Apologies for a request rather than a recommendation: what has everyone been using as alternatives to Google services? I’ve already been using Firefox instead of Google Chrome and Duck Duck Go instead of Google’s search engine for many years, but I’m stilled tied up in the Gmail + Google Drive ecosystem. Here’s some reasons why:
- I’m aware of many other email services, but creating a new account and bringing all my associated accounts and subscriptions over seems horrendously tedious – plus, doing so manually as opposed to having the process be automated would surely lead to errors and forgetfulness.
- I’ve tried other file-sharing services like Dropbox but something about their sharing options always seems to go wrong, which is embarrassing when working with a professional client or collaborator. Google Drive’s file-sharing options are intuitively simple and streamlined.
- Google Drive’s legally distinct yet functionally identical Microsoft Office suite available entirely for free is ludicrously convenient, especially as a tie-in with their as-mentioned similarly convenient file-sharing system.
I’m not looking for one big, all-consuming single replacement for all of these problems at once – the last thing I want is Google 2. But if there’s an email provider that makes transitioning process as smooth as possible, a file-sharing system as streamlined as Google Drive’s, and a similar fully-featured replacement to the Microsoft Office suite, I’d be able to leave all this Google trash behind forever. It’d be nice if the file-sharing service and the Microsoft Office replacement were still a single entity, but that’s a want and not a need. If anyone’s got recommendations, I’d love to hear them.