Flatpak is great. Using the bazaar store to install flatpaks is just so quick and easy. No dependencies, no package managers, no repos. Just click install and you have the app. Downside is permission management is still pretty poor but I’m hoping we can get to a point similar to android were that is all abstracted and centrally managed. Flatseal is an OK stop gap though but it’s an a power user tool in its current state.

Another filen and posteo user here. Both are great

Not fully Foss but I really like Vivaldi. Think the back end is foss

Also using etke.cc. I bought my own vps and then gave them access and they set everything up. It was a lot cheaper this way. My VPS is 4 cores with 8gb of ram but 4 cores and 4gb of ram would be enough. I also got the RTC add-on for $5 which enabled calls. Everything is working really well and I would recommend doing it this way.

• For the private space lock you can set it to “only after device restarts” if you want to. This will mean you only need to unlock it once and it works as a work profile without the need to install a work profile app. (Or if you need your work profile for something like Microsoft intune for work like me)
• As for molly you can set notifications as websocket which doesn’t required a unified push app like ntfy. This creates a websocket between signal servers and the molly app, similar to how ntfy creates a web socket between ntfy and an ntfy server. So if you are using ntfy for multiple apps in can save battery instead of running multiple websockets you only run on. But if you only use it for signal you may as well use mollys built in websocket notifications.

If an app has multiple apks like a play store version and a non play store version it won’t update automatically.

To fix this you need to add a filter for the apk name like this:

Other than that make sure you have enable background updates turned on in the settings

• Setup private space with play services to use for apps that require it like banking.
• Use obtanium for updating apps automatically.
• One of the hardest things to replace is google maps. I use here we go maps and its probably the closest you can get however it isn’t Foss.
• FairEmail and Thunderbird are probably the two best mail clients. I use Thunderbird be cause it looks a bit better. Note however without play services email notifications will be updated every hour. If you want instant email notifications install in private space with play services.
• If you use signal I would try the fork of the client called molly. It uses less battery for notifications.
• Using an email provider that also has CalDav/Carddav like posteo can give you a simple cloud backed up calendar and contacts for really cheap without the need to self host. Use the davx5 app to connect. Davx5 calendar integrates well with etar and fossify calander

Careful: https://piefed.social/c/selfhosted/p/1675395/bentopdf-urgent-security-notice-do-not-pull-or-update

AI agents and web scrapers surely