I think Nextcloud with the libreoffice plugins is the main Google docs self hosting alternative at this point.

• OS - - > Linux OpenSuSE with KDE

• YouTube - - > Freetube - opensource, private YouTube client for Linux, MacOS and Windows

• Downloading music/videos --> yt-dlp

• Downloading videos/images --> gallery-dl

• Email - - > Thunderbird (really moved forward in last few years)

• Notes - - > Joplin

Selfhosting (mine is on raspberry pi) :

• Streaming library - Jellyfin

• Photo library - imich

• Downloads - qbittorrent, prowlaar, radaar, sonaar, lazy librarian in a docker stack with VPN

• smart home - Homeassistant

• filesync - - > Syncthing (I don’t have problems with long file names - maybe a Windows issue or Linux FS? I use EXT4 on all my devices and don’t use Windows anymore)

In terms of KDE dependencies, you’re talking basically about QT. The amount of packages you download shouldnt be too much and likely used for other QT programs which are common.

However there is also GSconnect which is a Gnome extension and uses the KDE connect protocol.

I would say that your concerns regarding the KDE Connect dependencies should be balanced against the good Android and iOS support, and the wide use of KDE connect means it is well maintained, supported and responsive to security updates. These considerations may outweigh the installation of packages that you otherwise won’t be using? It may be better to go mainstream and accept the dependencies than hunt down a lesser supported alternative and deal woth the associated shortcomings.

This sent me down a rabbit hole; interesting stuff.

The way I’m understanding this: the way an image is rendered depends on lots of different factors like browser, OS, graphics card etc, plus other bits like fonts and anti-aliasing settings. Each persons set up is unique so an image rendering on that browser on that device will be unique. So to fingerprint and track someone, they get your browser to generate a reference image then extract the details of the created pixels from the memory and generate an MD5 hash which is then unique to your browser. That’s your fingerprint and every time a site generates the reference image it produces the same MD5 hash. That is then used to track you.

So an anti-fingerprinting technique is to throw in a very subtle randomness to the colours generated in the image, which results in a unique MD5 each time the test is run making it useless for people tracking you (you are essentially a “new” browser every time a site tries to fingerprint you). So if you have #000000 for black, instead it may randomise to #000003 one time, and #002000 next. It’s a very subtle variance on the colours so won’t be readily perceptible but on images rendered and shown to you this would create very subtle noise. Hence the warning for a graphics tool; the makers are aware this effects how their tool works and are warning you incase you notice the results.

Brave is being forced to use Googles version of Manifest 3 meaning ad blockers and anti trackers are crippled in favour of advertisers and Googles ad business. Brave will be including 4 manifest 2 extensions in its backend but that’s it. They’re stuck because Google decided to screw over the entire Chrome based ecosystem.

Mozilla is implementing Manifest 3 differently so the original techniques for adblocking and privacy still work.

So the only choice is Librewolf. Sacrificing privacy and security for smoother animations and Web translation of pages is not worth it.