DeGooglization

[CS1983]

Search:
startpage.com is the default search engine for firefox in Linux Mint 18.2

It seems to essentially mimic Google's results, though not always. It's also a proxy based engine, so if you want to link any pics you find it can be a pain since the url is obscured by the proxy. I often have to use Dogpile (yes, it still exists!) at work, because our filtering software will often peg Google results and not let me get to such dangerous things as Microsoft's KB pages.

Email? I don't know why people don't just pay for a domain name, at least for professional purposes, or buy an email account elsewhere. I never put my personal email on anything professional. If I was going to move away from a "free" email, I'd register an innocuous domain name, do the private fee, and make a "professional" sounding email and then personal would be something different. I'd then charge $1 to friends to have their email hosted there. If HR ever pulled their, "We found liberalsuck@domain.com saying some things on a website and he lives in Colorado Springs according to his profile... and you have name@domain.com; do you know anything about that?" I'd pull the old, "domain.com is an email hosting service which is a local business. I cannot control their other clients." and just Jesuitically weave from that punch by HR.

Video:

Dailymotion.com is a potential... results suck and are often weird.

Here's a list of alternatives:
https://www.thetoptens.com/best-alternatives-youtube/

Social Media:

Don't use it really. I have a few burner accounts for looking up things/people. LinkedIn is the only "production" Social Media I have.

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I'm planning my iPhone escape now. It will necessitate buying an actual digital camera since I'm going to go with a cricket brick phone. Email will not be viewed or answered unless I'm at a computer. Videos will be unwatched. Texts will be short and to the point because I'll have to click 3x as much to get a letter I want. It's going to be 1999 levels of awesome.