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Why I'm Ditching Android

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Re: Why I'm Ditching Android

#241

Post by TheRealPomax »

muro wrote: post #170
TheRealPomax wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not, though. WebView is the built in web view mechanism for all apps that don't want to roll their own web view, and Chrome for Android is a browser that makes use of that WebView mechanism. Strictly speaking, a browser is just an interface that lets you interact with web pages. And you're not locked into WebView: if you actually wrote your own, you're entirely free to deploy it. It's just insanely hard to write…

I understand your point and you are right. There is a difference between theory and practice - in practice, it is Chrome.

Plainly no: in practice, it is the Android SDK WebView class, not the 140MB Chrome app.

Re: Why I'm Ditching Android

#242

Post by ric2b »

pjmlp wrote: post #234
imandride wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have a very 80s way of thinking good sir. There is no longer a need to have these limitations in place anymore.

Yeah like paying for our tools like other professionals do. /s

Apple already charges to publish to the app store, just raise the price for people that aren't using a Mac and let people develop on the platform they feel comfortable in. Everyone wins.

Fighting the customer doesn't usually go well in the long run.

Re: Why I'm Ditching Android

#243

Post by solarkraft »

IronBacon wrote: post #225
solarkraft wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also like a lot about this phone's hardware (too sad they decided to not continue it), but the stock software on it is quite annoying (glitches, insane loading delays, ads). You can get Sailfish OS on it for 50€: https://forum.xda-developers.com/x-compact/how-to/sailfish-x... I currently use an Omni ROM weekly build (Oreo, waiting for Pie). It's so much smoother and less terrible than the stock software. Sure, this…

Omni ROM isn't LineageOS but a binary built from the Sony AOSP right? Considering I disabled all Sony applications because I have no use for them, with the exception of the keyboard because can't be disabled, Omni ROMs are another option that I hadn't considered. I already dumped the TA partition with the DRM keys many moons ago (I only need to find where I stored it), but I suppose they only work with Android. I'm t…

I'm not sure if Omni builds on Lineage, but they don't use any closed source Sony stuff, I think.

The open camera drivers bring a great performance increase in shutter response, but a pretty bad decrease in low-light performance.

The build I'm using has some annoying issues like a barely working fingerprint scanner and Bluetooth audio, but even with that it is less irritating than Sony's to me. I assume both are fixable fairly easy (I'm waiting for Pie builds).

The official Sailfish OS builds come with an Android app runtime (Alien Dalvik), I think, but it may be missing some security features.

I'm not sure if it uses the official Sony camera drivers, information about this seems to be conflicting. Maybe both are available, if Sailfish utilizes Android drivers.

Re: Why I'm Ditching Android

#244

Post by kingosticks »

kingosticks wrote: post #34
qaute wrote: post #21

"I tried replacing Android with Lineage OS on a old phone I had. Whilst that meant I didn’t have any Google Apps on my device, it was still Android underneath. Also many apps kept complaining that I didn’t have Google services on the device." An alternative is to install microG [1], which reimplements assorted Google services. YMMV, but I've been able to run ~70% of all Android apps with no problems. [1] https://micr…

What's the best hardware supported by microG? My current phone is not supported and while my previous one is, it's an original Moto G; I don't think I could handle returning to those specs, not to mention the ageing battery.

I actually tried it on my moto g and it runs pretty well. Everything works so far, this seems like a much better choice than buying an overpriced, discontinued, entirely closed Apple device.

Re: Why I'm Ditching Android

#245

Post by JimGuns »

slothtrop wrote: post #168
JimGuns wrote: post #140

I am not sure how people are figuring this out now. It's only common sense given googles business model and their history that your android phone is nothing more than a tracking and data generation device. I am sure Apple has it's flaws but Google uses Android to double down on selling your info. Be smart, pick up an old Blackberry 10 device and use its Android emulator.

How do you feel about the android-based blackberrys?

I heard they are pretty good and are a bit more secure, but the underlying system is still android.

Re: Why I'm Ditching Android

#246

Post by pjmlp »

ric2b wrote: post #242
pjmlp wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah like paying for our tools like other professionals do. /s

Apple already charges to publish to the app store, just raise the price for people that aren't using a Mac and let people develop on the platform they feel comfortable in. Everyone wins. Fighting the customer doesn't usually go well in the long run.

Customers are Apple developers that care about Apple platforms.

Re: Why I'm Ditching Android

#247

Post by Arnt »

sgc wrote: post #240
Arnt wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand, there should also be zero instances of battery-burning apps, and zero instances of unkillable apps. IMO the blame belongs mostly to the thingies that kills apps so hard that Android blacklists them, and won't start them again until the user explicitly does it. That Android has that blacklist is understandable; that "battery savers" get innocent apps added is IMNSHO offensively shoddy.

I had no idea they did that. Does Greenify work that way?

Never tried Greenify. But the two I've seen close apps in a forcible manner that Android cannot distinguish from a buggy app that crashes repeatedly when restarted. Then Android revokes the app's right to (re)start itself.

The user retains that right. But the app cannot e.g. schedule anything to be run next time the phone is on WLAN, or next time the battery is being charged.

Re: Why I'm Ditching Android

#248

Post by pokemongoaway »

JimGuns wrote: post #140

I am not sure how people are figuring this out now. It's only common sense given googles business model and their history that your android phone is nothing more than a tracking and data generation device. I am sure Apple has it's flaws but Google uses Android to double down on selling your info. Be smart, pick up an old Blackberry 10 device and use its Android emulator.

There's also CopperheadOS. If only we could get more hardware support :)

Re: Why I'm Ditching Android

#249

Post by IronBacon »

solarkraft wrote: post #243
IronBacon wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Omni ROM isn't LineageOS but a binary built from the Sony AOSP right? Considering I disabled all Sony applications because I have no use for them, with the exception of the keyboard because can't be disabled, Omni ROMs are another option that I hadn't considered. I already dumped the TA partition with the DRM keys many moons ago (I only need to find where I stored it), but I suppose they only work with Android. I'm t…

I'm not sure if Omni builds on Lineage, but they don't use any closed source Sony stuff, I think. The open camera drivers bring a great performance increase in shutter response, but a pretty bad decrease in low-light performance. The build I'm using has some annoying issues like a barely working fingerprint scanner and Bluetooth audio, but even with that it is less irritating than Sony's to me. I assume both are fixa…

Thanks for your experience, I need a quiet weekend to try it then. ^__^;

About Sony official camera drivers, I checked briefly and it looks like they are available only on Android.

Re: Why I'm Ditching Android

#250

Post by archi42 »

kop316 wrote: post #104
archi42 wrote: post #25

I'm currently in a similar spot, but am very surprised you did not mention MicroG, which is an open reimplementation of the Google APIs. There seem to be some issues with GCM (or, more precisely, the newer replacement - uhm, FCM?), but imho it's worth a try. If you already have a LineageOS-supported device, you can grab a prebuilt LineageOS+MicroG image from the MicroG site. Disclaimer: That's pure theory. I'm still…

Have you looked here? They do builds of lineageos with mircog already installed https://lineage.microg.org/

Thanks :), but as I said:

> If you already have a LineageOS-supported device, you can grab a prebuilt LineageOS+MicroG image from the MicroG site.

I redacted a lengthy part of my comment since I felt it wouldn't add anything to the discussion; but it went like this: Sadly, my device (HTC 10 aka pme) is officially only on LineageOS 14.x, which is Android 7. Since I am coming from Android 8 stock ROM, I'd like to stay on Android 8 or even get Android 9. There are unofficial LineageOS builds for this (from a guy who just doesn't merge the back to LOS; which I can understand considering the additional effort - on top of all the work is already doing). But of course they lack the necessary patches for MicroG. And the MicroG only pre-builts are based on the official LineageOS build process and thus the official images. So I can only get Android 7 + MicroG with the comfortable "grab image and flash"-method.

I gave building a custom MicroG+LOS{15.1,16.0} a shot using the official MicroG docker image (just a single docker run command) and adding the unofficial builds local_manifest.xml, but those two builds failed for me and I didn't bother messing around with that docker c*. Accidentally, I did that the day before this was posted to HN, no changes since then. But I suppose I'll try a docker-less build on my machine once I feel like it.

Eventually I can just put MicroG on the unofficial build from xda-devs, since that doesn't contain GApps; but I am not sure how great the experience is when not having the MicroG/F-Droid patches. I will see.

EDIT: Regarding signature spoofing, the MicroG github wiki says:

> You can also patch your already-install ROM by flashing NanoDroid-patcher, without any computer interaction. It will auto-patch every updated ROM.

So maybe that works.

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