"Cloud services have become the default tools many people use to get their work done. But this can mean giving up privacy and control. Some open source alternatives are now offering tools to put people back in charge."
"Designer and social entrepreneur Aral Balkan believes it is time to build an alternate future where we own our own tools, services, and data. And to do this we must create a new category of design-led, experience-driven 'technology'."
transmediale 2014 afterglow Opening Ceremony
"It's time to build alternative computational systems, which reflect our own ethics and values" ... "We're never going to meet our creative needs from these gigantic big data empires that are algorithmically optimized to make us into sheep"
"The Microsoft Alternatives project (MAlt) started a year ago to mitigate anticipated software license fee increases. MAlt's objective is to put us back in control using open software. It is now time to present more widely this project and to explain how it will shape our computing environment."
"Depuis la généralisation d'Internet dans tous les domaines de la société, la problématique des logiciels propriétaires, opposés aux logiciels libres, est devenue cruciale, quoiqu'encore ignorée par la grande majorité des utilisateurs. Par définition, le logiciel libre peut être exploité, amélioré et distribué par tous. Or, la plupart des logiciels auxquels nous recourons quotidiennement sont dit "propriétaires" : leur code source appartient à de grandes entreprises, qui en tirent des bénéfices conséquents. Les résistants de l'open source y voient ainsi un enjeu philosophique autant qu'un choix de société : les nouvelles technologies devraient être contrôlées par leurs utilisateurs, plutôt que de limiter leur liberté à leur trouver des alternatives."
Nomagic aims to provide private individuals and small associations with a viable, responsible, and committed alternative to the Web services provided by big IT corporations.
Alternative email provider. Proposes a free tier, and paying additional tiers. Free tier doesn't compromise on security. Supports IMAP and custom domains (for paying tiers). Easy tool to import AND export your emails, to migrate to a new provider.
Also developping calendar, contacts, drive, and VPN. They have been Open Source (even Free, license MIT) since day 1.
System76 funds development of FLOSS by providing custom hardware supporting GNU/Linux out of the box. They developed from scratch a Free BIOS alternative (coreboot). By selling laptops easy to repair they raise money to develop their ubuntu-derivative (Pop!_OS) optimized for their machines
C'est grâce à cette conviction commune que nous avons créé FairTEC, un collectif d'acteurs engagés au service de la sobriété numérique. Nous travaillons ensemble pour offrir des alternatives crédibles et durables pour changer de paradigme.