Fediverse

Let me tag you a welcome to the fediverse! 🙌

Google Drive, Dropbox or Onedrive?

I only use syncthing (website / android app) for all my file syncing needs. Its peer to peer so requires no server or account, but its not like a cloud where you download stuff on demand, but rather a way to keep folders of your choosing always synchronised/mirrored between your devices.

So in practice i have my pictures, music, documents and keepassxc database (password manager) folders synced to my desktop and then i have a "stuff" folder for random junk i want to exchange between my phone, desktop, laptop, tablet, etc.

It might not be for everyone, but my family and i love it, because stuff is just instantly there when you need it. We also have a family folder now that is synced to all of us so we can exchange large numbers of pictures, videos, movies, music, etc.

It doesnt support publishing things to people that arent using syncthing though, so if you want to be able to just send a browser openable link to people to share stuff, then you should look to nextcloud instead.

There are few drop in replacements. Some you might have to replace with several apps or change the way you do certain tasks.

Instagram, X, LinkedIn, and Facebook are hard to replace. Their value comes mainly from the network of the people on there.

You might be able to move communication in a friend group to a Signal group chat.

Pixelfed and Mastodon can replace them partially as well. It really depends on the audience though. If you want to connect with tech folk, mastodon can be great, if you want fashionistas, less so.

Anything using lots of video uses lots of expensive bandwidth, so the free replacements usually suffer in this category. There’s no good endless scrolling reels replacement available at the moment.

PeerTube exists for video, but it’s pretty bare bones and lacks the huge community YouTube has.

Amazon does a million things from shopping, video streaming, backend services. There are alternatives to all of these.

Media subscription services for music and video don’t have good replacements. You can go with piracy and host your own Netflix using jellyfin. Spotify is from Sweden, IIRC.

Google Drive, Dropbox, and other file hosting on the cloud have lots of alternatives, that will lack one feature or another. OpenCloud and NextCloud are the biggest names, but any hoster that gives you WebDAV can replace it partially. It also depends on your use case: cloud backup, sharing files, accessing files across devices, working on the same file, etc.

It's hard to tell what was wrong with that post without seeing it. At the same time, we're not a hive mind. People will disagree from time to time :)

or they need a third party APP

I've seen this complaint from other new users. Is there something wrong with a lack of an official app? Would it be an ok compromise for the official project to recommend some third party apps?

A lot of these projects don't have the capacity (yet) to develop an official app on top of the main platform.

As for the recommendations

• Pixelfed is a good alternative to Instagram
• Mastodon and similar platforms are good alternatives to Twitter/X

These are harder, or there's not as much motivation for them. The projects are still going, but they're slower:

• Facebook: a lot of people dropped Facebook completely without replacing it with anything. The only real value is private groups and buy/sell tools, of which the first can be replaced with chat platforms and the second already has a patchwork of proprietary alternatives depending on where you are

• LinkedIn: network effect is extreme with this one since it depends on where everyone else in your field of work is hanging out. Some fields don't use LinkedIn at all already

• Amazon: I don't see the benefit of having a fediverse version of this? Building tools that independent stores can use to stay competitive might be better

• Spotify: Funkwhale exists, but there are some concerns around piracy. Other options are self hosting or using one of the many other proprietary streaming platforms

• Cloud storage: there are a number of alternatives https://ca.purchasewithpurpose.io/category/file-storage/

In the context of this communities, you are already here, just Google "fediverse replacement for xxx". You won't find a fediverse version of Amazon or any data storage service, those don't really make sense for fediration. You'll want to talk to other communities. Or search them. This has been talked about a lot.

Hey yeah, sorry you had a rough first day. We’ve got a real problem with people creating a new account, shoving five-ten posts, and then deleting your account. Fedi does get touchy about ads; I can’t see the post so I don’t really know how ad-y it was, but generally speaking self-promotion is accepted. You’re in the right place. In order, the fediverse apps you’re looking for are: Pixelfed, Friendica, Mastodon, dunno, dunno, Funkwhale, PeerTube, you don’t want this one on fedi.

Your first post was fine. You can leave it to the moderators to delete anything that doesn't belong.