Yes im aware that my search engine choice is not the best option.
First off: you’ve come a long way. Great setup, keep it up!
As others have said, I’d reduce your reliance on Proton. I’d particularly ditch their password manager in favour of something like KeepassXC and combine it with Syncthing (which you’re already using) in order to keep your passwords out of the cloud, but synced between your devices. Always think in terms of blast radius: if an attacker gets access to your Proton account (either because you fuck up or they do), they will have access to anything that’s in there. Having your e-mail + pw manager there increases blast radius dramatically and allows not only for access to, but full takeover of your accounts in case of a breach.
Anyone have thoughts on mailbox.org? I have been thinking of switching. Anyone with experience with the service?
Have been using it solely for mail with my own domain for a few years. Absolutely nothing to complain about. Always worked flawlessly.
I use it. Nothing but positive experiences so far.
Switched a few months ago from Gmail. Own domain. Works great so far. A bit of setup required ofc. Thunderbird on phone & just the standard calendar app because the apps I tried I didn’t like. Calander & Contact sync through DAVx⁵, costs a few bucks, but it works just fine.
You got great choices, actually. I’d only recommend to be as little dependent on multiple fronts on one company. So I’d change a few of Proton to something else.
Depending on how private communications must be, Threema might be better than Signal.
There is exactly zero privacy upside to be gained by moving from Mint to Debian, Fedora, OpenSUSE or Arch.
Qubes and Tails may give you an edge, but add quite dramatic convenience costs. Unless you have a very specific threat model, this is overkill.
Last time I tried qwant they don’t serve Taiwan, which is one of the points I VPN to that I cycle
I haven’t tried many other countries.
So just a head’s up to anybody reading.
Adding my personal notes on search engines here for anyone’s interest. I personally use Qwant on Desktop and DuckDuckGo on mobile. I like Qwant because they are at least working on their own index and are EU-based. On the other hand, DuckDuckGo is faster and has a more comprehensive privacy policy. I’m really trying to use Mojeek on mobile but the search results are much worse than DuckDuckGo and Qwant in my repeated experience.
Qwant DuckDuckGo Mojeek xPrivo Kagi IP collection Yes No No No temporary Hosting FRA USA UK EU USA Index ~40% own index + ~60% Bing 100% Bing Own Own Own Direct monthly cost 0 0 0 4-7€ 5€ Passing data to third parties Search data and IP go to Microsoft separately No No No No Quality (subjective) +++ +++ + ++ ? AI summary / chat unclear optional no optional ? Speed + ++ +++ ++ ? Ecosia has a terrible privacy policy, I analysed it in the past. They are likely in violation of the GDPR, I’m currently considering to file a complaint, they’re still a lot better than Google though, but DDG is privacy-wise superior.
SecureBlue also looks decent and brings some of the security hardening used in GrapheneOS
Arch Linux
You can break anything quite easily on arch if you don’t know what you’re doing, including security.
Lol very true, Ive been using Mint for maybe 7 years now, Ive tried Arch 3 times or more, broke evey single time ive used it. And that’s with me not doing anything out of the ordinary. (No hate to Arch btw, I just can’t figure it out)
Why is Threema better than Signal?
See here - secure messaging apps
another thing is that the Trumpist US regime allegedly got access to Signal through Israeli spyware (Paragon), or is trying to do so. (The Guardian)
The Swiss military also has publicly shifted away from Signal, as they deemed it unsafe for communications.Signal’s still subject to the CLOUD Act, while Threema is not. (Bleeping Computer).
The signal one suggests it’s a phone OS hack that can open apps so could probably do threema too.
The article you shared suggested it’s likely the result of lobbying by the company so they use a company inside the country.
See here why the link you shared isn’t a good source:
https://soatok.blog/2025/07/07/checklists-are-the-thief-of-joy/
And learn more about Threema vs. Signal:
https://soatok.blog/2021/11/05/threema-three-strikes-youre-out/
Network effect is the biggest problem for messaging services, and so I would still push for Signal over the alternatives that are technically better. This guide seems like it is focussed on users who are new to the space
I agree with the Linux recommendation, but I’d offer CachyOS over pure Arch for newcomers. The limine bootloader gives a lot of peace of mind, since you can tell the user “if you get a bad update, reboot and pick an older option on the first screen”.
Isn’t google auth an OTP service? Proton Pass also supports that btw! Haven’t heard about Ente before and what purpose it replaces a gallery with, but again you can upload and view photos to Proton Drive as well. Although I have not yet tried it myself because I like to keep them local.
Kagi is one of the search engines I actually trust, but it is paid. I can give you trial if you want to try it out. Oh and it being US based might also be drawback.
Pretty solid list I’d say!
Thank you, Auth is on there because I had to import a bunch of accounts at once. I use Ente Photos since it’s a pretty nice UI, I never use their cloud storage though.
As others have said, remove all proton stuff that you can. You are just replacing one centralized service with another. Google started out good too and look where we are now. Never put too many eggs in one basket.
My answer to this is to use a custom domain with an email aliasing service.
I’ve gone through about half of the 400 accounts in my password manager and moved them over. I’ll migrate the rest over the next week or so.
So, I’m switching from Gmail to Proton for now, but if Proton starts to get worse or Tuta catches up on functionality or there’s a better provider that emerges or I decide to try to self-host, it’s one easy change at the alias provider to redirect all of my mail to a new email provider.
You should try migadu. Thats the most no-bs provider with custom Domains I could find
Just recently discovered Migadu and it’s all I ever wanted!
What does Migadu do? I’m not understanding what “consolidation” means in this context. ELI5?
Typically MailProvider would let you have
<yourusername>@mailprovider.tldand sometimes a limited amount of aliases, right? With some you can bring your own domain and have<yourusername>@<yourdomain>most of the time also with a limited amount of aliases.Migadu let’s you pay a flat fee, bring as many domains as you like and use unlimited aliases. Their pricing scales with actual traffic, not arbitrary limitations on your address namespace.
Oh so you’re thinking about it from the lens of a standard mail provider, correct? I was more so asking what the difference or advantage was compared to an alias service like Addy, Simple login etc.
Thanks. Since I’m just starting my privacy journey, I’m sticking with the mainstream options for now, but using an aliasing service will make it easy easy for me to switch in the future. I’ll check it Migadu and I appreciate the suggestion.
They have almost twice as many google apps though. Why didn’t you mention those?
There are arrows between the icons. The google ones are what they are switching away from.
I prefer Comaps over OsmAnd, it’s just much simpler
What is obsidian and signal note to self?
Rn I just add me wife to new chats and keep my notes there. Im sre she loves it.
I dont follow, how does it relate to signal as in the picture?
Apologies, my eyes are old
https://support.signal.org/hc/en-us/articles/360043272451-Note-to-Self
It’s to replace Google Keep as a note taker.
Dude is just Sendung a signal message to hinself
For Google keep replacement, check out Simple Notes Sync. I’ve been using it for a few months now 🙂
If I’m being very picky and perfectionist, Obsidian.
It’s closed source, and there are open-soirce alternatives, be it Trilium, Zettlr or whatever strikes your fancy
What’s with all the hoopla about Google nuking devices with GrapheneOS lately?
Proton Pass could be replaced by a synchronised KeePassXC/DX database.
I understand your point for Independent Password Managers. For some people this is not a solution. I would always recommend a password managers that fits your needs and know-how. My parents could not use keepass with sync without breaking or loosing shit. But protonpass, or Bitwarden or strongbox could be a viable option. In some rare cases I would even recommend Apple Passwort App. Better than nothing.
I use KeepassXC and it’s database syncs great with Syncthing.
What I don’t like about KP is it’s ui. Too many pages. Everything should be one one page like KeepassDX. I wouldn’t recommend for noobs.
If you can figure out Linux, you can definitely use KeepassXC…
This is really great, especially as a jumping off point. You might consider a ranked approach, like good, better, best. Most marginally privacy conscious services are going to be better than their Google analog, but some are better.
- ChatGPT -> llama.cpp
- Dropbox -> Syncthing + ZFS
- PayPal -> Atto
- Google Home -> Home Assistant
- Google Docs/Sheets -> Collabora Office
Some of these require self-hosting, so you might need Headscale or WireGuard to connect to them
Netbird is also good for connecting to them
Browser based wallet? Good god, no thx
Obsidian is closed source or not fully open source iirc. Try Notesnook if you need sync.
Yeah or standard notes if they like the proton products
Standard Notes was written by a different company (largely just one developer) and is not like other proton products.
Proton simply bought it so they didn’t have to write their own.
Yeah good call out. I just meant that there are many people that don’t trust/dislike proton. OP though seems cool with proton so then they might be cool with standard notes.
My preference was Joplin synced through self hosted Nextcloud
Logseq is a good alternative to Obsidian
I love Logseq and I’ve been using it for many years. But TBH it’s not an alternative to Obsidian. At all. It’s a differrent app with a differrent approach.
My boss uses Obsidian, and me and a colleague use Lagseq. They seem to do the same job for our needs. I’m curious to know what features of Obsidian is Logseq lacking for your usecase?
They might do the same job. They just do it in a different way. They look differently, they work differently, their key concepts are a bit different, their workspaces and workflows are differently organized. Plus, Logseq is fully open source while Obsidian is not.
It’s not about features. Almost every notetaking app has pretty similar feature set today. I’m talking about the approach in general.
I’m wondering now what are the differences between their look, workings, key concepts, workspace and workflow organization?
Apparently Emacs is on F-Droid so you could use org-mode as well, although IDK how well it works
Orgzly is what you use for org-mode on Android. Haven’t seen anything beat it.
Just to give more unique feedback (although everything you have is good) if your willing to self host, immich add immich to google photo replacements since it’ll back up photos across devices (I haven’t personally looked at ente photos) and depending on how important hiding your traffic from your ISP is, consider replacing a VPN with TrackerControl which helps to stop apps from phoning home.
