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Freeing My Phone from Google

hexaquo.at

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Re: Freeing My Phone from Google

#51

Post by lake99 »

jasonjayr wrote: post #48
diafygi wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have a recommendation for a phone that has a <=5" screen that is supported by LineageOS and MicroG? It seems like most of the well supported phones are too big to comfortably fit in my pocket.

I struggled for a long time to find a useful recommendation. I finally arrived at a way of figuring it out: Check their stats: https://stats.lineageos.org/ Pick your country on the right, then lookup the models listed at the left from most popular to least popular. The phones that are the most popular stand the chance of being the most stable, and best supported. I finally arrived @ "nash", which is more commonly kno…

Thank you! I'm on the lookout for a new phone supported by LOS. This will come in very handy.

Re: Freeing My Phone from Google

#52

Post by bubblethink »

ekianjo wrote: post #16

I really dislike people recommending Signal in a post about free software since Signal has a pretty bad track record when it comes to allowing non official clients to connect to its network. So much for user freedom.

>So much for user freedom.

Users are free to host their signal servers if they choose. The usage of their network is their prerogative. It's not a federated protocol and they never promised or set out to support arbitrary clients on their network. At the moment, the world is really better served by signal than most other messaging solutions.

Re: Freeing My Phone from Google

#53

Post by realusername »

izacus wrote: post #22
commoner wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google Maps is fully compatible with MicroG, a free and open source replacement for the Google Play Services client. MicroG includes UnifiedNlp, which was discussed in the blog post. https://microg.org/ https://lineage.microg.org/ At the moment, I recommend the previous version of MicroG (0.2.6.13280) since the latest version (0.2.7.17455) may have compatibility issues. If you're using LineageOS for MicroG, builds on…

MicroG talks to Google servers and uses Google's infrastructure while breaking the terms of service (at least in case of FCM). Same goes with NewPipe - you're using YouTube without actually paying for bandwidth, storage costs or the video author. So you're not actually getting yourself rid of Google or tracking, you're just using their resources without paying the asking price. Use other alternatives instead.

> MicroG talks to Google servers and uses Google's infrastructure while breaking the terms of service (at least in case of FCM).

Depending the country where you are based it might not matter, it might fall into interoperability legal exceptions.

Re: Freeing My Phone from Google

#54

Post by ekianjo »

bubblethink wrote: post #52
ekianjo wrote: post #16

I really dislike people recommending Signal in a post about free software since Signal has a pretty bad track record when it comes to allowing non official clients to connect to its network. So much for user freedom.

>So much for user freedom. Users are free to host their signal servers if they choose. The usage of their network is their prerogative. It's not a federated protocol and they never promised or set out to support arbitrary clients on their network. At the moment, the world is really better served by signal than most other messaging solutions.

> At the moment, the world is really better served by signal than most other messaging solutions.

Matrix/Riot is superior in about every way to Signal, and they welcome third party clients without any restriction.

> What sort of weird FOSS zealotry is this where you want to use someone else's network resources without their consent

Well, are they in the business of building something open, or building yet another walled garden? Because this is precisely what they seem to be doing by creating such restrictions.

Re: Freeing My Phone from Google

#55

Post by butz »

Any suggestions for Google Keep replacement? I really hate that all reminders end up in Google Calendar. I've already tried almost all Tasks apps from F-Droid, but each has some or other annoyance that prevents me from using it.

Re: Freeing My Phone from Google

#56

Post by bubblethink »

ekianjo wrote: post #54
bubblethink wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>So much for user freedom. Users are free to host their signal servers if they choose. The usage of their network is their prerogative. It's not a federated protocol and they never promised or set out to support arbitrary clients on their network. At the moment, the world is really better served by signal than most other messaging solutions.

> At the moment, the world is really better served by signal than most other messaging solutions. Matrix/Riot is superior in about every way to Signal, and they welcome third party clients without any restriction. > What sort of weird FOSS zealotry is this where you want to use someone else's network resources without their consent Well, are they in the business of building something open, or building yet another wal…

I edited that statement since it was unnecessarily aggressive. In any case, I can see their point. They never claimed to create a federated service and they cannot reasonably be expected to support/vouch for every arbitrary fork on their network. i.e., Vouching to the other party about the security of the communications, which is their main point.

>Well, are they in the business of building something open, or building yet another walled garden?

They are in the business of accessible secure communications for everyone. I think that's a reasonable goal with their reasonable tradeoffs. It's a free service with no money, no ads, and no obligations. Respecting their network usage policy is really just common courtesy.

Re: Freeing My Phone from Google

#57

Post by plaguna »

meruru wrote: post #33
webmobdev wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google Maps replacement: https://wego.here.com/ (It's pretty decent and was owned and used by Nokia before some German automobile companies bought it. Includes traffic data and voice based navigation. And they were offering offline maps long before Google).

Maps.me is available on F-Droid: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.github.axet.maps/

I had to uninstall it after it started to ask me to review places and locations I visited and didn't gave me the option to turn these off.

Re: Freeing My Phone from Google

#58

Post by dredmorbius »

flaxton wrote: post #7

Speaking of phones, did you try to read this on a phone? Tiny font, not responsive design and faint color (no contrast) makes it very hard to read. Ugh.

That is horrible. Fails both FF Reader Mode and Outline.org

w3m (via Termux) and unv.is both win:

https://unv.is/hexaquo.at/posts/2019/06/29/Freeing+my+phone+...

Re: Freeing My Phone from Google

#59

Post by sm4rk0 »

diafygi wrote: post #38
commoner wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google Maps is fully compatible with MicroG, a free and open source replacement for the Google Play Services client. MicroG includes UnifiedNlp, which was discussed in the blog post. https://microg.org/ https://lineage.microg.org/ At the moment, I recommend the previous version of MicroG (0.2.6.13280) since the latest version (0.2.7.17455) may have compatibility issues. If you're using LineageOS for MicroG, builds on…

Do you have a recommendation for a phone that has a <=5" screen that is supported by LineageOS and MicroG? It seems like most of the well supported phones are too big to comfortably fit in my pocket.

I used Moto X (1st gen) with LineageOS (Marshmallow) and microG until I broke it this May. It has a 4.7" AMOLED and 2GB RAM. CPU has only two 1.7GHz cores, but it did its job quite well even after 5 years.

Re: Freeing My Phone from Google

#60

Post by commoner »

commoner wrote: post #50
diafygi wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have a recommendation for a phone that has a <=5" screen that is supported by LineageOS and MicroG? It seems like most of the well supported phones are too big to comfortably fit in my pocket.

I personally recommend the first-generation Google Pixel XL (marlin), which costs under $100 used on eBay. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_(smartphone) With MicroG, Google Camera works as it does on stock Android. Most phones on LineageOS aren't able to use their stock camera app, which results in reduced camera quality compared to stock Android. The Pixel/Nexus line, ironically, is the main exception. Google Cam…

A correction: instead of "stock Android", I meant the factory operating system that comes with the phone.
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