Now where do I start lol, I’ve been on this journey for a few years, and I’d say, take it one service at a time!! I’ll try and list most of my apps/services etc.
Phone running grapheneos
Browser - vanadium (graphenes hardened browser)
Maps - organic maps
Mail - protonmai
Calender - protonmail
Notes - standard notes
YouTube - newpipe
App store -F-Droid
Messaging - signal and threema
File sync - syncthing
Password managing - bitwarden
Gallery - simple gallery
Camera - stock grapheneos camera
Ad blocking - 2 piholes setup
And one of the hardest was google photos… Overcame that with self hosting photoprism… I have syncthing sync my camera roll to a hard drive attached to one of my raspberry pi… 3am it rsyncs to a permanent location, than rsync to another hard drive, than have a script that adds it to the photoprism library an hour later, sounds hectic but perfect once setup…
And if you want to go even deeper and not use google or any other provider as your DNS, if you have a pi or any other computer running 24/7 can run your own recursive DNS resolver with unbound… Hope this helps some people, may have missed a few 😂
More for redundancy, even for the short times it takes to reboot a pi after an update, have 0 interruption of internet… Also same when I want to backup one of the pi’s. Keeps network uptime to 100% most of the time
My only reccommendation for a replacement for google drive would be to encrypt the files you save their using Veracrypt. No external server is safe to store data on.
If you’re on Android, that’s probably the most important thing to consider first. Just using a phone with Google Play Services gives up a great deal of privacy, even if you think you’ve turned all that off.
So, consider either an iPhone or if you’re really serious about this shit, GrapheneOS. The iPhone is easier for average people, but GrapheneOS is more private and you have more control. Both are better than Googled Android.
For a Google Drive alternative, that’s simple. If you’re already using Proton, get ProtonDrive.
For Google Docs alternative, that’s a bit more challenging. There aren’t any direct competitors with full end-to-end encryption that are any good and also cross-platform.
Worse device depends on the user. In my mid-30s, I loved all the tweaks and options my Android phone gave me. Now, as I push 50, I find I want my phone to just work. iOS does that for me. I have a dozen other devices I can hack around on.
There are a lot of good suggestions here. Just to add on to it, I have been using Skiff Pages as an alternative fog Google Docs for a while now, and I have been happy with it. They have a better UI and feels less clunkier than CryptPad. They also offer couple of other services such as Drive and email, which you can check out as well.
If you can afford it, make your next phone a Google Pixel and put GrapheneOS on it. Despite the phone being google, all the google crap will be removed by the OS.
Nextcloud self-hosted to replace Google Drive.
Install as many apps as possible from F-Droid and the rest via Aurora Store.
missing just a lot of little features I’ve grown accustomed to. biggest ones I can remember are the tiny weather widget and the thing where the display doesn’t turn off if ur looking at it. also the UI wasn’t all that great imo
I remember now, what pushed me all the way away was my bank app not working
fair. in my opinion, banking apps are not worth having on a phone due to the security risks. there are several alternative launchers available on f-droid :)
I’m really reluctant to recommend Nextcloud. The software is buggy, it’s not e2e encrypted, and you’re liable to data less if your VPS goes down unless you’re good at managing cloud resources.
For most people, Syncthing is better. You don’t even need a server, just another device of similar capacity compatible with Syncthing.
Nextcloud has a few easy cheats to get it working smooth these days. Docker all in one images are a thing. The only additional step I had was a cache and cron and I haven’t had one error.
If you don’t have the time/interest in setting up NextCloud, CryptPad replicates a lot of the functionality of Google Docs/Drive, though to get more 1GB of storage you will have to subscribe.
Do you still use Android? I don’t feel like I can genuinely be off of Google until I find a way not to have them in my phone. Apple isn’t much better, especially for the featureset sacrifice
the android which most phones use is android+gapps (google apps), which is a closed source fork/distro of android made by google. base android and grapheneos (based on android 13) are open source. grapheneos does not have google play services, so most google apps will not work at all, but play services can be installed (although i dont recommend).
If by side-loading you mean installing from a ‘non-trusted’ or ‘unofficial’ source (apps other than google play store), then yes, that is the only option. however, this is not much less convient or secure.
There are a few ways to install apps (these should work with any Android phone, not just Grapheneos):
Any non-paid apps on google play can be installed using Aurora Store. supposedly you can use it without even logging in to google account (but i havent gotten that to work). Eg. Facebook
Most FOSS apps will be in the F-Droid repository, and can be installed with the F-Droid app, or other similar apps such as Droidify. Eg. K-9 Mail
If an app is not on the main F-Droid repo, alternative repositories can be added to your F-Droid client.
APKs (app packages) can be installed from the web. this is how F-Droid is usually installed for the first time. Eg. Signal is not available on F-Droid (for reasons)
Basically, if you need a proprietery app like Facebook, use Aurora; if you need an open source app, look for it on F-Droid or download the APK.
There are of course pros and cons of each method in terms of security and convenience.
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Now where do I start lol, I’ve been on this journey for a few years, and I’d say, take it one service at a time!! I’ll try and list most of my apps/services etc.
Phone running grapheneos
Browser - vanadium (graphenes hardened browser)
Maps - organic maps
Mail - protonmai
Calender - protonmail
Notes - standard notes
YouTube - newpipe
App store -F-Droid
Messaging - signal and threema
File sync - syncthing
Password managing - bitwarden
Gallery - simple gallery
Camera - stock grapheneos camera
Ad blocking - 2 piholes setup
And one of the hardest was google photos… Overcame that with self hosting photoprism… I have syncthing sync my camera roll to a hard drive attached to one of my raspberry pi… 3am it rsyncs to a permanent location, than rsync to another hard drive, than have a script that adds it to the photoprism library an hour later, sounds hectic but perfect once setup…
And if you want to go even deeper and not use google or any other provider as your DNS, if you have a pi or any other computer running 24/7 can run your own recursive DNS resolver with unbound… Hope this helps some people, may have missed a few 😂
Why 2 piholes?
More for redundancy, even for the short times it takes to reboot a pi after an update, have 0 interruption of internet… Also same when I want to backup one of the pi’s. Keeps network uptime to 100% most of the time
Ah, that’s smart
Another vote for CryptPad. Very polished and nice to work with.
My only reccommendation for a replacement for google drive would be to encrypt the files you save their using Veracrypt. No external server is safe to store data on.
Moving to China is probably the easiest solution.
Technically true, but completely false in spirit.
I would recommend Proton suite and Skiff Workplace
I love proton
If you’re on Android, that’s probably the most important thing to consider first. Just using a phone with Google Play Services gives up a great deal of privacy, even if you think you’ve turned all that off.
So, consider either an iPhone or if you’re really serious about this shit, GrapheneOS. The iPhone is easier for average people, but GrapheneOS is more private and you have more control. Both are better than Googled Android.
For a Google Drive alternative, that’s simple. If you’re already using Proton, get ProtonDrive.
For Google Docs alternative, that’s a bit more challenging. There aren’t any direct competitors with full end-to-end encryption that are any good and also cross-platform.
fuck iphones. paying more to get a worse device? no thanks
Worse device depends on the user. In my mid-30s, I loved all the tweaks and options my Android phone gave me. Now, as I push 50, I find I want my phone to just work. iOS does that for me. I have a dozen other devices I can hack around on.
i agree that iphones just work. i just value customization a ton more. custom apks (cant get youtube revanced on ios) and whatnot
There are a lot of good suggestions here. Just to add on to it, I have been using Skiff Pages as an alternative fog Google Docs for a while now, and I have been happy with it. They have a better UI and feels less clunkier than CryptPad. They also offer couple of other services such as Drive and email, which you can check out as well.
If you can afford it, make your next phone a Google Pixel and put GrapheneOS on it. Despite the phone being google, all the google crap will be removed by the OS.
Nextcloud self-hosted to replace Google Drive.
Install as many apps as possible from F-Droid and the rest via Aurora Store.
not a fan of graphene, ive tried it. have a pixel rn.
what havent you liked about it ?
missing just a lot of little features I’ve grown accustomed to. biggest ones I can remember are the tiny weather widget and the thing where the display doesn’t turn off if ur looking at it. also the UI wasn’t all that great imo
I remember now, what pushed me all the way away was my bank app not working
fair. in my opinion, banking apps are not worth having on a phone due to the security risks. there are several alternative launchers available on f-droid :)
I’m really reluctant to recommend Nextcloud. The software is buggy, it’s not e2e encrypted, and you’re liable to data less if your VPS goes down unless you’re good at managing cloud resources.
For most people, a service is better.
For most people, Syncthing is better. You don’t even need a server, just another device of similar capacity compatible with Syncthing.
Nextcloud has a few easy cheats to get it working smooth these days. Docker all in one images are a thing. The only additional step I had was a cache and cron and I haven’t had one error.
If you are already using proton mail, there is proton drive. For docs… maybe Libreoffice, or Cryptpad or any selfhostable options?
proton drive is what i ended up doing. turns out i had literally one important document in docs lol
If you don’t have the time/interest in setting up NextCloud, CryptPad replicates a lot of the functionality of Google Docs/Drive, though to get more 1GB of storage you will have to subscribe.
Do you still use Android? I don’t feel like I can genuinely be off of Google until I find a way not to have them in my phone. Apple isn’t much better, especially for the featureset sacrifice
I’d really recommend /e/OS if you want a completely degoogled android OS
i mean i use a Google pixel, so it’s a bit tough to run away from google lol. but I’m doing my best
GrapheneOS takes minutes to set up. Its awesome.
I use android, but you can run android without google with LineageOS
GrapheneOS is the go to recommendation.
How different is it? Just removing Alphabet software or does it start from scratch?
the android which most phones use is android+gapps (google apps), which is a closed source fork/distro of android made by google. base android and grapheneos (based on android 13) are open source. grapheneos does not have google play services, so most google apps will not work at all, but play services can be installed (although i dont recommend).
So if you want graphene you either have to side load everything or use webapps? Or would side loading not even work?
If by side-loading you mean installing from a ‘non-trusted’ or ‘unofficial’ source (apps other than google play store), then yes, that is the only option. however, this is not much less convient or secure.
There are a few ways to install apps (these should work with any Android phone, not just Grapheneos):
Any non-paid apps on google play can be installed using Aurora Store. supposedly you can use it without even logging in to google account (but i havent gotten that to work). Eg. Facebook
Most FOSS apps will be in the F-Droid repository, and can be installed with the F-Droid app, or other similar apps such as Droidify. Eg. K-9 Mail
If an app is not on the main F-Droid repo, alternative repositories can be added to your F-Droid client.
APKs (app packages) can be installed from the web. this is how F-Droid is usually installed for the first time. Eg. Signal is not available on F-Droid (for reasons)
Basically, if you need a proprietery app like Facebook, use Aurora; if you need an open source app, look for it on F-Droid or download the APK. There are of course pros and cons of each method in terms of security and convenience.
Ahhh okay thank you!!
np ;)
I’m using a pixel with graphineos rn and its the best mobile experience I’ve ever had without using google products.