matrix server isn’t all that hard; I’ve done it before and there’s an Ansible playbook which does all the heavy lifting for you. But these days I prefer someone to run it for me.

MediaActivist,
@MediaActivist@kbin.social avatar

Hey. How have I just found out about this?! Mind blown. Thank you so much for sharing! Franz and such just weren't cutting it for me...this looks amazing.

elmodelm,

How often do bridges to proprietary services break though?

I used to run bitlbee to use many chats in my irc ckient like 10-15years ago, and I remember things like google chat plugin breaking at least every month.

asap,
@asap@feddit.de avatar

I last ran it myself a couple of years ago, and it was fine. These days I’m using Beeper, and I haven’t had any dropouts as an end user. If there are issues, they’re dealing with it not me.

CapedStanker,

Well on the bright side, you helped an animal and that is awesome! Yall brazillians in general are pretty awesome peoples.

itchy_lizard,

Someone hasn’t watched many gore videos

Lem453,

The web client on desktop is not terrible. Not great, but not terrible.

mamotromico,

Honestly the current windows desktop app is fairly decent, it’s what makes it bearable to use for me.

MiddledAgedGuy,

I can confirm, sort of. I’m not from there nor have I been to Brazil specifically but I’ve been to South American and Asian countries where it’s nearly as ubiquitous as using native calls and texting in the US.

redw0rm,
@redw0rm@kerala.party avatar

On android, i wish Xplore file manager had an alternative. Didn’t find anything to replace it. Dualpane file managers are the best. (btw, its one of the app where donating to dev really feels like he deserves it ).

thingsiplay,
@thingsiplay@kbin.social avatar

@John_Coomsumer Besides the mentioned Nvidia drivers, I use Steam. Steam isn't bad by any means, but I wish it was at least an Open Source GUI that uses it's proprietary backend service. This way we could have such a variety in Steam GUIs. Actually impressive that almost everything is Free and Libre software on my system!

Nia,

Discord for me, very difficult to get friends to use foss alternatives because, while I don’t like Discord, it just has a pretty good UI/UX (aside from some annoyances) that alternatives haven’t really matched yet imo. Doesn’t make them bad, but I can fully understand why friends would not want to switch to something like Matrix.

gabe,

I’d be a little scared of showing my friends the matrix channel directory with how sus some of those channels are. I think that’s gonna be one of it’s biggest hindrance in being adopted by non-tech users, not even its UI or lack of features. Some of those channels are pretty bad.

L26,

Yeah I would love a Discord alternative that I could actually convince my friends to use.

Nia,

I’ve had a little bit of luck with Revolt.chat and getting friends to try it, but it still has its own issues. It looks promising though

L26,

I’ll give that a try, thanks!

SomeBoyo,

My laptops BIOS

Maxy,

I am currently using the proprietary Nvidia driver, simply because nouveau isn’t performant enough. I can’t wait for NVK though, maybe that driver will finally be viable for us Nvidia-users.

John_Coomsumer,

This is a big one for me, I currently have NVIDIA gpus on all my machines, (i am going to avoid them in the future, the corporate price gouging is unacceptable) but at the moment that makes switching to linux for my gaming pc quite a bit more obnoxious.

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