5 ms·

Moving away from Google services, 8 years in

shaicoleman 5y ago
A few recommendations: * Google Authenticator => Aegis Authenticator https://getaegis.app/ https://getaegis.app/ * Google Maps => Windy Maps / Maps.me https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cz.seznam.windymaps https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cz.seznam.wind... https://maps.me/ https://maps.me/
- LazyR0B0T 5y ago
  I would recommend Organic Maps. Description: "Organic Maps offers fast offline maps app for travelers, tourists, hikers and cyclists based on top of crowd-sourced OpenStreetMap data and curated with love by MAPS.ME founders." https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.organicmaps&hl=en_US&gl=US https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.organicmap... And those that use F-droid https://f-droid.org/en/packages/app.organicmaps/ https://f-droid.org/en/packages/app.organicmaps/
  - vaillancourtmax 5y ago
    Thanks! I read good things about Organic Maps, I'll try it out.
- vaillancourtmax 5y ago
  Thank you for mentioning Aegis, a few other folks have recommended it as well. Looks promising!
- tinus_hn 5y ago
  For Google Authenticator on iPhone I would recommend Authenticator by Mark Rubin: Fast Light Free Allows you to backup all tokens in an encrypted backup (not iCloud)
- yonixw 5y ago
  Serious question Why should I replace Google Authenticator? Since many concerns that are valid, such as (1) you don't own the data, (2) you might be banned any day and (3) your data might be used for ads, doesn't exist in this case?
  - Nextgrid 5y ago
    It's down to trust. Google has a financial incentive to stalk people, has demonstrated that they are willing to use dark patterns to make people act against their own interest when it comes to privacy and their current data processing consent flow (supposedly for GDPR compliance) doesn't actually comply with it. Let's say you were hiring for a security guard for a bank. You have 2 candidates. One is a former bank robber, isn't particularly wealthy (so has an financial incentive to rob again) but totally claims he is trustworthy and will no longer rob banks. The other has no bank-robbing history and happens to have other sources of income meaning they don't have a financial incentive to rob the bank. Morals or laws around hiring former offenders aside, which one do you pick? Sure, you can keep a close watch on the ex bank-robber to prevent future incidents just like you can decompile and reverse-engineer Google Authenticator's every update (and do so preemptively before installing said updates), or you can just go with an option that has no demonstrated history of being malicious and has little incentive to do so.
  - shaicoleman 5y ago
    * Search * Open source * Encryption * Biometric/password authentication * Import/Export * Backup/Sync
storafrid 5y ago
Replacing Google Photos with hard drives? What. And replacing Google Drive with a client-based sync tool...? Maybe too high expectations but I was hoping for some level of similar functionality. Would be interesting to get advice on how an actual user of the Google ecosystem can do this kind of move. There are a lot of applications to research, e.g. Photoprism for replacing Google Photos. A bit overwhelming to review the options and make feature/setup comparisons, considering how many products I use on a daily basis. But it would be nice indeed, to own the data. If the overhead is manageable.
- vaillancourtmax 5y ago
  (author here) Thanks for the feedback! I realize I wasn't actually using Google Photos, so my recommendation of hard drives likely isn't realistic for most people. TIL about Photoprism, I'll look into it. For Google Drive, an actual solution for a typical use case would be something like Nextcloud (self-hosted or not, doesn't matter). My own use case was only about sharing a single file between two machines, so Syncthing fit the bill perfectly. Again, thanks for sharing your thoughts :)
  - hanklazard 5y ago
    To get your data offsite, swap one of your photo drives with a safe deposit box … I think I pay about 50$ per year at BofA. It’s handy for a few bar drives and for critical important docs.
- llimos 5y ago
  I have about 245 GB of photos and videos. I switched to 2 hard drives + pCloud (under $50 a year for 500GB). It helped that I'd always had the hard drives while still on Google Photos.
- blakeinate 5y ago
  My solution ended up being a mix of Backblaze B2 buckets, Nextcloud (linked to B2 using S3 Nextcloud features) and FileBrowser Pro on IOS (which is much faster than Nextcloud for photo upload, links directly to Backblaze). Costs me less than 10 cents a month at this point.
mastrsushi 5y ago
>”I simply punch in the IP address of my Raspberry Pi, tack the port where the Miniflux service is running at, and log in. Easy!” lol
endofreach 5y ago
Does anyone know a web calendar client like google calendar? I really love the UX of Google Calendar & Gmail...
- yosito 5y ago
  For me, Nextcloud's web calendar works well. Though I use native apps for most of my calendar usage.

A few recommendations: * Google Authenticator => Aegis Authenticator https://getaegis.app/ https://getaegis.app/ * Google Maps => Windy Maps / Maps.me https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cz.seznam.windymaps https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cz.seznam.wind... https://maps.me/ https://maps.me/

LazyR0B0T 5y ago
I would recommend Organic Maps. Description: "Organic Maps offers fast offline maps app for travelers, tourists, hikers and cyclists based on top of crowd-sourced OpenStreetMap data and curated with love by MAPS.ME founders." https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.organicmaps&hl=en_US&gl=US https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.organicmap... And those that use F-droid https://f-droid.org/en/packages/app.organicmaps/ https://f-droid.org/en/packages/app.organicmaps/
- vaillancourtmax 5y ago
  Thanks! I read good things about Organic Maps, I'll try it out.
vaillancourtmax 5y ago
Thank you for mentioning Aegis, a few other folks have recommended it as well. Looks promising!
tinus_hn 5y ago
For Google Authenticator on iPhone I would recommend Authenticator by Mark Rubin: Fast Light Free Allows you to backup all tokens in an encrypted backup (not iCloud)
yonixw 5y ago
Serious question Why should I replace Google Authenticator? Since many concerns that are valid, such as (1) you don't own the data, (2) you might be banned any day and (3) your data might be used for ads, doesn't exist in this case?
- Nextgrid 5y ago
  It's down to trust. Google has a financial incentive to stalk people, has demonstrated that they are willing to use dark patterns to make people act against their own interest when it comes to privacy and their current data processing consent flow (supposedly for GDPR compliance) doesn't actually comply with it. Let's say you were hiring for a security guard for a bank. You have 2 candidates. One is a former bank robber, isn't particularly wealthy (so has an financial incentive to rob again) but totally claims he is trustworthy and will no longer rob banks. The other has no bank-robbing history and happens to have other sources of income meaning they don't have a financial incentive to rob the bank. Morals or laws around hiring former offenders aside, which one do you pick? Sure, you can keep a close watch on the ex bank-robber to prevent future incidents just like you can decompile and reverse-engineer Google Authenticator's every update (and do so preemptively before installing said updates), or you can just go with an option that has no demonstrated history of being malicious and has little incentive to do so.
- shaicoleman 5y ago
  * Search * Open source * Encryption * Biometric/password authentication * Import/Export * Backup/Sync

storafrid 5y ago

Replacing Google Photos with hard drives? What. And replacing Google Drive with a client-based sync tool...? Maybe too high expectations but I was hoping for some level of similar functionality. Would be interesting to get advice on how an actual user of the Google ecosystem can do this kind of move. There are a lot of applications to research, e.g. Photoprism for replacing Google Photos. A bit overwhelming to review the options and make feature/setup comparisons, considering how many products I use on a daily basis. But it would be nice indeed, to own the data. If the overhead is manageable.

vaillancourtmax 5y ago
(author here) Thanks for the feedback! I realize I wasn't actually using Google Photos, so my recommendation of hard drives likely isn't realistic for most people. TIL about Photoprism, I'll look into it. For Google Drive, an actual solution for a typical use case would be something like Nextcloud (self-hosted or not, doesn't matter). My own use case was only about sharing a single file between two machines, so Syncthing fit the bill perfectly. Again, thanks for sharing your thoughts :)
- hanklazard 5y ago
  To get your data offsite, swap one of your photo drives with a safe deposit box … I think I pay about 50$ per year at BofA. It’s handy for a few bar drives and for critical important docs.
llimos 5y ago
I have about 245 GB of photos and videos. I switched to 2 hard drives + pCloud (under $50 a year for 500GB). It helped that I'd always had the hard drives while still on Google Photos.
blakeinate 5y ago
My solution ended up being a mix of Backblaze B2 buckets, Nextcloud (linked to B2 using S3 Nextcloud features) and FileBrowser Pro on IOS (which is much faster than Nextcloud for photo upload, links directly to Backblaze). Costs me less than 10 cents a month at this point.

mastrsushi 5y ago

>”I simply punch in the IP address of my Raspberry Pi, tack the port where the Miniflux service is running at, and log in. Easy!” lol

endofreach 5y ago

Does anyone know a web calendar client like google calendar? I really love the UX of Google Calendar & Gmail...

yosito 5y ago
For me, Nextcloud's web calendar works well. Though I use native apps for most of my calendar usage.