Hello! I would like to take some distance from Google because I don’t like its hegemony over the internet. I’ve switched from chrome to Firefox, I’ve stopped using it as a search engine and I’ve started using duckduckgo for starters, but I’m a bit more lost on how to replace its other services. What are yours alternatives to Google? I’ve heard about proton mail to replacement Gmail, how is it? Do you know something to replace maps and drive?
Proton is the move, in combo with board.net for GoogleDocs and OpenStreetMaps for GMaps, you’ve degoogled more than most. Start using GrapheneOS instead of Android and you’ll damn near remove the big G from your day to day!
I’ve degoogled my desktop/laptop nearly completely, but are there any risks or downsides to using iOS/Apple’s default apps?
I mean, once the journey starts it’s not long before Linux over MacOS or Windows is a no brainer. Being Android is Linux based allows for a degoolged option to be equivalent to a fork. But sure, iOS is more private and secure out the box vs Android, yet with a few minutes spent in settitngs, Android quickly wins out. Degoogling and FOSS options are two peas in a pod, so might as well also get a pixel with degoogled android and cover all basis.
Those are all nice suggestions, I’ll try to implement them!
Cryptpad is worth trying out as a GoogleDocs alt too. It has excel and powerpoint along with word docs. Board.net is more straight forward, but it only offers word docs
Replacement for maps:
apple maps, bing maps,openstreetmapsReplacement for drive:
OneDrive, box.net, Dropbox,nextcloud, your own Fritzbox Router with NAS enabledNot too sure how I feel about Bing and Apple Maps or OneDrive and Dropbox being referred to as alts in a privacy forum…But if ProtonMail is the GMail replacement, using ProtonDrive is an easy solution I’d say
Yeah you are right of course.
I’m glad you think so! I was pondering if Apple was practical as it has some privacy functions built in, but OSM is the top choice alt when the focus is privacy. Do you not agree?
Sincerely I have no idea how Apple fares when it comes to privacy respecting techniques. But OSM is pretty solid.
Also syncthing is a P2P alternative to drive.
And duck duck go has a map.
Before today I never heard about NAS, they are fascinating! Having your own server seems like an amazing idea. Do you have any resources to suggest on the topic? I’m unfortunately not extremely tech savvy, but I can probably manage. Can you create a NAS with any modem or is the fritzbox particularly good for this job?
I’ve made a comment about NASs a while ago explaining mostly the important parts of it (https://lemmy.ca/comment/1524030), but to answer your questions :
Can you create a NAS with any modem or is the fritzbox particularly good for this job?
I would not recommend using a router/modem as your nas server because there are better ways to do this. Simplest way would be to get a small computer (like a raspberry pi, thinkcenter, etc) and attack external harddrives. Then, next step would be to choose how you want to share and use the storage; I mostly recommend NextCloud for beginners/intermediates, super easy to setup and start using out of the box.
For you I would recommend following my comment. Once you’re comfortable with wanting to make your own NAS, then I would recommend you to look into hardware and start planning out a build. If it is too expensive, look towards small, mini computers like rpi, thinkcenter, librecomputer, etc. and then slowly expand from there.
Yes, making a NAS is expensive at the start, if you do decide to make one with all brand new gear, but it is worth it for your privacy imo. The trip is long, sometimes annoying as fuck, but the end-result is infinitely better.
If you have questions let me know!
Thanks for the detailed reply! I’ll probably look into building a Nas with a raspberry pi then, sounds doable. I’m sure it’s more annoying than using a cloud service in the beginning, but I agree that is absolutely better. A quote always stuck with me: “a cloud service is simply another guy’s computer” and I would rather struggle a bit in the beginning rather than giving my personal photos/files to a stranger. Plus, I can probably make my NAS as big as I want.
I would not recommend using a router/modem as your nas server because there are better ways to do this.
while this is certainly true that a dedicated server would be the better option, using my fritzbox with a SATA USB drive attached to it as a NAS server has been the cheapest way for me to realise it :)
NAS is the way to go. Raspi is a decent place to start but if you want something with more power, say you want to run a plex server for instance, buying an old optiplex off ebay is a great way to start. If you want to learn Linux/Docker slap ubuntu server on it and if you dont, use truenas SCALE. The PI will “make” you learn linux and docker as well.
My fritzbox (7362 SL, pretty old at this point) has a NAS support for a drive you can attach to it via USB. And you can enable the fritzbox to accept external connections to your NAS. And meanwhile you can use the attached storage via FTP from inside your network.
what do you think about i cloud?
Depends on the social situation. For a ball or a nice dinner, a black suit is probably best, for work, try something blue or gray.
I’m sorry…
I suggest you check out Runbox as another alternative webmail service. You get the first month free to try it out before having to pay for the subscription. I’ve recently switched my mail from Gmail to Runbox.
Replace Maps with OrganicMaps
