this post was submitted on 26 Jul 2023
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Anyone still using Google products is a fuckin idiot, IMO
There are hardly any alternatives for people who don't have the time to self-host and setup everything.
"Oh but Firefox!" the tools that Mozilla provides are indeed good - but there's no Mozilla Photos, Mozilla Notes, Mozilla Assistant, and so on.
"Oh but Microsoft!" and why would that be better than Google?
"Oh but mix Firefox with Proton and this specific GitHub project for photo management and this FOSS notes apps with a Docker backend for sync and thi-" I wish I had the time to do that, truly, I actually prefer many of the FOSS alternatives I've seen lately. I do not have the time nor hardware to do this correctly.
I wholeheartedly agree. I'm a technical person, I run Linux as my primary OS and use FOSS software. But I also have a full time job and 2 small kids, and frankly I just don't have the time or patience to be a full time sysadmin. Proton has come a long way in providing alternatives to Gmail, GCalendar, GDrive, etc., but like you said if you want to replace ALL of Google you practically have to self host a gazillion Nextcloud instances or whatever.
Why does it have to be Mozilla everything? I want Mozilla to continue doing what it does best: build browsers and (maybe) mail clients.
Not everything has to be unified. I'd be quite content with Teehee Photos, Hoho Notes and Huehuehue Assistant as long as they're decent tools.
Fully automated or fully integrated? And how do you know? Not trying to be confrontational, but whenever I think a tool doesn't exist, it totally does. It just isn't popular enough.
There isn't. Closest there is is NextCloud, but you need to self host it, since it isn't E2EE so using a provider would just put you back in square one. Proton is a close second but its still miles away, they have a lot of products but their devs seem to be spread thin between then.
there are hosted nextcloud servers available. the nextcloud website has some listed on their website.
I kinda agree with you. Before my exams I had lot of time. I used to self host nextcloud, email and invidious etc. But during exam had no time to manage instances or update my packages, one after than another they kept showing error and they went offline.
I stopped my VPS and started using Google Drive(it was already available on my android) to share my notes temporarily with friends, soon I kept using it. I hope protonmail becomes better so I can start using them instead of other products
This is how they do it. They wedge themselves in via convenience with the hopes that we'll stay on their ecosystem eventually.
I hope you'll soon find the time to regain your independence from them. Best of luck.
What I don't like about Proton is that I can't combine Mail Plus and Pass Plus. I don't need a 500 GB Proton Drive or Proton VPN, but I like their Mail and Password Manager. Now I use Mail for free and Password Manager for €12/year. I would like to pay €3.99/month for the Mail offer, but for that I would have to upgrade to the much more extensive Proton Unlimited.
I would pay 7.99 for Proton Unlimited. But I can't pay alnost 200 Euros for it all at once. I'm not a big fan of the huge cost difference between monthly, 12m and 24m subscriptions.
It’s a hard fight between all the time maintaining your own stuff takes and the utter resistance by other users who just won’t learn anything new or use any real security.
Microsoft is arguably worse than Google. They make you pay for the software they use to harvest your data for free.
These businesses should be paying for the data, the raw materials, they collect and use to build their products. You can't assemble a car without paying for the nuts and bolts, but that's what they do.
I'm sorry but this sentiment is so utterly detached from the technical capabilities and general engagement of the average layman that it bears a response.
Tech savvy people have this awful habit of calling anyone not in our specific field an idiot when they don't do things our preferred way, and it's not a good look. Those people aren't the weird ones, we are. And if you're the sort of person who thinks you've elevated yourself above the commoners because you don't use Google's stuff ... yeah, that and 5 bucks will get you a latte. There are oceans of professional expertise you're not privvy to, and unless you really think you're doing better than everyone at everything, a little humility, temperance, and grace for others is warranted.
I have to agree with this.
I’m basically “the idiot”. Decently tech savvy, but non-IT. Very capable of learning what I need to know, but I haven’t really had the time or mental capacity to learn how to do a lot of the things I need to to get away from corporate overlords.
I’m working on it, and have been for a while, but in the meantime I do use several google services, because that’s what I’ve been using for many many years and change is really hard. Especially when you have to initiate the change yourself, and especially when you know if you switch to a stop-gap solution you’ll loose all impetus to actually keep making the change (which I will).
The biggest challenge is learning what is worth it to self-host, what hard/software to use for the configuration I want, what’s compatible with devices I own (windows, Linux, iOS and android), etc. I’ve been running Plex for like 10 years now (windows then Linux), but it’s a very basic setup on a host pc I don’t use for much else. Beyond that, I need to learn almost everything from the bottom up, and that’s a lot to learn -just- to avoid an existing company and their existing products that I’ve been using for years. Unlike my Plex content, I would actually care if I lost my other self-host data, so not something to fuck around half-ass with.
I can’t blame people for not wanting to/knowing how to do it. I like learning this shit (because of the end result, not because I have interest in it, sorry not sorry) and I still don’t actually want to do it.
OK, then let's check my idiocy.
Web-browser? I'm using Firefox since the beginning of this year.
Email? I've an account on ProtonMail for serious stuff, and Gmail for garbage, less serious stuff and spam collector.
Cloud storage? Well, unless anyone can gift me a Raspberry Pi, a hub and an ELI5 Nextcloud manual for dummies, I have to keep using Google Drive.
Videos? That depends. I'm watching videos on Youtube, but I'm uploading my own content on Peertube.
Phone? I need another ELI5 custom rom manual for dummies, and it has to be specific for my device. Otherwise, I'll keep using Android, but with most minimum usage of Google apps.
I think that's all.
Can't fix everything, but Google drive is easily replaced by proton drive. Google notes/keep or any kind of note taking is easily replaced (and improved) by Obsidian, and on android you can install f-droid as an alternative store.
Downside is that these thinks cost money. But everything has a cost, and at least here the cost is clear, and upfront.
So basically every software/front-end web dev? Lol ok.
I agree, as I reply on my pixel6 pro
So you don't have an android phone I suppose?
Pixel phones.