Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Stock Android phone free of bloatware?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

161–170 of 324 posts

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

#161

Post by wilsonnb3 »

izacus wrote: post #116
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.…

I'm seconding the Pixels - they're also pretty much the only phones that allow you to upload your own signing keys, so you can run Google-free GrapheneOS with secure boot enabled. (Which is also nice for long term support.)

GrapheneOS stops supporting phones when Google stops releasing new firmware for them for security reasons, so you aren’t going to get longer term support from it.

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

#162

Post by hospitalJail »

eppp wrote: post #136
hospitalJail wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Samsung is terrible, do not buy ever. They are the Apple of Android, big marketing budget, little care about performance or security. I would recommend against Google phones, while 'they just work', they have been forcing users via dark patterns to use their services more and more. Its quite easy to get stuck with a google drive monthly fee or use their Maps app which is full of ads.

Which leaves what exactly?

Check out Zenfone.

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

#163

Post by mindslight »

veave wrote: post #87
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.…

The reason you don't see long term support on Android is the same reason Linux failed in the desktop: the Linux kernel developers want everything mainlined and are not interested in keeping a stable kernel API for drivers, but in the real world, drivers are closed source.

I sure miss that "real world" with its blue screens of death from unmaintained binary drivers thrown over the wall by lowest bidders, running with kernel privileges doing who-knows-what behind the scenes. I shudder to think about what that has devolved to today, with the widespread prevalence of shameless user surveillance and all. Meanwhile in the free world, hardware is well documented.

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

#165

Post by madeofpalk »

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…

If Google's making all the post-sale revenue from Samsung's hardware sales, then how is Samsung able to support older hardware?

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

#166

Post by kitsunesoba »

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.

I ran CalyxOS on my Pixel 3XL and while it delivers on the privacy focus, I think most users would find it too irritating for long term usage. I ended up replacing it with Pixel Experience, which as the name implies is pretty much an up to date version of the stock ROM.

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

#167

Post by kitsunesoba »

j-bos wrote: post #82
jillesvangurp wrote: post #19

The short answer is no. There is the Google Pixel. But it has limited updates and proprietary software for things like the camera. That camera is really nice though and it's as close as the Android experience Google intended to ship because this basically is Google's version of Android. I have the Pixel 6 and it's fine. Nokia stays close to that but ships their own camera app. It too has limited updates that run out…

Fairphone looks great, BUT they don't sell outside Europe.

I’d love to have a Fairphone as a dev test device but yep, they don’t sell in NA.

It seems to be a common thread with interesting phones… back when there was still some buzz around Sailfish you couldn’t get a device running that in NA either, which may have contributed to that project fizzling. There’s a lot of mobile devs with disposable income you’re opting out of by not selling in North America.

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

#168

Post by fsflover »

goodoldneon wrote: post #123
hospitalJail wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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.

I’m in the Apple walled garden and it’s nice. It’s expensive, but it’s nice

Until for any reason you want to leave...

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

#169

Post by nradov »

scarface_74 wrote: post #141
ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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.

Part of that is the OS kernel design. Unlike Linux, Windows has a stable device driver API which makes it easy for hardware vendors to release drivers separately and maintain them across versions.

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

#170

Post by fsflover »

echelon wrote: post #21
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.…

Awful perverse incentives, vendor lock in, and control everywhere you look. I hate mobile computing. It's a pale shadow of what I imagine it could have been.

Your dreams come true in the world of GNU/Linux phones (which do not run Android).
Post reply on HN