311–320 of 542 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Aosp without Google play services is dead. You need it more and more to run apps.
I have run graphene OS on my phone for 3+ years and I don't use Google Play or Google Play Services. You use F-Droid to install Aurora Store and anonymously download real apps. I can use my bank apps and it's quite functional. My wife even doesn't complain about it. Camera is decent, not as good due to the software being non-proprietary, but decent.
Don't tell me about grapheneos, I have a pixel phone and did run it for a few months with/without play services.
At the end, you're always going to absolutely need that one app that won't run without Gplay.
One of the issues is the network effect self reinforcing by the organistions you'd normally trust to be above this sort of thing. Like government bodies requiring that you use one of two american phone OS. No webpage and no other options for you... Example, across the whole of my 2.8 million people city, parking is app-to-pay. No meter, no ticket box - just a sign announcing to pay by app and a QR code. QR code point…
i read on mister RMS's website that he refuses to use phones except for the most basic things, preferring a laptop for aught else, mostly because phones are computers and 'software on computers should be free' ngl, that is the most charming darn thing to hear in 2026-- and it lowers the bar considerably here. like if all you need to have is a computer, sky's the limit on how you want to run this. sooo with a little h…
Some things are still funny to me, though. As Google transitions towards full Evilness, people less frequently advertise a "I was employed at Google, what a wonderful place". Google totally changed things here, to the worse - that's fascinating. Meanwhile the google graveyard is growing almost daily:
If only a few techies will be able to use Linux phone, banks will freely lock payment services access down to two platforms: ios and android. No way out, it's happening right now (in the name of "security", of course, but surprisingly it does not stop scam from happening). Web will be locked down too, via secureboot stack browser integration (not -s, it's already actually monopolised to chrome only, as FF lives on fu…
It's unfortunate that democracies foster a system of corporate corruption here.
I notice this often when I try to, say, use firefox and my bank says, sort of "nah, use chrome only". And they only ever assume people to use either OSX or windows; Linux is kind of forbidden in the sense of "won't support it". But often it does not need any support, those browser or OS checks are wrong to begin with.
If only a few techies will be able to use Linux phone, banks will freely lock payment services access down to two platforms: ios and android. No way out, it's happening right now (in the name of "security", of course, but surprisingly it does not stop scam from happening). Web will be locked down too, via secureboot stack browser integration (not -s, it's already actually monopolised to chrome only, as FF lives on fu…
Even when I'm still using a "classic" bank with card and a website that don't even use JS, I can't afford to use Windows Phone as my daily because it doesn't have the ride hailing apps used in my country. My current and previous office use proprietary app for clocking in and out, that are also only available on iOS and Android. Even public servants in my countries in all levels have to carry either of those two for l…
Speaking of Linux on mobile, I have about 300 of these things for sale with some associated hardware and software if anyone is interested (in Australia but can ship obviously) https://www.openstick.de/
It’d be cool to see pictures of the device!
I've come to the conclusion that I actually really like Android as an operating system, the internals seem remarkably well thought out and ideal for the mobile use case (so long as you're running a userdebug build with the ability to adb root in when needed), most of people's issues aren't really with Android (although Google reducing the AOSP release schedule isn't a good sign). I think the real problem is Google Pl…