This isn’t my phrase, but I quite like it: “People are way too used to everything on the internet being free.” (It’s in one of Mental Outlaw’s videos.)Some say this is especially true for software/products/websites that are run by just one person or a very small team. They just have to make money in some way, or they are not able to pay their bills at the end of the month. So, if they ask for €2 a month to support the product, I can totally agree with it. For those who use the product for free and have the money to support it, then they should do it.For big companies, it’s a totally different conversation. For example, Google offers every Google service for free (to my knowledge) and if you need more, then you can buy it (Google One). They can easily handle the cost, but I think in the YouTube part, it’s a bit critical. I don’t have any information about the cost that Google has to pay for YouTube, but I think it’s a LOT. Many can’t imagine how much storage they have to pay for. They probably have to buy PB (1000xTB) or even PB of storage just to save the videos, and 4k videos can take up a lot of space. Therefore, they are asking for a fee to let people watch 4k because it is so expensive. But they don’t just have to save the videos; they also have to back up the videos, and that’s the part that needs the most storage. I don’t know which RAID level they are using, but I would say 5 or 6 (maybe?). That means that videos are stored on several HDDs, so if one breaks, the video isn’t lost, and the higher level of RAID can lose several disks before losing the actual video. So, to come back to the point, I can understand why they are charging for YouTube and some features.

I’ve getting the same black box with “Sponsored Content”.

I just installed it and I really like the UI/UX. Also if im always trying to use free and open source software sometimes it doesnt change anything if an app isnt open source.

And not just google stuff, the big companies are for sure in exchange so if you do something on instagram, google will know it for sure.

Therefor im trying to step away from google, here are my alternatives to the google services:

Google drive -> Nextcloud Gmail -> Tutanota Youtube -> (im still using this) Maps -> Open Street Map Authenticator -> Aegis Chrome -> Librewolf/Firefox Passwords -> Bitwarden

(All of these alternatives are just my own preferences and what I daily use)

Or use librewolf whoch is a foek of firefox just with all the privacy related stuff preinstalled like ublock.