Hang in there, hopefully some treatments start showing up.

reverse engineering this stuff is pretty challenging unfortunately

For most use cases though, you don’t really have much of a benefit of running Linux over Android on a phone though. There’s enough Linux compatibility on Android already to make it work seamlessly with your Linux devices. In my opinion, as long as the stack is open source and well supported, it doesn’t really matter whether it’s Android or Linux based.

It would’ve been a cool world if we got Linux that could work seamlessly between desktop and mobile. Imagine if you had architecture where apps were built as services with an API, and then you could connect either desktop or mobile UI to them. Heck, at that point you could even make custom UIs across apps, or pipe them together the way you do with shell scripts. And then you could also have a device like a phone which has all your apps and data, and you could plug it into a dock with more memory, GPU, etc. So, you wouldn’t have to juggle a bunch of devices and sync data between them.

Is it oversampling or just the fact there are a lot of users from China?

You can install Google app store in a container, and all the apps I’ve used work fine on it out of the box. It absolutely works fine as a daily driver.

I’d argue that Graphene is a better thing since it’s based on an OS that’s been designed for mobile from the ground up. I expect it’s going to be a while before Linux UX on mobile catches up to desktop, but Graphene works great already.

I just got a Pixel 9 last week and put GrapheneOS on it. Couldn’t be happier with it so far. The install was completely painless using web installer. All my apps worked out of the box. Google Store works fine in the sandbox. UX is good, and you don’t have any of the crap Google normally loads like all the adaptive services, and all the other junk that runs in the background.

Yeah, that’s fair. If you’re already stuck on Signal, then it’s difficult to make a move to something else. I’m mostly talking about people who are using something like WhatsApp, and it’s better to make a fresh move to a platform that doesn’t have the issues Signal has.

The thing is that there’s nothing special about Signal that makes it better than alternatives like SimpleX. I just don’t see why it should be promoted instead of them. Yes, it’s better than WhatsApp where meta has a master key and can read your messages, but why settle when you can use a platform without compromises?

Yeah, there are network effects at play here. Getting people to move off a platform is very difficult because they need their contacts to move to, and their contacts need theirs in turn. Some people are willing to use multiple messaging apps, but most don’t. I’d argue that’s why it’s important to promote alternatives to Signal. The more popular they become the easier it is to get people to move to them.

The question here is why not get people to switch to a better platform like SimpleX or even matrix with something like Element. I don’t find that Signal does anything better in practice.

Pretty much yeah, and they’ve had a really good marketing campaign too. They got a whole bunch of prominent tech influencers incessantly pushing it, and it just feels like a massive astroturf campaign to me. Like you said, if a random person pitched this idea, they’d be laughed at, but you get some people with clout to do it, and it sticks because everybody respects them and trusts them.

Except you have no idea what’s actually running on the server. Only people who operate it know.

Citation for what exactly? Go read up on how networking works, entire textbooks are available. The server has access to all the data the client sends it. How do you think you get paired with another person to chat, by magic?

No, I don’t think we live in an ideal world. I repeatedly said you ultimately have to use the platform that your contacts use. I’m merely pointing out that you should understand the trade offs.

I also find it really weird how aggressively Signal is being pushed everywhere, and how any criticism of it gets dismissed or ridiculed. It feels a bit like a cult at this point.

Again, I think people should be aware that there are alternatives to Signal, and be able to make an informed decision on the trade offs that matter to them. My personal view is that there are absolutely better platforms than Signal, but if people understand the potential risks with Signal and use it because it’s convenient or their other contacts use it, etc., that’s entirely up to them. It’s just not what I would personally recommend if people want privacy.

Yes, but those are basically separate platforms like Session. Signal does not federate, and there’s only a single server in the US that requires your phone number to sign up.

Ah yes clutching them pearls, when called out on outright lying.

Bye!