This post is intended as a starting point for a series of blog posts and other things about using Google products or replacing Google products with open-source versions.
The first Google product I used was google search, then after that, gmail. I reckon most people my age followed the same path. Google was better than Yahoo! for search at the time, so I started using that, then when gmail came out, I was using Hotmail, so it made sense to switch pretty quickly.
Around the same time I started to learn about what open-source was, and was really excited by that. I soon moved into a tech job too, primarily doing tech support for windows users whilst also using Linux and open-source products.
I’ve done both ever since. Used more google products, used more open-source products. There is no hard fast rule I follow, but it tends to be I use Google for personal things, and open-source for work/non-me things.
There is an ideal, I believe, that individuals could eventually have the privacy and security they deserve by only using open-source. I don’t think I will ever quite get there, but I do feel I should try to.
Also though, some of the best products out there are not open source, or at least are not free. Windows isn’t free. OSX is, essentially, but you do normally need to buy a mac to run it, which isn’t free. Google TV is amazing, and that isn’t free.
So that is the introduction, basically I want to talk about, think about and try moving from nearly all Google products to open-source ones, and write down how that goes.