New quest: de-Googling my life
The latest news that Google will require developer verification to install Android apps, including sideloading, is the last straw for me. Android started as an open-source project, but Google has slowly made it more proprietary and is locking down the ecosystem step by step. The developers behind GrapheneOS recently wrote that changes in how new releases of Android are made on the Pixel devices will make it harder for them to port changes. Google has over the years moved more functionality into Google Play Services and their proprietary Android apps, and stopped developing the open-source apps that come with AOSP. Google is also installing new apps in the background on your phone, like 'Android System SafetyCore'. The list just goes on and on.
I have been using Gmail since 2007. I liked Google in the beginning, and they were widely loved around that time within the Linux and open-source community. When they released Chrome in 2008, there were many people who trusted them and switched from Firefox. I, however, was a bit skeptical already then, and therefore didn't make the switch to Chrome, and stayed with Firefox instead. When Google stopped uBlock Origin from running on Chrome this year, it didn't affect me since I was still using Firefox (or nowadays Zen Browser, which is based on Firefox).
Supposedly Google was running Linux internally, and I think that was one reason why Microsoft-skeptics who had left Windows for Linux had such a positive eye for Google. They saw Google as the underdog and the alternative. And there probably was the "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" mentality. But I thought it was strange that when Google released Google Drive in 2012, they never made any client for Linux, when they were so loved by the Linux community and supposedly were using Linux themselves.
Google is infamous for killing products that don't align with their business goals. There's a site called Google Graveyard that lists all of them. Google Reader is one product that many people loved and still remember fondly. Just the other day there was a big uproar about Google soon shutting down goo.gl, even though there are published scientific papers with references that are shortened with goo.gl.
I already had a phase of my life when I reduced my Google services. In 2011, I listened twice to Richard Stallman speak live. Sometime around 2014 I was using a Firefox OS phone as my only phone for about a year. I ran Nextcloud, used Linux on my computers, used DuckDuckGo, used CyanogenMod and LineageOS on my phones, used another mail service than Gmail, etc.
However, during the last years, I have been a bit more comfortable. I am currently using a Google Pixel 8 Pro as my phone, with Google's version of Android on it. I'm using Gmail, and other Google services.
Now I'm growing tired of Google again, and I will start to switch to alternatives where it's feasible, to reduce my reliance on Google. I will do it step by step, and keep it pragmatic.
My phone is only 2 years old, and I specifically bought a Pixel phone because I wanted longer support with feature updates, so I will not get rid of it anytime soon, I think. I know that there's GrapheneOS, but I'm afraid it will be a hassle to install it while keeping my data. So I will see what I do. However, I have gone through the privacy settings and removed tracking of my search history, tracking of location history, advertisement ID, etc. So I believe there are already things that can be done on Google's Android. I'm also switching to apps from F-Droid where there are good alternatives available.
On August 18 I switched to using Kagi instead of Google Search. I immediately started a subscription for $10/month for Kagi Professional. There's also Kagi Starter for $5/month, however, it's limited to 300 searches per month. I have already done 581 searches since I started my subscription, so it seems I made the right decision. I really like the experience that Kagi gives me.
Next I would like to switch from Gmail and Google Drive and to continue to replace apps on my phone with open-source ones. E.g. replace the messaging app, the Gmail app, the Google Maps app, etc. I have already installed OsmAnd as a replacement for Google Maps, and QUIK to replace Messages.