I started last week. Been contemplating doing it for a while and this whole disgusting series of events pushed me over the edge.

Cancelled every paying google services I had and I’ve been replacing their apps with alternatives slowly but surely.

For now it looks like this on my phone

• Tidal replaces youtube music
• Tom Tom replaced Waze unless I find something better
• Back to using firefox instead of chrome with google / Facebook tracking blocking extensions and more
• Got a proton mail and in the process of moving everything that matters to it

Only thing I would love that I can’t get right now is an alternative OS for my phone that I don’t have to tinker a lot with, I know rhey exist but everything I read on the subject basically says: don’t bother. Setting up Endeavour OS on my laptop is already a lot of work for a 42 year old Linux noob like me, even though it’s far from the most complicated distro from what I understand…

I also set another launcher on my smart tv, deactivated all the google accounts that I could and I’m in the process of setting up a plex server on my laptop which I’ll fill with loot from the High Seas. It’s really stupid of them because I was fine paying for the convenience of streaming but now I’m gonna make a point of not doing it and I’ll probably never gonna come back.

Next, I need to figure out how to migrate my website / domain out of google but that’s a next week problem. By the end of the winter, I should be properly google / Microsoft free.

It’s a harsh process I’m not gonna lie but it is very rewarding even though, I don’t lie to myself about the fact that it’s just another drop in the bucket and it’s not gonna change much in the end but at least I live better with myself by doing it.

I just downloaded it, and I have to say it’s pretty rough compared with Google maps. There’s no traffic data, and it struggles to even find basic things like sushi restaurants that are clearly labeled if you search for sushi. Let alone difficult things like doctor’s offices.