J.K. Pikkujämsä

Going Anti-GAFAM

A week ago, Facebook suddenly and without warning removed our gallery’s page. We waited for a reply from them explaining why this happened for over a month, until it was suddenly back up again. Fed up with this kind of behaviour, Studio Fremdeling has now a website where I will be sharing information about the upcoming exhibitions and activities from March 2026 onward. I decided to take action also on a more personal level, which is something I have been thinking of doing since a very long time: I am turning my back on companies with such arbitrary practices, and companies that collect our data, distort competition, amplify polarisation and spread cultural homogenisation. Hello Linux and other open-source alternatives; goodbye META, Microsoft, Apple and Google.

See below some alternative stuff that I am happy to recommend.

CLOUD STORAGE

I used to store backup data on Microsoft’s OneDrive and Google’s Cloud using paid subscriptions, for fear of losing things. This may be due to my nomadic lifestyle and the fact that, years ago, I lost all my material — literally everything — when my laptop was stolen. A few years later, my MacBook Pro broke beyond repair. Thankfully, I survived these setbacks without any real damage. However, I have now decided to take that risk again and store backups of text-based material on external hard drives, despite knowing that they are not 100% reliable. At least they are private as long as I keep them under my own pillow. If I ever need more cloud storage in future, I will most likely turn to Mailfence.

EMAIL

Mailfence for secure e-mails. See also Tutanota, Protonmail, or Runbox.

BROWSER

Firefox. LibreWolf.

Brave. Uses Chromium but is not controlled by Google.

CALLING AND INSTANT MESSAGING

For obvious reasons, I prefer Signal to WhatsApp, even though it can feel like banging my head against a wall at times. The rest of the world is deeply and increasingly in love with WhatsApp, which is something I don’t fully understand. So be it.

SOCIAL MEDIA

There are some open-source social media platforms, such as Mastodon, Bluesky and Diaspora. I tried Bluesky and Diaspora once and liked both, but I closed my accounts because my friends wouldn’t join. In hope of connecting with literature, film, and music oriented souls, I have now given Bluesky another go and see what happens. Here I am.

VIDEO CALLS AND ONLINE MEETINGS

I am using Jitsi Meet. A strong recommendation.

PHOTO EDITING

Go with GIMP, Darktable, and RawTherapee – what a charming name! Goodbye Adobe.

Online storage of photos: Good old Flickr. I filled one account with the free quota of one thousand photos, then took them all down, and started a new one here. I also have a pro account for a collection of archival material – more about this project later.

PRINT AND DIGITAL PUBLISHING

Scribus Professional layout tools, open source, free. The Scribus Wiki offers step-by-step guides for beginners.

TRANSLATION TOOLS

Translate Dict – Free. Works best with short and medium texts.

OpenL – Free, but limited use without subscription.

DeepL – I used the free version on and off for informal quick checks, and just came to realise that the material you type in may be used for AI training.

OmegaT – an open source translation memory tool, free.

EU’s eTranslation – A good tool, available for NGOs and small or medium sized businesses.

DICTIONARIES

Turkish: Türk Dil Kurumu Sözlükleri

Portuguese: https://dicionario.priberam.org

French: Antidote’s paid version. I have used this for years, highly recommended. Available also for the English language.

Arabic: I never give up on Al-Mawrid, the original printed book . Oh yes. It is available online too but I have not found a very user friendly version yet.

SPELLCHECKER FOR ENGLISH

Harper: free and open source, privacy-focused. Can be integrated into various editors and platforms. See also: LanguageTool.

NOTE-TAKING

A free, open-source note-taking app Joplin.

ONLINE SEARCHES AND AI

I stopped using Google Search some years ago. Try Qwant instead. Or try Ecosia and help plant trees on every search. Recommended by Tutanota.

As far as AI is concerned, Mistral’s Le Chat and Brave browser’s Leo do not retain or share your chats, or use them for AI model training. For the latter, no account or login is required, and your activity remains private.

MAPS

OsmAnd. Occasionally also Open Street Map. I often trust my inner compass, and if I don’t know where I am, I ask people: “Where am I?”

MUSIC

I am staying at arm’s length from Spotify, because of their CEO’s massive financial ties to military technology. Not a heavy listener online, I use Letras and Soundcloud when in the mood for playlists.

E-BOOKS, FILMS

Rakuten Kobo for e-books. I might also use their platform in the future for self publishing.

RaiPlay Sound has a wonderful collection of radio programmes, podcasts and audio books of Italian classics.

Foliate, Bookworm, Okular and other Linux-based e-book readers. I am looking forward to getting acquainted with these soon.

The Internet Archive and its Open Library and Wayback Machine: what a treasure box! Books (rare too), audio books, music, films, podcasts, books by language…

National libraries and archives offer more treasures, of course, both books and films-on-demand.

I am tempted with a subscription to Mubi. It has no algorithm-driven recommendations but is curated by humans, and rotates interesting films d’auteurs. I never watched films on Netflix, and probably never will.

PODCASTS

iVoox, Soundcloud. I am a big fan of podcasts by RFI – a selection available also in English – and The LRB Podcast, and programmes provided by a couple of national broadcasting companies of different countries.

NEWS

RFI – free. With subscription: Libération for day-to-day coverage, with an impressive variety of newsletters; Le Monde Diplomatique, Jeune Afrique, and the London Review of Books for deeper dives. I’m all ears for recommendations of interesting Italian or Brazilian alternatives, literary or otherwise.

An interesting recent online discovery in the literary genre, recommended by a friend: chronicles from Brazilian newspapers dating back to 1920’s, known as Crônica Brasileira. Good stuff never gets old!

That’s all for now.