this post was submitted on 10 Apr 2024
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It seems like the FOSS community is continuing to grow, and FOSS apps keep getting better (Immich reallh blew my mind recently), which is a big win ๐Ÿ˜Ž but there are still many apps I use that I would kill for an open source alternative. I am curious what you guys think? Are there any apps you'd love alternatives for?

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[โ€“] [email protected] 10 points 6 months ago (5 children)

I would really like an open-source alternative to Facebook. The connection idea with friends via a social network platform I like, the bots and ads and force fed (propaganda) news I really don't like.

Plus, an open source Facebook would really hurt Zuck and that's also a win.

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I think Facebook is interesting as it's such a wide range of apps. From groups, to marketplace to traditional social, it has a lot of potential to be spread across multiple FOSS alternatives

[โ€“] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago

spread across multiple FOSS alternatives

And you've already lost hopes of gaining significant market share.

The fact that Facebook does everything is what keeps people coming back. I haven't scrolled my feed in years, but I still make use of Marketplace and Messenger sometimes. It's the network effect at play too.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago
[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

Um. There is one. It's federated too, so you can just run your own thing and have it link up to the collective. It's on my list but not high enough that I remember the name. Search it out and it'll pop right up

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

I've thought about this for a while actually. I think the hardest thing to balance would be privacy. With a FOSS-oriented platform like this, and a broad amount of features like Facebook, you would have to have the users sacrifice a certain amount of real-world data to have these all be linked, and convenient. It could be encrypted in some way, so at least the instance's server wouldn't be able to read the data, but across users you would. I think a new line or definition would have to be made for people who want to use something like this. Most people, though, probably wouldn't care. And a FOSS version would 100% be better than Facebook's servers, where the data is mined and sold.