Big Tech trying to censure has really put a knot in my tail, and I find a great offense in it So I have taken what steps I can to move away.
Faceboot was really no problem. I just deleted my account. I was only there as a convenience to get at pics of my grands, and I can get at that another way, so outside of me now lacking input from screaming liberal jackwads, tiresome memes, and endless kitty pictures... Faceboot is no more. Easy.
Twatter was never my thing anyway.
So that brings me to Giggle. Now this one is a bugger. When I got into my smartphone, I was dumb, and knew no more than to plop everything together the easy way - I knew I was getting lead by the nose, but I knew no better and thus took the tourist route.
And I was happy with it. It worked good, and it was easy enough to just say they'll track me anyway, so it stayed untll this day of discontent.So over the past while, I have been mercilessly hacking away, trying to get as much Google off the phone as I can. This is an attempt to document that path somewhat and I encourage others to add to it.
First the broad strokes. Chrome, Search and Home. All my machines have Chrome onboard, but I am mainly a Firefox guy. And the main reason Chrome snuck onto all my machines was because of the services I use in my phone. It is just too easy to use Chrome in a Google environment. So take away the phone tricks, provide an alternative, and Chrome is gone easy enough. And like everyone else, it is too easy to leave the default search engine in everything as it is - Even Firefox uses Google by default.
Now I left that in firefox long ago for Startpage, but I have settled on Yippy, mainly because it has nothing to do with Google at all - It uses IBM's Watson as an engine. And you may be surprised how much comes back in a search without any Google messin with it... Excellent. As of right now, Every machine I own is running firefox in some capacity, using Yippy as the default search engine. In the droids, the Google Search widget on my home screen is gone, replaced with the Firefox widget. And Firefox is the default browser.
And that brings me to the nitty gritty. The Droids. I am under no illusions here. Google is wedged in there deep. I don't suppose can ever get rid of it, but I aim to do what I can...
Foremost for me is AI. I can't see the phone real well without hauling out my glasses, so I wind up talking to it... And getting rid of Giggles Assistant was going to be painful. My first attempt was to use Microsoft Launcher to turn my tablet into what is basically a windows overlay of the existing system. And on an old machine, like my Galaxy Tab A is (2017), this may be all you get - Cortana. And it is alright I guess.
Having worked out the rough edges of that, I went to convert my phone, which is the real thing... But messin with it, I found something else: Bixby. Bixby (technically Bixby Voice and Bixby Vision) is Samsung's new AI, available on higher end phones and tablets. And it is great for me. It tends to understand me better already than Giggles or Cortana. And it is sufficient. Not to say it is perfect - An example: If I say, "Bixby, show me the closest pizzeria" She will just come back with a Yelp or Yellow Pages return of all the pizza joints in town, where Giggles will haul up a map and show me a tight, close selection, and tell me which one is closest. No biggie - I know which ones are closest anyway. It ain't as whippy. But it will do. And it is new, and improvements are bound to come. I have been on Bixby for a week now, and it's a keeper. I can work with it.
Next was messaging. I simply eliminated Google messages and fell back to the Samsung default. And it turns out it works way better. Just ain't quite so flashy... and that led me to eliminate Google Keyboard... Took me a bit to acclimatize to the Samsung KB, but it's good now. Contacts, same thing. Using Samsung.
Now I am using enough Samsung to actually investigate my Samsung account - and I got rid of the Google email that used to log me in... Just went onsite with my laptop and changed the email to my microsoft addy and changed the password... But digging around, I found SamsungPay... Signed that up and got rid of Google Pay, and tied the SamsungPay to my bank and my Paypal.
Moving right along, now comes the killer... PIM. My calendar, tasks, and reminders. Though that would stop me dead. But it wasn't all that bad. Get on Gmail through a browser in your PC, and you will find it fairly easy to export all that... And just as easy to import into Outlook. Once it was all there and running good, I went back to Google and cleared them all.
Now, there is some monkey-farting,finding duplicates like birthday calendars and holiday calendars... Somehow, in the process, the stock Samsung stuff got loaded with my Microsoft account. So I went to go figure out why, and it seems that Bixby actually writes to the Samsung stuff, and then the Samsung stuff syncs with the Microsoft account. So shut off the display of the Samsung stuff and shut it off from notifying, and all the troubles go away. Only the Outlook calendars show up in Outlook and only Outlook notifies.
And here's the cool part. Better_than_Google. I am a task oriented guy, and while I use the calendar too, tasking is how I address projects, and using reminders on the fly from Assistant. That's the working end of my PIM. Now here's the cool part: Bixby natively syncs reminders with MS To-Do !!! Now anything I tell Bixby to remind me about (and all the missed calls to boot) wind up in my To Do lists for management. This_is_awesome. I can't tell you how happy I am to have Mail, Cal, Task, and Reminders all wind up seamlessly on my desktop. and it just works.
Equally good, because I am now in Outlook, in my PC, the apps I have always ignored like mail, todo, and contacts all work... Even the tiles in the Start work with it, and notifications are native on the desktop, whether the apps are on or not.
Lastly, the final thing that will get Chrome off my desktops... MS Your Phone. One of the things I use a ton is Google Messages for the Web, which allows you to get text messages from your phone in a browser on your desktop... Just go to the site, scan the QR code, plug your phone into 110, and you're good to go. Run the phone with wireless earbuds, and send/reply messages right on the desk.
MS YourPhone is similar. You turn on 'Link to Windows' in the phone, pull up 'Your Phone' on your desktop or laptop, and it gives you a QR code for your phone to scan one time, and that's it. And it handles multiple connections (one at a time), so it works with my laptop or my main whip on the desk. It's a power hog alright - you will want to plug the phone into power, but it does WAY more than the Google alt. It has a built in VM, so you can literally operate your phone right on your desktop, running apps, getting notified, everything but file transfer and backup. If you have bluetooth on your PC, you can even send and receive calls right there
That's about where I am right now. My next trick is Navigation. Replace Google Maps. I have Waze in there right now I have not used it enough to know anything... But I am getting very close to disabling Chrome, Maps, Assistant, Drive, Duo, and Notes. And that doesn't leave much left in operation... I do not believe I can replace the system mike, nor the location, both of which use Google, but I can end-run the mike by using something that has that capability internal to the software. I think Bixby uses its own, and FF seems to too, so long as you don't se the mike in the widget - put your caret in the search and use the mike on the keyboard.
And before anybody says I am trading one devil for the other, I know. The difference is, I am already using Microsoft, and I am already using Samsung. And it is Google I am trying to rid myself of - They are one of the active culprits. And short of converting Command Central to Linux (which can damn sure happen if they start barking like the rest), Microsoft is here to stay.
I will come back here to post more as I find it out... And I would be happy to help others - I know this is a rather generic account - but it is already a small tome just telling the story. Let me know if YOU find more or better.
