Post by @dnkboston@apobangpo.space

And now we start to have a little fun, because as you scratch a little closer, you find that the things you thought were "ethical" alternatives really aren't, and you have to admit to yourself that you don't have options.

Proton
LibreOffice
Tuta
Kagi
Mozilla
Brave
Linux...this was when it started to get really fun
Internet Archive....this was when you might have stopped breathing
Wikipedia...which we could have suspected because Wales brags about being a libertarian, so not liking unions tracks

Omarchy...but that's a Linux distribution, and eh, you already had a problem
Mullvad...someone want to list a good VPN that isn't fascist adjacent or corrupted with AI? Please?
Stripe
PayPal...This one is *special*, and maybe should have been on the first list
Discord! They are moving to "age verification", and that is going to go really badly, I promise you. But why believe me when you can just look at tumblr?
VIM
Shopify

Framework...which brings me to a certain someone who made a couple of recommendations that ended up being on this list. You know who he is. If you see him recommending anything, treat with caution.

The reason I need to put this list up is because I know I missed something even as I was typing this up. I can't keep up, which is maybe part of the design.

But it shouldn't be this way, and it doesn't have to be.

Wix
WordPress...both added because they are pushing their AI tools pretty hard
Graphene

Nvidia...It should go without saying that they are in the WTF is wrong with you category. Very difficult to extricate yourself from that--they're chips--but Huang's financial well-being seems to hinge on the AI, ahem, boom, and he's spouting all kinds of BS...which the press is eating up.

Perhaps we'll start a list of the most credulous and asinine tech journalists and outlets, but baby steps.

@dnkboston zitron has said he's keeping a list of AI shill journalists

@davidgerard Ooh! If I can find the link, I'll post it.

@socratics @dnkboston oh look it's an 0 follower sockpuppet

@davidgerard I am so, so happy I blocked that server due to, I believe, lousy moderation. But yes, I got to see the post. What a clown.

@socratics@infosec.exchange

@davidgerard @dnkboston

@dnkboston What did Graphene do?

@ne_ @dnkboston went full raging slop

@davidgerard @ne_ @dnkboston FML

@resl There went another dream of a fortress we could insulate ourselves in.

@davidgerard @ne_

@davidgerard @dnkboston Oh, that’s unfortunate. I’d have guessed Micay would be violently opposed to this nonsense. This is the thread everyone found out from, I assume? https://grapheneos.social/@GrapheneOS/117236529351603001

@dnkboston@apobangpo.space just re: VPNs, you might want to take a look at xeovo.com

Seem to be fairly anti-fasc, can't speak for Ai stance right now but they don't seem to mention anything about AI anywhere (which could be a good or bad thing)

Note: they don't have an app, instead they give you configs for the base wireguard or openvpn clients. This is a good thing.

@paul Bookmarked and thank you. Unfortunately, even if they brag about not using it, that doesn't meant they don't.

@dnkboston@apobangpo.space absolutely agree.
And there's the risk that increased popularity could fasc-ify them too.

We've been burned too many times at this point

@paul The more popular they get, the more money that becomes available, etc.

@dnkboston wait what did I miss, why is LibreOffice on the list? I searched through the thread but did not find anything.

@rysiek @dnkboston LibreOffice was pushing no-AI, getting caught making slop commits then claiming slop is good and not slop when they do it

@davidgerard @dnkboston oh ffs