Earlier quoted context omitted.
Aren't Surfaces just Windows laptops?
Aren't tablets just laptops without keyboards?
And Surface Pro keyboards are bought separately.
Termux and Android 10
221–230 of 329 posts
Re: Termux and Android 10
#222Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not sure what's "bad" about Chromebooks, seeing as you can unlock them and install standard firmware. Then your only obstacle to using them as you would any other laptop is OEM hardware that's sometimes not supported by the mainline kernel, and a mildly non-standard keyboard. Android is a lot worse than that, many devices are not even OEM unlockable in the first place.
They might be unlockable, but at that point they're disposable to a business or school environment. A PC shipped with Windows 7 in 2009 can run Windows 10 for free and the latest release of Chrome, supported officially by Google. If you upgraded from XP or Vista, many of those PCs can still run current Chrome just fine. The max life of a Chromebook as a Chromebook is like six years.
You would unlock them after they've reached EOL w/ their supported OS, for the sake of resale value and thus reuse. It's not much of course, but it's better than a lot of mobile hardware.
Re: Termux and Android 10
#223I'm having a hard time already in Android 6. I used to be able to do things like use Termux to move videos I'd downloaded in NewPipe into subdirectories and delete them; apparently with Android 6 I can't do that any more.
What alternatives to Android are people using? I'm already not using the Play Store, just F-Droid and a couple of third-party apks.
Re: Termux and Android 10
#224Earlier quoted context omitted.
Right now apps on Google Play are required to target at least API level 28. This will most probably be raised to level 29 in the near future, essentially blocking distribution of Termux, at least in its current form.
You will always be able to download Termux from outside Play. I actually have no idea how Termux could even work within Play policy seeing as it's essentially a 3rd-party repo not unlike F-Droid. You wouldn't expect to find F-Droid on the Play store, surely? You have to sideload it, and then it just works.
But that doesn’t mean much when the SELinux hammer drops and no app can exec no matter where it’s installed from.
Re: Termux and Android 10
#225I'm really starting to despise most OS's for having such an overbearing security policy. I think it's really why I've stuck with Windows for so long. For sure Windows is not as user-stupid as something like macOS, iOS, Android, etc... but for me as a power user it's just about as powerful as I need to be. I'm not even considering *nix distros here because honestly the market for every day users for something like Ubu…
As someone who has been on Linux a long time, but still has to support family members using Windows, here's my perspective: 1) Linux is usually easier in the "happy case", where everything works as it should, and it supports everything that the user needs. 2) Linux is way way way less likely to just change something and break the whole system while the user is sleeping. (This was REAL fun with my grandparents-in-law…
5) Fixing a Windows problem can involve having to go into the registry, which can't be copy/pasted and is extremely difficult AND dangerous. (There probably IS a way to copy/paste it, but I don't know it)
This pretty much sums it up. You just simply do not have enough Windows experience. Nothing to be ashamed of but doing comparison in this case will give skewed results.
Re: Termux and Android 10
#226This title is misleading for a few reasons: - Android 10 is not killing anything. Targeting API level 29, the native API level of Android 10, prevents the mechanism Termux uses, but you can target a lower API level and run just fine on Android 10, and in fact Termux does run just fine on Android 10. - API level 29 blocks a specific mechanism that Termux happens to use to run arbitrary code. There are other ways to do…
If I understand correctly, they are killing exec in app homedir. I assume they would block exec in the sdcard too then. If that's the case, what's the workaround for installing and running things through termux's apt get?
The proposed workaround is that you distribute software through apps and allow Termux to essentially get plugins from other apps (whether distributed via the Play Store or sideloading).
Re: Termux and Android 10
#227Earlier quoted context omitted.
These phones are primarily about user-freedom, privacy and my ability to do whatever I want with a device that I've purchased, without restrictions imposed by the OEM. Also, honest question; What do you actually 'use' the latest specs for? These Android/iOS phones are basically all about media consumption, something that has been sufficiently performant for years. You have great hardware, but no software to take real…
Basically I'm using Firefox, K9 for email, WhatsApp and Telegram to chat with friends, OSMAnd to plan and record bicycle tracks. Phone and camera. Plus mandatory banking apps or I won't be able to do home banking. If I buy a Linux phone I'd have to keep using my Android phone probably as my primary device. And I've been using Ubuntu laptops as my only working devices since 2009 so I'd love to use an Ubuntu phone. Unf…
Does your bank have a web interface?
Re: Termux and Android 10
#228Earlier quoted context omitted.
Where supporting Ubuntu falls over is when I try and support "power users". There's like an uncanny valley of competence, between completely naive users who just let things run and experienced users who know where the red lines are when using sudo. So far I've seen the following breakages: - completely fuck up apt somehow such that it refuses to update or fix itself - overwrite packages with their own compiled versio…
yes, true. But what alternative do we have? If such a power user breaks windows registry in a _really_ bad way, the fastest solution, by far, is to just reinstall anything. And, again, if you are smart about having your /home folders on a separate partition, reinstalling Ubuntu is way faster. So even in this worst case scenario Windows loses.
[deleted]
Re: Termux and Android 10
#229Impact of Android 10 on Termux usability is already old news.
What worries me more is behaviour of Termux developers. They make dubious claims and effectively sabotage their own application (more on that below).
The solution to Android 10 problems — a software wrapper called "proot" [1] — has already been found. That solution would allow to keep all of Termux functionality and preserve existing package managers (such as apt). Proot allows Android user to compile C code in Termux (which they currently can do) and does not require major changes to Termux itself.
Termux developers refused to adopt proot as solution and even removed it's mention from their wiki on Github. Instead they are insisting that all Termux packages should be distributed in Android apk files, published on Google Play. That "solution" has major usability issues, does not scale (it uses shoddy Android PackageManager to track all Termux packages) and would prevent users from using Gcc and other compilers in Termux. The only claimed upside of using apk files is that it would better comply with Google's policies.
Termux developers justify their actions by following arguments:
1. Termux packages require a lot of bandwidth to host, and Termux does not have money to pay for their mirrors; hosting packages in Google Play would be preferable. That statement is nonsense — even fringe Linux distributions like Artix can find FREE mirrors, willing to host their packages. This is usually done by contacting curators of existing servers, that host Linux packages, and asking them for support. Termux is more popular than some of Linux distributions, but it does not look like Termux devs even TRY to do that — they apparently just sit on their hands, occasionally begging their sole mirror provider (JFrog) for more bandwidth.
2. Termux currently does not comply with Google's policy and it's developers are afraid, that this will result in removal from Google Play. They are technically right, but they are making mistake by downgrading experience of their app in attempt to pacify Google Play censors. They are making even bigger mistake by displaying guilt about that — Termux does nothing wrong, and the display of guilt is a better excuse to punish them than their actions.
1: despite it's name, proot does not require root access
Re: Termux and Android 10
#230Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure, there's a market for these phones and I absolutely do not speak for everyone :) Still, I can get a Samsung Galaxy A20e for 150€ right now, which has about the same specs (actually slightly better) and spend two hours to get Lineage on it. My point is, I do value my privacy a lot, even to the point of running my phone without GApps (which drops a lot of features), and I think these projects are absolutely awesom…
Your cheap Samsung phones are not running open firmware with mainline Linux, nor have hardware kill switches. A PinePhone/Librem 5 will also always be capable of running emacs/golang etc. which is not easily doable on Android if termux isn't possible anymore.
> A PinePhone/Librem 5 will also always be capable of running emacs/golang etc. which is not easily doable on Android if termux isn't possible anymore.
So can a phone running Lineage. The thing blocking termux is a config file; any phone that isn't locked down can handle it.
You're not getting all of the openness for free, but you can get a lot of it for free.