Ask Lemmy

You'd literally be trading one horribly invasive service that's free for an equally invasive service you'd have to pay for. That's not the droid you're looking for, check out some FOSS alternatives, there's a few out there.

A few things:

Privacy-wise, no, neither one of those Microsoft services are good alternatives to Google. Microsoft is just another flavor of an enormous corporation milking your personal information for profit. If that's your number one concern and decision maker, then stop here and consider something else. I don't think there's anything as polished as Google drive, but some actually private services are pretty good. Proton Drive is usually the most recommended. I use filen.io, it is very cheap, encrypted and works pretty well. Skiff Drive is also very good, they don't have as many options for drive space but they have a suite with email, calendar, drive storage and documents (not like Office mind you, a more simple kind, like formatted notes), all encrypted. If you want something that allows collaboration and is well integrated skiff is probably the best option.

Now if you don't want the highest privacy but just something that isn't google, well I have used OneDrive and it has never worked well for me. The short period of time that I decided to use it on windows it broke constantly, I had to log out and in a few times because out of nowhere it stopped working. It didn't delete files or resynced files that I had deleted in some other device. Maybe those issues have been fixed since, I don't know. But even if we completely ignored the privacy aspect, I would not recommend OneDrive to anyone.

Maybe the biggest issue is the office suite. If you need the advanced features of Microsoft Office, there's simply nothing that can replace it. If you don't, then a local alternative may work for you, like LibreOffice or Onlyoffice. You can also use office online, it's simple but it is maybe the second best option after full desktop office. But again, you are relying on OneDrive even a little. What I do when I need it is I download the file I need to work from my filen drive, upload it to office online, work with it, download when I'm done and move it to my cloud. It's a bit cumbersome but I've never had any problems. But mostly I use Onlyoffice on my desktop.

None of the private alternatives are as easy and comfortable as Google or even Microsoft services, that's for sure, so whatever route you end up following make sure to try first so that you can see what to expect and what is the best for you.

In the road to privacy I've found that being an absolutist of the 'ditch everything right now and move to Foss' kind is not a sustainable way for most people and only leads to them going back to the old ways. Small careful steps one at the time is an option that almost anyone can get used to and work long term.

I recommend you to check privacyguides.org for more explanations and good alternatives.

Thanks for the long read and good luck.

I think functionality wise both are equally as good as each other, but I doubt M365 is any better privacy wise. In the end they will harvest your data anyway. Microsoft is no better than Google. Personally, I'd go with a Nextcloud which also comes with a free and open source replacement for Google Docs.

If you want to be sure about data privacy, you need to avoid anything cloud based, and go with something open source.

If you still want a commercial cloud product. Apple iCloud is probably the best choice. I doubt they as good at privacy as their marketing claims. But they at least attempt to be the most consumer privacy focused offering.

You should check out Proton. They have a whole suite of private services that are encrypted. https://proton.me/

I would recommend Nextcloud. You can either self host or there are some providers who will host it for you (either free plan or paid)

I’m big on data privacy

OneDrive and M365 Personal paid subscriptions

you are trading one US megacorp for another megacorp both with abhorrent data collection schemes.

Google TOS https://tosdr.org/en/service/217

MS TOS https://tosdr.org/en/service/244

if you truly want something without data harvesting you should look into [email protected]

Another vote for Nextcloud which I self host but paid plans are available. I use Libre Office on PC. Docs synced to Nextcloud can then be viewed/edited on Android using Collabora

MS has their privacy policy listed. You can read it and decide if it’s acceptable.

I use a Synology NAS for the type of services you’re talking about. Their apps have some quirks but for the most part work. It costs me about the same as an m365 subscription to pay for a backup service, which if you think about it you should be backing up your m365 data too.

If you have a place to keep a NAS powered and don’t mind managing your own hardware then it’s a decent option.

You might like the skiff suite https://skiff.com/ it’s end to end encrypted, real time collaborative, open source, and it has drive, docs, and email

OneDrive is among the most unreliable pieces of software I've ever seen.

It behaves erratic and unpredictably. Its credential manager resembles a blind monkey with Down syndrome that snorts coke to wake up. Webclient is slow, with UI resembling times of Netscape Navigator.

tl;dr: I'd rather put all files on a thumbdrive and travel to wherever they are needed, than rely on Onedrive.

As for M365 - plenty of good applications there. Using them daily.

look up owncloud if you're truly serious. you can set up your own personal storage with a rpi and spare hard drive that's 100% free of corporate greed and spying. you can also use the chance to set up a personal email server.

it takes work and money, but that's the price you pay if you're protective of your data.

That's the same thing dude, zero difference.

If you want to keep using those cloud services, maybe use https://cryptomator.org/, which encrypts all your files in your cloud folder (and you mount the folder locally to decrypt). That way you can use the sync service, but keep the content of your files private.

If you want to get away from cloud services, you could host your own file sync. For example with Seafile. But for that you need to rent at least a virtual server and throw some money in (also spend an hour or two setting it up).

Thank you for all the great suggestions and discussion! I feel that MS is more trust worth then google, but yes, they're still a mega corp. I also think paying for a service/product generally reducings the amount of data mining being done, IE, if it's free, you're the product.

I do have a NAS at home, but was worried about running a home solution that may be troublesome to access when out and about.

I'll check into Skiff, or Filen, those seem like good alternatives to OneDrive and M365.

Nextcloud coupled with the Collabora (CODE) application suite.