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I want google to be good, but I'm still pissed off about all the things they've killed in the past, specifically PICASA, Google Drive Sync and their RSS Reader.

I want google to be good, but I'm still pissed off about all the things they've killed in the past, specifically PICASA, Google Drive Sync and their RSS Reader. I'll never trust them again with locking myself into their ecosystem. The worry is when you buy into something like Nest, who later go on to be brought into Google.

josteink 3y ago
> The worry is when you buy into something like Nest, who later go on to be brought into Google. Obviously one cannot prevent things like that from happening, but when they do, you can decide to migrate to something else and just sell your existing (now Google) gear, to avoid Googley issues down the line. It may be cynical, but at that point the resale value might still be good because not everyone has caught on to Google being Google like this.
- yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago
  No, you can prevent it from being a problem by only buying things that will work even if the company goes bankrupt or gets acquired or turns [more] evil. I owned a Fitbit, then they got bought by Google. Now I own a PineTime, and you know what? If somehow tomorrow Pine64 got bought out and killed by Google, my watch would not be worsened one bit.
thombat 3y ago
Amen. I'm still using Picasa: periodically I go prowling for an equivalent app but there's still nothing to touch it. Fuck their photo cloud: I have ADSL so uploads are sluggards. I need local storage, fast searching, good facial recognition, a lightweight UI, and that's Picasa. Of course the web-connected parts like positioning on a map or sharing online broke long ago, but they appear to have neglected to build in a kill switch so mere user me can keep on getting shit done, invulnerable to their idiocy-of-the-day
- sanitycheck 3y ago
  My dad used to be a very heavy Picasa user, I eventually transitioned him to "DigiKam" which seems to be working out - so maybe worth checking that if you haven't. (If it's simple enough for a man who's steadfastly refused to learn anything new for 40 years it might be easy to switch.) I've got a precious Lightroom 6 license so I've been sticking with that.
  - thombat 3y ago
    Thanks - it's probably time to try DigiKam again since I can see quite recent discussions of improved face recognition (and I like that it's open source; pity Google didn't open Picasa but that's quite in keeping with the overall topic here of them stumblebumming user care)

josteink 3y ago

> The worry is when you buy into something like Nest, who later go on to be brought into Google. Obviously one cannot prevent things like that from happening, but when they do, you can decide to migrate to something else and just sell your existing (now Google) gear, to avoid Googley issues down the line. It may be cynical, but at that point the resale value might still be good because not everyone has caught on to Google being Google like this.

yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago
No, you can prevent it from being a problem by only buying things that will work even if the company goes bankrupt or gets acquired or turns [more] evil. I owned a Fitbit, then they got bought by Google. Now I own a PineTime, and you know what? If somehow tomorrow Pine64 got bought out and killed by Google, my watch would not be worsened one bit.

thombat 3y ago

Amen. I'm still using Picasa: periodically I go prowling for an equivalent app but there's still nothing to touch it. Fuck their photo cloud: I have ADSL so uploads are sluggards. I need local storage, fast searching, good facial recognition, a lightweight UI, and that's Picasa. Of course the web-connected parts like positioning on a map or sharing online broke long ago, but they appear to have neglected to build in a kill switch so mere user me can keep on getting shit done, invulnerable to their idiocy-of-the-day

sanitycheck 3y ago
My dad used to be a very heavy Picasa user, I eventually transitioned him to "DigiKam" which seems to be working out - so maybe worth checking that if you haven't. (If it's simple enough for a man who's steadfastly refused to learn anything new for 40 years it might be easy to switch.) I've got a precious Lightroom 6 license so I've been sticking with that.
- thombat 3y ago
  Thanks - it's probably time to try DigiKam again since I can see quite recent discussions of improved face recognition (and I like that it's open source; pity Google didn't open Picasa but that's quite in keeping with the overall topic here of them stumblebumming user care)