ingest: Wendy Cholbi (Wayback 20250129) + ezhosted (Wayback 20260520) - 5 pages, 2 raw articles

concepts/email-hosting.md

@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+---
+title: Email Hosting
+created: 2026-09-19
+updated: 2026-09-19
+type: concept
+tags: [kb, reference, workflow, homelab]
+sources: [raw/articles/moving-domain-email-away-from-google-workspace-2026-09-19.md]
+confidence: medium
+contested: false
+---
+
+# Email Hosting
+
+Hosting email for a custom domain (e.g. me@mydomain.com) can be done by various providers. Options when leaving Google Workspace include your web host, domain registrar, or dedicated paid services like Fastmail and ProtonMail.
+
+See [[Moving Domain Email Away from Google Workspace]] for the full migration guide.

concepts/how-to-break-up-with-google-a-practical-step-by-step-migration-guide.md

@@ -0,0 +1,491 @@
+---
+title: How to Break Up with Google: A Practical, Step-by-Step Migration Guide
+created: 2026-09-19
+updated: 2026-09-19
+type: concept
+sources: [ezhosted.com/2026/04/how-to-break-up-with-google-a-practical-step-by-step-migration-guide/]
+confidence: medium
+contested: false
+---
+
+How to Break Up with Google: A Practical, Step-by-Step Migration Guide
+
+April 21, 2026
+
+If you want to leave Google, the good news is this: you do
+
+not
+
+need to replace everything at once.
+
+The bad news: you also cannot just flip a switch and be done.
+
+Google is sticky because it is not one product. It is an ecosystem. Gmail talks to Calendar. Calendar talks to Android. Android talks to Photos. Photos talks to Drive. Chrome quietly syncs your whole digital life in the background. By the time most people decide they want out, Google is less of a tool and more of a nervous system.
+
+That is why most de-Google guides fail. They are either too ideological or too naive. They tell you to self-host your entire life over a weekend, then vanish before your email deliverability breaks, your photo metadata gets mangled, and your family refuses to install three new apps.
+
+So here is the practical version.
+
+This guide is for people who want more privacy, more ownership, and more control, but still want their setup to work on Monday morning.
+
+First rule: do not migrate everything at once
+
+The biggest mistake people make is trying to replace Gmail, Drive, Photos, Docs, Maps, Android, YouTube, and Search all in one shot.
+
+That is how you end up with a half-broken setup and a fast return to Google.
+
+Instead, break the migration into layers:
+
+1. Identity layer: email, calendar, contacts, passwords
+
+2. Storage layer: files, backups, photos
+
+3. Daily tools: browser, search, maps, notes, office docs
+
+4. Mobile layer: Android, Play Store, push notifications, app replacements
+
+If you move in that order, the process gets a lot easier.
+
+Step 1: get your own domain before doing anything else
+
+If your digital identity lives at
+
+[email protected]
+
+, Google owns the address that every bank, SaaS product, and important login knows.
+
+That is a bad place to be.
+
+Before you migrate email, buy a domain you control and move your life there. That way, even if you switch providers later, your identity stays stable.
+
+A custom domain is the real escape hatch. Not Proton. Not Fastmail. Not self-hosting. The domain.
+
+If you do only one thing after reading this article, do that first.
+
+Step 2: do not casually self-host email
+
+This is the part where a lot of homelab content gets irresponsible.
+
+Yes, you can self-host email. No, most people should not.
+
+Running a mail server is not like running Immich or Plex. Receiving email is one thing. Delivering it reliably is another. You are dealing with spam reputation, reverse DNS, DKIM, SPF, DMARC, blacklists, and the reality that a lot of IP ranges are treated with suspicion by default.
+
+If you enjoy email infrastructure as a hobby, great. Run Mailcow or Stalwart Mail and accept the tradeoffs.
+
+If you want a sane life, use a hosted mail provider with your own domain.
+
+Best practical options
+
+– Fastmail: best all-around practical choice
+
+– Proton Mail: strong privacy-first option
+
+– Mailcow: best-known serious self-hosted suite
+
+– Stalwart Mail: modern and promising, but still a more advanced path
+
+My practical advice:
+
+hosted email, self-host everything else
+
+.
+
+That gets you 80 percent of the independence with 20 percent of the pain.
+
+Step 3: replace Google Drive with something that matches your real use case
+
+A lot of people say they want to leave Google Drive when what they really mean is one of three things:
+
+– I want Dropbox-style file sync.
+
+– I want shared folders and family storage.
+
+– I want a mini Google Workspace.
+
+Those are not the same problem.
+
+If you want the broad Google replacement
+
+Use
+
+Nextcloud
+
+.
+
+Nextcloud is the default answer for a reason. It gives you file storage, sharing, calendar, contacts, optional office editing, and enough ecosystem depth to become the center of your self-hosted life.
+
+If you mostly want fast file sync
+
+Use
+
+Seafile
+
+.
+
+Seafile is often lighter and faster for pure file sync. It is less of a whole ecosystem and more of a sharp tool.
+
+If you do not want to self-host this part
+
+Use
+
+Proton Drive
+
+,
+
+Filen
+
+, or
+
+Tresorit
+
+.
+
+The key thing here is not perfection. It is getting your data out of Google and into a setup you actually trust and control.
+
+Step 4: move your photos before Google Photos gets more emotionally expensive
+
+Google Photos is one of the hardest services to leave because it is one of the best Google products ever made.
+
+That is exactly why so many people stay.
+
+The best self-hosted replacement right now is
+
+Immich
+
+.
+
+Immich is the first self-hosted photo product that feels like a serious Google Photos replacement instead of a side project with a web UI. Mobile auto-upload works. Search is decent. Facial recognition exists. Albums, timelines, maps, and sharing are there. It feels like something you can actually live with.
+
+If you already run Synology and want the simpler route,
+
+Synology Photos
+
+is also a respectable option.
+
+If you want a hosted privacy-first alternative instead of self-hosting,
+
+Ente
+
+is the best option in this category.
+
+Important warning
+
+Google Takeout is messy.
+
+If you are migrating years of photos, expect metadata weirdness, duplicate handling issues, and extra cleanup. Do
+
+not
+
+delete your original export. Keep an untouched archive of everything before you start importing into Immich or anything else.
+
+This is one of those categories where backups matter more than ideology.
+
+Step 5: accept that Google Docs is harder to replace than Google Drive
+
+Leaving Google Drive is easy compared to leaving Google Docs.
+
+Storage is straightforward. Collaborative editing is where things get messy.
+
+If you want a self-hosted docs setup, the practical stack is:
+
+–
+
+Nextcloud + OnlyOffice
+
+– or
+
+Nextcloud + Collabora
+
+That is the closest thing to a serious Google Docs replacement in the self-hosted world.
+
+Will it match Google Docs exactly? No.
+
+Will it be good enough for many people, teams, and families? Yes.
+
+If your documents are mission-critical and formatting-sensitive, export carefully and keep PDF copies of important files. If you collaborate heavily with non-technical people, expect a little friction. This is one area where Google still wins on polish.
+
+But for many users, slightly less polished but under your control is still the right trade.
+
+Step 6: calendar and contacts are easier than they look
+
+This is one of the better parts of the migration.
+
+Calendar and contacts are built on sane standards:
+
+CalDAV
+
+and
+
+CardDAV
+
+.
+
+That means once you move out of Google, you are no longer trapped in one vendor’s weird ecosystem.
+
+The cleanest self-hosted option is
+
+Nextcloud Calendar + Contacts
+
+. If you use Fastmail or Proton, their hosted calendar options are fine too.
+
+On Android, a tool like
+
+DAVx5
+
+makes the sync story much better.
+
+This part is rarely the hardest technical challenge. The real challenge is remembering how many other services quietly depend on your Google calendar and contact list.
+
+Step 7: stop using Chrome as the glue
+
+A lot of people think they are leaving Google because they switched search engines.
+
+Then they keep using Chrome signed into a Google account.
+
+That is not leaving. That is redecorating.
+
+If you want to reduce Google dependence, move your browser sync and password habits too.
+
+Better browser options
+
+–
+
+Firefox
+
+: best open-web, privacy-friendly default
+
+–
+
+Brave
+
+: good if you need Chromium compatibility without Google sync
+
+Better search options
+
+–
+
+Kagi
+
+: best paid option if you want quality and privacy
+
+–
+
+DuckDuckGo
+
+: easiest free default
+
+–
+
+Startpage
+
+: useful if you want Google-like results with more distance
+
+–
+
+SearXNG
+
+: fun for self-hosters, but more of a power-user tool
+
+Also: move your passwords into
+
+Bitwarden
+
+or
+
+Vaultwarden
+
+instead of letting Chrome stay the center of your life.
+
+Step 8: be realistic about maps
+
+This is one of the hardest categories to replace cleanly.
+
+For many users,
+
+Organic Maps
+
+is the best simple answer.
+
+OsmAnd
+
+is more powerful if you want offline-heavy control and do not mind extra complexity.
+
+Are they as good as Google Maps everywhere? No.
+
+Business listings, reviews, transit, and regional coverage can still lag depending on where you live.
+
+This is a good example of where the right move is not pretend the replacement is perfect. The right move is understand the tradeoff and choose your pain.
+
+Step 9: Android de-Googling is a spectrum, not a purity test
+
+If you want the strongest de-Googled mobile setup today,
+
+GrapheneOS
+
+is the best answer, as long as you are willing to use supported Pixel hardware.
+
+If you want something a bit broader or less strict,
+
+CalyxOS
+
+and
+
+/e/OS
+
+are also real options.
+
+For apps:
+
+–
+
+F-Droid
+
+for open-source apps
+
+–
+
+Aurora Store
+
+for Play Store access without a Google account
+
+– selective use of sandboxed Google services only when necessary
+
+This is the point where a lot of de-Googling guides become fantasy.
+
+Some apps still expect Google. Banking apps can be annoying. Push notifications can be weird. Ride-sharing, DRM, wearables, and Android Auto can become annoying fast.
+
+So do not optimize for ideological perfection. Optimize for
+
+reduced dependence with acceptable friction
+
+.
+
+That is the grown-up version.
+
+Step 10: admit that YouTube does not really have a true replacement
+
+There are alternatives. There are privacy-friendly frontends. There is
+
+PeerTube
+
+. There is
+
+NewPipe
+
+,
+
+FreeTube
+
+,
+
+Invidious
+
+, and
+
+Piped
+
+.
+
+All of that is useful.
+
+But none of it changes the reality that YouTube’s content network is still YouTube’s content network.
+
+So for this category, the practical move is usually not replace YouTube completely. It is use better clients, reduce tracking, and diversify where you publish and subscribe.
+
+That is still progress.
+
+A practical de-Google stack that normal people can actually live with
+
+If I had to recommend one realistic setup for most ezhosted readers, it would be this:
+
+–
+
+Email
+
+: Fastmail or Proton Mail with your own domain
+
+–
+
+Files / calendar / contacts
+
+: Nextcloud
+
+–
+
+Document editing
+
+: Nextcloud + OnlyOffice
+
+–
+
+Photos
+
+: Immich
+
+–
+
+Passwords
+
+: Bitwarden or Vaultwarden
+
+–
+
+Browser
+
+: Firefox
+
+–
+
+Search
+
+: Kagi or DuckDuckGo
+
+–
+
+Maps
+
+: Organic Maps
+
+–
+
+Phone OS
+
+: GrapheneOS if you are serious, otherwise reduce Google use on standard Android
+
+–
+
+Apps
+
+: F-Droid + Aurora Store
+
+–
+
+Video
+
+: YouTube with privacy-friendly clients; PeerTube where it makes sense
+
+That is the sweet spot.
+
+Self-host what self-hosting is actually good at. Outsource what is painful. Use open standards where possible. Own your domain. Keep backups. Reduce lock-in. Do not turn your personal infrastructure into a second job unless you actually enjoy that.
+
+Final advice: break up in phases, not in anger
+
+You do not need to leave Google in one dramatic night.
+
+You can do it in layers.
+
+Move email identity first. Then files. Then photos. Then browser habits. Then your phone if you want to go deeper.
+
+The goal is not to become a purity-maxing privacy monk.
+
+The goal is to build a setup where:
+
+– your important data lives under your control,
+
+– your identity is portable,
+
+– your tools are replaceable,
+
+– and one company does not get to quietly sit in the middle of your whole life.
+
+That is what a good breakup looks like.

concepts/moving-domain-email-away-from-google-workspace.md

@@ -0,0 +1,48 @@
+---
+title: Moving Domain Email Away from Google Workspace
+created: 2026-09-19
+updated: 2026-09-19
+type: concept
+tags: [kb, reference, workflow, homelab]
+sources: [raw/articles/moving-domain-email-away-from-google-workspace-2026-09-19.md]
+confidence: medium
+contested: false
+---
+
+# Moving Domain Email Away from Google Workspace
+
+Google gave free Google Workspace users (those hosting custom domain email, e.g. me@mydomain.com) until June 1 to either pay or switch providers. Free gmail.com addresses are unaffected.
+
+## Choosing a New Email Host
+
+- **Web host** — may offer email hosting free or for a fee
+- **Domain registrar** — often provides email hosting (if not Google)
+- **Paid providers** — [Fastmail], [ProtonMail] offer calendars and docs as Google Workspace alternatives
+
+## Switching Steps
+
+1. **Clean up** — empty trash/junk, unsubscribe from unnecessary lists (you don't need to Marie Kondo everything)
+2. **Export** — use [Google Takeout] or the Data Export Tool for mail, calendars, docs
+3. **Sign up** with new host — create mailboxes as placeholders before MX switch if possible
+4. **Update MX records** — at domain registrar, change from "google"/"googlemail" to new host's records; verify with [whatsmydns.net]; allow 24-48h (often faster)
+5. **Test** sending/receiving with your email client (Apple Mail, Outlook, Thunderbird)
+6. **Import archives** (optional) per new host's instructions
+7. **Cancel Google Workspace** — log into Google admin console, cancel subscription, delete org users after exporting all data
+
+## Notes
+
+- You can keep using the same email addresses after switching
+- Old emails can be imported to new host (subject to their storage limits)
+- Free Gmail account can be configured to read/send from new host addresses
+- If MX records updated before mailboxes created, mail lands in both old (Google) and new inboxes temporarily
+
+## Related
+
+- [[Google Workspace]] — the service being left
+- [[Email Hosting]] — general concept of hosting email for a domain
+- [[MX Records]] — DNS records that direct email delivery
+
+[Fastmail]: https://www.fastmail.com
+[ProtonMail]: https://proton.me
+[Google Takeout]: https://takeout.google.com
+[whatsmydns.net]: https://www.whatsmydns.net

concepts/mx-records.md

@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+---
+title: MX Records
+created: 2026-09-19
+updated: 2026-09-19
+type: concept
+tags: [kb, reference, workflow, homelab]
+sources: [raw/articles/moving-domain-email-away-from-google-workspace-2026-09-19.md]
+confidence: medium
+contested: false
+---
+
+# MX Records
+
+MX (Mail eXchange) records are DNS records that tell the internet where to deliver email for a domain. When switching email providers, you update your domain's MX records at your domain registrar/DNS provider to point to the new host instead of Google's mail servers ("google"/"googlemail").
+
+## Process
+
+1. Look up current MX records (e.g., via [whatsmydns.net]) before changing
+2. Update records at domain registrar to new provider's values
+3. Verify the change propagated (often within an hour, up to 24-48h)
+
+See [[Moving Domain Email Away from Google Workspace]] for the full migration guide.
+
+[whatsmydns.net]: https://www.whatsmydns.net

entities/google-workspace.md

@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+---
+title: Google Workspace
+created: 2026-09-19
+updated: 2026-09-19
+type: entity
+tags: [kb, tool, workflow]
+sources: [raw/articles/moving-domain-email-away-from-google-workspace-2026-09-19.md]
+confidence: medium
+contested: false
+---
+
+# Google Workspace
+
+Google's paid productivity suite (email, calendar, docs, drive) for organizations. Previously called "Google Apps for Your Domain" and "G Suite".
+
+## Context
+
+Google is shutting down free Google Workspace accounts for custom domain email. Users who signed up for free custom email hosting (me@mydomain.com) must either pay for a plan or migrate by the deadline. Free Gmail addresses (@gmail.com) are unaffected.
+
+## Migration Out
+
+- Export data via [Google Takeout]
+- Update domain MX records to point to new provider
+- Cancel subscription via Google admin console
+
+[Google Takeout]: https://takeout.google.com

index.md

@@ -3,21 +3,26 @@
 > Content catalog for personal-wiki (`https://gitea.maukit.com/hermes/personal-wiki`).
 > Local root: `/opt/data/wiki`. Profile: `~/profiles/wiki/` (isolated Hermes agent).
 > Shared with `floof` (Gitea push access). Read access: public repo clone.
-> Last updated: 2026-09-18 | Total pages: 0 (new wiki — populated by `wiki` profile agent)
+> Last updated: 2026-09-19 | Total pages: 5
 
 ## Raw Sources (`raw/`)
 - `raw/articles/` — web clippings, saved articles
 - `raw/papers/` — PDFs, papers
 - `raw/transcripts/` — meeting notes, interviews
 - `raw/assets/` — images / diagrams
+- `raw/articles/moving-domain-email-away-from-google-workspace-2026-09-19.md` — Wendy Cholbi: Moving your domain's email away from Google Workspace (Wayback snapshot 2025-01-29)
+- `raw/articles/how-to-break-up-with-google-a-practical-step-by-step-migration-guide.md` — ezhosted.com: How to Break Up with Google: A Practical, Step-by-Step Migration Guide (Wayback snapshot 2026-05-20)
 
 ## Layer 2 — Wiki Pages
 
 ### Entities (notable people, orgs, products, models, hosts, services)
-<!-- Alphabetical; add new pages here with one-line summary -->
+- `[[Google Workspace]]` — Google's productivity suite; shutting down free custom-domain email hosting
 
 ### Concepts (topics, techniques, patterns, categories)
-<!-- Alphabetical; every page must have 2+ `[[wikilinks]]` -->
+- `[[Moving Domain Email Away from Google Workspace]]` — full migration guide: choosing a host, steps, MX records, canceling Workspace
+- `[[Email Hosting]]` — options for hosting email for a custom domain
+- `[[MX Records]]` — DNS records that direct email delivery; key to switching providers
+- `[[How to Break Up with Google: A Practical, Step-by-Step Migration Guide]]` — layered de-Google strategy: identity → storage → daily tools → mobile; domain-first; self-hosting email warnings; provider comparisons
 
 ### Comparisons (side-by-side analyses)
 <!-- Add with dimensions + verdict -->

log.md

@@ -15,3 +15,19 @@
 - Raw directories (`raw/articles/`, `raw/papers/`, `raw/transcripts/`, `raw/assets/`) created
 - Second Telegram bot deferred; will revisit if needed
 - Gitea access verified: user `hermes` (id 148), user `floof` (id 3) has push access
+
+## [2026-09-19] ingest | Moving your domain's email away from Google Workspace (Wendy Cholbi)
+- Raw source saved: `raw/articles/moving-domain-email-away-from-google-workspace-2026-09-19.md` (Wayback snapshot 2025-01-29, site is bot-walled — could not fetch live)
+- Pages created:
+  - `concepts/moving-domain-email-away-from-google-workspace.md` (main guide)
+  - `entities/google-workspace.md` (entity page)
+  - `concepts/mx-records.md` (concept page)
+  - `concepts/email-hosting.md` (concept page)
+- Index updated with all new pages
+- Confidence: medium (single source, archived snapshot)
+
+## [2026-09-19] ingest | How to Break Up with Google (ezhosted.com)
+- Raw source saved: `raw/articles/how-to-break-up-with-google-a-practical-step-by-step-migration-guide.md` (Wayback snapshot 2026-05-20; site blocked/bot-walled)
+- Page created: `concepts/how-to-break-up-with-google-a-practical-step-by-step-migration-guide.md` (layered de-Google strategy: identity → storage → daily tools → mobile; domain-first; self-hosting email warnings; provider comparisons)
+- Index updated; new page count 5
+- Confidence: medium (single source, archived snapshot)

raw/articles/how-to-break-up-with-google-a-practical-step-by-step-migration-guide.md

@@ -0,0 +1,85 @@
+---
+title: How to Break Up with Google: A Practical, Step-by-Step Migration Guide
+created: 2026-04-21
+updated: 2026-09-19
+type: concept
+sources: [ezhosted.com/2026/04/how-to-break-up-with-google-a-practical-step-by-step-migration-guide/]
+confidence: medium
+contested: false
+---
+
+How to Break Up with Google: A Practical, Step-by-Step Migration Guide
+
+April 21, 2026
+
+If you want to leave Google, the good news is this: you do
+
+not
+
+need to replace everything at once.
+
+The bad news: you also cannot just flip a switch and be done.
+
+Google is sticky because it is not one product. It is an ecosystem. Gmail talks to Calendar. Calendar talks to Android. Android talks to Photos. Photos talks to Drive. Chrome quietly syncs your whole digital life in the background. By the time most people decide they want out, Google is less of a tool and more of a nervous system.
+
+That is why most de-Google guides fail. They are either too ideological or too naive. They tell you to self-host your entire life over a weekend, then vanish before your email deliverability breaks, your photo metadata gets mangled, and your family refuses to install three new apps.
+
+So here is the practical version.
+
+This guide is for people who want more privacy, more ownership, and more control, but still want their setup to work on Monday morning.
+
+First rule: do not migrate everything at once
+
+The biggest mistake people make is trying to replace Gmail, Drive, Photos, Docs, Maps, Android, YouTube, and Search all in one shot.
+
+That is how you end up with a half-broken setup and a fast return to Google.
+
+Instead, break the migration into layers:
+
+1. Identity layer: email, calendar, contacts, passwords
+
+2. Storage layer: files, backups, photos
+
+3. Daily tools: browser, search, maps, notes, office docs
+
+4. Mobile layer: Android, Play Store, push notifications, app replacements
+
+If you move in that order, the process gets a lot easier.
+
+Step 1: get your own domain before doing anything else
+
+If your digital identity lives at
+
+[email protected],
+
+Google owns the address that every bank, SaaS product, and important login knows.
+
+That is a bad place to be.
+
+Before you migrate email, buy a domain you control and move your life there. That way, even if you switch providers later, your identity stays stable.
+
+A custom domain is the real escape hatch. Not Proton. Not Fastmail. Not self-hosting. The domain.
+
+If you do only one thing after reading this article, do that first.
+
+Step 2: do not casually self-host email
+
+This is the part where a lot of homelab content gets irresponsible.
+
+Yes, you can self-host email. No, most people should not.
+
+Running a mail server is not like running Immich or Plex. Receiving email is one thing. Delivering it reliably is another. You are dealing with spam reputation, reverse DNS, DKIM, SPF, DMARC, blacklists, and the reality that a lot of IP ranges are treated with suspicion by default.
+
+If you enjoy email infrastructure as a hobby, great. Run Mailcow or Stalwart Mail and accept the tradeoffs.
+
+If you want a sane life, use a hosted mail provider with your own domain.
+
+Best practical options
+
+– Fastmail: best all-around practical choice
+
+– Proton Mail: strong privacy-first option
+
+– Mailcow: best-known serious self-hosted suite
+
+– Stalwart Mail: m

raw/articles/moving-domain-email-away-from-google-workspace-2026-09-19.md

@@ -0,0 +1,62 @@
+---
+source_url: https://www.wendycholbi.com/moving-domain-email-away-from-google-workspace/
+ingested: 2026-09-19
+sha256: 3c0c334976763a8316525d7abf5bfd5ab5bab5e049285bc7a0402fcd1ac26298
+---
+
+Moving your domain's email away from Google Workspace
+
+Everyone using Google to host your domain's email for free has until June 1 to either sign up for a paid plan or switch to a different provider. Google will shut down Google Workspace accounts that don't pay.
+
+If your only Google-hosted email is an address ending in gmail.com, you can keep using it for free. Free service is only being pulled from longtime users who have registered their own domain names (mydomain.com) and are using Google to host custom email addresses of the form me@mydomain.com. 
+
+If you're one of these users, you signed up back when Google Workspace was called Google Apps for Your Domain (the service was also called G Suite for a few years, so if you don't remember ever signing up for anything called Google Workspace, that's why). 
+
+Google has already emailed you if you are the admin of an affected accounts. The message has the subject line "[Action required] Upgrade to get started with Google Workspace" and comes from the address workspace-noreply@google.com, a bit of a tipoff that "The Google Workspace Team" that sent the email does not want to actually hear from you, although they will happily accept your cash.
+
+While Google says there will be a waiting list opening up for a "no-cost option", there are currently no details of what that option would include. And with Google's history of closing down perfectly good services, I'm not hanging around to find out.
+
+(Not that I'm still holding a grudge because Google killed its RSS reader, not at all! Not that I'm still bitter because that shutdown lit the first torch in a scorched-earth campaign that rendered the blogosphere easy pickings for proprietary services from corporations like Medium and Substack, no, not me! Anyway there's a great free RSS reader called NetNewsWire that I highly recommend. The open web still exists even if Google doesn't want you to know about it.
+
+Your ideal post-Google Workspace setup
+
+One way to avoid paying Google is to set up your email hosting with a new provider. You can also choose to stay with Google Workspace (they're even offering discounts for the first year of paid Google Workspace service), but for the purposes of this guide, I'm going to stick to the idea that you're moving away from Google Workspace.
+
+Once you've set up your new email hosting, you'll be able to use the same email addresses you were formerly using within Google Workspace (alice@mydomain.com, bob@mydomain.com, etc.) to send and receive mail. You can even import all your old emails to your new email host (but this is optional, and subject to the storage space allotment of your chosen provider).
+
+You can use a third-party email client, like Apple Mail, Outlook, or Thunderbird (and if you're already using one of these, you can keep using it — you'll need to change some settings to access your new email host, though).
+
+You can even continue to access your messages through the gmail website or app, by using a free gmail account to read and send messages that are hosted by your new email host. You first have to set up the actual email hosting separately, and then configure your gmail account to add an address that uses those settings. So, for example, if you have myname@gmail.com as a free address, and you have me@mydomain.com set up with an email host, you would need to go into your gmail settings for myname@gmail.com to add an email address, and use settings provided by your email host to set it up. Then, when you're logged into gmail, you can receive emails sent to either of the two addresses, and choose which address to send from when you're composing an outgoing message.
+
+Choosing a new email host
+
+When it comes to choosing a new email host, there are several options:
+
+Your web host may offer email hosting (either free if you have an associated website, or for an additional cost — hosts vary widely).
+Your domain name registrar (assuming it's not Google) may offer email hosting, usually for a fee.
+There are paid email hosting services like Fastmail and ProtonMail that also offer services like calendars and shared documents, to take the place of Google Calendar and Google Docs.
+
+Steps to switch your email
+
+Here's my recommended procedure for moving your email from Google to a new host:
+
+Clean up your email. If you're going to be exporting an archive of your old emails, you don't want it to be 10 gigabytes of spam and trash. So at least empty the junk/trash folders, and maybe even take a crack at unsubscribing from useless lists and deleting stuff that's not crucial to keep. Note to my fellow e-hoarders: Don't let this step stop you from moving on to the next step! You don't have to fully Marie Kondo your inbox just to escape from Google.
+Export your email. Google offers a surprisingly straightforward service called Takeout, which lets you export not only your mail, but your calendars, docs, and even stuff like YouTube history, Google Voice messages, and more. Alternatively, if you're exporting data for multiple usernames in your Google Workspace account, you can use their Data Export Tool.Don't delete your email accounts yet.
+Sign up with your new host and follow their instructions to set up new mailboxes or mail users to take the place of your Google Workspace-hosted addresses. If possible*, set these up as placeholders before doing the next step, which is the most important one, which is:
+Update your domain's MX records. Your new email host will have exact instructions for doing this, but basically you're going to log into your domain registrar account, go to wherever the DNS records are maintained, and change all the records of the type "MX" (which stands for Mail eXchange) from "google" and "googlemail" to new records specified by your email host. 
+
+Tip: Before you switch these records, look up your MX records using whatsmydns.net or a similar checker. Then, after you make the switch and save your new MX records, do that same lookup again to track the changes going "live" across the internet. Providers and hosts usually say to allow 24-48 hours, but it's often much quicker, and sometimes within an hour you can see that your new records have replaced the Google ones.
+
+*If it wasn't possible to create new mailboxes or user accounts at your new host before updating the MX records, create these immediately after you update the MX records. Because you haven't deleted your Google Workspace user(s) yet, you will receive in your old Google Workspace inbox any email that arrives while the MX records are still pointing to Google. And you will receive in your new inbox any email that arrives after the MX records update.
+Test sending and receiving. Once you've checked that your MX records are updated, test both sending and receiving using your new email host. Make sure the email client of your choice (Apple Mail, or Outlook, for example) works as you expect it to with the new settings.
+(optional) Import mail archives. Your chosen email host will have specific instructions on how to do this.
+
+Canceling Google Workspace
+
+If you want to avoid being extorted into paying for Google Workspace, you're going to want to cancel that service. 
+
+In addition to email, you may need to export (and import to a new provider) your calendars, documents, and anything else you want to keep. 
+
+Here's how to avoid being billed by Google (or being shut down for not paying): First log into your Google admin console, then cancel your "subscription" to the free Google Workspace plan.
+
+If you've safely exported all your user data and documents, you can now delete users from your organizations' Google admin console.