Microsoft is already trying hard. My poor mom did not notice all her files are on OneDrive. Now she has two laptops with everything remote on OneDrive. It's has some advantages, but it's annoying in so many more ways.
There's a setting in Onedrive to keep a copy of everything on the device. It will still get stored in the cloud too, but it means that everything will be available if the internet goes down.
A few years ago my ex got a new laptop and it had onedrive enabled system-wide by default. She didn't realize until after she had been using it for months, I had to spend several hours backing up her files and defenestrating onedrive. It not as simple as just turning it off because it was even on critical system folders, you have to go in the registry and remap the those folders manually one at time before you can disable it.
I didn't criticize anyone, I didn't disrespect anyone, so it's surprising getting this many downvotes and answers.
Still, it's your opinion, and I will still share mine.
Local backups have their flaws, just like cloud backups.
I have 1TB storage using my school account. I am constantly changing between devices, and I like having my files always accessible.
Everything important, I keep in two local backups (external HDD and SSD).
The only thing I dislike about onedrive, is the sync of desktop, documents and images folder. I have turned that off, but my docs folder still appears to be syncing with onedrive.
Besides that, it's the best thing for me. And like I said... "Peace of mind".
Just because you don't like that, it does not mean it is a bad solution.
I'm surprised your post didn't get deleted by a moderator. Lemmy is weird about dissenting opinions.
I don't like OneDrive. I particularly don't like how it integrates into everything without an easy way to turn it off. But I see the value for regular people to be forced to back up their data by default.
But, after getting downvoted, I searched for better solutions.
It appears that a good option would be to encrypt my files (using 7-zip or veracrypt) and upload them to a more privacy focused cloud storage provider.
However, paying for cloud when I have it for free does not make sense.
But, I already started encrypting every file with 25 char password (randomized and saved using bitwarden).
So, better than nothing, right?
Google photos made it difficult to download or delete your pictures on purpose. You have to manually select them. There is still a way to get them and it was because of GDPR, when you ask google for the whole data of your account they include the pictures and video from google photos.