I've had an @gmail.com account for many years now. At some point, though, I realized that if Google went all Skynet on us, I would lose control of my incoming

I've had an @gmail.com account for many years now. At some point, though, I realized that if Google went all Skynet on us, I would lose control of my incoming e-mail account. So, I used Google Apps to create an @maxcantor.net account, and forwarded it to my main gmail account. This has led to confusion. Since my @gmail.com account has always been my "primary" account, I use it for Google Talk. I use it on my Android phone. I use it to get into Hacker News. It's my primary OpenID account. Obviously, this means that 90% of my friends & family send e-mails to both accounts, because (unsurprisingly) no one can remember which one is the "right" one. Of course, the punchline is that neither is "right," because they both end up in the same inbox. In my darker moments, I have dreamt of phasing out my @gmail.com account entirely, using the @maxcantor.net account for logins, for Google Talk, for OpenID, etc. However, the tenebrous depths of Google's "account" architecture are both mysterious and sinister to me. Will I lose 5 years of e-mail history? Will a non-gmail account lead to unexpected behavior with Google talk or OpenID or any of the other billion places I use my Google account? Will Google Apps go the way of Buzz & Wave the day after I make the transition, forcing me to either put up my own mail servers @maxcantor.net or switch right back to @gmail.com? My heart is filled with terror, comrades. I see the path of simplicity before me, but it is beset on all sides by the bloodletting hellhounds of You Get What You Pay For.