If anyone remembers the Mycroft Mark II Voice Assistant Kickstarter and was disappointed when development challenges and patent trolls caused the company’s untimely demise, know that hope is not lost for a FOSS/OSHW voice assistant insulated from Big Tech…

FAQ: OVOS, Neon, and the Future of the Mycroft Voice Assistant

Disclaimer: I do not represent any of these organizations in any way; I just believe in their mission and wish them all the success in getting there by spreading the word.

There is also a NewPipe flatpak available on Flathub.

There is nothing more permanent than a temporary solution that works.

The Librem 5 offers hardware killswitches on the side of the phone, and the Pinephone offers hardware killswitches in the rear of the device after removing the backplate.

Purism is slowly correcting course regarding refund policies, but meaningful improvements take time. Also, the letter from “Purism” to Rossmann came from a Purism volunteer who had no authority to publicly represent the company.

It’s a valid point that it could potentially create some confusion when a user assumes that everything in Signal is secure. Unencrypted SMS threads could contain an open padlock icon and even an ominous red window border, but someone inevitably will not understand the difference.

However, my frustration has been how both convenience and security is reduced by removing SMS from Signal.

Many people will continue to use SMS for a variety of reasons, necessitating the use of an additional app. So now we have people continuing to communicate over this insecure protocol, but with the additional target vector of potential vulnerabilities in the supplemental app.

Imagine a world where we can adopt a scalable, secure, open communication protocol where users can use whatever app they want. Imagine humanity moving past the diaspora of special-snowflake chat apps and on to better things.