Ask HN: How to move away from Google • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: How to move away from Google

#101

Post by dividedbyzero » Wed, Mar 30, 2022, 11:05 PM UTC

SamWhited wrote: post #50

dividedbyzero wrote: post #25

I'm still looking for an alternative e-mail provider that is more privacy-conscious than Google, still works with ordinary IMAP and is based in the EU so I get to actually benefit from EU data protection. Haven't found one that ticks all boxes yet, but going with a US company doesn't appear to change much as I'm not a US citizen and hence fair game once my data is on US servers and I guess it inevitably will end up t…

I believe Disroot is out of the EU and offers free (donation based) email services: https://disroot.org

I wasn't aware of them, will check them out. Thanks for the pointer!

Re: Ask HN: How to move away from Google

#102

Post by ilikepi » Wed, Mar 30, 2022, 11:06 PM UTC

Macha wrote: post #86

greendude29 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How strange, I've been using DDG for a few years now and only rarely do I need to go to Google. Do you have examples of searches where Google is definitely superior (just out of curiosity, not challenging the notion)?

Recent one from me: "Hibernate window function" Google showed results that explain Hibernate's expression language isn't sufficient to express them and explainers on how to drop down to native queries. DDG showed me how to hibernate my windows PC.

I tried the same test, in a clean browser that should have nothing for Google to grab (beyond IP address) to correlate with my browsing habits. Of the top 10 results, Google got the right context in 7, while DDG got it in only one (the 10th in fact). I guess if you work with that particular piece of software, maybe you hit this sort of thing a lot. Thankfully, my experience is more like GP's: I only rarely try sending queries to Google, and for me at least, often those rare cases don't yield anything from Google beyond the realization that I need to figure out a better query.

Re: Ask HN: How to move away from Google

#103

Post by jrib » Wed, Mar 30, 2022, 11:09 PM UTC

fastmail has been great for e-mail.

Using it as a google drive alternative though but I'd like to move to a solution with client-side encryption. Should actually be doable with the webdav that fastmail exposes and rclone: https://www.fastmail.help/hc/en-us/articles/1500000277882-Re...

And I miss google sheets.

Re: Ask HN: How to move away from Google

#104

Post by alisonatwork » Wed, Mar 30, 2022, 11:10 PM UTC

I use Fastmail for my personal email and Outlook for my work email.

If you have any need to use Microsoft products for work or home (gaming), then it's worth getting an Office 365 subscription, since it also gives you a terabyte of space on OneDrive, which syncs pretty seamlessly on Windows.

You can de-Google a big chunk of your Android if you don't mind using Microsoft instead. Outlook for email, OneDrive for sync, Edge for browsing, OneNote for notes etc.

Re: Ask HN: How to move away from Google

#105

Post by branon » Wed, Mar 30, 2022, 11:10 PM UTC

I deleted my Google account three years ago and haven't looked back.

Email was really the only thing I made heavy use of: Gandi, who I already pay to keep my domain registered, offers 3 GB mailboxes for free. This works fine for me since I archive and delete old mail annually. You can purchase 50 GB mailboxes for a few dollars per month.

For file storage, I host my own NextCloud instance and handle (offline, geographically redundant) backups myself. I also pay for a MEGA account and back up critically important documents there.

My primary phone runs Android 6 (terrible, I know) and I haven't had issues using it while not logged into a Google account. The artificially limited capacity of Google Maps' search history is a disappointing dark pattern, but that's about it. I plan on switching to a PinePhone eventually.

I do worry about the usability of newer Android versions without a Google account. Not sure what's changed, do you have to sign in to use current Android phones?

Re: Ask HN: How to move away from Google

#106

Post by dividedbyzero » Wed, Mar 30, 2022, 11:13 PM UTC

xenonite wrote: post #90

dividedbyzero wrote: post #25

I'm still looking for an alternative e-mail provider that is more privacy-conscious than Google, still works with ordinary IMAP and is based in the EU so I get to actually benefit from EU data protection. Haven't found one that ticks all boxes yet, but going with a US company doesn't appear to change much as I'm not a US citizen and hence fair game once my data is on US servers and I guess it inevitably will end up t…

https://posteo.de/en

I think they don't support bringing my own domain for privacy reasons [1]; as I mentioned near the end of my comment, I own a domain that I'd like to keep using for email, I use Google Workspace for this and lots of people and companies have that address, so switching to @posteo.de would be a waste of a neat vanity domain and a huge hassle. I probably could build something using Cloudflare and AWS as a sibling of your comment mentioned, but that's a lot of moving parts I need to manage myself. I'd rather if email just worked and when it doesn't, there's support I can ping to have it fixed.

1: https://posteo.de/en/site/faq "Can I use Posteo with my own domain?"

Re: Ask HN: How to move away from Google

#107

Post by jrib » Wed, Mar 30, 2022, 11:13 PM UTC

throwaway67743 wrote: post #11

Self hosted email for 20 years so ignoring that: - nextcloud for photos/drive - bitwarden with vaultwarden backend for passwords - self hosted Firefox Sync for everything else - syncthing for outlying file sharing - jottacloud for high capacity storage dump (rclone is your friend) Probably forgot something

what are you using for self-host firefox sync?

Re: Ask HN: How to move away from Google

#108

Post by dividedbyzero » Wed, Mar 30, 2022, 11:13 PM UTC

Tmpod wrote: post #82

dividedbyzero wrote: post #25

I'm still looking for an alternative e-mail provider that is more privacy-conscious than Google, still works with ordinary IMAP and is based in the EU so I get to actually benefit from EU data protection. Haven't found one that ticks all boxes yet, but going with a US company doesn't appear to change much as I'm not a US citizen and hence fair game once my data is on US servers and I guess it inevitably will end up t…

I'll add Migadu to the existing suggestions ;^)

Did not know them, will check them out!

Re: Ask HN: How to move away from Google

#109

Post by fsckboy » Wed, Mar 30, 2022, 11:14 PM UTC

throwaway67743 wrote: post #14

4kelly wrote: post #8

Fastmail for email. I used to use syncthing to maintain backups and syncing, but eventually just gave into iCloud as a compromise. Setting up and maintaining syncthing on wife and kids devices became a pain. DuckDuckGo for search. Dropping down to google when I’m stuck. Honestly I’ve found google worse for technical topics due to all the junk websites that recycle content. You’ll be fighting against the current tryin…

I really want to like ddg but it's just awful - not only are the results completely irrelevant but now it's started showing me russian language results, I'm in a country that uses the Latin alphabet.

> I really want to like ddg but it's just awful

I use duckduckgo almost exlusively and I don't have any trouble finding what I'm looking for

Re: Ask HN: How to move away from Google

#110

Post by mattmaroon » Wed, Mar 30, 2022, 11:16 PM UTC

Not sure if you like Microsoft any better but after over a decade of Gmail I’ve moved back to outlook and prefer it. It’s a lot better than it used to be. One Drive is much better than GDrive, and MS’s office programs have always been significantly better IMO. I find the whole Microsoft suite to be affordable and enjoyable to use. Obviously iPhone is an (or the) alternative to Android.

I still don’t find much better than Google for searching but I guess Bing and DDG are at least a lot better than nothing. I do feel like my user satisfaction with Google search goes down a little bit every year.

Depending on why you’re moving away from Google these may not be options you’ll consider. But if your opposition isn’t to big tech in particular but to just Google give MS products a try if you haven’t in awhile.