
De-Google-Ify Internet - pmoriarty
https://degooglisons-internet.org/en/
======
SiempreViernes
This is a French free software foundation that have collected together various
open source alternatives under a unified branding.

Being neither a startup nor american, they are of course condemned to eternal
scorn by many HN readers.

~~~
s9w
I do have to admit being guilty of something similar. Being German, I would
never use German software (even German translations) or hardware. I have seen
to many things :D

~~~
chopin
Well, it depends. Since I switched to Linux I was quite surprised to see how
many of the packages have German or European maintainers.

~~~
kakwa_
Yes, Europe has a lot of software engineering.

The issue is Europe has very few flag ship companies in Tech.

Not sure as to why, part of it may be the fragmented nature of Europe (lot of
small/medium sized countries with different languages). Part of it may be
because it failed to reach a critical mass at a critical time (dotcom boom),
and now, an European startup are bought by US flagships. Lastly, part of it
may be because Europeans are more risk-averse than Americans, I'm French and
I'm working for an US company, and the American positivism ingrained in my US
colleagues is fascinating, and, to say the truth, sometimes annoying as it
feels fake, it's a facade basically.

------
matthberg
Each proposed "free alternative" looks like it comes from the site owner,
FramaSoft (example: Google Forms -> FramaForms, Google Maps -> Framacarte).

While I appreciate the efforts to de-centralize the internet, this is more an
ad for the company than anything.

~~~
Fradow
The free alternative (without quote, they really are free) are mostly other
free software with a FramaSoft branding, in order to make it look like a
coherent offering rivaling Google suite.

If you go in the documentation of each software, you will see what project it
comes from.

For example, Framabag is Wallabag, Framanotes is Turtl, Framapad is Etherpad,
etc...

~~~
muthdra
I can't wait for them to release the latest update for FramaWeb (which is just
firefox but you call it FramaWeb) to the FramaOS (which is just linux but you
call it FramaOS) for my FraMachine (which is just a computer but it's
specifically built by this one dude and you call it the FraMachine).

~~~
birracerveza
It sounds stupid, but it's actually very useful to unify everything on a
single brand instead of having a hard to navigate archipelago of software. You
might say it's hypocritical to turn themselves into a vendor, but if that
vendor aligns with my values and can be trusted, then I'd be happy to buy a
FraMachine with everything you listed because I know there's only quality FOSS
software/hardware without spending ages researching and building everything
myself.

~~~
muthdra
It sounds stupid, but I'm actually defending the unification of everything on
a single brand instead of having a hard to navigate archipelago of software.

------
diyod
Framasoft is also behind the decentralized video platform Peertube (the
creator wasn't part of framasoft originally, but he was employed by them)

------
ohiovr
What is the best single term description for software like this?

Self Hosting (It was already a term for an unrelated thing)

Control Panel (its more than a control panel)

Full Stack Automation (that is what I thought of calling it)

personal cloud (What does personal mean)

personal infrastructure (that does sound intimidating)

community computer (a small server that only serves a particular community or
small business)

I'm open to ideas as I develop a product that could be described by some of
these names.

~~~
birracerveza
I'd say decentralized fits the bill quite nicely.

EDIT: Decentralized as in "Decentralized Service" or something along that
line.

~~~
ohiovr
That seems to be framasoft's message. Decentralized sometimes means peer to
peer which doesn't describe the software I currently have in my web app
manager.

------
fredsanford
I'm curious how Framasoft will keep the lights on and the servers running
without ads/data-collection.

~~~
SiempreViernes
The same way wikipedia or the linux foundation keeps running I suppose.

~~~
icebraining
The Linux Foundation is more like a Chamber of Commerce:
[https://www.linuxfoundation.org/about/board-
members/](https://www.linuxfoundation.org/about/board-members/)

~~~
SiempreViernes
Sorry! I was wrong. Linux is much older than the Linux foundation, though that
has no effect on my larger point of course.

------
tasn
Plug: I created EteSync a secure, end-to-end encrypted, and privacy respecting
sync for your contacts, calendars and tasks.
[https://www.etesync.com](https://www.etesync.com)

Relevant for people interested in removing Google from their lives.

------
TrickyRick
[https://hn.algolia.com/?query=degooglisons-
internet&sort=byP...](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=degooglisons-
internet&sort=byPopularity&prefix&page=0&dateRange=all&type=story)

Been posted so many times before

------
HickoryDickory
Only way to keep an "open" internet is to make our decision makers make open
standards law. It's not perfect but it force the companies to open up their
closed gardens.

~~~
icebraining
What would that law make them do?

~~~
kakwa_
Laws already helped to break large monopolies in the past.

At one point, the internet giants will probably be broken into several
entities as they start to have detrimental effect on society, we are seeing
the early stages with Zuckerberg's testimony in front of Congress for example.

It will probably happen by breaking down the various services provided by
these giants (AWS/Amazon, gmail/search/youtube, etc).

------
dcbadacd
The favicon is way too similar to BitWarden's, wish they'd pick something
better.

------
diszd
[https://degooglisons-internet.org/img/Peha-Banquet-CC-
By-192...](https://degooglisons-internet.org/img/Peha-Banquet-CC-By-1920.jpg)

This is not what I want the Internet to be.

~~~
mkettn
At least Google and Apple are big contributors to open source software (e.g.
Chromium, CUPS). Instead of roasting big companies (because... privacy?) we
should work together. This picture does more harm, because it view companies
purely as enemies.

~~~
Phenix88be
Open source is NOT free software. You are not free because you are using
Chromium instead of Chrome. Free software is a philosophy, Open source just
mean every one can read the source.

You can contribute to Open Source and be evil...

~~~
majewsky
_Well technically_ , when you can _just_ read the source, it's not called
"Open Source", but rather "Shared Source".

~~~
tasn
I think the term source-available is more commonly used.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source-
available_software](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source-available_software)

------
czechdeveloper
Also known as "complicating your life significantly for little benefit".

~~~
commoner
There are plenty of people who disagree that switching from Google to free and
open source alternatives provides little benefit. You can start with folks who
lose their Google accounts for spurious reasons, with no means of recourse.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19124324](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19124324)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15197357](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15197357)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4013799](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4013799)

------
nspattak
I had a french feeling when I read the word "association". I confirmed it
originates from France when I checked their "about" tab. I like their idea but
I hate it when the front page is in english as if this is a world wide effort
but the rest of the web site is in French. Je vous souhaite la meilleure
continuation mais je vais passer.

~~~
angieg
We are a little NPO with only 9 employees and 25 members. So we don't have
enough volunteers to translate each webpage. But if you want to help us to
translate everything, please do !

