this post was submitted on 24 Nov 2023
749 points (98.6% liked)

Technology

59605 readers
3406 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

'Morale is at an all-time low': Ex-Googler writes scathing latter slamming layoffs and 'eroded' culture::An ex-Googler wrote a 1,500-word letter criticizing the firm and CEO Sundar Pichai's lack of "visionary leadership."

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] spiderkle@lemmy.ca 157 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Google's decisions in the time Pichai has been CEO, have been anti-consumer all the way. Not the fun conpany it used to be, now users are being forced out of adblockers and a products promise is abandoned way too often.

[–] Pohl@lemmy.world 117 points 1 year ago (6 children)

I am probably the perfect google customer. I used google search when it still had an exclamation point. I got my gmail account by invite in ‘04. Downloaded chrome on day one. I used nexus/pixel phones almost exclusively

Today, ddg search on Firefox. I am using an iPhone. I still have the gmail account but I am slowly migrating away from it. I am done with google. They don’t produce anything that has any value for me anymore.

[–] dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com 29 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Big oof on the iphone, mate. You can have an android phone with CFW that doesn't have all of the google telemetry and bloatware.

[–] Pacmanlives@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Seems like a lot of work to have a phone that just works and is easy

[–] Linkerbaan@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (3 children)

What works on iPhone though? You can't even change your ringtone to your own sound without having to draw your wallet.

Just stick with bloatware android then

[–] WarshipJesus@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago

That's not true at all. GarageBand will let you make tones directly on the device if you want to.

That said, yeah, get a grapheneos device and cut google out completely, it works just fine.

[–] zeppo@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

I haven’t remotely cared about a custom ringtone in about 14 years.

[–] vermyndax@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

This is entirely and completely false.

[–] MySwellMojo@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago

Same, but opera/firefox, Zenfone, and proton Mail. Not really a fan of apple either

[–] rckclmbr@lemm.ee 8 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I'm doing all the same as you

What I'm not moving away from though is Google Maps and Photos. No good alternatives exist

[–] physicswizard@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

For photos, I have been using Immich, and have been very impressed. It has pretty much all the features I want (automatic backup, chronological timeline, mobile/web app, face tagging, semantic search, albums, sharing, etc). It's a server you self-host though, so setting it up might be a pain if you've never done something like that before.

[–] rckclmbr@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This looks good as a self hosted option, but I want something hosted.

[–] tgxn@lemmy.tgxn.net 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Pay for a cloud server and install it? There's a hosted option 😀

[–] rckclmbr@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Lol I've been a software developer for 20 years, I'm well aware of what it takes to maintain a server. Which is exactly why I would rather pay someone else to do it

[–] Welp_im_damned@lemdro.id 1 points 1 year ago

Amazon photos?

[–] chriscz@iusearchlinux.fyi 2 points 1 year ago

This is super neat

[–] marksson@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 year ago

About Maps, same here. Even looked into paid alternatives, and... There's not really much of value. I'm disappointed.

[–] kzhe@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Ente? Just started subscribing though... seems good. 99c for base plan is pretty attractive.

[–] rckclmbr@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Looks promising, I'll keep my eye on it, might give it a go with some photos to test it out. I wish it weren't e2e encrypted though, I actually like a lot of the features Google provides (tagging/grouping by feature, looking back, etc)

[–] June@lemm.ee 7 points 1 year ago (3 children)

What are you switching to for email?

[–] Evotech@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I moved to proton mail personally after having Gmail since forever.

Took a year and I pay 40usd per year but worth it

[–] madcaesar@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago (3 children)

How safe / stable is proton mail? Say they go under in 5 years are you just fucked? Or is your setup such that you could move easily? Also is your email just xxxx@proton.com? Or something longer?

[–] ours@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don't have a crystal ball but Proton is the go-to, privacy-focused email provider. They are based in Switzerland.

They likely have a way for you to export your emails if they go under or use a desktop email client to archive them.

[–] madcaesar@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's less the backup more all the stuff linked to your account. All the sign-ups if they go down fast... You're fucked 😕

[–] Flashoflight@lemmy.world -1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I pay for LastPass and would never go back. I know there are other options that people will point out but I’m too invested now haha.

I highly recommend getting LastPass or something similar. It was much easier to make the transition away from google products

[–] CosmicCleric@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

As a former LastPass customer, I'm telling you to move over the BitWarden. LastPass has had bad security break-ins.

[–] Skwerls@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There is zero reason anyone should use LastPass when bitwarden exists.

[–] CosmicCleric@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There is zero reason anyone should use LastPass when bitwarden exists.

No, that's not true at all. Wow, what a horribly bad take that you have.

There is one very incredibly valid reason why they would use LastPass.

And that would be, because they own stock in the company.

[–] Xendarq@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The last thing a stockholder wants is more compromised accounts. No, they have to drive their usage rates way down.

[–] CosmicCleric@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago

I'm assuming that the humor did not stand out enough for you to realize.

[–] SuperSaiyanSwag@lemmy.zip 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] OminousOrange@lemmy.ca 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] SuperSaiyanSwag@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 year ago

Woah, didn’t know that one. Thank you.

[–] Evotech@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I have my own domain. So I'd lose my emails but I could just move the address. I'd recommend that for sure. In case you want to move to another mail provider down the line it's super simple.

I think it's a bit extra to have a custom domain but it's super worth it.

[–] milkjug@lemmy.wildfyre.dev 7 points 1 year ago

I’m exactly in the same boat, been considering migrating to protonmail. Have moved everything else to alternatives except gmail.

[–] Pohl@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Slowly working on hosting my own. Stuff like this is not fast for me since I am a hobbyist and not in tech professionally. But, I’m getting there.

[–] teichflamme@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I just switched to getting my own domain and hosting it as a bundle with the domain provider. The Web client sucks, but I use thunderbird anyways.

[–] Pohl@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

That is a better idea than me foolishly trying to get all of it running out of my basement. So many little things that lead to other little things. Right now, my “ditch gmail” project is a build my own router with openwrt project.

Fuggen rabbit holes man.

[–] Patch@feddit.uk 3 points 1 year ago

You can start one on a cloud hosting service tomorrow, and then if at some point you want to move to "on premises" hosting (as in, a Raspberry Pi in your basement) then you can migrate over easily enough. That's the whole point of self-hosting; all of the data is yours to manipulate and move around as much as you like.

[–] teichflamme@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago

I would not recommend self hosting at all. The bigger providers usually don't even accept mail from unknown servers/domains.

[–] PsychedSy@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 year ago

Same. I have my name as my gmail and get an absurd amount of missent emails.