I’m working on degoogling and moving away from major tech companies. I’m really curious what others here are using instead — especially for everyday tools and services.
What do you use for things like:
1.Email
2.Cloud storage / file sync
3.Maps & navigation
4.Search engine
5.Web browser
6.Calendar
7.Contacts management
8.Notes / to-do lists
9.Office suite (docs, spreadsheets, etc.)
10.Messaging / chat
11.Video calling
12.Social media / microblogging RSS reader / news
13.Music streaming / podcast app
14.Video streaming / YouTube alternative
15.Password manager
16.VPN / DNS / Firewall
17.Launcher / Android OS (if you use custom ROMs)
18.App store / APKs
19.Photo backup / gallery
20.Weather
21.Smart assistant (if any)
22.Anything else you’ve replaced?
Would love to hear about your setup — both what works well and any trade-offs you’ve had to make. Always looking for better FOSS or privacy-friendly alternatives
FastMail, IceDove (GNU debranded ThunderBird), FairEmail
Syncthing, Nextcloud for sharing and browsing files, I store my files using TrueNAS and a RAID Z2 configuration with Backblaze B2 for backup
OsmAnd with Brouter (FastBike-VeryLowTraffic profile) for ebike, my local transit app for public transit, Magic Earth the rare occasion I use a car, Uber rarely, I still use Google Maps for searching because everything else sucks
Kagi, nowadays I usually use Deepseek R1 model with either Kagi Assistant or OpenRouter but might self-host LibreChat
LibreWolf for searches, FireFox and FireFox PWAs for sites I regularly visit but planning to switch to Floorp. On Android, Cromite for random sites, Vanadium for sides I stay logged in to, IronFox with extensions for searches.
Etar synced with Nextcloud using DAVx5
GrapheneOS contacts app synced with Nextcloud, the Fossify app has given me problems
Tasks.org synced with Nextcloud, Logseq for random notes, Markdown or comments in Typst documents in certain contexts
Typst or LaTeX for documents I make myself. LibreOffice or Collabora app for MS office documents.
Signal (Molly) and Discord (Vesktop, Revenge) most of the time
Signal or Discord for personal, Teams for business stuff
Lemmy, Reddit, Instagram
Tidal for my own playlists, Spotify for playlists from other people, YouTube when I want to randomly listen to something, ListenBrainz and Last.fm for scribbling. I want to set up Navidrome again but last time I did it was a disaster.
Bitwarden/Vaultwarden
InviZible Pro and Privoxy (uses Tor and I2P). I should probably get Mullvad or AirVPN.
Kvaesitso
Obtainium for FOSS, Google Play for proprietary
Syncthing-Fork, Aves Libre
Weather.gov, Windy which tends to be more accurate for more specific locations