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Ask HN: Stock Android phone free of bloatware?

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Re: Ask HN: Stock Android phone free of bloatware?

#141

Post by scarface_74 »

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #95
madeofpalk wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Samsung can pull off longer support because of Exynos and they have a lot of inhouse expertise > Apple can do it because they lock you into their walled garden Samsung can do it because they're smart, but Apple does it because they're evil? Why doesn't Apple also have in house expertise? > Most manufacturers don't want to hire kernel and hardware devs. Qualcomm seems like a scapegoat here. Google surely has experti…

>Samsung can do it because they're smart, but Apple does it because they're evil? Nobody said Apple are doing it because they're are evil, calm down. Your parent said Apple can afford to give you longer support because they not only make money when they sell you the phone HW, they also keep making money from your iCloud, iTunes and every other third party subscription or SW you buy on Apple App store. Basically, they…

No, Google just sucks at maintaining an ecosystem.

Microsoft figured out how to license an OS to third party OEMs and still allow end users to update their hardware without depending on the vendor for literally decades.

Heck I was able to just throw a Windows 7 CD in my old first gen Mac Mini x86 1.66Ghz Core Duo and run it for years after Apple dropped support.

Re: Ask HN: Stock Android phone free of bloatware?

#142

Post by crote »

I recently looked into this due to my old device breaking.

The best options are:

- Google Pixel

- Motorola

- Nokia

I ended up with a Google Pixel 7. The Motorola Edge 40 was a close contender, but I ended up axing it from the list due to the curved screen edge. My selection criteria were: cleanest Android possible; latest Android version; long-term support; wireless charging; decent IP rating.

My previous phones were a Moto G2 and Nokia 6.1, for comparison. The first one replaced due to the charging port dying and running out of storage, the second one having its screen destroyed by dropping it on a tile floor.

Re: Ask HN: Stock Android phone free of bloatware?

#143

Post by bodge5000 »

ludovicianul wrote: post #83

OnePlus is pretty close to stock. Very fast, very good battery. It's the only Android I've loved before switching to iPhone. I have a Samsung and a OnePlus 5T bought in the same period (around 5 years ago). The OnePlus still rocks 1 day battery with medium usage, while the Samsung is dead in a couple of hours.

I'm still using my 5T to this day as well and feel like its easily got another year or two of life in it

Re: Ask HN: Stock Android phone free of bloatware?

#144

Post by scarface_74 »

tourmalinetaco wrote: post #120
throw0101a wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What service do they provide you? Security updates for 5-7 years.

GrapheneOS and CalyxOS both provide that same benefit while being FOSS.

Only if you have a supported device and you are one of the single percentage of people who want to run non Google Android or deal with the hassle.

Re: Ask HN: Stock Android phone free of bloatware?

#145

Post by scarface_74 »

hospitalJail wrote: post #122
Daegalus wrote: post #10

The 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.…

>walled garden This is a marketing phrase that twists a negative into a positive. Its better to use more objective terms. Gardens give you a perceptions of flowers and fruits.

And the number of people outside of a few geeks who care to a first approximation is 0

Re: Ask HN: Stock Android phone free of bloatware?

#146

Post by [deleted] »

hospitalJail wrote: post #122
Daegalus wrote: post #10

The 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.…

>walled garden This is a marketing phrase that twists a negative into a positive. Its better to use more objective terms. Gardens give you a perceptions of flowers and fruits.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Stock Android phone free of bloatware?

#147

Post by wanderingmind »

If you are OK with spending a couple of hours, buy a Motorola phone that is supported by LineageOS[1] and install microg+ LineageOS(2) It can spoof Play services and so most Apps from Play store will work.

[1] https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/#motorola

(2) https://download.lineage.microg.org/

Re: Ask HN: Stock Android phone free of bloatware?

#148

Post by jqpabc123 »

aaomidi wrote: post #105
jqpabc123 wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's all money. They don't want you keeping a phone for 5 years. Yes. Hardware vendors love Open Source. It essentially cedes all control of the market to them. They spend minimal time/money/effort on software development and updates because surprise, surprise --- it doesn't produce profits, it consumes them. Hardware is where they make all their money. The only realistic way to get long term software support on Andr…

You’re not getting the updated proprietary blobs for the chips. You’re just getting an updated OS.

You’re just getting an updated OS.

Which is where most security issues are found and/or mitigated.

Unless a hacker has physical possession of the device, access to these blobs generally runs through the OS.

Re: Ask HN: Stock Android phone free of bloatware?

#149

Post by readingnews »

I am not sure where you are located... I was on the Nothing Beta program and received a nothing 1 phone. I have been a longtime root-unjail-roll-your-own phone user. The Nothing is probably the most bloat-free in recent memory. Sure, the google apps (gmail, files, maps) are on it, and it comes with weather, but that seems to be it, and the rest you can easily uninstall without pain.

Re: Ask HN: Stock Android phone free of bloatware?

#150

Post by fensgrim »

deng wrote: post #37
bboygravity wrote: post #27

Earlier 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.

"A default LineageOS installation" as in "a device which is officially supported through https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/" is like that, indeed, and while most of the unofficial builds come with as -userdebug, no root, there's a high chance of encountering either a flaky build (permissive selinux) or having to fallback to a GSI build, some of them, and nowadays it means AndyCGYan's [0], come with optional root enabled.

As for backup: stock backup facilities (adb backup/restore) aren't exactly the best thing for sure, (rip Titanium Backup, Seedvault isn't even remotely there), and TWRP is broken on most of devices with modern encryption support (specifically, on Pixels). Coincidentally, Mediatek SoC based devices are the 'best' when talking about backup (as in: you can dump and clone all partitions through a built-in service mode [1]).

0. https://sourceforge.net/projects/andyyan-gsi/files/ 1. https://github.com/bkerler/mtkclient

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