this post was submitted on 08 Aug 2023
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*hearing in comments certains parts aren't foss

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[–] [email protected] 102 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I think it's better to link to their github since the website has references to a premium sister project that isn't FOSS: https://github.com/languagetool-org/languagetool

I haven't used this myself but I'm curious if anyone likes it

[–] [email protected] 29 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I like it very much and thanks to the various extensions it's also trivial to use in Firefox and Libreoffice.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago

It works on Firefox/Fennec/other forks on Android.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

At last the browser extension is closed source. I don't know the others

https://beehaw.org/comment/893089

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago

I self host a server. It works on my laptop and android. I like it, but some of the suggestions are bad.

Haven't used grammarly in years, so I can't compare.

[–] [email protected] 72 points 11 months ago (6 children)

Their extension isn't open source anymore, see here, so I don't recommend it personally, especially with how sensitive the data it collects is, its basically a keylogger, so trust is super important imo.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 11 months ago (1 children)

If they don't trust you with the source, you can trust them with your data.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (2 children)

While I appreciate the sentiment, isn't that effectively the same as "if the restaurant won't give you the complete recipe for their pizza sauce, how do you know they're not trying to poison you?"

Only a Sith deals in absolutes.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago

At least restaurants are subjected to health and safety inspection. Software never have, and right now opening their code is the only way to ensure that.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Except a restaurant is not asking to log every word of yours in exchange for pizza.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Ouch, thought that if you used the extension with a self-hosted local server that it was fully open source. Looks like I'll be uninstalling then.

I'm okay with some proprietary extensions and stuff, but when it comes to the stuff that I type, I'd rather be able to know exactly what it's doing with it.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago

Thanks for pointing out! This tool seems to look and work awesome, but non-foss browser extension is an instant 'NO'...

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

Damn, I didn't know that. :/

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

tell me anything that isn't

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

By extension do you mean the browser extensions only or also the add-on for word processor ?

[–] [email protected] 22 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Texts are securely stored

Right, must be military grade encryption

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago (5 children)
[–] [email protected] 22 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Note about deepl: according to their EULA they collect all what you type there and use it for training their algorithm. They are much smaller that Google and co, what makes me thinking that your data could be more "visible" in the training results.

The service as such is good, though.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I think this is only the case with the free version. Source: I worked with some big German companies which wanted to have an autotranslate function for their software. DeepL was the top choice, because the quality is very good and the data protection agreements for the paid service left no questions.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

Most probably this is correct. One can say the same about most enterprise targeting offers, for example by Microsoft.

People who consider it for private usage should make decisions knowing such details.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

EULA they collect all what you type there and use it for training their algorithm

This isn't the case for some specific corporate contract for the pro version. But, it's not publicly available.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Interesting thought about the visibility

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Disclaimer: this is a personal impression/thoughts, I could be dramatically wrong here.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

They have total different use cases. DeepL is a translator, language tool checks for style and grammar.

I use both frequently and both do a very good job. I have a prime membership of language tool and I like it. Both are German companies and operate under GDPR.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Deepl’s “write” tool (the one I linked) gives style suggestions

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

I didn’t know that.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

It's not bad at all, and multilingual. I like it as I can write in multiple language making less mistakes.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

off topic: is deepl down or something ? thing doesn't respond :/

edit: now works

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Just wish there was a language tool keyboard for android

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

You can use it in Firefox/Fennec/other forks on Android. It's better than nothing.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

I am but it would be nice to have it in other apps on my phone

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Interestingly I knew about Languagetool long before I got to constantly see Grammarly ads. With the right tools it's useful for checking latex etc.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago
[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I use this often when I'm writing articles, it's incredibly easy to use and I've yet to have any issues with it.

I use it on Waterfox, for what it's worth. Absolutely recommend.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

When I switched from FF to WF it was lighter on system resources, faster and cut out a lot of the telemetry included in FF.

I've not used Firefox for well over a year now, so I can't speak to that still being the case, but those were the main draws for me.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

I switched off of waterfox and back to firefox with arkenfox user.js when I noticed they were behind on a security update.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I wonder how grammarly desktop is for privacy

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Their whole service is built to collect everything you type.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

Literally a key logger with extra steps.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

It's working pretty well for me with integration into Firefox, (libre)office and you can decide if you want to run your own server locally, or rely on their server as a premium subscription.

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