@Chals
For google play store: F-Droid/Droidify is the easiest (but not only) alternative, Aurora if you really need some google apps, or sandboxed play store in grapheneos. But ironically to install grapheneos u gotta buy your phone from google cuz it only works on pixels.
For youtube: Newpipe on android, Freetube on desktop.
For google chrome: Try firefox, but if you miss google chrome too much, ungoogled chromium is the best option, it’s the only non-shady chromium based browser i know of.
For google search: All the search engines kinda suck these days, google’s no exception to that rule really, but if you want a non-shady search engine… I’m afraid you’ve got slim pickings, i don’t know if there even is an uncensored web search engine that doesn’t cater results based on some political agenda or another. Brave search seems the least shady to me right now, despite the company behind it being shady as balls anyways.
Already installed it actually! It’s just hard to get used to. I’m fully entrenched in Google world with Fi, OTP, account auths, etc. It’s going to be quite an effort but always need a project. Unfortunately doesn’t support my Zenfone 10 so I had to switch to Pixel 7a. Odd to use a Google phone to de-Google…
I’ll have to check out F-Droid, thanks for the heads up. Do you know of an Android Auto/Maps alternative? That’s really my one sticking app. I’ve been using Brave over Firefox on mobile/desktop and liking it a lot. A little surprised you recommended Brave search but not Brave browser. How come? For search I went with StartPage, I wanted something based out of EU for their data privacy laws and it leverages Google results without giving them any info. Same reason I went with Proton Mail/Calendar, EU laws.
Nothing else than GrapheneOS on a Google Device. I have used it for years on my Pixel 4a. This year on my Pixel 7a the first thing ive done was installing GrapheneOS and is great
No alternative to Android Auto but for maps u can use OsmAnd+, Organic Maps or Magic Earth
This is something i may eventually try as i also have a Pixel 7a. I’m not sure how it will work with my car since it use android? or alternatively apple car play. I have no experience with GrapheneOS.
Also faced issue with XP Pen Tablet. Seemed to be caused by xp-pen-tablet software we installed. Turns out, the tablet works out of the box without extra driver
idk what automaps is but i’ve been using organic maps, i really like it’s offline capabilities, but it’s not as data dense as google maps unfortunately
Brave is disliked because it blocks ads only to display it’s own (lol, that alone is bad enough for me), has in the past been caught doing shit like injecting affiliate links (this by itself is also bad enough for me to swear off it forever).
Seems like they also sell search data for ai training from brave search (maybe i’ll have to look harder for alternatives but all search has shit like this like i said), i considered startpage too but it’s just a middleman for google search, which means it has all the problems associated with google search (censorship and political agenda pushing shit), it’s just minus the privacy issues. I’d prefer a search engine that doesn’t spoonfeed me propaganda (at least not on purpose).
It’s a good browser at it’s core, but it’s managed by a shady 100% for-profit entity with no qualms about stabbing you in the back, they can’t be trusted imo, it’s all very corporate, and whole thing just reeks of con artist shenanigans, has from day 1.
Those are all very valid points, thanks for the detail. I’m trying pretty hard to avoid the AI data vacuum atm. I like to keep my work/cell/home browser the same but had issues with Firefox/Vivaldi that I did not with Brave at work. Fox/Viv were having me sign-in every launch whereas Brave I never had to. Which is probably sus on Brave’s part but I can’t figure out what switch it is to make Fox/Viv behave the same.
Welcome @wizbeans
I am sure you will enjoy the amazing EndeavourOS and above all the community here.
I am not saying this because I am on EndeavourOS for about 3 years now, but I distrohopped like crazy and found that it is absolutely the best distro and most friendly community.
i will probably stick with android auto, at least its sandboxed