I feel like this is the new normal cycle of every software company. Once they become a leader, it’s never enough. It replicates the rise of billionaires. Just as the billionaires being rich beyond anything they and all of their succeeding generations could ever spend is not enough, being the industry leader and producing an amazing product that people want is somehow not enough. It always turns to control and power.
I came here specifically to ask about alternatives to Android now that google is becoming too abusive in the relationship.
Fuck them. I have a guitar a pocket watch and a wind uo radio. Everything have is a nicety.
As shitty as M$ is, it would have been nice to see Windows phone become moderately successful and be a third primary mobile os.
The year of the Linux mobile is coming.
As long as companies can keep pumping shitty, almost entirely closed off android phones that cost less than 200 dollars for consumers (selling hardware at a loss while making up for data harvesting and sale), “linux mobile” will be just another meme along with “year of the linux desktop”
IS THAT A FUCKING HEADPHONE JACK!?
Let’s go 🔥🔥🔥
It’s nice, and good to see more of a push. However, I think kill switches for at least microphone and camera should be the new default. It’s absolutely ridiculous to walk around with an internet connected mic and a camera that looks at your face whenever you look at your phone. Personally, I’ll never carry a phone around anymore that doesn’t have mics and cameras desoldered or there’s a kill switch. For the back camera a cover with a slide is fine, but doesn’t really work with the front part.
I want to believe, I really do. But I fear that the crypto apps people have grown dependent on will make it harder than the desktop battle. And IDK but I seem to recall every year since at least 2001 being proclaimed to be the year of the Linux desktop.
I rely on my banking apps (plural), governmental email app, government authentificator app and the governmental LMS app for public schools to make my everyday function. And the last time I tried just a custom ROM, those apps refused to run.
is this legit?
Neat! And a removable battery.
Debian too! Always liked me some Debian, super stable.
okay well goodbye Google, then
what’s the alternative here?
I’m not giving up my off the market pixel dungeon mods.
Shattered pixel dungeon? Or is there another version?
now it’s just a race for the giant conglomerates to make the worst decisions for consumers
Yep. There’s no such thing as competition any more.
Tech companies are just gas stations across the street from each other.
Your computer no longer “computes”, its just a barebones terminal to access a “virtual pc” in the cloud.
Good news, you don’t need to pay $1000 for a good laptop, all you need is this $50 windows machine that only runs a client that streams a live feed from MS Headquarters
Bad news, its a subscription, stop paying and you lose all files.
Wait a minute did you type a “Eat The Rich” document, sorry can’t have that, violates ToS, deleted.
Fahrenheit 451 x 1984
Are you kidding me? How am I supposed to live in this damn Orwellian society that is coming?
Look up Microsoft in the early 90s and how we all got through it.
tbf, we all got through it by just going to other platforms. now there’s almost no other platforms to go to because big tech either pressures them until they fold, or sell to them and become part of their umbrella as some shill company or they remain independent but still use big tech software to run their backend, so your info ends up going to them anyway.
i think in the future, everyone will be forced into surveillance by default and those who don’t will have to either pay dearly for privacy or learn how to program their own security. checkout project gideon that’s already getting pitched to the united states government and other governments from israel. it’s literally that show “person of interest” plus
Pretty sure they’re talking about antitrust lol
That’s just it. You’re not supposed to live. You’re supposed to be controlled.
🦉 460
Always has been
Is this only google phones or all of android?
Anything that “officially” has the google play store.
Sucks. Thanks.
The EU’s been breathing down Apple’s neck for them trying to do similar shit, so i find the timing kinda weird.
Plus they’d need to force-update their spyware first, i wonder how many versions of android they’re willing to go back.I think the update is already installed, just waiting for the kill switch.
Yet Apple has been able to profit from their walled garden for decades now. Doesn’t that set a precedent that it’s okay? I honestly don’t blame Google for going this route—it’s inaction from our policymakers that has created the space for abuse.
The EU has been targeting Apple for years now for not allowing sideloading (the whole Fortnite drama) and ruled that no, Apple can’t bar users from installing shit.
Apple requires developers to go through a Notarization process, much in the same way that Google intends to introduce restrictions to sideloading on Android. How is this different?
It isn’t, now that apple is using that to block installation of third party apps I’m expecting the EU to once again step in.
When our policymakers take direction from capitalists, it’s ok to blame to capitalists.
Interesting perspective. So the suggestion is to redirect our blame away from our elected representatives or even from electing representatives that run on a campaign that aligns with our priorities.
I’m not sure how you came to that conclusion based on what I wrote, but my suggestion is to not let companies escape consequences for shitty things they do simply because regulators fail to be effective at their jobs. Legally allowed is not the same as morally acceptable.
There’s more than enough blame to go around. It’s not a zero sum game.
Yeah I was going to say it’s better to blame the policy makers but who the fuck cares? Neither side of that coin does.
Already using GrapheneOs on my phone, so fuck Google.
Wait until Google locks the bootloader.
I know that the GrapheneOS team have mumbled about the possibility of working on their own device. Although, this would probably be a long way off if it ever did come to fruition.
Maybe shit like this will push them down that road faster. We need options for sure.
Donate to the project. Graphene is run by a very small group of people who are very good at automation.
I don’t think they could effectively produce a whole new platform unless they had a lot more help.
If you value privacy, gonna have to crack open the wallet or volunteer to help.
If we just hope someone will save us, we are going to be very disappointed.
But, what happens when Google decides to no longer the option to unlock the bootloader for future phones? It’s the future that is the concern when it comes to the degoogle options available.
Then the community shifts to a different model, or puts more resources behind mobile Linux projects, and all that would need to happen is something like what Valve did for Linux for the Steam Deck.
I’m ready to switch to a Linux phone as soon as I can find one where the basic phone features work properly (MMS, wake from sleep, camera, etc). The more people like me can switch, the closer we’ll be to mainstream adoption. That’s the same process as Linux has been going through: I switched before Steam on Linux was a thing, then Steam came and more switched, then Proton made windows games work and more switched, etc, and now we’re seeing the start of “normal” people switching.
I hope that happens before my Pixel 8 goes out of support or breaks.
https://furilabs.com/shop/flx1/
I’m already seriously considering giving this a go as my next phone soon. My current phone is desperately in need of replacement.
If it goes well I will be vocal about it.
Yeah, it looks cool, but I’m not really in a position to be a guinea pig. If they were around 2 years ago, I probably would’ve given it a shot.
I am looking for another phone at some point in the next year (kids getting about that age), so if I hear good things, I might just pull the trigger. It is a bit chonkier than my current phone, which isn’t great (30mm longer, 10mm wider, and 110g heavier), but according to reviews, it seems to fix all the issues I have w/ the PinePhone.
Who knows, maybe your review will push me over the edge in deciding to get it.
Furi Labs runs a fully optimized system called Furi OS
If I were to switch to a Linux phone I’d want it to be made for an open and trusted OS, not the (unknown to me at least) manufacturers own.
Eh, you’d want something like this to run something custom, because there’s going to be a lot of iteration and it’ll be harder to push things through a distribution they don’t control.
It seems to be Debian based and has some customizations to make work w/ Android apps nicer (Halium support).
I would personally prefer PostmarketOS, but I’d be fine w/ that being a community effort as long as Furilabs doesn’t block installing alternatives.
Sucks that it only works on devices made by Google though…
What kind of phone?
I want to know, too. I got a Samsung s23 when my last phone suddenly died and I only then realized thar it wasn’t compatible.
The joke is that GrapheneOS only works on Google Pixel phones.
Fuck Google!
Gives Google $900
Eh, I got a used Pixel 8 for $350 or so, and it works great with GrapheneOS.
My gold standard is a proper Linux phone, but those aren’t reliable enough yet, so using Google’s phone is the next best option.
I spent a mere $500 for my Pixel 9a. Most expensive phone I’ve ever owned. But at least I can send a text message from inside my house and make phones from out in my yard now.
You can get a cheap refurb Pixel. The returns are very diminishing these days on new models anyway.
I noticed that, and they are expensive.
Bought a Pixel 7a new below 350 EUR last december. Buying used is also an option.
That is reasonably priced. I have another year on my current phone before it is paid off. I armored it up like there is no tomorrow so it should last without a breakage.
I had a problem for years of buying cases and tempered glass for my phone since I had a phone break BECAUSE of those things.
Is it good?
I went from 15 years of iPhones directly to Graphene, without really messing with Android in between, so my experience has been a STEEP learning curve, followed by a fairly hum-drum experience. But honestly, that’s fine. I want my phone to take more of a back seat and not be something I keep needing to worry about.
My banking app doesn’t work in Graphene, but the website does, so I don’t really mind.
It could that there’s a whole bunch of shit I’m missing, but mostly it’s… fine.
It’s very “meh…” with the added benefit of several (non-google) apps not working (/s). I choose to live with this inconvenience, but it still bothers me that my smartphone is significantly less useful in my daily life.
Honestly, smart phones being less useful in daily life is probably a good thing.
You always have a choice. You can ditch your morals entirely, give up, be subservient to the capitalists and give your identity over fully to the system like the good little consumer slave you are and enjoy your normie life looking at your normie phone and toss us all out as tinfoil-hatted weirdos who almost convinced you to make your life worse for the sake of self-sufficiency, independence and privacy.
No one in the real world will ever know, care, or judge you. Only you will know that you gave up, that every location you exist in is known about by someone behind a monitor being overseen by fascists. Every day! You can live with that, right? That’s a small thing to give up in the grand scheme of things, isn’t it? At least Youtube loaded today, right? It’s all worth it, lol.
Just remember to type “thanks” in google keyboard whenever you want them to know you appreciate them. They log it.
Oh yes I forgot that pointing out the flaws in privacy-related things, so people who are interested in switching know what they’re potentially getting in to, is a big NoNo here…all hail the perfect FOSS which can do no wrong.
The purity tests are so exhausting
Yup, privacy (and many other things) should be done to ones ability and not to ability of others.
deleted by creator
They’re the ones foisting their requirements on others. Somebody shares what they do, and the purists come storming in with their righteous condescension. Nobody asked for that negativity.
Don’t feel pressured by me. If you feel pressured yourself, it may be a form of projected guilt.
If you don’t find privacy and security important enough to give up your connectivity or usability, that’s perfectly fine. I don’t have to live with it.
Dead Kennedys were prophetic when they named one of their albums “Give me convenience or give me death”.
Having not used default Android for many years now, what makes GrapheneOS worse (aside from a few apps not working - which isn’t an issue I’ve had, fortunately)?
GrapheneOS is not worse than other custom ROMs, never said it was. it’s a mediocre experience best described with a “meh…” and a shrug.
Sorry, I was asking about GrapheneOS vs stock Android. I assumed that your comments on it were in comparison to stock Android since that’s what the previous user most likely was asking for.
The answer is the same, very average.
Yes, ive had zero issues with it 👍
You have to pay google to use it (only works on pixel phones afaik).
There’s a thriving used market with significant discounts if you’re willing to go 1-2 models back from the latest ones.
The issue isn’t that. It’s that devs may juat abandon projects if they’re too naughty for Google cos the custom ROM crowd is so tiny.
Right so think torrent clients, idk, Pornhub app, that sort of thing. Yeah, it doesn’t affect your phone. But it absolutely will affect what software is available at all should Google clamp down on this.
Fuck google
Easily the most disgusting company in the planet and it’s funny that their old motto/slogan was ”Don’t be evil”.
Sounds like you’re not familiar with Oracle…
One rich asshole called Larry Ellison…?
I’ve recently gotten to think that the company which made the basement for all these disgusting companies is usually viewed as not just not disgusting, but almost holy. Meaning Sun. So, maybe, judging the tree by its fruits, the most disgusting company was Sun.
I mean, I know that everyone who used their products and of course people who worked there are still in awe and remember it like a Soviet summer camp shown in the Everlasting Summer game.
But perhaps that’s misguided. They’ve built the hierarchical systems, the infrastructure, for all the dystopia of today, and their code still powers much of it.
Also you know how the second competitor in an almost monopolized market is sometimes considered an accomplice of monopoly? Because they are strong enough to support some of its ways, while the rest are not. So they reinforce it. I’m also looking at Firefox writing this. Literally.
Perhaps we’d have a better environment office-wise if LibreOffice and OpenOffice were not a thing. They support MS formats, thus indirectly contributing to MS dominance. The network effects work in a few different ways, while were it different, those desperately needing MS documents would use MSO, at the same time those just needing some office suite would possibly not.
Perhaps that can also be applied to Unix and Unix-likes, Sun made a lot of momentum for Unix and Unix-like desktops when they contributed to TCL/Tk so that it became a tool for making Unix and Unix-like desktop applications easily. And when they created Java and Java applets in web browsers prepared the public for scripts in browsers and cross-platform applications served over net.
Yes, it all felt like heaven behind the corner, but perhaps they are to blame. What if.
After all, much of that was free or for the cost of a CD then, and free cheese usually is part of a trap. Perhaps if instead commercial competing platforms, like Amiga or even Apple, were to gain more following, we’d have a different world. All those development resources couldn’t have been gifted (Sun in the 90s, I mean, and honestly many universities) out of nowhere, something made that worth the expense.
Or, if we want free and open, Lisp environments are somewhat easier to hack on (also again about TCL, it kinda approaches that in convenience for a non-programmer to make something simple, quick and dirty, but good enough), and accessibility to wider, eh, masses is meaningful here. So maybe GNU shouldn’t have gone with a Unix-like system idea. I mean, OK, they do have a Lisp environment fit for everything, it’s called Emacs.
BTW, about disgusting companies coming to mind first, I’m not disgusted by Oracle, in comparison to most other big ones they do honest business. I dunno why they are hated, uncle Larry says dystopian shit with enthusiasm and no remorse, but at the same time his company sells exactly what it advertises. It’s all kinda open and straightforward, it’s the “one rich asshole called Larry Ellison” company, which may not be what someone likes, but is certainly better than companies actively building worldwide digital fascism (it, of course, offers expertise and help to those who do in case they need it). Also he’s really a self-made man. Unlike all those other types from good families, good environments and with good education.
OK. I just have that conspiracy theory brewing in my mind about Sun actually being evil. Sorry.
google is pissed people were deleting that spying app on android phones, plus thier constant attack on adblocking on youtube wasnt working to well. since samsung and iphones pretty much walled in thier os, why not google.
Spying app?
And they can suckle upon my peener.
I’ll go to Graphine or something else before I let the company for whom “don’t be evil” was too bold a statement dictate my fuckin’ choices.
I already ditched Windows. Can’t be that hard to cut Google out too.
Graphene has locked itself to google hardware, and google can cripple them at any point by stopping bootloader unlocks. We need to go deeper, or aim higher as it were
They haven’t locked themselves to Google hardware by choice, it’s the only hardware with the security features they need so far.
Remember graphenes goal is a very secure OS, not just a more private degoogled one, for that there’s /e/os and other options that support more hardware.
They have stated that they’re more than willing to work with any manufacturer who is prepared to make a device that meets their security standards. But as it stands, Pixels are the only unlockable devices that meet that standard.
Someone like Fairphone could do pretty well from a tie-in with Graphene. But it’s up to them.
Not that they locked themselves but other vendors locked and isolated themselves by not provideing enough hardware and software security measures so graphebne will be able to strenghten them
