cross-posted from: https://lemdro.id/post/44115090

i posted this on reddit before but i wanted to get your opinion on this

i use my familys google drive/photo thing (i cant really change) and i obviously want us to switch, but my mom (who take care of this whole thing) says that she likes the ecosystem that google has. Like she uses her calendar and stuff. The closest ive found is proton, which is fine, but it doesnt really have the best rep. Any alternatives?

BTW: im not gonna self-host since im not comfortable hosting such a big thing like this

I would suggest you look into Nextcloud as you say you would not want to self host individual things like Immich to build up your own ecosystem.

Nextcloud can be self hosted but lots of companies offer a paid instance that you would be able to get and move your whole family to.

People get pretty elitist when it comes to companies in this space. Proton has it's faults, but it is light years better than google and is offering precisely what you want.

Its easy to sit high and criticize when your hosting everything yourself (I'm guilty of this too), but if you just need to move away from google, proton is vastly better and under one Eco system.

NextCloud was already called out. Its a viable option, but the photos from my self hosting experience suck. Once you get past a certain size, the library chokes on itself.

Idk if I had a nice GPU that wouldn't be the case, so maybe a paid sub will work out just fine.

poogle (purple google) wants to be google, they even have the ai to prove it.

It isn't about being elitist, it is about learning, and not repeating the same mistakes. People have a very bad habit of jumping from one train-wreck to the next online.

OP can choose not to use googles cloud, even though they claim otherwise.

Mailbox

It doesn't replace everything, but it has done the most for me in replacing the most Google products. Mail, calendar, tasks, contact sync, online drive storage.

Photos need their own solution though.

oh yeah i forgot about that, but i dont think my family nor me would trust their stability. this is probably braindead and im sure nextcloud is great, but i just feel like its easier using a companys own suite

proton seems like the best one for now, i just wanted other opinions than reddit

Infomaniak? Has everything I need in one place.

I'm not sure what you mean though... Nextcloud is a company

It‘s what I use as well. Really happy with the products and also with the way the cloud is integrated into the OS (Mac OS in my case).

idk really it just feels better using for example: protons ecosystem and suite of apps, rather than some nextcloud

i dont know why but thats how it is unfortunately

Why not? This is just a bullshit baseless, emotional take instead of a rational, logical decision. Get a Nextcloud instance on Hetzner for 5 bucks a month and you’ll be happy. If you want to continue basing on “vibes”, just stay with google.

Whoa, dude. Not everyone is comfortable managing their own solution. There is nothing irrational about that. I'm hosting like 25 services over here and I'm also unwilling to host certain things like email - especially for anyone other than myself.

I’m not saying they should self host it. Their take that “some Nextcloud bad because of vibes” is irrational.

But I'm guessing that the $5 a month isn't getting you a fully managed solution. You're still on the hook if your users have trouble or if you flip a switch that breaks something. Just because you aren't hosting it on prem doesn't mean you get to be hands off.

yeah thats true but i dont think my family would like it either

Honestly, been happy enough with Apple. I just don't appreciate their move into services.

It's so weird, when the big advertising giant got into phones, they convinced people that phones made by an advertising company were better because they weren't made by a computer company. Just like when MySpace and later Facebook took over from forums and said now you have to use your real name. I didn't see the point. It was better before. Only thing is, while forums are still around, they're not as big as they once were. And we could say "maybe that's a good thing," but you look at the paedophiles and AI bots ruining Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, and the others... and maybe forums weren't so bad. Apple never went anywhere. They just kinda went stale. I don't think they've innovated anything in the last 5 years. Apple Silicon Macs, and the Dynamic Island on iPhone, maybe. Otherwise, the new tech is much the same as the old tech. It just runs AI better, which I don't give a shit about.

Also, I like Proton. They don't have the best rep? As opposed to Google? Google stopped saying "Don't be evil" because it was inconvenient to their plans of actually being evil.

Instead of Google Docs, I use a thing called Ellipsus. It's a freemium Docs alternative, as in most features are free. I'm paying $6 a month for it, but after 2 years, I will own it, and I'll get the premium features without paying anymore. (You can also pay $60 a year or $100 straight up.)

I use Proton at work. I don't log into anything I own or use outside of work, at work. Even my Plex server, I made a new account with my Proton email and shared my libraries with that user. I can delete my Proton account and it wipes everything. Then just stop sharing with that "other" Plex user.

Self hosting is not that scary, but it does require some learning. I don't do it. I've looked at used business PCs on eBay and Amazon. Some great deals up there. The idea is, you put some good cooling in the thing, and plug it in somewhere where it will not get a lot of dust (and/or you clean it regularly), and you remote in from another computer. So you have your own server. Macs, Windows PCs, and of course Linux PCs are great at remoting into servers, and so are Android phones. Not sure about iOS since they don't have terminal, but if there's a web interface, it should not be a problem. And of course a lot of servers have app interfaces for the phones.

You should probably test some of these solutions for just yourself at first.

I know you don't want to make big changes for your family, but any change at this level will take some adjustment.

The way google has pulled everyone in is by convenience. I learned this the hard way when separating out contacts and calendar from google.

The backend is fully managed. They will run updates for you as well. If you install something funky or delete data or delete users by accident, they have backups for you.

Why not?

You really don't want to look for an ecosystem, because an ecosystem introduces vendor lock-in that is a fundamental problem with Google to begin with.

i just dont think that they would trust a nextcloud instance idrk why

this is the dumbest argument ever im sorry 😭

i think this is what i meant? i dont really know anymore

true but it needs to be an ecosystem

as i said my mom really likes googles ecosystem and if she was to switch then it should also be an ecosystem

Not a bad deal then!

Ha! Personally, moving my family away from whatever is on their phone for is damn near impossible. So I use Proton for my email, calendar, and passwords. Photos and contacts are on my NAS.

nextcloud - https://nextcloud.com/providers/

The key is to never say it is an instance say that nextcloud is a company like Google or Proton.

It is. I can wholeheartedly recommend them. 5€ for 1TB on top of nextcloud is just for me a very good value for money.