this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2024
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[–] Kbobabob@lemmy.world 6 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

What is the issue with docs, sheets, drive, phones, calendar, play store?

There seems to be plenty of options in all of these spaces. Play store isn't even on a lot of android devices.

[–] BenLeMan@lemmy.world 8 points 3 hours ago (2 children)

Correct. My example for another necessary intervention would be YouTube. That's a space in which Google does have a monopoly.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Exactly. There are workable alternatives to most of the others, but YouTube has a stranglehold on that type of content due to the network effect. Examples of alternatives:

  • docs/sheets/drive - Microsoft Office 365, OnlyOffice, or self-host LibreOffice Online (through Collabora CODE builds); if you just need drive, there's also BackBlaze, AWS, DropBox, etc
  • phones - I use GrapheneOS on their Pixel devices, but plenty of other Android phones support LineageOS/DivestOS/CalyxOS
  • calendar - still looking for a replacement for my smart watch, but I've been using my Nextcloud install; there are also some FOSS calendars that support CalDav as well, so look around
  • maps - I've been using Organic Maps, which has been great; main problem is searching for addresses, but if it's in there, the directions so far have worked fine; there's also Apple maps, Bing maps, and probably some others
  • translate - it's built in to Firefox, and it seems to work well enough in a pinch

But there's really not much for YouTube. I guess there's Odyssee, Rumble, and a few others, but they don't have anywhere near the content as YouTube, so they're not really practical alternatives. I actually sub to Nebula which is the closest to a replacement so far, but there's still a ton of content that doesn't have a direct replacement there.

[–] Brodysseus@lemmy.world 1 points 12 minutes ago

Off topic, but how do you like graphene? I am thinking of making the switch on a pixel 7a, but I have a fear it'll be like having Linux on my phone where things randomly don't work and then I have the hobby where I make it work

[–] Kbobabob@lemmy.world 2 points 3 hours ago

Most definitely. They need viable competition.