Degoogle: Cutting Google out of your life • Hacker News Board

Re: Degoogle: Cutting Google out of your life

#331

Post by gorgoiler » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 1:58 AM UTC

One of the top entries in this article is a browser extension called minerBlock. It’s there to stop rogue websites using your browser’s JavaScript runtime for cryptocurrency mining.

I don’t know much about mining, but in the era of ASIC miners, how much dollar value does a minute or two of JS mining in Firefox get you? How many visitors do these rogue sites get?

It seems like a lot of effort to get a couple of cents for free, but I assume I’m hugely underestimating. I’m also still puzzled by why my partner’s MacBook was overheating last night, and wonder if I’ve just found out why.

Re: Degoogle: Cutting Google out of your life

#332

Post by cwhiz » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 1:58 AM UTC

734129837261 wrote: post #239

I think Google is great. It's convenient. Their search results are tailored to my liking, I love Gmail, I adore Google Docs/Sheets, and there are tons of tools I use almost every day as well. Honestly, the "switching away from [nameHere]" trend is so tiresome. Good job, you're a unique little snowflake now. You don't have Facebook, no LinkedIn, you don't use Google but DuckDuckGo, and you're even switching away from…

Search results tailored to your liking?

My what an excellent bubble you’ve built for yourself. No wonder you like Google. I bet your panties got in quite a wad reading about people who don’t like the things you do.

Re: Degoogle: Cutting Google out of your life

#333

Post by iimblack » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 2:01 AM UTC

nowa1000 wrote: post #192

submeta wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here: Migrated all my gmail accounts to Fastmail. Took me two days. Migrated Google Docs to Dropbox. And replaced Google Sheets and Doc with a Microsoft subscription (MS Word and MS Excel). Then there‘s the search engine. I tried hard to replace Google Search with DDG, but I have to admit that Google gives me better search results. Still I would love to leave this also behind. Finally there is youtube for me. Ai…

Fastmail also wants a phone number. I no longer know what mail service to use apart from setting it all up myself.

Tutanota seems like the safest and most secure option I’ve been able to find.

Re: Degoogle: Cutting Google out of your life

#334

Post by brongondwana » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 2:08 AM UTC

submeta wrote: post #56

gonehome wrote: post #17

I dropped all google services and it wasn’t that hard. The most tedious part is moving accounts from your gmail to your new email (I switched to using my own domain backed by fastmail). Even with a password manager and a list of all my accounts this took me an entire day. You also learn how terrible most non-software company account management is. On a lot of sites changing email is impossible. On some it lets you do…

Same here: Migrated all my gmail accounts to Fastmail. Took me two days. Migrated Google Docs to Dropbox. And replaced Google Sheets and Doc with a Microsoft subscription (MS Word and MS Excel). Then there‘s the search engine. I tried hard to replace Google Search with DDG, but I have to admit that Google gives me better search results. Still I would love to leave this also behind. Finally there is youtube for me. Ai…

Thanks! We're very proud of our work. Glad to hear that you're having a good experience :)

Re: Degoogle: Cutting Google out of your life

#335

Post by warabe » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 2:08 AM UTC

When I tried to change my gmail address of Firefox account, I realized it is not possible, because email address is the ID of the account. Dear Mozilla folks, please let me change my email address of Firefox account.

Re: Degoogle: Cutting Google out of your life

#336

Post by brongondwana » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 2:12 AM UTC

nowa1000 wrote: post #192

submeta wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here: Migrated all my gmail accounts to Fastmail. Took me two days. Migrated Google Docs to Dropbox. And replaced Google Sheets and Doc with a Microsoft subscription (MS Word and MS Excel). Then there‘s the search engine. I tried hard to replace Google Search with DDG, but I have to admit that Google gives me better search results. Still I would love to leave this also behind. Finally there is youtube for me. Ai…

Fastmail also wants a phone number. I no longer know what mail service to use apart from setting it all up myself.

Unfortunately we still need some kind of signal that you're a unique person at signup to avoid infinite fraud (as it is we still get waves of thousands of accounts at a time who have worked out a way to get their hands on a pile of numbers and are finessing an attack on someone else via us).

You can delete the number once you've signed up, though of course that means that if you forget your password is reduces the channels by which we can validate that you're the same person! (this is also quite common: many HN users would be surprised how often people forget passwords)

Re: Degoogle: Cutting Google out of your life

#337

Post by tjbiddle » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 2:14 AM UTC

Whenever this topic comes up, it's always all or nothing.

If you're looking to detangle yourself from the Google ecosystem, you can do so one tool at a time over any period of time.

Maybe you'll get all the way off it, maybe just 80% - either way, you will make progress.

Re: Degoogle: Cutting Google out of your life

#338

Post by doritosfan84 » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 2:17 AM UTC

manigandham wrote: post #270

My biggest usage is Chrome profiles. I use several for various personal and work accounts which means passwords, history, extensions, open sessions, and everything else are all nicely contained under separate Chrome windows. Nothing else comes close to this kind of convenience and UX, and it's more secure since accounts are not co-mingled.

That sounds the same as Firefox profiles, plus Firefox has containers for more sectioning of data within a profile. Is there something Chrome has here that Firefox doesn’t?

Re: Degoogle: Cutting Google out of your life

#339

Post by chrisweekly » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 2:29 AM UTC

texasbigdata wrote: post #118

the_af wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Out of curiosity, what's the benefit of replacing Google Docs with Dropbox? I seem to remember HN's readership is occasionally hostile to Dropbox. Myself, I use it but the same drive that would have me ditch Google would also make me ditch Dropbox... (I haven't reached that point, though)

Conceptually, using what the SEO community feels google does every time google does an algorithm change that muddles SEM / organic after a revenue drop (source: mozcom 2019), you would have to assume they would keep marginally pushing incremental borders to ameliorate any drop or “lower than wall street expected growth” in ad revenue. So the OPs approach to fully migrate is consistent with that world view.

Texasbigdata -> texasbigsentence? ;) I think I even agree w you, but whoa cowboy, is that some stream-of-consciousness you've laid down there!

Re: Degoogle: Cutting Google out of your life

#340

Post by AtomicPlayboy » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 2:30 AM UTC

hu3 wrote: post #213

junon wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I will never, ever install Fuchsia if I can help it. Replacing one Google Spyware OS with another doesn't solve anything.

I will keep using Google products for as long as they keep being great. Life's too short for extreme measures. You gotta pick your fights. What I did stop using was anything Apple related and that fight was easy to pick. Their repair-hostile-by-design hardware actually harm the environment. Plus it proved trivial to replace their crap with superior tech.

Whether their products are good or not is beside the point.

They do everything they can to have your PII and this is something people should care about.

Things like 'accidentally' collecting your BSSIDs for Google Maps or providing Google Fonts not because they want a more beautiful Web, but to have a tracker on your site.