Do I Stay, Or Do I Go?

No, this is not about my job.

This is about my web sites, email, and my digital life.  For years, I have had my domain (duckland.org) and my email address there (duck), and I am not going to give those up.  I have collected a few others domains over the years, and the family has started asking for their own as well.  

Now, if you know me at all, you know that for most of my professional career, I have been in Unix operations, specifically Linux.  It is what I do.  But, I am wondering if it is time for me to 'outsource' one of the more difficult parts of keeping my own domain: email.  Recently, I have gone back to not hosting my email due to various reasons, and went back to GMail.  In the years since I left it, it has gotten much better UI for someone who likes keyboards over mice, and the Android clients are very nice.  Plus, the addition of **Google Now **in the Chrome browser has been very handy. 

Add to the fact I still cannot find a good calendar solution which I can host which will work seamlessly across my computers (home and work), tablets, and cell phones, as well as let the family share besides Google, and it makes GMail very attractive.

But, on the other side, Google makes their money on ads, and they make no secret that they analyze your email (GMail), your appointments (Google Calendar), and your web browsing (Google Chrome) to try to market to you better.  I am still undecided if I want to keep swimming up-stream or just give in and use the Google services, because they will be better than anything I can set up on my own.

*sigh*

However, I have finally made another change to the blogging solution, and I should be able to start writing more.  I do have some ideas in a back log to talk about.