@shansterable f-droid has free and open source alternatives to almost(all?) of the basic Android apps provided by Google.
That is, free, open source, no ads, no tracking, basic applications (which may just be the
Farmers won their right-to-repair fight against John Deere. The settlement includes a 10-year “agreement by Deere to provide ‘the digital tools required for the maintenance, diagnosis, and repair’ of tractors, combines, and other machinery”. https://www.thedrive.com/news/john-deere-to-pay-99-million-in-monumental-right-to-repair-settlement
It's difficult for me to talk calmly about companies that are excited to spend hundreds of millions of dollars training stochastic models while the teachers in every public classroom in North America pay for their own chalk, some of their students' school supplies and some fraction of their students' lunches out of their own pockets. That those companies go on to say this will make the teachers "obsolete" is too much.
France is transitioning government desktops to Linux, with each ministry required to formalize its implementation plan by autumn 2026.
https://linuxiac.com/france-launches-government-linux-desktop-plan-as-windows-exit-begins/
All these news headlines about Amazon removing "support" for older Kindles. That's very pro-Amazon framing. I don't think they have been providing any active "support" for these devices? Why not, "Amazon blocks access from older Kindles" etc. #rugpull
This is why we fight.
In the next release of #Fedilab, I will work on adding a warning popup displayed once when starting the app.
"Android will become a locked-down platform"
https://keepandroidopen.org/
It would be great if more developers maintaining a project on both Google Play and #FDroid did the same.
Inspired by Germany's #DiDay ("digital independence day") and the Danish #DanmarkSkifter, the Netherlands now has #DoeiDag ("bye day"), every first Sunday of the month. 🔥🇳🇱
DoeiDag is a montly day to say goodbye to big tech and to try open alternatives. It's organized by the good folks of @doeidag
More info: https://doeidag.nl
RE: https://social.coop/@cwebber/116348093202515122
This piece is great and everything @cwebber says about it is true. I would add: If you feel like you mostly know what the author is saying about the development experience, maybe stay with it because it's really well-written. But if you don’t want to, skip down to where he takes up the ethics and humanities issues. Very deep and very intense stuff there. #genai
If you use Jellyfin you should upgrade as soon as possible.
🇨🇦 looked at 🇺🇸's surveillance problems and said: hold our beer.
#BillC22 is proposing far greater surveillance, and a permanent treasure of private Canadian data no other democracy demands.
It's wildly dangerous, and we need to shut it down, NOW!
https://www.openmedia.org/StopC22-bsky.
@Rob_T_Firefly interesting addendum to your page (of which I was unaware): they reestablished connection by 2026-01-26
My #Wikipedia request for comment just closed, finally banning #AI content in articles! "The use of LLMs to generate or rewrite article content is prohibited"
Kudos to all who participated in writing the guideline (especially Kowal2701) and the whole WikiProject AI Cleanup team, this was very much a group effort!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Writing_articles_with_large_language_models/RfC
The replacement for 2025's disastrous Bill C-2 is out - and just as broken! Bill C-22 still gives the Public Safety Minister broad powers to issue secret orders to any electronic service provider in Canada.
It isn't safe for privacy or rights, and cannot pass like this. We stopped broken Bill C-2, and we can stop this bill too if enough of us speak up.
Stay tuned for more updates in the next week!
https://openmedia.org/press/item/ottawa-repackages-its-surveillance-backdoor-in-bill-c-22
I usually take time to craft and hone and practice my Senate speeches. But yesterday I rose unprepared and impromptu to address an amendment to Bill C-12, thru the eyes of an Albertan, haunted by the official xenophobia of my province. Turns out, if you’re angry enough, you don’t need notes. https://youtu.be/7U4evGu-jks?si=5YNOEJFxfJxXbwNo #ableg #abpoli #cdnpoli #Alberta #immigration
To celebrate us joining the fediverse, we're also launching 3 incredible fediverse-related apps on AltStore!
🐘 iPhanpy — a mobile Mastodon client by @fantinel
▶️ @peertube — a video hosting platform by @framasoft
➰ @loops — a short-form video app by @pixelfed
You can add them from our Add Source screen, and also follow them all on https://explore.alt.store
So, the Dutch government tried to whitewash Amazon's sovereign cloud offering, only to be called out so hard that they had to withdraw the paper.
#digitalsovereignty
https://nltimes.nl/2026/03/05/dutch-govt-pulls-report-dangers-american-cloud-service-criticism
In case anyone was still under the assumption that US Big Tech and the Trump regime aren't one and the same:
The US has ordered its diplomats to lobby against EU attempts to regulate US tech companies 🚨
We need ethical open alternatives.
Or better yet, work with tech and consultancies that guarantee ethical behavior from the start. They're out there. Make it a condition in tech procurement.