OSMF and GProduct alternatives

Story: OSMF: Apple is using OpenStreetMap maps Total Replies: 15
Author Content
vainrveenr

Mar 12, 2012
8:16 PM EDT 		For online maps, there is still the old standby, MapQuest, as well as Microsoft's newer and faster, but decidedly NON-open, Bing Maps.

For search engines, there are Startpage, ixquick, and DuckDuckGo.

For e-mail, many have found FastMail to be useful, among other good webmail providers.



Other good OSMF and GProduct alternatives ???
Khamul

Mar 12, 2012
9:26 PM EDT 		Sorry, but FastMail isn't comparable to Gmail. The free version has only a pathetic 25MB of storage space. Gmail has 7+GB IIRC. To get something comparable to that, FM will cost you $40/year. Gmail is free. You can argue about value all you want, but the two simply aren't comparable.
gus3

Mar 12, 2012
9:58 PM EDT 		Why are you leaving 7GB of your email accessible via web/POP3?

Why aren't you transferring it to offline storage before it gets that loaded down?
tracyanne

Mar 12, 2012
10:45 PM EDT 		Evolution is free and I get a TByte
mbaehrlxer

Mar 13, 2012
1:44 AM EDT 		gus3: because khamul wants to be able to search old mails? if i were using gmail i'd want all my mail there. i do occasionally want to search mails from years back. but even without that 25MB is nothing. 500MB would be more reasonable.

tracyanne: evolution does not have an smtp port to accept mail. still need a mail service to accept mail for you.

greetings, eMBee.
tracyanne

Mar 13, 2012
3:56 AM EDT 		@mbaehrlxer :;whispering: I know.
gus3

Mar 13, 2012
5:17 AM EDT 		@mbaehrlxer: How does leaving it on the server make it more searchable? Thunderbird and Seamonkey Mail have search functions, plus there's always trusty grep. I can search my 1.1GB of archives easily with grep and a little imagination.
mbaehrlxer

Mar 13, 2012
6:13 AM EDT 		gus3: it is more searchable because it is all in one place. your suggestion to move stuff to offline storage would split things in two: new stuff on the webclient and old stuff elsewhere. of course you could just always transfer mail to offline storage first and then process it there, but then why use a webmail service in the first place?

greetings, martin.
vainrveenr

Mar 13, 2012
6:49 AM EDT
Quoting:Sorry, but FastMail isn't comparable to Gmail. The free version has only a pathetic 25MB of storage space.


Clearly, this particular commentator is less interested in GProduct alternatives than are other end-users.

OTOH, those who may be completely unaffiliated with Google -- or the growing number of end-users who are unencumbered by any inflexible need to rely upon their products and services -- have previously expressed concerns about Google's recent privacy privacy changes. For such persons, it is immensely useful to know that more and more viable GProduct alternatives exist, such as FastMail, OSM, MapQuest, Startpage, ixquick, DuckDuckGo, ...etcetera. And it is immensely useful to know and to take advantage of these alternatives 1) even in their perceptually-deficient states and 2) despite the subtle efforts of those preventing others from becoming more aware of these alternatives.

AAMOF, a relevant and recent piece entitled 'Google and the speed of privacy change' linked to from LXer at http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/163419 expounds upon the expressed privacy concerns :
Quoting:A major privacy policy change, affecting over 70 different services, and dealing with the tracking of our online activity, was sprung on us in January, and enacted on 1st March. We had eight weeks at best to digest everything, and realise that there was no way we could opt out. It felt pretty much take it or leave it.

There, in one example, is just how fast a big firm can move if it wants to, although in this instance, Google may yet regret moving with such apparent haste. The European Union has already questioned the legality of what’s happened, and several other official bodies are believed to be poking their nose in, too. And rightly so.

The perception is that because so much of what Google does is free, that it’s open source, and that it should be bracketed in with something like the Linux kernel as a gift to us all. Common sense quickly tells you otherwise. Google’s advertising platform, bringing in tens of billions of dollars of revenue for the firm every year, is set to be a major beneficiary of the policy changes, especially now it can gleam data from lots of places, under the umbrella of one policy. From an end user’s point of view, it’s all much easier to understand, though. As, no doubt, will the targeted ads that suddenly are about to become yet more specific.

If you watched the final episode of Sherlock series two, broadcast earlier this year, you may recall the notion that the sleuth’s foe, Moriarty, chose to hide himself in plain sight. Google’s privacy changes have done the same thing. And rather than allow us to digest and debate them – which most users wouldn’t have done – they appear to have been driven in with the aid of a battering ram, and an ethos of we’re big, so we can do it. All wrapped up in reasonable language, of course.

Two things, then. If big companies want to do something fast, it’s fairly clear that they can. And more than ever, the transparency involved in pure open source has rarely been more important. Type that into Google and let them read it…


GProduct users alerted to these Google privacy practice concerns might do well to recall the related U.S. case from almost exactly a year ago, FTC Charges Deceptive Privacy Practices in Google's Rollout of Its Buzz Social Network

Also highly relevant here are the first three comments from the [currently] related LXer thread Why are companies defecting from Google Maps?. The first thread-link to the piece by the same name is certainly applicable here.

----

Again, all this could be most relevant primarily for those who may be completely unaffiliated with Google -- or for the growing number of end-users who are unencumbered by any inflexible need to rely upon their products and services....
mbaehrlxer

Mar 13, 2012
8:54 AM EDT 		for the record: i don't use gmail or any other google service that involves handing over private data. unfortunately avoiding google completely is not possible as i want to be involved in projects that happen to use google as a service.

so i am very interested in google alternatives. but suggesting fastmail is sort of like suggesting to walk if you don't like cars. i prefer to take a bus or train.

i haven't seen any real alternatives yet so it looks like i'll just have to continue building my own.

greetings, eMBee.
JaseP

Mar 13, 2012
10:30 AM EDT 		I do use Google services. And, I particularly do not mind ads being targeted to my tastes. I specifically do not mind them gleaning advertising data from my surfing habits, etc., as long as they keep the specific info in house and just serve up the ads to me when I browse the web. In fact, I'd rather see ads for things I'm interested in versus things I either don't care to see or could care less about. If that's how they pay the bills, in order to keep the services free, then GREAT! It's not as if a human being is going to be looking over my info. Rather, their internal data mining engines are going to build an advertising profile about me. The main thing is that if you are concerned with privacy, don't use their services, and/or encrypt your communications through them.

Google has, for the most part, played very nicely with open source. They have contributed quite a bit of code the the Linux kernel, as well as released a lot of their own code (Android, Chrome, etc.) under GPL and other open source licenses. I realize some consider them "Big Brother," but this is not 1984. Google tries to keep their pledge of not being evil, and even though they fall short sometimes, the fact that they even have a mantra like that is pretty refreshing for a corporation in the 21st century. For me, Google is not my enemy.
Fettoosh

Mar 13, 2012
11:01 AM EDT
Quoting:Google is not my enemy.


I agree with @JaseP, but if a good enough alternative is available, I will definitely use it.

In this day and age, even if we try hard to stay anonymous, those pesty ones will find the information they are looking for.
gus3

Mar 13, 2012
12:29 PM EDT 		@mbaehr: Then you're taking about the difference between current conversations and ones that have ended. And if that doesn't tell you where to look, well, you need to talk to someone about that.
caitlyn

Mar 13, 2012
2:51 PM EDT 		I do still use Google services, but I am gradually migrating off them.

The one exception is AdSense as I haven't found a better way to monetize a web page from day one.
tmx

Mar 14, 2012
1:41 PM EDT 		I still can't stop using Google, there are two services, Voice and Maps. Also their Android OS, but I generally prefer CyanogenMod.

Specifically for Voice, I use GrooVe IP for Android which allows making free call over WiFi or carrier's data network (in US and Canada). There is a similar app called Talkatone for iPhone. You can get incoming call by in Voice's setting set it to forward call through Google Chat.

There are too many alternatives for Google Maps, but the Maps app for Android + Navigation works well for direction. But there are some good alternative map apps on Android like MapDroyd, Waze. MapDroyd and Osmand lets you download offline map. I do like Nokia maps that was downloadable to the phone and I think that is what Microsoft implementing to their phones.

I know Linux Mint use DuckDuckGo as default, you can make it for Firefox. "about:config", search for "keyword", then change the url to https://duckduckgo.com/?q=
JaseP

Mar 15, 2012
1:48 PM EDT 		My key reason for being behind Google is the integration that so many are now kind of griping about. Eventually, their service will allow you to schedule, automatically go into navigation, notify people you need to notify, etc. all on the fly.

Of course, they'll be recommending places to eat while driving, stores to visit, etc. But, heck, you get bombarded on the radio and TV with that, billboards are all over, and they gotta make a buck... But I'm the type who barely listens to CDs or MP3s, as a opposed to the radio, so...

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