E: apparently it needs to be said that I am not suggesting you switch to Linux on your phone today; just that development needs to accelerate. Please don’t be one of the 34 people that replied to tell me Linux is not ready.
Android has always been a fairly open platform, especially if you were deliberate about getting it that way, but we’ve seen in recent months an extremely rapid devolution of the Android ecosystem:
- The closing of development of an increasing number of components in AOSP.
- Samsung, Xiaomi and OnePlus have removed the option of bootloader unlocking on all of their devices. I suspect Google is not far behind.
- Google implementing Play Integrity API and encouraging developers to implement it. Notably the EU’s own identity verification wallet requires this, in stark contrast to their own laws and policies, despite the protest of hundreds on Github.
- And finally, the mandatory implementation of developer verification across Android systems. Yes, if you’re running a 3rd-party OS like GOS you won’t be directly affected by this, but it will impact 99.9% of devices, and I foresee many open source developers just opting out of developing apps for Android entirely as a result. We’ve already seen SyncThing simply discontinue development for this reason, citing issues with Google Play Store. They’ve also repeatedly denied updates for NextCloud with no explanation, only restoring it after mass outcry. And we’ve already seen Google targeting any software intended to circumvent ads, labeling them in the system as “dangerous” and “untrusted”. This will most certainly carry into their new “verification” system.
Google once competed with Apple for customers. But in a world where Google walks away from the biggest antitrust trial since 1998 with yet another slap on the wrist, competition is dead, and Google is taking notes from Apple about what they can legally get away with.
Android as we know it is dead. And/or will be dead very soon. We need an open replacement.
Instead of waiting, you could just go to a flip phone as a temporary measure. It’s a lot less on the mind. Believe me. And you may feel in the end, that you won’t need a smartphone anymore.
I don’t get it. I’ve never been addicted to my phone. It’s just something I can look stuff up on listen to music and maybe remote to my server. Oh also navigation I used that every day when working.
Music? Get an MP3 player. Navigation? Get a paper map. Want less stress? Learn to not rely on a smartphone. This is what people fail to understand. People functioned before smartphones were even a thing. People, especially younger people are just too conditioned to think outside the box.
Or, continue to deal with the smartphone rat race. It’s that simple.
Is funny, if you talk about an iPod or even cds nowadays people think youre about 10,000 years old. There was literally nothing wrong with that tech and it kept us away from corpo prying eyes and social media addiction.
Well, I don’t care what people think. I chose it (a flip phone and MP3 Player) for my peace of mind these days.
If they want to be big tech pawns and continue their circle jerk of drama, like the original poster, then that’s fine. And if people I engage with in public can’t be bothered to pick up the phone like a normal person to talk, then I just move on. Because clearly, they’ll never step outside of their smartphone. Not that you really can engage socially with those people to begin with; as they are so addicted. Just like the drug addicts.
You and I definitely think the same. I’ve said the same to my friends that continue to slurp up corptube media and have no problem with it. Gross.
I’ve made a rule. Not only does the people I hang out with have to be able to call me and pick up the phone, but anyone who is staring at their smartphone constantly, while they are supposed to be hanging out with me, I stop hanging out with. Because clearly they are too busy wasting time on social media.
I’d have few friends if I did that :/ . so many are addicted.
I’d much rather have a few good friends who want to socialize with me, over a bunch who couldn’t give me the time of day; due to their social media addiction on the smartphones.
Realistically, i think this idea might work well in tandem with a sort of PDA built off a Pi. I use my phone as a computer, because its a computer. The parts of my phone that i need to be a phone are calls and text, as i dont take photos almost ever. Data is nice, but im fairly certain i had seen recently a sim module for Pi devices, so i can just bake it into that instead so i still have a mobile computer.
Someone will eventually make a better phone OS, but in the short term it seems smart to move to a dumb phone and offset everything else to a device tou can actually control.
I’m not hoping on that; especially if big tech is involved in anything that becomes mainstream. The best option is just to avoid the mainstream.
That’s the real point I am making. But people who put their entire life into their phone are incapable of this. And that’s what’s depressing about all of this. Because of addictive social media algorithms, people hinge their entire lives on their phone.