After my private Gmail was leaked somewhere, I’ve started to receive an enormous amount of spam that came through into my inbox, which made me switch to Proton and a self-hosted SimpleLogin setup.

So I decided, I might as well dirch Google entirely, for private and work-related stuff.

While Proton already covers Mail and Calendar, I’m in search of alternatives for the following services to replace.

  • Meet: I like the idea of starting a quick meeting by simply sending a link to a customer, who can join instantly. What would be an equivalent software to do that? I tried Mattermost, but it seems more like a Slack alternative, with invites, etc. and is overkill for my case. Revolt chat looks like a Discord alternative.
  • Drive: In short, If possible, I’d prefer one consolidated place to access and edit files. Docs, Excel, PDFs, pictures, videos, etc… Is Nextcloud really the only option here, with the corresponding plugins for onlyoffice and memories (photos)? I tried running thst on an intel nuc, and it’s slow as hell.
  • Petter1@lemm.eeEnglish
    7·
    1 year ago

    In danger of stating the obvious, I would suggest nextcloud for google drive (and their office equivalent) replacement , since it is very well integrated in most operating systems and there are many apps/add-ons for it. You can even integrate your web services into their web dashboard. I’m in the process of moving my iCloud stuff there.

      • Petter1@lemm.eeEnglish
        3·
        1 year ago

        So your complaints are mostly about the mail app? Because I have not tried that yet, mail is something I have not yet moved away from iCloud… I think, we are not at 1 Tb data in NC yet, will remember what you said when we reach that and everything is on fire 😅 What do you use for working simultaneously on the same file at the same time, if may ask, I’m interested in learning more about NC alternatives.

        • TCB13@lemmy.worldEnglish
          4·
          1 year ago

          So your complaints are mostly about the mail app? Because I have not tried that yet,

          No, their UI is horribly slow and if you just open your browser console you’ll see it spitting errors unlike anything else you’ve ever seen.

          What do you use for working simultaneously on the same file at the same time, if may ask, I’m interested in learning more about NC alternatives.

          FileBrowser with the OnlyOffice server, gets the job done without much fuzz. Official integration is coming but there’s a fork by the same guy with the PR open that works just fine. js.wiki and/or getoutline.com might work for some situations.

    • Engywuck@lemm.eeEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      I may also add that if one doesn’t want to host something himself, Hetzner offers quite cheap Nextcloud instances with admin access and thus the possibility to add users/apps.

    • Haui@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      I‘m also migrating from iCloud (to NC among other things) and its been slow to say the least. Things I struggle with:

      • setting up photo alternative with face recognition (recognition app is okayish but not as strong as I‘d like)
      • getting whatsapp to somehow backup outside of iCloud
      • getting my passwords out of iCloud (you need a mac for that) into vaultwarden
      • NC being quite slow now that a couple apps and mid 5 digits of photos are in there, will try memcache soonish

      For those who don’t know NC, these things are 1/10 of the stuff that NC is actually good at imo.

      How is your experience so far?

      • Petter1@lemm.eeEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        I use the password app in nextcloud. I really like how the app is integrated into iOS. I have set it to be my only autofill and migrate the passwords manually when I need them. For whatsapp, my solution was to delete it and all other meta accounts some years ago without backup 💁🏻‍♀️ matrix is my messenger of choice, btw. We defeat the slowness of NC with enough power, I guess, but a more efficient service would surly lessen our electricity costs (but we invest in solar in long term anyway) About photos, I have honestly no clue yet, and since my girlfriend definitely keeps her fotos there, and we have a shared photo library, I fear I’m pretty stuck there. Additionally, I have invested quite some time cleaning it by deleting shitposts from the old WhatsApp times.

        • Haui@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
          2·
          1 year ago

          Thanks for elaborating a bit. I opted against the password app since I wanted to diversify services. My nextcloud is a bit finnicky at times and wants to be updated before you can proceed with stuff. Having no access to my passwords in that moment would be harsh. So I opted for vaultwarden and it even has firefox integration, cli integration and a desktop app for linux (dunno about windows, honestly). I‘m not sure if it was a bad idea to put NC‘s database on spinning discs though. Maybe that was stupid.

          As you can see, very much a WIP as well. I feel like we need some kind of place to accumulate iCloud -> NC expats. A lot of good could be done there.

          I‘m on matrix as well but i‘m not proficient yet. My wife is still on whatsapp so I need to be patient. We have gotten rid of twitter and reddit which I count as a win.

          What other projects do you have? Feel free to send me a dm with your matrix username if you want to keep in touch about this.