I’m anti enshittification & pro digital privacy. A few years back when Evernote started restricting their service & a password manager I’d paid for multiple users for fucked me over it dawned on me that “Big Tech” did not have my best interests at heart. Since that Eureka moment I formed an interest in FOSS & ive not looked back.

I’m not in IT, 100% self taught. Started with Nextcloud with NGINX. I expose as little as possible, the rest is local only though ive set up Wireguard for external access.

I self host mostly what everyone else does: Nextcloud, Joplin, Paperless, Immich etc etc. Special shoutout to Homebox which ive found extremely useful when boxing up & organising our roof space & garage. I like to use Docker containers.

Its become a bit of a hobby & the path led me to the Fediverse. The next step is likely switching fully to Linux

Set this as an alternative search engine

https://noai.duckduckgo.com/?q=%25s

I absolutely loved Reddit. Deleted my posts & left after the Spez api farce (Joey on Android you were a good soldier). I occasionally go back there anonymously to check niche subs (using Redlib).

Reddit is essentially shite now:

• Endless bots
• Same crap re-posted repeatedly (describe your cat I’ll draw it, 12 shitty manga characters - pick one to fight on your team, this is my cat the last thing you ate is its name etc etc etc
• The exact same jokes repeated endlessly
• Reply after reply quoting the next few words of a song lyric
• Topic replies tend to go way off the rails within 2 posts

Fediverse seems to be a more knowledgeable/mature crowd. Some great information disseminated. Ive seen some wonderful actual discussions between people with differing points of view asking for further clarification then discussing further. You never see that on Reddit.

Sure, we could do with a ton more posts & the niche communities continue to struggle but I’d much rather visit Lemmy 2 or 3 times a week than Reddit every day.

Voyager on Android. I subscribe to as much as I could find that I was interested in. These show in “Home” feed.

I look through the “All” feed to see whats going on & subscribe to anything relevant, then switch back to “Home” for my individual feed.

Amirite?

Some of my favourite mobile centric uses (I’m a FOSS leaning Android):

• I like to try to ensure most things are available offline: maps, notes, passwords (manager also holds “emergency” documents), media, ebooks, podcasts etc
• OsmAnd has offline Wiki articles, this is awesome when travelling
• OsmAnd can be great for finding POI’s such as food outlets, toilets etc when travelling (I since extensively mapped my own locality to help visitors by way of thanks)
• Using stuff I self host synced to various devices: Nextcloud, Joplin, Paperless-ngx, Immich, Jellyfin & a bunch of others
• whoBIRD is great especially when travelling
• If WiFi/data is unavailable when travelling away from home, hook the phone up to TV with a hub, HDMI, keyboard with track pad & it becomes a full media system

No major difference its just what works for you. I used Hoarder (KaraKeep) in the early days but found I preferred the Linkwarden UI particularly on mobile so switched. But they’re both great.

Strangely I’ve found I tend not to use it for everyday bookmarks use (I’ve put those in a Joplin note). Instead I use Linkwarden for interesting stuff I might need at some point - long read articles or information for projects that I’ll be undertaking in the future, be that videos or written guides. You can set folders (topics) & tags for ease of retrieval.

i guess everyone is hyped for this - looks & sounds like an old school classic. I dont even game any more & I’m still pumped to see it!

This is why I love coming to this corner of the Fediverse …for crazy, fun finds like this. Thanks & keep em coming!

• Randomly removes email addresses I use every day from the auto-complete forcing me to type them literally in full for weeks until it remembers them again.
• A colleagues name starts “tom…” but it ALWAYS auto-completes with another colleague “tim…”. Every single time.
• Search sucks. Not sure if this particular complaint is just our company setup but for some reason it hides stuff older than a given date “on the server” which means you have to remember exactly where stuff is & open the folder before it displays the contents rendering search pointless. Absolutely hopeless

Wouldn’t be without it!

I tried Hoarder (KaraKeep) & Linkwarden. Both excellent but I preferred the UI for Linkwarden, particularly on mobile, so I stuck with that - i found Hoarder awkward to edit thumbnails for example though things may have changed in KaraKeep. From Android perspective both have apps but I prefer to use browser plugin. With Linkwarden there’s some hoops to jump through on Android Firefox but it works perfectly once set up. Both excellent choices.

A few FOSS that I havent yet seen mentioned (assuming everyone already uses AntennaPod, Aegis, Keepass2Android, OsmAnd, Signal, VLC, SD Maid SE etc):

• FairEmail - Email client
• Voyager - Lemmy client
• whoBIRD - Shazam for birds
• Subz - Subscription manager/notifier
• Untracker - Remove tracking info before sharing links (YouTube, Amazon etc)
• Obtainium - Update manager/notifier
• PDF Converter - .pdf tool. May be abandoned but doesnt require internet & is useful
• MJ PDF - .pdf reader
• FitoTrack - Fitness tracker
• Shelter - Work profile for if your employer won’t provide a work phone but insists you use a shitty 3rd party proprietary app for everything from booking leave to payslips to health scheme to… Well anything, coz everything has to have its own shitty app these days, right?

Why not both? I’ve exposed my Nextcloud instance to www but don’t want to expose Immich. The Memories plugin for Nextcloud is great for sharing photos to family (I tend to share only photos from special events rather than everything).

I have Nextcloud on a Pi5 8GB running an SSD. Immich currently on a Pi4B 4GB with external HDD.

Thanks, I’m running the new version but linked to the old in error

Another shout for Homebox. I used to use a spreadsheet but over time found I simply didn’t maintain it but I’ve found I always maintain Homebox.

Homebox allows parent/child relationship between items & exports to spreadsheet.

I dont utilise the QR code facility because my family members would not bother to use QR codes. Instead I’ve numbered all boxes in each location (attic, garage, basement etc), printed contents of each box & put the printout into physical folders left in each location so even the most Luddite in my family can easily locate stuff then, in theory, remember where they took it from & if the stars align & its my luck day, put the item back in the same box that they removed said item from. When that happens I always check my lottery numbers too!

They can’t filter/search a physical printout but at least they can find stuff (I guess I should simply add a QR code to each printout for a best of both worlds solution).

Overall I’ve found Homebox a useful, simple & fun tool

Not a 3rd party front end as such but on android I use YT through browser with DeArrow, Sponsorblock & uBO. I never sign in to YouTube, subscriptions & “watch later” i handle via a specific note set up in Joplin. Also all tracking is removed first via Untracker. Takes an extra few seconds to add video links to Joplin but its become second nature & works well for me & of course this way let’s me save links to PeerTube content & any other sources too

Not a coder & havent yet watched the vid but FWIW I believe it’s a term for coders who rely (almost) entirely on AI’s to do the coding which will inevitably lead to issues.

Even the logo is being enshittified?

Pi5 8GB with SSD. Only 1 user but often sharing folders with others including Memories photo sharing add on. Syncs between several machines & mobile. Also syncs Joplin notes. Pi5 also hosts variety of other (lightweight) stuff with no issues at all (Portainer, Nginx Proxy Manager, Linkwarden etc).

Previously hosted on Pi4B (4GB) with external hard drive. I’ve found the Pi5 + SSD faster & more robust so for me it’s been a worthwhile upgrade

No. Should I ever mention enshittification or reducing exposure to “big tech” then usually tinfoil hat jokes at my expense ensue