Pseudo-monopolies are great at extinguishing imagination like that, and tbh Google search (as I understand its basic setup) was only as good as it was thanks to timing and few really good competitors.

  • @sloppy_diffuserEnglish
    2•9 months ago

    Not the OP but currently have:

    • Kagi - Search…
    • Proton - Email, Calendar, VPN, Pass (I just use for aliases). Now that I’ve upped my privacy knowledge I need to reevaluate. I do like their products though from a useability perspective. VPN supporting port forwarding is a bonus.
    • Backblaze B2 - off site backups using rclone and Round Sync (android rclone) to sync files
    • Mullvad VPN - Just got based on the XMR payment option and RAM only servers. Still deciding where I have a VPN included with Proton. I don’t like putting my eggs all in one basket though as I did with Google so its attractive to keep.
    • Bitwarden - Password manager. May switch to self hosted in the future.
    • Standard Notes - May switch to self hosted if I don’t lose any features I use.
      • @sloppy_diffuserEnglish
        1•9 months ago

        Thanks! Also trying out these just to evaluate this past week, lol.

        • EteSync - Contact sync since Proton won’t integrate natively with android (grr). Probably self host this one when I get time to rebuild my server also.
        • Jmp.chat - More of a curiosity, but thought it was cool I could get a number with voice/text over XMPP (native dialer integration, tex t in XMPP client) plus a data eSIM all with Monero and without giving any info. Not private due to the calls/text come in the clear. Could be anonymous if you get a phone not tied to your name. Obviously you can be narrowed down to a tower you’re connecting to also. Using a free xmpp server now but want to self host this one also.
        • Frugal Usenet / NZBgeek - Bought with crypto over VPN and no personal info. Working on rebuilding my mini-pc server as an *arr stack, then look into self hosting everything else.