Asklemmy

I am absolutely dumb with this stuff so I have one question: how do I get all of my photos off Google cloud? That's the only thing stopping me from shitting it down.

I also have a google pixel phone but that will be destroyed once my contract is up and I can afford something not google related

Desktop Environment

• Operating System: Fedora Workstation Linux

  • Great package manager updates
  • Excellent performance

• Productivity Tools:

  • Note-taking: Zim Wiki (preferred for GUI and plaintext storage)
  • Document Editing: Considering OnlyOffice if Collabora Office doesn't work out
  • Backup Solution: Filen cloud provider with desktop sync app

• Browsers:

  • Primary: Firefox with Arkenfox
  • Backup: Ungoogled Chromium (for sites incompatible with Firefox)

• Password Management:

  • Bitwarden (kept on phone)
  • KDE Connect for clipboard sharing between devices

Mobile Setup

• Device & OS: Pixel 8 Pro running GrapheneOS

  • More stable and polished than previous CalyxOS on Pixel 5
  • Better Google Play sandboxing compared to microG

• Mobile Apps:

  • Browsers: IronFox and Vanadium
  • App Sources: Primarily open-source from GitHub/F-Droid, updated via Obtainium
  • Non-FOSS Apps: Sandboxed Google Play for banking and other essential apps
  • Maps: HERE WeGo (previously used Magic Earth but it lacked public transport info)
  • Loyalty Cards: Catima

• Search Engine: Kagi

  • Quality results
  • Sound business model (subscription-based)
  • Fediverse integration for Lemmy search

• Self-Hosted Services:

  • Contacts and calendar via Radicale on NAS with Nginx

• Car Integration:

  • Still using Android Auto (found MagSafe holder alternatives more distracting)
  • Physical cards stored in MagSafe wallet on phone back

The problem with Google services is that they will be probably one of the last ones (from big tech companies) I will stop using. I wanted to switch to Proton this year, but there has been some controversy of its CEO supporting Trump...

Edit: Removed unrelated paragraph.

Here's my list:

• Proton Mail: super painless to migrate over and a very similar user experience. Feels good knowing that Google can't read my emails and that they can't be subpoenaed by our insane government. Highly recommend. There's a free plan that offers 1GB of storage but I went straight to a paid account so I can't speak to that.
• Proton Pass: LOVE this. It was easy to import my passwords from LastPass and Google. The best feature is the "hide my email alias" which on my plan I can make unlimited ones. It's basically making an anonymous throwaway email that automatically forwards to your inbox. If you start getting junk mail you can see who sold your address, but also with one click you can delete it if it gets compromised. It's basically the equivalent of making a bunch of different Google accounts but way easier.
• Proton Drive: It came with my subscription but I haven't gotten that deep into it yet. It has a Docs alternative but not Sheets which I use a lot, so I'm hoping they develop something like that. Otherwise like a lot like drive. It's technically a photo backup too but the interface is trash (see next item). My goal is to get enough transferred that I can cancel my Google One subscription and maybe just use that for Sheets as needed.
• Ente Photos: Cloud-based photo backup. I'm slowly getting my photos transferred over but it seems to be pretty user friendly. It has some but not all of the features of Google Photos, like organizing by faces.
• Brave Search: They have a browser too but I'm just using the search in Firefox at the moment. I like that it's not based on Google's index but it sometimes means the results are not quite as good. Honestly for the payoff of not being algorithmed to death I'm fine with that.

https://cartes.app/ is a new kid on the block to replaces Gmaps, looks very cool bit is also very alpha atm. But I'll keep checking it, it has some very cool features already (French only atm which I don't speak at all but it's still super usable.)

I tried to minimize my dependency on Google by signing up for various email services like Petal Mail by Huawei, Proton Mail, and Yandex Mail. I also tried to find smartphones that don't have Google by default, such as Murena smartphones and Huawei smartphones. But it seems like it's too late to look for those gems without Google because I have so many apps that I bought on Google, amounting to around five digits in Malaysian Ringgit, which is not cheap. So I think I'll stay with Google for now, sadly.

I had to change my name and hairstyle