VPN Comparison 2.0
After making a post about comparing VPN providers, I received a lot of requested feedback. I've implemented most of the ideas I received.
Providers
- AirVPN
- IVPN
- Mozilla VPN
- Mullvad VPN
- NordVPN
- NymVPN
- Private Internet Access (abbreviated PIA)
- Proton VPN
- Surfshark VPN
- Tor (technically not a VPN)
- Windscribe
Notes
- I'm human. I make mistakes. I made multiple mistakes in my last post, and there may be some here. I've tried my best.
- Pricing is sometimes weird. For example, a 1 year plan for Private Internet Access is 37.19€ first year and then auto-renews annually at 46.73€. By the way, they misspelled "annually". AirVPN has a 3 day pricing plan. For the instances when pricing is weird, I did what I felt was best on a case-by-case basis.
- Tor is not a VPN, but there are multiple apps that allow you to use it like a VPN. They've released an official Tor VPN app for Android, and there is a verified Flatpak called Carburetor which you can use to use Tor like a VPN on secureblue (Linux). It's not unreasonable to add this to the list.
- Some projects use different licenses for different platforms. For example, NordVPN has an open source Linux client. However, to call NordVPN open source would be like calling a meat sandwich vegan because the bread is vegan.
- The age of a VPN isn't a good indicator of how secure it is. There could be a trustworthy VPN that's been around for 10 years but uses insecure, outdated code, and a new VPN that's been around for 10 days but uses up-to-date, modern code.
- Some VPNs, like Surfshark VPN, operate in multiple countries. Legality may vary.
- All of the VPNs claim a "no log" policy, but there's some I trust more than others to actually uphold that.
- Tor is special in the port forwarding category, because it depends on what you're using port forwarding for. In some cases, Tor doesn't need port forwarding.
- Tor technically doesn't have a WireGuard profile, but you could (probably?) create one.
Takeaways
- If you don't mind the speed cost, Tor is a really good option to protect your IP address.
- If you're on a budget, NymVPN, Private Internet Access, and Surfshark VPN are generally the cheapest. If you're paying month-by-month, Mullvad VPN still can't be beat.
- If you want VPNs that go out of their way to collect as little information as possible, IVPN, Mullvad VPN, and NymVPN don't require any personal information to use. And Tor, of course.
ODS file: files.catbox.moe/cly0o6.ods
Private Internet Access: The Best VPN Service For 10+ Years
PIA VPN is 2025's top-rated VPN service – with ultra-fast speeds, worldwide streaming servers, and 100% open-source software. Try PIA risk free for 30 days.Private Internet Access
VPN Comparison
I made a spreadsheet comparing different open source VPN providers.
Part 2 here
Providers
Notes
- Please do not start a flame war about Proton.
- Please do not start a flame war about cryptocurrencies. Monero is the only cryptocurrency listed because of its privacy.
- The very left column is the category for each row, the middle section is the various VPN providers, and the right section is which VPNs are the best in each category.
- IVPN has two differing plans, which is why "Standard" and "Pro" are sometimes differentiated.
- For accounts, "Generated" means a random identifier is created for you to act as your account, "Required" means you must sign up yourself. Proton VPN allows guest use under specific conditions (e.g. installed from the Google Play Store), but otherwise requires an account.
- Switzerland is seen as more private than Sweden. Gibraltar is seen as privacy neutral.
- All prices are in United States Dollars. Tax is not included.
- Pricing is based on the price combination to achieve the exact time frame. For example, Proton VPN does not have a 3 year plan but you can achieve 3 years by combining a 2 year plan with a 1 year plan.
- The availability section is security based. Availability is framed around a GrapheneOS and secureblue setup.
- The Proton VPN Flatpak is unofficial, but based on the official code.
- Availability on secureblue is based on the
ujust install-vpncommand. Security features must be disabled on secureblue in order to use the GUI for IVPN and Mullvad VPN, but not for Proton VPN. Mozilla VPN and NymVPN are available as Flatpaks, which are safer than layering packages.- I wanted to include more categories, such as which programming languages they are written in, connection speed, and security, but that became far too difficult and complex, so I decided to omit those categories.
Takeaways
- NymVPN is very very new, but it's off to a strong start. It wins in almost every category. I actually hadn't heard of it until I started this project.
- If you want a free VPN, Proton VPN is the only one here that meets that requirement.
- If you want to pay week-by-week, IVPN is the only one that allows that.
- If you're paying month-by-month on a budget, Mullvad VPN is the cheapest option.
- NymVPN is the cheapest plan for anything past 1 month.
- If you want to use Accrescent as your main app store, IVPN is the only VPN available there for now.
- If you want to pay for a bundle of apps, including a VPN, Proton sells more than just a VPN.
- Mozilla VPN is terrible. The only thing it has going for it is a verified Flatpak, but NymVPN also has that so it doesn't even matter.
like this
don't like this
Qatar Air Force facility to be built at USAF base in Idaho
Qatar Air Force facility to be built at USAF base in Idaho, Defense Secretary Hegseth says
Hegseth The Defense secretary made the announcement at a Pentagon press conference with Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Qatar's defense minister.Lillian Rizzo (CNBC)
like this
Anche quest'anno il GL-Como partecipa al Linux Day!
L'appuntamento annuale organizzato da ILS è nato nel 2001 per promuovere le idee del software libero e dell'open source, con un occhio di riguardo verso Linux. L'evento è costituito da una rete di eventi decentralizzati in tutta Italia organizzati autonomamente da gruppi volontari e appassionati.
attend
While Ripping Trump Authoritarianism, Over Half of Senate Dems Help GOP Pass $925 Billion Pentagon Bill
Senate Democrats are blasting President Donald Trump’s increasingly authoritarian behavior and congressional Republicans for shutting down the US government to preserve devastating healthcare cuts, but over half of them voted with the GOP late Thursday to give nearly $1 trillion to the Pentagon, which has never passed an audit.
The final vote on the Senate’s $925 billion version of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026 was 77-20, with Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), and Thom Tillis (R-NC) not voting. The passage tees up talks with leaders in the House of Representatives, where nearly all Republicans and 17 Democrats approved an NDAA last month.
“Yesterday, the Senate voted to give the Pentagon a trillion-dollar spending package while the Trump administration and MAGA Republicans play politics with troop pay and nuclear security and refuse to reopen the federal government,” Markey said in a Friday statement. “All the while, they are stealing healthcare from American families to fund tax breaks for CEO billionaires. This isn’t a budget that funds America’s real security needs.”
While Ripping Trump Authoritarianism, Over Half of Senate Dems Help GOP Pass $925 Billion Pentagon Bill
"Congress continues to expand military spending while denying investments in the programs that will truly build a safer, healthier future for working- and middle-class families," said Sen. Ed Markey, who voted no.jessica-corbett (Common Dreams)
While Ripping Trump Authoritarianism, Over Half of Senate Dems Help GOP Pass $925 Billion Pentagon Bill
Senate Democrats are blasting President Donald Trump’s increasingly authoritarian behavior and congressional Republicans for shutting down the US government to preserve devastating healthcare cuts, but over half of them voted with the GOP late Thursday to give nearly $1 trillion to the Pentagon, which has never passed an audit.
The final vote on the Senate’s $925 billion version of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026 was 77-20, with Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), and Thom Tillis (R-NC) not voting. The passage tees up talks with leaders in the House of Representatives, where nearly all Republicans and 17 Democrats approved an NDAA last month.
“Yesterday, the Senate voted to give the Pentagon a trillion-dollar spending package while the Trump administration and MAGA Republicans play politics with troop pay and nuclear security and refuse to reopen the federal government,” Markey said in a Friday statement. “All the while, they are stealing healthcare from American families to fund tax breaks for CEO billionaires. This isn’t a budget that funds America’s real security needs.”
While Ripping Trump Authoritarianism, Over Half of Senate Dems Help GOP Pass $925 Billion Pentagon Bill
"Congress continues to expand military spending while denying investments in the programs that will truly build a safer, healthier future for working- and middle-class families," said Sen. Ed Markey, who voted no.jessica-corbett (Common Dreams)
adhocfungus likes this.
The Liberal Abandonment Of Greta Thunberg
cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/37163347
The Liberal Abandonment Of Greta Thunberg
The Liberal Abandonment Of Greta Thunberg
The Swedish activist Greta Thunberg has been detained by Israel and reportedly maltreated by her Israeli captors after she was kidnapped, along with hundreds of other activists, from Gaza’s territorial waters on Friday.Nate Bear (¡Do Not Panic!)
like this
RPG devs stopped making games like Baldur's Gate 'because retailers told us no one wanted to buy them', says New Vegas and Pillars of Eternity director Josh Sawyer
RPG devs stopped making games like Baldur's Gate 'because retailers told us no one wanted to buy them', says New Vegas and Pillars of Eternity director Josh Sawyer
The Infinity Engine wasn't quite so infinite, in the end.Hope Corrigan (PC Gamer)
FRYD likes this.
I made a copy lemmy - reddit CLONE COPY
Mạng Chia Sẽ Liên Kết LinkHay
LinkHay là địa điểm chia sẻ những nội dung đặc sắc khắp Internet Việt Nam.Voten
Technology reshared this.
Interfaith leaders visit Tallahassee seeking access to Alligator Alcatraz detainees
Clergy representing six different faiths — from the First United Methodist Church to Judaism — delivered a letter to the Florida Department of Emergency Management seeking permission from the state to provide one-on-one chaplaincy services to the detainees at the detention center, a practice that’s common in most other correctional facilities in Florida.
This time, the group received a hopeful response — though there was some confusion about the type of religious services that are already taking place at the facility.
Keith Pruett, the deputy executive director of FDEM, told clergy that he thought the facility already provided religious services, according to Rev. David Williamson, who attended the letter drop-off on Thursday. Williamson said that Pruett agreed to bring up the issue with Kevin Guthrie, the executive director of FDEM, when he returns to Tallahassee.
How a Texas group is positioning itself as a Republican alternative to teachers unions
After years of working to dismantle diversity programs, ban books and rewrite classroom curriculum, conservatives are converging on a new battlefront in their push to overhaul public education: teachers’ unions.
This spring, a right-leaning think tank called the Freedom Foundation launched the Teacher Freedom Alliance as a free, national membership program meant to incentivize public educators to jump ship from traditional teachers unions.
The group, which is headquartered in Grapevine, Texas, encourages teachers to instead take advantage of its $2 million liability insurance, professional development training and curriculum resources, including recommended learning from PragerU, a conservative group that produces free video content “upholding Judeo-Christian values.” The group is structured as a nonprofit, so it doesn't have to disclose its donors.
This Texas group aims to be a Republican option to teachers unions
The Teacher Freedom Alliance launched this spring as a free, national membership program meant to incentivize educators to jump ship from traditional unions.Taylor Goldenstein (Houston Chronicle)
Laura Loomer Reaches Her Final Straw With Trump: ‘I Don’t Think I’ll Be Voting in 2026’
Laura Loomer Reaches Her Final Straw With Trump: ‘I Don’t Think I’ll Be Voting in 2026&# ...
Laura Loomer, the conspiracy theorist and longtime Trump loyalist, has hit her final straw with the president over a Qatari air base being built in Idaho.Isaac Schorr (Mediaite)
adhocfungus likes this.
Korean Anti-Imperialist Organization Nodutdol Releases Korean History Toolkit
launch of our new Korea Education Toolkit!
We've curated a variety of educational resources-from articles and books to videos and podcasts— for anyone to learn about Korea from revolutionary and anti-imperialist perspectives.
The toolkit has been organized into six sections: Japanese colonialism, Korean War, Republic of Korea (ROK: South Korea), Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK: North Korea, Contemporary US Imperialism, and Films.
Just as surely as we must struggle for liberation, we also have to study. Taking time to understand the politics, economy, and history of Korea and the anti-imperialist struggle of our people is essential to building an informed and powerful movement.
Visit usoutofkorea.org/toolkit to learn more!"
Korea Education Toolkit | US Out of Korea!
Nodutdol’s US out of Korea campaign seeks to educate the public about US military aggression in Korea, which is pushing the peninsula towards a renewed state of war.usoutofkorea.org
Inside tech billionaire Peter Thiel’s off-the-record lectures about the antichrist
The venture capitalist has hosted and attended events and lectured on the topic for decades, going back to the 1990s, according to a report by Wired. In recent months, he has spoken to theologians and podcasters about the antichrist both publicly and in private. His beliefs are diffuse, meandering and often confusing, but one tenet he’s steadfastly maintained over the years is that the unification of the world under one global state is essentially identical to the antichrist. In his talks, he uses the term “antichrist” almost interchangeably with “one-world state”.
He believes the Armageddon will be ushered in by an antichrist-type figure who cultivates a fear of existential threats such as climate change, AI, and nuclear war to amass inordinate power. The idea is this figure will convince people to do everything they can to avoid something like a third world war, including accepting a one-world order charged with protecting everyone from the apocalypse that implements a complete restriction of technological progress. In his mind, this is already happening. Thiel said that international financial bodies, which make it more difficult for people to shelter their wealth in tax havens, are one sign the antichrist may be amassing power and hastening Armageddon, saying: “It’s become quite difficult to hide one’s money.”
Inside tech billionaire Peter Thiel’s off-the-record lectures about the antichrist
The political svengali and investor has been giving lectures on ‘an evil king or tyrant … who appears in the end times’Johana Bhuiyan (The Guardian)
Tell everyone you knoow: “I Don’t Want to Be Here Anymore”: They Tried to Self-Deport, Then Got Stranded in Trump’s America
Months passed. Her partner was deported. In July, Pérez said, she got a call from someone in the CBP Home program telling her she’d be on a flight out of the country in mid-August. She began packing.
But as the departure date neared and the plane tickets hadn’t arrived, Pérez got nervous. Again and again, she called the toll-free number she’d been given. Finally, somebody called back to say there might be a delay obtaining the documents she’d need to travel to Venezuela.
Then there was silence. No further information, no plane tickets. Pérez registered on the app again in August, then a third time in September, as immigration arrests ramped up in Chicago.
Today, Pérez feels trapped in a country that doesn’t want her. She’s afraid of leaving her apartment, afraid that she will be detained and that her children will be taken away from her. “I feel so scared, always looking around in every direction,” she said. “I was trying to leave voluntarily, like the president said.”
Immigrants Who Tried to Self-Deport with Trump’s CBP Home App Are Stuck in America
Venezuelan immigrants signed up for a Trump-promoted app called CBP Home, which promised a safe and easy way to leave the country, and prepared to leave on their given departure dates. Those dates have come and gone. They’re still stuck here.ProPublica
How a tiny, inexperienced firm landed a $1.3 billion detention deal
When the Trump administration awarded a $1.26 billion contract this summer to build and operate a new tent city detention center in Texas, it made headlines, and not just because the facility, located at the Fort Bliss Army base, was expected to be the biggest of its kind in the country. The company that won the job, Acquisition Logistics, was so small it operated out of a single-family home in Richmond, Virginia. Almost nobody had heard of it. “A random house…just won $1.26 billion from ICE,” wrote the New Republic.
As it turns out, ICE had tried to award the contract, in April, to the firm Deployed Resources. It canceled the deal days later “for convenience,” according to a government website that cited an executive order about “wasteful spending.” Such a move is extremely unusual, and some current and former ICE officials speculate that Deployed lost the job for political reasons. Back in 2023, the Washington Free Beacon reported that the firm had snagged no-bid contracts for immigrant detention under President Joe Biden, and that a member of its board was married to Doug Emhoff’s former chief of staff, who later joined a sister company, Deployed Services. (The DC Enquirer interpreted all of this as “Kamala’s cronyism.”) A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson dismissed the speculation, saying the contract was canceled due to an “inability to meet the specialized needs of the facility.”
How a tiny, inexperienced firm landed a $1.3 billion detention deal
To hold 5,000 human beings.Mother Jones
ChatGPT safety systems can be bypassed to get weapons instructions
ChatGPT safety systems can be bypassed for weapons instructions
NBC News found that OpenAI’s models repeatedly provided answers on making chemical and biological weapons.Kevin Collier (NBC News)
like this
Technology reshared this.
Oh no, not information that's already available online, whatever will we do.
If you need AI to tell you how to build weapon system you're not going to build the weapon system anybody who's an actual threat already has this information. This is just nonsense pearl clutching to sell a story, there's nothing actually here though.
Norwegian Nobel Committee Investigates Possible Peace Prize Leak
People made large amounts of money from María Corina Machado being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
Archived version: archive.is/newest/swedenherald…
Disclaimer: The article linked is from a single source with a single perspective. Make sure to cross-check information against multiple sources to get a comprehensive view on the situation.
France | Macron forging ahead with plan to tap new PM, leaving opposition ‘dumbfounded’
A high-stakes meeting Friday concluded without any apparent breakthroughs.
Archived version: archive.is/20251010174216/poli…
Disclaimer: The article linked is from a single source with a single perspective. Make sure to cross-check information against multiple sources to get a comprehensive view on the situation.
DHS Sends A Journalist Back To His Home Country To Be Tortured Because ‘Live Streaming’ ICE Activities Is ‘Threatening’
America isn’t the land of the free. We abandoned that title when we returned Donald Trump to office — the same person who refused to engage in the peaceful transfer of power in 2020 and, immediately upon his return to power, pardoned almost everyone who engaged in an attempted insurrection on his behalf.
DHS Sends A Journalist Back To His Home Country To Be Tortured Because ‘Live Streaming’ ICE Activities Is ‘Threatening’
America isn’t the land of the free. We abandoned that title when we returned Donald Trump to office — the same person who refused to engage in the peaceful transfer of power in 2020 and…Techdirt
Scottish doctors threaten industrial action after Holyrood reneges on pay deal
BMA Scottish Resident Doctors' Committee has voted to enter a formal dispute with the Scottish Government after a pay agreement was reversed
Firings of federal workers begin as White House seeks to pressure Democrats in government shutdown
The White House budget office says mass firings of federal workers have started in an attempt to exert more pressure on Democratic lawmakers as the government shutdown continues.
Hegseth announces Qatar will build air force facility at U.S. base in Idaho
Hegseth announces Qatar will build air force facility at U.S. base in Idaho
The move is a sign of increasingly close ties between the U.S. and Qatar.Kathryn Watson (CBS News)
Chicago’s Block Club Is Ready for ICE
The independent digital startup has been on the ground covering ICE’s surge and the attacks on journalists.
By Josh Hersh
October 10, 2025
This is Why You Don’t Let Libertarians Run Your Country
like this
World News reshared this.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: data di uscita, trama e cast del nuovo prequel de Il Trono di Spade
Il mondo di Westeros si espande con A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, nuova serie ambientata circa un secolo prima di Il Trono di Spade. Il debutto è fissato per il 18 gennaio 2026 su HBO/Max con una prima stagione di sei episodi a durata contenuta. Basata sulle novelle di George R. R. Martin dedicate a Dunk & Egg, la serie promette un taglio più intimo e quotidiano rispetto ai precedenti capitoli dell’universo televisivo.
LEGGI I DETTAGLI: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: data di uscita, trama e cast del nuovo prequel de Il Trono di Spade
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: data, trama e cast del prequel di Game of Thrones
Il prequel A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms debutta su HBO/Max il 18 gennaio 2026: sei episodi su Dunk & Egg, cast e primi dettagli.Redazione (Atom Heart Magazine)
California’s “anti-discrimination,” “antisemitism prevention” bill: A bipartisan assault on democratic rights and public education
The signing of California Assembly Bill 715 (AB 715) by Governor Gavin Newsom on October 7 marks a milestone in the bipartisan campaign to criminalize political dissent and rewrite history in the service of imperialist policy. The timing of the bill’s signing, two years since the events of October 7 and the beginning of Gaza’s genocide, was no accident.Passed under the fraudulent banner of “antisemitism prevention,” AB 715 embodies a reactionary fusion of state power, corporate censorship and Zionist ideology. It is part of a nationwide effort to equate opposition to the Israeli state with hatred of Jewish people, silencing criticism of the Gaza genocide and US imperialism in the Middle East.
The unanimous passage of AB 715 exposes the class character of American politics. In May, the Assembly approved it 68–0; the Senate followed 35–0; and the Assembly concurred 71–0. Not a single Democrat or Republican voiced objection. The “progressive” state that boasts of diversity and inclusion has united the entire establishment behind a law attacking freedom of speech, placing in grave danger academic freedom and democratic principles.
Unanimity among the ruling class is not progress but a warning. The American capitalist class achieves consensus when preparing war, abroad or at home. AB 715 is a declaration of war on democratic rights and public education, part of the ideological groundwork for dictatorship in the United States which will only facilitate the Trump administration’s war on the working class.
California’s “anti-discrimination,” “antisemitism prevention” bill: A bipartisan assault on democratic rights and public education
California’s AB 715, passed unanimously by Democrats and Republicans, weaponizes “antisemitism prevention” to criminalize anti-Zionist thought while censoring educators and preparing the ideological foundations for dictatorship.World Socialist Web Site
"AI is an attack from above on wages": An interview with cognitive scientist Hagen Blix
HagenOne of the stories we have in the book is about that Apple Crush ad. There was that ad where they had all these instruments and drawing materials, et cetera, like all these art related things. on the hydraulic press, and then the hydraulic press crushes it. The piano keys shudder, the trumpet gets crushed, the paint gushes out, and at the end of the hydraulic press, there’s, the iPad.
BITM
And people hated it. They had to apologize for it.
Hagen
Yeah, they apologized—for an ad. So there’s this sense of, “yes, this is actually about transferring knowledge and skills into a tool so that you can pay people who use the tool less.” This is happening over and over again in capitalism. And we’re going to dismantle by force all of these things that you love and that create beautiful art.
It’s such a useful metaphor that they handed us. It was so beautifully clear that this is a way of bulldozing precisely the aspects of like human creative activity, which labor should be. Labor should be, you’re changing something in the world in accordance with your will. And that’s what it means to be alive as a human.
"AI is an attack from above on wages": An interview with cognitive scientist Hagen Blix
The author of 'Why We Fear AI' on why he sees generative AI as "class warfare through enshittification."Brian Merchant (Blood in the Machine)
like this
Technology reshared this.
This is a good time to mention how we have been propagandized about the Luddites.
This is precisely the issue they had with the newindustrial tooling up they were facing, it wasn't the tools, per se, that they objected to, but the de skilling and Disenfranchisement of the way those tools were being deployed by industrialists.
Being a luddite was and is about ownership of the tools and abuse by capitalists on skilled workers, and the disruption of our important knowledge base and skill sets.
Maria Esposito è Melania Rea nella nuova serie HBO sul caso Parolisi: cast, regia e riprese
La storia di Melania Rea diventa una miniserie HBO: nel ruolo della giovane donna uccisa nel 2011 ci sarà Maria Esposito, pronta a lasciare alle spalle l’iconico personaggio di Rosa Ricci per misurarsi con un racconto di forte impatto civile. A interpretare Stefano Parolisi sarà Daniele Rienzo, mentre la regia è affidata a Stefano Mordini. Il progetto nasce come crime in quattro episodi e punta a ricostruire uno dei casi più discussi degli ultimi anni.
SCOPRI I DETTAGLI: Maria Esposito è Melania Rea nella nuova serie HBO sul caso Parolisi: cast, regia e riprese
Maria Esposito è Melania Rea nella serie HBO sul caso Parolisi: cast e riprese
Maria Esposito interpreta Melania Rea nella miniserie HBO sul caso Parolisi diretta da Stefano Mordini. Quattro episodi, set a metà novembre.Redazione (Atom Heart Magazine)
Interview with John O’Nolan about Ghost 6
We were excited to see the recent release of Ghost 6 with ActivityPub features. The Ghost team have been an active participant in our Long-form Text project. John O’Nolan, founder and CEO of Ghost.org, was kind enough to answer our questions about the software and its community.
SWF: For our readers who don’t know Ghost, how would you describe the platform?
JO: Ghost is an independent publishing platform for people who take writing seriously. We’re open source, non-profit, and built to give creators complete ownership of their content and their audience. We’ve helped indie publishers generate over $100 million in revenue from sustainable modern media businesses like 404Media, Platformer and Tangle News.
SWF: Tell us about your user community. Can you paint a picture of them with a broad brush? What kind of people choose Ghost?
JO: Ghost attracts people who care about owning their home on the internet, rather than having another profile on a social media platform. Our publishers range from solo journalists and creators, to established news outlets and large businesses. They value independence, and they’re willing to do the work to maintain control of their brand, distribution, data, and relationship with readers.
SWF: What is it like to be a Ghost user in 2025? What kind of problems are your users facing today?
JO: The big challenge today is the same one that’s haunted independent publishers for two decades: discovery. You can own your platform and serve your audience beautifully, but if people can’t find you, none of it matters. Email newsletters have been a solid answer, but they’re still dependent on deliverability and inbox placement. Algorithms on social platforms actively suppress links now, so sharing your work there is like shouting into a hurricane.
SWF: Tell us about your experience with ActivityPub. Why did you decide to add ActivityPub support to your software?
JO: Ghost has had support for delivering content by email newsletters for a number of years, and email has remained an unassailable distribution platform for publishers because it’s an open protocol. No company controls your email list except you, so it’s one of the best investments you can make. ActivityPub is now doing the same thing for social technology. It allows publishers to own and control a distribution channel that allows their work to spread and be discovered by others. For the first time, you can publish independently and grow faster than ever before.
SWF: What stack is Ghost built on? What development tools does your team use?
JO: Ghost is all built in modern JavaScript; mainly Node and React. Our ActivityPub service is built on Fedify, and everything we build is released under an open source MIT license. Our development tools are constantly evolving, and now more quickly than ever before with the advent of AI tools, which seem to change on a near weekly basis.
SWF: What was the development process like?
JO: Challenging, honestly. ActivityPub is beautifully designed but the spec leaves room for interpretation, and when you’re building something new, there’s no roadmap. Building interoperability between other platforms, who’ve all interpreted the spec in their own unique ways, has been a real challenge. The approach we took was to ship early versions as quickly as possible to beta testers so we could learn as we go, using real-world data and issues to guide our process. We’re in a good spot, now, but there’s still a lot to do!
SWF: Ghost produces long-form blog posts, articles and newsletters. How was the experience adapting Ghost articles to the microblogging interfaces of Mastodon and Threads?
JO: In some ways really easy, and in other ways quite tricky. We’re at a pretty early stage for long-form content on ActivityPub, and the majority of other products out there don’t necessarily have interfaces for supporting it yet. The easy part is that we can provide fallbacks, so if you’re scrolling on Mastodon you might see an article title and excerpt, with a link to read the full post – and that works pretty well! The dream, though, is to make it so you can just consume the full article within whatever app you happen to be using, and doing that requires more collaboration between different platforms to agree on how to make that possible.
SWF: You’ve been an active participant in the ActivityPub community since you decided to implement the standard. Why?
JO: ActivityPub is a movement as much as a technology protocol, and behind it is a group of people who all believe in making the web a weird, wonderful open place for collaboration. Getting to know those humans and being a part of that movement has been every bit as important to the success of our work as writing the code that powers our software. We’ve received incredible support from the Mastodon team, AP spec authors, and other platforms who are building ActivityPub support. Without actively participating in the community, I don’t know if we would’ve gotten as far as we have already.
SWF: Ghost has implemented not only a publishing interface, but also a reading experience. Why?
JO: The big difference between ActivityPub and email is that it’s a 2-way protocol. When you send an email newsletter, that’s it. You’re done. But with ActivityPub, it’s possible to achieve what – in the olden days – we fondly referred to as ‘the blogosphere’. People all over the world writing and reading each other’s work. If an email newsletter is like standing on a stage giving a keynote to an audience, participating in a network is more like mingling at the afterparty. You can’t just talk the whole time, you have to listen, too. Being successful within the context of a network has always involved following and engaging with others, as peers, so it felt really important to make sure that we brought that aspect into the product.
SWF: Your reader is, frankly, one of the most interesting UIs for ActivityPub we’ve seen. Tell us about why you put the time and effort into making a beautiful reading experience for Ghost.
JO: We didn’t want to just tick the “ActivityPub support” checkbox – we wanted to create something that actually feels great to use every day. The idea was to bring some of the product ideas over from RSS readers and kindles, where people currently consume long-form content, and use them as the basis for an ActivityPub-native reading experience. We experimented with multiple different approaches to try and create an experience with a mix of familiarity and novelty. People intuitively understand a list of articles and a view for opening and reading them, but then when you start to see inline replies and live notifications happening around those stories – suddenly it feels like something new and different.
SWF: If people want to get a taste of the kind of content Ghost publishers produce, what are some good examples to follow?
JO: Tough question! There are so many out there, and it really depends on what you’re into. The best place to start would be on ghost.org/explore – when you can browse through all sorts of different categories of creators and content, and explore the things that interest you the most.
SWF: If I’m a Fediverse enthusiast, what can I do to help make Ghost 6 a success?
JO: Follow Ghost publishers and engage with their content – likes, replies, reposts all help! Most importantly, help us spread the word about what’s possible when platforms collaborate rather than compete. And if you’re technical, our ActivityPub implementation is entirely open source on GitHub – contributions, bug reports, and feedback make the whole ecosystem stronger.
Ghost 6.0 - Grow faster.
Connect to the world's largest open publishing network, understand your audience with native analytics, and build a sustainable publishing business.Ghost - The Professional Publishing Platform
reshared this
Tancredi annuncia “DAY OFF”: nuovo album in uscita il 24 ottobre e presentazione live all’Apollo di Milano
Tancredi torna con “DAY OFF”, il nuovo album disponibile sulle piattaforme digitali da venerdì 24 ottobre per Pulp Music/Warner Music Italy. Un progetto che arriva a quattro anni di distanza dal precedente lavoro e che fotografa la sua crescita artistica: 12 tracce tra elettronica, cassa dritta e brani suonati, con una cura totale di scrittura e produzione.
LEGGI L'ARTICOLO: Tancredi annuncia “DAY OFF”: nuovo album in uscita il 24 ottobre e presentazione live all’Apollo di Milano
Tancredi: “DAY OFF” esce il 24 ottobre, presentazione all’Apollo di Milano
“DAY OFF”, il nuovo album di Tancredi, esce il 24 ottobre per Pulp Music/Warner. Presentazione live il 23 ottobre all’Apollo di Milano.Redazione (Atom Heart Magazine)
Il giudice e i suoi assassini: al via le riprese della miniserie Rai sulla vita del giudice Rosario Livatino
Sono cominciate in Sicilia le riprese di Il giudice e i suoi assassini, la nuova miniserie destinata a Rai 1 che ripercorre la vicenda umana e professionale del magistrato Rosario Livatino, ucciso dalla mafia nel 1990 e proclamato beato nel 2021. La regia è di Michele Placido, qui al suo esordio dietro la macchina da presa di una serie Rai, affiancato da una produzione che punta su luoghi reali, rigore storico e sguardo civile.
TUTTI I DETTAGLI: Il giudice e i suoi assassini: al via le riprese della miniserie Rai sulla vita del giudice Rosario Livatino
Michele Placido dirige “Il giudice e i suoi assassini”: riprese e cast della miniserie Rai
Iniziano in Sicilia le riprese de “Il giudice e i suoi assassini”, miniserie Rai diretta da Michele Placido sulla vita del giudice Rosario Livatino.Redazione (Atom Heart Magazine)
NodeBB, alcune mie impressioni
E' da quasi due mesi che uso NodeBB, la piattaforma di forum federata, e le mie impressioni sono positive. Per apprezzare al meglio le caratteristiche e le potenzialità di NodeBB occorre loggarsi come utente amministratore e non come utente normale.
Quando mi collego a NodeBB come utente normale, ad esempio, è difficile seguire le vecchie discussioni, perché tanti post risultano eliminati, probabilmente dall'utente che li ha scritti o dalla piattaforma remota, come può essere Mastodon che tra le opzioni ha la possibilità di eliminare i post dopo tot giorni.
Questa caratteristica di eliminare i vecchi post post rende molto frustrante l'esperienza forum.
Se invece mi collego a NodeBB come utente amministratore riesco a seguire i thread delle vecchie discussioni molto meglio, perché i post "eliminati" me li ritrovo intatti al loro posto, probabilmente perché sono stati memorizzati da qualche parte da NodeBB che li riproduce solo agli utenti amministratori.
Comunque l'utente amministratore ha a disposizione una tale quantità di caratteristiche e opzioni di configurazione che non sono a disposizione dell'utente normale.
NodeBB poi, lo si apprezza decisamente meglio se lo si naviga dal browser del desktop sul monitor del PC, piuttosto che dallo smartphone. L'esperienza mobile di NodeBB, secondo me, è da migliorare, anche perché NodeBB ha caratteristiche evolute che per essere gestite e apprezzate necessitano di uno schermo ampio, poco gestibili invece dallo schermo di uno smartphone.
Tra le cose belle di NodeBB c'è quella di poter definire le categorie di argomenti e indirizzare i vari post degli utenti remoti seguiti nella giusta categoria, in base ai tag presenti nei post. Inoltre è possibile anche per le categorie seguire categorie remote, come se fossero degli utenti e ritrovarsi i post degli utenti delle categorie remote nelle categorie locali che le seguono. Così tante opzioni e caratteristiche che neppure io riesco ancora a capire il funzionamento di alcune, rendono inevitabile la presenza di bug da correggere.
Two Years of Genocide in Gaza, Seventy-Seven Years of Denial
Two Years of Genocide in Gaza, Seventy-Seven Years of Denial - CounterPunch.org
Following the revolt of the besieged against their jailors on October 7, 2023, the Zionist hasbara machine mobilized across the world to impose a false narrative.Jamal Kanj (CounterPunch.org)
like this
Generative AI Ethics
The rise of hyper-realistic deepfakes and AI-generated content is a huge problem. How do we, as a community, push for better provenance and authentication tools to combat misinformation and protect intellectual property?
Technology reshared this.
I'm curious. Maybe some of our fedizen on the threadiverse use microblog ? Or follow this community from their microblog account ?
Well, let's do a little poll ! 😎
- I don't use microblog and i'm interested. (0 votes)
- I don't use microblog and i don't want to try them. (0 votes)
- I'm a microblog user (0 votes)
- GotoSocial (0 votes)
- BonFire (0 votes)
- Misskey (iceshrimp, firefish...) (0 votes)
- Akkoma (0 votes)
- Pleroma (0 votes)
- Mastodon (0 votes)
Amazon fires cause record-breaking CO2 emissions | A 7-fold increase means most Amazon greenhouse gas in 2024 came from fires, not deforestation
Amazon fires cause record-breaking CO2 emissions | Climate & Capitalism
700% increase means most Amazon greenhouse gas in 2024 came from fires…Ian Angus (Climate & Capitalism)
thisisbutaname likes this.
Do the tears of an innocent child mean nothing to you!?
cross-posted from: hexbear.net/post/6311985
What is her fault? Why is she crying?She cries because there is no food… she cries out of fear for her father and brother who sleep outside the tent because it is too small, after we were displaced and forced to put the women inside the tents to cover them.
This is my little sister Montaha… Please, donate and extend your helping hand.
I am her brother, unable to provide for her needs. I deprive myself of food just to feed her… Please help us, people of kind hearts, true humanitarians… Make a difference in our lives.
I am dying of grief over my family and the children around me… and I am dying of hunger.
An extremely urgent plea for help
📩 Contact me on Signal:
💚 Donate via GoFundMe:
Click here to donate to Suleiman and his family
Tags vs flairs
The two serve similar, but different purposes. A quick guide:
Post Flair
Post flair are created per-community by the community moderators. Categorizing posts with flair makes it easy for users to just look at posts within that community with just that flair. To see what I mean, try checking out !fediverse@piefed.social and click a post flair in the sidebar there. It will filter all the posts in the community feed to just posts that have that flair. If you are familiar with post flair on reddit, this is intended to work pretty much the same way.
Tags / Hashtags
Within a community
Tags are a thing that can function in a similar way to post flair when we are talking about within a community, so I understand the confusion some people have. For example, if you click on a hashtag in the sidebar of !fediverse@piefed.social, it will similarly filter the community to just posts that have that hashtag. So...same thing, right?
Across communities
Well, hashtags can also serve another role. They can help group similar posts across multiple communities as well. For example, clicking the #Mastodon hashtag in the sidebar of !fediverse@piefed.social community takes you to this page, where all the posts within that community using that hashtag are listed. However, posts in other communities can also use the #Mastodon hashtag...so how do we see those?
The answer to that is that there is a way to search for posts by tag. Here is the page for piefed.social. You can search for a hashtag, and then when you select it, you can see all the posts (across all communities) that use that hashtag. Following up on the example we used earlier, if you want to look at all the posts using the #Mastodon hashtag, here you go.
Across the fediverse
The other thing that hashtags do that post flair doesn't is that microblogging services like mastodon understand them better. So, it helps users on other fediverse software platforms find your posts better. @rimu@piefed.social wrote a bit about that just the other day over here.
i require some help to chose an non american is for phone
Hello,
I am European and I want to change phone but I want to avoid OSes maintained by American.
Do you have any suggestion ?
I am on graphene now, I know about postmarket os but it look like it's core maintainer are from US.
Regards
noyb win: Microsoft 365 Education may not track school children
noyb win: Microsoft 365 Education tracks school children
Favorable decision by the Austrian DSB: Microsoft Education 365 may not track school kids and Microsoft is ordered to provide full access to kids' data.noyb.eu
like this
Firefox is adding profiles to separate your browsing sessions
Firefox is adding profiles to separate your browsing sessions
Mozilla is introducing profiles to its Firefox web browser that make it easier to separate and organize your online activity.Jess Weatherbed (The Verge)
like this
Technology reshared this.
Frieren - Capitolo 8
Questo capitolo 8 sembra avviare il nuovo volume in un modo che prevedo più incentrato su piccole riflessioni, con più capitoli in totale
somerandomperson
in reply to The 8232 Project • • •The 8232 Project
in reply to somerandomperson • • •somerandomperson
in reply to The 8232 Project • • •The 8232 Project
in reply to somerandomperson • • •somerandomperson
in reply to The 8232 Project • • •The 8232 Project
in reply to somerandomperson • • •This is the website
This is the source code
This is the Google Play Store link (just in case)
The Tor Project / Applications / vpn · GitLab
GitLabsomerandomperson
in reply to The 8232 Project • • •Corridor8031
in reply to somerandomperson • • •"Tor VPN is beta software. Do not rely on it for anything other than testing. It may leak information and should not be relied on for anything sensitive"
in case you did not read the disclaimer
somerandomperson
in reply to Corridor8031 • • •Hubi
in reply to somerandomperson • • •The 8232 Project
in reply to Hubi • • •Hubi
in reply to The 8232 Project • • •Tundra
in reply to somerandomperson • • •Its available through FDroid, you have to enable the the guardian repo first:
support.torproject.org/tormobi…
Is Tor Browser available on F-Droid? | Tor Project | Support
support.torproject.orgThe 8232 Project
in reply to Tundra • • •immobile7801
in reply to The 8232 Project • • •Ŝan
in reply to immobile7801 • • •I've been concerned about performance lately; after having been on Mullvad forever, performance dropped to "abysmal" on every server, so I tried ivpn and got much better speeds. Still, it's a fraction of my fiber capability, wiþ VPN off. I looked at Nym, but haven't tried it; it doesn't seem like þroughput is a primary selling point for þem.
If you do try it, could you report back on speed impact?
I get 8% of my raw þroughput on Mullvad's servers. I get 28% on ivpn. Neiþer seems like a reasonably cost for Wireguard, and should be better.
scytale
in reply to Ŝan • • •Ŝan
in reply to scytale • • •Yeah, please report back if you do.
I don't know what's up w/ Mullvad. Þey were great for years.
ISOmorph
in reply to Ŝan • • •like this
Kami likes this.
Ŝan
in reply to ISOmorph • • •online
in reply to Ŝan • • •It's more private, but you'll sacrifice speed as a result of having to go through at least 2 servers.
They even have a 5-hop mode, which I don't know, probably would be slower than tor xD
scytale
in reply to online • • •Dr. Wesker
in reply to The 8232 Project • • •I appreciate the attempt to quantify availability, but don't most of these providers allow you to generate OpenVPN and Wireguard configs, which can be used practically anywhere?
Nevertheless, your work is appreciated.
null_dot
in reply to The 8232 Project • • •I've been using one of these since forever and it just works. Should I look at the others?
I don't want this to be a "I use x and its the best" type comment so I won't say which one.
I only use wireguard and wouldn't touch openvpn just because it seems so complex in comparisson.
The price is fine, the speed is fine, wireguard makes it ubiquitous, never had a problem with reliability.
The 8232 Project
in reply to null_dot • • •null_dot
in reply to The 8232 Project • • •AtariDump
in reply to null_dot • • •sp3ctr4l
in reply to The 8232 Project • • •Very much appreciate this work, but I am again gonna ask if there is some way to include I2P, perhaps in its own thing, perhaps segregated by outproxies.
Yep, its super slow compared to basically all VPNs, and is a bit of struggle to set up compared to most VPNs.
But, it is also entirely free, and you can use I2P with outproxies to access the wider internet outside of I2P's... I2P-net... allows port forwarding, works very well for a slow but steady churn of uh, filesharing, etc.
I would also argue I2P is a better way that TOR to protect your IP and your actual net traffic, due to TOR nodes being known to be run as honeypots ...
Its possible an I2P outproxy could also be operated as a honeypot, but as I understand it, ... so long as you are not unlucky enough to just directly route through an outproxy without first bouncing through other I2P users/hosts... you're basically good.
And even in that scenario, its would be very difficult to reverse engineer all the packets and figure out which parts were going to who, as well as the actual contents of those packets.
Brickfrog
in reply to sp3ctr4l • • •Agreed, if OP is going to add Tor in a "VPN" list then may as well add I2P. I2P + outproxies are pretty much the same thing as Tor + Tor Exit Relay. It's not the best way to utilize I2P but the option does exist.
Then again neither Tor nor I2P should be in a "VPN" list, the whole thing seems more of a VPN provider topic.
aprehendedmerlin
in reply to The 8232 Project • • •dumpster_dove [he/him]
in reply to aprehendedmerlin • • •webghost0101
in reply to The 8232 Project • • •Honestly i wish these kind of vpns had a different name.
Wireguard isnt even on the list and its entirely free, but also it doesn’t serve this same purpose.
Vpn stands for private personal network, selfhosted vpns do exactly that, i can use my
Phone to connect to all my home services which replace expensive subscriptions without actually exposing those services to the net or requiring a domain for them.
Vpns are amazing, but most people i know irl that use them barely understand what they are or what they can be used for.
Eager Eagle
in reply to webghost0101 • • •ObsidianZed
in reply to webghost0101 • • •dirakon
in reply to webghost0101 • • •prole
in reply to webghost0101 • • •Ermm....
webghost0101
in reply to prole • • •Virtual private network,i know, i know, but i just wrote the wrong thing on accident.
Since its been up for so long feels dishonest to change it. I am owning up to my mistakes and my sentiment that the post is about providers only still stands.
prole
in reply to webghost0101 • • •Telorand
in reply to The 8232 Project • • •PIA does not have WireGuard configs available. To get those, you have to use third-party tools to capture and generate the necessary info. Otherwise, you have to use their client, or else no WireGuard.
Users have been asking for years (since 2018, I think), and they've never provided them.
Droolio
in reply to Telorand • • •GitHub - pia-foss/manual-connections: Scripts for manual connections to Private Internet Access
GitHubLuke
in reply to Droolio • • •Chulk
in reply to Telorand • • •PIA was also purchased by the Israeli company, Kape Technologies, which is tied to Unit 8200. If your concern is privacy, I would recommend do against it.
Private Internet Access VPN to be acquired by malware company founded by former Israeli spy
Telegraphbulwark
in reply to The 8232 Project • • •Oberyn
in reply to The 8232 Project • • •ObsidianZed
in reply to The 8232 Project • • •Ersatz86
in reply to ObsidianZed • • •mkhopper
in reply to ObsidianZed • • •I have the same question about PureVPN.
Does Pure fly under the radar, or just not as well known?
I've been using it for years and never any problems.
dubyakay
in reply to ObsidianZed • • •Since September 2021, ExpressVPN has been a subsidiary of Kape Technologies, a company wholly owned by Israeli billionaire Teddy Sagi.
Teddy Sagi is an Israeli businessman and convicted criminal based in London and Dubai.
PIA is also owned by Sagi btw. Shouldn't even be on this list.
ColeSloth
in reply to The 8232 Project • • •TankieTanuki [he/him]
in reply to The 8232 Project • • •All VPNs are blocked on my university's network
I live off campus, thankfully, but it sucks that I can't have any privacy on my laptop while on campus.
chaoticnumber
in reply to TankieTanuki [he/him] • • •dirakon
in reply to TankieTanuki [he/him] • • •_cryptagion [he/him]
in reply to TankieTanuki [he/him] • • •tunnel to your home connection then. unless you live an hour or two away from your campus, it's not gonna add a delay that's noticeable to you.
ATS1312
in reply to TankieTanuki [he/him] • • •Mullvad on desktop has QUIC protocol encapsulation so that wireguard just looks like normal https traffic.
There's also shadowsocks protocol encapsulation to look like ssh traffic. And that's even available on mobile too.
veee
in reply to The 8232 Project • • •Lemmchen
in reply to The 8232 Project • • •Catbox
catbox.moeThe 8232 Project
in reply to Lemmchen • • •redhilsha
in reply to The 8232 Project • • •don't like this
Kami doesn't like this.
Kami
in reply to redhilsha • • •If you care about privacy no.
If you just need to unlock regional content then it should be good.
redhilsha
in reply to Kami • • •Keyword being "free".
Could you suggest a better VPN that's free?
don't like this
Kami doesn't like this.
Kami
in reply to redhilsha • • •_cryptagion [he/him]
in reply to Kami • • •don't like this
Kami doesn't like this.
Kami
in reply to _cryptagion [he/him] • • •LMAO
First of all Mullvad isn't German.
Second, they have already proved they respect customers privacy.
Get your facts straight and don't cry if someone criticizes your favorite corporation.
prole
in reply to redhilsha • • •like this
Kami likes this.
redhilsha
in reply to prole • • •I agree.
Though, it's not that deep. I was saying how it's the best amongst the free ones. I'm not saying it's the best in general.
prole
in reply to redhilsha • • •Brickfrog
in reply to The 8232 Project • • •One thing you may want to update - listing Tor's logging policy as "No Logs" is a bit misleading, that's really more of a voluntary recommendation for individual Tor exit relay operators.
Tor exit relay operators absolutely can store logs of outgoing connections if they choose to. And technically they could even snoop on non-secure traffic if they choose, there's a reason you should be using HTTPS if you're going to use Tor for clearnet browsing.
Of course most Tor exit relay operators aren't going to do these things but it's all voluntary, seems incorrect to claim all exit relay operators follow no log principles.
EDIT: Also AFAIK you can't forward a port from the clearnet through a Tor exit relay's public IP address back to your own Tor client, Tor doesn't do port forwarding like that. It's definitely not needed to run Tor Browser (and Tor VPN I think) but that isn't needed for any of the other VPNs either, a bit confusing how you listed that one.
prole
in reply to Brickfrog • • •Undertaker
in reply to The 8232 Project • • •like this
Kami likes this.
abominable_panda
in reply to The 8232 Project • • •like this
Kami likes this.
Valmond
in reply to abominable_panda • • •ehyuman
in reply to Valmond • • •olenkoVD
in reply to ehyuman • • •AdrianTheFrog
in reply to Valmond • • •Valmond
in reply to AdrianTheFrog • • •Show me where he endorses Trump.
Oh, you can't? But you read it on Facebook or something so it must be true?
Common, show me your information.
This is bullshit based on some old tweet Andy Yen did about trump doing good going against big tech. You can read about it here or search for it elsewhere.
It always comes out when someone says something nice about ProtonVPN, who have an amazing track record IMO.
Does Proton really support Trump? A deeper analysis (and surprising findings)
ovenplayer (Medium)AdrianTheFrog
in reply to Valmond • • •Valmond
in reply to AdrianTheFrog • • •Thank you!
And sorry if I came around a bit agressively. Kudos to you for checking the link and updating your view.
MangioneDontMiss
in reply to AdrianTheFrog • • •porcoesphino
in reply to Valmond • • •That write up does seem to ignore the doubling down here:
lemmy.ca/comment/13913116
Calling out that JD Vance was the only one to answer is pretty troubling to me after reading about some of his new-right ties. It's way, way too close for my liking to a mouse telling everyone that will listen that the cat was amazing for inviting him and all his friends to his house in a week. ie. Playing into what just seems like an obvious strategy.
That said, I'm pretty ignorant about the CEO. I just remembered this lemmy comment and I didn't notice it included in the write up that was being linked.
egerlach
2025-01-15 16:06:05
eldavi
in reply to Valmond • • •Valmond
in reply to eldavi • • •eldavi
in reply to Valmond • • •eldavi
in reply to Valmond • • •Valmond
in reply to eldavi • • •_cryptagion [he/him]
in reply to eldavi • • •eldavi
in reply to _cryptagion [he/him] • • •I do not use Windows and I do everything in my power to use non American phones.
The difference is that proton's founder voiced support whereas Microsoft has always had a relationship w my govt and it's dragnet for the Gazan genocide is quiet.
_cryptagion [he/him]
in reply to eldavi • • •eldavi
in reply to _cryptagion [he/him] • • •brb
in reply to The 8232 Project • • •MrSulu
in reply to The 8232 Project • • •like this
HeerlijkeDrop likes this.
don't like this
Kami doesn't like this.
Kami
in reply to MrSulu • • •like this
HeerlijkeDrop likes this.
dubyakay
in reply to Kami • • •prole
in reply to dubyakay • • •theintercept.com/2025/01/28/pr…
and
Proton Mail Says It’s “Politically Neutral” While Praising Republican Party
Nikita Mazurov (The Intercept)cmhe
in reply to The 8232 Project • • •The 'availability' is misleading. If they offer OpenVPN or Wireguard then they are available pretty much anywhere.
Using just plain Wireguard or OpenVPN configs would also be much better than installing random VPN provider apps.
ki9
in reply to The 8232 Project • • •cryptostorm - The VPN service provider for the truly paranoid
cryptostorm.isATS1312
in reply to ki9 • • •I'd love to see them audited.
Back when they were in the US, they closed shop and moved to Iceland to avoid turning over data for a subpoena.
That's both admirable and an admission that they had longs to turn over.
But that they generate accounts on the fly like the best? Is promising in context.
Kami
in reply to The 8232 Project • • •pineapple
in reply to Kami • • •cmhe
in reply to pineapple • • •Corridor8031
in reply to cmhe • • •cmhe
in reply to Corridor8031 • • •The issue there AFAIK is that some app builds aren't fully reproducible, because if they were the developer signature would still apply and be used. In the reproducible case the security of the build infra wouldn't matter, because the same app would be produced the same regardless were they are build.
Without reproducible builds, you cannot really trust the software anyway, because the Dev could hook some hidden code only for the released binary app and sign that.
Corridor8031
in reply to cmhe • • •uhm no not really?
I mean reproducible builds are used to cross verfiy that it is the same binary in this case, but like android has no mechanism to do that, this is not how it works.
that a build should be reproducible is more about your second point and doesnt really have anything to do with fdroid, as far as i know
Edit: these links should explain it all:
discuss.grapheneos.org/d/21675…
FDroid Security - GrapheneOS Discussion Forum
GrapheneOS Discussion Forumcmhe
in reply to Corridor8031 • • •f-droid.org/en/2025/09/29/goog…
F-Droid and Google's Developer Registration Decree | F-Droid - Free and Open Source Android App Repository
f-droid.orgpineapple
in reply to The 8232 Project • • •online
in reply to The 8232 Project • • •I haven't looked at all providers, merely Nymvpn as I was interested. Turns out they have a 2TB/month cap. Might not be an issue for some, but might be for others.
Valmond
in reply to The 8232 Project • • •ProtonVPN: only 8 years old: RED FLAG!
Well reddish flag at least, is there a rationale behind this? I mean 8 years is quite a long time.
Ferk
in reply to Valmond • • •Valmond
in reply to Ferk • • •So you also think the choices were not that good?
I mean what you are saying is that if there had been a 50 year old one, all the others should be red?
Ferk
in reply to Valmond • • •I'm just explaining the reason why it's more reddish (but not as red as others). It's something most spreadsheet software (this was clearly MS Excel) can do automatically with numbers for visual indication so we can more easily see the distribution, it does not mean 8 years old is bad.
If there's a big unbalance in color it would just make it more visible that there's a big unbalance in ages. Probably if that had happened more colors could have been added to the gradient, maybe maroon->red->yellow->green->blue->white. But I think it was not seen as necessary in this case (or the author was lazy, since these are one of the defaults I believe).
Valmond
in reply to Ferk • • •Who cares about why it happened? I mean it's kind of obvious. No one questioned why excel shows a specific colour, but I did why the person making the spreadsheet did in fact use what you go to lengths to explaine, in a specific way. It's like saying sorry your paycheck was halved because we have this software and today it divided your salary in half. Not saying that's not ok or anything, but explaining how "dividing by 2 halves a number".
I feel you explain something, while correct, had nothing to do with what I said.
The 8232 Project
in reply to Ferk • • •LibreOffice Calc, actually. You are correct about the color grading.
I changed the conditional colors from the default to match the colors that LibreOffice uses for "Good", "Neutral", and "Bad".
Calc | LibreOffice - Free and private office suite - Based on OpenOffice - Compatible with Microsoft
www.libreoffice.orgTunaSlap
in reply to The 8232 Project • • •Edit: I so I thought. I had set it up and apparently not kept up with the times
Bruhh
in reply to TunaSlap • • •TunaSlap
in reply to Bruhh • • •Corridor8031
in reply to The 8232 Project • • •For anyone who considers getting the tor vpn android app
"Tor VPN is beta software. Do not rely on it for anything other than testing. It may leak information and should not be relied on for anything sensitive" (it is a disclaimer from their website)
Thank you for adding the created date column and making sweden green
rirus
in reply to The 8232 Project • • •mnemonicmonkeys
in reply to rirus • • •BlueRhinos
in reply to rirus • • •GnuLinuxDude
in reply to BlueRhinos • • •Yes. The owner/developer is Kape technologies, an Israeli spyware/adware company.
To quote from cnet
Whether or not PIA or ExpressVPN or the other providers owned by Kape fulfill this data scraping and ad-serving pipeline in my mind is irrelevant. Choosing to do business with them rewards bad actors when there are other VPN sellers who don't have such a tainted lineage.
loxdogs
in reply to rirus • • •rirus
in reply to The 8232 Project • • •Ferrous
in reply to The 8232 Project • • •Good work. Might be valuable to add a "allows port forwarding" row.
Edit: whoops, I'm a silly willy. It's right in front of me! My bad.
typhoon
in reply to The 8232 Project • • •I see that Windscribe was included. Their price tier is always in promotion so I'd take that in consideration.
Also, they have app for Linux: windscribe.com/features/linux/
It is not in Electron like many others. It is native Linux.
Get the Fastest VPN for Linux | Windscribe
windscribe.comHulkSmashBurgers
in reply to The 8232 Project • • •I think it's worth noting NYMVpn uses a quite advanced mixnet for security which is different from other VPNs and theoretically more secure than even TOR. I say theoretically because it hasn't yet been proven with large scale use.
nym.com/blog/what-is-a-mixnet
What is a mixnet? Unparalleled online privacy with a VPN
Casey Ford, PhD (Nym)dirtySourdough
in reply to The 8232 Project • • •upstroke4448
in reply to The 8232 Project • • •Checklists Are The Thief Of Joy - Dhole Moments
Dhole Moments∞🏳️⚧️Edie [it/it/its/its/itself, she/her/her/hers/herself, fae/faer/faer/faers/faerself, love/love/loves/loves/loveself, des/pair, null/void, none/use name]
in reply to The 8232 Project • • •C tor/little-t-tor/etc. is licensed under the "3-clause BSD" license
I dont know a lot about wireguard, but of the cuff answer would be no.
LICENSE · main · The Tor Project / Core / Tor · GitLab
GitLabInnerScientist
in reply to ∞🏳️⚧️Edie [it/it/its/its/itself, she/her/her/hers/herself, fae/faer/faer/faers/faerself, love/love/loves/loves/loveself, des/pair, null/void, none/use name] • • •The 8232 Project
in reply to ∞🏳️⚧️Edie [it/it/its/its/itself, she/her/her/hers/herself, fae/faer/faer/faers/faerself, love/love/loves/loves/loveself, des/pair, null/void, none/use name] • • •Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 4.0 Internationalbut the actual license file is a different license.∞🏳️⚧️Edie [it/it/its/its/itself, she/her/her/hers/herself, fae/faer/faer/faers/faerself, love/love/loves/loves/loveself, des/pair, null/void, none/use name]
in reply to The 8232 Project • • •The reason gitlab says it is, is because the LICENSE file contains all licenses for the codebase, including stuff like geoip which is destributed under CC BY-SA 4.0
The 8232 Project
in reply to ∞🏳️⚧️Edie [it/it/its/its/itself, she/her/her/hers/herself, fae/faer/faer/faers/faerself, love/love/loves/loves/loveself, des/pair, null/void, none/use name] • • •Matt
in reply to The 8232 Project • • •Echolynx
in reply to The 8232 Project • • •stupid_asshole69 [none/use name]
in reply to The 8232 Project • • •Last time I said it was hard to figure out if this was some kind of malice or just someone without much experience/knowledge.
I been thinking about what this post and the one before it actually are though. They’re not disinformation, I don’t think they’re misinformation although I think that argument could be made if there was actual intent (and a person could also make the argument that there is intent).
This just kind of seems like white noise or what would be called slop if it were generated by ai.
It’s not useful in making a decision.
A vpn is a tool and you use the right tool for the job. A chart comparing the various similarities and differences between a box and open end wrench, flare nut wrench, socket set, power drill, impact driver and torque wrench would be useless for decision making about what tool to buy because they’re for different jobs.
If you need to take the lug nuts off a truck the right tool is an impact, if you need to replace brake lines you’re gonna use a flare nut wrench.
It’s not useful to compare pia and mullvad. If all you need is a cheap way to reliably bypass geofencing then pia is the right tool. If you need deniability and trust then mullvad is the right tool.
It makes no sense to compare air and nord. If you need the cheapest per device service for bypassing content blocks then the tool is nord. If you need port forwarding for torrents, soulseek and usenet all at once then the tool is air.
The problem with posts like this is that they don’t really provide any useful understanding or decision making process and wouldn’t be useful from an educational perspective like the comparison between various wrenches made above (if it were in some kind of Tools for Dummies publication) because they’re not even contextualized as such.
A better start for this kind of post would be “here are some reasons to use a vpn service” or “here are some actual important differences between different vpn services apps”, not weather they’re available on Jim’s cut rate Secure I Promise (tm) alternative android App Store.
hellinkilla [they/them, they/them]
in reply to stupid_asshole69 [none/use name] • • •Totally disagree with the first few paragraphs. Someone makes a post you feel has inadequate depth and you think they're the goddamned CIA? I don't see any basis for the hostile tone.
But like it's nice to be able to have a reference to quickly exclude certain options without having to wade through all their various websites. If you already know that you need port forwarding, then a chart like this will help you exclude several mainstream options. If there is some other criteria you already know about it could save you a lot of time.
Those do exist elsewhere and I don't think there is much wrong with summarizing the current state of things for an informed audience. We are on lemmy here! I wouldn't mail this chart out to the whole neighbourhood or anything, it's probably not a good very first intro for most people. Although even for a person just getting started, having the column of criteria on the left could be useful to point out "what are the things to consider". Like maybe you wouldn't even guess that the number of devices would be limited.
Long narrative comparisons can be hard to follow. They are good for understanding the differences but then once you are having an understanding how do you pick? It's very convenient if someone else goes to the trouble to sift through the information. On wikipedia there are some subjects that have tables comparing things and I find them very helpful. Otherwise I'd just have to spend hours making my own tables.
BTW wikipedia has a table comparing different kinds of wrenches so obviously someone thought it would be useful!!
The main issue is that the information could become out of date or erroneous in the first place so you need to verify for yourself whatever is key to your decisions. That's just the nature of third party info.
tool used to provide grip and mechanical advantage
Contributors to Wikimedia projects (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.)stupid_asshole69 [none/use name]
in reply to hellinkilla [they/them, they/them] • • •So like I said, I don’t think the post is malicious.
I tried to be careful not to take a hostile tone. It’s possible you’re correctly identifying a critical tone, because my comment was intended as criticism of the post.
There are ways of presenting factual information that are not helpful or useful and actually serve the opposite purpose. You certainly don’t need to use prose to present information in a useful way, but consider how much closer to the old car paint color versus mileage chart (or whatever example they used to teach you about uncorrelated data in school) the posters chart is than the Wikipedia wrench table you linked.
The Wikipedia wrench table is in the context of “tools for dummies” that I said might be appropriate for that type of presentation, just as an aside.
The whole point of using some kind of chart or table is to make understanding easier, not more difficult. The posted chart does the latter. I think its because the op doesn’t understand both what they’re trying to say or the information they’re trying to show to convey it and because they chose a really excessively dimensional way to do so. A flowchart, infographic or anything other than a three dimensional chart would be better but since it’s so unclear what they’re trying to express, except possibly how much they love nymvpn and how people should really take a look at that previously underrepresented option, I can’t really make a recommendation.
hellinkilla [they/them, they/them]
in reply to stupid_asshole69 [none/use name] • • •OK well then I should divulge to you full disclosure that I think you, like OP, are also probably not a hostile actor who is commenting to fuck with me specifically or ?lemmy users? in general. More likely someone who's got a bit spun up their head. But I can't say for sure......
As it happens, last time I was looking at different VPN vendors I had to spend a ton of time basically creating an abbreviated version of this chart that had the items most salient to my use case. To sift through the websites, forums, support sections etc, because the information isn't clearly presented was annoying. They are all trying to emphasize their strengths to make a sale based on their marketing strategy.
I can say that this chart, exactly as it is, would have saved me significant time had it been available. I found similar but they were old. And I looked at it to see if the conclusion I came to is still the right one for me--- it is. I can clearly see the required information.
stupid_asshole69 [none/use name]
in reply to hellinkilla [they/them, they/them] • • •Good! You’re on a public forum and people do that shit! Our instance is slightly better than the other Reddit offshoots but most of them haven’t kicked the social media curse and everything you read on lemmy needs to get the sidest of ways glances.
I have trouble taking your statement that you can see the required information seriously when the required information literally isn’t there. Important stuff like weather a service accepts cash anonymously, is owned by what company and what that company’s affiliations are (talking about kape and israel here, not the proton red herring) and how forwarded ports are allocated are not included in the chart.
Of course, that kind of information doesn’t fit neatly into a table so it’s another example of the format of the data being inadequate.
I can believe that a broad generalized table like this is useful in the context of learning the ropes of what’s out there in terms of vpn services, but it isn’t being presented in that way. If this kind of table were around years ago when I was getting my feet under me I would have made bad choices based on it.
My comments saying “hey, this is bad and not something to use” are not coming from my seat of power at the player haters annual dinner and awards ceremony but from clear recognition of misleading information based on experience.
Chivera
in reply to The 8232 Project • • •dogs0n
in reply to Chivera • • •Mozilla VPN is just Mullvad, so you are on a very good vpn service.
As long as you are happy, I don't see why you should swap.
(Going to mullvad directly could be slightly beneficial if you want a generated account that has no direct metadata to link to you, using a card to pay would negate that benefit, but theres other options.. in the end you are using a good service already)
LastYearsIrritant
in reply to dogs0n • • •marcie (she/her)
in reply to The 8232 Project • • •Sadness Nexus
in reply to The 8232 Project • • •utopiah
in reply to The 8232 Project • • •Since you do not seem to list self-hosting options, e.g. WireGuard or OpenVPN, then IMHO it'd be good to at least have a line on each about what's the actual backend, e.g. does service X runs on WireGuard, OpenVPN, something else, something proprietary that has been audited by 3rd party if so whom and when.
Edit: suggested self-hosting (but not at home) WireGuard in the previous thread lemmy.ml/post/37270537/2153605…
beSyl
in reply to The 8232 Project • • •dogs0n
in reply to beSyl • • •It's not entirely a big deal to me.
I think I agree with the staff reply on this thread: airvpn.org/forums/topic/56799-…
audits?
AirVPNshoebum
in reply to The 8232 Project • • •BuyCat VPN - Secure & Private Internet Access
BoyCat👀
in reply to The 8232 Project • • •Also this post is from Lemmy, so I retooted a Lemmy post
thermogel
in reply to The 8232 Project • • •Obscura VPN | Privacy that’s more than a promise
Obscuraconspiracypentester
in reply to The 8232 Project • • •bowreality
in reply to The 8232 Project • • •