6 ms·

>gmail, maps, photos, chrome, android, translate, youtube, drive, waze I think there are alternatives for all of those, many open source.

friedman23 9y ago
> many open source please. Name the open source alternatives that don't require my grandma to set up her own VPS.
- ocdtrekkie 9y ago
  Actually, many open source app platforms like Sandstorm and Cloudron offer managed hosting as well!
- dandelion_lover 9y ago
  Email provider: https://posteo.de; https://posteo.de; online maps: https://openstreetmap.org https://openstreetmap.org. More on https://prism-break.org https://prism-break.org (no affilation with those).
  - h1d 9y ago
    It's not even funny to compare the quality of Google maps to anything else.
    - dandelion_lover 9y ago
      I disagree. I am using openstreetmap for everything and did not have any problems whatsoever. Of course, it depends on the location. In Europe the coverage is almost perfect.
      - h1d 9y ago
        Coverage is one but it's missing street view, fly-by view, satellite view, navigator and floor by floor building map. In my Japanese urban region, the building where I live which has been there for 8 years is a flat land in openstreetmap including other neighboring buildings. Apple's map is better but it's still far behind Google's.
crowbahr 9y ago
But none work together so seamlessly. I'm with that guy: the ease of life is amazing with Google. I'll buy movie tickets online then get an alert about driving conditions and when I need to leave to arrive on time. That's something your open source maps program can't do because it doesn't have access to my email. And if it did I wouldn't use it because it'd be sitting there combing my email constantly which isn't efficient to do on my phone. Google's ability to personalize data is without compare honestly. It comes from being huge... And I'm OK with it.
- Navarr 9y ago
  Open source could work together flawlessly like that, but it'd need open, standard protocols to do so - and an adherance to them. A closed system just makes it easier for someone to do - because they don't have to care about any standard protocols and can hack together whatever they want and everyone will just deal with it. I'm not really arguing against you - but I think it's important to note that what we have is possible, just not _right now_. Of course, _right now_ is when we all want it.
  - zanny 9y ago
    It has always bugged me how desktop Linux has never developed a "share" feature akin to what Android has - URIs and URLs that get indexed against a database of services to handle them, then presented to the user as consumers of the data. There have been a lot of attempts at dbus-based services to advertise or invoke other processes for various tasks but it never became as pervasive as share buttons and never had the UX.
    - Navarr 9y ago
      Reminds me a lot of some attempts by google to create a JavaScript API for that sort of thing. [1]: https://www.w3.org/TR/web-intents/ https://www.w3.org/TR/web-intents/ [2]: https://github.com/WICG/web-share https://github.com/WICG/web-share
- 0x737368 9y ago
  But you need to consider the amount of data Google is amassing from people using solely their services. And then sells that data to advertisers. If this trend continues eventually they'd be able to know more about you than even the closest of your friends. Is this really such a great price to pay for your privacy? For it to be easier to look up your friend's phone number from your email list?
TulliusCicero 9y ago
Yeah and they're less popular largely because they suck for the average consumer. I used to work on photos. Nothing right now is as good overall -- free autobackup, search, auto creations/assistant, general usability -- and it's not really close. Open source is particularly weak here, you think the average person wants to manage their own photo/video server? In fact just in general OSS seems to usually be weak at services because contributions aren't just fire and forget.
h1d 9y ago
Make quality comparison?

friedman23 9y ago

> many open source please. Name the open source alternatives that don't require my grandma to set up her own VPS.

ocdtrekkie 9y ago
Actually, many open source app platforms like Sandstorm and Cloudron offer managed hosting as well!
dandelion_lover 9y ago
Email provider: https://posteo.de; https://posteo.de; online maps: https://openstreetmap.org https://openstreetmap.org. More on https://prism-break.org https://prism-break.org (no affilation with those).
- h1d 9y ago
  It's not even funny to compare the quality of Google maps to anything else.
  - dandelion_lover 9y ago
    I disagree. I am using openstreetmap for everything and did not have any problems whatsoever. Of course, it depends on the location. In Europe the coverage is almost perfect.
    - h1d 9y ago
      Coverage is one but it's missing street view, fly-by view, satellite view, navigator and floor by floor building map. In my Japanese urban region, the building where I live which has been there for 8 years is a flat land in openstreetmap including other neighboring buildings. Apple's map is better but it's still far behind Google's.

crowbahr 9y ago

But none work together so seamlessly. I'm with that guy: the ease of life is amazing with Google. I'll buy movie tickets online then get an alert about driving conditions and when I need to leave to arrive on time. That's something your open source maps program can't do because it doesn't have access to my email. And if it did I wouldn't use it because it'd be sitting there combing my email constantly which isn't efficient to do on my phone. Google's ability to personalize data is without compare honestly. It comes from being huge... And I'm OK with it.

Navarr 9y ago
Open source could work together flawlessly like that, but it'd need open, standard protocols to do so - and an adherance to them. A closed system just makes it easier for someone to do - because they don't have to care about any standard protocols and can hack together whatever they want and everyone will just deal with it. I'm not really arguing against you - but I think it's important to note that what we have is possible, just not _right now_. Of course, _right now_ is when we all want it.
- zanny 9y ago
  It has always bugged me how desktop Linux has never developed a "share" feature akin to what Android has - URIs and URLs that get indexed against a database of services to handle them, then presented to the user as consumers of the data. There have been a lot of attempts at dbus-based services to advertise or invoke other processes for various tasks but it never became as pervasive as share buttons and never had the UX.
  - Navarr 9y ago
    Reminds me a lot of some attempts by google to create a JavaScript API for that sort of thing. [1]: https://www.w3.org/TR/web-intents/ https://www.w3.org/TR/web-intents/ [2]: https://github.com/WICG/web-share https://github.com/WICG/web-share
0x737368 9y ago
But you need to consider the amount of data Google is amassing from people using solely their services. And then sells that data to advertisers. If this trend continues eventually they'd be able to know more about you than even the closest of your friends. Is this really such a great price to pay for your privacy? For it to be easier to look up your friend's phone number from your email list?

TulliusCicero 9y ago

Yeah and they're less popular largely because they suck for the average consumer. I used to work on photos. Nothing right now is as good overall -- free autobackup, search, auto creations/assistant, general usability -- and it's not really close. Open source is particularly weak here, you think the average person wants to manage their own photo/video server? In fact just in general OSS seems to usually be weak at services because contributions aren't just fire and forget.

h1d 9y ago

Make quality comparison?