Getting out of Google Services

Being a netizen, its a long time ambition for me to be self sufficient to run the basic online services needed. Basic services for me on internet include:

• Mail
• Website / Blog
• Storage / Data Sync
• Contacts
• Calender
• IM

Earlier, these were distributed over multiple providers, but now mostly revolves around Google. GMail for Mail, Google Analytics in Websites, Google drive for cloud storage, again Google Contacts, GTalk/Hangouts, Google+, etc. So, its also an effort to get out of Google services with minimum effect on usability.

These are what I am planning to achieve in a month time.

Mail – Run a own mailserver using Dovecot/Postfix with IMAP/SMTP clients

Website / Blog – Self hosted Blog (Already running WordPress with Piwik for analytics)

Storage / Data Sync – ownCloud with Desktop and mobile Clients

Contacts – ownCloud with clients supporting CardDAV for mobile and PC

Calender – ownCloud with clients supporting CalDAV for mobile and PC

IM – XMPP server and client, supports communication with Gmail accounts

Some of these can be achieved by a shared hosting and the rest with a VPS/Virtual Server. For other google services like Search, Social Network and Mailing List, there are already alternatives. Will try to document each of the services separately.

Since I am using Debian in my Desktop/Laptop and Android on Mobile, some of the commands and tools will be specific to the platforms.

Tagged with: Analytics, Blog, CalDAV, Calender, CardDAV, Contacts, Dovecot, Gmail, ownCloud, Postfix, XMPP