The concern about privacy is definitely valid, but I'm not as worried about that stuff as I care more that it works than anything else.

Edge isn't that bad of a browser. I don't appreciate the hate people sling at it without even trying it. It's seriously becoming a better browser than Firefox.

I don't know how to compile

Literally run make. It's not that hard.

Agree

Glad to see that Lemmygrad is on the blocklist.

My point still stands, they keep logs.

A lot of people are jumping to AirVPN and ProtonVPN, neither of which I really trust. ProtonVPN in particular because Proton has given out user data for their mail service in the past (0). I'm going to stick with Mullvad, as there's not really any other service that lets you pay with cash and has a real no logging policy (1). Of course, best of luck to anyone who wants to tread into other VPN providers, let me know if you find something good. :)

(0): https://www.thedailybeast.com/secure-email-provider-protonmail-handed-over-user-data-to-europol

(1): https://www.theverge.com/2023/4/21/23692580/mullvad-vpn-raid-sweden-police

uBlock Origin definitely. I use KeePassXC's browser extension, but if you're using Bitwarden already then you're probably fine on that.

My search engine of choice is SearX, as DuckDuckGo's results are just a frontend for Bing, i.e. not favorable to me.

The worst part is that the FTC's "punishment" does virtually nothing to stop this from happening again.

There's a thread about this on HN which may be worth checking out: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36146062

I was referring more to the community. I remember most, if not all, of the listed instances being incredibly left wing. Not that I have a huge problem with that by itself, but I believe anyone should be able to get their opinions out there. Or, it could be that the userbase of Lemmy just happens to fall under those parameters.

Looking good so far. Last time I looked at Lemmy, it wasn't so good. Hopefully this time will be a much better experience!