Not strictly Linux-related, but many folks that use alternative OSes also use Google's services pretty heavily. If they're anything like me, they get a bit antsy about a single company hoarding all the user's data away on their servers and making lots of not-quite-promises to lock them in foreve... er, I mean, "look after it" (*cough* Microsoft *cough*). This is quite a nice summary of how to extract your data from our (currently) Benevolent Google Overlords for backup and provider independence purposes.

http://lifehacker.com/software/hack-attack/back-up-your-google-apps-data...