I spent some time last night on moving photos and videos from Google Photos to Flickr. I have been trying to move away from or at least reduce using products from giant names like Google, Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon, and this is a part of it. Photos can easily be transferred via Google Takeout. Videos, though, had to be downloaded and uploaded manually. For now my flickr is a mess – I will clean it up later.

I got rid of my macbook trying at least to reduce one Apple product. For me who loves writing with an Apple pencil, an iPad has been just enough. I have been happy with using:

• OnlyOffice instead of Microsoft Office: OnlyOffice has a nice iPad app and an easy WebDav saving function. Open source.
• Vimeo instead of Youtube: definitely limiting, but works for my needs
• Tutanota instead of Gmail: Simple and perfect! Privacy.
• Signal instead of Apple Messages/ Facetime: Everyone should try Signal. You can have fun with customizable background colors and cute stickers. Privacy.
• Icedrive instead of Google Drive: If I were better at tech, I would have tried Nextcloud to host my own cloud. Well, I didn’t know about Nextcloud when I bought Icedrive lifetime subscription ($56/150GB). So… I am happy with it. Privacy.
• Flickr instead of Google Photos: Flickr free account gives you space for 1,000 photos and videos, which I am fine for now.
• Spotify instead of Apple Music+Podcasts: Although I miss the lyrics function on Apple Music, I am happy with Spotify having podcast and music all in one place.
• Duck Duck Go instead of Google search.

I deleted my Amazon account a while ago and that’s it. Misfit Market works well for most of my groceries, Plaine for shampoo and soap refills, and Everlane for clothing.

Update: As of August 27, 2021 I am switching from OnlyOffice iOS app to Collabora Office app, because OnlyOffice app doesn’t seem to autosave and I keep loosing my edits. Collabora uses iOS file access screen so automatically connects to my icedrive. I hope Collabora saves changes well.

Update again: Sadly, I am switching back to the Microsoft Word app. Collabora saves and updates edits and modification well, but seriously, unbelievably slow – loading a 10 page document takes forever and typing lags significantly. I will be waiting for them to work better while using MS Word with resentment.