> it's much harder to not use your OS than Google or FB
I think the exact opposite. Using Linux instead of windows 10 is easy. But not using any google service can be pretty difficult. Good news, there are some initiative to "ungoogle" the internet, such as Framasoft.
What particular google services do you rely on that can't be replaced? I'm using fastmail for mail & calendar services, duckduckgo for search, firefox instead of chrome, sync rather than google drive.
I've had terrible experiences with duckduckgo. I really want to switch, but I've never been able to justify the costs. Every now and then I give it a shot but the results from DuckDuckGo just aren't there. Sometimes they aren't even in the ballpark of what I'm looking for, while Google nails it - what I want specifically is in the top 3, and the whole rest of the first page is related.
I don't know if this is because Google and DuckDuckGo require different phrasing of terms to do well and I'm just highly adapted to Google, or if it's something I can't help.
Doesn't that just redirect you to Google's search results (encrypted.google.com), and thus makes the point of using DuckDuckGo in the first place unnecessary?
I think the exact opposite. Using Linux instead of windows 10 is easy. But not using any google service can be pretty difficult. Good news, there are some initiative to "ungoogle" the internet, such as Framasoft.