A deGoogled device is excellent for the privacy and security of a user. Your data is worth a lot, and the hidden tactics used by big corporations are pretty shady.<p>By limiting the data you send to Google and other big companies, you ensure your Right to Privacy is in place. It takes time to embrace this life, but once you do, you will appreciate not having ads targeted to you or your devices constantly connecting to transmit data to servers.<p>*Benefits of deGoogling your devices*<p>1. Privacy for your devices.<p>2. De-Googled Operating Systems usually are open-source and can be actively checked for bugs and vulnerabilities.<p>3. De-Googled OS’ is based on stock Android.<p>4. There aren’t a bunch of trackers running in the background, and you can expect a much better battery life on your phone.<p>*The best alternative to Google Apps*<p>• Google Chrome<p>— Firefox - Safari<p>• Google Search<p>— Duckduckgo - Startpage - Neeva<p>• Google Chrome Passwords<p>— BitWarden - 1Password - KeePass<p>• Google Analytics<p>— Matomo - Fathom - Simple Analytics - GoatCounter - Counter.dev<p>• Google Mail<p>— ProtonMail - Fastmail - Zoho Mail<p>• Google Docs<p>— Beat Writer - Workflowy - Open Document Reader - Collabora<p>• Google sheets<p>— Airtable - Zoho - Coda<p>• YouTube<p>— Vimeo - PeerTube - Dailymotion - Newpipe<p>• Google Maps for Websites<p>— Leaflet - Mapbox - Nextzen<p>• Google Adwords<p>— BuySellAds<p>• Google Authenticator<p>— Authy - 1Password - AndOTP - Aegis<p>• Google Blogger<p>— WordPress - Medium - Squarespace<p>• Google DNS<p>— OpenDNS - NextDNS - Quad9<p>• Google Drive<p>— Internxt - Nextcloud - SyncThing<p>• Google Hangouts<p>— Telegram - Slack<p>• Google Images<p>— Unsplash - Pexels - Simple Gallery Pro<p>• Google Maps<p>— OpenStreetMap - Magic Earth<p>• Google Translate<p>— Deepl - WordReference - Lingva<p>• Google Maps<p>— Dark Sky - Weather Underground - OsmAnd<p>• Google Calendar<p>— Proton Calendar - Simple Calendar Pro - OpenTasks - DAVx5<p>• Google Keyboard<p>— OpenBoard - AnySoftKeyboard - Florisboard<p>• Google Keep<p>— Standard Notes - Joplin - Obsidian - Simple Notes Pro<p>• Google Podcast<p>— AntennaPod<p>• Ad-blocker<p>— Pi-hole<p>• Media<p>— Plex - Plexamp<p>• Netflix<p>— Sonar - Jellyfin<p>• Cloud<p>— NAS<p>• WeTransfer<p>— Internxt Send<p>These are the best alternatives that you can use if you would like to deGoogle your devices. Using Google on your device stores your location every time you turn it on. It stores your search history across all your devices in a separate database, meaning even if you were to delete said history on all your devices, Google would still have a record of it.<p>That’s the same for anything you’ve watched on YouTube, every app and extension you’ve used. How often you’ve used them. Where you were and who you interacted with. We would like you to understand that we want to give you back the power of protecting and controlling your data. Detaching from Google would be challenging, but to protect your data privacy, you have to be careful in using the internet and the apps that you use.<p>Update: We will continue to update the list with every comment and suggestions!
1. Bought a couple of personal domains and signed-up with Fastmail. Configured Fastmail to periodically pull emails from my legacy gmail account. I use the Fastmail webapp on desktop and their android app on phone/tablet.<p>2. Removed google analytics from my personal website/blog.<p>3. Uninstall Chrome on desktops and disable it on Android phone/tablet.<p>4. Use Firefox with Multi Account Containers add-on so that I am by default signed-out of google unless I need to do specific things, which are sandboxed in specific tabs.<p>5. Paid for Kagi search and set it as the default search provider on my desktops and devices.<p>6. Migrated a few legacy accounts from Google oauth sign-in to email/password.<p>Still to do:<p>a. Migrate my calendars from Google to Fastmail. For various reasons I need to be able to share calendars on Google and I haven't had time to sort this out.<p>b. Migrate off Google Photos. I take a lot of pics with my phone and google photos is just so convenient. I try to only keep six months of pictures on google and archive the rest to a machine that I own.<p>c. Google Movies/TV. I have a fair amount of bought content, mainly because its convenient to stream on a tablet. Not sure what the solution is there.<p>d. I still find google maps useful for a few things - particularly as a way to discover opening hours for businesses. My car has a built-in, non-android, GPS so I don't use google maps for driving.<p>e. I still have an android phone and tablet, and I'm sure they're still phoning home about me.
I went through the process of de-Googling my life a few months ago after the announcement that the free tier of GAFYD was finally going away. I had been wanting to do the change for years but postponing it out of laziness, and that was the trigger that finally did it. (I know they backtracked on their decision, but I'm glad I ripped off the band-aid.)<p>Here is the excruciating process I had to follow in more detail, in case it may help anyone else: <a href="https://jmmv.dev/2022/03/abandoning-gafyd.html" rel="nofollow">https://jmmv.dev/2022/03/abandoning-gafyd.html</a>
A few weeks ago there was a post about Kagi[0] which is a paid search engine, I tried the trial and used all my searches, then immediately became a customer and have no regrets.<p>[0] <a href="https://kagi.com/" rel="nofollow">https://kagi.com/</a>
When I started "deGoogling" myself a year ago, the first step was to stop using Gmail. When changing my registered e-mail address everywhere on the Internet there was one crucial bit that I completely overlooked: the owner/tech/billing/etc. contact records of a domain that I own. Many registrars send all regular communications to the e-mail address of the <i>user account</i>, not to those in the domain contact records, so I happily went on thinking I was entirely "deGmailed" once my Gmail inbox had dried up as planned. If I had somehow lost access to that old Gmail address before I realized my mistake, that domain would effectively no longer be mine.
Here are some of my additional recommendations:<p>Analytics - GoatCounter, Counter.dev<p>Keyboard - Unexpected Keyboard (A very cool keyboard)<p>Search - Neeva<p>Translate - Lingva<p>Some notes on the post:<p>- Protonmail as a company doesn’t have a very stellar reputation. I recommend hosting an e-mail server by yourself, or just use providers like Disroot Mail<p>- K9 Mail is an email client, not an email provider
Google forced my hand with their decision to punish Apps for your Domain users. I was so angry at the decision that I moved to iCloud+ Custom Domain and made DuckDuckGo my default search engine and switched to safari. I will never, ever use another Google product. My Apps account was essentially just a custom domain on a Gmail interface and Cost them no more resources than Gmail, and presumably they got all the same benefits via ad tracking, so it felt particularly unnecessary to cancel.
I went with a pretty straightforward approach at the time. I mostly de-Googled myself 3-4 years ago.<p>I use Fastmail for email and calendar, DuckDuckGo & StartPage for searching, Firefox as a web browser, and a Synology NAS for storage over Google Drive.<p>I use Google Drive / Docs / Sheets occasionally for collaborating. Most people aren't de-Googled so it's more of a hassle to ask them to use a different service. Additionally, I don't use Google services for anything particularly important so I don't mind if Google knows about it.<p>Fastmail isn't the most private service out there, but it is an amazing service to use for email, calendar, contacts, file storage, and notes. It works with 1Password with masked emails [0].<p>You can also use sieve [1] to fine tune your filter rules. I'm not aware of other email services that provide this (unless of course you are hosting your own).<p>I've played with it a bit. You don't really need to do it because the interface they have can generate sieve code for you, but it's nice that it is an option.<p>[0]: <a href="https://www.fastmail.com/1password/" rel="nofollow">https://www.fastmail.com/1password/</a>
[1]: <a href="http://sieve.info/" rel="nofollow">http://sieve.info/</a>
GrapheneOS! It's an amazing OS. The transition was quick and seamless and I was surprised that had to make zero sacrifices, because it allows you to create separate profiles. I have one profile with a Google Play Services sandbox, which the OS provides as a one-click install. It's useful to run banking/ride-sharing apps, etc. It's very quick to transition between profiles.
deGoogling is great, but I don't want <i>any</i> corporations to track me or have data about me, and unfortunately the alternatives to Google are usually not any better in this respect.<p>They might, like DDG, promise not to track me and to respect my privacy, but as an ordinary user I have absolutely no way of verifying their claims.<p>I don't trust Vimeo any more than YouTube. I don't trust Authy any more than Google Authenticator. FastMail is great, but I don't want it to have my email any more than Gmail. I don't trust Firefox any more than Chromium.<p>Unfortunately the internet and computers in general were never designed to respect privacy and most corporations are happy to collect data on their users... and I'm pretty pessimistic on this changing much for the typical user... If anything it's only going to get worse as tracking technology becomes ever more sophisticated and omnipresent.<p>That's not to say we shouldn't deGoogle. But we should be under no illusion that that alone will somehow magically make our online lives private.
Heretic take on this: Block first, figure out later. This is how we approach most technical issues anyways.<p>So take /etc/hosts or little snitch or whatever and hard block <i>.google.</i>, googletagmanager etc. - all sorts of domains that you come across from google.<p>Then, when you run into something that doesn't work, figure it out <i>at that moment</i>.
I've been actively degoogling my life for about 10 years, mostly kicked off by Snowden's revelations. Off the top of my head, here's what's left:<p>• Youtube<p>Too much content there to stop using. I almost never use it while logged in. I never subscribe: I bookmark the channel.<p>• Maps<p>Too useful to stop using. Haven't tried alternatives, but open to recommendations. Business locations and open/close times are must haves for me.<p>• Duo<p>It's a videophone that mostly works.<p>• Chrome<p>I never stopped using Firefox as my main browser since ~2005, but I'll use Chrome from time to time, mostly for website development and watching Youtube.<p>• GMail<p>I've almost completely moved off it about a year ago for Fastmail, but I keep checking my existing GMail. Probably should get around to moving over completely.<p>• Android<p>I'm a recent LineageOS convert, but still use it with the Play Store.
I never really "googled" it in the first place.<p>Since I started using a smartphone/Android, I've been on CyanogenMod/LineageOS without Play services installed. I use FOSS apps from f-droid (Firefox, K-9 Mail, osmand~, DAVx5, Gadgetbridge, Signal) exclusively, and self-host the server-side of all my email (postfix/dovecot/amavis/opendkim) and CalDAV/CardDAV (radicale) stuff. I even set up my own public-ish DNS recursor that all networks I take care of use.<p>Never regretted any of it, but I'm aware few will find it enjoyable taking care of some of this infrastructure. I am lucky that I do :)
Many of these services are SaaS solutions that require a separate ToS and SPoF. The idea behind de-googling should be focused on self-hosted alternatives, not just other service providers.
Some of these make very little sense. For example:<p>• Google Images<p>— Unsplash - Pexels - Simple Gallery Pro<p>First two are stock photo sites, last one is an Android app for browsing local pictures. Google Images is a search engine for images, which is covered by the "Google Search" section anyways. Perhaps you confused Google Images with Google Photos (which is missing from the list), but even then the alternatives don't make sense.
Yes, with the following exceptions:<p>- YouTube has content that I enjoy and isn't available elsewhere. I know that it stores my history but I find its recommendations and multi-device support good enough that I consider it worth it. (Also, FWIW, you can disable the history using [0], it also has an autodelete, though I don't use it)<p>- I drive and in my region, nothing is good enough for driving directions aside from Google Maps. I've tried all the other major apps on iOS like TomTom, Sygic etc. but they just don't work well enough.<p>- Again, while driving, I use Android Auto on a device dedicated to that purpose. It's also the only situation where I use Google's voice recognition. I do so because I speak English in my daily life (e.g. song titles) but my region is German-speaking (e.g. places/street names/business names/addresses) and I need to be able to use both while driving. Only Google Assistant/Android Auto can be configured to recognise two languages.<p>[0]: <a href="https://myactivity.google.com/activitycontrols?settings=youtube" rel="nofollow">https://myactivity.google.com/activitycontrols?settings=yout...</a>
The advice and practical suggestions of this post are great, but for those who claim to have a hard time leaving google behind regardless (without a major business or work obligation that makes it difficult), the drama is overblown. It's not only possible, it's also relatively easy. I use google for exactly four things: Two gmail addresses for random crap emails and obligatory sign-ups if I want some document (serious email goes to a protonmail address); a phone with Android built into it (invasive but meh, I keep my smartphone engagement to enough of a minimum that it isn't a huge invasion of privacy); Google maps for random addresses and youtube for music I seek (and later download anyway), which in any case can be used without signing in.<p>That's it. The rest is easily superfluous for most personal uses and I suspect that claiming otherwise is pure self absorbed convenience-hunting.
> Using Google on your device stores your location every time you turn it on. It stores your search history across all your devices in a separate database, meaning even if you were to delete said history on all your devices, Google would still have a record of it.<p>All of this can easily be disabled on the setting page for your Google account? And, location history is off by default.
I’ve moved away from Chrome and Google Search. But I’m struggling to move away from Gmail, especially since this email is linked to so many critical official accounts (bank, government agencies)<p>Any solutions to make the transition easier outside of manually updating email everywhere?<p>Also, what’s the best alternative to Gmail currently that will support using my own domain name?
I moved to China and had to do it, then after returning back I really didn't miss their services, only Google apps in my phone without gapps are Gtranslate, which I really don't use and have it only just in case, sadly DeepL didn't have comparable app, I use also Gboard (with no internet access in firewall) since it's currently best swipe keyboard and that's it, everything else I use from other companies and find apps from Google inferior, I also use Google search but through my preferred browser (Kiwi in mobile, Vivaldi on desktop).<p>Email - Aquamail<p>Calendar - Business calendar pro 1.*<p>IM - Whatsapp (network effect sadly, otherwise I would go with Element, used for years Signal but was sick of horrible UX)<p>Maps - Mapy.cz<p>SMS - Pulse<p>app store - Aurora store, I know I know it's cheating...<p>2FA - AndOTP<p>Gallery - Simple gallery pro<p>Btw Duckduckgo is horrible shady search engine, you are better off even with Google or Bing, though Kagi, Searx and Brave Search are better.
For maps, You should add Organic maps. People tend to like the UI more than OsmAnd.<p>Personally, I use OsmAnd with custom map files for better address coverage: <a href="https://github.com/pnoll1/osmand_map_creation" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/pnoll1/osmand_map_creation</a>.
I don't use any of Google services or products.<p>Fairphone 3+ with /e/OS<p>Firefox + uBlock + uMatrix + NoScript<p>Duckduckgo<p>Tutanota (mail, calendar) and ecloud (mail, calendar, notes, tasks)<p>Quad9 DNS<p>SyncThing<p>OpenStreetMap<p>Magic Earth<p>DeepL
I doubt you can get rid of google like that.<p>There is Google services that you and me don't know that we are using.<p>What can be done is stop outgoing traffic to Google AS.
You can physically cut off internet connection for google devices.
Or set rules on firewall.
No. I don't care. I'm happy to hide in the crowd.<p>IMHO any data I generate is basically useless chaff. I still have yet to be convinced that there's a downside to this parasitic relationship. How exactly is my life, in a practical way, negatively impacted by this data going walkabout? Does it take years or months off my expected lifespan? Does it give me cavities? Does it turn my family and loved ones against me? Does it slow my typing speed?<p>Point me to a good non-philosophical non-ideological non-emotional argument and I'll spend my time and money on transitioning to non-google sources for my problem-solutions.
I use ungoogled-chromium and I'm pretty happy with it <a href="https://github.com/ungoogled-software/ungoogled-chromium" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/ungoogled-software/ungoogled-chromium</a><p>I should move away from Gmail too but that's the hardest part imo. I mostly have trust issues if that make sense. Not that I trust Google that much but I just don't know if any other email service will be around in 20 years or so. Probably Microsoft and Apple? iCloud Mail sounds good just don't have any experience with it (and it only works with custom domains afaik)
I have been quasi-DeGoogleified for nearly a decade.<p>The main thing standing in my way is the family domain hosted by Google. There are few enough of us, not using it for anything but family stuff, that Google is letting us keep it for free. Though I have an account at that domain (since I'm the administrator), I don't use the domain anymore.<p>Other than that, except for an occasional foray into YouTube and a !g search when DDG isn't satisfactory, I pretty much ignore Google. I'm still more entangled than I want to be, but better than I was.
For my WordPress site, I replace Google Analytics with Koko Analytics. It provides list visitor information. But, I really just care to see which pages are most popular.
i think those who go through all this hassle must value their data more than their time.<p>most of these services are inferior to the google service imo. and many of these alternatives may leak or sell your data too.<p>if you're paranoid then DTA. it's far better to hide in the crowd then to use some browser developed by 4 people with anime emojis on github.<p>also, I trust google won't get hacked far more than the others.<p>better solution would be to obfuscate your data as much as possible.
I've been looking/trying many search engines (you.com, duckduckgo, etc.). As someone who is not from the US, none of them is able to provide local search results anywhere as good as Google Maps. e.g. I want cheap food near me. Name of a local restaurant, etc. Until then, sadly I'll have to stick with Google.<p>Also, Google Sheets & Docs are really really good too. I can live without Gmail.
Glad to see de-googling picking up steam. Personally, I created a Google Keep clone PWA[1] to address what I was missing after cutting the google tumor out of my life. I hope to see more and more passion projects which respect privacy and are of equal utility to what google provides.<p>[1] <a href="https://tinylist.app" rel="nofollow">https://tinylist.app</a>
Personally, I created a chrome extension for myself where I track my own behavior locally and recommend myself content from sites i like (youtube/twitter/quora/etc) in a feed. Would rather have control over my own algorithm and own the data. Also it gives me flexibility. Turns out I do like these feeds just not when I don't own it haha.
> Your data is worth a lot<p>Ehhhh, not so sure about this.<p>• Your individual data is worth a lot of money in aggregate with the data of thousands/millions of other users, but it is difficult (impossible?) to exchange your individual data for money<p>• If you're talking philosophical/non-monetary "worth" then this varies from person to person. I value my data almost not at all.
I've got a legacy free gsuite account with two domains, one is personal the other business. I never got the option to keep it free for personal use, but also since it's still in the 3rd week of transitioning from free, I have no support. Without human support I can't split out the business domain into its own paid workspaces account, the tools I have access to don't have the option.<p>I have no motivation to de-Google except how horrible Google has been about this transition, so far making it impossible through circular logic.<p>I guess I'd have to do a takeout of the business domain, then delete that domain. Then open a new workspaces account and import the takout. Then <i>handwave</i> magic, I somehow get Google's attention to get the personal workspaces free instead of just automatically shutoff as their support docs claim will happen. Since I might have to migrate this one domain to some other service anyway, I might as well move the other domain too because it's easier to manage the two domains with a single interface even if they are separate accounts. So yeah, Google themselves are the how I will deGoogle, seems like.
I never trusted google, so first step to degoogling is actually never start to use google products.<p>However there are few tools that has no competition yet. Unfortunately. YouTube and Gboard with swipe (for non English lang).
Partly, Google even helped me with the deprecation of the free gsuite. I never really found out what their solution was for private use, so I migrated the two domains I had.<p>I still have a gmail account, which is kinda needed for YouTube Premium, which is a service I do enjoy.
Google locked me out of my gmail a while ago, luckily I had moved almost everything away from Google that was important. My recovery email is a defunct me.com address back from when I was an iToddler. So effectively, THEY de-Googled ME lol.
I switched back to FF the day I noticed that I could "log in" to Chrome, and that the browser had already logged me in by default.<p>Also switched to ProtonMail for anything shopping or bill-related, and paid for a ProtonVPN sub
I'm currently on with this.<p>Got my own domain, starting to change over accounts to new email. My webservers are at home, my NAS is being built.<p>I'm getting GrapheneOS because I love my PinePhones but can't quite use one exclusively yet.
The only trace left from Google in my life is search. No, DDG is unfortunately nowhere near Google Search.<p>The day I could replace that too, I'll try my best not to touch a Google product ever again.
1. Ensure all docs/pics are backed up somewhere on a PC I own
2. Discard smartphone
3. Delete gmail account
4. Enjoy a peaceful and productive life!
> you will appreciate not having ads targeted to you or your devices constantly connecting to transmit data to servers.<p>Why would I appreciate seeing more generic ads?
Every google feature you replace with a paid feature is one step closer to the internet freezing over. You cut out the big (free to consumer/product) data farms and soon the internet experience becomes like Cable Tv, you pay for channels/features on-top of ISP access.<p>I don't really have an argument against this happening, capitalism will force it if it's an option. It's worth noting the internet the millenials and gen x'ers built, the internet we grew up on, could be gone forever and we are seeing it start to go now. The free web might become an altogether unpleasant place.<p>Google's data centres aren't the Borg hive-mind. They are the future glaciers that will be mined for knowledge and ideas much later on.
forget Duckduckgo and replace it with<p>* anyone from <a href="https://searx.space/" rel="nofollow">https://searx.space/</a> or
* <a href="https://metager.org/" rel="nofollow">https://metager.org/</a>
Youtube: Odysee (with an extension that auto redirects youtube to odysee if it exists for the video)
I only use google for youtube (if the content isn't on odysee) and gmail.<p>How are the gmail alternatives? Can I use my custom domain for free on any?
Have self-hosting solutions come close to gmail with spam filters?
For me, talk about "de-googling" and other such processes comes down to really thinking about what your goals are. It's easy to get into a binary all-or-nothing frame of reference, which I don't think is constructive as for most use cases "some" is still significantly different from "none."<p>My own goals/use cases:<p>- I'm unhappy with the current economics of the online world, that are based on advertising. I accept that developing products requires money, and getting money requires a business model, so if I don't like the incentives ad-based business creates, I should actively support alternative models<p>- I'm unhappy with the intrusiveness of tracking. I think consent is important -- not as a legal concept, but as a regular human being understands it. When I interact with a person or organization, I can meaningfully give consent for their actions. I can't meaningfully give consent to what some third party who isn't part of that interaction does, regardless of the legal fine print that says.<p>- I'm happy that the internet has become mainstream and people who aren't "tech people" use it.<p>- I'm not concerned with targeted attacks, but am concerned with opportunistic attacks against my online accounts and identities.<p>- Yes, "identities" -- I believe people should be able to have multiple identities online.<p>With those criteria, my current set up:<p>- password manager -- no reusued passwords. Whole family uses this.<p>- Fastmail. Because I use email so much, it's clearly a valuable service for me. So it' worth paying for -- I'm many years out from being a broke college student.<p>- A domain I purchased just for emails, and make use of subdomain addressing. I tend to use a different subdomain email per service. Goes to the goal of multiple identities, reducing tracking and reducing opportunistic attacks<p>- I've kept my gmail address and forward it to my fastmail, because I don't want to make my personal contacts use a different email address than they have for years. Maybe I'll change that some day, but I'm ok with _reducing_ rather than _eliminating_ google in my life<p>- FireFox. Also Mozilla VPN, to give Mozilla some money, though in practice I don't really have a frequent use for VPN.<p>- Duck Duck Go<p>- Ublock Origin<p>- Subscriptions to a handful of news outlets I read frequently. Print subscription for one of them!<p>- Separate computer for work vs personal<p>Biggest gap I'm still uncomfortable with: Shopping on Amazon.
Phone:<p>Pixel 4a with Graphene OS, only GCam Services Provider (<a href="https://github.com/lukaspieper/Gcam-Services-Provider" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/lukaspieper/Gcam-Services-Provider</a>) to be able to use Google Camera. Implementation is super simple and it shouldn't take long to see that it actually does nothing.<p>Browser:<p>Firefox - followed <a href="https://blackgnu.net/firefox-hardening-guide.html;" rel="nofollow">https://blackgnu.net/firefox-hardening-guide.html;</a> Fennec on Android<p>Search - <a href="https://searx.space/" rel="nofollow">https://searx.space/</a> (plan on self hosting one)<p>Youtube - <a href="https://docs.invidious.io/instances/" rel="nofollow">https://docs.invidious.io/instances/</a> (plan on self hosting one)<p>Passwords:<p>Bitwarden - backups done regularly to encrypted external storage and encrypted rclone mount<p>Email:<p>Tutanota/Protonmail + custom domain<p>2FA:<p>Aegis<p>Messaging:<p>Signal - easiest way to setup for non-technical friends and family. Used to use a few different apps, but only use this right now. I also use <a href="https://meet.jit.si/" rel="nofollow">https://meet.jit.si/</a> occasionally for calls on the laptop/desktop.<p>VPN:<p>Mullvad - currently working on setting up my own.<p>Maps:<p>Organic Maps on Android/Open Street Maps on desktop/laptop.<p>Sync:<p>Syncthing - syncing desktop, laptop, a few phones to my home server on LAN only.<p>Notes:<p>Markdown files kept on devices, synced through syncthing.<p>Media:<p>Emby - had issues with Jellyfin, but might revisit in a few months as I have some plans there.
Airsonic - music<p>Adblocker:<p>Mullvad + ublockorigin<p>Calendar:<p>Tutanota<p>Analytics for website:<p>C# console app that parses caddy logs and clears logs after parsing.<p>Cloud:<p>Create encrypted mount with rclone and dump backups there when needed.<p>It was a slow process to get here and I am lucky to have friends who followed me on this journey to be honest. The first step came while working for my final project at university and building something around my heavy dislike for Facebook. Once I had to research the subject more in depth I started to realize how wrong I was all these years entrusting troves of data to the highest bidder... I had a friend who had asked me about these things and I am sorry for not listening to him sooner, but I felt that he never went past "bro, you shouldn't trust google!". Which is I think what most of us do.<p>I am trying to have conversations about this with everyone and try to adjust my language to their level. It's good because it highlights how little I know and it works both ways as I have to learn myself a bit more about any given topic. It's quite nice. It's even better to have people who have followed me on this path, moving to devices with no google services at all on them, moving away operating systems and so on.<p>If you think you're stuck, try to get rid of an app or two and see how it goes. Most of them add little to NO value to your life and your tech stack so trust yourself and delete them. It took me about a year to fully get rid of any google related stuff (and I include micro G here to allow me to run stuff like WhatsApp/YT/Gmail/Maps). And I knew it's bad, so I imagine it's a lot harder if you don't think there are risks.<p>Some things are more difficult, but my phone is now a tool that quietly sits on a desk somewhere in the house and I use it to do something specific. It's also reassuring to know it's not constantly feeding off me to send info to whoever is interested in my particular demographic.<p>As an afterword, please, all of you who suggest open source alternatives, also keep in mind that most of these projects have very little financial support. A few dollars, euros, pounds might not mean much to you, but it could make the world of difference for all these people working to keep our data safe and our devices useful. Stop recommending people stuff and starting with "it's free" and phrase it with "it's private and secure...". Start introducing the cost early on. Without our support these alternatives can and will vanish or will morph to attempt to keep themselves alive.