I mostly use apps installed from F-Droid, so I’m not sure how I’ll use the phone, except that it’s sometimes required as a contact method.
I’m fed up enough to try Ubuntu on my phone. But probably will use a custom ROM. And I will never ever buy a phone that is not confirmed unlocked. I hope others do the same. And I wish the locked phone companies many hours of doom scrolling on their unsalable phones.
LineageOS user here, so nothing will change for me. Perhaps in the long-term Google might kill off AOSP for good, in which case I’ll seriously consider a so-called real Linux device. Cautiously optimistic about the FSF’s Librephone project, which right now is attempting to reverse engineer blobs in Android devices.
I already have a Pinephone sitting around so maybe I’ll re-flash Mobian on it and play around with it. In the long term my ideal distro would be Guix or some Guix derivative.
GrapheneOS
Giving more money to Google after they fucked u in the arse. Brain dead move
- In what way?
- What do you suggest, live brain dude?
Linux or bust. We need to humble these companies at any costs. Open software open hardware
I don’t know yet, I’m going to keep track of developments around this and see what the community comes up with. I refuse to be bent over by tech giants.
get a flip phone
Short term, my next phone will have Harmony NextOS installed. I’d rather give my data to China than the US and 5-Eyes.
Well, I know that I probably wont be buying anymore android devices and I know for sure that I’ll never buy an iOS device. But outside of that I’m not sure, I’ll have to wait and see how things play out. If possible, I’d like to be able to use Linux or at least custom versions of android but, as of now, most of my devices don’t have custom roms available and the two that do haven’t been supported in years. I have looked into Linux phones, tablets and other portable devices like the Steam deck and the Legion Go S but they are very expensive and there isn’t even a way for me to purchase some them.
I am also aware of ADB commands but I’ve never used them before. If they are easy enough to use without potentially bricking my devices, I am not opposed to using them.
I’ll root and/or use ADB to install APKs. Fuck Google.
Use an alternative ROM. That is what I do now.
I’m likely going to use ladb to sideload “directly” on the device. I’m really hoping there are some legal challenges and/or bad pr to make them back down. I’m also considering picking up a Fairphone 4 or 5 and running CalyxOS as a plan B.
Fairphone looks really bad after reading some of the GrapheneOS forum threads covering them. Calyx is still on hiatus over the security patch thing
Last time I checked on fairphone they weren’t doing the due diligence for basic security, and that’s why grapheneos won’t touch them
Did they get worse?
I had never read their forum threads on Fairphone and eOS until the other day. Makes me glad I ruled them out for other reasons.
That’s a shame on both counts. I’ll have to follow more closely for a Plan C.
install them with adb. its a crucial feature for developers, so they won’t easiky get rid of it.
How do you get updates when installing via adb?
Install them via adb, probably
Is this manageable for the non-dev by chance? I can get by on a tutorial or too but if enough things break I’m feeling a dumbphone alt may be the only viable path
Depends on your comfort with CLI tools. Here’s the process (assumes Windows):
- Download and extract platform tools
- Add that location to your PATH
- Win + R, type “cmd”, enter
set PATH=%PATH%;C:\your\path\here\<- Temporary, just for the current sessionsetx /M path "%path%;C:\your\path\here\"<- Permanent
-
On your device, go to
Settings -> Aboutand look forBuild Numberit can sometimes be buried inSoftware Information -
Tap
Build Numberrepeatedly until a message appearsYou are now a developer -
You should now have a new
Developer optionsmenu item somewhere in your settings. Sometimes it’s top level, sometimes it’s buried underAdditional SettingsorAdvanced Settingsor the like -
Make sure
USB Debuggingis turned on -
Connect the device over USB
-
Back on WIndows type:
adb devices- You might get a popup on the device asking if you want to allow USB debugging. Select Yes, and run
adb devicesagain. You should see your device listed
- Download the APK of the app you want to install (AAB files are a PITA, but can be installed too. Try to get APK files though)
- Install with:
adb install C:/path/to/app.apk<- ifadb devicesonly returns one deviceadb -s <device_id> install C:/path/to/app.apk<- specific device
You can install updates the same way, just download the updated APK and add the
-rflagadb install -r C:/path/to/app.apkYes it is.
It will probably be something similar to ios altstore. You would have an app which has a list of your non-playstore apps and repo for their releases and would notify you for upgrades that you would manually have to install (for example I suppose obtainium will implement adb), the setup will be annoying but far far less cumbersome than apple where you have to reboot your device multiple times self sign ipas and refresh once a week otherwise the apps don’t load at all. This iOS experience is awful but still doable and non-dev. Android will have a better experience for sure.
No it’s not. Not because of that it’s too difficult but it’s too much work on a weekly basis just to update your stuff.
I have no rooted phone because I have grapheneos but it should be possible to do it directly on your rooted phone with shizuku et al which wouldn’t be that bad.
How’s graphene been serving you? I’ve wanted to take the plunge for a while now and this no side loading bs has me looking into it again
Is this manageable for the non-dev by chance?
Not really.
I’ve not been following things super closely, but the idea would be that each user would get their own developer key and then locally compile and deploy whatever apps they want as though it were a project they themselves were working on. The first bit is not too dissimilar from how a lot of people with XBOXes made dev accounts to install emulators. But the latter is going to get real messy and REAL compromised REAL fast as people just use third party tools and binaries that will inevitably be compromised.
I’m feeling a dumbphone alt may be the only viable path
It really depends on what your use case is. If you actually just talk to people on phones? Uhm… I am not even sure where you would find a dumb phone at this point, but that will probably work for voice calls and SMS using just your carrier and MAYBE wifi. But anything that involves apps, which is a shockingly large part of the world, will be a mess. Some you can (and should) do workarounds (banking apps, for example) but others you are kind of up a creek since your options are to use a modern phone or not be able to (for example) see your kid’s daycare schedule.
where do you get that stuff with a dev key?
sideloading is completely fine, only requirements are the tools on the pc and a cable.
I’ll go back to Ubuntu Touch. I used it a year ago and it wasn’t completely compatible with Fairphone. Now it is.
I’ve started donating to PostmarketOS this month, so hopefully I’ll be able to buy a device with decent support once my current phone needs replacing.
I already run LineageOS on my phone with microG instead of Gapps, so not much is going to change for me. There’ll also be an update to Android 16 for me soon, LineageOS just announced that last weekend.
I don’t like android 16. I already regret so much updating to Android 15 a few weeks ago: it’s onky feature was making notifications huge and replace the monochrome logos with rhe app icon (which is not the one I have on my themed launcher) so it takes more space and is uglier. Same for the new control center: I had to disable it. Horrible locked screen experience too with less icons on top left and ios inspired dynamic island gimmicks.
Android 16, will be some design choices which are even less customizable I feel (but at least way better than ios broken transparency)
I hope there will be a good Linux phone in a few years that I can switch to. Would be great with it was compatible with the latest Fairphone by then, for a true FOSS and ethical phone.
From what I’ve been researching, Fairphones pretty much work after a year or two on at least Ubuntu Touch. It uses Halium though for that. It seems like the older ones mostly work after a couple years on postmarketOS, but crucial stuff like audio from the speakers is still broken or whatever. Security is pretty obviously gonna be worse than an Android phone no matter what you use though.
I only use app from f-droid on lineage and I don’t have a google account anymore, if that stops being an option I guess I’ll use an old dumb phone and fuck all.
