Discussion
Thanks helpful fedi for the good advice yesterday about map apps. Mapquest is definitely not available in Australia so while I’m cheering their resistance I’m shifting to Organic Maps. In a small moment of joy I found that OM lists a local Aboriginal protest occupation site that Google of course doesn’t.
Up next: getting email out of Google. My heart sinks at the work of it, but it’s time.
Picture me staring glumly at the screen and humming The Clash, as we all are one way and another.
So, on that.
Helpful fedi, I’m once more seeking recommendations for an email alternative to Gmail, ideally not a US company. What are you using that works for you? I am so low-tech it’s ridiculous, so it needs to be easy.
This is worse than moving house.
@kate something I did first was register a personal domain, and then hook that up to my first non-Google email provider
I had to tell folks/services to start using a new non-Google email address for me anyway, this way they switch the one time to an address on my personal domain
then I'm free to change which provider that points at whenever I want without anyone needing to update their records for me again, e.g. i switched from Google to Proton, and then later from Proton to FastMail
it _is_ just a bit more technical and a bit more costly to do this depending on the domain name and your email provider, but for me the flexibility was worth it
@kate I hear you, it's been an embarrassingly long time since I began my own shift away from Gmail but it's such a slog I've not gotten back to finish. I'm not trying to transfer anything out of my Gmail accounts, just starting clean. But changing over everything and everyone that uses email is a long and tedious process.
This site is a good reference point for alternatives to Google, not just with email: https://purchasewithpurpose.io/
So many options I'd never even heard of, tbh.
I'm currently using Infomaniak, Proton, and Tuta. I don't like Tuta's app, which is slow and clunky. Otherwise they've all been fine.
With free options, there's no harm in signing up/downloading just to check it out and see how it fits.
@nottoday I hear you right back. It’s the use of email to connect to every other thing.
Thank you for the link! De-Googling is like trying to haul yourself out of quicksand.
@kate I can recommend Fastmail: their import tools from Google were *wonderful*, and their support has been top notch.
@kate Someone here recommended Proton but I can't for the life of me figure out how to transfer my Gmail over.
It is, indeed, a long hard slog
@kate I was recommended FastMail, which I did set up, but am yet to transfer everything over to.
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