I'm at a very tough crossroads in my online life.  Ever since Google pulled the plug on Reader I've been very concerned and have had a very hard time trusting that they wouldn't do it to other services that I depend on from them.  So yesterday my laptop (XPS 12 Touch) decided that BitLocker was going to fuck up and not let me into my computer.  I ended up with a fresh install and at that point I decided to try not using Google products.

I am currently posting this from IE (I might add, IE is the only browser that handles pinch to zoom on touch at this point on 8).  I have set my default search in IE to DuckDuckGo, I am forwarding all my Gmail to my own email server and I'm going to send an email to my contacts telling them to start using my other address.  I have also started exporting 7 years of mail from Gmail. And lastly I've setup my own RSS site to replace Reader. It's TinyTinyRSS and it's great.

I kind of know this is an overreaction but at this point I don't really care.

The one thing I'm going to have the hardest time with is Plus.  I do enjoy it and I hate Facebook.  I guess tehforum is going to have to suffice for my social interactions!

Oh, and if anyone would like to use my RSS site you are welcome to.  Just PM me with a username and password that you would like to use.


 

It's an irrational, visceral thing when you turn on a brand, isn't it? I've done it with Apple, Intel and even the phone company (I haven't turned on MS, since I never, ever liked them) -- all for different reasons, but if there's a common theme it's them all being stupid greedy, anti-competitive, and just plain ruthless. Still, I have to keep using those brands' products every day. I just do my best to not give them any of my money. With FOSS it gets a bit more complicated. If somebody gives away something for free, and then decides to change/cancel/start charging for it, what do you do, ask for your money back? I've become pretty careful and conservative about the tools I invest my time in learning.

It is.  A month ago I would have defended Google until I ran out of breath.  But something changed with them.  They kill Reader but have enough time to do stupid April 1st videos? Some of those had to have taken serious time and resources.  And then they release Keep, after killing notebook? Fork Webkit (which I agree with btw).  There are other things, it's like they flicked a switch and decided to clean house.