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martin2011qi is translating
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How I Fully Quit Google (And You Can, Too)
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============================================================
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>My enlightening quest to break free of a tech giant
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Over the past six months, I have gone on a surprisingly tough, time-intensive, and enlightening quest — to quit using, entirely, the products of just one company — Google. What should be a simple task was, in reality, many hours of research and testing. But I did it. Today, I am Google free, part of the western world’s ultimate digital minority, someone who does not use products from the world’s two most valuable technology companies (yes, I don’t use [Facebook either][6]).
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This guide is to show you how I quit the Googleverse, and the alternatives I choose based on my own research and personal needs. I’m not a technologist or a coder, but my work as a journalist requires me to be aware of security and privacy issues.
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I chose all of these alternatives based solely on their merit, usability, cost, and whether or not they had the functionality I desired. My choices are not universal as they reflect my own needs and desires. Nor do they reflect any commercial interests. None of the alternatives listed below paid me or are giving me any commission whatsoever for citing their services.
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### But First: Why?
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Here’s the thing. I don’t hate Google. In fact, not too long ago, I was a huge fan of Google. I remember the moment when I first discovered one amazing search engine back in the late 1990’s, when I was still in high school. Google was light years ahead of alternatives such as Yahoo, Altavista, or Ask Jeeves. It really did help users find what they were seeking on a web that was, at that time, a mess of broken websites and terrible indexes.
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Google soon moved from just search to providing other services, many of which I embraced. I was an early adopter of Gmail back in 2005, when you could only join [via invites][7]. It introduced threaded conversations, archiving, labels, and was without question the best email service I had ever used. When Google introduced its Calendar tool in 2006, it was revolutionary in how easy it was to color code different calendars, search for events, and send shareable invites. And Google Docs, launched in 2007, was similarly amazing. During my first full time job, I pushed my team to do everything as a Google spreadsheet, document, or presentation that could be edited by many of us simultaneously.
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Like many, I was a victim of Google creep. Search led to email, to documents, to analytics, photos, and dozens of other services all built on top of and connected to each other. Google turned from a company releasing useful products to one that has ensnared us, and the internet as a whole, into its money-making, data gathering apparatus. Google is pervasive in our digital lives in a way no other corporation is or ever has been. It’s relatively easy to quit using the products of other tech giants. With Apple, you’re either in the iWorld, or out. Same with Amazon, and even Facebook owns only a few platforms and quitting is more of a [psychological challenge][8] than actually difficult.
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Google, however, is embedded everywhere. No matter what laptop, smartphone, or tablet you have, chances are you have at least one Google app on there. Google is synonymous for search, maps, email, our browser, the operating system on most of our smartphones. It even provides the “[services][9]” and analytics that other apps and websites rely on, such as Uber’s use of Google Maps to operate its ride-hailing service.
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Google is now a word in many languages, and its global dominance means there are not many well-known, or well-used alternatives to its behemoth suite of tools — especially if you are privacy minded. We all started using Google because it, in many ways, provided better alternatives to existing products. But now, we can’t quit because either Google has become a default, or because its dominance means that alternatives can’t get enough traction.
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The truth is, alternatives do exist, many of which have launched in the years since Edward Snowden revealed Google’s participation in [Prism][10]. I embarked on this project late last year. After six months of research, testing, and a lot of trial and error, I was able to find privacy minded alternatives to all the Google products I was using. Some, to my surprise, were even better.
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### A Few Caveats
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One of the biggest challenges to quitting is the fact that most alternatives, particularly those in the open source of privacy space, are really not user friendly. I’m not a techie. I have a website, understand how to manage Wordpress, and can do some basic troubleshooting, but I can’t use Command Line or do anything that requires coding.
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These alternatives are ones you can easily use with most, if not all, the functionality of their Google alternatives. For some, though, you’ll need your own web host or access to a server.
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Also, [Google Takeout][11] is your friend. Being able to download my entire email history and upload it on my computer to access via Thunderbird meant I have easy access to over a decade of emails. The same can be said about Calendar or Docs, the latter of which I converted to ODT format and now keep on my cloud alternative, further detailed below.
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### The Easy Ones
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#### Search
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[DuckDuckGo][12] and [Startpage][13] are both privacy-centric search engines that do not collect any of your search data. Together, they take care of everything I was previously using Google search for.
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_Other Alternatives: _ Really not many when Google has 74% global market share, with the remainder mostly due to it’s being blocked in China. Ask.com is still around. And there’s Bing…
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#### Chrome
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[Mozilla Firefox][14] — it recently got [a big upgrade][15], which is a huge improvement from earlier versions. It’s created by a non-profit foundation that actively works to protect privacy. There’s really no reason at all to use Chrome.
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_Other Alternatives: _ Avoid Opera and Vivaldi, as they use Chrome as their base. [Brave][16] is my secondary browser.
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#### Hangouts and Google Chat
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[Jitsi Meet][17] — an open source, free alternative to Google Hangouts. You can use it directly from a browser or download the app. It’s fast, secure, and works on nearly every platform.
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_Other Alternatives: Z_ oom has become popular among those in the professional space, but requires you to pay for most features. [Signal][18], an open source, secure messaging app, also has a call function but only on mobile. Avoid Skype, as it’s both a data hog and has a terrible interface.
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#### Google Maps
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Desktop: [Here WeGo][19] — it loads faster and can find nearly everything that Google Maps can. For some reason, they’re missing some countries, like Japan.
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Mobile: [Maps.me][20] — here Maps was my initial choice here too, but became less useful once they modified the app to focus on driver navigation. Maps.me is pretty good, and has far better offline functionality than Google, something very useful to a frequent traveler like me.
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_Other alternatives_ : [OpenStreetMap][21] is a project I wholeheartedly support, but it’s functionality was severely lacking. It couldn’t even find my home address in Oakland.
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### Easy but Not Free
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Some of this was self-inflicted. For example, when looking for an alternative to Gmail, I did not just want to switch to an alternative from another tech giant. That meant no Yahoo Mail, or Microsoft Outlook as that would not address my privacy concerns.
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Remember, the fact that so many of Google’s services are free (not to mention those of its competitors including Facebook) is because they are actively monetizing our data. For alternatives to survive without this level of data monetization, they have to charge us. I am willing to pay to protect my privacy, but do understand that not everyone is able to make this choice.
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Think of it this way: Remember when you used to send letters and had to pay for stamps? Or when you bought weekly planners from the store? Essentially, this is the cost to use a privacy-focused email or calendar app. It’s not that bad.
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#### Gmail
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[ProtonMail][22] — it was founded by former CERN scientists and is based in Switzerland, a country with strong privacy protections. But what really appealed to me about ProtonMail was that it, unlike most other privacy minded email programs, was user friendly. The interface is similar to Gmail, with labels, filters, and folders, and you don’t need to know anything about security or privacy to use it.
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The free version only gives you 500MB of storage space. I opted for a paid 5GB account along with their VPN service.
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_Other alternatives_ : [Fastmail][23] is not as privacy oriented but also has a great interface. There’s also [Hushmail][24] and [Tutanota][25], both with similar features to ProtonMail.
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#### Calendar
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[Fastmail][26] Calendar — this was surprisingly tough, and brings up another issue. Google products have become so ubiquitous in so many spaces that start-ups don’t even bother to create alternatives anymore. After trying a few other mediocre options, I ended getting a recommendation and choose Fastmail as a dual second-email and calendar option.
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### More Technical
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These require some technical knowledge or access to your web host service. I do include simpler alternatives that I researched but did not end up choosing.
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#### Google Docs, Drive, Photos, and Contacts
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[NextCloud ][27]— a fully featured, secure, open source cloud suite with an intuitive, user-friendly interface. The catch is that you’ll need your own host to use Nextcloud. I already had one for my own website and was able to quickly install NextCloud using Softaculous on my host’s C-Panel. You’ll need a HTTPS certificate, which I got for free from[ Let’s Encrypt][28]. Not as easy as opening a Google Drive account but not too challenging either.
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I also use Nextcloud as an alternative for Google’s photo storage and contacts, which I sync with my phone using CalDev.
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_Other alternative_ s: There are other open source options such as [OwnCloud][29] or [Openstack][30]. Some for-profit options are good too, as top choices Dropbox and Box are independent entities that don’t profit off of your data.
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#### Google Analytics
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[Matomo ][31]— formally called Piwic, this is a self-hosted analytics platform. While not as feature rich as Google Analytics, it is plenty fine for understanding basic website traffic, with the added bonus that you aren’t gifting that traffic data to Google.
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_Other alternatives: _ Not much really. [OpenWebAnalytics][32] is another open source option, and there are some for-profit alternatives too, such as GoStats and Clicky.
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#### Android
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[LineageOS][33] + [F-Droid App Store][34]. Sadly, the smartphone world has become a literal duopoly, with Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS controlling the entire market. The few usable alternatives that existed a few years ago, such as Blackberry OS or Mozilla’s Firefox OS, are no longer being maintained.
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So the next best option is Lineage OS: a privacy minded, open source version of Android that can be installed without Google services or Apps. It requires some technical knowledge as the installation process is not completely straightforward, but it works really well, and lacks the bloatware that comes with most Android installations.
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_Other alternatives: _ Ummm…Windows 10 Mobile? [PureOS][35] looks promising, as does [UbuntuTouch][36].
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### Unexpected Challenges
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Firstly, this took much longer than I planned due to the lack of good resources about usable alternatives, and the challenge in moving data from Google to other platforms.
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But the toughest thing was email, and it has nothing to do with ProtonMail or Google.
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Before I joined Gmail in 2004, I probably switched emails once a year. My first account was with Hotmail, and I then used Mail.com, Yahoo Mail, and long-forgotten services like Bigfoot. I never recall having an issue when I changed email providers. I would just tell all my friends to update their address books and change the email address on other web accounts. It used to be necessary to change email addresses regularly — remember how spam would take over older inboxes?
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In fact, one of Gmail’s best innovations was its ability to filter out spam. That meant no longer needing to change emails.
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Email is key to using the internet. You need it to open a Facebook account, to use online banking, to post on message boards, and many more. So when you switch accounts, you need to update your email address on all these different services.
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To my surprise, changing from Gmail today is a major hassle because of all the places that require email addresses to set up an account. Several sites no longer let you do it from the backend on your own. One service actually required me to close my account and open a new one as they were unable to change my email, and then they transferred over my account data manually. Others forced me to call customer service and request an email account change, meaning time wasted on hold.
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Even more amazingly, others accepted my change, and then continued to send messages to my old Gmail account, requiring another phone call. Others were even more annoying, sending some messages to my new email, but still using my old account for other emails. This became such a cumbersome process that I ended up leaving my Gmail account open for several months alongside my new ProtonMail account just to make sure important emails did not get lost. This was the main reason this took me six months.
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People so rarely change their emails these days that most companies’ platforms are not designed to deal with the possibility. It’s a telling sign of the sad state of the web today that it was easier to change your email back in 2002 than it is in 2018\. Technology does not always move forward.
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### So, Are These Google Alternatives Any Good?
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Some are actually better! Jitsi Meet runs smoother, requires less bandwidth, and is more platform friendly than Hangouts. Firefox is more stable and less of a memory suck than Chrome. Fastmail’s Calendar has far better time zone integration.
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Others are adequate equivalents. ProtonMail has most of the features of Gmail but lacks some useful integrations, such as the Boomerang email scheduler I was using before. It also has a lacking Contacts interface, but I’m using Nextcloud for that. Speaking of Nextcloud, it’s great for hosting files, contacts, and has a nifty notes tool (and lots of other plug-ins). But it does not have the rich multi-editing features of Google Docs. I’ve not yet found a workable alternative in my budget. There is Collabora Office, but it requires me to upgrade my server, something that is not feasible for me.
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Some depend on location. Maps.me is actually better than Google Maps in some countries (such as Indonesia) and far worse in others (including America).
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Others require me to sacrifice some features or functionality. Piwic is a poor man’s Google Analytics, and lacks many of the detailed reports or search functions of the former. DuckDuckGo is fine for general searches but has issues with specific searches, and both it and StartPage sometimes fail when I’m searching for non-English language content.
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### In the End, I Don’t Miss Google at All
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In fact, I feel liberated. To be so dependent on a single company for so many products is a form of servitude, especially when your data is what you’re often paying with. Moreover, many of these alternatives are, in fact, better. And there is real comfort in knowing you are in control of your data.
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If we have no choice but to use Google products, then we lose what little power we have as consumers.
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I want Google, Facebook, Apple, and other tech giants to stop taking users for granted, to stop trying to force us inside their all-encompassing ecosystems. I also want new players to be able to emerge and compete, just as, once upon a time, Google’s new search tool could compete with the then-industry giants Altavista and Yahoo, or Facebook’s social network was able to compete with MySpace and Friendster. The internet was a better place because Google gave us the opportunity to have a better search. Choice is good. As is portability.
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Today, few of us even try other products because we’re just so used to Googling. We don’t change emails cause it’s hard. We don’t even try to use a Facebook alternative because all of our friends are on Facebook. I understand.
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You don’t have to quit Google entirely. But give other alternatives a chance. You might be surprised, and remember why you loved the web way back when.
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* * *
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#### Other Resources
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I created this resource not to be an all-encompassing guide but a story of how I was able to quit Google. Here are some resources that show other alternatives. Some are far too technical for me, and others I just didn’t have time to explore.
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* [Localization Lab][2] has a detailed list of open source or privacy-tech projects — some highly technical, others quite user friendly.
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* [Framasoft ][3]has an entire suite of mostly open-source Google alternatives, though many are just in French.
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* Restore Privacy has also [collected a list of alternatives][4].
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Your turn. Please share your favorite Google alternatives in the responses or via Twitter. I am sure there are many that I missed and would love to try. I don’t plan to stick with the alternatives listed above forever.
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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作者简介：
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Nithin Coca
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Freelance journalist covering politics, environment & human rights + social impacts of tech globally. For more http://www.nithincoca.com
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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via: https://medium.com/s/story/how-i-fully-quit-google-and-you-can-too-4c2f3f85793a
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作者：[Nithin Coca][a]
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译者：[译者ID](https://github.com/译者ID)
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校对：[校对者ID](https://github.com/校对者ID)
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本文由 [LCTT](https://github.com/LCTT/TranslateProject) 原创编译，[Linux中国](https://linux.cn/) 荣誉推出
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[a]:https://medium.com/@excinit
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[1]:https://medium.com/@excinit
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[2]:https://www.localizationlab.org/projects/
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[3]:https://framasoft.org/?l=en
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[4]:https://restoreprivacy.com/google-alternatives/
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[5]:https://medium.com/@excinit
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[6]:https://www.nithincoca.com/2011/11/20/7-months-no-facebook/
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[7]:https://www.quora.com/How-long-was-Gmail-in-private-%28invitation-only%29-beta
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[8]:https://www.theverge.com/2018/4/28/17293056/facebook-deletefacebook-social-network-monopoly
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[9]:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Play_Services
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[10]:https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/06/us-tech-giants-nsa-data
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[11]:https://takeout.google.com/settings/takeout
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[12]:https://duckduckgo.com/
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[13]:https://www.startpage.com/
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[14]:https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/
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[15]:https://www.seattletimes.com/business/firefox-is-back-and-its-time-to-give-it-a-try/
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[16]:https://brave.com/
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[17]:https://jitsi.org/jitsi-meet/
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[18]:https://signal.org/
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[19]:https://wego.here.com/
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[20]:https://maps.me/
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[21]:https://www.openstreetmap.org/
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[22]:https://protonmail.com/
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[23]:https://www.fastmail.com/
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[24]:https://www.hushmail.com/
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[25]:https://tutanota.com/
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[26]:https://www.fastmail.com/
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[27]:https://nextcloud.com/
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[28]:https://letsencrypt.org/
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[29]:https://owncloud.org/
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[30]:https://www.openstack.org/
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[31]:https://matomo.org/
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[32]:http://www.openwebanalytics.com/
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[33]:https://lineageos.org/
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[34]:https://f-droid.org/en/
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[35]:https://puri.sm/posts/tag/pureos/
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[36]:https://ubports.com/
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逃离 Google，重获自由（与君共勉）
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============================================================
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原名：How I Fully Quit Google (And You Can, Too)
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>寻求挣脱科技巨头的一次开创性尝试
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在过去的六个月里，难以想象我到底经历了些什么。时间密集，启发性质的探索，最终换来的只是完全摒弃一家公司——Google（谷歌）——的产品。本该是件简简单单的任务，但真要去做，花费在研究和测试上的又何止几个小时。但我成功了。现在，我已经不需要 Google 了，作为西方世界中极其少数的群体中的一份子，不再使用世界上最有价值的两家科技公司的产品（是的，我也不用 [Facebook（脸书）][6]）。
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本篇指南将向你展示我逃离 Google 生态的始末。以及根据本人的研究和个人需求，选择的替代方案。我不是技术方面的专家，或者说程序员，但作为记者，我的工作要求我对安全和隐私的问题保持关注。
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我选择替代方案时，主要考察其本身的长处、可用性、成本、以及是否具备我需要的功能。我的选择并不是那么大众，仅反映我自身的需求和期许，也不牵涉任何商业利益。下面列出的所有替代方案都没有给我赞助，也从未试图花钱诱使我使用他们的服务。
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### 首先我们需要知道：为什么？
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你们说这事情整的，我和 Google 可无冤无仇。事实上，不久前我还是个忠实的 Google 粉。还是记得是 90 年代末，当时我还在读高中，我和 Google 搜索引擎的第一次邂逅，那一瞬的美简直惊为天人。那时候的 Google 可比 Yahoo、Altavista、Ask Jeeves 等公司前卫了好几年。实打实的去帮用户找到他们想在网络上找的东西，但同样是那个时代，乌七八糟的网站和糟糕的索引遍地横生。
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Google 很快就从仅提供检索服务转向提供其他服务，其中的许多都是我欣然拥抱的服务。早在 2005 年，当时你们可能还只能 [通过邀请][7] 加入 Gmail 的时候，我就已经是早期使用者了。Gmail 采用了线程对话、归档、标签，毫无疑问是我使用过的最好的电子邮件服务。 当 Google 在 2006 年推出其日历工具时，那种对操作的改进绝对是革命性的。针对不同日历使用不同的颜色进行编排、检索事件、以及发送可共享的邀请，操作极其简单。2007 年登陆的 Google Docs 同样令人惊叹。在我的第一份全职工作期间，我还促成我们团队使用支持多人同时编辑的 Google 电子表格、文档和演示文稿来完成我们的日常工作。
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和许多人样，我也是 Google 开疆拓土过程中的受害者。从搜索（引擎）到电子邮件、文档、分析、再到照片，许多其他服务都建立在彼此之上，相互勾连。Google 从一家发布实用产品的公司转变成诱困用户公司，于此同时将整个互联网，转变为牟利和数据采集的设备。Google 在我们的数字生活中几乎无处不在，这种程度的存在远非其他公司可以比拟。与之相比使用其他科技巨头的产品想要抽身就相对容易。对于 Apple（苹果），你要么身处 iWorld 之中，要么是局外人。亚马逊亦是如此，甚至连 Facebook 也不过是拥有少数的几个平台，不用（Facebook）更多的是 [心理挑战][8] 实际上并没有多么困难。
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|
||||
然而，Google无处不在。 无论是笔记本电脑、智能手机或者平板电脑，我猜之中至少会有那么一个 Google 的应用程序。在大多数智能手机上，Google 就是搜索（引擎）、地图、电子邮件、浏览器和操作系统的代名词。甚至还有些应用有赖于其提供的 “[服务][9]” 和分析，比方说 Uber 便需要采用 Google Maps 来运营其乘车服务。
|
||||
|
||||
Google 现在俨然已是许多语言中的单词，但彰显其超然全球统治地位的方面显然不止于此。可以说只要你不是极其注重个人隐私，那其庞大而成套的工具几乎没有多少众所周知或广泛使用的替代品。这恰好也是大家选择 Google 的原因，在很多方面能更好的替代现有的产品。但现在，使我们的难以割舍的主要原因其实是 Google 已经成为了默认选择，或者说由于其主导地位导致替代品无法对我们构成足够的吸引。
|
||||
|
||||
事实上，替代方案是存在的，这些年自爱德华·斯诺登（Edward Snowden）披露 Google 涉事 [Prism（棱镜）][10] 以来，又陆续涌现了许多替代品。我从去年年底开始着手这个项目。经过六个月的研究，测试以及大量的尝试和失败，我终于找到了所有我正在使用的 Google 产品对应的注重个人隐的私替代品。令我感到吃惊的是，其中的一些替代品比 Google 的做的还要好。
|
||||
|
||||
### 一些注意事项
|
||||
|
||||
过程中需要面临的几个挑战的之一便是，大多数的替代方案，特别是那些隐私空间开源的替代方案，确实对用户不太友好。我不是技术人员，但是自己有一个网站，了解如何管理 Wordpress，可以排除一些基本的故障，但我用不来命令行，也做不来任何需要编码的事。
|
||||
|
||||
提供的这些替代方案中的大多数，即便不能完整替代 Google 产品的功能，但至少可以轻松上手。不过有些还有需要你有自己的 Web 主机或服务器的。
|
||||
|
||||
此外，[Google Takeout][11] 是你的好棒手。我通过它下载了我所有的电子邮件历史记录，并将其上传到我的计算机上，再通过 Thunderbird 访问，这意味着我可以轻松访问这十年间的电子邮件。关于日历还有文档也同样如此，我将后者转换为 ODT 格式，存在我的替代云上，下面我将进一步介绍其中的细节。
|
||||
|
||||
### 初级
|
||||
|
||||
#### 搜索引擎
|
||||
|
||||
[DuckDuckGo][12] 和 [Startpage][13] 都是以保护个人隐私为中心的搜索引擎，不收集任何搜索数据。我用这两个搜索引擎来负责之前用 Google 检索的所有内容。
|
||||
|
||||
其他的替代方案：实际上并不多， Google 坐拥全球 74% 的市场份额时，剩下的那些主要是原因中国的封锁。不过还有 Ask.com，以及 Bing……
|
||||
|
||||
#### Chrome
|
||||
|
||||
[Mozilla Firefox][14] — 近期的 [一次大升级][15]，是对早期版本的巨大改进。是一个由积极致力于保护隐私的非营利基金会打造的浏览器。它的存在让你觉得没有必要死守 Chrome。
|
||||
|
||||
其他的替代方案：考虑到 Opera 和 Vivaldi 都基于 Chrome。[Brave][16] 浏览器是我的第二选择。
|
||||
|
||||
#### Hangouts（环聊） 和 Google Chat
|
||||
|
||||
[Jitsi Meet] [17] — 一款 Google Hangouts 的开源免费替代方案。你可以直接在浏览器上使用或下载应用程序。快速，安全，几乎适用于所有平台。
|
||||
|
||||
其他的替代方案：Zoom 在专业领域受到欢迎，但大部分的特性需要付费。[Signal][18]，一个开源、安全的用于发消息的应用程序，可以用来打电话，不过仅限于移动设备。不推荐 Skype，既耗流量，界面还糟。
|
||||
|
||||
#### Google Maps（地图）
|
||||
|
||||
桌面端：[Here WeGo][19] — 加载速度更快，所有你能在 Google Maps 找到的你几乎都能找到。不过由于某些原因，还缺了一些国家，如日本。
|
||||
|
||||
移动端：[Maps.me][20] — 我一开始用的就是这款地图，但是这款 APP 的导航模式有点鸡肋。Maps.me 还是相当不错的，并且具有比 Google 更好的离线功能，这对像我这样的经常旅行的人来说非常好用。
|
||||
|
||||
其他的替代方案：[OpenStreetMap][21] 是我全面支持的一个项目，不过功能严重缺乏。甚至无法找到我在奥克兰的家庭住址。
|
||||
|
||||
### 初级（需付费）
|
||||
|
||||
当然其中有一部分是自作自受。例如，在寻找 Gmail 的替代品时，我想的不是仅仅从 Gmail 切换到另一家科技巨头产品作为替代。这就意味不会存在转到 Yahoo Mail 或 Microsoft Outlook 的情况，因为这并不能消除我对隐私问题的困扰。
|
||||
|
||||
请记住，虽说 Google 的许多服务都是免费的（更不必说包括 Facebook 在内的竞争对手的服务），那是因为他们正在积极地将我们的数据货币化。由于替代方案极力避免将数据货币化，这使他们不得不向我们收取费用。我愿意付钱来保护我的隐私，但也明白并非所有人都会做出这样的选择。
|
||||
|
||||
或许我们可以换一个方向来思考：可还曾记得以前寄信时也不得不支付邮票的费用吗？或者从商店购买周卡会员？从本质上讲，这就是使用以隐私为重的电子邮件或日历应用程序的成本。也没那么糟。
|
||||
|
||||
#### Gmail
|
||||
|
||||
[ProtonMail][22] — 由前 CERN（欧洲核子研究中心）的科学家创立，总部设在瑞士，一个拥有强大隐私保护的国家。 但 ProtonMail 真正吸引我的地方是，它与大多数其他注重隐私的电子邮件程序不同，用户体验友好。界面类似于 Gmail，带标签，有过滤器和文件夹，无需了解任何有关安全性或隐私的信息即可使用。
|
||||
|
||||
免费版只提供 500MB 的存储空间。而我选择的是付费 5GB 帐户及其 VPN 服务。
|
||||
|
||||
其他的替代方案：[Fastmail][23] 不仅面向注重隐私的用户，界面也很棒。还有 [Hushmail][24] 和 [Tutanota][25]，两者都具有与 ProtonMail 相似的功能。
|
||||
|
||||
#### Calendar（日历）
|
||||
|
||||
[Fastmail][26]日历 — 这个决定异常艰难，也抛出了另一个问题。Google 的产品的存在在很多方面，可以用无处不在来形容，这导致初创公司甚至不再费心去创造替代品。在尝试了其他一些平庸的选项后，我最后还是推荐并选择 Fastmail 同时作为备用电子邮件和日历的选项。
|
||||
|
||||
### 进阶
|
||||
|
||||
这些需要一些技术知识，或者需要你自身具备 Web 主机。我尝试研究过更简单的替代方案，但最终都没能入围。
|
||||
|
||||
#### Google Docs（文档）、Drive（云端硬盘）、Photos（照片）和 Contacts（联系人）
|
||||
|
||||
[NextCloud][27] — 一个功能齐全、安全并且开源的云套件，具有直观、用户友好的界面。问题是你需要自己有主机才能使用 Nextcloud。我拥有一个用于部署自己网站的主机，并且能够使用 Softaculous 在我的主机的 C-Panel 上快速安装 NextCloud。你需要一个 HTTPS 证书，我从 [Let's Encrypt][28] 上免费获得了一个。不似开通 Google Drive 帐户那般容易，但也不是很难。
|
||||
|
||||
我也同时在用 Nextcloud 作为 Google 的照片存储和联系人的替代方案，然后通过 CalDev 与手机同步。
|
||||
|
||||
其他的替代方案：还有其他开源选项，如 [OwnCloud][29] 或者 [Openstack][30]。一些营利的选项也很不错，因为作为首选的 Dropbox 和 Box 也没有采用从你的数据中牟利的运营模式。
|
||||
|
||||
#### Google Analytics（分析）
|
||||
|
||||
[Matomo][31] — 正式名为 Piwic，这是一个自托管的分析平台。虽然不像 Google 分析那样功能丰富，但可以很好地理解基本的网站流量，还有一个额外的好处，就是你无需为 Google 贡献流量数据了。
|
||||
|
||||
其他的替代方案：真的不多。[OpenWebAnalytics][32] 是另一个开源选项，还有一些营利性的选择，比如 GoStats 和 Clicky。
|
||||
|
||||
#### Android（安卓）
|
||||
|
||||
[LineageOS][33] + [F-Droid App Store][34]。可悲的是，智能手机世界已成为一个字面上的双头垄断，Google 的 Android 和 Apple 的 iOS 控制着整个市场。几年前存在的几个可用的替代品，如 Blackberry OS 或 Mozilla 的 Firefox OS，也已不再维护。
|
||||
|
||||
因此，只能选择次一级的 Lineage OS：一款注重隐私的、开源的 Android 版本，独立于 Google 服务及 APP，可单独安装。需要一些技术知识，因为安装的整个过程并不是那么一帆风顺，但运行状况良好，且不似大多数 Android 那般有大量预置软件。
|
||||
|
||||
其他的替代方案：emmm... Windows 10 Mobile？ [PureOS][35] 看起来有那么点意思，[UbuntuTouch][36] 也差不多。
|
||||
|
||||
### 意想不到的挑战
|
||||
|
||||
首先，由于有关可用替代方案的优质资源匮乏，以及将数据从 Google 迁移到其他平台所面临的挑战，所以比我计划的时间要长许多。
|
||||
|
||||
但最棘手的是电子邮件，这与 ProtonMail 或 Google 无关。
|
||||
|
||||
在我 2004 年加入 Gmail 之前，我可能每年都会切换一次电子邮件。我的第一个帐户是使用 Hotmail，然后我使用了 Mail.com，Yahoo Mail 以及像 Bigfoot 这样长期被遗忘的服务。当我在变更电子邮件提供商时，我未曾记得有这般麻烦。我会告诉所有朋友，更新他们的地址簿，并更改其他网络帐户的邮箱地址。以前定期更改邮箱地址非常必要——还记得曾几何时垃圾邮件是如何盘踞你旧收件箱的吗？
|
||||
|
||||
事实上，Gmail 最好的创新之一就是能够将垃圾邮件过滤掉。这意味着不需频繁更改邮箱地址。
|
||||
|
||||
电子邮件是使用互联网的关键。你需要用它来开设 Facebook 帐户，使用网上银行，在留言板上发布等等。因此，当你决定切换帐户时，你就需要更新所有这些不同服务的邮箱地址。
|
||||
|
||||
令人惊讶的是，现在从 Gmail 迁出居然成为了最大的麻烦，因为遍地都需要通过邮箱地址来设置帐户。有几个站点不再允许你从后端执行此操作。有一些服务事实上就是让我注销现在的帐户，然后开通一个新的，只因他们无法更改我的邮箱地址，然后他们手动转移了我的帐户数据。另一些迫使我打电话给客户服务要求更改邮箱地址，无谓的浪费了很多时间。
|
||||
|
||||
更令人惊讶的是，另一些服务接受了我的更改，却仍继续向我原来的 Gmail 帐户发送邮件，就需要打一次电话了。另一些甚至更烦人，向我的新电子邮件发送了一些消息，但仍在使用我的旧帐户发送其他电子邮件。这事最后变得异常繁琐，迫使我不得不将我的 Gmail 帐户和我的新 ProtonMail 帐户一起开了几个月，以确保重要的电子邮件不会丢失。这是我花了六个月时间的主要元凶。
|
||||
|
||||
如今人们很少变更他们的邮箱地址，大多数公司的平台在设计时就没有考虑去处理这种可能性。这是表明当今网络糟糕状态的一个明显迹象，即便是在 2002 年更改邮箱地址都比 2018 年来的容易。技术也并不总是一成不变的向前发展。
|
||||
|
||||
### 那么，这些 Google 的替代方案都好用吗？
|
||||
|
||||
有些确实更好！Jitsi Meet 运行更顺畅，需要的带宽更少，并且比 Hangouts 更加平台友好。Firefox 比 Chrome 更稳定，占用的内存更少。Fastmail 的日历具有更好的时区集成。
|
||||
|
||||
还有些旗鼓相当。ProtonMail 具有 Gmail 的大部分功能，但缺少一些好用的集成，例如我之前使用的 Boomerang 邮件调度程序。还缺少联系人界面，但我正在使用 Nextcloud。说到 Nextcloud，它非常适合托管文件，联系人，还包含了一个漂亮的笔记工具（以及诸多其他插件）。但它没有 Google Docs 丰富的多重编辑功能。在我的预算中，还没有找到可行的替代方案。虽然还有 Collabora Office，但这需要升级我的服务器，这对我来说不能算切实可行。
|
||||
|
||||
一些取决于位置。在一些国家（如印度尼西亚），Maps.me 实际上比 Google 地图更好用，而在另一些国家（包括美国）就差了许多。
|
||||
|
||||
还有些人要求使用者牺牲一些特性或功能。Piwic 是一个穷人的 Google Analytics，缺乏前者的许多详细报告和搜索功能。DuckDuckGo 适用于一般搜索，但是在特定的搜索方面还存在问题，当我搜索非英文内容时，它和 StartPage 时常都会检索失败。
|
||||
|
||||
### 最后，我不在心念 Google
|
||||
|
||||
事实上，我感到自由。如此这般依赖单一公司的那么多产品是一种形式上奴役，特别是当你的数据经常为你买单的时候。而且，其中许多替代方案实际上更好。清楚自己正掌控自己数据的感觉真得很爽。
|
||||
|
||||
如果我们别无选择，只能使用 Google 的产品，那我们便失去了作为消费者的最后一丝力量。
|
||||
|
||||
我希望 Google，Facebook，Apple 和其他科技巨头在对待用户时不要这么理所当然，不要试图强迫我们进入其无所不包的生态系统。我也期待新选手能够出现并与之竞争，就像以前一样，Google 的新搜索工具可以与当时的行业巨头 Altavista 和 Yahoo 竞争，或者说 Facebook 的社交网络能够与 MySpace 和 Friendster 竞争。Google 给出了更好的搜索方案，使互联网变得更加美好。选择是个好东西。和便携性一样。
|
||||
|
||||
如今，我们很少有人哪怕只是尝试其他产品，因为我们已经习惯了 Google。我们不再更改邮箱地址，因为这太难了。我们甚至不尝试使用 Facebook 以外的替代品，因为我们所有的朋友都在 Facebook 上。这些我明白。
|
||||
|
||||
你不必完全脱离 Google。但最好给其他选择一个机会。到时候时你可能会感到惊讶，并想起那些年上网的初衷。
|
||||
|
||||
* * *
|
||||
|
||||
#### 其他资源
|
||||
|
||||
我并未打算让这篇文章成为包罗万象的指南，这只不过是一个关于我如何脱离 Google 的故事。以下的那些资源会向你展示其他替代方案。其中有一些对我来说过于专业，还有一些我还没有时间去探索。
|
||||
|
||||
* [Localization Lab][2] 一份开源或隐私技术的项目的详细清单 — 有些技术含量高，有些比较用户友好。
|
||||
|
||||
* [Framasoft][3] 有一整套针对 Google 的替代方案，大部分是开源的，虽然大部分是法语。
|
||||
|
||||
* Restore Privacy 也 [整理了一份替代方案的清单][4].
|
||||
|
||||
到你了。你可以直接回复或者通过 Twitter 来分享你喜欢的 Google 制品的替代方案。我确信我遗漏了许多，也非常乐意尝试。我并不打算一直固守我列出的这些方案。
|
||||
|
||||
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||||
|
||||
作者简介：
|
||||
|
||||
Nithin Coca
|
||||
|
||||
自由撰稿人，涵盖政治，环境和人权以及全球科技的社会影响。 更多参考 http://www.nithincoca.com
|
||||
|
||||
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||||
|
||||
via: https://medium.com/s/story/how-i-fully-quit-google-and-you-can-too-4c2f3f85793a
|
||||
|
||||
作者：[Nithin Coca][a]
|
||||
译者：[译者ID](https://github.com/译者ID)
|
||||
校对：[校对者ID](https://github.com/校对者ID)
|
||||
|
||||
本文由 [LCTT](https://github.com/LCTT/TranslateProject) 原创编译，[Linux中国](https://linux.cn/) 荣誉推出
|
||||
|
||||
[a]:https://medium.com/@excinit
|
||||
[1]:https://medium.com/@excinit
|
||||
[2]:https://www.localizationlab.org/projects/
|
||||
[3]:https://framasoft.org/?l=en
|
||||
[4]:https://restoreprivacy.com/google-alternatives/
|
||||
[5]:https://medium.com/@excinit
|
||||
[6]:https://www.nithincoca.com/2011/11/20/7-months-no-facebook/
|
||||
[7]:https://www.quora.com/How-long-was-Gmail-in-private-%28invitation-only%29-beta
|
||||
[8]:https://www.theverge.com/2018/4/28/17293056/facebook-deletefacebook-social-network-monopoly
|
||||
[9]:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Play_Services
|
||||
[10]:https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/06/us-tech-giants-nsa-data
|
||||
[11]:https://takeout.google.com/settings/takeout
|
||||
[12]:https://duckduckgo.com/
|
||||
[13]:https://www.startpage.com/
|
||||
[14]:https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/
|
||||
[15]:https://www.seattletimes.com/business/firefox-is-back-and-its-time-to-give-it-a-try/
|
||||
[16]:https://brave.com/
|
||||
[17]:https://jitsi.org/jitsi-meet/
|
||||
[18]:https://signal.org/
|
||||
[19]:https://wego.here.com/
|
||||
[20]:https://maps.me/
|
||||
[21]:https://www.openstreetmap.org/
|
||||
[22]:https://protonmail.com/
|
||||
[23]:https://www.fastmail.com/
|
||||
[24]:https://www.hushmail.com/
|
||||
[25]:https://tutanota.com/
|
||||
[26]:https://www.fastmail.com/
|
||||
[27]:https://nextcloud.com/
|
||||
[28]:https://letsencrypt.org/
|
||||
[29]:https://owncloud.org/
|
||||
[30]:https://www.openstack.org/
|
||||
[31]:https://matomo.org/
|
||||
[32]:http://www.openwebanalytics.com/
|
||||
[33]:https://lineageos.org/
|
||||
[34]:https://f-droid.org/en/
|
||||
[35]:https://puri.sm/posts/tag/pureos/
|
||||
[36]:https://ubports.com/
|
||||
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Reference in New Issue
Block a user