Damn America loves itself a duopoly.
Writing has been on the wall about what would happen with no adequate balances in place to prevent this kind of takeover.
Unfortunately, that’s the lesson they learned from why monopolies are bad…
We had our chance to buy a Windows Mobile phone 🤣
Time to branch out, get more manufacturer support like Motorola and champion the consumer. C’mon graphene throw us a bone.
I’m not sure if “rival” is the right term. Seems like Google would be very happy to be a monopoly.
step 1 - buy Linux phone
step 2 - profit!
Buy linux phone
Try to figure out how to make it work
Where are my apps
Why is the camera shit?
Profit, I can purchase stamps to communicate with those on the other side of techtopia.
Jokes aside the curve is too steep, feature parity lacking and network effects too strong. I would like to but where is the on ramp? Do I have to go back to blurry slow cameras and no face unlock or fingerprint? NFC? Car projection? Can I get a sandboxed whatsapp?
then give up your freedom for the features you are used to, but don’t complain later.
But sure I could go back to te stoneage so, are you offering an alternative or not?
Its easy to tell people to value privacy, which I do, but the reality is that to encourage privacy being adopted you need to offer or incentivise its adoption.
It affects you if you dont, your number in my phone is scraped all the same. Your secure emails land in my insecure inbox.
you are mixing privacy and freedom, but generally speaking all alternatives need effort, including the one I already gave you.
be the change you want to see, as they say.
or don’t but then this happens and it sucks more than not having NFC or whatever.
No, he has a point. Linux phones are not an alternative at this point because they aren’t even remotely close to feature parity. It’s like arguing MS Paint is a viable alternative to Photoshop. Currently there are few if any actual alternatives to either iPhones or flagship Android phones. The best you can do at the moment is one of the de-Googled flavors of Android but that only buys you so much and even then you’re losing a fair amount of functionality.
I actually bought a Linux phone a few years ago but the experience then was so terrible it wasn’t much better than a pre-smartphone like an old Nokia. It seems like things have improved a lot since then, but even now it’s not to a standard that a Linux phone is a viable alternative for anyone that needs more than just a web browser and basic calling and texting. Hopefully it will get there soon, but it’s definitely not there yet.
the point being “I prefer being sodomized by corporations instead of putting some effort in switching to an alternative”?
well yes, as I already said you totally can, but it’s already backfiring so I wonder where do you people draw the line, assuming there is a line at all.
Nah man you are not arguing in good faith. Linux has come on leaps and bounds since I first tried it in school and it is now my desktop OS. It is cumbersome but worth it. If it was only available as a terminal or CLI or whatever I would not be using it.
At a certain point what you areadvocating isnt an alternative so much as advocacy for advocacy sake. Just telling people to leave a product is the same as saying the alternative isnt an alternative.
"I prefer being sodomized by corporations
Hey, no kink shaming!
Phone as payment is the real hurdle.
A Steam Deck could be used to call and text. It’s all the digital ID encroachment that’s keeping people from ditching mainstream operating systems.
I was literally gonna press buy like a week ago but I’m really glad I looked deeper because apparently camera doesn’t work yet on anything besides the Librem 5 which first off I can’t afford and second Purism seems sketchy.
see my other comment for an answer.
“Just do without the camera” is just not a realistic thing to say to most people.
it depends where you draw the line.
for me it’s absurd to force me to use a google-rigged device.
for someone else becoming an androidcentipede could be acceptable.
I hope every de-googled os goes completely open source supportive. And i hope people choose these os’s over google or any other closed source/centralized company
And world peace and the end of hunger too.
Sadly most people will get slowly boiled like a frog. People got comfortably numb and they want everything spoonfed. They won’t learn new things, they won’t wean off big services that make everything convenient.
The issue is that a lot of everyday services depends on Google.
If your bank decides it integrates with Google Play Services, well fuck you, your degoogled device won’t work anymore and you’ll have to switch banks or forego using your device for banking.
Every corpo is pushing hard to interwind themselves with your day to day so that they become the gatekeepers of your life and rent seek.
It’s easy for us to find an alternative because we are tech litterate, but not everyone has the knowledge to do so and it is increasingly hard to do so.
Well DUH…
Google and the Open Web
-
Embrace
-
Extend
-
Extinguish <-- we’re here
Ah yes, the 4X buisness strategy. Building an empire through four core pillars:
eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate
-
Im just waiting for somebody to make a plan for resistance. So far the best I have seen is going to the doorsteps of google to cry and beg them to stop.
thats not my cup of tea
But I think the real reason nobody is doing this is the paradigm of reasonability.
Nobody want to step their foot down, because that’s not reasonable. We are supposed to make it work like the wife exposed to domestic violence.
But we need to stop being reasonable and start being assertive.
But for real, I think GrapheneOS could take this stand if they’ve got the balls.
GrapheneOS uses Google hardware and depends on Google publishing the Device Tree Blob to create their software over.
By branching with Motorola, it gives them more viability for when Google decide they won’t publish the DTB anymore (it will happen).
But GrapheneOS is still dependant on Motorola not being dicks.
Slowly bringing his palm to his forehead a raspy voice whispers “***No Shit ***MORONS”
Well, yeah, we’re well into the stage where it’s not quality that sells Google products and services.
This is the Pillaging Stage of Google’s business: as they screw both customers and users (Google’s customers aren’t their users) for short term “growth” they can only hold market share by taking advantage of market barriers to entry, networking effects and their current market share to force both customers and users to keep on using Google products and services.
European institutions and apps should be banned from employing reCAPTCHA, Google’s Play Integrity API and Apple’s App Test API, if this is how they are to function. At the same time, Apple and Google need to be sanctioned for this approach, as I am certain that it violates fair competition laws.
More anti-trusts lawsuits please. Just put a fine of no lesser than a 100 Billion $ on these parasites.
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 long-term option we have.
Sailfish is also a great option too
Unfortunately, Sailfish OS uses a proprietary (closed source) android compatibility layer, as well as a closed source UI.
For the parts they have open-sourced, they implemented a CLA that contributors must sign. It’s the HA-CLA-I-ANY license, which specifically allows them a perpetual Copyright and Patent license, and permission to re-license your code contributions to a more restrictive license which enables them sell or package it into a closed-source proprietary app.
Personally I’m be more comfortable supporting the development of PostmarketOS instead, since it is completely open-source with no CLA, meaning no chance of any rug-pulling in the future.
How does this compare to Graphene? You can also be Google free using it
Graphene is Pixel only and aims for privacy and security.
PMOS aims to bring Linux to the maximum amount of devices (phones, Chromebooks, tablets, QEMU) to give them a life beyond the manufacturer’s support.
I would compare PMOS to LineageOS over Graphene.
Motorola will have a GrapheneOS compatible handset. I use a Pixel 9 Pro with GrapheneOS though, and it works reasonably well.
Reasonably? What issues have you encountered?
Considering putting it on my phone
It’s a PITA to use. You set up different profiles for different uses to separate out app tracking. Turn off Google services when you can. Manage each app. Switch profiles around constantly.
It’s work But… ain’t nobody watching you.
Security. Privacy. Convenience.
Pick two.
It is just Android with extras. You don’t have to create a lot of profiles. I use one profile for F-Droid and one for Google services (sandboxed). You could use it with just one profile for everything as well. I have shortcuts on the home screen for switching profiles, which improves ux a little.
Sure, you could. But that defeats the purpose.
They always watchin’ spooks errywhere.
GrapheneOS won’t protect your cellular data and metadata. It can’t stop location tracking by cell tower. But it does a lot for those who are privacy concerned.
You don’t need to use multiple profiles. You can just have one profile and use the phone like any other Android.
GrapheneOS is great, and it’s what I currently use, but it is ultimately a hardened Android fork. One downside of that is it is completely reliant on manufacturer updates to continue to support a phone. Once a manufacturer drops support, the Graphene team must also drop support, as they are reliant on the closed source GPU/hardware drivers that are tied to specific android kernel versions.
PostmarketOS is not based on Android whatsoever, it’s a Mobile focused Linux distro using the mainline Linux kernel. It uses open-source drivers for the GPU and hardware which can be maintained and supported for decades, and is completely independent of Google’s influence. However, it’s still currently rough enough around the edges that it isn’t ready as a daily driver, which is why it’d be so helpful for us to donate to it, so they can hire more developers to polish it up, just like they recently did to improve the audio support of Qualcomm devices.
Awesome. That’s what we need and I donate soon.
Technically you cannot since they basically develop Android.
It’s still ultimately downstream of Google code, though
Most people don’t care.
Hell I’m even the “weird one” only because I tend to use FOSS options when I can.
Who the hell would use YouTube over NewPipe??
i had to install Newpipe in my gf’s phone, she’d show me something in YT and need to wade through endless shit before getting to the content. I forget occasionally how shitty an experience YT can be if you don’t make some effort until i use someone elses device.
Ironically, the “weirder” option is more convenient in most cases. NewPipe sometimes breaks when there are API changes or some bs, and vids with age restrictions don’t work at all so I would need to look for another vid with the same content (or use a browser sadly)
I think spreading awareness about privacy would be the first step to move people into decentralized platforms
Getting more open hardware though requires more efforts unfortunately
Brothers in arms mate. I use FOSS whenever absolutely possible. I hear about a new type of service, and my first criteria before evaluating it is, can I run it as FOSS? If the answer to that question is no, then I immediately reject that new service until I can use it in a FOSS manner. Do not pass go. Do not collect one Monero.
Is there an advantage to using newpipe if I pay for premium?
More privacy
You can stop giving Evil Inc your hard earned money
It’s like 5usd for a family plan in my country. I doubt that’s making a dfference. Also, I sincerely doubt you’re not using any Google services/products in your life. Not to mention that there are plenty of "evil inc"s out there.
Re: 5 USD. Google makes most of it’s money from advertising - which works by tracking everything you do and building detailed profiles of you.
Re: I sincerely doubt you’re not using any Google services/products in your life. Not to mention that there are plenty of "evil inc"s out there. This might not be intentional, but it sounds to me like whataboutism combined with “there is no perfect option, so we shouldn’t do anything”. 90% reduction in use of google services, is better than not doing anything. Heck, 10% reduction is better. Whatever gets you started on the journey. And as a lot of people have correctly identified, it’s not easy. It takes time.
Google makes most of it’s money from advertising - which works by tracking everything you do and building detailed profiles of you.
So the answer’s “no”? Gotcha. I do try to avoid using google products and I do use extensions to try to prevent tracking. So maybe they’re making less money off of me than others? Who knows.
This might not be intentional, but it sounds to me like whataboutism combined with “there is no perfect option, so we shouldn’t do anything”.
Not even close my friend. However, you can’t fight every single battle. I try to pollute as little as possible, selfhost everything I can, don’t buy things I don’t really need, etc. Regarding youtube though? I just wanted to watch videos without ads on my tv and it cost me next to nothing to be able to do that.
Pro tip :P you can use "> " to quote text. It’s easier to read.
“My small contribution to evil is meaningless “. Gotcha.
You’re so far off the mark that I’m not even going to keep spending my time to explain why.
I did not know about new pipe. Thank you
Pipepipe is working better for me
I feel the days of free YouTube front ends is coming to an end. I’m honestly surprised they’re still alive. Didn’t they try to kill yt-dlp recently? Together with their playstore developer verifications, YouTube VPN restrictions, making life harder for Android derivatives, YouTube ad blockers, and on and on, I don’t see a bright future for anything that piggybacks off of Google’s back.
I’m still waiting for a mobile phone manufacturer to support a free OS. Until then I’ll stick to degoogled android.
“I hate Google so much!” - typed from a Google Pixel phone. . . 👀️
My sibling in Satan, there are two options and they both have lots of things to dislike. I’m not going to begrudge someone from wanting more and better options because they are using what they have to…
you sound like someone that preheats the microwave
You are a normal user of sidewalks.
Yeah but what are you gonna do about it?
