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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.
Desktop Environment
Operating System: Fedora Workstation Linux
Productivity Tools:
Browsers:
Password Management:
Mobile Setup
Device & OS: Pixel 8 Pro running GrapheneOS
Mobile Apps:
Search Engine: Kagi
Self-Hosted Services:
Car Integration:
I had to change my name and hairstyle
I even cut my hair and change my name.
for me:
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.
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:
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'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:
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.
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.
Awesome. Thanks friend. Just like cooking: if I follow the recipe to the tee then it should have great results
I know there are more options out there but what I have is a synology nas.
I self host the nas at home and I can still access the photos and stuff everywhere I go.
I chose synology because even though its proprietary and a little overpriced, at the time, I was short on time to learn the inner workings of free operating systems and setting up all the certificates, ddns, ports, etc.
Ofc there are also other cloud providers as well, but I use the synology for jellyfin so I killed 2 birds with one stone.
I'm pretty happy with all of those
You don't use gentoo? Ha. Peasant. /s
I actually love arch and somehow found arch easier than all the other distros once you get it down.
Wow OK! I didnโt know about Infomaniak kSuite, thank you. Looks great!
Vivaldi is google
for speedtest, fast.com is pretty great as it's a pretty lightweight page and uses netflix's servers which mean it's not really possible for ISPs to game it
Cloudflares test site is more informative btw
Almost everything, finally!
OS: GrapheneOS
Calendar: Proton
Browser: Firefox
Storage: NAS
Youtube: NewPipe and SmartTube
Iโm still stuck with Maps and Android in my car as it has Android Automotive, but Iโm happy with my progress so far