Right now a lot of us are trying to divest and diversify from having our entire lives on Google both because of the way Google spends its money and the long-standing privacy concerns seeming a bit more scary now.
What services have you switched to and what has your experience been? What do you like, what don’t you like, would you recommend them?
Email
- Proton Mail, (paid) I switched 7 years ago and it’s great, I’ve never looked back. I don’t use the attached services like calendar and contacts because it’s a little bit too walled-off for the integrations I need, but I do use ProtonVPN and Drive.
- Thunderbird (free) on desktop, to access my IMAP or exchange email addresses (work etc) along with Proton Bridge so I never touch the Proton web app. On Android, I use Thunderbird for the IMAP addresses plus the Proton app, which isn’t ideal but not sure what the alternative could be.
Calendar and contacts
- Nextcloud (free) installed on the basic shared hosting for my personal website manages all my contacts
- Etesync (free) is currently syncing my calendars, but I’m planning to swap this soon to the Nextcloud instance just to simplify things.
Notes / Resource management
- Anytype (free) is incredible and I now run my life off of it. Took months to really get the hang of it but it’s worth the effort.
Cloud storage
- Proton Drive (paid) is great, I use it for all my work applications, sending to clients etc and sync my most important files, but only have 500gb storage so
- Synology Drive (free) installed on the NAS I use for backups covers all my personal uses, including photo backups.
Browser
- Firefox (of course), with uBlock Origin (of course)
Search
- DuckDuckGo (free), I ran Kagi for a while but the company seems shady and the price is extremely high for what you get
Passwords
- 1Password (paid), migrated after the LastPass incident and before ProtonPass existed. It would make sense to save the money and switch to Proton but tbh 1Password has been great and I wouldn’t risk the faff.
Documents
- Honestly I don’t have a lot of need for Google Docs replacements but when I do need to work on docs I’ll use LibreOffice. If it needs to be shared I’d probably do a public share on Anytype, or use Proton Docs. More likely, someone else will have invited me to a Google doc and I’ll have to sign in to use it.
Audio
- PocketCasts (paid) is a great service. I also use Spotify (sorry, all my friends use it)
RSS
- FreshRSS also set up on my web hosting so I get all my news/articles/substacks etc through ReadYou and Fluent Reader.
Google products I still use
- Maps
- YouTube (with uBlock Origin and SponsorBlock on both desktop and android), I just sadly can’t let go of my carefully crafted algorithm oops
Desktop Environment
-
Operating System: Fedora Workstation Linux
- Great package manager updates
- Excellent performance
-
Productivity Tools:
- Note-taking: Zim Wiki (preferred for GUI and plaintext storage)
- Document Editing: Considering OnlyOffice if Collabora Office doesn’t work out
- Backup Solution: Filen cloud provider with desktop sync app
-
Browsers:
- Primary: Firefox with Arkenfox
- Backup: Ungoogled Chromium (for sites incompatible with Firefox)
-
Password Management:
- Bitwarden (kept on phone)
- KDE Connect for clipboard sharing between devices
Mobile Setup
-
Device & OS: Pixel 8 Pro running GrapheneOS
- More stable and polished than previous CalyxOS on Pixel 5
- Better Google Play sandboxing compared to microG
-
Mobile Apps:
- Browsers: IronFox and Vanadium
- App Sources: Primarily open-source from GitHub/F-Droid, updated via Obtainium
- Non-FOSS Apps: Sandboxed Google Play for banking and other essential apps
- Maps: HERE WeGo (previously used Magic Earth but it lacked public transport info)
- Loyalty Cards: Catima
-
Search Engine: Kagi
- Quality results
- Sound business model (subscription-based)
- Fediverse integration for Lemmy search
-
Self-Hosted Services:
- Contacts and calendar via Radicale on NAS with Nginx
-
Car Integration:
- Still using Android Auto (found MagSafe holder alternatives more distracting)
- Physical cards stored in MagSafe wallet on phone back
-
Search: Kagi (paid)
Email and calendar: Tuta (paid)
Synced storage (like Dropbox): Synology Drive (free, used with my Synology NAS)
Photos: Synology Photos (free, used with NAS)
Passwords: Bitwarden (paid)
Music subscription: Tidal
Music purchases: Qobuz and Bandcamp
No complaints about any of these. Quite happy having de-googled and de-appled.
I had to change my name and hairstyle
I even cut my hair and change my name.
for me:
- google drive > pcloud (objectively better app tbh)
- chrome > librewolf > floorp (i like having the tab bar at the bottom, and librewolf is a bit annoying sometimes)
- photos > ente
- gmail > proton > tuta > “disroot” (proton and tuta aren’t IMAP, and their first-party apps are slow. disroot probably isn’t the best one, I just chose one that supports IMAP)
- google search > ddg > SearXNG
- google office > onlyoffice on windows, libreoffice on linux
- google maps > Organic Maps
- google passwords > bitwarden
- google auth > ente auth :)
Google office stuff > libreoffice
Chrome > firefox and librewolf
gmail > proton
Google > ddg
Iphone > grapheneos pixel
Youtube account > newpipe, libretube, grayjay with exported subscriptions
Google drive > synology
I think that covers about everything google specific.
Note: I included iphone because even iphones ping google SUPL servers whereas Grapheneos settings host their own servers to ping to avoid sending stuff out to google.
- Desktop OS: Linux (Arch)
- Phone OS: /e/OS
- mail, notes, calendar, online storager: mureno
- maps: cittymapper, magic earth
I’m pretty happy with all of those
I’ve recently been thinking about this.
I’ve seen plenty of recommendations for the Proton suite, but seeing as the premium plan runs 10 bucks a month for:
- Mail (Need premium for IMAP compatibility with the Proton Bridge)
- Calendar
- Drive service --more on this one later
- VPN (this one looked nice, but IIRC VPNs are less necessary for home traffic if all my requests are HTTPS)
- Password Keeper
- And crypto wallet,
it was a mite expensive for my tastes who was only going to use the mail service and calendar and perhaps the VPN. I looked into Posteo.de and it had all that I wanted from an email provider (encryption on-server, IMAP compatibility and privacy-focused). It’s much cheaper (1 EUR/mo.) and it has a fantastically retro and sleek website (the epitome of web design-- nice-looking without being obese or fiddly).
I’m also trying out a few search engines, namely Mojeek and Marginalia-search because I want to both move away from Big Tech and Google in particular as well as open my horizon to the more human side of the web.
I have yet to figure out what to do about Android. I’m trying out using a dumb-phone for a while, but that’s more of a temporary thing.
With regards to Proton Drive, it seems nice but I’ve heard of poor Linux support. That’s a big dealbreaker for me.
I’m afraid that I can’t step away from Big G just yet; work runs off it. But one can dream. And every bit of data that Google doesn’t have is one degree fewer of control they will have over me eventually, when the Big Tech overlords pull the trigger on whatever they have cooking up.
Tuta is better and cheaper for just email and calendar than Proton, and unlike Proton they haven’t endorsed US fascists.
- Desktop: Linux (Tuxedo)
- Browser: Vivaldi
- Search: Ecosia & DDG
- Mail / Groupware / Calendar / Contacts / Cloud Drive / Meet: Infomaniak kSuite Pro
- Backup: Syncthing
- Movies / Netflix / Amazon Prime: buying DVD / Bluray and ripping to my home media server with Jellyfin and Videoland.nl
- Mobile Phone: Fairphone with /e/OS or Calyx
- Whatsapp: Signal, Matrix / Element, Briar, Threema
- YouTube: Grayjay, Floatplane, Nebula, Curiosity Stream
- Maps: Magic Earth
- Photos: ente.io
- Authenticator: Ente Auth
- Twitter / X: Mastodon
- Cards: Catima
- Keep / Evernote: Notesnook / Anytype
- Backup comms: Meshtastic / UHF / VHF
- Translate: DeepL
- Podcasts: Antennapod
- Google Home: Home Assistant
- Google Assistant / Gemini: Mistral Le Chat / LLama
- Router: openWRT (GL.iNET Flint2)
- Firewall: opnSense (Deciso)
- Pushbullet: KDE Connect
- speedtest.net: LibreSpeed
- Fing: Ning
- Kobo / Kindle: Pocketbook
- Amazon: Local / European dealers
- Pocket: Wallabag
- Creality / Bambulab: Prusa
- VPN: Proton, Wireguard, Tailscale
If I remember correctly I started deGoogling “seriously” in the last summer. At this point YouTube and Youtube Music are the only Google products/services I still use daily but only on PC. I never use them on phone. I also am quite forced to use Gmail sometimes but otherwise I avoid it like a plague.
I think my phone is as deGoogled as possible without rooting and/or changing the OS. I have uninstalled every Google app that I have been able to uninstall and also I have disabled every Google service that is possible to disable. I still have to deMicrosoft my PC. I want to move to Linux but I have understood that there’s some compatibility issues with Reaper and virtual instruments. That’s the only reason I haven’t done it yet.
Anyway. Here is a list of apps/services I use instead of Google’s sh*t:
- Browser: Waterfox on PC and Ironfox on phone (of course both with uBlock Origin)
- Cloud storage: Proton Drive
- Email: Proton Mail
- Calendar: Proton Calendar
- Authenticator: Aegis
- Map: OsmAnd
- Search engine: DuckDuckGo and Brave Search
- Play Store: Droid-ify and Aurora Store (not signed in)
- Speech Recognition & Synthesis: SherpaTTS
- Find My Device: FindMyDevice (FOSS)
I think that’s all. There’s some other FOSS apps and services that I use but they are not exactly replacements for Google’s sh*t.
On your PC, freetube will work as a Youtube frontend, you can point it to an invidious instance to act proxy to youtube if you like.
I actually know FreeTube but for some reason I haven’t even tried it yet, but now I will. Thanks.
Be warned, moving your subscriptions over is a bit of a pain in the as since you have to use Google takeout to download a json list if all your subs, otherwise it’s solid and smooth, comes with sponsorblock built in
I am absolutely dumb with this stuff so I have one question: how do I get all of my photos off Google cloud? That’s the only thing stopping me from shitting it down.
I also have a google pixel phone but that will be destroyed once my contract is up and I can afford something not google related
Don’t destroy your phone, you can install grapheneos(a privacy focused android distro) and it’s working great on pixels.
Interesting. Is that an app or do I need some technical know-how to implement it on my device?
Here’s the official guide https://grapheneos.org/install It’s a bit technical, but very detailed.
I guess I’ll share my setup aha. Forewarning: I invested heavily into self hosting and being in full control of as much as possible, mainly to try to be ‘Internet independent’.
- Google ads, APIs, telemetry and everything else that is not necessary: AdGuard Home (selfhosted)
- Android app store: Fdroid with IzzyOnDroid repo, failing that Aurora Store, if apps still whine about not being to use Play Services then I use the Play Store
- Gmail: Mailcow Dockerized (selfhosted) with K9 Android client
- SMS (not that I use it anyway): Fossify SMS
- Instant messaging: Matrix (selfhosted) for Discord/Telegram style with Element client, or Telegram FOSS
- File Manager (I goddamn hate that Google Files forces itself onto any phone after initial setup, even when there’s a manufacturer installed one already): Material Files
- GBoard (It’s also really fucking invasive): HeliBoard
- YouTube: via Revanced Manager, with Odysee as a hopeful replacement. Much lower userbase though, obviously.
- Google Photos (refuses to settle for less than 100% file access): Part of a self hosted Samba share that I keep synced to via FolderSync (from Play Store - they charge €10 for the app outside of Google)
- Chrome: Brave (I downloaded a script to debloat it of crypto and AI)
- Google Search: My partner uses Ecosia for environment reasons, and I use DuckDuckGo for privacy reasons
- Chromecast: I recommend a Roku
- AndroidOS: CalyxOS if Pixel, LineageOS if not
- Play Services: Gapps pico or nano because some things are still tied to Play Services
- Maps is superior, unfortunately, but OSMAnd is a good alt
- Google DNS, used by default by a lot of things like routers: Cloudflare 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1
These are what I use:
Browsers: Fennec, LibreWolf
Email Clients: K-9, Fair Email, Proton Mail, Thunderbird
Pictures: Fossify Camera, Fossify Gallery
File Sharing: Proton Drive
YouTube: Tubular
SMS Messaging: Textra (It’s not FOSS, but unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be a FOSS app in existence that shows the actual name of the person who’s sent the message in group chats. They just show an icon, which isn’t enough for me to keep track)
App store: Droid-ify (F-Droid), Aurora Store
Password Manager: Bitwarden
eBook Reader: Librera FD
Books: Bookwyrm
Translation: LibreTranslator
Calendar: Proton Calendar
What I can’t find good alternatives for:
YouTube itself - enough said
Phone screen translation - I still use Google Assistant, and I’m not aware of anything else that grabs and translates all text on my phone screen
Maps - Rant time. This one is so annoying because there are FOSS navigation apps based on OpenStreetMap that are excellent in every way except one that makes them unusable for me: Using POV navigation instead of observing the convention of up = north. I did find one that lets you maintain a normal map view during navigation, but it doesn’t keep your position centered automatically, which makes it impossible to use while driving. I have no idea who all you deranged people are who actually like the POV navigation, but there are definitely a lot of you because I can’t find a replacement for Google Maps. I even tried Mapquest because at least it’s not Google, but when I tried using it to navigate the first time, it somehow autocorrected “St” to “Ave” and I ended up lost lol. This maps situation really grinds my gears. I do still try to contribute as much as I can to OSM though because it’s an important project, and hopefully someday an uninsane developer will make a proper alternative to Google Maps.
I have no idea who all you deranged people are who actually like the POV navigation
I use both POV and up=north depending on my use case. For some routes where I don’t care about the details of the route I find it useful to have the POV view with what I need now zoomed in and correctly oriented and what I’ll need soon still visible and smaller but still distinguishable.
The problem with up=north is that when you’ve zoomed right in to see the detail, all the wider view stuff is missing, especially when out of built-up zones. It’d be better if the detail level would be replaced/augmented with a detail density setting, so that when you’re out in the sticks with only you, a small single track road with grass down the middle and one sheep visible all the way up to the horizon in any direction that you don’t have to zoom right in to the individual blades of grass before you see the road you’re on.
Other times I do care about the route, and in those cases I’ll use up=north and manual zoom as needed. I still get caught out though when travelling south and the arrow pointing left means I need to turn right.
When I first saw POV I thought it was a stupid gimmick. But then I tried it out and really liked it, but not always.
ProtonMail was the GMail alternative for awhile, until Proton CEO did a stupid move. Otherwise, ProtonMail had actually been a great service and it was nice having a data cap of 500MB. It told me that was all I ever needed for the few years I had with it.
Firefox Forks over Chrome.
Tuta also has a free tie up to 1GB. Been slowly switching over for a few years. It isn’t perfect and you can only use the first party app for “security” but tuta supports a ton of privacy efforts within the EU also
What happened with Proton?
Proton CEO endorsed Trump. Proton’s stance has always been against Big Tech and how Big Tech is bad and that’s all well and good. But, it’s contradicting when you praise or endorse an administration that’s more than likely going to let Big Tech roll over everyone.
Proton CEO endorsed Trump
Even that’s a bit of a stretch. He approved one thing Trump did. It wasn’t blanket praise for everything Trump has done. He also didn’t condemn everything Democratic, just one thing.
I don’t see why approval of one thing someone did constitutes automatic approval of everything. What if Trump has an amazing recipe for a ham and cheese toastie? Would liking that recipe make me a Putin sympathiser? Of course not.
You’re going down a slippery slope fallacy.
First off, endorsing means that you have a public approval of or support of so it doesn’t mean what you twisted it up as. So when I say he endorsed Trump, I am saying that he supported or approved something he did, not saying that he’s a MAGA voter. Contexts and learning what words are used in them is kind of important. Maybe you ought to learn that sometime.
Secondly, I don’t give a flying fuck if Trump ever made some recipe, the old bastard is going around doing too much shit that outweighs any positive thing he’s done. Any positive thing he’s done, we would’ve much have rather it be someone else and not him, because of the amount of stigma that surrounds him because of the shit he’s done that has affected millions.
That’s literally saying and I really hate beating this dead horse, but it’s saying Hitler actually did make some good art pieces, so we should ignore the fact that he was the executor of a grand scale war that costed millions of lives and hosted a death march on those he didn’t like.
I already mentioned this elsewhere, but he did praise Trump and platform him, then he praised the Republican party saying they are the party of “the little guys” (small business), which is just flat out wrong. He does not acknowledge that there are an abundance of things Trump is doing that is fucking awful and disgusting. At best it’s an extremely tone-deaf tweet. What that does do, though, is paint Trump and the Republican party in a very good light. That’s effectively an endorsement without saying it in exact words.
Also, it’s so very obvious that anyone associated with Trump absolutely needs to abide by Trump’s every whim or else he will replace you. So, the point he was trying to make is entirely moot in the first place.
There is just no way to praise Trump or the Republican party without showing your ignorance or alignment with them. Just like you can’t just have a little bit of shit in your food. Once you’ve got even a little bit of shit in your food, then you’ve got shit-food.
Proton CEO endorsed Trump
This is a blatant lie. That never happened.
Not a blatant lie, but somewhat of an exaggeration. He praised Trump, then praised the Republican party while denigrating the Democrats in the same sentence.
He did not “praise Trump”, he praised a single appointment that he made. This is the kind of tribal toxic bullshit that stifles any sort of progress. If Trump does something right (not that he did), you need to be allowed to say that without being accused of being a nazi or someone claiming that you “endorsed” him.
You’re literally in denial of the definition of words.
Trump is a felon, a rapist, and a liar among other things. If you don’t acknowledge that he’s a scumbag while you give him an expression of approval then it makes it seem you approve of the person overall. If there was something Trump did right and people wanted to talk about that, then it would be pretty simple to say something like “Trump sucks, but…” That’s not a crazy expectation and that’s not “tribal toxic bullshit”.
Imagine if someone was saying something like “It’s nice that John Wayne Gacy participated in fundraisers and entertained the children” or “Thanks to Jeffery Dahmer for his military service” without acknowledging the horrible things they did.
You’re literally in denial of the definition of words.
No. You are.
If you don’t acknowledge that he’s a scumbag while you give him an expression of approval then it makes it seem you approve of the person overall.
It may “seem” that way to you if you’re not objective but it doesn’t make it true.
That’s not a crazy expectation
It actually is a crazy and ridiculous expectation.
My selfhosted Nextcloud does:
- Cloud storage (including photo storage)
- Contact/Calendar/Task Sync (DAV Droid)
- Notes
- Podcast subscription and progress sync (gpodder)
While I use OSMAnd for offline navigation MAPS is still my go-to for navigation/discovering places.
My phone is currently running stock Android
What podcast apps do you use with gPodder?
Honestly I just use AntennaPod on Android. I’ve used Gpodder Desktop before but I don’t really listen to podcasts on desktop… So I don’t really need the sync but it’s nice to have especially if you’re moving phones/OS
Regarding AntennaPod it’s honestly the perfect podcast app it does everything (chapters/chapter images …) I want from a podcast app and it’s open source
Oh alright shame because I would love to find one.
I’ve heard of antennapod and did use it a couple years back. It’s good for sure
I personally use pocket casts but its proprietary afaik
Have you tried gpodder? It basically does what it says on the tin it plays podcasts (and you can subscribe to them etc.) and if you have gpodder on desktop and a gpodder compatible app (like AntennaPod) on you phone it will not only sync over your subscriptions but even you listening status, so you can just pick up where you left off.
Oh last time I tried it didn’t synch listening history just subscriptions. I’ll have to give it another go one of these days, thanks
