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LineageOS is currently installed on 1.5M Android devices

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Re: LineageOS is currently installed on 1.5M Android devices

#171
post #37

Lineage is as much standard android experience as you can get after market without any gaming/styling mods. If google was series about AOSP and sustainability they should embrace lineage and at least give a non-rooted lineage with a relocked bootloader on pixel phones a safety-net pass. Lineage has been very careful to not piss off google by not including microg or alternative webview signatures or means to circumven…

DivestOS is a slightly modified Lineage version that officially supports relocking on some phones (in contrast with Lineage, which I think can be relocked but explicitly tells users not to do that). It also has sandboxed implementations of both official Google services — ported from Graphene, I think – and microG. I'm using it with microG, bootloader relocked, and it seems to pass SafetyNet this way – at least the ap…

> but explicitly tells users not to do that

They set the vbmeta header flags field to 0x3, which effectively turns off all of AVB (Android Verified Boot). I'm guessing they do this because they want to allow the system partition to be writable (eg. for folks who flash additional things on top of LineageOS).

With unmodified LineageOS, if you configured the bootloader to use LineageOS' public key and relocked it, there would be no security benefit. To enable AVB's signature checks, the flags field needs to be set to 0, which requires re-signing LineageOS with your own key.

Re: LineageOS is currently installed on 1.5M Android devices

#172
post #2

I install Lineage on the phones of the elderly at local care homes and any people who are interested in prolonging the life of their old phones. Poor people can't afford a new phone every two years. When in your 80's you dont need or want the constant nagging of apps pestering you when all you want to do is text and call your family and friends. I use abd to delete/disable every unnecessary useless app and leave them…

Don't forget Doom!

We got lots of time on our hands.

Re: LineageOS is currently installed on 1.5M Android devices

#173
post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There should be law to mandate the UI of any app beyond a userbase of 100M. Gross. No thanks. If you don't like the UI of an app, just use something else for cryin' out loud.

Care to explain further why there should be zero regulations on the UX of monopoly applications used by ~15%+ of world population? Good luck on trying to avoid the 3 top messaging applications in today's world. How is this different from regulating content moderation? It's like telling a wheelchair user to just use another station or form of transport. If you have global reach, you have global responsibilites. And th…

> Care to explain further why there should be zero regulations on the UX of monopoly applications used by ~15%+ of world population?

Because there isn't a monopoly on chat apps. What you're asking for sounds like rules for the sake of more rules. I can think of more than half a dozen chat apps offhand: Signal Messenger, Whatsapp iMessage, all manner of IRC clients, Slack, Teams, stock SMS, Discord, Matrix/Element, Telegram, Session, and so on and so on.

We're not talking web search here, the market for chats is diverse and competitive. You got walled gardens, open source, and everything in between with a bunch of different UI's.

Re: LineageOS is currently installed on 1.5M Android devices

#174
post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There should be law to mandate the UI of any app beyond a userbase of 100M. Gross. No thanks. If you don't like the UI of an app, just use something else for cryin' out loud.

What is this plethora of options people have for banking, paying rent, getting documents from their doctor... And this isn't just an issue with phone apps either. When I visit my bank account online I'm met with full page advertisements for other services from the bank and I have to hunt around to find the tiny gray 'No thanks' text before I can even get to my accounts. And from there, I'm met with constantly changin…

> What is this plethora of options people have for banking, paying rent, getting documents from their doctor... And this isn't just an issue with phone apps either.

There are a lot of ways to pay bills. You named one that you happen not to like.

Re: LineageOS is currently installed on 1.5M Android devices

#175
post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Care to explain further why there should be zero regulations on the UX of monopoly applications used by ~15%+ of world population? Good luck on trying to avoid the 3 top messaging applications in today's world. How is this different from regulating content moderation? It's like telling a wheelchair user to just use another station or form of transport. If you have global reach, you have global responsibilites. And th…

> Care to explain further why there should be zero regulations on the UX of monopoly applications used by ~15%+ of world population? Because there isn't a monopoly on chat apps. What you're asking for sounds like rules for the sake of more rules. I can think of more than half a dozen chat apps offhand: Signal Messenger, Whatsapp iMessage, all manner of IRC clients, Slack, Teams, stock SMS, Discord, Matrix/Element, Te…

Out of your examples there is like 3 over 100m MAU all other are negligible. Try to tell your peers you prefer "all manner of IRC clients". But regardless, don't you think an app used by 100m+ people should be regulated in this way? Can elderly or disabled persons choose what messenger they want to use to connect to most people? And don't tell "AI will solve it", the industry will not want these interfaces to be simple, they want to maximise profits. Black patterns should be discouraged.

Re: LineageOS is currently installed on 1.5M Android devices

#176
post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Care to explain further why there should be zero regulations on the UX of monopoly applications used by ~15%+ of world population? Because there isn't a monopoly on chat apps. What you're asking for sounds like rules for the sake of more rules. I can think of more than half a dozen chat apps offhand: Signal Messenger, Whatsapp iMessage, all manner of IRC clients, Slack, Teams, stock SMS, Discord, Matrix/Element, Te…

Out of your examples there is like 3 over 100m MAU all other are negligible. Try to tell your peers you prefer "all manner of IRC clients". But regardless, don't you think an app used by 100m+ people should be regulated in this way? Can elderly or disabled persons choose what messenger they want to use to connect to most people? And don't tell "AI will solve it", the industry will not want these interfaces to be simp…

Yes, they can choose one of hundreds of text messaging apps. If not someone can help them. If your bar for a product is that a disabled person has to be able to use it easily, no exceptions, then you are going to destroy a lot of products, from mountain bikes to headphones to pepper grinders.

Re: LineageOS is currently installed on 1.5M Android devices

#177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Take something as simple and necessary like Messenger or WhatsApp. Try to use it with no previous knowledge, texting, calling, turning on camera during call. All the text the UI displays, how it is worded. It's ridiculously unintuitive, not inclusive, a real barrier. There should be law to mandate the UI of any app beyond a userbase of 100M. If you say that would severely restrict apps becoming that big, yeah that wo…

> There should be law to mandate the UI No thank you.

I don’t see why people get so shocked about this proposal.

There are laws to force architects to make their buildings accessible to people with disabilities, so I don’t see why it would be shocking to force companies that generate revenues from apps with a certain amount of user base to make their apps accessible.

Re: LineageOS is currently installed on 1.5M Android devices

#178
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And bring back the plastic back (albeit using recycled supermarket bags or whatever). The 5c was such a great phone.

Exactly! I had really hoped that would catch on, but I only ever saw it on some Nokia Winphones and cheaper Androids. The glass back is one of my least favorite features of modern phones and metal isn't much better (pick your poison: shatter, dent, or scratch). The 5c was also a bit of a callback to Apple's white polycarbonate era and some of my absolute favorite Macs. I even saw some renders of a translucent replace…

FWIW, Samsung used a plastic back for their basic Galaxy S21. I like it personally (less slippery than my old S7 Edge), but it seems to have been controversial among the user base, and they switched back to glass for later versions.

Re: LineageOS is currently installed on 1.5M Android devices

#179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>When in your 80's you dont need or want the constant nagging of apps pestering you when all you want to do is text and call your family and friends. I'm nowhere near 80 or retirement and I have the same sentiment. Add datamining concerns to the list. The modern smart phone can stay off my lawn. I get enough Internet here at my desk.

i'm of the same mind. I set limits. I don't play games on my phone (except maybe in exceptional circumstances like on an airplane) and I don't use it for social media (only exception is facebook messenger because so many family members use it). I find when I draw fences around things like that it helps a lot to get back time from time stealing activities. I treat my phone as a tool and not as entertainment, otherwise…

These are sane limitations. They should be understood in the same way as basic health axioms. Digital gluttony has been normalized.

Re: LineageOS is currently installed on 1.5M Android devices

#180
post #60
post #37

Lineage is as much standard android experience as you can get after market without any gaming/styling mods. If google was series about AOSP and sustainability they should embrace lineage and at least give a non-rooted lineage with a relocked bootloader on pixel phones a safety-net pass. Lineage has been very careful to not piss off google by not including microg or alternative webview signatures or means to circumven…

I never understood the banking app thing. I can use my banks website to manage my finances, using my built-from-source Gentoo Linux computer. Why must a phone then be totally locked down?

You might be interested in this https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/08/business/korea-internet-e...
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