7 ms·

I moved away from Google a few years ago. I'm using the following alternatives: - Email: ProtonMail - Contacts, Calendar, Online storage: NextCloud hosted by

by keraf 5y ago

I moved away from Google a few years ago. I'm using the following alternatives: - Email: ProtonMail - Contacts, Calendar, Online storage: NextCloud hosted by Hetzner (https://www.hetzner.com/storage/storage-share https://www.hetzner.com/storage/storage-share) - Phone: LineageOS (Android) -- App stores: F-Droid for most apps and Aurora store for the occasional non F-Droid apps (like the ProtonMail client) -- Maps: MagicEarth (not open source but privacy friendly and very featureful) -- Messaging: Telegram FOSS -- Contact & Calendar sync: DAVx - Notes: Joplin (syncs with NextCloud and available on F-Droid as well) - Search: DuckDuckGo ProntonMail (with own domain) and the hosted NextCloud instance aren't free, but privacy comes with a price and I'm happy to pay for it. So far I'm very happy with the transition.

RicoElectrico 5y ago
An alernative to Magic Earth would be Organic Maps. https://organicmaps.app/ https://organicmaps.app/ Though it's not as focused on driving, it seems. But may be good enough.
- brewdad 5y ago
  I use both as I find the trails on Organic Maps easier to follow, while Magic Earth works better in cities. This is with the default map types. There might be a setting I could toggle to give me the best of both in one app.
- rattray 5y ago
  I haven't seen much mention of Maps.Me, but it's another OSM-based android app I've heard good things about from Europeans and enjoyed while traveling in South America. I haven't tried it much in the US.
  - maxerickson 5y ago
    Organic Maps is a fork of maps.me that was started after maps.me got bought. The US should be pretty good for trails, reasonable for streets and highly variable for addresses and POIs.
  - aydnina 5y ago
    Organic Maps is the "original" maps.me. Though highly rated, maps.me changed ownership a few times and in between had removed lot of the original features. I believe at that time the original developers of maps.me launched Organic Maps, even though the changes mentioned above have now been reversed. One advantage of Organic Maps is that it integrates well with OpenStreetMap. As I live in a place where OSM coverage is pretty average, I have fun adding places I know through this application and make small contributions in my own way. It also does not collect any user data. Give it a try.
- crossroadsguy 5y ago
  These apps are pretty much not useable in rest of the world.
  - habi 5y ago
    OpenStreetMap data is probably the best geographic data you’ll find all around the world. Which region are you speaking about?
    - crossroadsguy 5y ago
      India.
      - habi 5y ago
        Honest question: Is Google Maps much better than OpenStreetMap in India? I have the luxury to live in central Europe, and here both are much, much closer in amount of detail.
destitude 5y ago
ProtonMail has abysmally small storage space if you receive attachments in mail frequently.
- thebean11 5y ago
  Fastmail is much cheaper if you need many gigs of storage, but you don't get the encryption Proton offers.
  - currysausage 5y ago
    On the upside, Fastmail is the one e-mail service that I have tested that is actually more comfortable to use than Gmail. How they manage to incorporate practically every feature I could dream of while offering a totally neat, snappy, intuitive interface across platforms is just impressive. (Testing right now and planning to move there from Gmail.) Proton looks really neat too, I just don’t like the thought of not having platform-independent IMAP access. It’s certainly a sensible tradeoff for more security-minded folks though.
    - devoutsalsa 5y ago
      I switched from Gmail to Fastmail a few months ago and it’s been great. Don’t miss Gmail at all.
    - stavros 5y ago
      I switched from Gmail to Fastmail years ago (it only takes a few minutes of you own your domain) and whenever I have to use Gmail (for work) it seems slow and bloated. Fastmail is very quick to load and user-friendly, I don't miss Gmail at all.
      - currysausage 5y ago
        Indeed, I have wanted to switch away from Gmail for a long time, especially because of the stories of randomly terminated accounts, but the straw that broke the camel's back was that Gmail somehow managed to break the compose window: when I select/replace/delete text using the keyboard or do undo/redo, sometimes there are weird glitches that creep me out. I don't care that they haven't added meaningful new features in a long time, I don't care that they rearrange the UI every now and then, but breaking core functionality for no tangible reason is just unacceptable. I switched to Gmail in 2008 because they cared about auto-saving drafts while other webmail just lost drafts when the session had expired and I clicked "send". Nowadays, I guess they mostly care about Material Design and streering me towards their latest clusterf**k of a chat/conference app.
butz 5y ago
If you are using ProtonMail, you might want to check out their Proton Calendar. Still waiting for Proton Drive (beta) apps to see if it might partially replace Google Drive or Dropbox.
- keraf 5y ago
  I've been looking at their other services but for now I'm happy using NextCloud, which provides more than just calendar and file storage. I also have phone tracking (so I can send my real time location to my relatives when driving and visualize the places I've been) and an RSS aggregator. Additionally, I'm not locking myself into another service provider. I'm still open to the idea of moving to another e-mail provider some day even though I'm happy with ProtonMail's service so far.
jeppester 5y ago
You must have learned a lot of things that might prove useful to other people who might want to do the same transition. I for sure would love to read a full length article about it.
- keraf 5y ago
  It was quite a roller coaster to move to alternative services, and also giving up on all social media. But after a while you get used to things and find handy alternatives (like MagicEarth for maps, this app is great!). It feels liberating and I'm more at peace knowing I'm in control of my data. I keep reading these anxiety inducing Google account terminations for years, they also motivated my move (in addition to the privacy benefits). Sure, this could happen to me to with the service providers I use, but at least they have human point of contacts and all my data is backed up and ready to move to another services. I'm definitely up to share my experience and write a full article about this. Hopefully in the coming month when I find some time :-)
kyharri 5y ago
Any particular reason to avoid OpenStreetMaps? Vs MagicEarth
- smeej 5y ago
  I haven't tested MagicEarth, but never have I spent as much time miserably lost as when I spent a very determined month trying to use OSMAnd+ (the main AOSP OSM client, at least as far as I knew at the time?). It's dreadful at driving directions, and it's not like I live somewhere weird. It was getting me lost even in a town with a 30k+ student state university.
- aaaaaaaaata 5y ago
  and has anyone inspected what they both do on Wireshark etc?
- b3nji 5y ago
  I'm not sure openstreetmaps has a good driving experience? I've been using Magic Earth for several years, its getting better and better. Its closed source, but privacy orientated apparently.
- keraf 5y ago
  MagicEarth is based on OSM and their navigation is great, both for driving and walking (haven't tried cycling). I even got better routes suggested when driving vs Google Maps (I compared with a friend using GMaps, he switched to MagicEarth after that :-) ). The only time it messed up was by suggesting a non-existent walking path down a hill in Kiev, which resulted in me rolling down and slicing my arm open, nothing to serious though. Overall I'm happy enough with it to not spend more time looking for other alternatives. If anyone has a better alternative, I'm always listening.
e19293001 5y ago
I moved to DuckDuckGo as my default search engine in the past couple of weeks but a few days ago, I had gone back to google search because the search results are much better. I really wanted to move away from google but the service is just much greater compared to the alternatives.
- iratewizard 5y ago
  DuckDuckGo isn't trustable either. The only benefit to using them is just changing google's market share at your own expense
  - wyclif 5y ago
    You guys should try Brave Search (I'm not affiliated, just a user). If you like the speed of Chromium and the Blink engine, but you're dissatisfied with the Firefox/DDG combination, it's particularly good.
- worik 5y ago
  I had the opposite experience. Google was returning what I wanted, not what I needed.
kQq9oHeAz6wLLS 5y ago
Organic Maps is good, especially if you like hiking, and is on F-Droid https://f-droid.org/en/packages/app.organicmaps/ https://f-droid.org/en/packages/app.organicmaps/
uncletammy 5y ago
For anyone who wants to give LineageOS a try but can't/won't figure out how to jailbreak your phone to install it, check out https://privatephoneshop.com/ https://privatephoneshop.com/ They have a decent selection of relatively modern phones. They will sell you a phone with LineageOS and microG pre-installed ( CalyxOS or GrapheneOS also ). They offer a super smooth buying experience and they are also quick to ship. I've purchased two phones from them and both have exceeded my expectations. Another reason I like them is because the owners put out a lot of excellent content on keeping good privacy practices and combating invasive advertising. My only complaint is that I wish they offered more phone models. It's a small thing though. I'm just happy they're available in the USA where it's becoming nearly impossible to purchase a smartphone that doesn't have a carrier-enforced restriction on flashing the bootloader.
systemvoltage 5y ago
ProtonMail's UI is way too slow and bloated. Their privacy values are dubious and generally more expensive. I've been using FastMail is fantastic.
- matty22 5y ago
  old.protonmail.com is the way to go with ProtonMail's UI. Their new UI is a mess and not configurable. In old. you get a place to write your own CSS to configure the UI as you see fit.
aydnina 5y ago
While Proton is a common recommendation and I do use their VPN which is good, I would also urge people to look at alternative providers. This is a decent list. https://www.fsf.org/resources/webmail-systems https://www.fsf.org/resources/webmail-systems I switched from Gmail to Posteo when I came across this link. While the interface is really basic, it works for me and it also helps me support smaller businesses.
IYasha 5y ago
-- Search: DuckDuckGo They've become more and more bolitically biased and I'd recommend to move away even from them. There are searx and MetaGer. -- Messaging: how about Conversations? It's pretty out-of-the-boxy. But I have to admit, no working voice calls.

by keraf 5y ago

RicoElectrico 5y ago

An alernative to Magic Earth would be Organic Maps. https://organicmaps.app/ https://organicmaps.app/ Though it's not as focused on driving, it seems. But may be good enough.

brewdad 5y ago
I use both as I find the trails on Organic Maps easier to follow, while Magic Earth works better in cities. This is with the default map types. There might be a setting I could toggle to give me the best of both in one app.
rattray 5y ago
I haven't seen much mention of Maps.Me, but it's another OSM-based android app I've heard good things about from Europeans and enjoyed while traveling in South America. I haven't tried it much in the US.
- maxerickson 5y ago
  Organic Maps is a fork of maps.me that was started after maps.me got bought. The US should be pretty good for trails, reasonable for streets and highly variable for addresses and POIs.
- aydnina 5y ago
  Organic Maps is the "original" maps.me. Though highly rated, maps.me changed ownership a few times and in between had removed lot of the original features. I believe at that time the original developers of maps.me launched Organic Maps, even though the changes mentioned above have now been reversed. One advantage of Organic Maps is that it integrates well with OpenStreetMap. As I live in a place where OSM coverage is pretty average, I have fun adding places I know through this application and make small contributions in my own way. It also does not collect any user data. Give it a try.
crossroadsguy 5y ago
These apps are pretty much not useable in rest of the world.
- habi 5y ago
  OpenStreetMap data is probably the best geographic data you’ll find all around the world. Which region are you speaking about?
  - crossroadsguy 5y ago
    India.
    - habi 5y ago
      Honest question: Is Google Maps much better than OpenStreetMap in India? I have the luxury to live in central Europe, and here both are much, much closer in amount of detail.

destitude 5y ago

ProtonMail has abysmally small storage space if you receive attachments in mail frequently.

thebean11 5y ago
Fastmail is much cheaper if you need many gigs of storage, but you don't get the encryption Proton offers.
- currysausage 5y ago
  On the upside, Fastmail is the one e-mail service that I have tested that is actually more comfortable to use than Gmail. How they manage to incorporate practically every feature I could dream of while offering a totally neat, snappy, intuitive interface across platforms is just impressive. (Testing right now and planning to move there from Gmail.) Proton looks really neat too, I just don’t like the thought of not having platform-independent IMAP access. It’s certainly a sensible tradeoff for more security-minded folks though.
  - devoutsalsa 5y ago
    I switched from Gmail to Fastmail a few months ago and it’s been great. Don’t miss Gmail at all.
  - stavros 5y ago
    I switched from Gmail to Fastmail years ago (it only takes a few minutes of you own your domain) and whenever I have to use Gmail (for work) it seems slow and bloated. Fastmail is very quick to load and user-friendly, I don't miss Gmail at all.
    - currysausage 5y ago
      Indeed, I have wanted to switch away from Gmail for a long time, especially because of the stories of randomly terminated accounts, but the straw that broke the camel's back was that Gmail somehow managed to break the compose window: when I select/replace/delete text using the keyboard or do undo/redo, sometimes there are weird glitches that creep me out. I don't care that they haven't added meaningful new features in a long time, I don't care that they rearrange the UI every now and then, but breaking core functionality for no tangible reason is just unacceptable. I switched to Gmail in 2008 because they cared about auto-saving drafts while other webmail just lost drafts when the session had expired and I clicked "send". Nowadays, I guess they mostly care about Material Design and streering me towards their latest clusterf**k of a chat/conference app.

butz 5y ago

If you are using ProtonMail, you might want to check out their Proton Calendar. Still waiting for Proton Drive (beta) apps to see if it might partially replace Google Drive or Dropbox.

keraf 5y ago
I've been looking at their other services but for now I'm happy using NextCloud, which provides more than just calendar and file storage. I also have phone tracking (so I can send my real time location to my relatives when driving and visualize the places I've been) and an RSS aggregator. Additionally, I'm not locking myself into another service provider. I'm still open to the idea of moving to another e-mail provider some day even though I'm happy with ProtonMail's service so far.

jeppester 5y ago

You must have learned a lot of things that might prove useful to other people who might want to do the same transition. I for sure would love to read a full length article about it.

keraf 5y ago
It was quite a roller coaster to move to alternative services, and also giving up on all social media. But after a while you get used to things and find handy alternatives (like MagicEarth for maps, this app is great!). It feels liberating and I'm more at peace knowing I'm in control of my data. I keep reading these anxiety inducing Google account terminations for years, they also motivated my move (in addition to the privacy benefits). Sure, this could happen to me to with the service providers I use, but at least they have human point of contacts and all my data is backed up and ready to move to another services. I'm definitely up to share my experience and write a full article about this. Hopefully in the coming month when I find some time :-)

kyharri 5y ago

Any particular reason to avoid OpenStreetMaps? Vs MagicEarth

smeej 5y ago
I haven't tested MagicEarth, but never have I spent as much time miserably lost as when I spent a very determined month trying to use OSMAnd+ (the main AOSP OSM client, at least as far as I knew at the time?). It's dreadful at driving directions, and it's not like I live somewhere weird. It was getting me lost even in a town with a 30k+ student state university.
aaaaaaaaata 5y ago
and has anyone inspected what they both do on Wireshark etc?
b3nji 5y ago
I'm not sure openstreetmaps has a good driving experience? I've been using Magic Earth for several years, its getting better and better. Its closed source, but privacy orientated apparently.
keraf 5y ago
MagicEarth is based on OSM and their navigation is great, both for driving and walking (haven't tried cycling). I even got better routes suggested when driving vs Google Maps (I compared with a friend using GMaps, he switched to MagicEarth after that :-) ). The only time it messed up was by suggesting a non-existent walking path down a hill in Kiev, which resulted in me rolling down and slicing my arm open, nothing to serious though. Overall I'm happy enough with it to not spend more time looking for other alternatives. If anyone has a better alternative, I'm always listening.

e19293001 5y ago

I moved to DuckDuckGo as my default search engine in the past couple of weeks but a few days ago, I had gone back to google search because the search results are much better. I really wanted to move away from google but the service is just much greater compared to the alternatives.

iratewizard 5y ago
DuckDuckGo isn't trustable either. The only benefit to using them is just changing google's market share at your own expense
- wyclif 5y ago
  You guys should try Brave Search (I'm not affiliated, just a user). If you like the speed of Chromium and the Blink engine, but you're dissatisfied with the Firefox/DDG combination, it's particularly good.
worik 5y ago
I had the opposite experience. Google was returning what I wanted, not what I needed.

kQq9oHeAz6wLLS 5y ago

Organic Maps is good, especially if you like hiking, and is on F-Droid https://f-droid.org/en/packages/app.organicmaps/ https://f-droid.org/en/packages/app.organicmaps/

uncletammy 5y ago

For anyone who wants to give LineageOS a try but can't/won't figure out how to jailbreak your phone to install it, check out https://privatephoneshop.com/ https://privatephoneshop.com/ They have a decent selection of relatively modern phones. They will sell you a phone with LineageOS and microG pre-installed ( CalyxOS or GrapheneOS also ). They offer a super smooth buying experience and they are also quick to ship. I've purchased two phones from them and both have exceeded my expectations. Another reason I like them is because the owners put out a lot of excellent content on keeping good privacy practices and combating invasive advertising. My only complaint is that I wish they offered more phone models. It's a small thing though. I'm just happy they're available in the USA where it's becoming nearly impossible to purchase a smartphone that doesn't have a carrier-enforced restriction on flashing the bootloader.

systemvoltage 5y ago

ProtonMail's UI is way too slow and bloated. Their privacy values are dubious and generally more expensive. I've been using FastMail is fantastic.

matty22 5y ago
old.protonmail.com is the way to go with ProtonMail's UI. Their new UI is a mess and not configurable. In old. you get a place to write your own CSS to configure the UI as you see fit.

aydnina 5y ago

While Proton is a common recommendation and I do use their VPN which is good, I would also urge people to look at alternative providers. This is a decent list. https://www.fsf.org/resources/webmail-systems https://www.fsf.org/resources/webmail-systems I switched from Gmail to Posteo when I came across this link. While the interface is really basic, it works for me and it also helps me support smaller businesses.

IYasha 5y ago

-- Search: DuckDuckGo They've become more and more bolitically biased and I'd recommend to move away even from them. There are searx and MetaGer. -- Messaging: how about Conversations? It's pretty out-of-the-boxy. But I have to admit, no working voice calls.