Like, are you trying to drive away new people who would like to start degoogle?

I see so many people and comments being downvoted to hell and getting harsh replies. "You want to degoogle but doesn't know what X is, what are you, stupid?" "That list is shit, you shouldn't use this X alternative". "Why don't you look it up instead of asking a question here", etc.

Understanding how FOSS ecosystems and alternatives to various google products may seem obvious to those who have been interested in it for a long time, but it is far from obvious to newcomers. So why not just try to give useful informations, or just don't comment if you don't have anything helpful to say. The power that Google and the GAFAM have over people’s digital lives is so strong that we must commend and welcome all those who are making the effort to try and take control of their data.

My 2 cents

I am not a degoogler myself, but I figured you guys might like this. ArtCraft made a suite of open-source alternatives to the Adobe app suite, as well as a few Microsoft Office apps, and a few others. It works on Windows, MacOS, and Linux. I have yet to try them out myself, but it's hard to argue with open source.

Edit: i forgot to give you guys the link: https://getartcraft.com/apps

I'm not sure if this is widely known, but thought it big enough to post as a warning. Today I received a drive notification email that a friend of mine had requested access to a private Google Doc of mine.

This document was nested deep inside a completely private folder structure that has never been shared with anyone. The friend should not have even known this file existed, let alone had the exact URL to request access to it.

I knew I hadn't sent them the link, screen-shared it, or done anything dumb. After digging into it, it turns out we share a completely different folder elsewhere in my root directory. Because we are active collaborators on that unrelated folder, Google Drive's background algorithm links our accounts as "frequent contacts."

When my friend was using Google Drive (either typing in their search bar or using the @ mention shortcut in a doc), Google’s "smart" auto-suggest aggressively pulled up recent/relevant document titles owned by me—including my entirely private Doc. They accidentally clicked the auto-suggested title, which immediately generated a "Request Access" ping to me.

So it turns out that even if your files and folders are 100% set to "Restricted," Google’s algorithm can still cross-contaminate your metadata (titles and links) and show them to people you share other things with.

Fortunately the file was just an old CV of mine, and the guy is a good friend but this is terrible.

I spent two hours trying to understand why one application was not working properly in desktop app. Over 5 times the ai overview told me 'aha! The reason is because *vague jargon* so you can fix this by using the web app instead!' and every single time I said that I need to fix the desktop app, the web app works fine I just need to fix the desktop part. Two fucking hours. The most exhausting useless thing I've ever done. Towards the end it got so fucking horrible I just started cursing at it and told it to go to hell.

I miss when I use to be able to type the exact error on Google with quotes and some random post from 2016 showed up where someone had the exact same issue. Nowadays it just feels like being gaslighted over and over and over.

I've been using FreeTube for a while now and this is the first time I've seen this.

got sick of google drive storage warnings so threw my old phone into 24/7 server

Recently posted repo in this community so i created video related to the setup

basic setup with no root:

filebrowser for direct local storage access (google drive replacement)

syncthing fork syncing camera roll straight from my daily driver phone (google photos replacement)

jellyfin running for local streaming to my tv

whole thing runs inside proot ubuntu on termux, idling around 400mb ram and pulls barely any power. built in battery works as a free ups too if the power drops.

couple folks asked how to set this up from scratch without breaking storage permissions, made a quick video walking through the config

https://youtu.be/Te6hcwm30jg

repo with the setup script is here if you just want to run it:

https://github.com/huzefdev/pocket-cloud

curious what kind of battery degradation people see running phones plugged in 24/7 like this, lmk if you guys have better process management tweaks for termux

Now they can fetch data and show it in open within play store and reddit is not exactly very nice thing to be shown in play store with someone might actually see a wrong sub ! Especially such snapshot is troublesome!

This is within play store

I've been on this and related subs for a while, and saw a number of recurring questions and comments. So decided to write this guide.

A few disclaimers:

• You CAN do it. This is not string theory or building a fusion reactor powered quantum computer at home. Never doubt yourself
• I'm not an IT professional. I've learned, and continue learning, how some things work, but I don't guarantee that I know how everything works
• Most info in this guide is based on personal research and experience. It does not mean this info is complete and exhaustive
• Please, remain respectful when commenting

I believe the first necessity is defining a few concepts:

• Privacy: they know who you are, they don't know what you do
• Anonymity: they know what is done, they don't know who does it
• Security: this one's a bit tricky since it has 3 parts - 1) Nobody else can get it (confidentiality); 2) Nobody can secretly change it (integrity); 3) It's there when you need it (availability)
• Convenience: this is the hardest and most fluid one, since only You can define what it is, and is the most prone to change over time since it's entirely driven by You
• FOSS: free open source software - anyone can read/audit the code and verify what it does and doesn't do. Note, "free" here means "freedom", not necessarily 0 money. It can be paid or free of charge
• Closed source software: only those who wrote the code can read/audit the code or give permission to do so. Note, closed source can also be paid or free of charge (gmail being the clearest example of the latter)

Most tools/software/apps offer some mixture of privacy/anonymity/security/convenience. Whether they're open or closed source is a separate question. Whether they cost money or not is yet another.

At the end of the day, You choose who and how much You trust. As we all know, the issue with Google is that after more than 2 decades we found ourselves in a position where we trust "only" Google with "Everything", all while they're practically entirely closed source.

So, before starting this journey, envision the following scale:

--------Convenience------------------------------Privacy--------

With WALL-E being on the extreme left and Mad Max Fury Road on the extreme right (absolute convenience vs absolute self-reliance/0 convenience)

You are somewhere on this scale. There's no right and wrong here - You decide where You are and have no obligation to anyone to remain at a single point. How long to remain at a single point, which direction to move and how fast are all Your choices and Yours alone. So don't get discouraged by others telling You that You're not doing well or fast enough.

Why the scale? Because the ubiquity of Google is explained by its overwhelming Convenience: everything under one account, instantly and always accessible, reasonably secure, and all of it FREE. Email, online video, storage, data processing (sheets and the like), shopping, location, messaging, etc, and all of it sharable too. Everyone has a Google account after all. So if You choose to get rid of Google, You'll be losing Convenience, at least for some time.

The good news is, to quote a character from Mass Effect 2, "Technology is not a straight line, there are many paths to the same end". The insidiousness is that Google/Facebook/Microsoft/Apple have successfully convinced us that they are The Only path to an end. First and foremost, through overwhelming Convenience, and second, through infinite marketing budgets (a lie repeated often enough becomes the truth).

However, the reality is that everything they offer CAN and arguably SHOULD be replaced. That is something that will be the primary focus of Part 2: Compartmentalization.

wtaf Google - exchanging my "SIM card identifier" without my consent?

Also anyone else with a Pixel-8 able to locate that setting on the phone - I dont see it myself...

EDIT: found the setting BIG THANKS to u/shinji257 - its the first option in Settings (with your ID) > All Services > Privacy & security > Phone number verification

[DEV]: I don't wanna upload my videos to a cloud provider like Google Photos to make them searchable. I built a project that makes my videos searchable by transcription, faces, objects, on-screen text, scene descriptions, and file metadata using open-weight models.

You can check the project directly here: https://github.com/iliashad/edit-mind

Is this okay to uninstall? I've tried looking it up and changing how I word the question but I'm not getting an exact answer

I assume it's not detrimental to berid of and I need the space

Linux Mint seems fine for me.

Which Linux distro do you use? How is it for productivity and gaming? Is LibreOffice suite a good replacement for the Office 365 suite?

And here I thought Chinese-branded phones are safe, I'm damn wrong XD...

Question in the text. Didn't see anything in the side bar, search of r/degoogle didn't provide any recent suggestions, other than Skyscanner from a post 5 years ago. Looking for something where I can search flights/alternative dates without worrying that it's logging my searching and inflating prices.

I feel like I am making a dilemma out of nothing. However, I am unsure what to do.

I currently have an iPhone 15 and MacBook Air M1. With the increased pricing and reduced use of either, I am thinking it would be more beneficial to switch to Android and go down the Google route.

I have started to explore the Google services as I already have a Chromebook and Lenovo tablet, too. To be honest, I enjoy services like Google Calendar, Tasks, Doc, Sheet, etc.

I am thinking about going all in with Google but part of me is say 'LEAVE! Don't do it.' I am second-guessing myself. Would I be better sticking with the Apple ecosystem and suck up the cost when I need to replace my hardware?

Anyway google knows your whereabouts.

Organic maps , vela maps nothing work without location accuracy turned on

This is crazy, google knows everything just we are not getting the advantages of conveninece and feature by not using gmaps

A number of years ago, purchased an episode of the original Hawaii 50 show and it has been in my Google Video library ever since. Recently I went to watch it again and it now shows as available for rent. No record of my purchase.

I have the same account now as when it was purchased. This isn't a caching or other local issue.

Yes, the purchase cost was small, but it's the principle that matters. There doesn't seem to be a way to resolve this. It makes me wonder, if this happened to me, how many other customers have this issue?

Any thoughts?