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DeGoogle Yourself @lemmy.ml
kingpepe8006 @sh.itjust.works

What apps do you use now that you're degoogled?

I'm working on degoogling and moving away from major tech companies. I'm really curious what others here are using instead — especially for everyday tools and services.

What do you use for things like:

1.Email

2.Cloud storage / file sync

3.Maps & navigation

4.Search engine

5.Web browser

6.Calendar

7.Contacts management

8.Notes / to-do lists

9.Office suite (docs, spreadsheets, etc.)

10.Messaging / chat

11.Video calling

12.Social media / microblogging RSS reader / news

13.Music streaming / podcast app

14.Video streaming / YouTube alternative

15.Password manager

16.VPN / DNS / Firewall

17.Launcher / Android OS (if you use custom ROMs)

18.App store / APKs

19.Photo backup / gallery

20.Weather

21.Smart assistant (if any)

22.Anything else you’ve replaced?

Would love to hear about your setup — both what works well and any trade-offs you’ve had to make. Always looking for better FOSS or privacy-friendly alternatives

49 comments
    1. Tuta
    2. Self-hosted Nextcloud
    3. Organic Maps for lookups, Magic Earth for navigation
    4. Self-hosted SearXNG
    5. LibreWolf on desktop, Fennec on mobile
    6. Tuta or Nextcloud, haven't really settled yet and I barely use a calendar as-is
    7. Android built-in with Nextcloud sync
    8. Nextcloud
    9. Nextcloud (Collabora) and LibreOffice
    10. Trying to get my family on Signal, but due to some holdouts and RCS not being available on anything but Google's messenger, I still keep their SMS app around. Mostly use Discord though realistically, likely soon to be Matrix.
    11. N/A
    12. Bluesky mostly. Not ideal but keeping up with active blocklists to shut out anyone right of center makes it much more usable.
    13. Navidrome with Feishin (desktop, also have a self-hosted web player just because) and Symfonium (mobile). Beets for metadata management
    14. Jellyfin for streaming, still use the "official" youtube app but Revanced really helps with it
    15. Self-hosted Vaultwarden + Bitwarden
    16. PiHole for DNS (need to set up Unbound still, maybe a weekend project). Mullvad VPN on everything. My Wireguard connection to my homelab actually routes out through Mullvad, so one VPN connection lets me access my LAN while protecting my outbound traffic.
    17. GrapheneOS, Nova launcher
    18. Split between F-droid, Aurora, and the Play Store for when the other two don't work. I try to use it as little as possible
    19. Self-hosted Immich. Aves Libre for local image management.
    20. I swear everything I use just has its own weather integration with a random site I've never heard of LMAO. GrapheneOS recommends BreezyWeather for widgets which works pretty well.
    21. None, never, fuck that shit.
    22. Aegis for 2FA, Heliboard for a mobile keyboard. Set up a whole bunch of self-hosted tools which don't replace anything for me but help me manage things I've been slacking on: ActualBudget, Paperless (digital file cabinet), Mealie (cookbook app), just to name a few.

    I'm about 80% of the way there. I've been slacking on migrating things over to my Tuta email since I set up forwarding from my old Gmail accounts.

    My last major holdouts are Fi (nothing else remotely compares price-wise in this area), Google's phone and messenger, and the pixel camera. The very second third party apps start using RCS, messenger is out (or if I can get the rest of my family on to Signal). The screening features of the phone app are too good to give up just yet, and the same goes for the quality of the Pixel camera - nothing comes close to those just yet.

  • email, calendar, contacts

    Fastmail. Migration to some European provider is planned. K-9 for email on phone. For email/calendar/contacts Thunderbird on desktop. Contact and calendar sync Davx5 on phone. Fossify for contacts and etar for calendar on phone.

    cloud storage

    Filen. Zero knowledge e2ee service from Germany

    maps & navigation

    OSM-AND+

    search

    qwant (from France) and sometimes DDG or startpage

    browser

    LibreWolf + uBlock origin

    notes

    just a text editor (Pluma)

    office

    Latex & LibreOffice when needed

    messaging

    Signal, some contacts are still in TG

    video calling

    Don't use

    social media

    Lemmy & Mastodon

    music streaming

    Don't use. I get mine either on physical media if possible (cd) or in flac format (Bandcamp)

    video streamming

    Nebula, Odysee and FreeTube for youtube content

    password manager

    keepassXC. DB is synced via cloud to other devices

    vpn & dns

    Mullvad

    firewall

    Linux built-in (netfilter) configured thru Yast

    android os

    Graphene OS

    app store

    F-droid and some via Aurora store

    photo gallery

    Digikam locally on desktop. Fossify gallery on phone.

    weather

    Finnish meteorological institution

    smart assistant

    Don't use

    anything else

    I ditched google mostly years ago. Graphene OS is the latest one and that was only this year. FreeTube is also fairly recent (sometime last year). Before that I used piped but that was nuked by google. More precisely they made it impossible to use. On software I've been FOSS first for over 10 years. Using OpenSuse Tumbleweed on my desktop and laptop (Thinkpad L580).

  • 1.Email runbox and mail.ee - thunderbird as client

    2.Cloud storage / file sync jottacloud

    3.Maps & navigation magic earth

    4.Search engine ddg or qwant

    5.Web browser brave

    6.Calendar thunderbird

    7.Contacts management thunderbird

    8.Notes / to-do lists crypt.ee

    9.Office suite (docs, spreadsheets, etc.) jottacloud

    10.Messaging / chat signal

    11.Video calling signal

    12.Social media / microblogging RSS reader / news mastodon, lemmy, thunderbird for rss

    13.Music streaming / podcast app

    14.Video streaming / YouTube alternative invidious

    15.Password manager bitwarden

    16.VPN / DNS / Firewall mullvad

    17.Launcher / Android OS (if you use custom ROMs)

    18.App store / APKs

    19.Photo backup / gallery immich/jottacloud

    20.Weather shadow weather

  • First post on Lemmy but not new to degoogling.

    Phone is a Pixel 6a running GrapheneOS for about 2.5 years.

    Laptop is a used Lenovo T470s with Linux, Fedora Workstation. Total noob.

    1.Email - Proton Unlimited

    2.Cloud storage / file sync - Proton Drive / Syncthing

    3.Maps & navigation - OSMAnd

    4.Search engine - varies but right now it's Brave

    1. Web browser - On my phone I use Ironfox with UBlock Origins on expert mode (deletes all browsing data) and Brave for logins.

    On my laptop, LibreWolf with UBlock Origins on expert mode (deletes browsing data) and Firefox for logins.

    Ironfox and LibreWolf are sync through Mozilla.

    6.Calendar - Fossify Calendar, phone.

    7.Contacts management - whatever is stock on GOS

    8.Notes / to-do lists - Fossify Notes for reusable checklists. Joplin on both laptop and phone for markdown notes. I used to use Quillpad when I used an android tablet and phone.

    9.Office suite (docs, spreadsheets, etc.) LibreOffice on Linux. LibreOffice viewer on my phone.

    10.Messaging / chat - Signal

    11.Video calling - I don't do video calling but if I did, Signal

    12.Social media - Firefox on my Laptop, Brave on my phone. I'm planning on ditching Reddit. RedReader is the app I use on that site.

    12b. microblogging - I can't stand microblogging (Twitter, Mastodon, Bluesky)

    12c. RSS reader / news - Feeder on my phone

    13.Music streaming - I play music stored on my phone with Vanilla.

    13b. podcast app - Antenna Pod on my phone. I like CPod on my laptop but it's no longer being updated. I've looked but can't find one I like for Linux that is being updated.

    14.Video streaming / YouTube alternative - Freetube on Linux and PipePipe on my phone

    15.Password manager - Proton Pass.

    16.VPN / DNS / Firewall - ProtonVPN but their Linux app is barebones. Doesn't even have split tunneling.

    17.Launcher / Android OS (if you use custom ROMs) - Stock launcher on phone. Extension Manager on my laptop to tweak the desktop for more usability.

    18.App store / APKs - From most to least apps installed from that store - Obtainium (usually Github) 22, F-Droid 15, Aurora Store 3, and Accrescent 3.

    19.Photo backup / gallery - Photos sync to my laptop with Syncthing, from there I upload to ProtonDrive.

    20.Weather - I open Environment Canada local forecast with a browser

    21.Smart assistant (if any) - Nope

    22.Anything else you’ve replaced? - I use mostly cash in stores. My keyboard is Futo on my phone.

    I plan on moving away from Proton if they don't start supporting Linux more. Addy for email aliases, Tuta for mail, and Mullvad for VPN. Not sure about cloud, or if I need it, at the moment.

  • 1.Email

    FastMail, IceDove (GNU debranded ThunderBird), FairEmail

    2.Cloud storage / file sync

    Syncthing, Nextcloud for sharing and browsing files, I store my files using TrueNAS and a RAID Z2 configuration with Backblaze B2 for backup

    3.Maps & navigation

    OsmAnd with Brouter (FastBike-VeryLowTraffic profile) for ebike, my local transit app for public transit, Magic Earth the rare occasion I use a car, Uber rarely, I still use Google Maps for searching because everything else sucks

    4.Search engine

    Kagi, nowadays I usually use Deepseek R1 model with either Kagi Assistant or OpenRouter but might self-host LibreChat

    5.Web browser

    LibreWolf for searches, FireFox and FireFox PWAs for sites I regularly visit but planning to switch to Floorp. On Android, Cromite for random sites, Vanadium for sides I stay logged in to, IronFox with extensions for searches.

    6.Calendar

    Etar synced with Nextcloud using DAVx5

    7.Contacts management

    GrapheneOS contacts app synced with Nextcloud, the Fossify app has given me problems

    8.Notes / to-do lists

    Tasks.org synced with Nextcloud, Logseq for random notes, Markdown or comments in Typst documents in certain contexts

    9.Office suite (docs, spreadsheets, etc.)

    Typst or LaTeX for documents I make myself. LibreOffice or Collabora app for MS office documents.

    10.Messaging / chat

    Signal (Molly) and Discord (Vesktop, Revenge) most of the time

    11.Video calling

    Signal or Discord for personal, Teams for business stuff

    12.Social media / microblogging RSS reader / news

    Lemmy, Reddit, Instagram

    13.Music streaming / podcast app

    Tidal for my own playlists, Spotify for playlists from other people, YouTube when I want to randomly listen to something, ListenBrainz and Last.fm for scribbling. I want to set up Navidrome again but last time I did it was a disaster.

    15.Password manager

    Bitwarden/Vaultwarden

    16.VPN / DNS / Firewall

    InviZible Pro and Privoxy (uses Tor and I2P). I should probably get Mullvad or AirVPN.

    17.Launcher / Android OS (if you use custom ROMs)

    Kvaesitso

    18.App store / APKs

    Obtainium for FOSS, Google Play for proprietary

    19.Photo backup / gallery

    Syncthing-Fork, Aves Libre

    20.Weather

    Weather.gov, Windy which tends to be more accurate for more specific locations

    • email: i dont have the time and/or possibility to change from google. some forums only allow registering from well known domained emails, and ive heard horrible things about the free tier proton and tuta users (also im currently on the proton translation team and they send me these horrible mid management fucktard emails every week like im a corporate slave. sorry for doin free work fuckhats)...also their app is crap. i use fairmail on droid, and postbox on win. i do have a secondary disroot email account.
    • cloud: i was fast enough to secure myself a lifetime 200gb filen.io package. weird ui, but works.
    • maps: as a cyclist, organic maps is the best thing ever. wouldnt recommend it for cars tho, cause big tech is required for live traffic stats.
    • search: still google. most search engines only tag NA and west EU sites, so youve got qwant or ddg which are slow as hell. mullvad has no picture search which i often use (and no wide mode for some reason?).
    • ironfox and librewolf. extensions: ublock, consentomatic, clearurls. chromium browsers tend to run in the background, so they can suck my salami.
    • calendar etar, but barely use it
    • quillpad for notes but i dont use it much
    • office: ms on the work lappy, nothing on my private rig. nothing beats readera on android.
    • msg: molly as a degoogled signal, a modded discord with revenge for less tracking and more customisability, and nekogram
    • i dont videocall
    • social: nothing really. mastodon, reddit, lemmy, some imgur...but i wouldnt consider these a social media, more like getting rid of the bordom on the toilet.
    • music: for streaming a modded spotify and murglar, for local gramophone. gramophone rocks.
    • i dont stream video, they all suck
    • password: good old bitwarden. works on any device, syncs for free, but 1 dollar per month isnt a big deal either. aegis or stratum for 2fa, cause i aint gonna sync those.
    • firewall: blokada, and pihole at home
    • launcher: squarehome. the metro design is perfect on a mobile, a pain on pc. paid for it, cause its super awsome. dev deserves the money.
    • appstore: currently play store and droidify, bank and government apps require google
    • i just simply manually backup my photos like a caveman
    • weather: wöw. literally everything else sucks. not even funny at this point.
    • i also chose algernon's wife as my smart assistant
    • extra: bcr for call recording, birday for birthday notifications, catima for clubcards, fitotrack for running, iconify for system customisation, heliboard for keyboard, parcel for tracking packages, z- lib for downloading books, nitterify to read twitter links which happens rather rare nowdays.

  • This is using a combo of a phone running GrapheneOS, and Linux on desktop. It's an ongoing process.

    1. Infomaniak KMail for anything that matters. I do still have a couple of Gmail accounts, and have continued to use one of them to give out publicly and catch spam. FairEmail as a mobile client for them all. Infomaniak's webmail is decent, and I just use it on desktop.
    2. Infomaniak KDrive / just physical backups. Considering self-hosting Nextcloud for some of it. KDE Connect helps with syncing across devices.
    3. OsmAnd~ / OpenStreetMap where practical. I do occasionally resort to Google Maps on an old Android phone for navigation.
    4. Mostly been using my distros instance of SearX on desktop, DuckDuckGo elsewhere.
    5. Firefox still on mobile / preferably FireDragon on desktop / Vanadium is also good on mobile, but I missed the easy cross-device syncing.
    6. Strictly local data Fossify Calendar on mobile, importing and sending .ics events as need be.
    7. Don't really have a need for contacts management outside of phone contacts and e-mail.
    8. My own ad hoc ADHD Brain workaround setup that probably wouldn't transfer well. Quillpad looks good on mobile though, with Nextcloud sync to take it across platforms.
    9. LibreOffice whenever I do need anything like that these days, with KDrive sharing as required.
    10. Matrix. Using a public homeserver that runs a bridge to Google Chat (among other services), with my partner still using GChat exclusively.
    11. Rarely comes up, but probably also Matrix with the bridges.
    12. Mastodon, Bluesky, Reddit, besides obviously Lemmy. I don't really do social media these days.
    13. Spotify. Prefer downloading/ripping and keeping MP3s locally.
    14. Mainly still YouTube, but through Revanced where possible. One of the biggest gaps in other viable services right now.
    15. AuthPass cross platform. Using the same format as KeePass, but I prefer their client.
    16. Mullvad /AdGuard DNS on my phone, Cloudflare on desktop / Whatever my partner currently has set up on the network now plus my own firewalld configuration at home
    17. Mostly stock GrapheneOS
    18. F-Droid / Aurora / (Sandboxed) Play Store only where the others won't do it.
    19. Still need to get the archive away from Google. Considering just organizing locally with Immich, just doing local backups for a couple years now.
    20. DMI / Vädret apps (more useful locally), KDE's built-in weather widget on desktop.
    21. We avoid "smart" anything in this house. The closest is Xiaomi's (Graphene sandboxes) app handling the robovac.
    22. It's not Google specific, but I have personally been leaning toward FOSS software storing data locally wherever I reasonably can.

  • Email

    • Mix of Proton Mail and Tuta Mail. I do want to get a custom domain just so I don't need to go through the email shuffle the next time a service goes to shit. Unfortunately i still need to keep around my Google account and Microsoft account. To access emails, I use FairEmail on my phone alongside the Proton and Tuta Mail apps, and on the desktop I use Thunderbird.

    Cloud storage / file sync

    • Filen for cloud storage, Syncthing for file sync, also selfhosted Nextloud. Used to use MEGA in the past, but i don't anymore. To backup my phone, I use LineageOS's built-in tool (Seedvault), I simply ask it to back up to the SD card and use Syncthing to sync this to my computer and server.

    Maps & navigation

    • OpenStreetMap is not great where I live, so I am still forced to use GMaps.

    Search engine

    • Duckduckgo (for most things) + Startpage (when I need better results).

    Web browser

    • Fennec Browser on mobile, Librewolf on desktop.

    Calendar

    • Fossify Calendar on mobile, Thunderbird on desktop, calendar is synced to a selfhosted Nextcloud server.

    Contacts management

    • Using the default contacts app on LineageOS on mobile, these synced with the same Nextcloud server.

    Notes / to-do lists

    • Tasks: Tasks.org on mobile, synced with the same Nextcloud server (with Nextcloud tasks). Honestly I can't find a desktop todo list app that supports Nextcloud, so i just use the website (if anyone knows a good option for this, let me know).
    • For note-taking, i use Obsidian synced across all my devices with Syncthing, backed up to my Nextcloud server and Filen as well. For quicker notes (my obsidian vaults do take a while to open on my phone) i use the Nextcloud Notes app.

    Office suite (docs, spreadsheets, etc.)

    • Still using Microsoft Office, however looking into switching to LibreOffice or Onlyoffice.

    Messaging / chat

    • Sadly, still forced to use closed apps like Discord and Whatsapp, as 99% of my friends and family still use these apps. I'd like to use Signal more, alongside Element and maybe Revolt as a Discord alternative, but trying to convince them to switch is really hard.

    Video calling

    • (i don't do video calling)

    Social media / microblogging RSS reader / news

    • Social media: been using Lemmy more often via Thunder, been trying to use Mastodon more but I don't seem to find any good posts for some reason? anyways. I still use some closed social media, if i need to see a post on Twitter, it'll be through Squawker (really good client for twitter), i don't keep any social media apps on my phone anymore, so i just use the browser if i need to look something on twitter/reddit/bsky/tumblr/whatever, this way I get ad and tracker blocking as well.
    • RSS reader: Nextcloud News on mobile, RSS Guard on desktop, all synced to Nextcloud News.

    Music streaming / podcast app

    • I don't do music streaming, i prefer to keep my music files locally, either buying them on Bandcamp or elsewhere For music playback however, on mobile i use Musicolet, and on desktop I use Musicbee (currently trying to find a replacement that is as good as Musicbee for Linux).

    Video streaming / YouTube alternative

    • Still using YouTube, YouTube Revanced, however GrayJay does look pretty good as a YT front-end and i do want to switch to that (once the desktop version is not awful).

    Password manager

    • I've used Bitwarden for the longest time, but I'd like to start using KeepassXC instead, since it is offline and does not look like a mobile app cosplaying as a desktop app.

    VPN / DNS / Firewall

    • Using ProtonVPN, alongside Tailscale to connect to the server i have at home.

    Launcher / Android OS (if you use custom ROMs)

    • Launcher: Used to use Nova Launcher until they were bought out by a sketchy company, now I use Lawnchair. Still miss Nova Launcher to this day honestly.
    • Custom ROMS: LineageOS 14, with microG. Honestly still surprised my banking app does not care about the fact I don't have GApps installed (the most it ever gave me is a single "your phone may be modified message" notification). Whatsapp messages are really delayed which has been a pain, but it is a worthwhile tradeoff.

    App store / APKs

    • Aurora store, F-Droid.

    Photo backup / gallery

    • Nextcloud Photos for camera backup, Syncthing for everything else, and for the gallery i use Fossify Gallery.

    Weather

    • Weathermaster on F-Droid. For a widget that tells me the weather, Another Widget is really good (sadly no longer developed).

    Smart assistant (if any)

    • (i don't use any)

    Anything else you’ve replaced?

    • planning to switch to Linux, I really do not like Windows 11 and their plans to shove AI everywhere, I been trying out Linux on my laptop and it has been pretty great, I really like how customizable it is, KDE Plasma is great and Fedora has been really stable as a daily OS. I may still be forced to keep a Windows VM or separate Windows partition around for certain stuff, like games that use anticheat bullshit, or other tools that are Windows only.
    • Currently the phone I have is on its last legs, so I may switch to a degoogled Google Pixel, and use something like GrapheneOS or something that lets me lock the bootloader with a custom ROM installed
    • Been looking into alternatives for MSOffice, Libreoffice looks good, however compatibility wise OnlyOffice tends to get the formatting right more often.

  • I use iPhone, Windows (work laptop) and Linux (personal laptop), so keep that in mind when looking at my suggestions. I have also a Proton unlimited subscription.

    1. Email: Proton Mail + Simplelogin aliases / Tuta as backup
    2. Cloud storage: Proton Drive / Filen
    3. Maps: Magic Earth / OpenStreetMap
    4. Search engine: Qwant
    5. Web browser: Zen browser (Firefox fork) / Quiche browser (iOS)
    6. Calendar: Apple Calendar (our family calendar is here, hard to use something else) / Thunderbird (apple calendar caldav imported)
    7. Contacts management: Proton / iOS
    8. Notes / to-do lists: Notesnook / iOS
    9. Office suite (docs, spreadsheets, etc.): MS Office (work) / Libreoffice (personal)
    10. Messaging / chat: Signal / SimpleX
    11. Video calling: Signal
    12. Social media / microblogging RSS reader / news: Mastodon / Bluesky / Reddit / Lemmy
    13. Music streaming / podcast app: Tidal (pays artists more and Spotify donated to Trump) / Pocket Casts
    14. Video streaming / YouTube alternative: Grayjay (Windows/Linux) / Unwatched (iOS)
    15. Password manager: Proton Pass
    16. VPN / DNS / Firewall: Proton VPN
    17. Launcher / Android OS (if you use custom ROMs): iOS
    18. App store / APKs: iOS
    19. Photo backup / gallery: Proton Drive
    20. Weather: iOS
    21. Smart assistant (if any): Nope
    22. Anything else you’ve replaced? MS authenticator -> Ente Auth Reddit iOS app -> Hydra Notion -> Anytype

    I know that some of my solutions are bonded to Apple, but I am also regularly searching for Apple alternatives and focus on apps that are cross platform to make a possible deApple process smoother in the future.

  • What do you use for things like: 1.Email: Protonmail

    2.Cloud storage / file sync: Nextcloud/Syncthing

    3.Maps & navigation: OSMAnd + Syncthing

    4.Search engine: SearX (self-hosted) and Brave

    5.Web browser: Brave, Libre wolf on Linux, Vanadium and Fennec on Mobile

    6.Calendar: Etar (with Davx5 from Nextcloud)

    7.Contacts management: Contacts in Linux and GrapheneOS (with Davx5 from Nextcloud)

    8.Notes / to-do lists: Obsidian over Syncthing with a crapload of plug-ins.

    9.Office suite (docs, spreadsheets, etc.): Libreoffice and Onlyoffice

    10.Messaging / chat: Signal and some XMPP client (Cheogram on mobile and Dino on Linux)

    11.Video calling: Signal for personal, nothing for business (or whatever was used by the person inviting, in an incognito browser tab)

    12.Social media / microblogging RSS reader / news: Mastodon and Lemmy / nothing / FreshRSS (self-hosted) / FreshRSS (self-hosted)

    13.Music streaming / podcast app: Don't stream music / AntennaPod

    14.Video streaming / YouTube alternative: NewPipe, Smarttube (on TV) and Grayjay

    15.Password manager: ProronPass, KeepassXC for secrets

    16.VPN / DNS / Firewall: Nord VPN, Tailscale and Teleport (Unifi) / AdguardHome / Unifi UCG-Ultra

    17.Launcher / Android OS (if you use custom ROMs): GrapheneOS stock launcher

    18.App store / APKs: Neo Store and Obtainium (for everything I can get from git instead of f-droid and similar. Sometimes Aurora if I want to try something commonplace

    19.Photo backup / gallery: Nextcloud

    20.Weather: Breeze weather on mobile, Gnome weather on Linux

    21.Smart assistant (if any): None (yet, still researching options on Home Assistant)

    22.Anything else you’ve replaced?: I've been able to replace everything that matters to me, but that's a wiki-like long list.

    1. Email

    I self-host my email using postfix, dovecot, rspamd and others. The only tradeoff I had to make here is that some of the entities I have to communicate with via email use an allow-list, so some of my outgoing mail is sent through a relay (SMTP2Go).

    1. Cloud storage / file sync

    I self-host a minio for cloud storage. I don't need file sync, so nothing there. If I would, I would likely use syncthing.

    1. Maps & navigation

    OpenStreetMaps & CoMaps. Works much better than Google Maps did.

    1. Search engine

    Currently a self-hosted YaCy. I have my own index. Not entirely happy with this setup, will switch to something else (still self-hosted, I have no need for a general purpose search engine that indexes the entire internet of slop).

    1. Web browser

    LibreWolf

    1. Calendar

    I'm using Emacs & Org for most calendaring. Wife's using GNOME Calendar & a Calendar app I found for her on f-droid (unsure which one).

    1. Contacts management

    Nothing on desktop, some random contacts app from f-droid on the phone. I do use EteSync to keep a backup, and potentially sync later. (EteSync syncs her calendar too)

    1. Notes / to-do lists

    Emacs & Org.

    1. Office suite (docs, spreadsheets, etc.)

    Most of my "office" needs are covered by a combination of Emacs, Typst and Zola one way or another. For the rare case where I need Office compatiblity: LibreOffice.

    1. Messaging / chat

    XMPP. Dino on Linux, Conversations on Android. I use Matrix too, from time to time (Element), and have Signal too. Not a big fan of the latter two, because it isn't practical to self-host those.

    1. Video calling

    XMPP. Dino & Conversations. If I need to video call with someone else, I'll use whatever they use, usually.

    1. Social media / microblogging RSS reader / news

    For social media, the Fediverse is my only social media. I'm using Tuba on desktop, Tusky on the phone for it. For RSS, self-hosted Miniflux. For Lemmy, the web ui on desktop, Voyager on phone.

    1. Music streaming / podcast app

    Lollypop & Shortwave.

    1. Video streaming / YouTube alternative

    FreeTube or yt-dlp if I need to watch youtube, PeerTube otherwise.

    1. Password manager

    Bitwarden (via a self-hosted Vaultwarden on the server side).

    1. VPN / DNS / Firewall

    The only VPN I use is WireGuard between my systems, but I don't tunnel everything through it. For DNS, I'm using unbound on my VPS, which in turn dispatches to Quad9. Firewall? nftables.

    1. Launcher / Android OS (if you use custom ROMs)

    I haven't de-googled my phone, because my bank app refuses to work on rooted phones, and I unfortunately need that for the bank's 2FA. No, I am not changing banks. I do use a custom launcher (Nova), though.

    1. App store / APKs

    F-droid.

    1. Photo backup / gallery

    I manually copy photos from the phone to my PC, and it gets backed up with the rest of the stuff. I do my backups with restic, and save a copy on my own server, and another at BorgBase. I'll have a third copy at a third place later.

    1. Weather

    wttr.in, mostly.

    1. Smart assistant (if any)

    My wife. <3

    1. Anything else you’ve replaced?

    Not strictly de-googling, but I'm using Codeberg & my own self-hosted Forgejo instead of GitHub. I replaced LibreWolf's bookmark manager with Readeck. For push notifications on Android, I'm using a self-hosted nfty.sh.

    Would love to hear about your setup — both what works well and any trade-offs you’ve had to make. Always looking for better FOSS or privacy-friendly alternatives

    Oh dear. Strap in, for you're in for a Journey! The entire configuration of both my desktop and the rest of my fleet (my VPS, my homelab server, and my Mom's miniPC at the moment) are all free software. Based on NixOS, declarative configuration written in a literate programming manner using Org mode. There is a lot of documentation.

    • I haven’t de-googled my phone, because my bank app refuses to work on rooted phones, and I unfortunately need that for the bank’s 2FA. No, I am not changing banks. I do use a custom launcher (Nova), though.

      Use HMS Core (Gallery Huawei) store...

      • Not sure how that'd help?

        If I don't use stock Android, the bank app doesn't work, no matter what else I install on it, or what store I use.

    • I heard about the Organic Maps fork but they were still looking for a name. I like that theyve gone with CoMaps. Short, easy to remember, and represents what the app stands for.

      • Google is the same, not really short, easy to remember name...

  • Tip: If you are stuck using Gmail you can still access it with a third party FOSS client like FairEMail. I used to use it when I was at school and it worked perfectly, although you may need specific versions approved by Google so you can use Gmail, but the app still remains open source!

    1. Email: Migadu via Thunderbird
    2. Cloud Storage/File Sync: I have Syncthing-Fork synchronising my wallpapers on my mobile devices. In a pinch I use a self hosted MicroBin or NextCloud.
    3. Maps & Navigation: N/A
    4. Search Engine: SearXNG
    5. Web Browser: Firefox
    6. Calendar: NextCloud via DavX5
    7. Contacts Management: NextCloud via DavX5
    8. Notes/To-Do Lists: BundledNotes
    9. Office Suite (Docs, Spreadsheets, etc.): LibreOffice
    10. Messaging/Chat: Telegram, Signal and RCS
    11. Video Calling: Telegram via MercuryGram
    12. Social Media/Microblogging: Mastodon via Moshidon
    13. RSS Reader/News: Miniflux via CapyReader or ReadYou
    14. Music Streaming/Podcast App: Navidrome via Symfonium
    15. Video Streaming/Youtube Alternative: Jellyfin
    16. Password Manager: Bitwarden
    17. VPN/DNS/Firewall: Pi-Hole
    18. Launcher/Android OS (if you use custom ROMs): N/A
    19. App Store/APKs: F-Droid
    20. Photo Backup/Gallery: Immich
    21. Weather: N/A
    22. Smart Assistant (if any): N/A
    23. Anything Else You’ve Replaced? Home Assistant for Google Home and Kavita via Legado for Kindle
    1. Protonmail
    2. None
    3. Organic maps/gnome maps
    4. Searxng
    5. Librewolf/Fennec
    6. Fossify calendar/gnome calendar
    7. Fossify contacts
    8. Fossify notes
    9. Libreoffice/overleaf
    10. Whatsapp (everyone uses it, so yeah :/)
    11. Sometimes discord
    12. Lemmy
    13. Spotify on the browser
    14. Only YouTube :/
    15. KeepassXC/KepassDX
    16. Yearly plan of nextdns (really recommend)
    17. Wanting to use lineageos
    18. Droid-ify/Aurora store/pacman
    19. Fossify gallery
    20. KDE weather/gnome weather
    21. None
    22. I think it didn't use almost anything from google, so idk

  • Moved to Zoho (specifically Zillum (zoho for families)). That takes care of email, cloud storage, calendar, contacts, online office suite.

    I use linux on my laptop (manjaro). Firefox for browser. Searxng for search. Selfhosting FreshRSS. 1Password for password manager.

    Good luck on the process!

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