Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Degoogle: Cutting Google out of your life

degoogle.jmoore.dev

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

471–480 of 665 posts

Re: Degoogle: Cutting Google out of your life

#471

Post by toastal »

stilisstuk wrote: post #409
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…

Not an alternative, bit insidious is aborter frontend to YouTube... and om Android there is newpipe. However, for me, the problems are: Maps. Google Maps are great. Calendar: my calender provider online has ICS calendar sharing, not e.g. itip.and imip.

I decided to start becoming an active contributor to OpenStreetMap. If a business isn't on the map, I just ask whoever works there a series of questions and upload the new POI. Some of the maps, like those in Bangkok actually mapped out a lot of footpaths that say go through a mall that save a ton of time walking vs Google Maps.

Re: Degoogle: Cutting Google out of your life

#472

Post by tjoff »

toastercat wrote: post #136
maps7 wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lots of text on Migadu's site but no pictures of what the inbox looks like

I think they appeal to powerusers that probably already use a client like Thunderbird. :) However, their webmail client is just RainLoop, which you can find a demo of here: https://www.rainloop.net/try-now/ Also, they are currently collaborating with sourcehut to develop a new webmail client to replace RainLoop. For the record, I like RainLoop quite a bit and find it to be very speedy.

Sure, but as a poweruser with a surname domain I have to be considerate of all none-poweruser relatives that are going to be using it.

So even though I'll barely use it at all I signed up for Migadu only so that I could have a look at the webmail UI. But I couldn't even get a look at it, likely because I have yet to configured my domain. But I will not disrupt my domain just to get a peak at the UI...

Thanks!

Re: Degoogle: Cutting Google out of your life

#473

Post by volongoto »

Crash0v3rid3 wrote: post #467
volongoto wrote: post #461

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not young and I remember the times when Google replaced Alta Vista and then Hotmail (and released Wave). I don't think people forgot about those days, but mostly think that the Google they liked has kicked the bucket. (Google's motto was "Don't be evil" those days, remember? It was removed from the code of conduct in 2018). I think today, Google (together with Facebook and friends) is actively harming the open in…

Don't be evil was never removed from their code of conduct, it's literally the last line: https://abc.xyz/investor/other/google-code-of-conduct/ Why does this keep getting spread?

I stand corrected. Wikipedia says "In April 2018, the motto was removed from the code of conduct's preface and retained in its last sentence." Thank you.

But I think my point remains valid. Google's "attitude" changed dramatically in the recent years and we are just responding to that.

Re: Degoogle: Cutting Google out of your life

#474

Post by ricardo81 »

maxekman wrote: post #435
switch11 wrote: post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kudos absolutely great to see you do this I moved off Google after they started doing some strange things with our adwords accounts Anyways Agree with you on this -> The only google service that is really relevant and hard to replace is YouTube. Google's earnings from ads went down last quarter. First quarter that has ever happened They are definitely at risk of becoming Yahoo 2.0. The only thing is the immense amoun…

> Search -> Use Bing, then DuckDuck Go, and if still not good results, then Google Why not use DDG first? I switched to it in the beginning of 2020, have almost never had to fallback to Google.

Yes, may as well go straight to DDG, which is pretty much Bing anyway, as shown here: searchenginemap.com

Re: Degoogle: Cutting Google out of your life

#475

Post by volongoto »

throwaway5752 wrote: post #226

If only Google were my 10th biggest problem. Try to get Exxon, Shell, et al out of your life who aren't violating abstract principles but are literally killing the planet. Then let me get unethically farmed or raised foods out of my life (which, thanks to the US preoccupation with corn and the nitrogen it requires, are frequently overlapping with petroleum). Then let me get Oracle and Microsoft out of my life. Then l…

All good, valid points. There are so many things that needs political attention. And exactly for that reason, I think ranking these companies according to how evil they are hardly helps. We need significant regulatory changes around climate, privacy, farming, etc. One political issue may have priority over others, but the whole thing is more political than personal (getting a company out of my life).

Re: Degoogle: Cutting Google out of your life

#476

Post by toastal »

For me, I think the biggest Google crutches I have left are: Translate and Voice. I run Havoc OS with microG, use Firefox, and everything else people suggest, but I can't shake these two.

Living in foreign countries it's obviously useful, and I would have been royally screwed in Vietnam without the offline translations when I crossed the border and no place was accepting my ATM card. Related usually to financial institutions, I don't keep an active US phone number and my Voice account is basically a 2FA front for places not using TOPT or FIDO2 for security or I couldn't access my cash or credit.

Re: Degoogle: Cutting Google out of your life

#477

Post by ColinHayhurst »

sadfklsjlkjwt wrote: post #368
switch11 wrote: post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kudos absolutely great to see you do this I moved off Google after they started doing some strange things with our adwords accounts Anyways Agree with you on this -> The only google service that is really relevant and hard to replace is YouTube. Google's earnings from ads went down last quarter. First quarter that has ever happened They are definitely at risk of becoming Yahoo 2.0. The only thing is the immense amoun…

Browser - use Firefox.

Browser - I use Firefox and Vivaldi

Search - I use Startpage, DDG, Mojeek

Re: Degoogle: Cutting Google out of your life

#478

Post by quirmian »

nikodunk wrote: post #424
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…

Wow! I just realized that for "business" accounts Fastmail is $5/mo and GSuite is $7/mo which is what I'm currently paying. Drop-in replacement for same/less cost & better privacy while supporting a slightly better cause? I'm switching tomorrow.

GSuite is not just gmail - it also includes docs, sheets, slides, meet etc.

Re: Degoogle: Cutting Google out of your life

#479

Post by volongoto »

Crash0v3rid3 wrote: post #468
patd wrote: post #456

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of your positives are more than 10 years old. In the meantime they've remove the "Don't be evil" motto, their Android/Chromebook support is very short lived, they've killed countless services people relied on, ... I don't think Google is evil like Microsoft was in the 90s but I don't blindly trust them as I might have done in the past.

It's really sad how much this misinformation gets spread... Don't be evil is literally the last line of their code of conduct: https://abc.xyz/investor/other/google-code-of-conduct/

Yes, but it is no longer their "motto" (the guiding principle for the company). So, it appearing in the CoC does not mean that it's the guiding principle.

But I think you are raising a good point. Why is this piece of "misinformation" being spread so much? What do you think? I think it is because it corresponds to people's experience with Google: "an entity once liked by the users and did good deeds has quit doing those." So, it may be "misinformation" as you put it, but I don't think it bears no value.

Re: Degoogle: Cutting Google out of your life

#480

Post by Crash0v3rid3 »

II2II wrote: post #319
actuator wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know it is easy to hate on big companies but how do you leave them when credible alternatives are not even close in productivity/performance. I tried leaving Macbook, but whenever I have tried the alternatives(even Thinkpad with Ubuntu), Macbook still seems to be at the sweet spot of life time ownership cost/performance. I do care about repairability, good keyboards etc. but I do have to look at things in balance.…

> I know it is easy to hate on big companies but how do you leave them when credible alternatives are not even close in productivity/performance. There are times when that is true, and there are times when it is simply a matter of adapting to the differences. For example, you mentioned trying a ThinkPad with Ubuntu after using a MacBook. You claimed that the MacBook seems to be at the sweet spot. It reflects your exp…

What data do you expect them to mine from gsuite customers?

What do you think they do with the data?

Their privacy policy mentions they don't scan gsuite customers data and they were auditted by a 3rd party: https://support.google.com/googlecloud/answer/6056650?hl=en

Post reply on HN