I respect people’s right to use apple products, but please stop asserting “privacy”, big corps doesn’t give a shit.
It’s really funny seeing people who defend capitalism trying to avoid capitalism problems with individual actions instead of organizing themselves and fighting for the interest of their own class
Yeah, I use lineage with microg…and it’s been tough… I had to deal with several government apps in order to start a new job and guess what? None of them work…I had to use my wife’s phone to get my new ID… I’m a teacher and I have to use government apps to deal with student’s absences…that Does not work either…basically anything that relys on Brazilian government app to authenticate something is not going to work. I tried to use the website…guess again…it does not work! One can’t export an ID from the website…I had been dealing with banking apps without much trouble…but this ID thing is terrible! How come you can only do stuff using an app and not using the website!?
Don’t feel bad. Nothing wrong with using an iPhone if you need to. The custom ROM world is janky at best, and it even requires two devices at some point.
Apple is kicking and screaming all the way on this side loading path.
As soon as Google got away with it, Apple will refer to Google and happily claim an even playfield and everyone is left holding the shortest stick.
ITT
“I give up”
I’m so glad someone else is seeing this.
Watching people say “I’ll just use an iphone because android is too locked down” really reinforces my opinion of the average person.
Listen. I’ll be the first to pirate and the first to ditch giving companies like Amazon or Google my money.
But I draw the line at my phone. I tried GrapheneOS and had so many issues with things like banking that it’s just not viable for most people.
I love my iPhone for what I use it for and it works as intended. I listened to yall and removed windows for Linux and that was a shit show too. Nvidia drivers ugh. WiFi just stopping etc. easier to use windows to load the one app of stream I use and do some dev work.
I understand. When my Win10 PC was approaching End Of Life, I switched to Linux instead of buying a new computer. I’m fairly familiar with Linux since all my servers are Debian, and it’s been great. I tried three distros and they all were unstable due to my hardware. When I asked what I should do, I was told I should buy a new computer that was compatible with Linux. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
I’m using Ubuntu now on that computer, and it’s more stable, but I’ve still had to use a boot drive to roll back TimeShift after a hard crash.
And this is my man issue. Time. Time is precious and I don’t want headaches where I don’t need them. That is phone and pc.
Sure I’ll make life harder and more expensive by not shopping at massive companies. Or not using Netflix or Disney so I have to shop elsewhere and build a media server, on Linux, but most people just want to turn on a pc open stream and play Factorio.
Honestly? Skill issue.
It takes some time and effort to get up to speed on community driven operating systems but it’s a much happier life once you do.
I’m a software engineer mate. It’s not a skill issue, it’s a time issue. The last thing I want when I’ve finished debugging for clients is to come home and debug my own machine or phone.
Maybe it’s a young man’s game. I have the same issue with my media server, I was happy to sink a few weeks into setting it up but it fills me with dread that something goes down and I need to spend more time fixing things. But I’ll do it with piracy as I see the benefit of not giving money to streaming services.
Edit: all I want from this community is a little nuance in that Linux or Privacy centric phones are not for everybody and they should respect others peoples choices. I’d rather spend my time rock climbing and running these days than sat near a computer outside of work. Although it’s winter coming so I game more then.
I respect where you’re coming from, But the mentality of Linux users to say “skill issue” in these situations is the #1 reason why Linux isn’t more adopted. Is it a skill issue on the user’s end or is it a skill issue on the Linux developers’ end? Maybe they should make more automatically functional out of the box software. Doesn’t feel too nice to be told that does it?
Not everyone has time to become skilled in computing. Additionally, Linux users are so deep in the computing rabbit hole that they don’t even appreciate how deep in it they really are. What strikes them as basic or fundamental is really confusing for a lot of people.
It is not acceptable to just blame the user and say that the problem is that the user is a fool. That could maybe be a reasonable standpoint if 99% of people were using the software without issue, but we all know that isn’t the case with Linux.
Someone wants to boot up their computer and get on Wi-Fi and play games with their updated drivers. Windows provides that out of the box, without them needing to do anything. That is factually a better experience than needing to screw around reading a bunch of guides and forums and running commands that you don’t understand for potentially multiple hours. Blaming that on the user just means that the users continue to have a bad experience. If that’s the view the community wants to take, fine - But then don’t complain when the majority of people don’t want to use your thing.
Exactly this.
HeThey told me, a software engineer, it’s a skill issue. For me it’s a time issue. Time is precious, in fact my most precious asset and gone are my days of playing with operating systems. I just want to load steam and play Factorio.The other thing these people don’t realise is a lot of engineers are using windows at work too. Our tiny company of engineers is all in on Windows and does exactly what we want. I’d prefer Mac but windows is fine.
People are saying this?
Are they idiots?
Someone actually said that to me the other day. (I am no longer friends with that person). I think its because people (especially americans) see that almost everyone is using iPhone so their tiny social media influenced brains say “If EveRy oNe USes ipHonE it beTteR”. Meanwhile us sensible people just sit here internally screaming.
iPhone users
Yes
Once my GrapheneOS phone goes out of service, I may just go back to flip phones. I actually kind of hate smartphones and their corrosive effect on the world. The convenience isn’t worth the loss of privacy, empowerment of bad actors, and psychological/societal damage. I can live without it. I’ll just do computery stuff on real computers on my own schedule.
I’m just saying that you can uninstall stuff from your smart phone.
Use it for phone stuff, not computer stuff.
But hey, don’t let me tell you what to do. Have fun.
Week 4 on GrapheneOS:
This is the best. I should have done this years ago.
Even IF all you care about is performance, this is the option. Fastest pocket derputer I’ve used in my life.
Just use the device mobile security researchers use.
You’re gonna hate it when you discover which one it is.
Yeah, just hating on iPhones because they’re iPhones is stupid. I use GrapheneOS, and their official statement is “Graphene is your best option for security, but if you don’t want to fiddle with things and be in an open source ecosystem, your #2 best choice is an iPhone”
Excuse me Sir/Ma’am is it socially acceptable to dislike walled gardens and horrendous UI design at the price of more than a new laptop computer
I’d love to use graphene if it didn’t require me to buy a Pixel
I genuinely don’t understand this mindset. they work fine and the security seems unmatched.
It’s not hard to understand for me.
I don’t have a Pixel. GrapheneOS now costs me hundreds of dollars. I’d like to be able to flash a custom ROM, but I literally don’t have the option without buying into it. I’m sure the Pixel is fine, but so is my current phone that also already cost me hundreds of dollars. This is a ridiculous problem to have.
I’ll never use an android device again knowing what I know about them.
I begrudgingly use an iPhone, knowing what I know about them.
Baseband will always be against you, no matter what choice you make.
Just use the device pedophiles use.
Survivorship bias: don’t use the phone they get caught on.
Without defending one or the other, as long as you have proprietary closed software running on the device itself or on the backend of the services it syncs with, all you can have is assumptions and reasonable doubt about how the data is used. We’re trading convenience for someone knowing something about us.
The fact that there are only two operating systems and both are locked down is a major problem. Unless a company like Valve invests heavily in a linux phone it is unlikely to ever go mainstream enough for developer or device support.
We need governments and legislators to force these systems open. To enshrine the right to control the things you own and criminalize any attempt to curb people’s ownership or control. That is the first step. Once that’s in place, the environment for a third option to exist will be in place.
There are more than these 2, they are just ubiquitous.
Sailfish is another one, UBPorts, Danctnix, … They have no marketshare worth considering for companies so they lock their services down to the 2 big ones and everything else in their eyes is “unsupported” at best and “not secure” at worst.
What Linux based phones are actually worth trying? Something not built on old hardware, and can actually install apps, messages people and work as a phone. And that I won’t have to chase issues and bug fixes on nonstop to keep it working. Something stable for daily use, works in multiple countries, and not just something to play around with.
Are the fair phones really that bad on Ubuntu? I was sizing those up for my next phone
So far there’s this company: https://furilabs.com/shop/flx1s/
The phones actually seem really neat, they’re running real Linux, with Waydroid for sandboxed android apps. But it’s got… quirks. It’s very GNOMEy and there’s still a lot of battery issues and it can be a bit awkward to use.
Also, since apps are sandboxed, something like sending pictures over Signal can be tedious without extra steps.
But it’s an exciting step forward and the devs are really involved with the community!
Alternatively I imagine there’s something like PostMarket on a Fairphone. Even with their issues, I appreciate what they’re trying to do.
it doesn’t matter if apple cares about privacy. corpos shouldn’t have this data in the first place.
Yeah, you can go with a Linux phone but forget about:
- controlling any IOT device
- using any smart watch/sport trakcer
- Android Auto or any remote car features
- mobile banking
- authenticating at work
- buying public transport tickets from your phone
- using apps for boarding pass when flying
- charging your car at most public chargers
- using any type of digital ID or documents
If you’re already a luddite that’s awesome, you’re free to move to Linux phones. If you like modern tech and the convenience it gave us it will be really fucking sad to lose all of it because or corporate greed.
Agreed, but is a chicken and egg problem. People won’t use Linux because the apps they want don’t support it and apps won’t support it because most people don’t use Linux. Someone will have to cave in if we want to break this stupid proprietary duopoly.
Someone will have to cave in if we want to break this stupid proprietary duopoly.
Honestly that’s not a chicken-and-egg problem. Only one party of the two in this example has the power to create or change apps, whereas people in this example, even if they would use Linux, they effectively are prevented from.
The “someone” who has to cave in is obvious.
The best way is freeing Android. Android should be the “Mobile Linux”. What should happen is that EU should ensure that people are allowed to side load and unlock bootloaders and that all apps are compatible with alternative ROMs. All dependencies on google play services should simply be made illegal and all apps should be fully compatible with AOSP.
If we can’t get this we will spend the next 10-15 years in mobile dark ages. Mobile Linux may never get enough tracking to be supported the way desktop Linux is.
I don’t think it’ll play out that way. Manufacturers aren’t going to ditch Google. Play Store and Google certification are too valuable for them. And for small developers, most of them rely on Google’s infrastructure. If the EU decides to take that away, only big players with resources could handle their own systems, which ironically makes things less open because indies get squeezed out.
If we skip the Play Services part, the EU might push for sideloading and more openness, but realistically Play Services will remain dominant simply because it’s the easiest and most convenient option for developers. So we’ll probably end up with a halfway solution: technically more open, but practically still dependent on Google.
If we really want change, proper GNU/Linux phones need to catch up or at least run Android apps (APKs) reliably. That alone would solve 70% of the problem. The remaining 30% comes down to infrastructure and right now Google Play Services is just too polished and convenient (especially for indies who don’t care about FOSS ideals) for devs to walk away from.
Manufacturers aren’t going to ditch Google. Play Store and Google certification are too valuable for them.
If legislation is made such that eg.: in the EU phones can not be registered in the cellular network unless they are open to both normal installation of apps (sIdElOaDiNg) and being able to fully install or remove Google Services, then Google will have to deal with who would want to work and pay to get a certification that effectively blocks you from selling and operating in one or more continents.
And such legislation would be not without precedent: open phones and custom ROMs are already suffering from it.
What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.
I will admit I’m ignorant here. What do companies use Google Play Services for? I developed some Android app and I never had to rely on Google. I just used F-Droid. Other than play store for distribution, which services provided by Google would be so hard to replace?
Location services, geofencing, connectivity sign in, banking services… basically the walls of the garden
I used to run an LTE-enabled nettop instead of a phone during the app-only craze, can’t get any worse than that. Recently removed bank apps, taxi, delivery, maps, youtube, email and all social media apps off my phone in favour of using websites instead. They’re still a bit of an afterthought compared to apps so the experience is a bit clunky, but the option is available for most things nowadays.
Some things yes. I don’t have any social media apps (not even lemmy) or YT but my car charger requires an app, my AC has an app I use from time to time, my Garmin GPS has an app, I have to use MS Authenticator at work, my car has an app and Android Auto and 90% of public car charges require an app. None of this has website alternative. Can I live without them? Well, not without work obviously and where I live electric car infrastructure is so tied to mobile phones I’m seriously considering just giving up and going back to a normal car.
Don’t they have functioning Android app support now?
In theory yes but most non open source apps require google play services. Hard to tell how long those will work with waydroid and similar. Also running android apps this ways destroys battery apparently.
Most of this i don’t use my phone for anyway. I’ll use my current android phone for the rest, if needed.
Still going to wait and see if the Eu makes a move, but i won’t go back to fascist enabling corps.
Yeah, sadly I don’t see a way around it other than having spare Android/iOS phone.
For some time GrapheneOS should work just fine but when Google kills it we’re fucked.
After using GrapheneOS on a gigantic fucking Android pixel model, I think I’m gravitating back towards the third option and the iphone mini I haven’t dared to sell yet. I think I’ll just do the things that needs privacy on my computer in the future.
I wanna run away to live with dogs like Diogenes. I’ll live in a basket and piss and shit in the streets. No spyware phone required.
