A No Nonsense List of Google Alternatives for Linux Users | Hacker News Reader

A No Nonsense List of Google Alternatives for Linux Users

kylebenzle.medium.com

19 pointskylebenzle30 comments

This list would be more useful if there was any explanation of why these apps should be preferred over the many other options that are available. Why the Brave browser (based on Chromium, I might add) as opposed to Firefox? Why LastPass as opposed to Dashlane, or Bitkeeper, or Keepass? Why Zoom as opposed to Jitsi Meet?

I'm not saying some of these aren't good options (although I find some of them questionable), but without any explanation it's hard for me to come at it and say, "Oh okay, for your use case that makes sense, but my use case is different."

I feel the same. Perhaps listing two or three alternatives instead of just one would be nice. also, why do I need a calendar service if I'm on fastmail which already provides it?

Nevetheless, being in the middle of a degoogling phase (that will last me a couple more months) I appreciate these posts and curations.

Yep, I just thought I'd throw this together based on my own personalized work flow :)

Definitely can put some more explanation in there.

I looked at the list and because it was called "No Nonsense" I thought it would be without nonsensical alternatives. I saw Plasma Mobile as alternative to Android and wondered how well it works nowadays, so I searched for "plasma mobile current status" and found https://devtube.dev-wiki.de/videos/watch/a4f1e6ef-41f5-41ab-... where the person is shown to use it on a phone and come on, it seems really unusable. If the other things on the list have the same state then I really don't get why they called it "No Nonsense List".

Brave instead of Firefox ruins the credibility for me.

I was 100% confident there would be some irrational Brave hate in the comments.

What about Brave ruins the credibility of a list focused on avoiding Google? It's a pretty easy choice for someone who's happy with Chrome but not comfortable with the Google-ized parts of it.

It uses the Google rendering engine as it's main component.

Yea, that's why I mentioned people who like Chrome. There are tons of people whose reasons for un-Googling have nothing to do with being downstream of an open-source project of theirs. It's ludicrous to claim that the list's credibility is shot because it targets people who don't want to use Google products (due to eg not wanting to be tracked) instead of those with a religious belief in being cleansed of Google.

Having a single rendering engine is an absolute disaster for the web. It has nothing to do with Google, religion, cleansing, etc.

I happen to agree, but it's ridiculous to think that a list "loses credibility" for one of its items not fully fitting one of the million reasons people choose to avoid Google products.

Whats wrong with brave? Seems like a decent browser to me.

It's Chromium based so heavily influenced by Google.

This is often held against Brave as well:

https://www.cpomagazine.com/data-privacy/brave-privacy-brows....

https://digdeeper.neocities.org/ghost/browsers.html#brave

So, why not LibreOffice? Works great in Suse, reads and writes Word docs, pretty good spreadsheet.

What does this list have to do with Linux specifically? Wouldn’t this be better titled “Alternative services to Google and their products”?

There are unmarked affiliate links in this oddly disorganised list.

Good catch! Looks like a sole purpose of that post.

Nope, I did add my Mega.nz link but thats it. Just removed it for your benefit.

I don't mind affiliate links as far as they are disclosed: https://www.websitepolicies.com/blog/affiliate-links-disclos...

Nothing, it's clickbait that hits on two common HN sentiments (yay Linux and fuck Google).

Honestly I just thought I'd throw together a list of my daily drivers. Not trying to trick anyone into anything :)

Fair enough, I'm probably being overly cynical.

> Google Alternatives for Linux Users

Bear Writer?

Via Wikipedia: "Brave is a free and open-source web browser developed by Brave Software, Inc. based on the Chromium web browser."

How is that Google-free?

Google and its users could take a more balanced approach with regard to data.

I am not advocating for or against google. However its products are frankly very good. I wouldn’t mind giving up some of my data to make possible products that improve my productivity.

Of course the devil is in the detail (transparency, control, meaningful privacy etc).

I wouldn't use Authy as a second auth factor. Like, yeah it's not Google, but it's a glorified SMS code. Unfortunately I don't know of any good replacements that are viable on Linux.

FIDO? Like this one https://solokeys.com

How do you mean viable on Linux? Are you looking for a 2FA app which runs on your desktop computer?

On the phone andOTP is a nice working Google Authenticator alternative.

Now, onto my list:

1. Search - Searx (self-hosted)

   meta-search engine

   https://searx.github.io/searx/

2. Browser - Firefox

   Let's keep the web open, don't support the rendering engine monoculture

3. Mail - Exim (self-hosted)

   Keep your own data in your own hands, where they belong

4. Cloud drive - Nextcloud (self-hosted)

   Keep your own data in your own hands, where they belong

5. Desktop OS - Debian "unstable"

   Install once, upgrade "forever"

6. Mobile OS - LineageOS

   Google-free, no "gapps", still supports nearly all Android "apps"

7. Maps - OSM hosted on Nextcloud (self-hosted)

   Why tell external companies where you are and where you are going?

8. Phone - Nextcloud Talk (self-hosted)

   Why tell external companies who you communicate with?

9. Docs - Libreoffice & Libreoffice Online (self-hosted)

   Keep your own data in your own hands, where they belong

10. Spreadsheets - Libreoffice & Libreoffice Online (self-hosted)

   Keep your own data in your own hands, where they belong

11. Photos - experimenting with Pixelfed (self-hosted), before that I used Trovebox (self-hosted)

   Keep your own data in your own hands, where they belong

12. Calendar - Nextcloud (self-hosted)

   Keep your own data in your own hands, where they belong

13. Passwords - homebuilt password generator + my head

   Generates complex passwords based on a master password, a seed and some target-related data (domain, address, etc)

14. Videos - Peertube (self-hosted)

   Keep your own data in your own hands, where they belong

15. Authentication - ... (using Kerberos locally)

16. Blogging - not doing that

17. Meetings - Jitsi Meet

   Why tell external companies who you communicate with?

18. Ads - be gone you foul creature, repent!

19. Flights - ...

20. Web Analytics - ...

21. Payments - ...

22. Music - Airsonic (self-hosted), MPD (self-hosted), experimented with Funkwhale (self-hosted)

   Keep your own data in your own hands, where they belong

23. App store - F-Droid, Aurora Store

You might notice the main defining characteristic of my "Google alternatives" is that they tend to be self-hosted. This keeps others from mining your data, protects you from censorship and gives you far more flexibility,

Reply on news.ycombinator.com