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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

#461

Post by [deleted] »

GuB-42 wrote: post #391
hypeatei wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> prevents me from taking screenshots if an app author doesn't want me to The most frustrating part about this "feature" is that you don't know it's enabled until the screenshot is taken and you're left with a picture of nothing. That and some app authors thinking they're protecting you with this (referring to banking apps in particular)

It is not for preventing you from taking screenshots, if you insist, you can do it with another camera. It is to prevent malware and "helpful" AI tools from doing it for you and then uploading the picture to who knows where. Signal does this too, though I think it is optional. Beyond preventing screenshots, it blacks out the window content in the task switcher, which is useful if someone is looking over your shoulder…

[deleted]

Re: Linux phones are more important now than ever

#462

Post by fragmede »

gf000 wrote: post #389
sharperguy wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I would argue that the legacy OS and app architecture we have on desktop OSs doesn't make sense there, either. It's a model that worked fine in multi-user setups where you ran a single executable, so that the security per user was meaningful, but today it just sucks. Android is quite elegant in reusing the Linux kernel's permission system, but on a granularity that actually makes sense (apps are started as separate u…

macOS grants processes permissions, eg terminal is allowed access to ~/Photos but Whatsapp is not. Seems like a decent evolution of things.

Re: Linux phones are more important now than ever

#463

Post by godelski »

BrandoElFollito wrote: post #456
godelski wrote: post #447

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So let's have more of these conversations so the idiots making those standards make fewer dumb rules and we can grease the wheels for anyone passionate enough to try to get it changed

Unfortunately the idiots are often the nation's security agency, or a large consulting company. You will not have them change their policies if they do not have a good person inside, who will slowly move the boat. I fought for audit findings because they were pissing me off at a personal level and it wirked. But the auditor did not change their procedure, just reverted the finding. Until the next year.

I think you're making the naïve assumption that large organizations are heterogeneous.

The people at the top are idiots because the idiots were able to secure advisory positions. They were able to secure positions because those promoting them were either tricked or idiots themselves. This pattern repeated all the way down.

So I really do mean grease the wheels. And I really mean we won't kill the beast overnight. But we won't make any progress towards fixing things if we won't look at how the problems are created in the first place. We'll only perpetuate the problems if we oversimplify things, as that's exactly what got us into this mess in the first place.

Re: Linux phones are more important now than ever

#464

Post by sterlind »

jeffparsons wrote: post #17

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.

> 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.

my GrapheneOS phone has the record button. :) though I have to obtain all-party consent to do so legally in my jurisdiction (but that's my responsibility.)

Re: Linux phones are more important now than ever

#465

Post by caddzooks »

GuB-42 wrote: post #391
hypeatei wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> prevents me from taking screenshots if an app author doesn't want me to The most frustrating part about this "feature" is that you don't know it's enabled until the screenshot is taken and you're left with a picture of nothing. That and some app authors thinking they're protecting you with this (referring to banking apps in particular)

It is not for preventing you from taking screenshots, if you insist, you can do it with another camera. It is to prevent malware and "helpful" AI tools from doing it for you and then uploading the picture to who knows where. Signal does this too, though I think it is optional. Beyond preventing screenshots, it blacks out the window content in the task switcher, which is useful if someone is looking over your shoulder…

So in other words, the developers of Android could not figure out how to design a system that could distinguish a screenshot that was initiated by the user versus one initiated by software.

Very impressive.

Re: Linux phones are more important now than ever

#466

Post by sterlind »

mrweasel wrote: post #341
taneliv wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

LOL, what? My (teenage) kids use my phone all the time, especially in the car, when I'm driving, but also at home. It's not like I have porn or banking apps on it, but what is the age verification going to help there? If the kids would install an app or used browser to see naked people, then my face would be available to these services, right? Better mine than the kids', I suppose! (We're not in Denmark, but I wonder…

The Danish MitID identity "service" is actually pretty clever, except for the app used to approve actions or requests on your behalf. It's designed in a way that ensure that it can verify your age, but reveal nothing else about you. It isn't going to be used for "Porn ID" though. Instead it will provide your age information, basically 15+ or 18+ (I think those are the options), to an identity wallet, which in term wi…

it looks like MitID is basically country-wide SSO, isn't it? then isn't MitID collecting every website you authenticate to via the redirect uri?

Re: Linux phones are more important now than ever

#467

Post by fossman »

poetaster wrote: post #351
maheart wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I used SailfishOS as a daily driver since ~2014 until last year when I moved to the Furi FLX1. The FLX1 has been my daily driver since. SailfishOS is much more polished, but it's not fully FOSS, and it follows upstream much less closely. FLX1 is basically in-sync with Debian testing, with the exception of kernel.

Interesting. I had a poke at postmarket, which wasn't ready in comparison with SFOS. Would you say the FLX1 is at better stage in development than postmarket?

You're comparing a Linux OS (postmarketOS) to a device (FLX1). I think you meant to compare postmarketOS to FuriOS : )

FuriOS (and its base Droidian) are at a better stage of development for devices made to run Android using the old Android Linux kernel, whereas postmarketOS is better for devices made specifically for Linux, like the Liberty Phone, Pinephone, etc. Droidian will not even work on them.

Re: Linux phones are more important now than ever

#468

Post by sterlind »

Nursie wrote: post #35
hecanjog wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had the same (US) bank for 20 years, it's a small one, they have a nice web interface (and I can deposit checks through it on my laptop) but I've never run into a situation where I needed to have some smartphone app to do my banking. (I also don't have a smartphone.) Is this common with major banks? Do they not have web interfaces anymore?

A lot of major banks worldwide have apps, and they usually require un-rooted phones. People here seem to think this is some sort of Orwellian attempt to control them, but the reasons are more mundane and technical - many of them (mine included, from two countries) use security facilities on the phone to secure your accounts. For example, my HSBC UK app has replaced the little calculator thing they used to ship, and u…

> People here seem to think this is some sort of Orwellian attempt to control them, but the reasons are more mundane and technical - many of them (mine included, from two countries) use security facilities on the phone to secure your accounts.

My GrapheneOS phone fully supports such facilities. I trust your app works on it?

here's all you need to do, if not: https://grapheneos.org/articles/attestation-compatibility-gu...

Re: Linux phones are more important now than ever

#469

Post by fossman »

fsflover wrote: post #375
VariousPrograms wrote: post #116

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…

Did you know that you can replace the battery in Librem 5 and Pinephone on the go?

They are just like tiny laptops, so you can certainly shutdown and swap the battery.

Re: Linux phones are more important now than ever

#470

Post by fossman »

cranberryturkey wrote: post #215
VariousPrograms wrote: post #116

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…

My HP laptop lasts 2 hours running linux. My macbook air m4 lasts 12 hours.

Well, if enough of us paid Apple level prices to Linux vendors, we would have Apple level Linux laptops and phones eventually. Not fair to pay next to nothing and then compare Linux to Apple.
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