this post was submitted on 15 Mar 2025
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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?

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[–] rraggl@feddit.nl 1 points 5 minutes ago* (last edited 1 minute ago)
  • Desktop: Linux (Tuxedo) Browser: Vivaldi 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

[–] Bronzie@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

Almost everything, finally!
OS: GrapheneOS
Calendar: Proton
Browser: Firefox
Storage: NAS
Youtube: NewPipe and SmartTube

I’m still stuck with Maps and Android in my car as it has Android Automotive, but I’m happy with my progress so far

[–] orcrist@lemm.ee 1 points 2 hours ago

Tried? That is boring. Stick with what we kept using.

[–] somenonewho@feddit.org 4 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

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

[–] Niquarl@lemmy.ml 1 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

What podcast apps do you use with gPodder?

[–] somenonewho@feddit.org 5 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

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

[–] OADINC@feddit.nl 1 points 2 hours ago

I use Antennapod too, I really like it :)

[–] SexDwarf@lemmy.world 3 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (3 children)

Replaced

  • Gmail -> Proton Mail
  • Keep -> Joplin
  • Docs -> LibreOffice + OpenDocument Reader
  • Drive 100 Gb -> Proton Drive (free 5 Gb)
  • Photos -> ente photos
  • Play Books -> ReadEra Premium + Kobo
  • Translate & Lens -> DeepL

Haven't been able to replace (just yet)

  • Wallet
  • Maps & Earth
  • Sheets
  • Home
  • Calendar
[–] Liljekonvalj@feddit.org 4 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Tutamail has a calendar. Tutamail hasn't said anything positive or factual about the republican parties either. They've made no statements

[–] SexDwarf@lemmy.world 1 points 24 minutes ago

Tutamail shared calendars (which is a must) subscription was so confusing I didn't understand it. Like their whole subscription model is needlessly complicated.

[–] lud@lemm.ee 1 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Since you already use proton you should check out proton calendar.

[–] SexDwarf@lemmy.world 1 points 29 minutes ago* (last edited 28 minutes ago)

We tried it but my wife hated it. With Proton, you have choose one subscription. I already use Pass plus so I can't have Mail plus (shared calendars) without Proton ultimate which is an overkill in my situation and too expensive.

[–] iborrelli@lemm.ee 2 points 6 hours ago (2 children)

Google sheets is simply... Really good. I haven't been able to find anything else close. I've tried libre and even excel but sheets is by far my favourite. And I really love spreadsheets so I feel I'm in a horrible position and so torn.

[–] lud@lemm.ee 1 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

I'm no accountant, but isn't excel way better than sheets?

[–] orcrist@lemm.ee 2 points 2 hours ago

LibreOffice is solid, too.

[–] SexDwarf@lemmy.world 1 points 6 hours ago

Tell me about it. Wallet is literally the only good option. The alternatives to Maps don't come even close, it's simply the best and most convenient app. Same with Earth (use it rarely but still).

[–] Lyra_Lycan@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (1 children)

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
[–] kamen@lemmy.world 1 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

I've tried HeliBoard as already suggested elsewhere, but I find its autocorrect and suggestions absolutely abysmal in English and even worse in my native Bulgarian. With Gboard I can usually type a letter or two and it already knows what's up, and it often knows what's the next word based just on the previous one.

How's your experience with it?

[–] kaerypheur@lemmy.world 2 points 10 hours ago

I tried to minimize my dependency on Google by signing up for various email services like Petal Mail by Huawei, Proton Mail, and Yandex Mail. I also tried to find smartphones that don't have Google by default, such as Murena smartphones and Huawei smartphones. But it seems like it's too late to look for those gems without Google because I have so many apps that I bought on Google, amounting to around five digits in Malaysian Ringgit, which is not cheap. So I think I'll stay with Google for now, sadly.

[–] JustARegularNerd@lemmy.world 23 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago) (1 children)

Been degoogled for years at this point:

  • Stock Android --> LineageOS or GrapheneOS (no gapps)
  • YouTube --> Invidious*, NewPipe
  • Google Search --> DuckDuckGo, Brave Search
  • Google Play Store --> F-Droid, Aurora Store

I've also decoupled from other similar services:

  • Outlook --> ProtonMail
  • Calendar --> Nextcloud*
  • OneDrive --> Nextcloud*
  • Windows, macOS --> Linux (after years of distrohopping, I found LMDE is incredibly stable while still being a nice "out of box" distro)
  • Google Maps, Apple Maps --> OSMAnd, Organic Maps

I never used any online password manager myself, I went from writing passwords in a literal book to KeePass, to now Vaultwarden* for that

* - self hosted

[–] Lyra_Lycan@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Nice, I have also chosen most of the same as you. For custom ROM there's CalyxOS, which ironically makes a Pixel phone one of the best picks for deGoogleing
I don't like the proprietary style of Proton Mail, plus they charge to have more than one account logged in, which is very inconvenient, so I set up my own Mailcow instance

For YouTube I highly recommend ReVanced

For notes I use Apache-CouchDB and connect using Obsidian with the LiveSync plugin. Live sync is fantastic and is as close as I think I'll ever get to OneNote.

NextCloud is great, a pain in the arse to add existing files as you need to upload everything, but a few hours of uploading with Cloudflare set to DNS only is fine

[–] JustARegularNerd@lemmy.world 1 points 3 hours ago

I've considered CalyxOS but prefer the hardening of GrapheneOS with no gapps - still means a phone decent on privacy. However I do try to keep an open mind, so if CalyxOS has additional privacy benefits to my existing setup I'd be interested.

I agree with the proprietary style of ProtonMail point, and my workaround for multiple accounts has been to use my own domain and have email rules for delivering messages to the respective folder. I don't have immediate plans to move from them, but I am watching the news cycle and have considered Tuta as an alternative.

I haven't used ReVanced, but I remember the original YouTube Vanced was a mod of the original YouTube apk - if that's still the case, I feel like ReVanced would offer even less privacy than Invidious or NewPipe. However I'm happy to be corrected.

I personally use Nextcloud notes but the Obsidian setup you have sounds interesting, especially if it's like OneNote - I'll keep it in mind!

Completely agree on your Nextcloud points - I uploaded my uncompressed Telegram archive to it, which took like 12 hours over my Gigabit lan. I suspect it hated the sheer amount of small files

[–] AlexWarburton@lemmy.world 3 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Google Search -> Ecosia, Qwant Browser -> Vivaldi Mail, Calender -> Proton* Drive -> Proton* DNS -> Quad9 Notes -> Joplin VPN -> Proton LLM/AI -> Mistral Translate -> DeepL Maps -> Here We Go Dall-E etc -> Stability Matrix Kindle -> Pocketbook

*Planning to move everything to a NAS with Nextcloud and synch in with Jottacloud as a backup.

[–] EveryMuffinIsNowEncrypted@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (1 children)

I see from the "View source" option that your comment has everything in a neat, line-by-line fashion, though the final markup is decidedly not.

So, a pro-tip I've noticed from my own commenting experience: even if you have a line break, Lemmy (for some stupid reason) won't apply one when rendering; so if you want it to show, you have to use two line breaks, though then there will be an extra half-line or so that you probably never wanted.

For example, don't do

Line Item 1
Line Item 2

but rather do

Line Item 1

Line Item 2

Yes, I agree it's rather stupid.

[–] Ephera@lemmy.ml 3 points 8 hours ago (2 children)

It's the way Markdown works, for reasons, which is what Lemmy uses for its comment syntax.

If you want a regular line
break, you can put two spaces
at the end of a line.

Holy shit I've been using markdown message boards for years and
you just blew my mind

[–] EveryMuffinIsNowEncrypted@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah I know, and I don't like that limitation. Lol. xD

[–] Ephera@lemmy.ml 2 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

Yeah, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense here. Codeberg uses a Markdown flavor which honors single line breaks and it kind of surprised me how well that is working. Like, if you're used to Markdown, you can put those two spaces and they're just ignored. If you're not used to Markdown, it works like you'd expect.

I guess, the downside is that either each client needs to configure their Markdown renderer to behave like that, or I guess, the server software has to pre-process the Markdown to add in the double-spaces.
That's more of a problem for Lemmy than it is for Codeberg, because there is a number of different clients available.

[–] toastal@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Jerboa vs. the website do different things since they render Markdown differently. Markdown itself is so spartan that it doesn’t have many things users want or need, so a bunch of incompatible forks get made & everyone just pretends it is all the same when in reality, it often lies on a single tool’s implementation.

Take AsciiDoc with its verse directive or reStructuredText with its line-block directive. Both get you poetry-style newlines on demand & are a part of the spec instead of left to the implementer.

[–] Ephera@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 hours ago

Yeah, that's kind of the advantage and disadvantage of Markdown. It's so simple that alternative implementations can be easily created, which helps with adoption. But because those alternative implementations exist and because there is a need to add more features, those alternative implementations will see custom changes for the format, ultimately making the format less standardized.

Didn't know that Codeberg did that. I'll have to add that to my list of reasons why I love Codeberg. Lol.

[–] venotic@kbin.melroy.org 16 points 19 hours ago (12 children)

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.

[–] JustEnoughDucks@feddit.nl 2 points 5 hours ago

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

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