CHROME (google) is planing to implement DRM (kinda) into their browser
looks like rendering adblockers extensions obsolete with manifest-v3 was not enough so now they try to implement DRM into the browser giving the ability to any website to refuse traffic to you if you don't run a complaint browser ( cough...firefox )
here is an article in hacker news since i'm sure they can explain this to you better than i.
Stop using Google products I don’t know how else to fucking say it.
Chrome -> Firefox
Drive -> sync or Dropbox or any number of options
Sheets and productivity tools > libre office or Apache open office
YouTube -> Invidious or even better, odysse
Google search -> duck duck go, SearXNG, StartPage, etc
Gmail -> not a ton of great options. I’d probably recommend proton mail but the FOSS email world is definitely lacking, or gets blocked or goes down, harder to self host etc.
Sheets and productivity tools > libre office or Apache open office
YouTube -> Invidious or even better, odysse
Google search -> duck duck go, SearXNG, StartPage, etc
Gmail -> not a ton of great options. I’d probably recommend proton mail but the FOSS email world is definitely lacking, or gets blocked or goes down, harder to self host etc.
And I agree for sure. In order I use firefox (and brave sometimes), Proton Drive, Apple Productivity suite (pages, numbers etc), and either startpage or qwant, and proton mail. I do still use use YouTube Premium, but the point is Google doesn't need to have its fingers in every aspect of my digital life.
For many people, Google controls the entire network stack from their ISP, router, OS, DNS, their browser, all the way down to the platform hosting the content they watch.
Google has captured such a wide part of the Internet that any changes they make will have at least a moderate effect on our lives. Even if we don't use any Google services.
The only thing that can stop them is probably the EU at this point. And I'm sure Google has a plan for that.
EU is widely adopting the policy of fining by a percentage of global revenue which is what hurts even the largest companies, precisely to avoid "just pay the EU".
I found that quite easy, for once: I have a bare NC instance and I installed 2 add-ons (the integration bits and the CODE server that IIRC drops an appimage of the actual collabora server). Unless you have hundreds of users, that's about as much admin as you need :)
Immich is getting pretty darn close, close enough that you could genuinely have a think about what features really matter to you, vs the cost of privacy lost continuing to use Google Photos.
Yeah, me too. I've been on Photoprism for a while, and that got me out of Google Photos, but not my wife.
What annoys me about Photoprism is the long-promised multi-user feature was put behind a paid subscription. I was a paid Github supporter, and would've been happy to continue with my annual donation (like I do for other tech projects), but then they went the greedy ongoing sub route.
That's actually a bit of a relief to learn. I didn't want to believe it was simply because Lemmy was trying to copy Reddit, but I just didn't know enough to see any other reason.
Look, it's an unpopular opinion and many will disagree with me, but while Apple does certain things to restrict you from customizing your experience, they're doing far less to destroy the open Internet than Google. So if you need a fully featured OS (which degoogled custom Android ROMs might not be, if you need banking for an example), it's still an alternative for now, until Linux mobile experience gets better.
On iOS, there's no browser extensions (for e.g. ad blocking), no alternative browsers, and no FOSS apps of any kind. That platform is extremely hostile to the ideals of computing freedom.
Like I said, it's a better (for privacy) alternative to stock Android when you need a fully functional operating system. If you can stand to lose the oppressive Google functionality, you can go degoogled Android or preferably Linux (if you don't care about battery life or app availability).
I’ve been migrating to sync from Dropbox after hearing too many reports of Dropbox scanning user content for things they deem objectionable. I like the end to end encryption, but I have found the mobile experience on iOS to be lacking. It seems to have trouble integrating with Files and uploading files directly via the iOS share menu. Annoying but not a dealbreaker.
Question, I use Google docs a lot cause I like the sync and it's convenient when I write something like a book on my computer and then can add more on my phone and it syncs. Does Apache open office do that? I would like to switch if all this chrome stuff is bad but I use all of it all the time
Ok I really like Obsidian! The interface is really clean! I might still need to look for a proper word processor (I guess I could use libreoffice) but I also use geany as a notepad++ substitute and it's really nice too.
I still gotta look into setting up syncthing though
Interesting. Well, I did find Gnumeric in my search for a simple spreadsheet app for making flashcards with, so TIL something new
I guess my "cloudsync" can be using syncthing or just backing up to a flash drive lol
I really really want to move from google workspace, google photos and google drive. I used it all to backup a 16TB archive, sharing photos with family and friends and keeping my personal files in the cloud and synched across computers. I used a Synology to backup the archive from the computer locally to the Synology and offsite to google drive. But here's the thing, I'm a somewhat PC and Mac-savvy technical guy, but purely GUI. Is moving to Nextcloud on my synology going to be as easy as moving to google drive? I'm a little scared TBH. There are so many ways of installing next cloud and doing 3-2-1 backups and I don't have time to handle a little error on a Synology destroying my whole workflow for days.. Someone give me hope.