71–80 of 116 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
>vote with your wallet and don't complain how "most devices" don't give you feature you're not ready to pay for This isn't always possible or realistic. The cheapest Pixel phone is worth 2+ median monthly salaries in my location.
Premium features, premium price point.
I am afraid it does not matter any more, at least not for practical software freedom. Most Android devices these days have bootloaders that cannot be unlocked, preventing device owners from installing custom kernel images onto their devices. And even if you have a phone where that isn't true, Google's SafetyNet will prevent you from using many crucial applications, like your bank's Android app, on that handset. It's…
> Most Android devices these days have bootloaders that cannot be unlocked [citation needed] I'm finding the majority of devices to be unlockable as long as you don't buy your device from a carrier. Carrier locked devices are not typically the norm but in the US. And if you truly cared about software freedom, you wouldn't be buying carrier locked devices in the first place. I really wish people would stop griping abo…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Most Android devices these days have bootloaders that cannot be unlocked, preventing device owners from installing custom kernel images onto their devices. And even if you have a phone where that isn't true, Google's SafetyNet will prevent you from using many crucial applications, like your bank's Android app, on that handset. Googles own devices not only allow you to unlock the bootloader, but to relock it with yo…
OP said " Most Android devices". You then singled out a specific subset of phones that are only a small portion of the market to claim that OP's comment is "weird". OP's comment is accurate because Pixels are not "most Android phones". You also don't know whether or not OP already owns a Pixel, so I'd say it's "weird" to tell them not to complain without knowing whether or not they have already voted with their walle…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
OP said " Most Android devices". You then singled out a specific subset of phones that are only a small portion of the market to claim that OP's comment is "weird". OP's comment is accurate because Pixels are not "most Android phones". You also don't know whether or not OP already owns a Pixel, so I'd say it's "weird" to tell them not to complain without knowing whether or not they have already voted with their walle…
Most people with most android devices don't remotely care about this. If you do care, it is reasonable to buy a specific device.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
OP said " Most Android devices". You then singled out a specific subset of phones that are only a small portion of the market to claim that OP's comment is "weird". OP's comment is accurate because Pixels are not "most Android phones". You also don't know whether or not OP already owns a Pixel, so I'd say it's "weird" to tell them not to complain without knowing whether or not they have already voted with their walle…
Most people with most android devices don't remotely care about this. If you do care, it is reasonable to buy a specific device.
Avoiding Google/FB/Amazon/Microsoft or whatever your megacorp of choice is is becoming increasingly hard, and it absolutely deserves being talked about. As do any other things in which our choices and freedoms continue to be snuffed out, and that point should be able to stand alone, without being weighed against things like "Vote with your wallet" or "But in Y thing we have more freedoms now! Why does X matter?" These conversations are also worth having, but they shouldn't entirely replace the a call for alternative paths.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Most Android devices these days have bootloaders that cannot be unlocked, preventing device owners from installing custom kernel images onto their devices. And even if you have a phone where that isn't true, Google's SafetyNet will prevent you from using many crucial applications, like your bank's Android app, on that handset. Googles own devices not only allow you to unlock the bootloader, but to relock it with yo…
OP said " Most Android devices". You then singled out a specific subset of phones that are only a small portion of the market to claim that OP's comment is "weird". OP's comment is accurate because Pixels are not "most Android phones". You also don't know whether or not OP already owns a Pixel, so I'd say it's "weird" to tell them not to complain without knowing whether or not they have already voted with their walle…
If other manufacturers decide to ignore the reference... well, that’s bad, and worthy of criticism, but it's at least good that the reference is open!
This seems like the natural lifecycle. 1. There are many features that we feel very valuable to our OS, so we will implement them and ship our OS without blocking on upstream approval and acceptance. 2. Maintaining these patches is expensive. We will try to upstream as much as possible. 3. Most of our patches have been upstreamed and most new kernel requirements are lower priority, we should prefer to upstream first…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> your bank's Android app Worst comes to worst you can decompile it and take out the checks, but it is admittedly a huge hassle.
The problem is SafetyNet uses remote attestation. And if the bank app is implemented properly that won't work because the server will check they attestation and fail your login. They very well may not bother with this though since they offer a web version anyways... which kind of makes the whole idea of putting root checking in the app pointless. Right now at least, there's no hardware attestation on many devices so…
How long do you think it will be before a country requires that all smartphones support this? And how long before it is a requirement for laptops too?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Replacing OEM Android is only one part of the equation. There are many components that run with full privileges (EL2/EL3?) outside of Android and never subject to Android's sandbox. Well, at least until Google can force OEMs to stricter standards with their effort to KVMize those privileged executables [0]. If you do not trust the OEM, replacing its ROM with GrapheneOS / CalyxOS / LineageOS isn't going to help much a…
I'm happy with my degoogled phone. There are so many great open source apps on f-droid. Still, it's 2021 and I need a few closed source apps on my main driver, so Aurora Store, MicroG, AdAway. Ok so I'm still using google servers for push notifications of the closed apps--compromises. I still have way more control and battery life. I love the idea of a linux phone, and maybe I could sacrafice the last few closed apps…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I use a pixel phone with my own signing keys and I find it very useful. I can live without SafetyNet, whatever that is.
It basically allows you running most banking apps (and anything that is related to money).