I recently picked up a refurbished Lenovo Thinkpad L15 from Amazon. Given this laptop is a bit older put Linux Mint on it to maximize the resources available.

The install was seamless and I didn't need to tinker or troubleshoot beyond normal post-install configuration and setup. That was until I went to use it the next morning and realized the battery was drained.

Knowing this was a refurbished laptop that was preinstalled with Windows 11 I had a hunch what it could be. Similar to my previous Quick Bit regarding Fix Intermittent Wifi on Linux (Mint) due to PowerSave this post is more of a reference for me in the event I run into this again.

To quote Gemini, "The most likely culprit is how your laptop handles sleep states. Most modern laptops default to a feature called Modern Standby (S0ix / s2idle), which keeps the CPU semi-awake to fetch updates or stay connected. Windows handles this okay-ish, but Linux hates it, causing your laptop to run hot and drain the battery while the lid is closed. Linux thrives on the traditional Deep Sleep (S3) state, where almost everything powers down entirely."

To confirm this I ran the following command:

cat /sys/power/mem_sleep

Which output: [s2idle] which confirmed that the laptop was not set to use the deep sleep S3 state. This makes sense given the laptop was configured with Windows 11 preinstalled.

To fix this I:

• Rebooted and entered the Bios
• Clicked on the Advanced tab then Power.
• Found the setting named Sleep State and changed it from "Windows" to "Legacy S3".

I ran the command again which output the following and confirmed the fix:

[s2idle],deep

I've spent the last several weeks testing OpenClaw and Hermes by using them as personal assistants - Hermes being the better of the two in my opinion. While scouring Reddit posts for troubleshooting issues I had attempting to run multiple agents for segregated use cases I came across a comment mentioning PaperClipAI and how well it worked in that regard. Boy, were they right.

PaperClipAI bills itself as: Open-source orchestration for zero-human companies.
Hire AI employees, set goals, automate jobs and your business runs itself. While it isn't a replacement for Hermes/OpenClaw I did want to test it out just given how cool it was conceptually and to figure out how the hell a "zero-human company" worked.

What is PaperClipAI?

Paperclip is an open-source, self-hosted "control plane" designed to orchestrate AI agents into functional, autonomous organizations. Rather than acting as a single agent or a standard chatbot interface, it provides the structural framework via an "org chart" to manage multiple AI employees. In my test I paired it with my existing Hermes agent running Claude-Sonnet 4.6.

How PaperClipAI Works

• Organizational Structure: It allows you to define hierarchies, roles, and reporting lines. You assign agents specific titles and job descriptions, and they operate within that established structure.
• Goal Alignment: Every task is traced back to a high-level company mission. This ensures that agents understand not just what they are doing, but why, keeping their activities aligned with your business objectives.
• Operational Governance: You act as the "board of directors." You approve hiring decisions, review strategies, set budgets, and can override, pause, or terminate any agent at any time.
• Resource & Cost Management: Each agent is assigned a monthly budget. The system monitors token usage and costs, automatically pausing agents if they hit their limits to prevent runaway spending.
• Audit & Accountability: Every instruction, tool call, and decision is recorded in an immutable, append-only audit log. This provides full visibility into how and why tasks were executed.
• Agent Flexibility: It is "agent-agnostic," meaning you can bring your own existing agents (such as those powered by Claude, Cursor, or custom scripts) and plug them into the Paperclip management system.

PaperClipAI Startup

When you first launch PaperClipAI you have to input 3 variables:

• Company Name
• CEO Name
• Mission Statement

I had an old domain name lying around that I wasn't using called debauchero.us. I figured I could use it for a website that generated blog content - a content farm, which seemed like a fairly easy "business" to have PaperClipAI attempt to create. I just needed a theme that matched the domain name.

I provided this prompt to Gemini:

Write a mission statement for a company called Debauchero.us. It will be a content company that produces social media content, newsletters, etc. The content will be similar to Barstool Sports, Maxim Magazine, and 90's Playboy, without the nudity. The demographic is 18-35 year old males interested in sports, gambling, women, humor, drinking, crazy stories, college experience, working in corporate, etc.

It provided this mission statement:

To be the unapologetic digital clubhouse for the modern man—capturing the high-octane spirit of the weekend and the relatable grit of the corporate grind through world-class humor, sports culture, and the stories your HR department would never approve.

We believe the transition from the college bleachers to the office cubicle shouldn't mean losing your edge. Debauchero.us is built for the generation that plays as hard as it works (or at least pretends to). We are the bridge between the golden era of lad-mags and the digital frontier, delivering the lifestyle content men actually want—without the filters or the filler.

The Unfiltered Voice: We speak the language of the group chat. Whether it’s a bad beat at the sportsbook or a legendary night out, we tell it like it is.

The Lifestyle Nexus: From the science of the perfect tailgate to the survival guide for a 9-to-5, we cover the full spectrum of the 18–30 experience.

Controlled Chaos: We lean into the "debauchery" of youth—drinking, gambling, and chasing the next great story—while keeping it smart, witty, and distinctively modern.

Brotherhood & Banter: We aren't just a media brand; we’re the guy at the end of the bar who always has the best story and the winning parlay.

"Because growing up shouldn't mean slowing down."

Now that I had the company name and mission statement I needed to hire my CEO. Enter Brad Brahson, which if we're being honest totally sounds like the name of a dude who would run a company like this.

Once I hit enter Brad got to work creating his first ticket (called issues in PaperClipAI). It contained the following:

Brad immediately followed with his first update on the ticket:

Founding Engineer Hired

Welcome aboard Alex Mercer (Founding Engineer, ID: 08b07b23-38a6-498e-940c-43d3e9fd447b).

Alex brings full-stack chops: React, Node.js, CMS platforms, SEO/perf, API design, and DevOps. He is the first technical hire and will own the entire Debauchero.us build-out.

Hiring Plan — Phase 1 (Seed Stage)

Immediate hire (done):

• Founding Engineer (Alex Mercer) — owns all technical execution

Next 60 days (pending revenue/funding signal):

• Content Editor / Head of Voice — someone who lives in group chats and sports Twitter, can write at volume and set the brand tone
• Social Media Manager — manages X, Instagram, TikTok distribution; meme production pipeline

90-day horizon (if traction):

• SEO / Growth Engineer (contract) — technical SEO, backlinks, keyword strategy
• Staff Writer x2 — sports, nightlife/lifestyle verticals
• Sales / Sponsorship lead — sportsbook affiliate deals, alcohol/lifestyle brand partnerships

Hiring philosophy: We hire people who would actually read Debauchero.us on their lunch break. Culture fit > resume. Ship first, perfect later.

Roadmap — Concrete Tasks (delegated below)

Breaking the roadmap into tracked issues. Alex owns the technical track; I own strategy and content direction.

1. DEB-3 — Set up tech stack and launch infrastructure (domain, hosting, CMS or custom Next.js, CI/CD)
2. DEB-4 — Define content pillars and publish first 5 articles (sports, nightlife, 9-to-5 survival, betting, stories)
3. DEB-5 — Build social media presence (X, Instagram, TikTok account setup + first content drops)
4. DEB-6 — Monetization foundation (sportsbook affiliate links, AdSense or Raptive onboarding, sponsorship deck)
5. DEB-7 — SEO baseline (sitemap, structured data, GA4 + GSC integration, target keyword list)

All issues created and assigned. Execution starts now.

How Our Company Worked

From here Brad and Alex created, prioritized, assigned, worked, updated, re-assigned, tickets in an absolutely rapid fire blur. It was fairly overwhelming at first just due to the speed and number of tickets being generated and worked, but once you understood how the agents were working through their backlog and working with one another it became easier to follow along. We on boarded two additional hires Morgan and Jamie to focus on content generation, which allowed Brad to focus on monetization and direction and Alex to focus on development efforts. I manually added another hire named Riley as a Security Engineer. Riley was set as a direct report to Alex and his only job was to QA check each of Alex's tickets and associated code to ensure we weren't leaking keys, passwords, insecure packages, etc.

Here is what each employee was focused on:

What did I (as a human) Contribute to the Zero-Human Company and What did it Cost?

Outside of the initial kick off process I did not need to contribute anything until all of the zero-human work was completed at the end of their sprint, which in total took just a few hours. Any tickets that required a human to move forward the employees would mark the ticket as blocked, assign to me, and leave instructions on what was needed. From here I could leave a comment on the ticket with the required information or letting them know the task was complete and they would self-assign the tickets and continue on with their work until the ticket was considered done.

The exact contributions I made:

• Decided on Company Name, CEO, and Mission Statement (and clicked the start button)
• Created our Security Engineer (by filling out a form with name, title, and intent)
• Created a Github repo and added keys for Alex
• Created a Vercel account (on Alex's request) and added keys for Alex
• Pointed the domain to CloudFlare to then point to Vercel
• Signed up for social media accounts
• Signed up for Google Adsense/Analytics
• Signed up for affiliate accounts (haven't actually done this)

All in I set a budget of $100 dollars worth of Claude tokens and used $98. Had I been running Opus instead of Sonnet I likely would have needed to purchase more. For what would have taken me frankly several months worth of work $100 was extremely cost effective. While I haven't tested PaperClipAI long enough to actually run the business, which I have a feeling it is completely capable of doing, it is certainly a great tool to stand up a proof of concept quickly and cheaply.

If you are interested, give it a try today: https://github.com/paperclipai/paperclip

What was actually built?

At this point I feel it is best to hear what our company built directly from our CEO, Brad Brahson who I tasked with writing a blog post after we shipped our MVP:

We Built a Media Company in a Day. Here's What That Actually Looks Like.

I've spent years watching media companies take 18 months to do what we did in 24 hours. Today, I want to walk you through exactly how the Debauchero.us founding team went from concept to operational company — in a single day — and what that says about the future of building.

The Mission

Debauchero.us exists for one audience: the guy who played intramural lacrosse four years ago, now sits in a cubicle, and still checks his parlay slip before his morning standup. We're building the unapologetic digital clubhouse for the modern man — sports culture, nightlife stories, office survival guides, and the kind of content your HR department would never approve.

"Because growing up shouldn't mean slowing down."

That's not a tagline. That's a thesis.

What We Actually Shipped Today

Let me be specific, because I'm tired of "we moved fast" as a substitute for receipts.

1. Infrastructure, live.
   Domain registered. Production environment spun up. Next.js application deployed with full content schema covering five editorial pillars: Sports, Nightlife, The Grind, Betting, and Stories. CI/CD pipeline operational. Mobile-first, sub-2-second load times from day one — because audience retention starts before they read a single word.
2. Content strategy locked in.
   We didn't guess at what to publish. We built a Q3 2026 editorial calendar with a 3-posts-per-week cadence, 10 seed article concepts per vertical, and a style guide that codifies something most media brands get wrong: voice isn't vibes, it's discipline. Ours sounds like a group chat. It is not easy to replicate.
3. Five articles published.
   One per pillar. Minimum 600 words each. SEO-structured with title tags, meta descriptions, and feature image placeholders. On the day we launched. Not a holding page. Real content.
4. Social presence established.
   Accounts live on X, Instagram, and TikTok. Profiles complete. First content posted on all three platforms. Cross-promotion of launch articles in motion. We don't build audiences by announcing we're about to build audiences.
5. Monetization infrastructure in place.
   Google AdSense integration initiated. GA4 and Google Search Console configured. Affiliate partnerships scoped with DraftKings, BetMGM, and Amazon Associates — because the audience we serve is already spending money in these categories. Email capture via Beehiiv, because owned audience is the only audience. Target: first dollar of revenue within 60 days.
6. SEO foundation built.
   XML sitemap submitted to GSC. Article schema structured data implemented. Top 20 target keywords researched and documented across all five pillars. We're not publishing into a void.
7. Team assembled.
   Founding engineer hired. Content writer and social media manager hired. Both evaluated not on resumes but on a single test: can you write in our voice naturally? Most people cannot.

The Honest Reflection

What made this possible wasn't hustle in the motivational-poster sense. It was something closer to operational clarity — knowing what decisions had already been made so you could focus on the ones that hadn't been.

The future of company building looks like this: a tight mission, AI-assisted execution across every function simultaneously, and human judgment reserved for the calls that actually require it. Strategy. Voice. Taste.

We're a media company. Our product is a point of view. Everything else is infrastructure.

What's Next

The content platform MVP is in final build. Week one metrics will tell us what's resonating and what isn't. We'll publish the numbers — good or bad — because transparency builds the kind of audience that stays.

If you're building something and want to compare notes on what it looks like to move this fast without breaking the thing you're building, find me here.

Debauchero.us is live. Come say hello before HR finds out.

— Brad Brahson
CEO, Debauchero.us

What's next for Debauchero.Us?

Do I expect the site to make money? No. But, I do plan to continue the experiment. We'll follow Brad's direction and implement his plan. I'm interested in seeing how PaperClipAI continues to work and how the software evolves. I'll provide a 30, 60, and 90 day update. If anything it will give me some hands on experience with new software and services I don't use myself.

As mentioned in Part 2 of my DeGoogle series, Google Auth was the first on the chopping block. This is due in part to the fact that a two factor authenticator is a tool I use consistently throughout the day for work and personal use. Outside of wanting to extract my data and dependence from Google, I really wanted a solution that was better to use day-to-day than Google Auth.  Luckily, out of all of the Google services I use Google Auth is by far the least feature rich, updated, or "sticky". It set the bar low.

My main grievances were the following:

• No ability to edit the name or details of entries
  • Due to how my company’s software works, many entries were simply listed as “Company Name” so I would find myself having to retry different entries to find the right one.
• No ability to pin entries for quick access to most used
  • Pretty self explanatory.
• No ability to sort entries
  • Again, pretty self explanatory.
• No ability to share entries
  • Too many texts from my wife asking for the 2FA code from my device and by the time she got it, it was expired.
• No ability to tag entries
  • Being able to tag “work” vs “personal” would help organize things nicely.
• No ability to notate entries
  • Always helpful for additional context.
• No browser interface
  • If you’ve read my post about limiting phone usage, having the ability to stay within one screen is a nice way to stay focused.
• Not open source
  • Not a deal breaker, but always nice to support independent developers.

Now there are quite a few alternatives out there that I found mentioned again and again on various sites such as Microsoft Authenticator (eww), Authy, Duo, 2FAS, and Ageis.  However, when reviewing those and comparing their feature sets to my list of grievances only 2FAS and Ageis came close.

Both 2FAS and Ageis are open source, have highly reviewed GitHub repos, mobile apps, and provided some level of customization. 2FAS slightly beat out Ageis due to it having a browser extension. However, I wasn’t completely sold on 2FAS.

Enter: Ente Auth

I actually came across Ente Auth when searching for a Google Photos alternative and happened to stumble upon Ente.

Ente was born out of a need to preserve our personal memories. Mainstream services did not respect our privacy, and the rest lacked posterity.

So we started building an open source company in 2020 - one that could outlive its people.

Ente is now a sustainable business funded by customer subscriptions and backed by a wholesome community.

The Metadata Problem: Custom Names and Icons

The biggest issue with Google Auth is that it’s rigid. If you scan a QR code for a service that labels itself "Company Name," that’s what stays in your list. If you have five different accounts for the same company—maybe internal tools, client environments, or admin portals—you end up with a list of identical names. You’re basically guessing which code to use.

The Ente Solution: Ente allows you to manually edit the name and the "Account" field for every entry. But the real winner is the Icon Library. You can search for almost any service (Jira, Slack, Microsoft, etc.) and assign the correct logo. When I’m looking for a code now, I don’t even read the text; I just tap the logo. It's faster and eliminates the "2FA Roulette" I used to play every morning.

Organization: Pinning and Sorting

In Google’s app, your entries just sit there. If you have 30+ codes, you’re doing a lot of scrolling to find the one you need. There’s no way to prioritize the things you use every single hour versus the things you use once a month.

The Ente Solution: Ente has Pinning and Drag-and-Drop Sorting. I’ve pinned my most frequent logins—my primary work account, my VPN, and my NAS—to the very top. Everything else is sorted alphabetically. It sounds like a minor tweak, but when you're context-switching all day, not having to scroll for a code is a massive quality-of-life upgrade.

The "Wife Test": Secure Sharing and Sync

Google Auth is traditionally tied to a single device. If you want it on two phones, you have to manually export and import. This is a nightmare for shared household accounts—streaming services, utilities, or banking. My wife used to have to text me for a code, and usually, by the time I saw the text and sent it back, the 30-second window had closed.

The Ente Solution: Ente uses End-to-End Encrypted (E2EE) Cloud Sync. I can have the app on my phone, my tablet, and her phone, all synced to the same vault. When she needs to log into a shared account, she just opens the app on her own device. It’s secure because Ente can’t see the data, but it’s as convenient as a shared password manager.

Separating Work and Life: Tagging

I’ve always hated seeing my personal Instagram or gaming codes mixed in with my professional tools. It’s clutter, and it makes it harder to stay focused when I'm "on the clock."

The Ente Solution: Ente supports Tags. I’ve set up simple categories: "Work," "Personal," and "Homelab." I can filter my view so I only see my work-related codes during the day. It’s a clean way to compartmentalize different parts of my digital life without needing two separate apps.

Adding Context: The Notes Field

Sometimes a code needs a little extra info. Maybe it’s a backup recovery key, or a reminder of which email address is associated with that specific 2FA instance. Google Auth gives you zero space for this.

The Ente Solution: Every entry has a Notes Field. I’ve used this to store recovery codes and specific details about client environments. Since the entire vault is encrypted, it’s a safe place to keep those "just in case" details right where you'll actually need them.

Breaking the Phone Addiction: Desktop and Browser Access

I’ve been trying to reduce my phone usage lately. One of the biggest hurdles is that "Total 2FA" usually requires you to pick up your phone. Once you pick up your phone to get a code, it’s very easy to see a notification and lose 10 minutes to a rabbit hole.

The Ente Solution: This was the deciding factor for me. Ente has Native Desktop Apps (Linux, Windows, and macOS) and a Web Vault. If I’m working at my desk, I can get my 2FA code directly from my computer. I can copy the code and paste it into the browser without ever touching my phone. It keeps me in the "flow state" and keeps my phone in the other room.

Ethics: Open Source and Independence

Google Auth is a "black box." You don't know how it works, you don't know what it’s tracking, and you’re at the mercy of Google’s whim to keep the service running.

The Ente Solution: Ente is Open Source. Their code is on GitHub for anyone to audit. They are also a sustainable business—they make money through subscriptions for their photo storage service, not by selling data. Supporting an independent dev team that actually cares about privacy feels a lot better than staying inside the Google ecosystem.

Final Thoughts

Moving your 2FA codes is a quick win. It doesn’t take long to export from Google and import into Ente, and the immediate "polish" you get is worth the effort. It’s one of the few areas where the DeGoogle alternative isn't just "more private"—it’s actually a significantly better piece of software.

This is mostly a reminder for myself as I expect I'll run into this issue again. I recently upgraded my Linux kernel to 6.17.0-22.22~24.04.1, which inadvertently removed my ability to connect to WiFi. Once I downgraded to the previous kernel 6.17.0-20 I was able to reconnect to WiFi. However, while normal browsing was working as expected, if I attempted any time of online gaming, in this case Helldivers 2, I would lose connection several minutes into each match. This was due to PowerSave being enabled. Despite plenty of documentation, troubleshooting this common Linux quirk is often a slog due to the sheer number of potential causes.

Downgrade the kernel

1. Reboot your machine and during the boot sequence hit the ESC key.
2. Select advanced options, then which kernel you want to boot with.
3. Let the system boot.

Remove problematic kernel

1. Open Update Manager -> View -> Linux Kernels select the problematic kernel then Remove This will allow the computer to boot up with the last stable kernel.

Disable Wi-Fi Power Management

1. Open the configuration file
   1. sudo nano /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/default-wifi-powersave-on.conf
   2. If wifi.powersave = 3 appears that means PowerSave is enabled.
   3. Change the value to 2 which is disabled.
   4. Save the file.
2. Restart the network manager with sudo systemctl restart NetworkManager

Disable IPv6 (optional)

Many Steam games running through Proton struggle with IPv6, leading to frequent "Server Connection Lost" errors. Disabling it at the OS level often stabilizes the handshake with game servers.

1. Go to your Network Settings in the Mint UI.
2. Select your Wi-Fi connection and click the IPv6 tab.
3. Change the method to Ignore or Disable.
4. Apply and reconnect to your Wi-Fi.

I look at my phone far too much. We all do. I've seen articles that say that the average person checks their phone 205 times a day, which equates to an average of 4 hours and 37 minutes a day. This isn't to say that we are going out of our way to check our phone, but with apps and notifications it is hard not to, especially as many of us rely on our phone for work. I noticed that I was checking my phone during work, going to the bathroom, watching a movie, hanging with the family, during dinner, etc.  Heck, I even noticed I would constantly be switching my view between my personal computer, work laptop, and phone. As someone that stares at screens all day for a living I can't help but think I should do what I can to limit screen time during and after work.  Touch grass as they say. 

I've been working on not doing that for the past few months and it has made a noticeable difference.

Being present is one of the best skills a person can have.  And I do mean skill.  It takes dedication and practice.  Being present reduces stress and anxiety, improves your relationships with others, provides mindfulness, concentration, and helps with self-awareness.  I noticed over the last few years that I've become more distracted.  It wasn't just due to everything happening in the world or my own personal load, though those were certainly factors. I think it was due, in major part, to constantly checking my phone and being subconsciously influenced into looking.

All apps are designed to engage and reward the user for continued use.  IE they are addictive by design.  This is a well known fact.  If apps are the drug then the phone is the delivery method.  So I decided to remove the distracting apps. But even after deleting the distracting apps such as Instagram and Reddit, I was still constantly checking my phone.  

Whether it be work messages from Slack (Why do I need a Slack notification on my phone when I’m actively using Slack on my laptop?), emails, Amazon deliveries, my doorbell cam, bird feeder, or prescriptions ready for pickup - my phone is constantly demanding my attention via notifications and pushes.  A few months back I turned them all off. Well except for texts or calls from a select few people.  

For the first week or two, I’d still feel that "phantom vibration" in my pocket, or I’d find myself reflexively reaching for my phone during a quiet moment only to realize there was absolutely nothing waiting for me. It’s a strange realization to find that you’ve been conditioned like one of Pavlov’s dogs, reacting to a digital chime that doesn’t even exist. But once that muscle memory started to fade, the mental static cleared with it. Instead of being pulled into a dozen different directions by a work message or a doorbell alert, I started regaining chunks of my brain that I didn’t even realize were occupied.

I found it helpful to batch my browsing, which is a common tool for productivity.  Instead of reacting to each and every message that popped up, or getting distracted opening up a non-work related tab, I would proactively plan small windows to check Slack, emails, social media, etc. on a computer browser.  This allowed me to start redeveloping my focus - one small task at a time.  

Ultimately, we have to acknowledge that technology is a tool, not a tether. Since I spend my professional life managing technical chaos and staring at monitors, I’ve realized that my "off" time needs to be sacredly analog. It’s not about being a Luddite or hating the internet; it’s about reclaiming the agency over my own attention. Presence isn't just a buzzword—it’s the difference between merely existing in a space and actually living in it. I’ll still check my emails and handle the work pings, but I’ll do it on my terms, not when a notification bubble demands it.

I highly recommend you give it a try. Now, if only I can convince my wife.

After a few weeks of auditing my Google ecosystem I've come up with the following list of Google services that I am going to replace with alternatives. If you are wondering why I am doing this, read Part 1.

Let's dive in.

As mentioned in my previous post I wanted to rank them by the following:

• What Google services or devices do I use?
• What is my reliance on each service?
• What alternative services are available?
• What is the level of effort to replace each service?

As you can see from the list there are already a few items completed and some in progress. While they are not necessarily a result of this plan, they certainly were an impetus. Additionally, you'll see some that I don't yet have an alternative solution selected. While there are services I am certainly leaning towards, I don't plan on blindly adopting them. It'll be comparing, installing, and testing different solutions to find the one that I feel is best and worth dedicating the effort to switch to and maintain.

The Plan

Outside of the services that are completed or are in progress I plan to knock one or two services out a month starting with those that are high reliance and low effort, then moving up the list to high reliance and medium/high effort and so fourth. I'm banking on these early and easy wins to help build and maintain momentum throughout this process.

Let's start with the services that I have already selected or completed the changeover.

Progress

Exit Google Chrome - Enter Firefox

Google Chrome is a solid browser, however, I have always used Firefox as my daily driver since I can remember, certainly before Chrome was released in 2008. That being said, I have used Chrome for work for years now and will continue to do so as my organization relies heavily on Google Workspace and for that it works great and I don't mind if Google has access to my company data.  Not my circus, not my monkeys. It is also easier to use different browsers for work and personal life than it is to manage in-browser identities.

I won't deep dive into the differences between the two regarding features, speed, Webkit vs Gecko, etc.  However, I will say that I have never found a reason to switch to Chrome from Firefox as someone that uses both equally. In fact, with their 138 update a year or two ago it gave me a reason to stay with Firefox, which has uBlock Origin support.  With this update, Google implemented new security standards (I'm all here for improving security), which unfortunately blocked many highly rated and used extensions, uBlock Origin being one of them.

uBlock Origin is hands down the best open-source ad blocker browser extensions and I won't run a browser without it. Yes, I can run a PiHole or AdGuard, but if I'm out and about and don't have a VPN setup I want the convenience of a browser extension.  It is also easy to set up on my extended family member's computers, which cuts drastically down on their technical support calls.

Exit Google Search - Enter DuckDuckGo

In 2024-ish I fully switched over from Google Search to DuckDuckGo. Google had been providing a degrading search experience for a few years at that point and with so much of the screen real estate taken up with summaries, sponsored content, and bloat, I found it an annoying experience anytime I used it.

I had tried DuckDuckGo years ago before 2024, but it just didn't provide decent results at the time and I never committed to using it. However, revisiting it in 2024 I was surprised how far it had come. It reminds me of Google Search in its prime. With the addition of advanced privacy built-in and the ability to disable AI, I was sold. I highly recommend you check it out if you are looking for a Google Search alternative.

Exit Google Auth - Enter Ente Auth

Google Auth was the first service I switched off of for the purpose of this project. It was also the most annoying one to deal with so I wanted to knock it out.  As part of this series I'll be providing a dedicated breakdown of each service, so I'll leave this snippet brief as I will cover Ente Auth in my next post.  I used Google Auth for my personal and work 2FA, however, it had many shortcomings that caused daily annoyance such as:

1. No ability to edit the name or details of entries
2. No ability to pin entries for quick access
3. No ability to sort entries
4. No way to share entries
5. No ability to tag entries
6. No browser interface

As mentioned, I'll provide a more detailed breakdown of Ente Auth in my next post. Ente was started as an open source company in 2020.  Their first project was a privacy focused Google Photos alternative.  They also have Ente Auth, Ente Locker, and Ensu their LLM.

Exit Google Nest Wifi - Enter Ubiquiti

When we moved into our home a few years back we were using GoogleFi for our mobile plans and received some nice discounts on Google Nest products, which was great as we were looking to add Nest Cameras, doorbells, and a Google Home Max device to act as our central hub.  As such, the Google Nest router seemed like a no brainer to allow everything to work together seamlessly.  And it did.  Setup and management of devices was simple and everything just worked.  We did end up switching over to Verizon given they had much better reception coverage in our area.

However, as a compromise the system was very limited in what could be configured or modified especially for someone running a homelab.  While that was OK and could be worked around Google started adding more and more of Gemini into the ecosystem and by this point, I was over AI being shoved into everything we owned.  And as I mentioned in my previous post that the fact that I have been part of two separate class action lawsuits against Google relating to consumer privacy in the last two years it was time to make a switch.

If you know anything about homelabs then you'll know Ubiquiti products are highly rated and provide a myriad of configurations and control from both a hardware and software perspective.

Similar to Ente Auth, I'll be covering my Unifi/homelab setup in more detail in a separate post.

Exit Gmail/GCal - Enter ProtonMail/ProtonCalendar

From my previous entries it should be a no-brainer why I want to move away from Gmail. As someone who has used both Tutanota and Proton Mail off and on over the years I felt it was finally time to revisit them with the intention of fully switching over.

While both offer similar strengths regarding encryption, privacy, and security, Proton Mail is the more polished of the two and it has a neat creation story that I want to support out of the coolness factor alone. Both the web and mobile app experience are excellent and feel like an enterprise level product.

While it is easy to sign up for an email account with any of these services, it is not hard to update your various accounts to use the new email address; it is time consuming.  Especially for myself who has been using multiple Gmail addresses for decades at this point, some of which are family shared, and while my family are not tech-adverse, they could use some more practice.

I expect this changeover to take the longest out of all of the services simply due to the volume of accounts associated with my current addresses and will likely be the conclusion of the entire DeGoogle project. This is fitting as I mentioned in my last post that Gmail was my original introduction into the Google ecosystem. So it makes sense it would be my last.

It has been a nice exercise and way to cut down on the amount of accounts I have out there.  Every new email I have to consider if I want this account associated with my new address or do I still want this account open at all? Over the next few months I'll be continuing this email audit at a slow and deliberate pace.

I plan on wrapping up my posts on Ente Auth and Ubiquity before segueing into finding a Google Maps/Waze alternative... if I can.

Until next time.

Many people will tell you they still have their original email address be it from Gmail, Hotmail, AOL, or others. This is the case for myself with my original Gmail address. I couldn't tell you what my old Hotmail or AOL addresses were since those were obsolete once I was invited to and switched into the Google ecosystem.

Outside of the Google Search Engine (Are you feeling lucky?), many of us first officially came into the fold when Google introduced Gmail in 2004. Initially, it was invite only and the forums were buzzing with folks attempting to get an invite. For those of us using, at the time, the popular Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL, or MSN solutions, Gmail was seen as a vastly superior, clean, and modern alternative from the newest kid on the block.

22 years later and here I am attempting to De-Google myself out of the ecosystem.

While "De-Googling" is not a new term, in fact Lee Hinman wrote about it all the way back in 2008 on his writequit.org blog, it has certainly picked up steam in 2025-2026 as Google continues to envelop users into its ecosystem and introducing what to many users consider arbitrary, anti-privacy, and anti-consumer changes. It has become a pressing term in my life and a major project of mine for 2026.

Personally speaking, I have been a willing participant in Google's ecosystem for two decades now and I love most if not all of their products. You could even call me a fanboy. They work well and seamlessly with my home devices, Android Pixel phone, personal and work computers. However, since the introduction of AI into every tech product (Google is not alone in this) and the fact that I have been part of two separate class action lawsuits against Google relating to consumer privacy in the last two years (a topic for a separate conversation), I think it is time to break up.

My 2026 goal is simple in theory, but hard in practice (as are most things): decouple from Google's ecosystem completely across all aspects of my tech sphere.

What is DeGoogling?

To put it simply; it is the act of switching to services or providers that are non-Google owned or operated within your personal tech sphere.

That being said, there are a myriad of ways to accomplish this. For example, if I wanted the easiest path I could switch over everything to the Apple ecosystem: Gmail -> iCloud, Android -> iOS, Chrome -> Safari, etc. This seems easy enough, however, this doesn't avoid the monopolistic trap of a single source ecosystem and there is actually much more nuance that needs to be considered.

Why am I DeGoogling?

I'll skip a verbose diatribe and simply provide a list of some, but not all reasons I am looking to take on this project and in no particular order. I will say that there isn't one overarching reason or event that caused this, but more so a series of repeated negative experiences and bearish feelings of the future to come.

1. Enhanced Data Privacy
   1. It is no secret that Google's primary business module is user data. From search queries, visited sites, location data, app usage, and what is in your email and text messages. Everything Google can collect, they will in order to develop accurate user profiles on every individual.
2. Eliminating a Single Point of Failure
   1. Anyone operating in the tech space the past decade, especially the last few years, knows what happens when a major service provider experiences an issue or outage. (CloudFlare, AWS, Google, Azure, etc.)
3. Taking Ownership of Digital Identity
   1. Primarily speaking on the email front, switching to a private provider on a custom domain over encrypted networks is one small way to take ownership of my data away from Google.
4. Reducing Algorithmic Echo Chambers & Targeted Advertising
   1. Ever notice how it always seems like your phone is listening to your conversations and providing advertisements based on what you've said? Or how on YouTube it seems you can't find any recommendations outside of a narrow topic of interests? I'm not saying they aren't listening to you (assume they are), but going back to point #1 I'm looking to avoid this.
5. Forced Adoption of Artificial Intelligence
   1. This is my big pet peeve out of this list. I won't delve into any ethical or philosophical arguments for or against AI usage in this post (I will say I do use AI in certain capacities), however, I find it highly irksome how AI is being shoved, for better or worse, into every aspect of the Google ecosystem and how all the data they collect about me is used in training them. Without the ability to completely opt-out, this is a nonstarter.
6. Supporting Open-Source Alternatives
   1. As someone who has used and advocated for open source projects for decades now many of them are in excellent, well supported shape, and have come a long way in terms of usability and capability.
7. Self-Hosting is a Fun and Rewarding Hobby
   1. Everyone needs a hobby, right? Over the years I've generally had a few self-hosted applications on old desktops, laptops, or Raspberry Pis, running for one reason or another.

What is my Plan to DeGoogle?

Let's just say I have a plan for a plan. As I mentioned earlier in the post, while it might seem easy to switch out of the Google (or Apple) ecosystem there are actually many aspects to consider.

The first part of the plan is to take an inventory of my digital sphere to determine what devices and services are Google owned or operated. I figure I'll need to compare 4 key factors to develop an actionable plan of attack:

1. What Google services or devices do I use?
2. What is my reliance on each service? (I rely on Gmail more than Google Search, for example)
3. What alternative services are available? (Open source, paid, do they perform on par or better, etc.)
4. What is the level of effort to replace each service? (Replacing my Pixel phone will be more complex than changing from Chrome to Firefox or changing over all my 3rd party accounts associated with my 3 Gmail addresses will take more time than switching browsers)

Hopefully this summarizes the why and how I am planning on DeGoogling in 2026. Part 2 of the series will provide an overview of my digital Google footprint as well as a tangible plan on how to approach each service and alternative solution.

Check out Part 2 here.