Google more than just kind of sucks. Like you said they haven’t done shit in a long time outside of making the internet more hostile with shit like this and their planned chrome-based anti adblock (a LOT of browsers run on chromium which would bring the same shit, Mozilla4lyfe)
Also, the google graveyard is just pathetic at this point. They truly can’t do shit outside of anti-user bullshit
Yeah I have an immich instance myself, and do plan on relying more on that as I max out my Google drive size.
The bigger issue I gave with that is remote backup still imposes a cost, and like you said you gotta know what you're doing to safely expose that to the Internet.
That is true. I only use mine locally, so it's not a problem. Although you can remote access via Tailscale for safety. It's quicker and easier than trying to set up remote proxies etc, about which I know nothing. Tailscale took 5 mins.
You don't have to pay Google a penny. I bought a quite cheap (50-60$) used but working Pixel 1 XL specifically for unlimited lifetime full-quality Google Photos upload.
You got me! Android came after maps in 2008. So that's not a great argument for recent development. Is pixel meaningfully different than Nexus? That would put it in 2010, or 2016 if you insist pixel is a big innovation.
But all "successes" are gonna be years old. You don't turn something like Chromebook into an overnight success. It takes years for an ecosystem to grow, users to find use cases, software revisions to polish the product, word of mouth, etc.
For comparison the Apple watch came out in 2015 and Airpods in 2016. What other successes has Apple had in the past 7 years? Maybe their AR thing will take off, but if it does it's probably 5-10 years from becoming a mass market product.
Android is developed by a consortium of developers called The Open Handset Alliance under an open source license. It is most certainly not a Google product, any more than Linux is a Canonical product. As in, they help develop it but it's not their product.
That is really playing with words... Android (the OS people run on their phone) was originally developed by a company bought by Google, which then funded it, made the overwhelming number of contributions to it for 19 years, does the marketing, certification plus all the non-open source elements that make the experience what 99.99% of users get everyday when they use their phone.
Ignoring everything after Google maps is ignorant as hell. I mean Google Photos is literally used by a massive percentage of iPhone users as well, because it's so good.
They didn’t walk it back. Pixel 1 still has unlimited storage.
And for some time, other devices did as well. And then they changed it. Would some other term than "walking back" describe "they offered a good deal to customers, and then changed it to a less good deal" better for you?
Do you like work for Google or something? Probably not. The handful of people I've met who work there aren't nearly this zealous about defending it.
Are you hanging your entire argument on the word "lifetime"?
From their announcement
Starting June 1, 2021, any new photos and videos you upload will count toward the free 15 GB of storage that comes with every Google Account or the additional storage you’ve purchased as a Google One member. Your Google Account storage is shared across Drive, Gmail and Photos. This change also allows us to keep pace with the growing demand for storage. And, as always, we uphold our commitment to not use information in Google Photos for advertising purposes. We know this is a big shift and may come as a surprise, so we wanted to let you know well in advance and give you resources to make this easier.
From this you can infer photos prior to June 21 2021 did not count against the storage. And now they do. Making the product worse for users.