Why I'm Ditching Android • Hacker News Board

Re: Why I'm Ditching Android

#81

Post by mtgx » Sat, Nov 03, 2018, 3:46 PM UTC

brownbat wrote: post #44

Based on the stated concerns, data sent to Google, bundled apps that can't be removed... And given the author's interest in FOSS... Really interesting Lineage failed. He claims apps kept nagging about the lack of Google app support. How pervasive is that? Could he have just found a couple app alternatives rather than throwing them all out at once? It's hard to disentangle whether the problems we have are with our pho…

Google has entangled its Play framework deeply into the AOSP, obviously on purpose, not necessarily to discourage ROM developer, but I'm guessing primarily to discourage OEMs from changing AOSP too much, as well as slow down Android fork-developers such as Amazon.

Re: Why I'm Ditching Android

#82

Post by hso1 » Sat, Nov 03, 2018, 3:51 PM UTC

sergiotapia wrote: post #35

I made the opposite move last month. Ditched my iphone 6+ and went with a Samsung Galaxy S9+. Apple soured me with their bullshit around throttling the CPU to make the battery last the same. No wonder my phone was performing like shit. But here's the bad news, this new phone I got is still not so hot. I still run out of battery despite working from home and only using the phone for google maps and calendar/slack when…

I managed to get Google Maps working on my Nokia 3310 3G

Re: Why I'm Ditching Android

#83

Post by jeremyjh » Sat, Nov 03, 2018, 3:52 PM UTC

SamWhited wrote: post #12

I've been coming around to this way of thinking more and more lately. Apple has a clear business model that involves selling high-end phones and other hardware and taking a percentage of app sales, not selling me to advertisers. I've found at least 5 different privacy settings buried in various places around the Android menus in a confusing way (instead of just having a single switch in the privacy settings menu), an…

Something like 20% of Apple's revenue is payments from Google for sending them search traffic from Safari and Siri.

edit: This is wrong, I can't find the source for that now but probably it was referring to 20% of services revenue. Its only like 5% of total revenue: http://fortune.com/2018/09/29/google-apple-safari-search-eng...

edit2: This was the source[1], they quoted 24% of services revenue:

[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-11-02/apple-...

Re: Why I'm Ditching Android

#84

Post by luord » Sat, Nov 03, 2018, 3:56 PM UTC

> I’m never going to completely get rid of Google, that’s impossible at this point

And here's the crux of why I just don't bother, then again it's not really that big of a deal to me that I'm the "product".

I'll probably regret it some day, but I'm hoping that I won't.

Re: Why I'm Ditching Android

#85

Post by robin_reala » Sat, Nov 03, 2018, 3:56 PM UTC

kevq wrote: post #71

diminish wrote: post #23

I won't ditch Android for Apple. Apple is restricted, Safari is a tragedy for the web and prices are too expensive for the value. Somehow I dislike everything Apple represents, and reminds. The design, the simplicity which comes from restrictiveness. Even the lightest Linux window manager like i3wn, is better than all of os/x does. I will just wait till a true open source option comes.

Simply install Firefox and your problems are over. That's what I do on my iPad, and what I intend to do on the SE when it arrives.

Firefox on iOS still uses the system WebKit. I disagree with the premise that Safari is a tragedy for the web though.

Re: Why I'm Ditching Android

#86

Post by thrill » Sat, Nov 03, 2018, 3:56 PM UTC

pseudoandy wrote: post #19

I remember when Ubuntu tried making a mobile phone OS( Ubuntu Touch ), but it never was a commercial success. I was extremely dissatisfied to hear about Google and their phone upload requests. It makes me question whether Android is a good choice after all( not that I agree with Apple, either ). That is the problem with modern-day tech, there is not enough choice in the market. Everything is either bought out or chok…

I felt Ubuntu gave up far too soon.

Re: Why I'm Ditching Android

#87

Post by 013a » Sat, Nov 03, 2018, 3:58 PM UTC

jeremyjh wrote: post #83

SamWhited wrote: post #12

I've been coming around to this way of thinking more and more lately. Apple has a clear business model that involves selling high-end phones and other hardware and taking a percentage of app sales, not selling me to advertisers. I've found at least 5 different privacy settings buried in various places around the Android menus in a confusing way (instead of just having a single switch in the privacy settings menu), an…

Something like 20% of Apple's revenue is payments from Google for sending them search traffic from Safari and Siri. edit: This is wrong, I can't find the source for that now but probably it was referring to 20% of services revenue. Its only like 5% of total revenue: http://fortune.com/2018/09/29/google-apple-safari-search-eng... edit2: This was the source[1], they quoted 24% of services revenue: [1] https://www.bloom…

20% is a huge overestimation. Apple's revenue in 2017 was $239B [2]; Google paid them somewhere between $1B and $9B [1]; 0.5% to 3%.

[1] http://fortune.com/2018/09/29/google-apple-safari-search-eng...

[2] https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/AAPL/apple/revenue

Re: Why I'm Ditching Android

#88

Post by Johnny555 » Sat, Nov 03, 2018, 3:58 PM UTC

arminiusreturns wrote: post #75

The second a pure linux phone without googles bullshit (which includes allowing manufacturer and carrier bullshit) comes out, I'm switching. Until then I'm sticking with my blackberry android because at least I have a linux underside and a foss appstore. Google had such a good opportunity with android, and shit the bed with it, abusing users and letting manufacturers and carriers join in on the abuse. There should be…

I think you already missed that boat:

https://www.techradar.com/news/canonicals-dream-for-an-ubunt...

Re: Why I'm Ditching Android

#89

Post by rando444 » Sat, Nov 03, 2018, 4:00 PM UTC

me551ah wrote: post #4

Notifications, as you rightly mentioned, are a huge problem with Android. Some manufacturers implement battery saving measures which force kill applications so they can no longer process notifications. I used to work at a team messaging startup Flock and we used to get a lot of complaints from users about missing notifications. We were able to detect impacted users and reduce complaints substantially using duplicate…

Pardon my ignorance, but why do you see this as an Android-only problem?

Surely every possible operating system suffers the same problem, no?

Re: Why I'm Ditching Android

#90

Post by rootusrootus » Sat, Nov 03, 2018, 4:01 PM UTC

asveikau wrote: post #53

k__ wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lineage seems like a reasonable solution. Dropping Android for iOS is a joke.

Yeah, if you don't like something Apple puts in their image good luck... On the other hand it's not always as reasonable as it should be. I do find it frustrating that devices are so locked down, to the point where finding something to run lineage well and has the feature set you want can be tough. With my latest attempt I found a phone where several models, depending on what country and carrier, would not unlock the…

Thing is, there are plenty of places where Google dictates Android options that you cannot do anything about. It is not like Apple has a monopoly on this.

The idea of mucking about with multiple phones just to find the one which irritates me the least is very unappealing. It's an appliance, I just need the thing to work.