Once upon a time I ran Bind on my server to upload my DNS record for my Website to root servers and as an added benefit I could use the DNS cache for faster Internet surfing. Well, when I changed ISPs I no longer had a static IP number and didn't wish to do all the grunt work myself anymore. No-IP handles all that for me now and quite adeptly. But that left my personal computers reliant upon my ISP's domain name service, which left a lot to be desired in response time.
After growing tired of slow response times I decided it was time to just run a personal domain name caching service. Bind seemed a bit overkill and it can be quite complicated. Other alternatives are much easier - such as DNSMasq. DNSMasq is available in just about every distro's repository and is really easy to set up and use.
I actually don't have any negative feelings towards OpenDNS other than a bit of lag there too at times. However, Google clearly does not have your best interest at heart. CEO Eric Schmidt has been quoted as basically saying if you want privacy, you have something to hide. They know enough about you already, don't voluntarily give them any more if you have a choice. And in this case you do.
DNSMasq not only offers a modicum of privacy, it speeds up surfing quite noticeably. Well, not actual surfing, but the time wait for my ISP's DNS response was getting to as much as 3 or 5 seconds. That can grow quite tiresome. DNSMasq will knock that down to milliseconds.
Now there's no reason for me to write a howto. First of all, it's not my forte. And more importantly, there are already dozens available. If you really want to jump in head first, here's a detailed article. Here's one Debian specific and one Ubuntu specific, although either are generic enough for any distro with minor adjustments. And several months ago when I went looking, I referred to the one here because it just looked the easiest to read.
So, yes, use OpenDNS or Google DNS is you really have to, but given a choice, DNSMasq is a much better solution.
Image credit: Lanet-vi program of I. Alvarez-Hamelin et al.
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