Earlier quoted context omitted.
route everything through a vps?
I would much rather fight this and retain my rights instead of participating in some kind of privacy and censorship arms race.
you fight this by the arms race
Linux phones are more important now than ever
481–490 of 515 posts
Re: Linux phones are more important now than ever
#482The mobile app ecosystem has outgrown it's original purpose to run software in a constrained env. Phones today are more powerful than my engineering laptop in university 15 years ago. The app ecosystem appeal today is reach, platform lock-in, and great APIs. For example. I _want_ to run Linux phones even without all the apps & convenience, except Signal messenger. I am unable to use Signal without first registering t…
It's possible to register a Signal account using signal-cli. Available on Flathub, and also Alpine repos. You can use a mobile number or a landline. I use Signal Desktop on a Librem 5 and everything works except the camera (for video calls) unless I plug in a webcam. The camera does work with other apps though.
Re: Linux phones are more important now than ever
#483Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is a special place in hell for people providing non copyable text information in the form of screenshots.
The other day I wanted to send someone proof that a transaction has gone through. A screenshot would have been the obvious choice, but of course, my banking app wouldn't let me do it.
I don't know about your bank/countries, but all of the banking apps in my country I've seen have 1. a "share account details" button that lets you easily paste your IBAN and other details in text form and 2. a "transaction receipt" button that saves a .pdf with the relevant details, that can be sent to the other part (although I agree with the other comment, this .pdf just like a screenshot can be easily spoofed)
Re: Linux phones are more important now than ever
#484Earlier quoted context omitted.
> they're protecting themselves [citation needed] The theory here is that it provides a marginal security improvement if there is malware on the phone, but if there is malware on the phone then there are a hundred other things it can do to the same effect and you're likely screwed anyway. And by doing this, you also block the user from taking screenshots, which is bad, because screenshots are harder for computers to…
>because screenshots are harder for computers to parse, and that's a marginal security advantage. If the user is going to send e.g. their account number to someone else (for a legitimate reason), it's better that they do it as a screenshot than that you force them to type it as text, because text is machine searchable. Which is worse when that messaging system gets compromised and then the attacker can do a text sear…
Isn't it though? You compromise some email provider so that you have read access to the emails of a million people going back 20 years. Literally many billions of emails with petabytes of attachments. Can you do text search on all of that text? Absolutely, an ordinary PC could do that in a realistic amount of time. Can you search the text within all of those images using some kind of computer vision system? Not without your own power plant.
Re: Linux phones are more important now than ever
#485Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
With Librem 5, you can even swap the battery without shutting down the phone if it's connected to the power.
Re: Linux phones are more important now than ever
#486Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've heard this argument before and yet I've never understood it. What government apps do people run? Why do you need to access your bank account on your phone? Is this some payments model that's just not common in my country where we still use physical credit cards for everything?
I work for a bank. There is a strategic focus on the mobile banking app over the web app. Younger generations are doing everything through their phones. Including applying for home loans. Many banks are moving towards being digital only as contactless payments means people are using cash a lot less to the point that physical bank branches don't make sense anymore.
> strategic focus on the mobile banking app over the web app. Younger generations are doing everything through their phones
This is not an argument against web apps, which work on the phones just fine.
Re: Linux phones are more important now than ever
#487Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
i mean, security in depth is a good thing to me.
Re: Linux phones are more important now than ever
#488Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Linux's security model is based on trusting the software you're installing from the FLOSS repositories, That's not a security model, and we don't live in fairyland. Just take a look how well this works with npm packages. It just so happens that emacs plugins are not the most worthwhile target for attackers.
> npm packages This has nothing to do with what I said. npm is not a trusted or a FLOSS repository. > we don't live in fairyland When did you see a malware in Debian's repositories last time?
Re: Linux phones are more important now than ever
#489I keep my eye on Linux phones from time-to-time. By "linux" -- I guess I mean using a phone that runs a valid linux distribution that gives me freedom of control as well as software freedom. I know people have a love/hate with environments like GNOME, but I don't mind it and happy for it on my phone.. as long as it adapts nicely on smaller screens. My only issue is applications. Like many, I am using an Android/IPhon…
I run Andoid apps on my Librem 5 using Waydroid.
Thanks for the info.
Re: Linux phones are more important now than ever
#490I keep my eye on Linux phones from time-to-time. By "linux" -- I guess I mean using a phone that runs a valid linux distribution that gives me freedom of control as well as software freedom. I know people have a love/hate with environments like GNOME, but I don't mind it and happy for it on my phone.. as long as it adapts nicely on smaller screens. My only issue is applications. Like many, I am using an Android/IPhon…
I run Andoid apps on my Librem 5 using Waydroid.
Is Librem 5 you main or only phone?
Interested in your opinions -- good and bad.