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I, for one, am happy that 3 months ago I decided to start my transition away from Google products and services. Subscribed to a Fastmail account and couldn't be

I, for one, am happy that 3 months ago I decided to start my transition away from Google products and services. Subscribed to a Fastmail account and couldn't be happier. Firefox is my browser of choice both in desktop & mobile, so I don't have any of these issues, but for how long until google decides otherwise? I'm still quite a heavy user of maps, it's hard to step away from all the convenience, but OsmAnd is already installed on my phone and I'm getting used to it too.

ljm 7y ago
I moved most of the important stuff away the other year. Went with Protonmail and then Fastmail since their IMAP support was better. I really prefer to use a native email client over the web interface; I don't need to be online to sift through my archive. Ended up with a Google account still because I get value out of youtube, and of course I don't have a choice at work since most startups seem to go G-Suite by default (I'd take the MS offering over that too; they're not in the ad business). At risk of going off topic, I hope that if one day I have children (if at all), I will remember enough of the old internet back in the late 90s/early 2000s to be able to describe just how weird and wonderful that world used to be. Not all of it was good or great but they'll be forgotten relics of an ancient era, in tech terms. You know, like getting on the internet by picking up a free AOL CD from the local supermarket; not being able to use the internet and make a phone call at the same time; cracks and keygens with the epic graphics and music; making a really bad website with frames and tables with Macromedia Dreamweaver or MS FrontPage... Feels like these days that the internet, in the mainstream (so not HN or similar), is just an advertising and surveillance platform.
- nunodonato 7y ago
  I also kept my account, hard to ditch it with everyone around me sharing google docs. I still use it once in a while, and I have plenty of stuff in drive that I need to take out. Funny enough, office live might be an alternative...
  - ljm 7y ago
    I've just recently switched a lot of things over to Office. You get the exchange server, of course, and now it's oAuth based I get a much better integration with my iPhone and computers without having to set up app-specific passwords.
  - boring_twenties 7y ago
    > plenty of stuff in drive that I need to take out. Check this tool out https://rclone.org/ https://rclone.org/. It's a command-line sync tool that fully supports Google Drive.
- mavhc 7y ago
  > I'd take the MS offering over that too; they're not in the ad business Have you seen Windows 10 (even the Pro version)?
  - nunodonato 7y ago
    OSs aside, the pro tools are very good
  - ljm 7y ago
    I have, and I've used it. I thought it was tasteless to put ads in windows explorer and stuff but it was all obvious. Telemetry in and of itself isn't bad if they don't connect it to an IP or account or other kind of fingerprint, they just look at what is interacted with and what isn't without knowing who did it.
- jacob019 7y ago
  thanks for the trip down memory lane, hopeful times they were
- trickstra 7y ago
  Try http://invidio.us http://invidio.us to get rid of youtube. At least their cookies, tracking scripts and account.
AlexCoventry 7y ago
I was actually forced off chromium recently, because it became very laggy after an apt-get upgrade. Firefox has been pretty nice. I still use google search and gmail in that environment, though. I use DDG for personal work, but for work work, google search is noticeably more efficient. And work requires me to use a gmail account.
- nunodonato 7y ago
  I use DDG too. In many cases I have to resort to google to find better results, usually I do it with !s ;)
  - lostlogin 7y ago
    It’s surprisingly easy to switch. The most striking thing for me when I happen to use Google is the number of ‘hits’ that are adverts. Either the volume has increased or I wasn’t noticing them all before.
ufmace 7y ago
Google is kind of a mixed bag. There's plenty to mistrust about them. IMO, they still run the hardest-to-hack email service out there. Who else has anything comparable to their Advanced Protection program?
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]

ljm 7y ago

I moved most of the important stuff away the other year. Went with Protonmail and then Fastmail since their IMAP support was better. I really prefer to use a native email client over the web interface; I don't need to be online to sift through my archive. Ended up with a Google account still because I get value out of youtube, and of course I don't have a choice at work since most startups seem to go G-Suite by default (I'd take the MS offering over that too; they're not in the ad business). At risk of going off topic, I hope that if one day I have children (if at all), I will remember enough of the old internet back in the late 90s/early 2000s to be able to describe just how weird and wonderful that world used to be. Not all of it was good or great but they'll be forgotten relics of an ancient era, in tech terms. You know, like getting on the internet by picking up a free AOL CD from the local supermarket; not being able to use the internet and make a phone call at the same time; cracks and keygens with the epic graphics and music; making a really bad website with frames and tables with Macromedia Dreamweaver or MS FrontPage... Feels like these days that the internet, in the mainstream (so not HN or similar), is just an advertising and surveillance platform.

nunodonato 7y ago
I also kept my account, hard to ditch it with everyone around me sharing google docs. I still use it once in a while, and I have plenty of stuff in drive that I need to take out. Funny enough, office live might be an alternative...
- ljm 7y ago
  I've just recently switched a lot of things over to Office. You get the exchange server, of course, and now it's oAuth based I get a much better integration with my iPhone and computers without having to set up app-specific passwords.
- boring_twenties 7y ago
  > plenty of stuff in drive that I need to take out. Check this tool out https://rclone.org/ https://rclone.org/. It's a command-line sync tool that fully supports Google Drive.
mavhc 7y ago
> I'd take the MS offering over that too; they're not in the ad business Have you seen Windows 10 (even the Pro version)?
- nunodonato 7y ago
  OSs aside, the pro tools are very good
- ljm 7y ago
  I have, and I've used it. I thought it was tasteless to put ads in windows explorer and stuff but it was all obvious. Telemetry in and of itself isn't bad if they don't connect it to an IP or account or other kind of fingerprint, they just look at what is interacted with and what isn't without knowing who did it.
jacob019 7y ago
thanks for the trip down memory lane, hopeful times they were
trickstra 7y ago
Try http://invidio.us http://invidio.us to get rid of youtube. At least their cookies, tracking scripts and account.

AlexCoventry 7y ago

I was actually forced off chromium recently, because it became very laggy after an apt-get upgrade. Firefox has been pretty nice. I still use google search and gmail in that environment, though. I use DDG for personal work, but for work work, google search is noticeably more efficient. And work requires me to use a gmail account.

nunodonato 7y ago
I use DDG too. In many cases I have to resort to google to find better results, usually I do it with !s ;)
- lostlogin 7y ago
  It’s surprisingly easy to switch. The most striking thing for me when I happen to use Google is the number of ‘hits’ that are adverts. Either the volume has increased or I wasn’t noticing them all before.

ufmace 7y ago

Google is kind of a mixed bag. There's plenty to mistrust about them. IMO, they still run the hardest-to-hack email service out there. Who else has anything comparable to their Advanced Protection program?

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]