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Linux phones are more important now than ever

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Re: Linux phones are more important now than ever

#271

What I don't get (plz help me) is why out of a sudden this vendors close up their phones and why is Google going this way? What's their intend?

Less conspiratorial answer: Bootloader unlock removal: It's actually not happening all of a sudden. The dam-breaking moment is more that Samsung, the number #1 Android vendor, decided to stop supporting it. The vendors stop maintaining bootloader-unlocking methods because the cost/benefit profile to develop/maintain/support that feature and its consequences is simply not sufficient, all while several of the biggest c…

Very much thanks for this text. This makes much sense. I don't think regulation would help ... only ppl who show their raised middle finger to this vendors. I mean this scenario is the scenario ppl thought of when TPM came up ... a fcking closed up device and you are in the hands of the vendors.

Re: Linux phones are more important now than ever

#272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More money. More power. Greed. Don't ever underestimate human greed. It doesn't matter what people have or where they are, they will always want more. We only have what we have now because of a few very peculiar people like Richard Stallman, but now it's just a bunch of normies in control.

I've always assumed that there is some money related intend behind this. But I can't figure out what money reason it is.

I'm guessing immortality I'm not joking. We may be the generation that has the right escape velocity to escape death. Vladimir putin mentioned it in his recent china summit

Re: Linux phones are more important now than ever

#273
post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean by 'Belgium is not a nation state', if i may ask?

Belgium may be used as a stand-in for Brussels, i.e. the European Union.

But it isn't, here. The state of Belgium created itself by secession from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, and its populace generally comprises two nations, Flanders (Flemish) and Wallonia (French), neither of which are continguous with the state, nor particularly interested in sharing a national identity with each other.

In short, a state is about turf, and a nation is a people, and you need them both to look similar on a map to make a nation-state.

Re: Linux phones are more important now than ever

#274
post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Less conspiratorial answer: Bootloader unlock removal: It's actually not happening all of a sudden. The dam-breaking moment is more that Samsung, the number #1 Android vendor, decided to stop supporting it. The vendors stop maintaining bootloader-unlocking methods because the cost/benefit profile to develop/maintain/support that feature and its consequences is simply not sufficient, all while several of the biggest c…

sounds like Firefox OS would've been right up your alley(?)

Yeah well, not in the way it progressed after the carriers started to take control over it (I was actively involved in a Firefox device-project back then).

What I sketched out here with a "Browser on everything" OS would be a concept for a aftermarket OS, where the device-vendor is not required to have his OS support the unlocked HW (because he can't be forced to do that), but he will have to provide components and documentation up to a certain layer to make use of the hardware. This could then be the layer for a generic "Browser on everything" OS to work on.

Re: Linux phones are more important now than ever

#275
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't mind banks requiring it, I don't have to use that bank. What if all banks require it?

Banks aren't required. Its ridiculously inconvenient today to not have a bank account, but you aren't required to have one.

Cash salaries are banned in some European countries. You can't have any income without a bank account. Welcome to the dystopian future, enjoy your stay.

Re: Linux phones are more important now than ever

#276

As someone willing to put up with all manner of nonsense (overpriced/underpowered hardware, clunky UI, endless troubleshooting), battery life on mobile Linux devices alone prevents me from using them in the real world. Is there a single Linux phone/tablet that can last an 8 hour day of actual use? Librem/Pinephone/Juno can't. My uConsole can't. Different category, but my MNT mini laptop lasts like 4 hours and can't b…

This is a big part of why Android was developed in the first place. The operating system and application architecture that makes sense on desktop just doesn't make sense on mobile. Despite the many problems Google's restrictive APIs which you are forced to use can cause for developers, they are also highly optimized for power usage.

Android is also Linux, so Linux isn't the problem - its the userspace. In terms of wakeups, the systemd/dbus desktop architecture is the worst.

Re: Linux phones are more important now than ever

#277

My Android phone prevents me from taking screenshots if an app author doesn't want me to. My Android phone prevents me from recording phone calls at the request of my carrier, even though it's totally legal for me to do so in my jurisdiction. I'm not loving where this is all going.

The first part also happens on desktop thanks to DRM, unfortunately. Like on Android, it can be worked around, but it's a massive pain to do so.

I'm curious about the second part, though. How do carriers influence the call recording feature on your phone? Is it because you run a carrier ROM or is there some kind of integration with the mobile network/SIM card that I'm not aware of?

Re: Linux phones are more important now than ever

#278

Isn't Android... Linux? It's not "gotcha", just... there are many clones of Android that work without Google Play, because Android (AOSP) is based on Linux. Why not just use that? What does "linux phone" add?

"Linux" is the name of the kernel but people use the word meaning something else.

People want a "Linux Phone" but have trouble explaining what software stack they want and how Android is not already it.

Re: Linux phones are more important now than ever

#279
Why don't we have an Android fork patched to fix all these "annoyances"? Android phone is just a computer, it should not be hard to unlock bootloader and flash it with anything.

I understand that it would be cumbersome on Apple devices with all their efforts to lock down the system, isn't Android different?

Re: Linux phones are more important now than ever

#280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does have a particular meaning, but it is one that's not relevant in this context, and it's probably narrower than what the poster intended. For example, Belgium is not a nation state, but I'm sure the GGP would be surprised by an answer like "no, it wasn't a nation state, Belgium asked them to do it".

What do you mean by 'Belgium is not a nation state', if i may ask?

They probably mean that Belgium consists of French-speaking and Dutch-speaking (and German-speaking) groups, which the person counts as separate nations, hence Belgium not being one nation.

This is mostly a language confusion for non-native English speakers. Nation, country, state, a people, nationality, ethnicity, citizenship etc. are used in confusing ways for speakers of other languages.

For many, "nation state" just means an independent state (roughly speaking, a UN member, note also that the UN is called United Nations), because just saying "state" could mean a subdivision, such as a US state. And "country" can be confused with the subdivision of the UK (they call, e.g. Scotland a "country").

In more precise contexts of political history, "nation state" mostly refers to modern (post-World War I) countries that more or less correspond to a people speaking the same language and having the same ethnic identity. It delineates nation states from the previously more common multi-ethnic empires and kingdoms, such as Austria-Hungary or the Holy Roman Empire etc.

Similarly, in English, nationality is often an exact synonym for citizenship, while speakers of other languages expect it to mean ethnicity, e.g. an ethnic Hungarian in Romania with Romanian citizenship would be considered a "Romanian national" in English-language news. This often makes people confused/angry. Also, in some contexts in English, "ethnicity" is more like a euphemism for something like "race", but not quite (e.g. in the US "Latino" is considered an "ethnicity" but not a race). In that sense "Hungarian" would not count as an "ethnicity" at all, but still phrases like "ethnic Slovak" refer to a minority group in a different country than Slovakia. But also "ethnic" can also just mean with "exotic foreign origin", e.g. "ethnic food" or "an ethnic woman" (this was really weird when I first read it). But I digress.

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