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Debloat non-rooted Android devices

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Re: Debloat non-rooted Android devices

#141

Post by rchaud »

Almondsetat wrote: post #133
protoman3000 wrote: post #56

Why is it not possible to compile and install a complete clean Android directly from the sources on your phone? What are the things that prevent that?

Closed source device drivers. The mobile phone market is like the desktop market in the 90s

Didn't use to be that way. Android phones with Qualcomm SoCs used to be incredibly easy to modify with alternative versions of Android. That changed around 2014-15, can't remember why.

Now it seems only Google's own Pixel phone is the only one that's hackable enough to run LineageOS or /e/ or other de-Googled distros.

Re: Debloat non-rooted Android devices

#142

Post by theandrewbailey »

yard2010 wrote: post #105
morsch wrote: post #18

I bought -- full price, retail -- a midrange Samsung phone for a relative recently. The amount of bloatware was incredible. Various social networks and shopping apps were preinstalled. In addition to all the Samsung apps that more or less duplicate the Google stack, poorly. The entire setup process was full of dark patterns designed to extract as much data from you as possible. No way a regular person gets through th…

Welcome to the future. It will be A cyberpunk dystopia just like in Cyberpunk 2077, but much sooner than 2077 IMHO.

We've been in the cyberpunk dystopia timeline for at least 10 years, maybe since the 90s.

Re: Debloat non-rooted Android devices

#143

Post by pooper »

idle76 wrote: post #130
autoexec wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The first time I had a samsung phone I noticed after about two weeks that every single word I typed into any application was being collected and sent to a third party whose privacy policy said it was used to collect data about my interests, my social life, to make guesses about my intelligence level and education, and that the data would be sold for "market research" among other things. No user would ever suspect tha…

I suspect it's npt just Samsung. Both google and microsoft (SwiftKey) does the same thing. The worst part is that the most used national ID-function now stops you from using third party "approved" keyboard due to (misguided) security reasons. Both AnySoftKeyboard and AOSP keyboard is banned.

I wouldn't mind so much of Google/Microsoft/Samsung etc collected all data in house (including subcontractor companies who won't share this information with anyone else). If they kept it to themselves and said "just trust me, bro" to advertisers and kept my data to themselves I don't think I'd mind too much. But clearly that's not what happens here. They don't have nearly enough leverage against the advertisers.

Re: Debloat non-rooted Android devices

#144

Post by hparadiz »

Terretta wrote: post #136
bboygravity wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it mind blowing that: 1. Samsung is able to sell phones like that legally. 2. People are not in jail. 3. Governments somehow think it's ok that random companies can see everything their citizens do online. National security risks maybe? Trade secret issues? It's almost suspicious to the point where I would start thinking those third party spy companies are possibly (US/5 eyes) government run?

> mind blowing “Mind blowing” is too strong a word when every thread about Apple on HN is demanding the iPhone be opened up to the same, taking away non-tech people’s choice to buy a bloat free and privacy defaulted device designed to stay that way even if people more technically savvy try to hook in. It’s a fine line, of course, since the same non-tech people love IAP and ad-supported, as shown by the folks opting i…

Meanwhile I'm over here on a rooted android phone with no pre installed anything and a custom build of chromium that let's me have ublock origin on my phone. And RCS still works cause I guess they can't detect my old version of magisk.

Re: Debloat non-rooted Android devices

#145

Post by jkhanlar »

Kind of related, a few weeks ago I've been thinking to myself what happened to the open source free software operating system developments for mobile devices? Specifically, how are operating system environments such as GrapheneOS and CalyxOS, etctera, only able to be used on a single company's (Alphabet Inc) manufactured phone devices and not any other devices and where are the operating systems that work on as many to practically all of the devices that exist and the general idea of linux-style developments that represent collectively compiling all the hardware variations to have drivers and support for practically everything for everyone to get mostly the same experience regardless of which hardware they use

Is the mobile computer hardware industry that hostagedly cowardly locked down that this is no longer possible as it used to be, where people don't even own their own computer devices and instead have to use devices that are owned by other entities? Or what other explanation is there for no such multi-device operating systems? Or did I just miss something that I am blind to?

Re: Debloat non-rooted Android devices

#146

Post by hparadiz »

tayo42 wrote: post #55
resource_waste wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a user/psychology problem. No one in their right mind is suggesting Samsung. Heck, similar to Apple, you have swaths of people warning you about Samsung. Samsung lives and dies off their huge marketing budget. Buying their phone is more of a psychology thing, than 'I did lots of research and I bought a high quality phone'.

What android brand are people going with? I thought Samsung was the biggest alternative to pixels

I like Sony personally. They let you root.

Re: Debloat non-rooted Android devices

#147

Post by [deleted] »

rchaud wrote: post #141
Almondsetat wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Closed source device drivers. The mobile phone market is like the desktop market in the 90s

Didn't use to be that way. Android phones with Qualcomm SoCs used to be incredibly easy to modify with alternative versions of Android. That changed around 2014-15, can't remember why. Now it seems only Google's own Pixel phone is the only one that's hackable enough to run LineageOS or /e/ or other de-Googled distros.

[deleted]

Re: Debloat non-rooted Android devices

#148

Post by spinal »

resource_waste wrote: post #93
hughesjj wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm real tempted to go asus because of how good their other devices have been, will see what happens this time. Tired of my pixels constantly overheating when trying to take pictures after navigating to a place i want to take pictures with the 4a+5a. It's not just a bad phone, I've inevitably broken a screen or submerged one and had to replace it (apparently the ip68 isn't fool proof either..)

I'll be trying Asus since they have been the best when it comes to laptops. They also have lots of nice hardware like Aux ports. Google Pixel 5a... The last Google product before they went full Apple.

I'm clearly out of the loop... What do you mean by going full Apple?

Re: Debloat non-rooted Android devices

#150

Post by jkhanlar »

jkhanlar wrote: post #145

Kind of related, a few weeks ago I've been thinking to myself what happened to the open source free software operating system developments for mobile devices? Specifically, how are operating system environments such as GrapheneOS and CalyxOS, etctera, only able to be used on a single company's (Alphabet Inc) manufactured phone devices and not any other devices and where are the operating systems that work on as many…

For example

https://androidauthority.com/grapheneos-3287030/

> "Even if you stomach the Pixel-only requirement"

I have not and will not stomach that at all. Nope!

https://grapheneos.org/faq#supported-devices

Nope! I wasn't paying attention, but if I remember, Alphabet/Google was funded to deploy/release Android operating system, and they also were financed to deploy some hardware phones before disappearing to let other companies continue the things and then reappear somehow taking advantage of all the othre companies to outperform all of their manufacturings and whatnot, and then operating systems exist only for the Google phones and none of the others, and this is normal? What? I say F to that coward hijacking others efforts stuff!

I see https://calyxos.org/#Devices Devices section is showing a little bit more than I remember not too long ago http://web.archive.org/web/20230605161332/https://calyxos.or... but still not comparable to what I remember with the likes of OpenWRT, HyperWRT, DD-WRT, Tomato, etcetera. Therefore I do not and will not trust anything GrapheneOS or CalyxOS. Whatever the efforts were that led to wifi routers having lots of open source firmware developments to be supporting lots of different devices, I'd like to see similarly for mobile phones, and whatever concentration there is to finance only developments for Google made phones only, this is red flag hostage coward impression to me, and I will not submit or acquiesce or capitulate to invest in any of that at all, even if nothing else exists.

edited for grammar

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