Wednesday, April 2, 2025

This is the thirteenth installment of West Wind, your daily drop of thoughts, ideas, and info for this Season.

I used to be a very big tech adopter when I was young. I wanted to be using the latest and greatest, and most of those late and great things came from Google. I tried to do everything I could with their products; Android phones, Gmail, Maps, Notes, Reader, the whole thing. I joked with my wife that I should get a Google tattoo, to show my undying loyalty. It was a good thing I didn't, too. I grew up and realized what was actually important in life, and Google ended up doing the same, changing from a fun, benevolent tech company to one that was motivated more by money than by goodness. So, we decided to move away from their services and products as much as possible. I wish that I could happily say that I don't use Google at all today, but unfortunately there are some things where the alternative is even worse. For everything else, though, there's Zoho.

Zoho is now my main software provider, and I use their apps for basic things like mail, calendar, and tasks, but also note-taking and organizing my worldbuilding, writing the manuscripts themselves, and even automation of my mailing list and website. I keep a now-monthly newsletter using their email marketing, and pretty much every time I need an app for something, I look to Zoho first.

That's not to say they're perfect, though. As a company they remind me a lot of myself, as they start lots of new projects that don't really go anywhere, or aren't really needed. A Zoho-themed browser and Outlook-style mail app? Not too useful. Vivaldi is the best browser out there, by far.

Not having a smartphone is only really inconvenient some of the time. Not using Google so actively is much the same.

I once got asked to leave a critique group because I wouldn't use Google Docs for my manuscripts, only Zoho. But doing the right thing is more important, in my opinion. We don't use Amazon, either, which will need to be another post. Until tomorrow.

Have you ever looked into alternatives to major apps and services?