My deGoogling process

2-minute read

This page is a work in progress more than any page of this website! Degoogling ain't easy at all and doesn't happen overnight. But I find joy in the process as I realize how much more cozy my devices now are. It made me more attentive. There's some beauty in replacing one app with a bunch that I cannot yet describe. Mayhaps the smaller and more specific a tool is, the more it is thoughtful and genuine? Human-scale, I guess.

Successful replacements

• Play Store — F-Droid with additional repos (IzzyOnDroid, Bitwarden, Thunderbird).

• Photos — Fossify Gallery + Open Video Editor. Personally I don't need a cross-platform app and sync here, I transfer photos via USB. I never relied on syncing, because I'm annoyed I don't have full control over how files present themselves (I love folders and bulk renaming with FastStone Image Viewer).

• Pay (Wallet?) — Catima.

• Calendar — Literally a physical calendar hanging on the wall.

• Files— Material Files.

• Gboard — HeliBoard.

Partially successful, still needs work

• Keep — Nextcloud (Murena as a provider) + Quillpad (Android) and Notepad++ with MarkdownViewer++ plugin (PC). I was initially looking for a cross-platform app, but realized I could just sync .txt files instead. Murena sucks though and is constantly unavailable, rendering syncronization impossible. I guess I'll have to learn how to self-host.

• Drive — Nextcloud, ProtonDrive. Alternatives don't offer much storage, so I can't put a lot of stuff there. Currently use them to transfer small things from PC to smartphone and vice versa, and backup crucial files.

• Gmail — ProtonMail, Thunderbird (PC), K-9 (Android). It's a bummer PM doesn't let users to use their bridge and PC app without a subscription. I basically use Gmail for signing up and not sending emails, so maybe it's fine as long as it's just a spam mail storage, lol.

• Docs and Sheets — LibreOffice (offline, PC). Can't find an alternative, especially an ecosystem type, that doesn't suck ass visually and can sync files across my devices.

• Chrome — Brave, sometimes TOR, Opera (Android). Not satisfied that I'm still on chromium-based browsers.

• Search engine — DuckDuckGo + uBlacklist add-on, Marginalia. Have to occasionally use Yandex (yet another big tech corpo…) for searching by image. It's damn good at it. Also I hate DuckDuckGo shoving the AI assistant down my throat.

• YouTube — FreeTube (PC). Unsure if it counts, 'cuz it still relies on YouTube but focuses on privacy and user-friendliness. I rarely need YouTube on my phone.

Up next is de-Microsoft-ing c:

October 10, 2024 — November 8, 2024