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The Search for a Free/Open Source Mobile Operating System

blog.emacsen.net

81–90 of 156 posts

Re: The Search for a Free/Open Source Mobile Operating System

#81
post #50
post #47

The more people, especially geeks and programmers, use and improve completely free systems, even if they have deficiencies now, the sooner we as a society are free. There is a responsibility for knowledgeable and competent people that goes far beyond the selfish need. It also makes fun and appreciation to do the right thing, more than any convenience can ever give.

This is a difference of opinion, but I've been using and promoting Free Software since 1997. I've used entirely 100% Free operating systems. There's nothing wrong with taking this position for oneself. You can certainly restrict yourself to a 100% Free stack, but there are two big problems with this position: 1. We have an existing threat right now that is not theoretical but entirely practical and immediate, and tha…

> do we tell people "Don't use a mobile phone?" because at that point we're simply seen as Luddites in the eyes of most people and we lose the opportunity to help others.

That's what I always tell people when they ask me how to do x in a secure and/or private manner on their phone and after some discussion most of them get it. Of course it's not practical but imo people need to be sensitized to how shitty almost all software actually is and that you can only have compromises. Also you can't just get someone to use FLOSS for tactical reasons, they have to know about the why and how or some of them will poison the community. I've seen way too many people acting entitled to have some feature they think is missing build immediately when they don't intend to pay the developers or do the slightest bit of work themselves. FLOSS isn't about being an alternative to commercial software but about enabling users to do whatever they want with their machines and this has to be communicated to new users that aren't familiar.

Re: The Search for a Free/Open Source Mobile Operating System

#82
My primary pain point, last time I did the research, was that UBPorts for example, doesn't support full-disk encryption.

That might have changed by now, and I'm not sure about the others. But I'd say encryption-at-rest is a basic requirement for a privacy-enhancing OS.

Re: The Search for a Free/Open Source Mobile Operating System

#83
post #25

Author here. Feel free to ask any questions.

Amazing reading! I working on the Animation CPU mobile OS toolkit for creating custom secure OSes and apps from scratch. t has everything geek and non-geek development needs, a minimalistic core and api, builtin ide with realtime reverse debugger, code and nocode, powerful graphics, runs on linux, ios, webasm or pure hardware, etc. But here is an issue, it's not public and not open-source. Сan you advise me where to start the FOSS way, build community etc?

Here a little bit details: https://animationcpu.herokuapp.com/

Re: The Search for a Free/Open Source Mobile Operating System

#84
post #26

Switched to GrapheneOS with the Pixel 5. Email/Calendar integration works fine (K-9 Mail). Signal as instant messenger. Organic Maps as Map application. Replaced Apple Watch with GadgetBridge and a Mi 6 band (cheaper and I have easy access to all data, you need to sync once with their app after you get the key you can delete it ... did the setup on the iphone and copied out the key with a commandline python script fr…

Though not FOSS, Magic Earth is a good OSM based car navigation app that respects privacy. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.generalmag...

Re: The Search for a Free/Open Source Mobile Operating System

#85
post #52
post #26

Switched to GrapheneOS with the Pixel 5. Email/Calendar integration works fine (K-9 Mail). Signal as instant messenger. Organic Maps as Map application. Replaced Apple Watch with GadgetBridge and a Mi 6 band (cheaper and I have easy access to all data, you need to sync once with their app after you get the key you can delete it ... did the setup on the iphone and copied out the key with a commandline python script fr…

I can recommend "Open Camera" for the Camera app, its very customizable and reliable.

I have used it in the past and its great, sadly it does not support the multiple cameras of my Motorola.

Re: The Search for a Free/Open Source Mobile Operating System

#86
post #4

Because many important apps (banking and other financial services, major shopping sites, most Authenticators ) don’t provide open source versions, I don’t see how this thing can end up be practical for daily usage. Maybe it can be useful for criminals, underground hackers, but not a normal person.

Many of us don't want banks or shopping sites on our phones. AndOTP authenticator works great for me. I also wrote one that I use on an offline computer (TOTP is rfc6238) in case my phone dies or is unavailable for some reason. My only gripe with my current usage of GrapheneOS is that sometimes when the notification bell goes off and I open the phone, the SMS was sent many minutes ago (up to an hour or so). I'm only…

We should also consider how many apps are usefully available as websites through a FOSS browser (on phone).

Re: The Search for a Free/Open Source Mobile Operating System

#87

I wonder about SailfishOS, has anyone tried it recently? I used to own a Nokia N9 and it was the best mobile OS I've ever used, but unfortunately the N9 just stopped charging one day. I've always been thinking about trying Sailfish out again, but have not had a phone that was compatible for a while, so am wondering if I should just get a compatible device just to try.

I've just switched over from iPhone to SailfishOS running on Xperia 10ii (the most powerful device to run SailfishOS officially and the only 64-bit one). Reflashing firmware took about 20 minutes in total, no issues since except for the need to figure out how to install OpenRepos.net on it.

It has a nice OLED screen (N9 vibe) and the on-screen keyboard makes it feel like typing on an N900; the camera works fine. I didn't install Android support so I am running pure SailfishOS.

Re: The Search for a Free/Open Source Mobile Operating System

#88
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe the appeal for CalyxOS is attempting to bring more convenience with privacy, where apps you've mentioned are already installed. A major difference is the inclusion of microG, which means you have more freedom to use apps you have no alternative to (e.g. government apps, banking apps, etc). I'm aware of the LineageOS for microG project, however apart from the aforementioned preinstalled set of apps, CalyxOS…

Beware of Signal: it depends on the proprietary Google Play Services library, so even if you don't have the Play Services on your phone, the app is built with the "client-side" code which speaks with it (or with microG) and checks for its presence. FreeSignal was a project that aimed to remove this dependency completely but was stopped by the main developer of Signal. It is possible to clone Signal's repo and do this…

What's the problem there? If the code is there but not executed, and no data is sent to Google, is there any risk as a user?

Re: The Search for a Free/Open Source Mobile Operating System

#89
post #70

I wonder about SailfishOS, has anyone tried it recently? I used to own a Nokia N9 and it was the best mobile OS I've ever used, but unfortunately the N9 just stopped charging one day. I've always been thinking about trying Sailfish out again, but have not had a phone that was compatible for a while, so am wondering if I should just get a compatible device just to try.

I use it. You can feel their severe development resource constraints everwhere. The browser is years behind. Native apps are rather limited. I bought the newest supported hardware 3.5 years ago. It is stuck at Android 4.4, which is supported by fewer and fewer apps. Whenever they support new HW, it takes quite a while to stabilize. Not sure what is the situation right now. My guess would be the newest supported HW is…

Latest Sailfish OS has Android 10 support.

Re: The Search for a Free/Open Source Mobile Operating System

#90
post #25

Author here. Feel free to ask any questions.

Why do you spell Purism’s phone “LibreM”, when they spell it “Librem”?

(It’s common for people to heedlessly miscapitalise, spelling ProductName as Productname or vice versa, which I can’t really get my head around as it’s not the way my mind ticks, but you’re in the much more interesting category of people consistently applying a more esoteric miscapitalisation, and I’m curious what leads to it. I’m trying to understand all this partly from simple curiosity and partly to help me with naming products.)

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