Overview of alternative open source front-ends for popular internet platforms
github.com
github.com
I had been a user of Barinsta, until the creator was hit with legal threats from Facebook.
It was then when I saw it clear that these types of projects are better to be developed anonymously, so without any address or name, the legal department wouldn't have anywhere to send their letter.
At most they might ask GitHub to close the repo, so probably a Git provider from overseas would also be a good idea. In general: don't host the code in the same country of the company you will be pissing off.
Even better would be having automated mirrors on multiple providers, plus a private git instance to make sure you have your repos.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/10/adversarial-interopera...
There are also reports of Instagram accounts being banned for using Barinsta.
Say I want to eat out on Christmas eve. Around 80% of local restaurants will only publicly say if they're open on a Facebook post, and like half of those will be inaccessible without logging in. This became even worse with covid, where I had to basically guess which part of their service was open.
So I was hoping for some workaround, like using nitter to bypass Twitter's new account requirements, but it looks like I'm out of luck.
It annoys me too but I’m not blaming my local restaurants for following market forces.
IF they made the decision. There is more and more people there who doesn't even understand the concept of a website.
To them 'being on the Internet' equals being on Facebook/Instagram.
It is hard to make a decision about something you don't even know.
It's true that making an independent site to host your updates and info isn't as easy as just posting to facebook/twitter. I understand why a lot of businesses, esp. small ones, don't bother. Each rain drop also don't hold themselves responsible for the flood.
I'd still be annoyed I have to use Facebook, but it wouldn't impact my decision to visit the store. I'm not going to a store when I can't tell if it's open.
Pretty hard. There are some extensions (FB Purity being the most popular), but they focus on trying to modify the facebook site in your browser, and they break often. There used to be more 3rd party android apps but FB locked their APIs down more. And even the FB app linked on this Github directory, Frost, does not work, as FB will not allow you to login with the embedded browser.
You go around, survey the opening hours posted on local restaurants (I usually take a photo, and don't copy and paste from other sources as this normally goes against their T&C) and then add these to openstreetmap.org.
Then next time apps like organicmaps.app update, you'll have all the local opening hours for restaurants and things directly on your device.
I have found that places usually change opening houes by an hour or two.
And if anyone reads this and thinks: "well, that sounds like a chore", this is the only solution I've found that:
1. Is under an open data license
2. Is easily editable as a normal user
3. Isn't backed by "Big Tech" that can wall it off
4. At least has apps that make the data searchable in an offline way
5. Fully exposes the data in open formats (just zoom in on the map, right click on an object and press "Query features" for a basic example or see https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Databases_and_data_acces... )
But like anything else, you need people to contribute to it.
Available in the Play Store and on F-Droid. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.westnordost... https://f-droid.org/en/packages/de.westnordost.streetcomplet...
Edit: Vinnl beat me to it. I need to refresh more often :)
This would be nice if it happens. I have fond memories of pidgin and similar and being able to use multiple messenger accounts from one program.
This would be a key enabler here as well for alternative front ends or interfaces to platforms. Reducing platforms to their API and a "platform preferred" front end.
I mean obviously the EU is strongly motivated by wanting their companies to have a stronger chance at competing with US FANG companies but it's still a good move for the users.
If it's API restrictions, they should create a browser extension! Maybe someday Firefox mobile will allow add-ons again :(
Huh? Firefox on Android does support addons. There's only a small subset of them available by default but you can enable support for all addons as well although you'll have to use Fennec or Mull from FDroid for that.
Go to the "About Fennec" menu and tap the logo several times to enable the hidden "Custom Add-on collection" menu. Create an account on Mozilla Add-ons website and add all the addons you like. Use the profile ID to add the collection in the hidden menu you unlocked.
Yeah, I know, using addons shouldn't be so convoluted.
So the restricted addons is specifically because they reviewed that subset personally and thus is, at least for Goog's policies, okay.
(Yes, I'm aware of Kiwi browser. Says a lot about app store moderation.)
I access twitter only via links usually, when someone refers to a tweet.
A quick test by replacing "tw" with "n" in the URL led to "not found", so apparently it's not that easy.
Edit: Reading capability is a clear advantage. It's .net, not .com, actually it works. Though editing is less comfortable now, so question still remains valid :)
It can be configured to direct all requests for Twitter.com to a Nitter instance specified by you (or a random one).
The browser addon can also be configured to redirect YouTube requests to Invidious, Instagram requests to Bibliogram, and even others.
The privacy-redirect browser addon is available for Mozilla Firefox [1], Google Chrome [2] and Microsoft Edge [3].
[0] https://github.com/SimonBrazell/privacy-redirect
[1] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/privacy-redir...
[2] https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/privacy-redirect/p...
[3] https://microsoftedge.microsoft.com/addons/detail/privacy-re...
I am pleased that my work is discussed and appreciated on HN.
I've already started to work on improving the repo based on some comments here.
[0] https://github.com/mendel5/alternative-front-ends/issues/41
I have made rimgu[0] for imgur. There are a small number of edge-cases (for example the stackexchange subsite) it doesn't handle yet but otherwise I find it works great.
On a similar note, I find Piped[1] superior to any of the other alternatives for YT I tried so far, including invidious.
[0]: https://codeberg.org/3np/rimgu
[1]: https://github.com/TeamPiped/Piped
EDIT: Looks like there's actually a public Piped instance linked from the repo now!
I didn't know about rimgu yet and just added it to the Imgur section [0].
The experience is a Facebook-esque joke. Tweets are out of order, random people I’m not following are shown in my feed, and the feed is dotted with ads.
> As of September 1st 2020, invidio.us has closed down. > To see this content, please select another instance,
Ok, I'll try the first alternative in their list, inv.cthd.icu
> Could not get channel info.
Ok, second one, invidious-us.kavin.rocks ?
> Could not get channel info.
Hmmm, maybe it's something to do with the sample channel, Troy Hunt? I'll try a known good channel, AvE.
> Could not get channel info.
Ok, maybe I should go to the front page of invidious-us.kavin.rocks and search for AvE. Ahah! There he is! I'll try clicking on his first video[0]. Well, the page appears to load but the video spins a loading spinner for a couple of minutes and then I get
> The media could not be loaded, either because the server or network failed or because the format is not supported.
I think I'll stick with Youtube.
Not all links works, but yawtu.be is a good bet.
Blazing fast and zero annoyances.
NewPipe is in that list and it works most of the time.
To the point where my non-tech SO complains every time we have to use the official YT app. NewPipe's user experience is just better for everything but "discovery", which after over a decade of usage and dozens following dozens of channels, I don't do.
Now I can barely read any twitter/reddit/facebook links without login walls.
So much for an open internet.