I’m with you up until the use of all of this to discourage getting away from Google stuff. Just because Google is also involved in open source doesn’t mean that their other projects become more trustworthy, or that the safety of those open source projects should automatically come into question.

If Google pulls out of Gnome, it’d affect Gnome but it wouldn’t obliterate it. Likewise, somebody would probably take over some form of a hard fork of Chromium. But if Google drops support on something you’ve made an essential part of your workflow, you’re in trouble.

The point of getting away from Google as much as possible isn’t to exist in a world without Google, it’s to avoid having a single point of failure and to avoid putting literally all your data into the hands of a company that will use it however they can to profit. Half my duck duck go searches get a !g at the front, and Firefox or no, I’m still on an android phone, but that doesn’t mean I’m trying to hand them all my notes for work that isn’t finished yet so they can regurgitate its component parts. Train on my stuff all you want, but at least let me finish it first.

Google right now is like a bad relationship. It’s gotten completely wrapped up in our way of life to the point that it’s overly comfortable doing a half-assed or self-serving job and knowing most people won’t bother to shake things up looking for something better.

It’s probably best if we all get a little space from megacorps like Google, even if we don’t abandon the relationship entirely.