this post was submitted on 25 Mar 2021

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6 open source alternatives for Google Calendar - Calendars are the easiest service to migrate elsewhere (opensource.com)

submitted 3 years ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

29 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Much like e-mail, calendaring has long established open protocols (like we DON'T have for social media) across services such as WebDAV, ics, etc. So it is usually quite easy to export/import a calendar elsewhere, or even to link to one or more remote calendars.

An app such as Thunderbird for example, can install on Windows, MacOS or Linux, and then connect to Google Calendar service online or many other external calendars. It's just one way of extracting what you have in Google Calendar (or even GMail), and then either copying that to a local calendar, or to a calendar elsewhere that Thunderbird can also connect to.

If you want a cloud server version of e-mail (vs just on your desktop) you can host a NextCloud instance at home or online in a cheap VPS. The article also mentions the possibility of AgenDAV. If you have a Hubzilla social media account, you already have a calendar service in there too with WebDAV capability which you can use to sync through. Other online options are Zoho Apps or Trello too.

See https://opensource.com/alternatives/google-calendar

#technology #opensource #alternativeto #calendar

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[+] [email protected] 8 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (1 children)

[deleted]

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 years ago (2 children)

Using nextcloud and degoogled android with no google services (apart from an email address) for about one year now. I agree with you that nextcloud services feel fragile. Happy to say that they're not. Nextcloud is solid, and it handles errors quite well.

Not sure what you meant by premium services. If you meant the cost for the davx5 app, you can get it from fdroid for free. Either way, the app is flawless, well worth the price. By using the nexcloud main app, it integrates smoothly with android, taking control of the devices calendar and contacts.

[+] [email protected] 2 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (2 children)

[deleted]

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (1 children)

Tasks.org (from fdroid) works with WebDAV for free (you should still donate though if you adopt it). Have been using it for the better part of the past two years for calendar, tasks, contacts. For notes and documents - Nextcloud. Haven't had one issue. Don't know what OS you use - but CalyxOS have a feature where you can backup all your apps to nextcloud/local storage and restore them on a new phone .

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 years ago (2 children)

I've used tasks with my own nextcloud account and davx5, it didn't require any payment to sync, so maybe the payment is when syncing with the tasks.org service?

Nextcloud has lots of "apps" which you can install and enable if you own the server. Tasks is one of them. For RSS feeds, I use the News nextcloud app. For podcasts, i use antennapod, don't listen to many podcasts. Pretty sure you can use the nextcloud news app to keep track of those via rss, but never tried that myself. For notes, I just use the nextcloud notes app.

File syncing: Nextcloud has that baked in. On mobile, I use the official nextcloud app. On desktop, I use their app to keep my Documents folder, Videos and Photos synced. Just as you would with google drive or microsoft one drive. I use keepass for my passwords, so I have the file on my nextcloud account. That is synced to all of my devices, so I can access it at any time and it's always updated if I change anything.

I also use cospend to keep track of expenditures in the household together with my wife. There's also Deck for kanban board like tasks which syncs with your calendar. Carnet for a google keep alternative. And bookmarks, which allows me to never have to sign in to firefox, and have my bookmarks synced by using the floccus extension.

Open source apps will oftenly have missing features when compared to their corporate made counterparts. I find the tradeoff between a few features but control over your data and lack of advertising completely worth it. The major downside in my opinion is that to get all of this open ecosystem setup you need a fair amount of technical knowledge. That's a major threshold for many people.

I manage to make use of nextcloud as a replacement for all google / microsoft services, and it's costing me €4 / month, with 300gb of storage on my vps.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 years ago (1 children)

Whoah... where did you get this storage from?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 years ago (1 children)

Cheapest VPS option on contabo. It works great for selfhosting a nextcloud server. But expect the nextcloud web interface to be slow. Usable, but slow. Everything else works just fine. Am not associated with contabo in any shape or form, just found them after tons of research in finding a dirt cheap vps

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 years ago (1 children)

I just checked it out. Looks good. Its surprising the interface would be slow with 4 vCores and 8GBs or is it because you are not located in Germany?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 years ago

I feel that contabo is giving those specs as an average or as a max. The resources are clearly shared. Evenings, at around 8 PM my time (10pm germany time) the web interface is painfully slow. Rest of the day it's either slow or good. I dont use the web interface often, so can't give more detail, but it definitely fluctuates. It's perfectly usable in my experience though, and it beats everything out there for that price.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 years ago

Antenapod can be synced through gpodder BTW. There is a button in the app.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (3 children)

Interesting!

Whats a good avenue into learning about WebDAV development?

Im new to the Fediverse and its got my brain spinning. Ive had thoughts about an event planning service, heavily focused on ActivitiyPub compatibility/broadcasting. I hadn't even thought about the potentional to integrate email protocols too!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 years ago (1 children)

Usually best to start by reading the approved standard as it will explain what functionality it provides. The app has to conform to that. For server side Hubzilla uses it it, so it's source code may provide some good examples. Any existing open source projects that use CalDAV (client app or server) should be good for examples to understand.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 years ago

Amazing, thank you!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago)

Mobilizon works on ActivityPub and works for events. And Friendica maybe have a event planning function as well for being like facebook.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 years ago

Simple Tools Calendar from f-droid

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 years ago (2 children)

Does anyone know who actually maintains WebDAV and CalDAV? I wanted to donate to them but couldn't find a foundation or source.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 years ago (1 children)

It's actually a working group under Internet Engineering Task Force that maintains it. It is now an open standard so these standards committees actually update, approve, etc the protocol along with numerous other open standards (like HTTP itself). They do accept sponsorships at https://www.ietf.org/ but probably are mostly corporate one's.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 years ago

Very cool, thanks!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 years ago

I don't think the standards themselves need funding. I think if you want to improve their adoption the best approach would be supporting clients, services and services that speak these protocols.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 years ago

I like posteo as it keeps standards open

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 years ago

I host radicale myself and Use DavX5 to sync it to my phone.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 years ago

I have Nextcloud on my server, but my posteo account came with a free encrypted calendar, so I'm using that. I might migrate once I'm feeling less lazy.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 years ago

https://fruux.com/