How to find offline alternatives to software-as-a-service and apps with unnecessary internet connections?

[chromodynamic@piefed.social]

Are there any websites or communities dedicated to finding offline alternatives to software that is unnecessarily-Internet based?

I can think of two use cases:

• Software-as-a-service for something that could easily be a downloadable program to run locally
• "Smart" devices that require you to connect to the Internet, and serve you ads

There are websites for finding FOSS alternatives to proprietary apps, EU alternatives to American services, etc. but I don't see a website for local-app alternatives to online services.

[crazi_man@europe.pub]

alternativeto.net

They have an option to filter to "works offline"

E.g. https://alternativeto.net/software/microsoft-word/?feature=offline-access

[iii@mander.xyz]

There's a lot of "awesome-X" lists, like https://github.com/awesome-selfhosted/awesome-selfhosted and https://github.com/Axorax/awesome-free-apps

[renzev@lemmy.world]

I sadly can't recommend any communities for this, but what I do know is that search engines have been basically useless for finding software alternatives for a while. Search results are just full of for-profit bullshit trying to sell you their stupid app or low-effort list sites like alternativeto.net. If I need to find an offline alternative to some specific tool, as ironic as it is, I usually just ask an LLM. They work pretty well as a sort of reverse-search engine for finding software based on a description of the features.

[gedaliyah@lemmy.world]

The [email protected] community has a lot of information on how to do this. I got into it a couple years ago because I felt weird about google listening in on my lightswitch activity (and to steal TV). Now I have a nice set of services running that have nothing to do with media (and actually help me do more things legally, and in some cases better than before).

There are also software communities like [email protected] to help with tools to manage software better. I am not a fanboy or anything but I like that GrapheneOS allows any app to be installed without network permissions.

Other good ones to check out:

[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]

[mugita_sokiovt@discuss.online]

I'd be happy to provide a list of the most common services, as I use quite a few of them (so does my producer, Neigsendoig). I might be able to point some in the right direction that way.

[mangopenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zone]

All of the selfhosted communities are good for that.