I bought Pixel 7a and flashed GrapheneOS and running it without a single Google app. My experience has been pretty good so far.
Ask HN: Stock Android phone free of bloatware?
61–70 of 324 posts
Re: Ask HN: Stock Android phone free of bloatware?
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because it is a lot of work, not all phones support/allow rooting, you need to hide root for apps manually for them to work and there's no way to take full backups on Android phone, rooted or not (adb backup is deprecated and never actually worked at all anyway). Meaning: every time you screw up (or get a new phone) you have to start all over, without the ability to restore a backup. This can easily take many days wo…
A default LineageOS installation will not be rooted. There are really less and less reasons why you'd even want a rooted phone. The killer feature used to be ad-blocking, but most ad-blockers can work without root nowadays. The backup problem is a notorious problem with any Android phone, I don't understand what it has to do with custom ROMs.
> I don't understand what it has to do with custom ROMs.
If I don't feel confident I'll be able to get a custom ROM working on my phone I'll have 2nd thoughts about erasing the original ROM
Re: Ask HN: Stock Android phone free of bloatware?
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm optimistic that "what it could have been" is what it will eventually be. Originally there was just Apple, and their lock-in driven business model. Competitors could emulate them and still get away with it for a while, but it will get commoditized to the same level PCs are at some point.
Funnily enough, originally people thought it was Apple who commoditized mobile computing and software development by getting it from the clutches of telecom providers
It's commoditization all the way down.
Re: Ask HN: Stock Android phone free of bloatware?
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Apple can do it because they lock you into their walled garden where they can double and triple dip on getting your money. Funny way to spell “provide quality service compared to competitors”.
What service do they provide you?
Cloud sync that works across all of my devices in a centralized manner. Zero bloatware, adware OS that works out of the box and doesn’t change every year. Consistent experience across devices.
iOS, specifically, all of what I listed there and really nice, fluent system compared to Androids that have frame drops even on top end devices.
Re: Ask HN: Stock Android phone free of bloatware?
#65Android is designed with bloatware and crapware in mind. Your best bet is to install an alternative ROM such as LineageOS.
Re: Ask HN: Stock Android phone free of bloatware?
#66[flagged]
Re: Ask HN: Stock Android phone free of bloatware?
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Apple can do it because they lock you into their walled garden where they can double and triple dip on getting your money. What does this even mean? If you're so concerned about not paying for anything, all you need is buy the phone from Apple. You don't have to pay for anything else. The reason Apple can support their phones for longer is because they control most of the stack: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/…
> You don't have to pay for anything else. Is there an iOS equivalent to F-Droid?
This is the closest. https://altstore.io/
Re: Ask HN: Stock Android phone free of bloatware?
#68[flagged]
> BadBIOS
Do you know a legit reverse engineered PoC of it? or a legit dump of the firmware?
I mean, it's theoretically possible. I don't doubt that since vault7 malware leaks, but is there an actual copy of something like this available?
If anyone knew about it, I'd assume the 1vyrain people definitely would.
Re: Ask HN: Stock Android phone free of bloatware?
#69The Pixel is the closest. The reason you don't see long term support on Android is because of Qualcomm. Qualcomm wants manufacturers to build on new chips, so they deprecate older chips and stop support. Most manufacturers don't want to hire kernel and hardware devs. Samsung can pull off longer support because of Exynos and they have a lot of inhouse expertise to extend support on old Qualcomm chips. It's all money.…
> Apple can do it because they lock you into their walled garden where they can double and triple dip on getting your money. Nonsense. It’s because they have all the expertise in-house anyway, they get extremely good terms due to their weight and negotiation, and they figure if you don’t change phone now you might do so next year and they’ll get your money anyway. There’s no brand loyalty on the Android side, and fos…
On what is based your claim that it is impossible to foster brand loyalty on Android side?
Maybe there is a reason that there is no brand loyalty on Android side, a reason that maybe those brands created themselves after seeking instant profits above anything else. Not one android phone manufacturer tried to cultivate long term relations with their customers for any reasonable amount of time. A lot of customers tried variety of android phones exactly for that reason, to find a brand that would not let you down and yet very quicly all promises were broken.
Re: Ask HN: Stock Android phone free of bloatware?
#70My last two phones were both Motorola partly because of this.