Hello, I’ve been in the free software cult for about a year now, and yet, I feel more lost than ever.

I have pretty much switched to all free software other than Whatsapp, which I only use to contact family and people that ignorantly don’t care.

I’m having troubles finding a mobile alternative to Signal, which I can talk to people with, but everything I’ve found is only available on computers.

I use my phone for communication, chess, searches, and navigation, so I’m tied to a device that actively spies on me, and unlike normies, I can’t ignore it.

Solution for all would simply be to just let them go, but I’m already in a shit-hole socially, so that’d just make things worse.

I’m still using a 5 year old lenovo thinkbook I got as a present, and I have plans of replacing it with something I can put GNU boot and use a functioning system with parabola on like a Lenovo Thinkpad T400, T500, X200, and X200T. However, I do mechatronics, so I’m going to have serious issues with CAD, compiling, and ethical machine learning, which I have to do for most projects. Even with a lightweight suckless dwm setup, it’s going to suck at everything.

That’s not even considering the security risks, which are especially bad considering I do activism on topics that are outright banned in countries that I live in / visit.

Have you experienced such a phase? I would really appreciate your advice on getting past this roadblock and finding a device to switch to both mobile and desktop for better privacy.

Edit: user asudox infromed me that matrix was available on mobile, so now I’m using a client called fluffy chat available on both andriod, IOS, web, and GNU+Linux systems which is great.

  • zod000@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    3·
    8 hours ago

    I’m not the person you replied to, but a lot of my friends that pushed us to initially use Matrix have grown unhappy with the direction it’s gone and really dislike the clients. I personally host a private Matrix server and I am fine with it for now, but I’m able to avoid most of the drama and bugs by simply not moving to the latest and greatest. I always liked XMPP in the past, but I haven’t used it in a few years. I am glad to see it picking up support and hope that some of the things I didn’t like about it (which I can’t seem to recall at the moment :) ) are no longer problems or at least may get some traction on resolving.

      • zod000@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        2·
        7 hours ago

        I’d take that page with a grain of salt, especially since it is quite old and not all of it valid anymore, but I agree that generally you hear the good things about Matrix. Even disregarding what that site has to say, I’d give XMPP a look. XMPP likely isn’t all rainbows either, but I like the traction it is getting and it did a lot of things right in my mind.