291–300 of 542 posts
Is there such thing as a palm-sized mobile PC that can just run a desktop Linux distribution (or Windows for that matter) that supports mobile features (calling, SMS, and data)? Even if it has rough edges or compromises?
Looks like some of GPD Pocket systems can have sim cards. But don't know how good the linux compatibility is.
M.2 modems generally can't do calls nor SMS, though. It's just data, AFAIK.
My bank forces me to have an iOS/Android phone for online payments. So at best I'd have a cheap Android phone in a drawer in my house in case I need to make online payments. I'm surprised WhatsApp works on his non-Android OS?!
I think the real problem is Google Play Services. It's far, far too tightly integrated in a way that it just seems like Android was designed to be unusable without. It's installed as a location manager internally, which gives it a shitload of permissions by default that you never grant it. There's absolutely no reason everything (notifications, the app store, some location services) has to be packaged together into one thing instead of each having its own module that can be removed at will. Play integrity just plain shouldn't exist and as far as I'm concerned is purely there to ensure no one creates a real play services alternative or another mobile OS with Android compatibility.
The ideal outcome for me would be keeping Android but effectively dissolving Play Services and instead having the concept of a core services, where instead of apps choosing to use Firebase for notifications, they instead bind to the system notifications service, and as the user I choose which implementation I want, preferably with it not installed as a system app. I'm well aware that's not going to happen, but it seems like the most practical way to break up the Google/Apple monopoly to me, Android's great but Google's services aren't.
If they ever figure out how to get Linux onto a phone with a good camera, I'd pounce on it. I would be willing to put up with app issues and weird bugs and all the jankiness that comes with early adoption, but I simply can't give up being able to take really good photos with my phone.
May as well just get an old school Nokia and skip the smartphone technology all together. Get yourself a nice flip phone and go back to the early 2000's. If you need to do something online, just bring your laptop with you - some are so small that they're easy to carry around in a backpack or side bag.
You cannot get an old school nokia because 3g networks are gone, so they won't work.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ironically, Google Pixel phones are the best phones for leaving Google behind. The have an unlocked bootloader and are the only phones supported by GrapheneOS [1]. If you don't want to go to GrapheneOS, any Android phone should be able to use F-Droid. [1] https://grapheneos.org/faq#supported-devices
After September, will you still be able to install F-Droid on phones with Google accounts?
I would love to do this. It's shocking how little Android offers for the hardware it uses. Recently I was thinking if I could install Windows 98 on my phone, even that would be better. At least I could have more than one app open without it burning all my work just because I dared to check info on a web page while filling a form.
My LineageOS setup used to do that; until I found that someone found a script that would adjust the memory allocation and OOM killer to more sensible values. I just have that run on boot. No side effects. Unfortunately, that's not an option for most people, the only choice is to complain - but not like there's any other option on the market that behaves better. Or there's some other drawback, or different UI to learn…
Did you consider postmarketOS? https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Fairphone_4_(fairphone-fp...
He did: "The mobile linux space isn't exactly looking good right now, but it holds some promise. Ubuntu Touch managed to survive being abandoned by Canonical, and postmarket is still seeing good development even if not having great hardware adapation at the moment. "
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I live in Europe and I can use my bank just fine without their app. I've read somewhere that some banks will let you use their SMS 2FA as long as you haven't already used their mobile app.
Cool, good to know. When I first moved to Ireland you could get a hardware code generator too but I don’t know if that’s still a thing