7 ms·

I've moved my email and calendar off Google, stakes are just too fucking high. Also ditched Chrome for trusty Firefox. The only reason I have a Google account i

by ugjka 5y ago

I've moved my email and calendar off Google, stakes are just too fucking high. Also ditched Chrome for trusty Firefox. The only reason I have a Google account is just for Android and Youtube Edit: also DDG for search

encryptluks2 5y ago
Firefox is not trusty. Having your email and calendar on Google is not a risk as long as you sync them so if something happens to your accounts that you can move them to another provider.
- ashtonkem 5y ago
  > Having your email and calendar on Google is not a risk as long as you sync them so if something happens to your accounts that you can move them to another provider. No, that’s not true. In the case where google shuts down your email, you will lose every email sent to that account after the shut down, and you’ll need to find everything and everyone that might send email to youraccount@gmail.com. This is why having a separate domain is super important, you could switch the MX records with minimal interruption.
  - encryptluks2 5y ago
    Yeah, I didn't say you shouldn't use your own custom domain I just said using Google for email isn't a huge issue. I suggest an anonymous email service for this reason while using a custom domain. Doesn't matter if they shutdown one email, you can just create a new one and change where the forwarding email in your relay.
- shultays 5y ago
  Having your email on Google is not a risk That is like the highest risk I can think of. Losing future emails that are sent to that email, losing all connected accounts, losing access to services/websites they decide to send a confirmation mail
  - encryptluks2 5y ago
    That is why you should add a custom domain. You have the same lockout issue with Outlook, ProtonMail, or any email service where you don't own the domain.
    - shultays 5y ago
      I misunderstood you then, "having your mail on google and syncing them" sounds like you still have a @gmail.com but taking backups. Having your own domain is indeed the safest, I do that actually
    - pyrale 5y ago
      Yeah, the question is whether google makes sense as a mail provided once you've decided that you needed to pay because of that feature. If you're a company and don't want to manually handle email provisioning? Sure, why not. If you're an individual, Google isn't great. You could have a decent feature set along with great customer support elsewhere.
      - encryptluks2 5y ago
        With an email addy relay like SinpeLogin you don't have to pay Google for that feature.
coffeefirst 5y ago
I’ve done the same. The hard part is actually finding a Docs replacement. They’re almost all priced for enterprise.
- jjnoakes 5y ago
  While not a perfect replacement, I like hedge doc myself. https://hedgedoc.org/ https://hedgedoc.org/
- philliphaydon 5y ago
  Is office not free? I much prefer office online to Google docs but we have to use google docs at work :( though the collab feature is much better in Google docs.
- js4ever 5y ago
  Here is a self hosted alternative with real time collaboration https://cryptpad.fr/ https://cryptpad.fr/
- bxparks 5y ago
  Not just Docs, it's Google Drive that I find hard to replace (Docs, Sheets, Draw, Slide, etc). The recent debacle with Legacy GSuite motivated me to pay for a Microsoft 365 account, and create a sync of my Google Drive to OneDrive, converting the proprietary Google format into Office format. Then I do a 3-2-1 backup of the OneDrive files. (Backing up the local Google Drive folder is no good, because all you get is a stub of the Google proprietary files.) Then I moved most of my other Google services (e.g. Domains, Gmail, Calendar, Search, Chrome) off to other companies and products (e.g. Cloudflare, Fastmail, DDG, Firefox). I figure that every interaction with Google proportionally increases the probability that my account will be terminated. So I moved off Google to protect my Google Drive, which seems ironic. The last Google service that I need to move off is Google Voice. I haven't done a lot of research on this yet. If anyone knows of a good alternative that provides SMS-to-email forwarding, I'd be interested.
  - stjohnswarts 5y ago
    At least with office 365 you can save to older, less apt to be excluded from formats like doc. Personally I save everything in the old doc/xls/ppt formats. I hope they keep them around for a while. Mostly these days though I just have a server at home that I can vnc into and use openoffice. All that stuff gets backed up to backblaze. it's not as nice as google or office365 but it's mine and I control it and I won't be revoking my account on an AI whim.
tazjin 5y ago
I moved my work domain off Google, too, and Calendar has been a huge hassle. It keeps eating invites from other people using Google Calendar unless they explicitly opt to send an email invitation.
pkulak 5y ago
I did the same after I wanted to play around with an old Pixel phone and install a different OS on it. I realized I wasn't doing it because I was terrified of Google shutting down my account. I had email, photos, contacts, calendars, even TV and cell service with them that could be taken away at a moment's notice. That's just way too much in the hands of a highly automated company. Now it's down to YouTube, and if Google wants to shut that down, I can live with it.
Tijdreiziger 5y ago
Same here, also ditched Google Drive when they started to push the newest iteration of their Windows client. I’ve been wanting to set up a home server, and then I can also ditch Google Photos and Calendar.
mindslight 5y ago
Is there a good alternative for Google Voice? As in, a phone number that rings multiple phones, can work with SIP phones, and that shows up with a good reputation as a standard phone number? I haven't been in love with GVoice since I degoogled my designated "mobile phone" (I've just been limping along without being able to respond to texts on the go), but haven't taken the leap to Voip.ms or Flowroute, due to the reputation problem (eg many banks' snake oil authentications reject "voip" numbers). My tentative plan is to move my main longstanding "main number" to one of those VOIP providers, and move snake oil auths to either the SIM card in my "mobile phone", a separate SIM on a fixed cell modem, or perhaps just a new GVoice number (which only needs to receive, so interop is easy by forwarding to email).
- rsync 5y ago
  You can build your own google voice with twilio. I run my own little mini telco for myself and it’s both interesting and fun. Admittedly, I am also forced to maintain a “2fa mule” to forward 2fa to email and twilio number but that’s all part of the fun :)
  - mindslight 5y ago
    I assume Twilio has the same number metadata problems as Voip.ms and Flowroute? Or have they managed to negotiate better standing with other telcos?
    - 0ldskool 5y ago
      Can you state what these problems are? I have voip.ms but haven't actually used it as my primary number for awhile. They have SMS (using their custom app) and VoiP using SIP. Its too bad native SIP support in android (google pixel) wasn't that great for me which is why i stopped using it
      - mindslight 5y ago
        1. Numbers don't work for banks' snake oil auth, craigslist account signup, etc. Either silently fails or says the number cannot be used. 2. Calls (to an iPhone, at least) where the number isn't already in address book show up as "Spam Risk" rather than the phone number. 3. Have had some people unable to text a voip.ms number, eg from Comcast mobile. I'm not trying to hate on them or anything. I'm a happy customer for what they are. I just think these are limitations of all consumer-facing libre-protocol VOIP services, that GVoice manages to sidestep due to Fi, but I'd love to be wrong. FWIW I've found the Voip.ms Android SMS app a bit flaky.
XCSme 5y ago
Imagine how nice it would be to just have an "YouTube account", that is not related/connected to any other Google Services. Now that I think about it, why would I even want to use the same account for Email, YouTube and Analytics? It would make a lot more sense for them to be completely separate.

by ugjka 5y ago

encryptluks2 5y ago

Firefox is not trusty. Having your email and calendar on Google is not a risk as long as you sync them so if something happens to your accounts that you can move them to another provider.

ashtonkem 5y ago
> Having your email and calendar on Google is not a risk as long as you sync them so if something happens to your accounts that you can move them to another provider. No, that’s not true. In the case where google shuts down your email, you will lose every email sent to that account after the shut down, and you’ll need to find everything and everyone that might send email to youraccount@gmail.com. This is why having a separate domain is super important, you could switch the MX records with minimal interruption.
- encryptluks2 5y ago
  Yeah, I didn't say you shouldn't use your own custom domain I just said using Google for email isn't a huge issue. I suggest an anonymous email service for this reason while using a custom domain. Doesn't matter if they shutdown one email, you can just create a new one and change where the forwarding email in your relay.
shultays 5y ago
Having your email on Google is not a risk That is like the highest risk I can think of. Losing future emails that are sent to that email, losing all connected accounts, losing access to services/websites they decide to send a confirmation mail
- encryptluks2 5y ago
  That is why you should add a custom domain. You have the same lockout issue with Outlook, ProtonMail, or any email service where you don't own the domain.
  - shultays 5y ago
    I misunderstood you then, "having your mail on google and syncing them" sounds like you still have a @gmail.com but taking backups. Having your own domain is indeed the safest, I do that actually
  - pyrale 5y ago
    Yeah, the question is whether google makes sense as a mail provided once you've decided that you needed to pay because of that feature. If you're a company and don't want to manually handle email provisioning? Sure, why not. If you're an individual, Google isn't great. You could have a decent feature set along with great customer support elsewhere.
    - encryptluks2 5y ago
      With an email addy relay like SinpeLogin you don't have to pay Google for that feature.

coffeefirst 5y ago

I’ve done the same. The hard part is actually finding a Docs replacement. They’re almost all priced for enterprise.

jjnoakes 5y ago
While not a perfect replacement, I like hedge doc myself. https://hedgedoc.org/ https://hedgedoc.org/
philliphaydon 5y ago
Is office not free? I much prefer office online to Google docs but we have to use google docs at work :( though the collab feature is much better in Google docs.
js4ever 5y ago
Here is a self hosted alternative with real time collaboration https://cryptpad.fr/ https://cryptpad.fr/
bxparks 5y ago
Not just Docs, it's Google Drive that I find hard to replace (Docs, Sheets, Draw, Slide, etc). The recent debacle with Legacy GSuite motivated me to pay for a Microsoft 365 account, and create a sync of my Google Drive to OneDrive, converting the proprietary Google format into Office format. Then I do a 3-2-1 backup of the OneDrive files. (Backing up the local Google Drive folder is no good, because all you get is a stub of the Google proprietary files.) Then I moved most of my other Google services (e.g. Domains, Gmail, Calendar, Search, Chrome) off to other companies and products (e.g. Cloudflare, Fastmail, DDG, Firefox). I figure that every interaction with Google proportionally increases the probability that my account will be terminated. So I moved off Google to protect my Google Drive, which seems ironic. The last Google service that I need to move off is Google Voice. I haven't done a lot of research on this yet. If anyone knows of a good alternative that provides SMS-to-email forwarding, I'd be interested.
- stjohnswarts 5y ago
  At least with office 365 you can save to older, less apt to be excluded from formats like doc. Personally I save everything in the old doc/xls/ppt formats. I hope they keep them around for a while. Mostly these days though I just have a server at home that I can vnc into and use openoffice. All that stuff gets backed up to backblaze. it's not as nice as google or office365 but it's mine and I control it and I won't be revoking my account on an AI whim.

tazjin 5y ago

I moved my work domain off Google, too, and Calendar has been a huge hassle. It keeps eating invites from other people using Google Calendar unless they explicitly opt to send an email invitation.

pkulak 5y ago

I did the same after I wanted to play around with an old Pixel phone and install a different OS on it. I realized I wasn't doing it because I was terrified of Google shutting down my account. I had email, photos, contacts, calendars, even TV and cell service with them that could be taken away at a moment's notice. That's just way too much in the hands of a highly automated company. Now it's down to YouTube, and if Google wants to shut that down, I can live with it.

Tijdreiziger 5y ago

Same here, also ditched Google Drive when they started to push the newest iteration of their Windows client. I’ve been wanting to set up a home server, and then I can also ditch Google Photos and Calendar.

mindslight 5y ago

Is there a good alternative for Google Voice? As in, a phone number that rings multiple phones, can work with SIP phones, and that shows up with a good reputation as a standard phone number? I haven't been in love with GVoice since I degoogled my designated "mobile phone" (I've just been limping along without being able to respond to texts on the go), but haven't taken the leap to Voip.ms or Flowroute, due to the reputation problem (eg many banks' snake oil authentications reject "voip" numbers). My tentative plan is to move my main longstanding "main number" to one of those VOIP providers, and move snake oil auths to either the SIM card in my "mobile phone", a separate SIM on a fixed cell modem, or perhaps just a new GVoice number (which only needs to receive, so interop is easy by forwarding to email).

rsync 5y ago
You can build your own google voice with twilio. I run my own little mini telco for myself and it’s both interesting and fun. Admittedly, I am also forced to maintain a “2fa mule” to forward 2fa to email and twilio number but that’s all part of the fun :)
- mindslight 5y ago
  I assume Twilio has the same number metadata problems as Voip.ms and Flowroute? Or have they managed to negotiate better standing with other telcos?
  - 0ldskool 5y ago
    Can you state what these problems are? I have voip.ms but haven't actually used it as my primary number for awhile. They have SMS (using their custom app) and VoiP using SIP. Its too bad native SIP support in android (google pixel) wasn't that great for me which is why i stopped using it
    - mindslight 5y ago
      1. Numbers don't work for banks' snake oil auth, craigslist account signup, etc. Either silently fails or says the number cannot be used. 2. Calls (to an iPhone, at least) where the number isn't already in address book show up as "Spam Risk" rather than the phone number. 3. Have had some people unable to text a voip.ms number, eg from Comcast mobile. I'm not trying to hate on them or anything. I'm a happy customer for what they are. I just think these are limitations of all consumer-facing libre-protocol VOIP services, that GVoice manages to sidestep due to Fi, but I'd love to be wrong. FWIW I've found the Voip.ms Android SMS app a bit flaky.

XCSme 5y ago

Imagine how nice it would be to just have an "YouTube account", that is not related/connected to any other Google Services. Now that I think about it, why would I even want to use the same account for Email, YouTube and Analytics? It would make a lot more sense for them to be completely separate.