- cross-posted to:
- privacy@programming.dev
- cross-posted to:
- privacy@programming.dev
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Considering Google and Apple both donate to Trump, we really need an alternative: Linux mobile OS. A linux OS that can be installed on a range of phones, from cheap to more expensiove. Just buy the phone and install the OS, as you do on PCs.
Good linux mobile OSs already exist, but phones’ hardware is still proprietary and messed up, so it is very difficult to provide a good hardware support for those mobile OSs
Yes, the bottleneck isn’t software, it’s hardware. We need phones with unlocked bootloaders
Good is used looy here.
When will F-Droid stop working on stock android?
Depends on your location. There is a timeline table here:
I see September 2026 as a tough date.
There’s nothing set in stone yet. Google just committed to doing it is all that’s happened so far. But the response against it has been pretty heavy and we’ll see how it goes. We have to speak up right now and organize our communities like this post is doing.
LOL. There’s dozens of us here.
Don’t wait. GOS just works.
On one phone. The rest of are shit out of luck because we didn’t buy the one phone from the company that is causing the problem in the first place.
They’re working with an (unrevealed) major OEM to bring a compatible device to market sometime next year.
https://old.reddit.com/r/GrapheneOS/comments/1o32gpg/blackberry_phones/nivsx0k/
Here’s hoping its a device with an SD card slot and optionally a 3.5 jack. The Pixel’s lack of those is the one reason I haven’t made the switch.
Apparently not. But it will later come to other cheaper offerings of the company which will probably have a headphone connector.
Buy used. The other phone vendors haven’t been offering the security hardware GOS needs, so far. It might change soon enough though.
This isn’t awful advice, but used Pixel prices are vastly out of whack with used prices from just about any other android manufacturer. On Amazon I can currently buy a refurbished Galaxy S25+ for $300 less than a refurbished Pixel 9 Pro XL - when the Pixel is a worse phone by every metric but its ability to run GOS.
Also, in some markets (US I believe? I think its a company called Verizon that does this) Some pixels just cannot be OEM unlocked, at all. So that’s also a risk buying used online at least - there’s usually not a way to tell if you’d be getting one of those if you live in a market that has this fucked up “feature”.
Change phones. You’re rejecting solutions without offering one.
Dude, just fuck off. Your solution does not work for everyone. Pixel phones don’t even have an SD slot ffs.
Get a USB-C memory stick for your phone. Stop acting like this stuff’s impossible.
Get a USB-C memory stick for your phone. Stop acting like this stuff’s impossible.
So it’ll take 3 dongles just to bring my music collection with me? That’s stupid. I’m not offering solutions because there are none. Phone manufacturers and Google have fucked us. My current phone is 8 years old because there are no good options that have The hardware I want. The only hope is the FOSS community and they decided to back one of the most useless phone models that is made by the biggest offender. Might as well buy an iPhone at this point for all the good it will do.
Ironically, with an iPhone you could at least buy into Test Flight privately-signed-apps.
Anyhow, it took me a couple days to realize the guy that you and I have both been replying to is just a troll. Thanks for explaining your thoughts through this discussion, and try not to be too demoralized by the guy.
We don’t need 100 million songs on our phones. We can have 10 million songs. Privacy is more important than a stupidly large music collection.
You can’t even buy a Pixel in Brazil, one of the countries set to receive the change first on Google’s roadmap.
Being stuck on a single phone brand is never gonna be the solution.You clearly have internet, so buy it from anywhere in the world. You’ve given zero solutions. It’s like want us to give up. I’m not giving up on my privacy.
The solution is making noise. Talking to your local regulators, making them know this is an issue worth looking into.
The solution is pushing your government to do their fucking job and regulate these companies so they can’t take blatant anti-costumer measures.I’m not saying GrapheneOS isn’t a solution, it absolutely is, what I’m saying is that it isn’t the be-all and end-all, nor is it available for everybody, and coming into the comments to say “just buy a pixel duh” is smug as shit, and also missing the forest for the trees.
The solution is stopping Google from rolling out this change so everybody can enjoy the increased privacy sideloaded, FOSS apps bring, not just Graphene users.Hell, Graphene themselves are suffering from Google’s fuckery in relation to security patches and AOSP. (Image, Original Link)
Getting Google in a big antitrust lawsuit so they’ll stop being actively hostile to projects built on top of Android would be very beneficial to Graphene, don’t you think?
Wanna talk demoralizing? How about hearing “just buy a pixel and install GOS” on every thread on this topic completely ignoring whole countries where this isn’t exactly feasible?
And when you try to point that out you get the most dismissive answer ever completely ignoring import taxes and a zillion other factors that make even used Pixels cost more than brand new phones that are head and shoulders above them specs wise?Demoralizing you? Be so for real dude. You really think I’m part of a psyop trying to make you give up your OS? Rest easy, I won’t reach thru the screen and snatch your phone.
Just know Graphene needs no negative marketing. If every user walks around talking like this about the project they’ll have plenty already.Thanks for spelling out all of this. I was you to know the I read every word of it.
The guy we both were responding to managed to waste an hour of my own day with back-and-forth so I figured it was worth seeing how others had torn apart the nonsense, and while I knew the issues in a theory level you explaining Brazil’s ecosystem was an excellent illustration I learn from.
Good luck out there. May we someday both learn to evade feeding the trolls.
The solution is pushing your government to do their fucking job and regulate these companies so they can’t take blatant anti-costumer measures.
Now you’re giving a solution. Led with that.
Uh huh. And the devices that are not phones?
And saying just change your phone, much easier said than done isn’t it?
My actions… Piss off.
Computers don’t need Android.
For fucks sake: my tablet, my android tv, a firestick…
Computers can output to televisions and a tablet computer is a type of computer. You’ve given zero solutions. It’s like want us to give up. I’m not giving up on my privacy.
This isn’t a scalable solution. There aren’t enough affordable, used Pixels for everyone in the ecosystem to adopt between now and the Goo-lag.
Alternative ROM market is fringe de la fringe, so there’s sufficient used hardware available. I bought my 7a for 320 eur new and my tablet for 400 eur new though, so the Google tax (or, GOS tax, rather) was moderate.
One con, too, is that Graphene drops support when Google does, limiting the options around buying quite older models and running them for a long time to keep price low.
I still appreciate GrapheneOS and understand why they drop support, but it is definitely a con compared to other ROMs which trend towards extending support longer.
At least they’re trying.
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It’s not a “solution” if it doesn’t solve for most of us. Likely you and I both need to federate with others for results because I’m honestly not a qualified software developer but …
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Modern flagship phones have more than enough resources to run non-gaming app’s within some other container or even with full virtualization or, worst case scenario, emulation. We desperately need folks to figure out porting Dockerlike platform tools and making them accessible for normies like me.
If we can run an entire Windows environment and, separately, if we can run Hades II on a yesteryear Samsung, we should be able to get a sufficiently sandboxed environment together that’s qualified to run the weather apps and calculator apps I run on FDroid.
Because I’ll be god-damned if I’m going to entrust Google’s calculator app with my contacts and phone status permissions.
Not to say I’m entitled to any of their labor but I would join a crowdfunding program in a heartbeat.
If you can’t buy a phone should you be gambling on crowd funding.
I carry an S22 (with no Google services allowed on it) and an S25. I could buy any flagship phone in cash and not blink. Most folks around you and me don’t have this kind of privilege.
I’m fine.
I’m saying that we can’t ask or expect everyone to have the means to do so, AND that tellibg all of them to buy Pixels to fund the very company that is fucking everyone over, in hopes they leave the bootloader for those phones unlocked indefinitely, is basically just complying in advance.
While you’re busy insulting me and others, I seriously think we need a campaign to empower devs because the solutions are going to have to come from software, and that takes real people’s labor, talent and time. That is solely what I’m advocating for.
This is your community. It rises or falls with how we treat each other. How can you and I encourage each other, today?
I seriously think we need a campaign to empower devs because the solutions are going to have to come from software, and that takes real people’s labor, talent and time. That is solely what I’m advocating for.
Great, agreed. Wish more led with this.
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I honestly didn’t realize how the fdroid deployment worked, and now I’m gonna be way less skeptical of apps I see there.
I do not go to Google play until apps on f-droid prove inadequate for my usage.
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Syncthing is no longer an option on Android?
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I’m using syncthing-fork.
I’m using Syncthing-Fork on Android and Syncthing on Linux. Works very well.
Can one just remove GSF and bypass this? Or is it something going to be built into Android going forward? Genuinely curious.
I am not on Android now, but…
…Can folks not just dual-boot?
Like, keep a stock partition to make Play Store apps happy, and a “main” GraphemeOS boot option or whatever.
To my knowledge no. Theres also the issue of hardware. For example, I stupidly gave samsung another chance about 3 or so years ago, and you basically cannot put another OS on their devices without bricking them.
