Free alternatives to proprietary services.
Not everyone is aware of the fact that there are alternatives for some services offered online, such as Google translation services for example, or the simple speed test that collects data during its use or even the Team viewer service that allows us not only to connect remotely to a PC but also to make audio calls.
Fortunately, for every service there is a Free and Open Source counterpart that allows us to use the exact same service but in a private and anonymous way. In this article I will list the alternatives to the proprietary ones.
FreeSpeed
The alternative program to Speed test that does not track us is oriented towards the privacy of Ad-free users, and it is possible to install it locally in SelfHosting .
Librespeed test link
Free Translate
Libre transalte is also a Free and Open Source service that replaces the much more famous Google Translate, obviously we all know that every "Free" Google service is paid for in another way, such as the ability for Google to see what we translate and profile us, that's why it is necessary to protect ourselves even in these, which seem small things but have a big impact on our privacy.
Libre Translate does just that, it is a Privacy-oriented service, it has no tracers, and it is Ad-free, it has some small limitations but it works perfectly. Oh I forgot, this one is also Self Hostable for those who want to access the service locally.
Free Translate Link
HopToDesk
The alternative to the various TeamViewer , RustDesk (which many pass off as free but is actually Freemium) AnyDesk is definitely HopToDesk , a multi-platform program that guarantees more privacy than the more famous proprietary software, connections are End-to-End encrypted and you can both download it and use it online, it is also Ad-free and implements 2-factor authentication.
A much safer alternative to its competitors that does the same job but without having tracking, a compromise that we must accept if we want to use the most famous products.
HopToDesk Link
NetBird
Do you want an alternative to ZeroTier or Tailscale ? Do you want to share a virtual Lan for free with 5 people and share with the free plan up to 100 devices including PCs, Servers, Tablets, Smartphones all in security with MFA, Peer-to-peer & encryption using Wireguard ?
Netbird can do this and more such as Network Routes, Private DNS, it is a Free/Open Source application although it also provides paid plans, but the solution is also Self-Hostable so we can through the purchase of a domain, manage it directly on our own server and share our devices with whoever we want.
Link to Netbird
PeerTube
The PeerTube service offers another way of conceiving video streaming, meanwhile it is part of the Fediverse , for those who do not yet know what it is here is a link that explains in detail the fediverse and all its applications, from videos to Instagram-style photos, to social networks, to the organization of events:
https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fediverso
Returning to PeerTube, it is a Youtube -style service that allows us to choose an instance, that is, a server to connect to and be able to watch and download free video content that talks about various topics, from comics to collecting, through free computer lessons, etc. etc.
It is also possible to register and use about 10GB of space (in some instances they are 20GB ) to open your own channel and share content, OpenSourceSociety has a channel in 2 peertube instances.
A note while we are at it, some instances of the Fediverse are politicized, this in a democratic world is certainly not positive. We have seen how Facebook and Youtube have, during the pandemic, censored those who were not aligned , even in some instances if you are not in favor of certain ideologies that are in fashion today you could have problems it is necessary to point this out because an alternative that defines itself as such must also give space to those who think differently otherwise it cannot and should not say it is democratic.
Link to PeerTube 2 instances
