[HacktionLab] Alternatives to big tech for personal use?

Thu Jan 1 12:33:03 UTC 2026

Hi Nick,

Yes, that's my understanding too, on all counts, which is why until now 
I've given up on hosting onlyoffice/collabora-type features.

A few weeks ago I attended another Rise Against Big Tech "workshop" 
online.   "How to wean ourselves off Google Docs and Office 365 (or 
whatever it's currently called, CoPilotMyLife.com ...)" was the topic 
for the workshops.

I felt like we were like a circle of people who just couldn't give up 
smoking cigarettes and who were blaming the tobacco companies, 
governments, and society in general, rather than taking responsibility 
for our own actions and agency.

Years ago we used to email documents about, or share them via 
owncloud/nextcloud, and in fact that's what I still do some of the time, 
although I also use Google Docs, although this doesn't bother me too 
much personally.

So why can't we just do that?

Surely, if we want to be "free" we perhaps have to put up with a little 
less convenience rather than moan about our addictions to Big Tech, 
blame Zuckerberg et al for it, and wait around in the hope that some 
techs somehow come up with the answers?

I've felt for a long time that competing with mainstream services was a 
hopeless exercise.  The countless live and dead projects out there 
producing tools to take on Twitter, Facebook, etc. are illustrative of 
this.   It took a lot of hard work and the tools quite frankly were 
never as good.  (of course that's a generalisation and probably a little 
unfair)

What I'm saying is that maybe we shouldn't be competing, but rather 
encouraging people to take a different path, and accept a little more 
inconvenience for a little more perceived if not actual freedom.

And I'm saying this in the face of a large proportion of our society 
walking head long blindly into the irresistible convenience of AI........

That said, am still up for trying again to get onlyoffice/collabora 
working again.  Anyone managed this?

M

On 01/01/2026 11:37, Nick Sellen wrote:
> As I understand it nextcloud doesn't have the doc editing built-in, it's more like dropbox, and if you want doc editing you add onlyoffice, or collabora (which they seem to have bundled up into "nextcloud office" now - https://nextcloud.com/office/).
>
> They are all quite heavy on the hosting I think.
>
> Another pathway would be something that feels halfway between a pad and a document suite, e.g. https://github.com/suitenumerique/docs built by french and german government - there is an initiative here to try and offer it as a service through a coop --> https://docs.coop/ (not sure where they are at with that though).
>
> Cheers,
>
> Nick
>
>
> On Thursday, 1 January 2026 at 10:10, Mike Harris <mike at mbharris.co.uk> wrote:
>
>>
>> Hey all,
>>
>> I'm very interested in this, not least because I've got a chunk of
>> server upgrade work for XtreamLab to do this first quarter of 2026, and
>> part of my desires is to get some office document editing replacement as
>> something we can provide to our users as a service. I've tried to get
>> OnlyOffice integrated with OwnCloud a couple of times and gave up, but
>> I'm feeling pretty confident that this time I could do something.
>> Perhaps NextCloud?
>>
>> So, what could I use folks?
>>
>> Also, if anyone on the list wants email or hosting stuff, then do let me
>> know - https://xtreamlab.net - we're running the venerable RoundCube for
>> webmail as well as the newer SnappyMail (previously RainLoop).
>>
>> And also, I guess, if anyone's potentially up for working to build these
>> services, then let's collaborate!
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Mike.
>>
>> On 31/12/2025 12:30, Garcon du Monde wrote:
>>
>>> i already sent this recently so not sure if it was missed:
>>>
>>> * https://degooglisons-internet.org/en/
>>>
>>> i think there is everything you might want here, but there's also a
>>> listing of alternatives for some additional services:
>>>
>>> * https://alt.framasoft.org/en/
>>>
>>> solidarity,
>>>
>>> --gdm
>>>
>>> On Sat, Dec 27, 2025 at 02:47:57PM +0000, brentc wrote:
>>>
>>>> Thanks all!
>>>>
>>>> Yes, riseup is good and generally well regarded. It doesn't do full cloud
>>>> drive and online office suite though afaik.
>>>>
>>>> I also want non-US for efficiency/sustainability (as well as more political
>>>> reasons)- makes technical sense to use a UK/EU location if I'm based in that
>>>> area.
>>>>
>>>> Proton mail does seem ok, but I get the impression their politics are more
>>>> libertarian than liberal? E.g. CEO making statements apparently a bit
>>>> republican supporting. I'd be curious as to others' thoughts here? Tricky
>>>> area. I would also need to figure out how to calm down their adverts for
>>>> themselves on their UI.
>>>>
>>>> Mailbox.org might be worth a spin.
>>>>
>>>> Cheers
>>>>
>>>> On 26/12/2025 17:58, Patrice Riemens wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Hi All,
>>>>>
>>>>> Being on puscii, which is a very small, hackers run ISP, I do not use riseup, but many friends are - to their full satisfaction. It's a bit the 'Isp of records' ;-) in some demographies. That is is US- based with all the consequences does not seem to be a drawback. But if you are paranoid about anything US related (aren't we all? ;-) I always advise Sswitzerland-based protonmail - in conjunction with an own mailer, type Thunderbird (here's a piece of 'do as I say, not as I do advice ;-) Protonmail free has a rather limited storage.
>>>>>
>>>>> Cheers to all & best wishes for a rather anxiogenous 2026!
>>>>> p+2D!
>>>>>
>>>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>>>> From: "Chris Clemson" Chris.Clemson at GoGreenIT.net
>>>>> To: hacktionlab at lists.aktivix.org
>>>>> Sent: Friday, 26 December, 2025 15:23:55
>>>>> Subject: Re: [HacktionLab] Alternatives to big tech for personal use?
>>>>>
>>>>> Hi!
>>>>>
>>>>> Have you tried https://riseup.net/?
>>>>>
>>>>> I've not used it, but it has been around for a while.
>>>>>
>>>>> There's a list of disroot-like services here, which might help:
>>>>> https://alternativeto.net/software/disroot/
>>>>>
>>>>> Let us know if you try any of them.
>>>>>
>>>>> On 24/12/2025 11:03, brentc wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Hello
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I'd love to find something like Google suite that isn't Google. I use
>>>>>> alternatives for more activist stuff but keep coming back to Google
>>>>>> for general use. Any (constructive) thoughts or pointers?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I guess looking for something in between weak activist offerings and
>>>>>> big tech. If something like a non-profit non-US Mozilla offered an
>>>>>> awesome product, that would be lovely, but I don't see it.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Specifically, for me, I need the typical 'personal productivity'
>>>>>> services- email, todo lists, calendars, drive/docs/sheets with decent
>>>>>> editing and features, and sharing (with people who don't have an
>>>>>> account). I'd rather not use multiple services, want uptime and
>>>>>> backups handled, and if it's green hosted and a non-profit oriented,
>>>>>> bonus. It should probably be UK/EU region. I don't want to host my own
>>>>>> stuff. I'll pay for the right thing. Honestly, for personal use, I
>>>>>> probably want some balance of encryption/security with features,
>>>>>> noting I'll have to trust the provider anyway.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I've tried disroot. It's quite good to be fair, but still limited
>>>>>> feature-wise, and more worryingly, couldn't get issues sorted with
>>>>>> support (which is a common thing with smaller outfits in my
>>>>>> experience, that I don't want to deal with). I don't like protonmail.
>>>>>> There's mailbox.org but tradeoffs are they're a company albeit seem
>>>>>> alright, and their website gives me the creeps.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Maybe I ask for the currently impossible.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Brent
>>>>>>
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>> --
>> Mike Harris
>> +44 07811 781 893
>> https://mbharris.co.uk - https://hacktionlab.org - https://xtreamlab.net
>>
>>
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-- 
Mike Harris
+44 07811 781 893
https://mbharris.co.uk - https://hacktionlab.org - https://xtreamlab.net