What Google Services Alternative do you use?

Garuda Community
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I recently set my default search engine to DuckDuckGo on all my devices in the house.
I would like to get some opinion on an alternative(free) for Google Drive, and Google Photos.

For maps, I think apple's one is better than both bing and google? (as for privacy)
I might be wrong

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Hi Austin,

Here are some alternatives I use for Google applications:

  • Brave browser instead of Chrome.
  • Brave Search instead of Google.
  • Youtube Vanced with microG instead of normal Youtube. It's still youtube but without ads and telemetry. Also it has bunch of different options you can set.
  • No idea for alternative for Google Drive since I use my NAS with NextCloud.
  • Protonmail instead of Gmail.
  • AuroraStore instead of Play Store. It combines apps from Play Store and Fdroid plus it gives you an option to download from Play Store anonymously.
  • As for the rest of Android apps like Notes, FIle Manager, Gallery, Calendar, Contacts, Music Player, Calculator, Dialer, SMS Messenger, etc. You can find many of those here. They are also open source and can be downloaded from Fdroid.
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I set up a selfhosted nextcloud which seems for me the best way to migrate from google. It has fileserver, calendario, to do, talk and a lot of other installable extensions ... If you do not want selfhosting there are a lot of services offering also free nextcloud hosting

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image

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What about Mega, it also provides 20Gb free storage?

Also,
I read: How to set up next cloud on a self hosted server - ProPrivacy.com
So how reliable is the Next Cloud service provider?
Would it be safe to store your data there for a long term?

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Nextcloud is open source, self hosted cloud platform.

This means that you are running the cloud service on your machine. This can be your PC, laptop, NAS, Raspberry Pi or server in the cloud.

It is open source and you are the one running it so you don't have to worry about someone collecting your data and selling it.
It is safe to store your data there as long as you maintain it.

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I de-Googled with;

  • Firefox browser with either Whoogle or Presearch for searches.
  • Syncthing to replace Google Drive and Google Photos, using my internal network to sync my backup folder, pics on devices, etc.
  • Mailfence.com replaces Gmail, Google Contacts and Calendar using DaVx to sync Caldav/Cardav on devices, Thunderbird on my desktop/laptop.
  • Fdroid on my devices for app store.
  • Bought a Pixel 4a5g phone, to eventually replace Android with a linux OS down the road when Google stops supporting my device. (Pixels are supported by Linux OS's)

The only things I still use that are google besides my phone's OS (for now) are Google Maps, still haven't found anything that can beat it I can rely. Occasionally, Youtube, but I try and watch decentralized platforms. Some content creators still refuse to migrate. Oh and guilty, just moved from Amazon Music (hated it) to Youtube Music (their service is really good, remixes and recommendations, etc.)

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GrapheneOS time :eyes:

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@RodneyCK You have my interest, the users here want to know. Maybe a Arch install?

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The two that are on my holiday wish list are;

GrapheneOS as @dr460nf1r3 mentioned above and...

CalyxOS as someone mentioned this works really well with Pixel phones.

As far as Arch, I think Pine64 is doing something, but from what I have read, there are issues. Maybe someone knows more about Arch on smartphones and devices.

Edit to add: My plan is to use CalyxOS and transition into GrapheneOS, or something similar, down the road. CalyxOS has a lot of privacy features, including using Microg, which is a more private/secure oriented Play Store, but at the same time, it is still accessing Google's services. It is a tradeoff, for now, until the GrapheneOS, and other distros, improve functionality I need, others may not though, like text-to-speech (I am assuming no audio GPS) and banking apps as a couple of examples. All plans down the road to get them working, but not functional now.

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I use /e/os on my fairphone. You can install it without an account on ecloud. I use my own nextcloud for syncing calendar, todo, contacts and files and I am completely degoogled

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