It took a few months preparation but I deleted all my google accounts today, and it feels good.

Freuks
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I have a channel with millions views and 30k subs, can’t delete it, even if I also use Odyssee and promote peertube

Anyone have any alternatives to Voice?

I moved my number to VoIP.ms and while it’s not nearly the same service wise, SMS do come to my email and I can call and receive calls via any VoIP app I want.

It’s a nice journey, and you can also start to look into proxmox for self hosting things. It really feels amazing to have your own little lab of stuff rather than using the public web for all services.

Well done!

I ended up keeping mine for occasional things like leaving YT comments or subscribing to Firebase-distributed apps.

TrollBlox
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Any suggestions on starting this process? I have a Raspberry Pi and was looking into self-hosted Google Drive/Photos/Gmail replacement. Best FOSS replacements?

It’s a bit newer, but Immich is a very promising Google Photos replacement.

I recommend setting up a NextCloud server.

Ark-5
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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.

Who dis?

Boffo!

Congrats!

cry
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deleted by creator

Welcome to the real world.

You think that’s air you’re breathing?

Let’s not go all the way down the rabbit hole in one pill. Steps of one less person so inured (Definition: Made tough by habitual exposure), so hopelessly dependent on Google.

What are you trying to tell me? That I can dodge bullets?

Libb
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Hi,

Trying to do it myself but I’m stuck with YouTube.

I mean, I need a gmail account to pay for the Premium sub. And then, most creators are still using YouTube not the few alternatives… How do you guys do?

MrSilkworm
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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.

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.

Do they support casting to Chromecast etc aswell?

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

TrollBlox
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GrayJay is awesome, I’m excited for more sites to be added! I just need to work through my YouTube algorithm addiction lmao

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

not sarcasm joke, really curious

I like paying creators their due and don’t like seeing ads. Fuck me, right?

hswolf
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I’m not trying to criticize anyone here for their choices, I’m just curious about the actual effects of such a subscription.

As of now the most basic one is 14usd/month, how much of that money gets to the creators that you Want to support? As of the writing of this response I don’t know this information nor searched about It. Do we have an actual diagram or any information saying how much are you contributing for each channel you are subscribed to?

Suppose you are subscribed to 28 channels and the sub money gets distributed evenly, that’s 50 cents a Month to everyone, not much “paying their due” in my opinion.

Now if you really really want to patronize one, two or three channels, wouldn’t sending money directly to them or paying their exclusive membership be a more reasonable way to go about It?

Wife watches yt on Roku.

Pihole hasn’t blocked YouTube ads in years because the ads come from the same domain. And that’s not including the new crackdown that YouTube did on ad blocking.

Libb
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not sarcasm joke, really curious

I take your question without sarcasm.

Disclaimer: I use uBlock Origin myself, as I really don’t like being forced to see ads.

That said, I don’t think paying for content is ‘barbaric’ either. It’s a personal choice. Either you want to pay and you can, or you don’t want to, or you simply can’t. All three are fine by me.

As a teen, back in the 80s, I could not and did not pay for content (it was not online back then but copying music, books and even movies, or computer applications was a thing). Since then I got a few jobs, and the money that come with them. So, I can support the creators I like and I don’t need to spend time copying anything or searching for workarounds to access it. Be it on YT, or anywhere else. I would love to not pay Google, mind you, but since so, so many creators are still only hosted there, and since YT premium makes it so easy to pay them (a single monthly payment)…

hswolf
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Fair point! See my answer on the other user’s message where I talk about targeted patronization instead of overall subscription, I’d love to hear your opinion about it

Libb
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I’ve read it. Since you asked my opinion, here it is ;)

As of now the most basic one is 14usd/month, how much of that money gets to the creators that you Want to support?

(to be precise:) I don’t pay 14/month to support creators. I pay 14/month to be allowed to skip the ads that support those channels while still supporting the creators and YT. That’s what I’m paying for, and that’s what’s advertised in big bold face when you look at the YT Premium sub page:

YT Premium ad

OK, that plus YT Music but I don’t care much about that forced bundle (I use Apple Music). Not a word on supporting creators… Because we know its ads that are supporting the creators, not the premium subscribers. As a premium, I just pay to skip ads. The difference is essential.

Suppose you are subscribed to 28 channels and the sub money gets distributed evenly, that’s 50 cents a Month to everyone, not much “paying their due” in my opinion.

Creators do chose to sign upon YT knowing it’s ad-revenue that will pay them, not the viewer’s money (unlike say, on LTT Floatplane). As a a viewer, YT gives me the choice to a) watch those ads (knowing a small share will go to the creator) or b) pay a Premium sub to skip them (knowing a small share of my Premium will go to the creator). I chose b).

Is it enough revenue for each creator? It’s not to me to say. Not more than it is the creator’s job to worry if I, as a viewer, earn enough money myself to be able to afford the price of the YT sub ;)

Imho, a much more interesting question to ask would be: how much money to a creator gets from YT ads versus how much does the creator gets from a Premium viewer watching the same video? I’m willing to bet they get more from a premium than from the same viewer watching ads or at the very least that they get the exact same value but, quite obviously, I have no idea at all.

In the end, it’s a simple question of offer and demand. I want to watch X creators. Most are on YT. I can skip YT ads for a fixed amount of money, knowing that if i pay that money all creators will be compensated at least the same as if I watched the ads. Win-win. If it happens those creators consider ad-revenues are not enough, it’s a whole other issue. An issue they should discuss together between creators, and with Google. Not with the viewer or… only if it is to discuss the possibility of leaving YT and see how many viewers would be OK to follow them elsewhere and to pay to support their work.

edit: typos & clarifications.

Welcome to the degoogled fold 🤗

Serious question; what do you use for OAuth?

OAuth? Do you mean 2FA? OAuth just requires you to be able to open a URL so all you need a browser. (see the OAuth flow)

No I mean all those web services that only allow you to use OAuth to sign in and don’t give you the option of creating a username/password combo.

I haven’t encountered such a service that I cannot live without --> I don’t use it. To be honest, I can’t even remember such a service.

This is a daunting proposition, I’m admittedly massively invested in Google’s ecosystem. Gmail and Google calendar, I have a pixel phone, watch and buds and have YouTube premium. I feel like the time I switch is when I have a homelab and am able to find open source alternatives to everything heavily use and be able to do so with all devices I use.

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.

I’ve been mapping my city with streetcomplete and using osmand live to download my edits, organic maps has a better address search though, so I use that too. I don’t use the live traffic stuff, but osmand is capable of it.

Ensign Rick
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Yeah same. It sucks. I got into Google stuff back when Gmail was in beta and invite only. Admittedly I really only use Gmail, drive and the calendar. But the sso aspects is the part that is the hangup I think. I have so many accounts utilizing their identity provider solution.

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

I have one and do so. It’s pretty great. I will admit I still have some google services on it, but I’m working on not needing those.

Ensign Rick
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I wanted to but my pixel bootloader is carrier locked. Supposedly you can call and ask them to unlock it if you own the device but not sure if that’s true.

I think it is true. At least it was last time I checked. Give it a try.

Jeena
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I’m only keeping mine to be able to pay for YouTube premium.

My brother. Use Piped.

arthurpizza
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How do I install piped into my Roku?

Simple. Do not use Roku. If you use a Roku, you should not really worry about Youtube, as Roku is no better and probably still just sells to Google. If you have no other choice, then you may access a piped server over it’s web interface. This one is from a guy named kavin. Other than that, I am not really sure if there is a client for Roku.

I want to delete mine too, but I use GMail and I have not found a good alternative yet. Tutanota doesn’t have Thunderbird support and ProtonMail has, but only on paid accounts. I really want to use Thunderbird because it is such a great email client.

If you’re reasonably tech savvy and on linux you can use hydroxide to bridge a free protonmail to thunderbird. I’ve been doing it for ~a year, I suspect they don’t kill it for ratings, but I only have free protonmail on my GrapheneOS phone with forwards from thunderbird for specific things, works great…

If relevant, ask me how!

OK, thanks, I will check it out

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).

I agree! Maybe with more research you’ll find something that suits you. I personally use mailbox.org and I’m quite happy with it :)

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A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

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