This is some geek stuff I was passing on to a friend this morning - but Hive has always been pretty geek, so I'll share it here as well, to see if there are any geeks left in these parts.

Because I have lots of accounts on all sorts of websites and platforms, I use five browsers. Brave was my default browser but after trying Vivaldi for a day I made it my new default browser - it's that good

https://vivaldi.com

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The search engine I was trying out yesterday was Startpage - Duckduckgo have fully sold out so they need to be replaced. Startpage was OK, and the founder is very anti censorship.

https://www.startpage.com

But after more testing this morning I'd say Brave search engine is best by miles - way better results than the all the others I've tried including Startpage - Brave search is really good.

https://search.brave.com

The Brave browser is good too (still my second choice browser) but there are a couple of things I've been wanting to do for ages - including some stuff that I used to do on Firefox up until about six years ago when Firefox lost the plot - that can now only be done on Vivaldi

So I'm using Vivaldi browser with Brave search engine - a bit of a piss around but the only way to get it all working how I want on multiple computers and tablets - best internet set up I've ever had, and the first time I can say that in over six years!

For mail I mostly use Outlook 2003 because I still think it's the best one, but I also use Proton Mail (free) because I need mail on Android and Linux too.

https://protonmail.com

But there are things I do all the time on 19 year old Outlook that can't be done in brand new Protonmail - like coloured backgrounds, a full range of font options, and unlimited folders. And I still much prefer the old school Outlook folder system to any modern mail programs.

This week I'm also trying StartMail (free trial) - it looks a lot like a paid Protonmail account - but is very expensive at US$59.99 a year - best privacy, (no compromise encryption and Dutch based) but if I was going to pay for a mail program I'd probably just get a Protonmail full account. Although, Start Mail may have extra features or more security I don't know about yet, they do seem like an on to it company.

www.startmail.com

Office - I still use Office 2003 occasionally which I think is the best ever Microsoft Office, but I mostly use the latest version of Libre Office. Recently I ended up using Excel to work on an old file, instead of Calc, but I much prefer Calc these days - so I'd say free Libre Office is better than the best Office package that Microsoft ever put out.

https://www.libreoffice.org

And it works on Linux as well, so I can swap between my Windows and Linux PC's using the same spreadsheet file stored on P-Cloud.

I've got accounts on Dropbox and Google Drive too but P-cloud is my main cloud storage - 500gb of space and better security.

https://www.pcloud.com

www.frot.co.nz