Elite

Old but gold

Google collects a lot of personal data and I don’t like it. I disabled every Google app and service that was possible without changing OS or rooting the phone. Then I realized that few apps, that are important to me, did not work correctly without Google Services. So unfortunately I had to re-enable it. I’m using VPN though. Hopefully that messes at least a little bit Google’s data collecting.

On PC Linux is nowadays my main OS but I have Windows 11 installed too (dual boot). There’s still quite many compatibility problems with Linux.

DuckDuckGo/Bing is pretty bad at finding stuff in my native language. That’s why I use Startpage (and sometimes even Google) more nowadays.

I actually know FreeTube but for some reason I haven’t even tried it yet, but now I will. Thanks.

If I remember correctly I started deGoogling “seriously” in the last summer. At this point YouTube and Youtube Music are the only Google products/services I still use daily but only on PC. I never use them on phone. I also am quite forced to use Gmail sometimes but otherwise I avoid it like a plague.

I think my phone is as deGoogled as possible without rooting and/or changing the OS. I have uninstalled every Google app that I have been able to uninstall and also I have disabled every Google service that is possible to disable. I still have to deMicrosoft my PC. I want to move to Linux but I have understood that there’s some compatibility issues with Reaper and virtual instruments. That’s the only reason I haven’t done it yet.

Anyway. Here is a list of apps/services I use instead of Google’s sh*t:

• Browser: Waterfox on PC and Ironfox on phone (of course both with uBlock Origin)
• Cloud storage: Proton Drive
• Email: Proton Mail
• Calendar: Proton Calendar
• Authenticator: Aegis
• Map: OsmAnd
• Search engine: DuckDuckGo and Brave Search
• Play Store: Droid-ify and Aurora Store (not signed in)
• Speech Recognition & Synthesis: SherpaTTS
• Find My Device: FindMyDevice (FOSS)

I think that’s all. There’s some other FOSS apps and services that I use but they are not exactly replacements for Google’s sh*t.