Languagetool has moved processing it’s data outside of the EU and to California (I think, at least 100% certain about the move to USA). I’m not comfortable with this, because of privacy concerns. However, I do need something like such a tool which supports Dutch and has a browser plugin for Firefox.
Does anyone have a suggestion of something which is at least as capable and hosted in the EU or Switzerland?
I looked and was shocked to find how many of these tools are nonfree and proprietary.
I also noted that many of them use AI.
No wonder you are concerned about privacy.
I think I would drop back to a simple spellchecker… I dont want to be styled by an AI machine.
I use google to translate, but then double check with my french wife before i send anything. In libreoffice I have english and french dictionary set.
Are these not good enough for what you do ?
I know dutch is a difficult language as I have several clients from that country but luckily they also speak english so when I set tge system up in linux for them they cann guide me if I need to make a change for them.
I am Dutch (spent all my life here).
I don’t need Google Translate. I need something to check spelling, grammar, and style. All those are issues for me. There are loads of words which differ between pronunciation and writing, but spelling correction can handle that. What I need additional help with is style and grammar - yes, even with my own native language.
The nice thing about LanguageTool is its integration with LibreOffice, so I can find issues with my text, but plugins could integrate other services as well. I know, editors (the job, not the program) are there to find and fix language problems in your text (among other roles) and LanguageTool is far from perfect, but it does a lot for me. From benign fixing to dealing with more complicated issues I fail to notice. It’s really capable of a lot.
I guess I want a similar service, but I prefer not sending all my data to the US to be analyzed. Now, LT promises to never store anything and not train AI on your text, but how long will this last now they’ve been taken over? I’ve got until 19 December to decide whether I stick with them.
I found this statement
" LanguageTool is the only grammar checker that functions ‘inside’ LibreOffice. All others, such as Grammarly, would be external. I use Grammarly (free version) with LibreOffice and find it preferable. You could use both, using Grammarly for a final check.30 Jan 2021 "
If that is still correct you have a problem, especially when you want multilingual as well as LibreOffice compatability
Have you looked at LightProof? May not be available for Linux?
Will check it out.
EDIT: Only works for English.
There is a French version
also see comnent 3 in
https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=117573
I looked at LT’s terms of service and privacy policy. Not too insane currently, but as it’s now a US company, it’ll become worse eventually. I’m cancelling my account.
Do the CLI style and diction commands work in non-english languages?
What tools do Wikipedia use?
I was not aware those tools existed. They’re not installed by default in Linux Mint and when I look them up in the app store I get a million results. Ecosia (the search engine I use) also returns a million results, a lot of which irrelevant.
Could you provide me with a link?
EDIT: Found them. Unfortunately only English and German, not Dutch.
Hey @xahodo I had read that LT had been replaced in LO with Writing Tool
Supported languages are:
Asturian, Belarusian, Breton, Catalan, Chinese, Danish, Dutch,
English, Esperanto, French, Galician, German, Greek, Italian,
Japanese, Khmer, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian,
Russian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Tagalog, Tamil,
Ukrainian.
Not sure if it is available as a browser extension, but it was my understanding they based it on LT with those languages supported.
Sheila
There is a project for you.
I think @Sheila_Flanagan has your solution
Is the one i use and install on libreoffice if asked
My grammar is poor in my own language never mind in another
Yep, WritingTool is the solution. Thanks!
Hate them all you want, but their service department is certainly responsive. I sent them an email cancelling the service and requesting a refund, and everything got arranged swiftly.
Hmm… this is weird. LanguageTool is/was based in Germany and backed/funded by European Union: Imprint - LanguageTool
Having servers in the EU adds a layer of trust. But if they moved to US by default, this is not good for a company like LanguageTool.
About AI…
No matter how much you dislike, there will be AI features added in most tools you use. Newer computers are comping with CPU with built-in NPU for AI processing. Like GPU, NPUs will be part of the regular computing experience in the coming years.
And they do make tasks easier. For example, LanguageTool’s AI feature rephrases sentences. It helps me simplify when I write something that is too complicated.
There are video editors that can edit video by deleting words from the transcription. Image editors with functionalities like removing background in a click with AI. These are the actual use of AI for the end users.
I hope that we move towards local, open source AI so that we can enjoy simplifying our tasks with AI features but without worrying about data and privacy invasion.
I’ll write detailed opinion article with proper examples on this topic on It’s FOSS.
And what better
It’s not that I have many problems with AI. It has its uses in the right places. The problem I have is that it’s been acquired by an American company. I do not trust where this is headed, as they started sending data to the USA. However, this does - at the moment of this writing - not include the actual text to be checked. I can’t help but worry about the Americans seeing dollar signs in all the data being sent to LanguageTool and wanting to train AI on it, store it for use, claim copyright over it, or other such nastyness.
This link shows they have been acquired by Learneo (A US company). Here you’ll find the changes to the legal stuff. I am not comfortable with these.
Thanks for the preview. You are more informed than us oldies. That is why we like the newsletter… you pass your insights on.
Yes, I would be happier with local AI. I would just like everyone to see its limitations as well as its advantsges.