About to…?
We need go start talking about the year of the GNU/Linux phone
Or the year of free (as in freedom) pocket computers, since the global telephony system goes against the freedoms.
At the end of the day, all you can really do is to start treating your phone more like a phone and stop carrying it everywhere and using it for everything.
The convenience of it has made it way too easy for people to spy on you.
My wife would hate it, if I were no longer reachable.
No. I haven’t used Google apps on my phone for years already. That includes Google Play Services and the Play Store. Most apps are open source and I’m self hosting my media.
We gotta claw this shit back.
In case you are looking for Google alternatives to other services, I highly recommend Organic Street Maps or Magic Earth or Kagi Maps instead of Google Maps. Also FreeTube or Yewtu.be instead of YouTube. And mail providers like Proton or Tuta Mail that are end-to-end encrypted. And VPNs like Proton or Mullvlad. And most of all search engines like DuckDuckGo or Ecosia or Kagi or Tor to onionize your search experience. There are many alternatives to Google. I try to recommend for people to move away from Google where they can. I realize Google has worked their way into many websites and can be hard to get around in that sense, but ad blockers and DNS resolvers like uBlock Origin and NextDNS help to prevent tracking from Google.
Do you have custom ROM + no gapps? Gets harder and harder if you want a new phone once in a while.
Yep. My disdain for the combination of fascist government where everything is surveillance, and sociopathic corporations and billionaires where everything is a cynical cash grab, overcame me excitement for tech “products” a long time ago. I’m in the US so it’s especially bad.
I still have a smart phone that’s 4-5 years old, and I do of course use it every day, but I consciously avoid using it every hour. I love when I misplace it in my own house, to then not look for it for hours. The only person who is going to message me anything urgent is my wife and she knows where to find me.
Constant phone addiction is one of those situations where when you remove yourself from it you can more easily see it in others. It’s like there’s a new form of body language where when you see that slight forward tilt of the head you know they are in the Phone Zone without even seeing the rest of their body.
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I still have a smart phone that’s 4-5 years old,
Mine is an older model too, thankfully. I never needed the bells and whistles other people are into, which probably helps me stay more secure.
But I also just love that I’m not reaching for my pocket every 30 seconds for another dopamine hit too.
I have thought about trying to get away from shit but it’s hard. If I want to stop using my phone regularly I need to purchase a GPS unit, wire up a charger for it on both my bikes (go deep in woods some times so I use gaia on my phone to figure out where I am), I’d need to get an mp3 player for music, and no more scheduling everything on my phone calendar. It’s an effort, but the more this convenience starts to cost (both in $ and privacy) the more willing I am to make the effort. Another major gripe I have with phones is their all so goddamn big now too, last comfortable to hold phone I had was a damned s3 now everything is a mini tablet and I have big hands. My SO hates phone shopping cuz her hands are tiny! Can’t hold the damn things with one hand anymore lol
I understand.
It’s a bummer what we have to consider to avoid people snooping, but it’s (at least in my humble opinion), necessary.
A good way to start breaking the habit and only using it when you need it is to just keep it in another area of your home. I keep mine in a bathroom drawer.
If you are going through this much effort you could consider getting an /e/OS or GrapheneOS Phone?
My buddy has a pixel with graphene and loves it. I am not familiar with /e/os how does it compare? I have a not terribly old Moto G (2025) right now as it was the cheapest phone I could get locally after loosing my last one deep in the green mountians so I hate to have to get a new phone again already as this one seems to be unsupprted by either G or E os’s
I don’t know your budget but I got a pixel 9 that I put graphene on, and a year of 10gb monthly cell service for 550 total. The pixel was from eBay, and the cell service is from usmobile. You could go cheaper with a pixel 8 and a different provider
Yea. Also have an old moto g and am sad to find that E and G os are not compatible.
As a person who uses a few sideloaded apps, this is sad news.
Well, as far as I know the current idea is that you’ll have to toggle a setting in developer options and wait 24 hours (once). After that you can sideload unverified stuff as much as you like. So it’s not horribly sad, I´d say.
I actually kind of think that’s a reasonable change. It improves safety for the clueless majority, but it still gives those that know what they are doing a free reign with a minor initial inconvenience. And I kind of feel like articles still claiming how horrible this all is are mostly just outrage farming. Unless the plans have changed to something more fucked up, that is.
Publicly traded companies are soulless entities that are legally bound to 1 and only 1 goal, short term profits. Any time you see a company do something stupid, ineffectual, completely pointless, ect., then what you are seeing is step one in a plan. It is costing them money and future profits to make these changes that they know will be wildly unpopular just to maybe, sort of, possibly could, but won’t really, protect a very small number of the dumbest people on the planet? No, companies ruin, poison, make homeless, and kill people constantly while being completely aware of what they are doing. They do it and continue to come up with new ways to do it because they have just the 1 goal, profit. So, if this is not altruism then what is it? That’s what people are upset about. Because there are a lot of reasons for them not to do this, but the only reasons for them to do it are all bad in addition to violating their 1 goal. And they are still doing it anyway.
No, it’s not reasonable. Fuck the clueless majority. Stupid people should be prevented from hurting others, but they should not be prevented from hurting themselves. If you manage to download malware that’s on you, no big brother should ever be controlling what you can and can’t install on your personal fuckin devices. I’m a fucking adult and I do not need or want some bullshit fucking kid mode imposed on my personal shit because Google went full fucking nazi. Companies have no business dictating how you use your own purchases property. Imagine your fucking car saying nah you’ve already driven twenty miles today it’s not safe for you to drive more and just shutting the fuck down. Every motherfucker making these decisions in every industry need to be publicly gruesomely executed. The owner class needs to remember who they’re accountable to.
Don’t cut yourself on that edge there, bro.
You know why we first called malware computer viruses, back in the day? Because they spread.
Every infected computer makes the botnet stronger and more effective at infecting future computers.
Every personal email account that’s hacked and exploited is a treasure trove of information against all that person’s friends and relatives and contacts, and a vector of attack against everyone that person has ever emailed.
So yeah, we need security controls for the same reason we need vaccines. Because public health protects everybody.
If that’s the plan that is perfectly reasonable to me. Thank!
If AluminumOS takes off and overtakes Windows and Mac marketshare, desktops are headed in the same direction as mobiles.
As long as you can build a computer from off the shelf parts we are fine in that regard. They can’t stop FOSS OSs from working.
Gross, combining Chrome OS with Android? NO thanks! Another OS to harvest data to the max! “The enemy of my enemy is my friend” does not apply to Google at this point.
On top of desktops getting turned from the last remotely open platform into existence into locked-down black boxes fully controlled by Google if AluminumOS actually succeeds, and Google’s positioning it in a way that it might just succeed, positioning it in between Win10 getting deprecated and Win11’s continuing enshittification, Google could just severely undercut the cheapest Win11 PCs and the Macbook Neo and gain marketshare by selling AluminumOS devices as a significantly cheaper option than Win11 PCs or Macs. If that happens, and that tactic actually works and PCs and Macs get overtaken in the desktop market by AluminumOS devices, it’s game over for desktops as an open platform.
Keep dreaming! Chrome OS and Chromebooks in general are nearly as expensive as actual windows PCs with 5%the functionality. Just go straight up Linux at that point!! Free, open source, EASY to install or dual boot even. It is far better than anything Google would put out.
If you’ve never tried it, follow any one of the million guides for Ubuntu or Mint and you’ll be amazed. Even Steam OS, CachyOS, ZorinOS, or other gaming oriented systems.
I forget this isn’t the privacy thread, but you can’t just “hope” Google’s going to fix everything wrong with Windows when they’re doing the same exact thing as each other. You want to break free, you want functional, you want privacy, get Linux.
I’m calling AluminumOS out as the threat that it potentially is if it actually gains traction. If AluminumOS takes off and overtakes Windows and Mac for desktop marketshare, desktops will be guaranteed to end up being locked down like mobiles. I’m actually scared about AluminumOS and how it’s being positioned.
“Android fans”
Android Hostages lol, what am I supposed to do use an Iphone?
Yes
A major hardware and software change is happening in my life too, Google, to excise you from every facet of my life.
I was just getting home picking up my new second hand Pixel 3a to install PostmarketOS on. Wish me luck :)
Was it really ever?
Please consider donating to PostmarketOS to build up a pure mobile Linux alternative that is completely free of Google’s influence. It’s the best option we have.
Just signed up to donate 5 euros a month. Took me about 45 seconds.
Legend! :D
What about fairphone? Don’t they run a Ubuntu option?
The issue with Ubuntu Touch is that unfortunately it uses an outdated Android kernel (which is also usually not receiving security updates) and a Halium abstraction layer to access the closed source binary blob Android drivers for the phone’s hardware. It also requires that it be installed on top of an existing Android install, so in all it’s more of Linuxified layer on top of Android, which means it’s not truly escaping the control of the Android/Google ecosystem.
UBPorts also which also appears to inherit the use of CLA’s from Canonical:
I’m very much not a fan of CLA’s., which SailfishOS also employs.
The advantage of PostmarketOS (even though it is not ready as a daily driver for the average person), is that it uses the upstream Linux kernel with open-source GPU/hardware drivers, not an Android kernel to access the outdated proprietary GPU/Hardware blobs.
Hijacking as I’ve done on other posts. In my country all 3 major tellcos needed to verify phones can call emergency on VoLTE.
FP5 does this. For whatever reason the telcos cant “conform” that (its not sold here but important and DOES work) so the device is blocked at a network level.
Not blocked just for calls but even data.
Phone is now a brick. Double brick once the Android changes roll through.
no they don’t. they do have a partnership with Murena, which sells them preinstalled with /e/, which is a degoogled Android ROM. there is a Ubuntu Touch port available for some Fairphone models though.
So that would be a yes. Yes they do.
And Why are we being confrontational about this?
I thought graphene was the best daily driver for the moment ?
Graphene is currently the best daily driver for the average person, but as they are a hardened Android fork, they are still somewhat reliant on Google playing ball.
PostmarketOS is not ready for the average person, but it is our best long-term option since it is not based on Android at all.
It’s the best option we have.
Long-term, yes. It isn’t ready as a daily driver for the average person (hence why I used the term ‘build up’), but there is realistically no other option that can be truly be called community owned like PostmarketOS can. It’s our best shot at a permanent non-enshittified platform, it just needs our support so it can become polished and support more phones :)
Wow, that guy is an absolute putz. Like, postmarketOS literally tells you that their shit is not ready for prime time and to be ready for it to be a little bit wonky right now. And this guy is acting like they’re advertising it as it is ready for Freddy and it’s just garbage or something. Not to mention the way he installed it was just stupid. My 8-year-old niece could do this better than he did.
I think I’ll find a video made by somebody more competent.
He’s a comedian. His videos aren’t meant to be taken seriously.
Ok, so I might as well buy an iPhone then because this is the only thing android did better lmao. Fuck you google.
Use GrapheneOS. It’s degoogled android. Currently you have to install it yourself on a Pixel phone but AFAIK Motorola is working on releasing device with Graphene pre installed
looks like I know what my next phone purchase will. and new, even.
I hate Mussolini, i’ll side with that Hitler guy
Do they actually make it better or does their marketing say so?
It’s made better, especially if you have additional Apple products.
I already feel the angry fanboys, so I’m ready for downvotes.
considering, EU aside, that you can’t load software on an iphone outside of the App Store, I’d say yes.
TempleOS phone, when?
Hold my lithium
Love that some megacorp can just make decisions like this that affects billions of people.
Really just feeling the fucking freedom. I hate everything.
The megacorps can do anything they want with their product. The chef can change the menu anytime and he can refuse you service - it’s his restaurant. Our problem is that it’s a duopoly and there’s nowhere else to go.
The only way out is open standards and platforms, enabling true competition.
Real quick.
Just imagine you order a plate of pasta. You’re only two bites in, and it’s DELICIOUS.
Then here comes chef. While making full eye contact, he tips your plate and dumps all of that pasta in the trash.
Chef proceeds to take a giant wet shit onto the plate. He brings a new set of silverware and a fresh napkin right before your server comes back with the check.
You insist that you didn’t order a giant wet shit, but they won’t take it off the bill.
Let’s stop pretending this is an inevitable oopsie. This shit is egregious.
Daddy Googs won’t be happy until it’s a walled garden just like iOS
“Fascist oligarchy of capitalist dictators continue to implement totalitarian surveillance apparatus. Majority of talking chimps sleepwalking into dystopia.”
Don’t overstretch my analogy like that. How about this:
Google has standardized The Restaurant. The kitchens all have the same tools and ingredients and are open to anyone. Seating and billing is standardized, and you can easily order and pay at your table, and the food is delivered straight to you via pneumatic tubes and nicely packaged. The food might be expensive or cheap, tasty or revolting, but the experience is always the same.
There are a lot of hobby cooks that like to cook in the Google restaurants. If you want to eat their food, you might have to pick it up straight at the kitchen, or nicely ask the hobby waiters. The cooks have been there for years and whipping up nice creations - mostly for free, beacause the ingredients and tools were free, and they really like to cook. Because the food is so good, some people tip the cooks or waiters directly.
Now Google introduced a new rule: everyone has to use their billing and pneumatic delivery system, citing improved food safety. The hobby cooks and waiters are infuriated, and even some of their customers, and they demand that everyone can still come to the kitchen or the waiters. But Google just says: look, my restaurant, my rules. If you don’t like it go make your own.
Android was an open standard and platform, a LONG time ago. Then Google did a rug pull with all new features of android requiring 100% of their services to function.
No, it wasn’t ever. It always belonged to Google who benevolently open sourced parts of it and retains control.
Safetynet and PlayIntegrity are under Google’s control. The PlayStore is Google’s. All of the APIs are Google’s! Hardware blobs are closed and belong to the manufacturer.
Just because some of the stuff shows up on GitHub doesn’t make it an open platform.
Android was out for at least five years before Safetynet was a thing. I’m surprised people weren’t louder in their objections to that then.
Ah yes the invisible hand will fix it
After all it’s the invisible hand’s job
It doesn’t feel so invisible if we’re the ones who have to build and test it.
And just manage to push it unilaterally too. This shit must be opposed.
this is a reply from further down that is actually correct:
This is being presented as more doom laden than is warranted. Ostensibly it is an effort to stop less technically able users from installing malware, certainly there will be unspoken ulterior motivations but such is the world we have allowed to grow around us. As far as overarching evil plans go this is quite a benign example.
Get that boot out your mouth, you don’t know where it’s been.
Which is bullshit. You already had to enable external installs this is just them even farther encroaching on our ownership of our devices.
Are there people who are angry out of principle/ideologically but who don’t do sideloading etc? Because, I’d like to think that if you are angry enough at this, then you have the incentive and the will to root you phone (making it an unsupported device and making it NOT locked for sideloading) and go on with your life. I wish Google died like… Yesterday. Don’t get me wrong. Am I missing something?
I make sure to only buy phones that can be rooted. This change still irks me, because it’s just another notch on the slide toward control and surveillance under the guise of security theater. If AI winds up being as effective as prognosticated, perhaps it’s less theater and more valid. Script kitties could then do a lot of damage.
My concern with sliding toward surveillance is rooted in principle, FOSS ideals that seek to empower users rather than plug them into a matrix. I admit that my idealism is likely naive, depending upon the realities of burgeoning technologies. In any case, I will continue to choose software that allows me to carefully curate what information reaches my brain. I’m in a weird place where I long for transparency, but I have little trust in existing systems. I want the world to be more open and less insular, yet I oppose recent pushes to force identification by limiting user choice. It feels rapacious; I need to trust the system sufficiently in order to consent. A society built upon trust would be far more resilient than one built upon coercion. Coercion is where I draw the line in most areas of life.
You make it sound like rooting is a simple opt-in. It is not. It is not possible on every phone, requires technical expertise, risks bricking your device, you will likely loose firmware update support, various apps (like banking apps) will stop working. It is a tough choice.
You’re right. At the very least, users shouldn’t be forced to make this choice. It’s absurd how little authority we have over devices we have paid for with our hard earned money. :(
not all phones can be rooted nowadays, and when ot can it has other disadvantages too that the current method of avoiding play store does not have
I agree. People that lack the technical expertise or rooting compatible devices shouldn’t be forced to even consider this. Once you have paid for a device, you should be allowed to do with it whatever the hell you want, without Google or other big tech shoving unsolicited policies down your throat.
I would prefer that Alphabet keep Android open, but honestly, how can anybody be surprised? Eventually Google is going to tighten the screws on Android. I haven’t looked into it, but hopefully there are some truly free options out there. Graphene?
Graphene is Android based. Not sure what it’d mean for them in case Android fully locks down.
The sideloading block will likely be enforced by Play Services, so GrapheneOS won’t be affected. Android is also open source, so even if Google implements the block within Android itself, GrapheneOS can just remove it.
So far, yes. But what if they will close stuff down more? My understanding is majority of work on Android is done by Google - so they can decide it will no longer be open source, or just partially.
Google already squeezing grafene. Grafene can no longer use pixel deves, Google won’t open new pixels.
Only new device they gonna get is some Motorola device not yet relesed
Source for new Pixels not being supported please?
Not sure if there is a definite confirmation on this, but I do remember there were hints that at some point they might not support new Pixels. No source on hand though, I only have vague recollection on this
They haven’t said that Pixels won’t be supported.
if apple can profit and survive from a walled garden, google is only now seeing that as a PLUS.
