I have come to like duckduckgo instead for search. Even when I do want to use google for a search, it's as simple as typing "!g search term" in the bar. I find it nice for searching and then if I don't find what I want I can switch quickly to get google scholar results "!gsc search term". There's a rather large list of "bang" search options[1].

[1] https://duckduckgo.com/bang

Yet, Kevin Mitnick (yeah really) endorses them to people who answer his question "Would you spend $300 to amp up your security"

I don't pipe sensitive data through the Google cloud, but as far as hardware prices go, the Chromebook has ABSOLUTELY got Apple beat.

Furthermore, Google makes efforts to fight back against NSL's, and even have canaries implemented.

I don't use Google products when there is something better, obviously but refusing to use something of a superior quality for some reason you can't actually articulate seems ridiculous to me.

I have no sympathy who are afraid to use things because someone might be watching, especially not when that person can't be bothered to consider just using something else for sensitive data, but instead whine and moan about how SuccessfulCorp is ruining everything, blah blah, etc.

Too many 'anons' are obsessed with security, yet oftentimes they are the most security-ignorant demographic on the market.

Why are Google products a no go for you and people you know?

He is probably using Crouton : https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton