This page is a reference of alternatives to mainstream products / products run by mega-corporations. I’ll update this list from time to time.

Search

• DuckDuckGo

  DuckDuckGo aggregates it’s results from over 400 sources across the net. I’ve found the results aren’t quite the same as Google, but still good enough.

• Startpage

  StartPage uses Google’s search index, so results are similar to Google’s but there’s been questions about the company’s ownership recently. ¹

Browsers

Now that the browser wars may have returned,² you may want to switch from chrome to another browser.

• Firefox

  Firefox is a good option for a browser that isn’t chromium-based (the chromium project is run by Google, but is Open Source).

• Arc - Arc is still based on chromium, but has a pretty radical experience versus chrome or firefox.

Domain Name Registration

• NameCheap

Email

• ProtonMail

  ProtonMail is an email service run out of Switzerland, and has robust end-to-end encryption support. ³

Source Control

• SourceHut - alternative to github
• Gitlab - more mainstream, larger company

Operating Systems

There’s never been a better time to switch to linux - which is free, open source, and doesn’t respects your privacy much more and doesn’t phone home like macOS⁴ and Windows⁵ for everything you do.

I’d recommend Ubuntu for first-timers as the installer is pretty helpful and the OS is configured for use right out of the box. Manjaro is also a good choice, and uses a rolling release model similar to Arch Linux.

NOTE: Take extreme care when installing new operating systems on your computer, as you can easily erase all your data if you pick the wrong option. Do your research!