It's going to be difficult after deleting the account though

A lot of (all?) email services will allow you to forward your mail from Gmail. My advice would be set that up, have all of them going to a specific folder, and only use your new email moving forward. No harm in allowing some email forwarding while you adjust for the next 6 to 12 months. But that way you can also immediately stop using Gmail itself.

Gdrive unless it is really baked into your daily life in a complicated way, it’s pretty easy to replace. Lots of great services out there.

Proton mail allowed me to export my Google Calendar over with just a few clicks. So that was pretty painless. I’m sure there are other calendar services like that. YMMV.

Google maps is tough lol

Here are the things I replaced my Google/Microsoft/Meta services with:

• Tuta(nota): Email
• Nextcloud: Cloud
• Typst: LaTeX/Docs alternative
• LineageOS: Degoogled Android rom
• Aurora Store: Google Play Store alternative
• NewPipe, Odysee, Peertube: YouTube alternatives
• Firefox: Chrome/Chromium alternative
• SearXNG: Meta search engine
• Linux/BSD: Windows alternatives
• Bitwarden: Password manager & 2FA client
• OpenStreetMaps (OsmAnd): Google maps replacement
• LibreTranslate, Deepl: Google translate alternative
• Signal, SimpleX, Briar, Matrix: chat and group organization

DO NOT FORGET TO MIGRATE ACCOUNTS BEFORE DELETING

Proton for email and cloud storage. Graphenos on a pixel 7a for phone. Phone spps from aurora and fdroid. Kagi.com paid search engine too.

Seconded.

Without a single word on replacements for email, calendar, phone, etc... this post is pretty much useless to everyone else than the OP.

You can actually use windows without an account. When installing windows, they will force you to log in. But If you simply use an account that has been blocked it will create a local user instead of an online user. People use no@thankyou.com and it works well

I feel like Amazon would be easier than MS and Google, wouldn't it?

I was in a similar situation and after a lot of research I found posteo.net and I liked its privacy, FOSS and environmental policies and gave it a try. Happy with its service for just 1€ a month.

I’ve been using Proton for about a year and a half now. It’s been really good for my needs, I started on the free version but then decided to pay to help support them and to get access to everything else (specifically SimpleLogin).

Some are easier than others. Especially if you don't mind paying. Protonmail, calendar, drive solve some big ones right away. Maps is tough though, I've tried to find a better solution and haven't been able to so far.

Use newpipe anad install grapheneos on your pixel. I wish i had a pixel to install grapheneos.

You think that's air you're breathing?

My friend, look into Grayjay, SponsorBlock, Firefox and UBlock

if you're using a desktop, try Firefox with the Ublock origin and SponsorBlock Addons. On Android either try the above or use Re Vanced.

why would you do something so barbaric as paying yt premium?

not sarcasm joke, really curious

Try Invidious, FreeTube, NewPipe,... All allow you to watch regular youtube content without ads. You can also create instance local accounts to "create playlists" and "subscribe" to people.

Look up Syncthing and then never stop trying to replace closed source and paid software/services. Like any time you launch something ask yourself “does this hit the same way as when I swapped to Syncthing?” If the answer is no you then put “[name of thing you want to replace] foss alternative” into your search engine of choice. You’ll end up down so many rabbit holes, but you’ll come out the other side a whole lot better at making your technology work for you, not the company that made it, and with a suite of free open sourced tools you are in complete control of.

Here are some tools I use that are super easy to get going.

• Syncthing (cloud storage replacement)
• KeepassXC or Pass if you’re a command line person (locally stored password manager, coupled with Syncthing you have your own private cloud password manager
• Tailscale/wireguard (private VPN that allows you to easily connect all your devices without exposing any of the traffic to The Internet)
• PiHole (a DNS sinkhole that blocks a lot of ads and tracking on your entire network, bonus points if you set it as you Tailscale DNS provider to give all your devices ad block no matter where you are as long as the device was a connected to Tailscale)

Those are the ones that got me going and I personally believe act as a solid core. Most people will find all of those useful. Other services are more user specific, but that’s a lightweight bundle of software that your RPi will handle well. Much more and you might want to look at beefier hardware.