I am trying to re-adjust how much effort I want to put into privacy concerns. Too much stuff I’m using isn’t working properly or using a lot of my mental resources that I need elsewhere.
For (a bad) example: I recently performed a half-switch from my self-hosted Nextcloud instance to ProtonDrive, in the hope that it would spare me the stress to maintain my private Nextcloud. Unfortunately, it doesn’t, as basic functionality like cross-device-sync is not possible (there isn’t even a client app for Linux, as of yet).
This brings me to the question: have you found any services/apps/stuff that significantly eases your life while still being privacy friendly? I know, this is a broad question, but I think this is for the best as this thread then maybe even has use for other users.
I’ve found Syncthing a better way to handle file sync than NextCloud. Much more set and forget and not a single point of failure. It also syncs a notes directory in flat .md format, so anything can edit them, in a simple directory hierarchy.
SyncThing is great for encrypted, serverless, bidirectional sync, preferably with small folders… But unfortunately really eats up a lot of battery.
I’m still waiting for some company to figure out E2EE syncing with the quality of Google Drive (mobile and desktop integration built in). Proton is close, but they fumble reliable integration.
I’ve used it for years, across multiple devices, syncing 100gb. My average daily sync is probably 20gb.
It’s been surprisingly good on battery - currently using 0.9% average. It’s never been a significant battery hog for me.
I currently have 28 sync jobs (folders) on my phone, ranging from a few MB to 20gb, from a few files to 1200 files. Most only sync over wifi, but my DCIM folder (one of the larger ones) is over any connection.
Apps like Foldersync are much heavier on battery for me. Resilio is terrible for me (and it’s also a memory hog because I have some large folders).
Maybe you have a stuck file that’s causing it to hang. May be worth pausing all but one job, see if that affects battery. Then work though them.
Also, check out Syncthing-Fork, it has finer controls over individual sync jobs. For example, I let photos sync over any connection and on battery, but my media (music/video) only on wifi and while charging.
Between all these replies, I have to say I’m a little jealous. And I might have to look into making a SyncThing dedicated “server” on my home network using YunoHost, a thing that (IIRC) wouldn’t require exposing to the Internet because SyncThing will also happily run across volunteer-run relays.
By any chance, have you had any success with a unidirectional sync between your phone and your computer, where it’s possible to delete old photos on your phone to save space without worrying about them being deleted on the computer side? (This issue really only crops up for me when I’m already far away from a computer, BTW.)
I’ll have to defer to your experience; I’ve set it up on a PC, a NAS and a phone. The phone was connected to an ethernet-equipped dock at the time of setup so the sync was quick and painless.
I don’t see a hit on battery life on a Fairphone 4 running /e/OS after initial sync has completed.
Syncthing is brilliant, although for me it has had a heck of a learning curve to keep straight. Might just be me though.
My biggest issue with Syncthing is that it becomes unusable for large amounts of data due to the lack of selective sync (ignore lists are cumbersome as hell) and lack of virtual file system support. I have about 8TB of data on my NAS that I want to access remotely and it is not feasible to have duplicate copies of that much data on all of my devices.
Agreed.
Resilio sync works better. But the “sync identity” thing is broken, and configuring it declaratively is hard.
But 100% agree. Would love a virtual file system solution. Ideally one which you can use to fill available disk space and ensure you always have a minimum number of copies.
NewPipe is a killer app I would say, with nearly Youtube Red level functionality in something that’s free and OSS. A bit afield from privacy, but you do get to access youtube stuff without logging in.
From what I understand, NewPipe has been abandoned and someone else forked it to Tubular which includes SponsorBlock.
From what I understand, NewPipe has been abandoned…
That’s completely incorrect. From NewPipe’s Github:
We are planning to rewrite large chunks of the codebase, to bring about a new, modern and stable NewPipe. Please do not open pull requests for new features now, only bugfix PRs will be accepted.
…and someone else forked it to Tubular which includes SponsorBlock.
polymorphicshade “stopped” development on their fork of NewPipe, which included SponsorBlock (because NewPipe did not want to include it) and started working on their rewrite of their own fork and/or NewPipe, which is now Tubular.
Very good to know. After following your Github link, I found my way to the blog post that it looks like you are quoting:
https://newpipe.net/blog/pinned/announcement/State-of-the-Pipe-2023/
Bitwarden, Aegis (2FA app for Android), Syncthing are probably the most impactful
Ntfy - no more google reading notifications
Jellyfin - media served without questionable Plex account
Arch - on so many levels allows me a private computing experience
Posteo - simple but efficient email service
Resilio sync - cloudless syncing
NTFY looks intriguing.
If I’m reading the description properly, it uses an HTTP server as the middleman for the notifications?
Pretty neat idea.
It’s based on unifiedpush standard https://unifiedpush.org/. So a central notification middleman like google firebase for all your apps (that support it). There’s messengers like mercurygram, fluffychat, Molly that support it and you can also send notifications yourself via a simple curl command.
Wow, I really appreciate how they use animations to show how it works (and I generally despise any animation on a home page).
That’s how it should be done.
Also, what they’ve done is impressive. Smart. I had no idea this existed, though I’ve seen another open solution to Unified Messaging (just can’t recall what). This is really promising.
The most impactful are probably browser (Firefox), adblocker (uBlock Origin), DNS over https (Mullvad), and password manager (Bitwarden), because these are used every single day.
