Material Files and Amaze

Aurora still works for me for now on Samsung stock OS. I now mostly install Google Play apps with APKPure over Obtainium tho and only use Aurora for those not on APKPure. And most of my apps are from GitHub/GitLab releases and F-Droid. I disabled Google Play and didn’t login to Google account. I don’t want the requirement of a Google account to install an app and Play Integrity to run an app. It is by no means acceptable that a company, using a closed source implementation that also tracks user and breaks Android security model, can censor what apps a user can install and decide what security and privacy compromises a user needs to agree to just use the normal phone functionalities that they pay for and by no mean require those compromises technically. They are turning Android into a service and a prison like iOS did rather than a software.

I selfhosted it on my phone and laptop. Great as a replacement of ILovePDF and those CLI tools that have no common interface (I could write some functions to make one tho).

I stick with KDE (Kubuntu) after using GNOME, KDE Plasma, and Cinnamon. I think GNOME lack some settings available in KDE, KDE is the most customizable with a good default, and back then Cinnamon doesn’t have Wayland that some of my apps, especially Waydroid, need. The only thing I hate about KDE is the wallet that keeps popping up by default. GNOME keyring is better IMO. I’m a heavy terminal user tho, for automation with bash script and easier copy-paste from Arch Wiki etc., so mb I not quite representative on DE.

I’m a Taiwanese and interacted with a bunch of Linux users from Mainland China on Mastodon. From what I saw, I don’t think it’s as easy to use Linux in China, mainly due to the Great Firewall. They often need to tweak the mirrors and even tunnel through their VPS overseas.