Good privacy focused browser

becool773 said:

Thanks bro. Is tor really anonymous? Those big agencies control most of the nodes anyways.

Click to expand...

To an average person who just wants to stay anonymous online, tor still offers anonymity. To someone intending to indulge themself in dark, illegal stuff, it's a different matter. As you rightly pointed out, it's true that there are many agency controlled nodes these days. But the purpose behind these honeypots is to track specific category of tor users that tend to use anonimity as a means to perform illegal activities. A regular guy trying to avoid getting their data harvested don't have to worry about this.

becool773 said:

Will check those email clients and will get back. Is there a foss application for ms office apps in phones?\

Click to expand...

There's this and Collabora Office. Both of them look promising and work quite well with open document formats, but at handling MS Office documents, they've got a long way to go. Expect frequent crashes and other in-editor bugs while working on office files.

becool773 said:

Can you please check if this app is working in your phone or not?

Clipious | F-Droid - Free and Open Source Android App Repository

Client for Invidious, the privacy focused YouTube front end.

f-droid.org

Click to expand...

I've used it before and it works great. Just make sure that you've selected a public server instance (under settings) first. If you have the bandwidth, you could host an instance yourself. That's the most reliable way of using it as the public servers go down often when the traffic is high.

becool773 said:

Say I want to download version 1.16.4 then where can I find its apk? Can't find it here below version 1.16.4

Releases · lamarios/clipious

Invidious client for android. Contribute to lamarios/clipious development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

Click to expand...

In the Github page, click on Tags right next to Releases and find the version you are looking for. The version you requested can be downloaded from here:

becool773 said:

What is the difference between fdroid vs accrescent vs aurora store?

Click to expand...

F-Droid is a repository for open source apps (similar to Play Store, which hosts both open source and closed source apps) where the developers can upload their apps and the users can get them via the f-droid client or the website. In case an open source app was not uploaded directly to f-droid, by adding third party repositories (eg., Izzyondroid) one can access the said app. Droid-ify and Neostore are great frontends for f-droid.

Aurora store is a privacy focussed alternative to Google Play store. It has all the apps that are present in the Play store and does not have any region locks. It also does not require Play services to be installed and provides users with anonymous login option as well. You could choose to login with your personal Google account if you want to install an app that you had previously purchased from the Play store.

Regarding Accrescent, I haven't used it personally, so can't say much. But by the look of things, it seems like an open source repo similar to f-droid with emphasis on security and app intergrity.

becool773 said:

If google play services are disabled in a phone then most of the apps won't work especially the banking and upi apps. I read somehere that microg can be used to resolve this issue. Any idea about it.

Click to expand...

You must have an unlocked bootloader and your phone must be rooted in order to use microg. It's specifically designed to be flashed onto custom ROMs that are distributed without built-in Google Play services. And no, while they provide alternate foss components in place of propreitary Google framework, they are not able to make apps work just like that. Modern apps use Google's Safetynet checks to ensure that a device is safe enough to run the apps. If any of the checks fail, the app will not work. Bypassing safetynet is device and app specific and generally, it's a lot of headache. This XDA article should provide clarity on this topic.

becool773 said:

The ms office apks that you shared, both have limited authorities to edit a document or is full editing possible?

Click to expand...

I am not sure if I got the question right. But these apps only have some basic editing capability (text formatting, bullets, etc.) when it comes to MS documents. If you're asking if you'll get all the advanced features (AI tools, charts, formulas, etc) similar to that of the Microsoft 365 app, then no. Unfortunately, as of right now, there's no single FOSS app that can handle MS Office files meticulously.

becool773 said:

Which version to download for one's phone from here?

Release 1.16.4 · lamarios/clipious

What's Changed switch from foreground service to use workmanager that uses latest re… by @lamarios in #333 add setting to set up a black background for subtitles fix #323 by @lamarios in #334 Feat...

github.com

Index of /downloads/Collabora-Office-Android-Snapshot

I mean how to find which apk is for a phone? arm 7,8 x64 etc.?

Click to expand...

You'll need to get the one that's right for your device's architecture. You can check your CPU architecture by installing a terminal app (such as Termux) and running either one of these commands:

lscpu
uname -m

Note down the output and download the file that's specific to your CPU architecture
For example: If your device is aarch64, get the arm64 binary. Similarly, if it's an arm v7/v8 or x86 get the corresponding binary file.

becool773 said:

Bro foss vs floss, please eli5.

Click to expand...

FOSS - Free Open Source Software
FLOSS - Free Libre Open Source Software. The word 'free' in foss has always caused a lot of confusion in the open source community. To be clear, 'free' does not denote the cost of the software. Rather, it means freedom. It's just to indicate that anyone's 'free' to analyze the source code and is 'free' to make changes to it (as per the license terms) and distribute it 'freely' or at a cost (again, as license permits). The developers of the foss software are 'free' to charge a price for their products. People inserted the word 'libre' into foss to emphasize this - as FOSS didn't. I know you wanted to be ELI5 but do give this article by Richard Stallman a read. It'll clear a lot of misconceptions and doubts regarding this subject.

becool773 said:

So, to conclude in a non rooted phone, banking apps won't work without google play services at all?

Click to expand...

Don't think so. I've personally tested this scenario with different bank applications. Sadly, going full open source on an android device is difficult without an unlocked bootloader and root.

becool773 said:

Let's say you have an android phone from samsung,redmi,oneplus,xiaomi then you can logout of the google account and the phone will still work except playstore which will ask to login through a google account. But if the samsung/redmi/oneplus/xiaomi account is removed from settings then will the phone work or will it keep on bugging to login first and then use the phone?

Click to expand...

The phone should continue to work even after removing the account. At worst, only the account specific features should stop working. Don't know about Xiaomi, but never had issues with Samsung and Oneplus with login nagging.

Don't know if you already got your answers, but I am leaving my response just in case.

becool773 said:

Bro if foss means free to analyze the code, free to make changes and distribute freely or at a cost then how come is floss different than foss? It is also doing the same thing na? Libre means, as per online dictionary, With very few limitations on distribution or improvement; including source code. What limitations does Foss have over floss?

Click to expand...

You are correct. Both FOSS and FLOSS are synonymous with each other. Lately, people who are inspired by the Free software movement (GNU Project) like to label their applications as FLOSS (free software) just to highlight the fact that they adhere to the ground principles laid down by Richard Stallman. So, to answer your question, FOSS and FLOSS can be used interchangably.

FOSS - Could be free (again, not talkin about cost) or not but still open source.
FLOSS - Absolutely free (ther term 'libre' is there to assert this) and open source. Follows RMS's guidelines.

Ultimately, it all boils down to the developer's intentions. They could label an application as FLOSS and still violate the FSF's core principles. So, it's not FOSS vs FLOSS - rather, it's Free vs Open source.

For more clarity, check these out

This one's a real eye opener. A must watch for sure if you're getting into FOSS/FLOSS (however you choose to call it).

becool773 said:

About removing samsung,redmi,oneplus,xiaomi account, in samsung phones if a new or never used in that phone before, sim is inserted in the phone then it sends a sms to samsung to authenticate and displays on screen welcome to samsung karke. Does all other companies send a sms like this? If the samsung,redmi,op,xiaomi account is removed then will it send a sms like this?

Click to expand...

I think SMS is automatically sent only when certain OEM services (say, FindMyDevice) are enabled. I personally haven't experienced this as I insert the sim card/connect to WIFI only after I have completely customized the device and set up firewall rules. Maybe someone else with experience regarding this can provide better information than me.

becool773 said:

I have tried foss apps of youtube, newpipe/clipious/pipepipe/libretube. Out of these clipicous doesn't work. Newpipe works well but it connects with google. Avoided testing pipepipe as there is no clarity whether it connects to google or invidious. Libretube connects to invidious but facing a problem here. I amot able to find the recommend setting for this. In newpipe when I press the home button the video goes to PiP mode but in Libretube when I press the home button PiP mode doesn’t get activated rather only sound can be heard. If I want the PiP mode then I have to manually click on PiP mode button which is there below the video. Do you know how to set this to automatic?

Click to expand...

For me, LibreTube works flawlessly. I've been using it for years now and PiP mode works properly when home button is pressed.
Give this a try:
LibreTube-->Settings-->Player-->Misc-->Disable Alternative PiP controls
LibreTube-->Settings-->Player-->Behaviour When Minimized-->Picture-in-Picture

becool773 said:

Out of insular and shelter, which is a better alternative to island?

Click to expand...

Shelter.

You can find the differences between the three of them here

But lately, Shelter's development has been rather slow. Also, relying on work profiles is not the most ideal way to isolate the apps. You might want to look up on User Pofiles.

becool773 said:

And which is a trusted and safe site to download older version apks of an app?

Click to expand...

For regular apks hosted at Google Play Store,

If the app is open source,

If the app's not on f-droid, check out where the source is hosted (github, gitlab, sourceforge, etc). The older versions could be found there most of the time.

becool773 said:

Edit- Any foss app that you will recommend like sms manager and like truecaller?

Click to expand...

Unfortunately, there's no direct FOSS alternative to TrueCaller. It's one of a kind (a huge data farm that is!). For SMS, if you're looking for spam protection, check out SpamBlocker. It requires extensive configuration by setting rules in order to get it up and running.

becool773 said:

Trackercontrol blocks tracker from various apps. In layman language what exactly are those and how does companies make money from them?

Click to expand...

In simple terms, trackers are information about the users and their behaviour while using the app or a web service. The 'details' could be anything ranging from the user's IP address, carrier information, etc to user engagement data such as the time a user spends on certain section of the app, regular lauch time of the app, etc. These information are usually tied to an unique identifier specific to the device.

As far as monetization using these data, let's assume the following scenario:
A user is using an 'e-book reader' app to read a sci-fi book. Simultaneously, the user is using a shopping app to search for a TV. He was also using a map app to search for several locations. After collecting data about the user, these apps transmit trackers to the respective developer's servers. This data (if not handled by a morally responsible dev), is sold off to one or more data brokers. Note that at this point, the data brokers have an updated profile of the user based on data from various trackers in multiple apps. While the data from one app may look trivial, after gathering enough data about the user from various apps, the data becomes valuable. They now know that this person likes to read sci-fi books and is looking to buy a TV. They also know that the user is panning to travel soon. These data brokers sell the gathered user profiles to interested party (usually advertisers) based on their requirements. If the user now opens up an app which has ads built in, they will now see an ad relevant to their previous activities, say book recommendations, TV sales, ticket discounts and so on. The advertisement companies pay the developers for displaying their adverts inside their app (amount paid depends on the ad slot size, location, etc).

In the above scenario, these are the parties that make money using the trackers:
1. The developer (from selling the trackers to the data brokers)
2. The data brokers (from selling the user data to businesses)
3. Advertising agencies (from the money received from the bidders for the ad space)
4. The developer (for selling the ad space to the ad agencies)
5. The businesses (from converting the potential customer [leads] into an actual customer by enticing them through their ads)

This is just a gist of how tracker data could be used for monetization. I apologize for the lengthy write-up, I couldn't summarise it any shorter than this. I am sure someone else could have done a better job explaining this in a concise manner. I hope I managed to explain everything that you wanted to know.

entropy said:

Don't know if you already got your answers, but I am leaving my response just in case.


You are correct. Both FOSS and FLOSS are synonymous with each other. Lately, people who are inspired by the Free software movement (GNU Project) like to label their applications as FLOSS (free software) just to highlight the fact that they adhere to the ground principles laid down by Richard Stallman. So, to answer your question, FOSS and FLOSS can be used interchangably.

FOSS - Could be free (again, not talkin about cost) or not but still open source.
FLOSS - Absolutely free (ther term 'libre' is there to assert this) and open source. Follows RMS's guidelines.

Ultimately, it all boils down to the developer's intentions. They could label an application as FLOSS and still violate the FSF's core principles. So, it's not FOSS vs FLOSS - rather, it's Free vs Open source.

For more clarity, check these out

This one's a real eye opener. A must watch for sure if you're getting into FOSS/FLOSS (however you choose to call it).

Click to expand...

Does it really matter as long as it is open source? I'm mostly responding to the Luke Smith video you posted (who is incidentally a Nazi but that is irrelevant to the point here). If I can take RHEL's or Firefox's codebase and modify it as well as freely redistribute it, do the intentions or philosophy of the original authors and maintainers matter? They could add spyware to it, I can remove it and spin it off into a nonspyware-ed version. They can make only HP certified printers work with it, and I can just remove the offending line of code etc. Great code, like great art, takes a life of its own once you put it out there, no? Genuinely curious to hear your response to that.

Have been using Brave. Have their AI+Crypto stuff turned off. Been really good. Since it is Chromium-based, I could import all my Chrome extensions. This combined with NextDNS has been great. No more tracking or ads. lol

I'm using Kiwi Browser along with uBlock Origin add-on with oisd blocklists as custom filter lists. My browsing has become much simple, easy and fast.

I use Firefox focus for daily non-session based browsing. Everything gets wiped after every session or you can manually clean everything with one touch.