maybe
last updated 0 minutes ago
this is partly a follow up to no, partly a reminder to myself to keep it pushing when it comes to migration off platforms i dislike AND am giving money to, and partly my second post in an impromptu writing month.
these are services i am trying out to replace/go low-use with other popular services that have myriad issues.
instead of spotify... qobuz
pros
- has most of the music i want (but i listen to a lot of pop, indie pop and indie so ymmv)
- easy to transfer playlists over
- not janky. i've never had issues with the app or desktop program in itself
- they make a lot of claims about sound quality; i am not enough of an audiophile to care but if you do, that's good!
cons
- some things are spotify exclusive it seems
- maybe a little expensive? but it does pay better for artists apparently so i don't mind paying it
- search and general discoverability could be better (they recently added song-based recommendation playlists/"radio" so that helps!)
- hard to find your mates' playlists
instead of gmail... tuta
pros
- secure and that
- was very smooth to transfer over but i am not afraid of DNS (should probably be more afraid lol)
- deliverability has seemed completely unaffected (fastmail had some issues for me)
cons
- had a long email chain that froze on me. i just broke it into new threads as it was a conversation, and it only seemed to happen on the mobile app, but the mobile app was unusable in that conversation.
- search can be slow and weirdly pernickety.
- less a criticism of tuta, but since i want to close the google account attached to this gmail account i need to make sure nothing relies on it, and at least one of the weird indie services i use is taking a while to respond to setting up a password so paying for both lol. it's fine, i'm fine.
instead of substack... buttondown
pros
- it's not like substack. a lot less overwhelming and what the hell do i do here.
- i really like the interface for writing.
- responsive team for help and questions.
- referrals (yeah that's a referral link lol)!!!
cons
- it's not like substack aka not free unless you have less than a hundred subscribers, and no built in discoverability mechanisms.
- costs money, but not a ton.
- no reader experience that lets you browse loads of newsletters on the platform.
instead of google... kagi
pros
- works well enough for research and normal searches
- AI summaries can be turned off
- fairly easy to set up everywhere
cons
- not great for shopping (fairly) and images/"meme where x y z happens"
- can't permanently turn off all AI
- costs money
outro
stuff like amazon i just often go without/spend way too long researching silk hair bonnets or whatever! which is not an option for everyone i know. none of this is a judgement on what you do, i know you're doing your best. i just feel like i want to try, and see if i can do what i want outside of the whims of our technofeudal overlords. so far it seems mostly yes, but it'll cost ya.
some of the services i was gonna highlight also had issues come up that have made me go off them, so that is annoying too. i don't believe purity is important but i also have red lines around some issues! i contain multitudes! i'm multifaceted!
i'm especially in the market for:
- a VPN that isn't mullvad or proton
- ideas about streaming and video hosting (though this feels like a pipe dream)
- discord alternatives that aren't matrix
- membership software that isn't patreon (more out of curiosity/financial caution given their huge cut)
- google docs replacement that isn't ellipsus (i have tried it on and off, and am eagerly awaiting an android app, but unsure)
have you changed your software habits at all? do you have suggestions for any of these? let me know!
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