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.
The year of the Linux mobile is coming.
I’m bothered that big companies, especially tech right now, no longer see their customers as people they need to please to stay in business, but instead as something they’ll inconvenience and squeeze as much as they can possibly get away with.
They all got to where they are making, at one point, amazing products. Now? Fuck making windows useful, we can throw ads and AI at you every place we can think of. Fuck all of the parts of Android that made it stand out, we tell you what to install. You don’t want all of your data scraped and sold? Fuck you, there’s 3 of us and we’re all doing it. In fact we’ll never stop finding new ways to harvest data.
Phones have basically stagnated entirely in the US. Sure you get moderately better chipsets, but what else? AI? I haven’t had a phone struggle with anything in… maybe 10 years. Instead features that people didn’t use enough just get removed.
I came here specifically to ask about alternatives to Android now that google is becoming too abusive in the relationship.
As shitty as M$ is, it would have been nice to see Windows phone become moderately successful and be a third primary mobile os.
of course google wants every developers id the second they get into bed with a fascist federal government
Fuck them. I have a guitar a pocket watch and a wind uo radio. Everything have is a nicety.
Time to back to the analog world and short wave radios.
I’m not giving up my off the market pixel dungeon mods.
okay well goodbye Google, then
what’s the alternative here?
Are we already nostalgic for analog oligarchy?
The infuriating part of the Google enshittification process is that there is nothing the user can do about it.
Literally the only thing that motivates Google is profit. Controlling side-loaded apps will almost certainly boost their profits by a infinitesimal fraction of a percent, therefore it will be done. Even if consumer uproar causes Google to back down in the short term, they’ll simply implement this a few months later. Late-stage Capitalism sucks.
You can stop using all Google products. Now I understand their market share on the web means they’re going to continue to shape the web.
But make no mistake. There is something, however small, that you can do. De-Google.
if I don’t use android or iOS, I can’t use my banking apps, pay with my phone, access government services as they require an app to sign in, etc. it’s just not doable anymore for me
Ignoring the fact that iOS is an option, I bet you’re mostly mistaken and there is a web based or non app option for everything, even if it’s not obvious.
The only people who can de google are basically single shut ins with a job that doesnt use anything google.
If you have kids or a company that uses google products. It’s a bad fucking joke to talk like it’s even a realistic option.
Google is basically shoved down your throat. In most cases by the law literally. Seriously FUCK how tied the public education system is to google now.
I will help hand hold anyone who wants to build servers or services (to the best of my ability) to replace Google services with their own.
There are a lot of alternatives out there. What service or services are you stuck on?
For me, MitID in Denmark. 100% required for society and life here, requires Google Play Services now :(
I tried e/os on my Fairphone for a bit. I think I could make it all work okay enough besides that. I should write people at the government or something I guess?
Also, only officially browser for MitID is fucking Chrome. Always works with Firefox or libreWolf, though. However, I have contacted MitID two times about issues. They are always referring that I should look at the help page supported OS/browser blah blah. They don’t care about the part of the population that doesn’t use Chrome. Ironic that the same government now screams and shouts about how we have become too reliant on US big tech… Idiotic tech noob politicians.
Yes! Being active politically is always important.
Be civil and polite at first, you want these people on your side after all. But don’t be afraid to hold back if they respond with bullshit either. They are your representative, make them represent you and hold them to account if required.
Encouraging friends and family to write is usually a good idea too.
Not being politically engaged, I feel, is one of the main reasons for the downfall of democracy throughout the globe. Too many people think ticking a box every 4-5 years is all they need to do.
A good bit harder since I’m not a native Dane. In some more years when I’m a full fledged citizen I can start in earnest, but I’ll ask now at least
Don’t use the app then? I have a key thing which works quite well. https://www.mitid.dk/en-gb/get-started-with-mitid/how-to-use-mitid/mitid-code-display/
TIL this exists. Super cool.
Hvad koster det?
As the much more timely reply indicates, it is quite free
Jeg tror det er gratis
Edit:
Jeg var lige inde og kigge på MitID hjemmesiden. De skriver selv at der ikke var noget problem uden play integrity. Men at de implementerede det alligevel:
Therefore, an integrity check is now being introduced to ensure that the MitID app is downloaded from the certificed Google Play or Apple App Store, and to check whether Google or Apple consider the phone the app is running on to be compromised or not. This is happening even though there are no known cases of fraud with fake MitID apps.
https://www.mitid.dk/en-gb/about-mitid/news/mitid-gets-an-extra-anti-fraud-mechanism/
I don’t know myself, but Graphene OS (on Google Pixel phones) has a pretty impressive sandbox layer for the play store and the apps it installs. It might be worth looking into if you’re not aware of it currently. (But if you’re aware of the Fairphone, I’m guessing you probably know about Graphene).
On graphene the release of the integrity API broke most of my gvt applications. I will have to buy a cheap android phone to be able to fill my taxes… I contacted them, they told me it is for security, I argued but it is useless. I have to buy an android phone or be punished for not filling my taxes. Amazing
I do, but as far as I was aware my Fairphone can’t run Graphene? I would love to keep using my Fairphone over buying Google’s hardware at this point
Then buy second-hand. You aren’t giving Google any of your money, and you can focus on increasing your privacy.
You are correct, Graphene only runs on Pixel phones. I know there’s a few open mobile OS options out there but I’ve not spent any time researching them. There is a very good chance if you absolutely need an identification, then you can’t get away from Android. Hopefully someone else sees your comment and has an answer.
graphene is only for pixels i believe.
I’ve never heard of that, so I looked it up. There definitely appear to be non-Google alternatives.
What? You can’t use an alternative app. It’s government issued identification and required for life here.
I (and as far as I can tell, all others) can’t get it to work outside of android
https://international.kk.dk/live/online-self-services/mitid/mitid.
- Android app
- Apple app
- “Code display”
- “Code reader”
Does not appear to “require” Android.
Got any advice on alternatives to Drive? I keep considering nextcloud, but people I know have said it’s a resource hog and finicky at best.
Syncthing
This is the answer unless you consider setting up a DIY home server fun, which often the kinds of people who recommend options for this kind of thing do… so just keep that context in mind here with recommendations.
Syncthing is a great solution and it is wayyyyy less a headache than any other DIY method I have done for replacing cloud/filesharing purposes.
Syncthing is what Dropbox was, before Dropbox became just another cloud data provider.
just be sure to check if the deletions sync timeframe suits your case. in the new 2.0 deletions are not remembered forever
people I know have said it’s a resource hog and finicky at best
Those people may be the kind who tell you formatting your hard drive and reinstalling windows every other week is the best way to keep it ‘clean’.
Ive been using Nextcloud at multiple businesses for years, its a rock.
Nextcloud definitely seems solid… but let’s be honest, it is definitely a resource hog. I tried deploying NextCloud on a VPS with 2GB of RAM, with most features turned off. The instance was empty. After a few minutes, I started getting alerts that I was using 100% of my memory.
Nextcloud isn’t gonna work the way you expect it to with 2GB of RAM. It doesn’t seem like you’d be able to run this on some cheap, low powered device.
Someone rewrite it in Rust! 😅
It’s 2025. Many cheap, low-powered devices have more than 2GB of RAM at this point.
Make sure you have swap enabled and it’s fine. Any file host is going to be aggressive with memory to cache all the files and metadata for quicker browsing.
If you’re looking to self-host, nextcloud is the way go. But if you’re just looking for a drive alternative, there’s plenty of simpler alternatives, like proton or kdrive.
The UI is a little crazy but I am a big fan of copyparty. I have moved my entire family off of Google Drive and we use copyparty, and it works great. Uploads are fast, lots of features, easy to stand up and doesn’t consume lots of resources. But like I said, the UI could be better.
It’s very young and got very popular suddenly, someone will make a nice stable UI for it at some point…
I’ve heard that someone is working on one, so fingers crossed it comes out soonish. It’s fine for me as is, but it’s a little difficult to promote to people used to the simplied Google and Apple UIs
Seafile is an alternative for self-hosting: https://www.seafile.com/en/product/seafile_on_premise/
I haven’t tried it. Seems to be more efficient than Nextcloud. It also has way less features. So. 🤷
You’ve got some good suggestions, I think most of the suggestions I can think of. Nextcloud is of course the big one but after using it for quite a while, I think it’s important to break down your needs. If you need file sharing/syncing only, there are better options that are easier and faster. If you only need chat/voice, rocket chat is really lightweight and easy. If you need file sharing, online office suite, chat, etc. Then Nextcloud is the right option. Just keep in mind, even if you think you need some of those things, will anyone but you ever actually use them? No, they won’t, because they don’t appreciate how cool it is to self host and how much effort you put into it.
I run Nextcloud inside a VM, running on a decade+ old Intel gen 3 computer and the interface is snappier than navigating around google drive.
It is finickier to self-host than syncthing though, if all you need is sync. There are also tones of providers out there that will sell you Nextcloud or similar services.
Sign up for 10 different free accounts of Proton Drive? It has 5gb free cloud storage.
Though I always prefer the simple physical backup to SD card and backup to PC.
I also have a simple sshd server and use sftp when I’m feeling frisky.
Sending from any device to any device using KDE connect is good too.
I moved to pCloud + Cryptomator for general cloud file storage and Cryptpad for online document editing. These cover some of the main functions of Google Drive.
Syncthing is good if you just want files to show up on more than one machine, with no cloud services involved.
Bewcloud?
Email? Its about the only thing leaving me on googles platform ATM. I can self host (with mailinabox) but…I kinda dont want to? Its so much work and I would rather do other things with my time.
I wouldn’t self host email. But I would pay for a host and get away from Gmail. Wait until Black Friday and get free/cheap services from a bunch of places. Maybe even proton if you’re okay with them. Also, using your own domain for email is pretty cool (to me).
Mozilla foundation is putting together a paid product under the Thunderbird brand. Folks are excited for that, the Firefox people are good people.
I use my web host for email. I looked into hosting it myself but it looked way too fragile. The service is included with the website so it’s not like I’m spending any extra money that I wasn’t going to already…
Maybe porkbun if you just need email?
But Porkbun charges per mailbox.
I pay for Tuta, and I have added my personal domain. It works as catch-all, allowing me to have an infinite amount of addresses, so I can use a different email on each website.
I do the same (catch-all, unique every site), but if op doesn’t want to fiddle with that stuff, I’ve heard pb is okay. Just giving options.
I really like Runbox. Nothing particularity fancy, just pure standards compliant email, with excellent reputation, for a very low cost. They have a “drive” too.
There’s also mailbox.org, tuta, the upcoming “thunder mail”, proton, fast mail, probably your domain provider or VPS provider offers email as an add on. Consider paying for a email and a domain. It can be as low as $30 a year, and you become the customer instead of the product. Owning your identity.
You can stop using all Google products.
My public school – that my children are basically required by law to attend, remember – is badgering me to sign a consent form so they can have Chromebooks.
This fight is a lot fucking larger than mere individual boycotts!
And my kids school requires every parent to have a Google account to track progress and share information.
Earlier in my school years, we had to use Microsoft Office products. Then later on we were expected to use Google Drive, as they wanted to teach us what we can use without paying Microsoft.
At one point it was also mandatory to have a blog because the teacher was big on Web 2.0, and they of course pushed blogspot (Google). I think I went with managed wordpress instead, but may remember wrong.
What happens if you refuse?
They kill you!
They probably would have to find accommodation for you, although I’m sure it’d be very inconvenient. But still technically there.
As to if you refuse to have your child be issued a Chromebook and Google account, probably not much you can do, as they are providing everything.
My personal answer to this question is the same as if it were an employer issued mandatory Chromebook; me the employee (or my child the student) is a different entity than me the individual. Me the individual refuses to have anything to do with Google, and that’s enough of a fight for me.
Around here if you can’t refuse. My coworker is currently fighting that battle. His basically being threatened by the state that he either complies, home schools and compiles with those requirements which still has google requirements. Or he has to deal with the legal penalties of not sending his kid to school.
The accomodations is basically pay out of pocket for a private school. Because there is no accmodation for “free” services. Even the “poor” can do it so it’s a non optional expectation.
Mine too, so I do agree with you the issue is larger.
But I believe it can start with individual boycotts.
cant you give your child a cheap laptop, or they require thier inhouse shitty ones, use only?
I don’t know yet; I’m about to email the media coordinator to find out what happens when I refuse to sign the form.
My kids already have Raspberry Pi 400s (might upgrade them to 500s soon), and I have about half a dozen other computers (not including old retired stuff or my pile of other Raspberry Pis), all running Linux. This house is not at all lacking in technology, and I no longer tolerate proprietary shit in it.
What’s really fucked up is that the school district makes all these decisions basically unilaterally – not just for Chromebooks, but for other proprietary nonsense like ClassDojo and Remind and MySchoolBucks – and just assumes every parent will be cool with unquestioningly entering contracts with all these third-party entities. And even worse, most parents are cool with it!
As someone from Russia, I grew up seeing movies where you all over there sue each other over unfortunate rude word.
Perhaps that last paragraph is where you really should try suing someone, no jokes.
We need a “freedom from corporations” clause to go with freedom of religion.
its probably datamining material for google and all these propietary companies.
They require that the kids use the Chromebooks and use Google accounts.
At the highschool I went to, there was some standardized testing (act, ap tests) done in locked down software installed on the chromebooks. Like instead of logging into your user, it was before login with no browser or anything. It sometimes let you have desmos and a small place to take notes.
they mustve started using chromebooks in the 2010s, we dint have any of that nonsense in the 2000s, although it was not much better otherwise.
De-Google
The complaint is side loading is being restricted and the only long term alternative Apple. Google already began the process of shutting down Graphene by cutting drivers out of AOSP.
https://www.androidauthority.com/google-not-killing-aosp-3566882/
Hang on, as somebody who knows enough to be looking into switching to graphene, but not entirely enough to know what AOSP is, what exactly is happening?
Am I going to fuck myself over? If I do end up switching to a custom rom? Should I just wait on the Linux community to build something better?
All I want is a working device that isn’t selling all my shit to Mark Zuckerberg
G is restricting the factory images/source (I believe) that graphene uses to build their system, so they are having to work backwards, take more time, etc. It’s a shitty thing to do but afaik it’s not a blocker. I’m typing this on a gos pixel 8 pro right now.
Linux phones are still in their infancy, and are pretty shit if you need anything more than the ability to call and text (sms) on specific carriers (limitations applies to the USA, AUS, and a couple more I believe). I have a pinephone 1st gen and it’s… Cool for messing with, absolutely, but jesus christ it’s painful to actually attempt to use. I bought that 3y ago and not much has changed, from videos I’ve seen (my pinephone screen is lifting and failing so…). From a developer - like, bringing Linux to the phone platform - sure, grab one. As a user, unless you understand that you very likely will not daily this device (or any similar device) because shit just doesn’t work/isn’t ready and are OK with that… No, don’t. A few more years, maybe.
GrapheneOS is still moving ahead albeit slower, as you said. They are also working on a deal with a phone manufacturer to bring a more secure phone to market. I dunno whether it will just meet the same security levels of the Pixels and ship with stock Android, or if it will be a full GrapheneOS Phone. I’m hoping for the latter, but it will more likely be the former. Fingers crossed.
Yeah, I’ve heard rumors about that in the works but it’ll take a while. I try not to get excited before any product is released, but it will be something I investigate if/when I can pick one up. It’s been frustrating that other similar phones are EU-only, so I hope that won’t be the case with their attempt.
If you get a device and install Graphine now, it should be fine. It’s your future device options that will probably not include an AOSP alternative os. Hopefully Linux will be an option then, but there might be a bit of a dark age in between.
You will have years of Graphene so don’t worry about what might happen in the future.
You can stop using all Google products.
That may be true for you, but other people face different realities. When Google implements the sideloading block it will eventually be pushed to everyone who doesn’t use a custom ROM.
Yes, many at risk programs and housing programs and even Medicare and Medicaid provide phones and other devices to members and those device contracts with Google or via a cellular provider are for hundreds of thousands to millions of people depending on the state or federal program doing the purchasing. There isn’t a reality where those contracts will ever not be for first party devices. Even if we wanted to we couldn’t buy people one plus or other non-Google branded android devices and laptops in these programs because the companies selling them don’t meet various regulatory standards required by the programs.
These people are literally the most at risk and don’t get individual choice for their devices. The devices are being provided in the first place because too many modern systems require internet and phone access. Id.me, login.gov, MFA for your library app, your epic or Athena portals for healthcare, etc…
also not everyone is saavy enough to use obscure services too.
Not everyone cares enough to avoid Google. Some of us that want to do so are related to them.
I wonder if it’s economically plausible to make a FPGA-based all-in-one system. In a “smartphone” box, maybe far weaker than most Android phones, but far less tall in expertise needed to do anything, for a low start to be possible without humongous investment and expected minimal parties. Something graphical Lisp-based as an OS. Perhaps with an interface to use it as a tablet when attached to a bigger box, or a laptop when attached to that box.
Focusing on having the necessary modules and input-output devices, with the FPGA itself being configured with something simple-enough RISC-V based with tagged memory, for example.
Like when you need a portable computer with cell connectivity and a battery, and want to have some choice, but are not too attached to specific platforms and popular places.
It seems that for militaries using FPGA is already an established practice, turns out to be more convenient and even cheaper. And with anything trying to fight big companies, it seems using FPGA will make more sense.
I mean, Sun Tzu wrote about “when you know your enemy and know yourself”, all that. Knowing myself I’m certain that trying to take on anyone bigger and smarter than me using things on their level of complexity is a failure from the start. Knowing them is beyond my ability in general, but we definitely know that those companies are led by very intelligent people who just won’t make the simpler kind of mistakes. And he also wrote a bit on the “death grounds”, where if you leave a path for retreat, that’s not a death ground. I think paths for retreat like alternative Android versions and such are all intentionally let be, so that you’d not resist too much.
Or, this is sort of a fewer dream, or bipolar psychosis to be more specific.
Honestly Googles products are terrible these days. I have been pretty lax about my privacy but after so much enshittification I switched my services to something that works and doesn’t harvest my data for the privilege.
When they kill off Graphene/Custom ROMs I’ll switch to a linux phone or brickphone.
Uhh… how do we stop using Android? I mean, these recent attacks by Google seem like they’re going to break GrapheneOS and friends, no?
What I wouldn’t give for a very simple linux phone. Not android based. That I can call/message from.
Closest I came across that was neat: https://www.wiphone.io/
While pretty neat, I’d have a hard time even calling the WiPhone a phone if it doesn’t have a cellular modem. You’re entirely dependent on having a wifi connection. I suppose it could serve as a replacement for a landline, but that’s about it.
Yep! Its so close.
Looks like they had plans for LTE. Dunno how hard it is to ser up. Probably very hard.
No idea.
Sent from my iPhone.
Oh, thank god Apple lets users install whatever software they want—hey, wait a minute…
The question wasn’t how to switch OSs without losing current capabilities, it was how to stop using Android. Switching OS is how.
Losing side loading is something being lost either way.
The question wasn’t how to switch OSs without losing current capabilities
This is exactly the question. The article is about Google taking away software freedom, forcing developers to dox themselves, and forcing users to only install software from Google’s approved list.
Apple is already there. How would that help anyone?
At the very least, the threat of losing a large number of users may cause Google to reverse their decision.
Ios is bad. I’d rather have locked down android with the official terminal, rather than go back to using the iSh[1] app for terminal on ios
[1] https://ish.app/
Now that AOSP is closing, what are we supposed to do?
AOSP is not closing, the device trees for all older pixels are still there
Linux.
De-googling will break banking apps, since most baking apps rely on Play Integrity checks and bootloader status.
I feel like this isnt always true. I had a GrapheneOS pixel for a while and it never had problems with banking apps
GrapheneOS, so far, is Pixel-only. Degoogled, yes, but you’re still giving your money to Google, and a lot of it.
Buy used
Device is paid for, even if you buy from a re-seller (of any sort)
Then don’t use the apps? Do your banking through the browser.
What a pompous and clueless suggestion. Some modern internet banks are app-olny.
Good luck with your revolution where 10 people are able to participate.
Don’t use those banks then.
There are a couple of issues with that mentality, there are some countries in which money transitions almost entirely revolve around proprietary apps and services, Sweden for example (a decent article that talks about Sweden in particular). In my country, I can’t find any public information on which banks require apps and which don’t. The bank that I am currently using does have a website, but I have to login with a one-time password generated from an app. Also, going to a different bank assumes the same bank won’t do the same and exclusively require an app down the line.
I’ve actually never seen a bank that an app is the ONLY option. And two factor codes should be able to be generated by any number of (sometimes FOSS) apps.
Yes, let me build my life around a fucking ROM lmao.
I don’t understand why you’d have to do that? I have literally zero Google interaction and I don’t have to custom build something. And I access my banks (plural) in browser only.
I was thinking of switching to Proton. I use Gmail, Google Photos, Google Messages, Drive, Keep, Maps, Docs, Sheets. I pay $2 a month for 100gb and unlimited photos on Google. It’s a good deal. The fact that I would have to find out out to make a server, buy storage, piece meal a bunch of open source software that will inevitably not work without tinkering all makes it so easy just to pay the $2 a month.
i pay $20 a year for basically all of that and even more stuff but open source provided and maintained by a local server company in my country. of course i don’t use half of their offerings because some stuff has alternatives more suited for the platform or its simply not needed. but e.g. their service offers nextcloud which has most of the stuff you listed bundled into the platform by default. and then they have another 50 services added on top available for use.
Once I moved away from Gmail cutting off Google services became easy along with finding alternatives. Even if I use Google products like YouTube I can do it without an account with stuff like freetube to have a subscription feed locally and be able to save playlists and keep track of watch history.
So yeah even if Google products are used it becomes less account dependent, so you need a Google account less and less. And changing to a non Gmail email provider was the gateway.
That’s barely a viable option without using apples own walled garden.
I think they are more conscious than to be driven by small margins (another example of such underestimation is Lenin’s “they’ll sell us the rope we’ll use to hang them”).
It’s like boiling frogs - a very slow process of attracting users, slowly killing competition and diversity, slowly making the ecosystem more and more controlled, then slowly making “neutral” systems not neutral anymore (like those features of Chrome making security exceptions for Google services found a few years ago), and slowly desensitizing people to leaps of faith they do trusting Google (and other companies), while the trust accumulates into total control.
This is not late stage capitalism. This is mid stage at best. The entire economy and world population could be shrunk down to literally pennies, as the wealth gap widens. It could have us ending up like district 9, or Elysium as broad examples. The govt and entities have not even started cracking down on illegal activities, loop holes, bank accounts, cash spending, crypto, and more in the super strict enforced fashion they could be.
While rightly fucked up and enshittified. We could be so so much further down the capitalism rabbit hole of hell. Everyone should be boycotting and avoiding the largest companies as a whole. No change you make goes unnoticed. You might be less than 1 percent but the snowball effects happen. Movements, parties, resistance, change, software, everything adds up.
So what you can do. Don’t go mentally insane about it. Most things don’t require THAT much effort. A simple tweak here or there makes an impact.
Its about time an open standard happened for mobile OSes.
That’s what Android was and they keep trying to undo that any way they can
We need a new one that isn’t made by a for-profit company that only was good at the beginning to get total market saturation before flipping the enshittification switch to maximize those profits.
why do we need a new one? can’t android be salvaged? lots of things have been solved already in a way that makes a relatively good foundation.
All the non-Google entities that build stuff on Android need to start banding together instead of siloing themselves. If AOSP is being closed, they need to create a non-profit replacement for it.
The fucked up part is nowadays third parties like banks or sometimes even governments make apps rely on Google services, so you can’t use an ungoogled phone for stuff you actually need for life…
right! I never understood why isn’t there more cooperation between different foss roms, at least sharing patches and coordinating some work.
I guess if Google closes down AOSP it would get forked, and the fork would probably be a separate thing from the current Android distributions. So that the landscape would continue to look a bit like today, except that AOSP would be an independent thing.
Then I guess it’s possible that Google would seek to make android apps incompatible, gradually making the whole thing kinda pointless. I can’t say I’m using Android for the great UX - I’m using it because it supports a few apps I continue to be forced to use. If I can’t use them on Android any more I’m switching to Ubuntu Touch or PostmarketOS in a heartbeat.
Makes me curious if they think their monopoly or whatever they were called cases making them split their browser are going to go though. If you are going to have to sell parts of the company, now would be the time to hammer home any last minute bad things that would make the companies more profitable. Shows higher income for the sale, and gets it out of the way so the new purchaser doesn’t look like the ones who did it, but rather the ones who will make announcements on how they will review things to make them better for the user base.
Doesn’t mean they’ll follow through on them, but it takes the evil and sticks it with the old owners.
I disagree. Google has always been a thinly veiled Microsoft. A wolf in sheeps clothing. They embrace, extend, extinguish. It’s the same thing.
All corporations suck fucking donkey dick because consumers are morons.
We need open bootloader and drivers for phones to make any real progress on this. This is what’s holding back all initiatives.
and many phone manfacterers, issuers(non google, samsung, or IOs) IS CONSIDERING locking down thier phones.
I wonder if the generic tablets with made up Asian sounding names that you see on the big marketplaces could work? They could have slightly larger or smaller screens if they’re cheaper than current phone screens, and could have Linux with something like Signal on them for calling.
They’d probably be lower quality to begin with, but could potentially get better if people start to buy them. They seem to have generic hardware, so might be able to offer the drivers and unlockable bootloaders too :)
I’d be worried about vulnerabilities.
the best outcome for the short term would be to forcibly take away android from google and give it to an independent foundation. as I heard antitrust proceedings in the usa were heading that way a few months ago
So basically remove Google integration from AOSP?
I mean taking away the development access to the project. what do you mean? google based captive portal checks and the similar hidden “gems”?
not with trump around.
And he’s very easily bribed which corporations have caught onto.
Such things are solvable with a bribe in the USA.
FuriOS? Linux-based and runs Android apps.
Not bad, it looks like I have to buy their phone though. Which is not cheap, or performant guessing by the specs despite what the advertising says.
I saw someone else recommending it. I only hope they take this opportunity to release the OS for everyone, but since they’re for-profit, I doubt they will.
Interesting. I’ve not heard of FuriOS, but if it is a Linux phone that actually can be used with US carriers, makes calls and supports SMS/MMS, and can do VoLTE that’s a actually a pretty big deal.
Whenever you see a linux phone advertise both security and android app support, you should be wary, since it’s likely waydroid or a waydroid fork, and their design goal of running android in a container instead of a VM has lead to some interesting security decisions.
I would be very happy if anyone could explain to me in a simple and coherent way why I, as a normal user who am aware of what I am doing on my device and am not targeted by any group that’s out to get me, would need a “hardened malloc”, “secure app spawning”, “vanadium browser and webview”, or a “hardened PDF viewer”. The last of these four is the only thing that means anything to me, and it sounds dumb. Yeah, I know PDFs can be dangerous if you open random shit, but come on.
If I run Waydroid it’s only to get my banking app (trusted source) and Whatsapp (not a trusted source but not directly malware either) working. I hardly need their hardened PDF reader.
Not just your two android apps, any program on your system that is aware of your waydroid installation could potentially use it as a path to escalate themselves to root, which is generally regarded as a bad outcome. If you don’t care about that kind of thing, or don’t think that could ever happen to you, that’s certainly within your rights to hold such a viewpoint.
Interesting. Thanks for sharing!
Still using Android 11? Holy hell.
You realize how many things have gotten shittier since android 11? Accubattery isn’t even allowed to monitor everything using up juice any more. You can’t customize your own charging curves, you’re locked out of accessing portions of your storage on your own phone, and a lot of great power user apks had to completely hit themselves or just stop working all together.
What do you need from after 11 that an apk wouldn’t have allowed you to do already?
I don’t know about anyone else, but I got into computers at a young age because it gave me a sense of control over something. I didn’t understand everything, but I could do a lot of trial and error, read things and experiment, build cool things, and I shared a sense of community with some random internet strangers based on that knowledge.
In a world where we are so powerless in so many other ways, why did we insist on bringing that power dynamic into the new bright tech sphere? Why did we have to do that? (N.B. this is rhetorical questioning).
This isn’t a computer, its a phone.
This isn’t a comment, it’s negative feedback.
Thanks for your low quality input.
In the new Alien Earth TV show, 5 corporations basically run everything… unfortunately I suspect thats where we are headed as a species.
My university actually teaches about the “Meger Endgame theory” (yes, my professor had fun with that one), which states that industries will consolidate until 2-3 global market leaders dominate. So uhh, it’s not just you. Idk if that’s good or bad news for you haha
There are at least two generations of us who are disappointed at the contrast between tech’s possibilities as envisioned decades ago and the corporate surveillance crap we have to put up with today.
The thing that really gets to me is how we’ve gone from “Here, let us sell you a computer that you can push to its limits however you see fit” to “We will sell you a device and ensure you use that device within a given sphere of acceptability”.
I own this phone/computer/tablet/console/whatever, so why the fuck do I have to adhere to their rules? Rules they’ve changed since I bought the device, of course.
We, as in the average every day people, didn’t do shit. The corporations that make the shit we use are the ones who got us here. The only thing the people using the devices and software are guilty of is not making a fuss about losing control over the stuff becsuse the average person does not care that deeply about the tools and likely doesn’t even know about a good 75% of what was lost.
Sadly the majority of normal people don’t want control. They just want it to do some trivial task without any fuss at any cost.
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macs, easy to use
Ive worked on all computer platforms, I actually find Mac to be the one thats the most difficult to get to do what I want.
You’re supposed to stick to doing what Apple thinks you want to do, how Apple thinks you want to do it.
When reading cyberpunk lore, quickhacks didn’t make any sense to me. Some programs that break cyberware because of backdoors, but why would people install cyberware with backdoors?
Now I look at the sad state of mobile market and, yeah ok, that makes sense.
That makes sense and all but where does the poison come from??
Some really vicious backdoor that contains dangerous substance in a hidden chamber? Not a far reach when we are talking about corporate backdoors normalized.
I mean the cyberware is a direct neural interface so presumably it must be able to manipulate and alter the levels and balance of your neurotransmitters. Im sure increasing aome to insane levels would have pretty toxic effects, like serotonin syndrome for example.
I suppose that’s a good enough hand wave explanation.
I thought though, just purely for curiosities sake, that neurotransmitters are released by a voltage potential difference over some sort of gate caused by a flood of sodium ions (a chemical signal), and it’s not just a matter of conducting current. That means the cyberware has to somehow attach inside the axon and on the outside, across the gate to create that voltage difference. And that’s for one gate.
I feel like the more one thinks about this the more the name should be changed to 3077.
