I made a thing! 🎉
https://github.com/nileshtrivedi/better
It's a browser extension that recommends "better" alternative products and services via in-page popups, based on community-curated lists. Available for all Chromium and Firefox-based browsers.
We live in times where the distributions costs are hampering the adoption of higher-quality (which could mean security, privacy, ethics, local etc) products. I am hoping that this extension can eventually be managed by orgs like IFF, EFF or FSF.
@nilesh great initiative! looks nice.
@nilesh Congrats! This is awesome.
@nilesh nice, great work!
@nilesh thats one hell of an idea! Thanks!
@icedquinn Yes, noted. Will definitely continue to improve the default list: https://github.com/nileshtrivedi/better/issues/7
I released early hoping to get more contributors. 😉
@nilesh Does it suggest Firefox after installing the Chrome extension? :P
@sankakujin @alcinnz It's a work-in-progress. I hope more people can start contributing: https://github.com/nileshtrivedi/better/issues/7
@nilesh This looks like a good idea. I wanted to contribute to the list of alternatives, but I don't have a GitHub account anymore, so instead, I made a paste on Disroot's PrivateBin instance and published the modified JSON file: https://bin.disroot.org/?539730b2d06ff870#J9mDERgFTA3XYK8pHJH5yDZd8xGfCqvXzXjver1GSHpo
@BlackWinnerYoshi Thank you so much! I have created a PR with this change: https://github.com/nileshtrivedi/better/pull/27
@nilesh @BlackWinnerYoshi Hey did you know you can format and send patches directly with git?
Patches are files that contain your modifications and that can be exported from and imported to git.
No need to have an account anywhere or to use hosted services! You can format your patch locally and send it by mail or whatever else you like!
The relevant commands are
git format-patch
and
git am
Niklas
@nilesh I totally like this idea but I have some doubts that this will help that much.It would be great as a built-in feature in a privacy-friendly browser so that it automatically tells you which services you can use instead.But the extension has to be installed by the user.Someone who cares about this topic knows the recommendations already and someone who doesn't care that much won't get the addon.
@nipos If this becomes as well-known and widespread as adblockers like uBlock - which are also opt-in and need to be installed by the user, I'd consider this a success. Among the people who care about this topic, many don't know the alternatives.
And of course, people like us can encourage our friends to install this.
@nilesh
Super fresh! Thanks for coming with great ideas!
@r3mix Noticed this comment just now. Thanks.
If you have some time, please do send PRs for design improvements.
@nilesh That is so cool! Great work!
@nilesh Slack isn't where work happens, it's where that 1 client who won't use anything else can send gifs and scattered notes about 6 projects all over the place until I've completely forgot what we're doing
@nilesh this is really cool!
Nice extension there! The way to make a software managed by FSF is to make it a GNU package.
Basically you ask GNU to evaluate your software and if they find it intersting/useful it becomes a part of GNU package. You may choose to keep the copyright or hand it over to FSF(handing copyright to FSF helps it sue copyright infringers)
See details here: https://www.gnu.org/help/evaluation.html
@nilesh This looks really interesting. What would be helpful is a way to report/provide alternatives when nothing is suggested yet. For instance when I got to photoshop.com I'd like to report that GIMP is an alternative tool for image editing.
@maxheadroom I agree! We are discussing implementation ideas here: https://github.com/nileshtrivedi/better/issues/23
@nilesh thanks! I left a comment there. Maybe that helps
@nilesh Wonderful; I shall secretly install this extension on all my “friend’s” computers.
Would be fun watching them react to a popup plopping up on every single site they use.
"Better" can be subjective. So, eventually, the users will be able to subscribe to multiple lists maintained by different communities using different parameters.
This is why I released early: To be able to attract more contributors. 😉