Google’s Android, the world’s most widely used mobile operating system, started life as open-source software. In its quest for ever-greater profits, the tech giant has been gradually eroding Android’s open-source nature over the last decade.
Originally published on The Lever, but that one asks you to sign up.
Maybe it was better when Android phones didn’t get updates. Eh? 😉
2 days ago I moved from GrapheneOS back to Stock Pixel in my 8 Pro, just to see what all the hype about the new android 16 in Pixel is about. Jesus, this is way worse than I remember. i tried it for 2 whole days, and that shit just won’t allow me to have ANY control over my phone. It’s fucking ridiculous. On Android 15 I was able to uninstall Google Drive, Meet, Youtube, and many other Google apps, this time around all it would allow was “disable”. What’s next, removing the ability to disable (which I don’t trust anyway)?
Fast forward to today, I’m back on GOS, and my anxiety levels are down again. This shit is insane, and I honestly can’t understand why anyone would put up with this crap.
The stupid attempt to have everyone leave bluetooth always on pisses me off. They’ve made the BT quick tile 2 more presses to toggle on or off is ridiculous. It’s not a quick tile.
I’ve just put a BT on/off widget on my home screen.
Mobile GNU/Linux is getting better, but I think it is 5-10 years out from what’s needed. I suppose people need to adopt Desktop first. The nice thing is you can install Android apps including Google Play on it natively, and they appear in your app drawer like a regular app
you can install Android apps including Google Play on it natively
What whaaaat? I didn’t know this! Thanks for the tip
Yeah how the hell do you do this?
I just saw KDE Bigscreen got reboot. While it’s not exactly the same (its for TVs, like Android TV and Steam Big Picture mode), it’s nice to see major desktop environments(DE) adopt new UI features for small and large devices. This compliments work done by groups like PinePhone, who laid the groundwork for Linux phones.
It’s a bit of a catch honestly.
OSS/community Linux graphical environments have kind of always been ~5 years out from what’s needed. 15 years ago they were behind ~5 years, 5 years ago they where behind ~5 years.
The only difference is today. I think they’re only behind by ~3-4 years thanks to the backwards movement of things like Windows and OSx staleness.
Mobile operating systems are in a worse place.
The obfuscated nature of compiled code does an incredible amount of heavy lifting on behalf of shareholders. Imagine a world where x-ray specs suddenly revealed source code. The flight to open solutions would be irresistible. Windows is hot garbage but it clings to its market share like a limpet, through the magic of closed source, occupying space like a flabby tumour. It doesn’t care if it kills the host because the top priority is growth and an unassailable market share. That’s the magic of capitalism.
I find myself using desktop Linux more than my mobile device, even on the couch with the family. Monitors on arms that can swing out of the way ftw. No cute advice for keyboards though. We have wireless ones around but I still use my wired Deck Legend on my lap. It’s an old mechanical keyboard that’s built like a tank, with the PCB literally mounted to a sheet of metal that is mounted inside the housing, lol.
It’s almost a shame, because smart phones are still absolutely amazing to me as far as the amount of scientific and technical advancement that can fit in the palm of your hand. But I look forward to the open options various parties are working on.
MS keeps making Windows worse but that is not a problem because Linux is great on PCs. The reason is that PC is made out of standardized plug&play components that you can make generic OS image for.
There is no such thing in smartphone world. Each chipset is it’s own Linux fork that gets only most crucial bug fixes while in warranty. Same is true for ARM SBCs where I believe the only board that supports generic image are new RPis.
Both ARM itself and Linux for ARM has been standardizing a fair bit recently. But not to the extent to be fully generic, mostly just enough for portable bootable kernels - and after that you still need all the same custom drivers and configurations to make proper use of a SoC, but it’s not nothing.
https://linuxgizmos.com/ebbr-spec-to-bring-standardization-to-embedded-linux-boot-process/
Google keeps making everything worse.
It’s telling how incompetent they’ve become when their LLM AI is the absolute worst one, including mechahitler before that update.
Thanks for these, especially the “we’re not going anywhere” link. I was hesitant to switch because I was worried about future support on my Pixel 7. Here’s the full quote for anyone that didn’t check the above link:
Many companies and individuals are trying to mislead people about the future of GrapheneOS to promote their insecure products and services. GrapheneOS is not going anywhere. We’ve made it clear we’re shipping Android 16 soon and that the supported devices will remain supported.
Spanish authorities*. Not really European-wide thing, but a local one.
Unfortunately the Android experience is getting more and more bloated and users’ freedom to tinker with their phones or sideload apps is getting more and more difficult. The Play Store is riddled with more ads than useful content. Just try searching for something, and oftentimes more than half of your screen is ads.
I’ve been with Android since the start and I hate what Google is reducing it to. It pains me that the only viable alternative is Apple and I feel trapped.
Funny enough, having Microsoft making the Windows Phone again would make a 3rd player, and maybe some competition in the market.
I don’t know many companies that have the resources to fight in this arena right now…
Play Store is truly vile to use. It just feels gross and scammy and like a mine field of low quality slop and scam apps.
iOS isn’t great either but it at least feels a whole lot better. The iOS store needs the ability to report fraid which it doesn’t sort until you install an app.
We’re all trapped. If you’re not using either Android or iOS, you’re pretty much screwed.
Technically, you can use one of the alternate phones, but the software support still leaves a lot to be desired. You can get most basic things working, but when it comes to crucial deal breaker apps like anything involving payments or banks, it gets a lot trickier. The world has become increasingly dependent on mobile phones, and if your phone can’t handle train tickets, mail deliveries, restaurant reservations or pay your bills, it suddenly becomes very difficult to live in the 2020s.
More and more hardware also depends on specific iOS or Android apps, and those apps may also require GAPPS or some OEM Android. At some point, it just isn’t worth the hassle, and it becomes easier to pick either one of the toxic platforms everyone else is already using.
F-Droid is a decent replacement for the play store. Lots of FOSS and less-enshittified apps available.
Unfortunately many of the apps needed just to exist as a member of society are only available in the Play Store.
Tried to rely fully on F-droid several years ago. That experiment went just fine until I needed up update the apps. Turns out, there wasn’t a simple one button solution to that. I had to manually update each and every app one by one. Is it any better these days?
Unattended updates for everyone, 1.19 is here https://f-droid.org/2024/02/01/twif.html
That happened in 2024? About time! Sounds like F-droid is actually becoming viable.
I could be completely wrong as it’s outside of my areas of competency, but my understanding is that the functionality was harder to achieve because of some technical reason due in part to Google/Alphabet fuckery. So another day ending in “y”.
Long term you should look out for Waydroid compatible devices. Basically linux devices (smartphones, tablets, pcs) that run android containers very close to hardware so you can run your important android apps while not having to rely on the mess that android is for everything. There is a GApps version too if you need google shitware for some reason. Ubuntu Touch (smartphone os) is one of the most prominent to implement it. Personally i hope to eventually just get rid of my phone and only have a laptop with a sim-card and waydroid.
Support devices like the Liberux Nexx or the pinephone, especially if you are a developer!
Sadly iOS is not much better
You can’t sideload on iOS at all.
But is it even slightly better? It’s debatable. Both are completely awful, but I guess iOS is just terrible in different ways.
true
I really want to try a pinephone or something with Ubuntu touch. It’s likely not daily driver ready but I’m still curious at how far along it is.
Can’t speak for Ubuntu Touch but tried PostMarketOS on PinePhone and PinePhone Pro.
The PP works well, good support for most things included SIM, camera, BT, etc but it’s big and bulky, also IMHO not powerful enough for Waydroid so no Android apps, “just” Linux. Relying on the browser to avoid using app is rarely practical as it’s too slow.
The PPPro being more powerful should cover the gap… but some lack of support, specifically the camera, makes it tricky as daily driver.
Both PP and PPPro don’t have great battery and/or power management so you can go through a day of usage, barely, and you might get stuck in a cycling loop if you depleted it entirely. That means also as daily driver, if you are not very cautious, it’s tricky.
So… we are nearly there but unless you have a very VERY minimum usage of your phone, basically a dumb phone with a bit of CLI to remote connect to your own server from time to time, it’s probably not practical for now.
Maybe the Liberux NEXX thanks to its power would have closed the gap but the failed crowd funding campaign shows that price point does not have a market fit right now.
Thanks for the write up! It honestly sounds like it’s be fine for me. My iPhone is already extremely bare and stripped down. I barely use the camera too, so like, idk I don’t feel like I’d be missing much?
If I could buy a super cheap used one for testing, I’d do it. I’m waiting for my iPhone SE to die on me anyways before making the switch.
If by any chance you can be in Brussels for a bit, I can lend you mine for a while to test.
I appreciate that! I’m in the states unfortunately
So… we are nearly there but unless you have a very VERY minimum usage of your phone, basically a dumb phone with a bit of CLI to remote connect to your own server from time to time, it’s probably not practical for now.
…and, that’s me.
I gave up on my phones. There’s no way to remain connected to the modern world and my own without just keeping everything off of my phone and using it entirely in stock NPC mode. Trackers? Adware? Malware? Doesn’t matter, I only use it for calls, banking apps and cash apps. How do I access my personal, more 1337 haxxor shit?
Laptop, although I can do a lot of work over ssh on phones and use things like syncthing and nextcloud to get around the ecosystem, still, but for the most part, I’m back in 2007, baby! We’re carrying messenger bags! We don’t care!
banking apps and cash apps
Unfortunately that’s prevents from switching to Linux proper over (hopefully deGoogled) Android.
You just need a window into their world.
Carry your Linux phone and tether it to an old android, install what you need and turn it off.
carry two things, like some kind of asshole that carries two things!?
When I was 19, we all carried cameras and mp3 players around too. It’s hardly a stretch.
android peaked with the pixel 2. then everyone went overboard on bezel-less displays and fast refresh rates and smart assistant services and brought the whole damn thing crashing down.
I don’t think the issue with phones is the smaller bezels or better displays.
That’s not what’s ruining them.
… and I want my headphone jack, back.
Yep, didn’t use it much but I have studio headphones that I lliked to plug from time to time.
Up until about two weeks ago I could use wallet on my rooted pixel with lineage and play integrity fix.
Some recent change on their end and it doesn’t work at all anymore. I guess they don’t want to know what I’m buying.
Can I get a rundown of the few non-flagship phonemakers that are currently out there? I have heard of The Nothing Phone. Are there more companies that put together Androids to operate within the US?
Fairphone just released the Fairphone 6.
Unfortunately for the EU only.Not true, it can be bought in the US at Murena’s website.
Cool! Last tine I checked out wasn’t there. Must have been added recently.
EU only
Ebay it is. Bands are what matter. If it picks up Tmobile, Tello and the like, who cares who’s market it’s for?
But really, for me, it’s still Android. It’s just a band-aid on the bigger problem of reliance on Google.
Well AT&T banned the (better) international models from their network a while back. They work fine. Just banned.
The big problem with anything not Google or Samsung is, as it’s always been, software support. You get 2 or maybe 3 years of updates and then the device is trash. So you can save a buck on the short term but it will cost you more in the long run and you’ll have shitty devices all the way along anyway.
You can buy a 2 year old Pixel for $2-300 and it will last you another 4-5 years (unless Google remotely nukes your battery).
anything not Google or Samsung is, as it’s always been, software support.
Motorola.has 5 years on most of its new phones nowadays
Just because it doesn’t have latest Android doesn’t mean it’s trash. And Fairphone also aims for 7 years support just like your Pixel example.
It doesn’t need to be the latest android version per se, but I wouldn’t want to use a phone that’s not getting security patches anymore
Not having security updates makes it effectively trash, as far as I’m concerned.
All phones that are sold in the EU now have to have 5 years of updates after the phone is no longer sold.
Basically, all phones have 6+ years of updates now.
You realize there’s a whole rest of the world that’s not the EU?
Oh my fucking god, really?!
You’re so smart, that never occurred to me. I thought that there was only 27 countries in the world, and all of them were in one continent!
Yes, I do realise that, genius. I’m not from an EU country myself.
However, I engaged my brain cells and quickly realised that most phones that exist are sold in the EU, and therefore the OEM has to make and test these updates anyway. In virtually all cases they will then release these worldwide.
Like how the EU mandated USB-C and now it’s worldwide. The EU has quietly become the market that sets international standards over the past 20 years.
I know it seems like I’m being mean in this comment, but fuck me it’s the most Reddit comment ever. A pointless comment just begging to start a pointless argument. Nobody can be bothered with that trolling shit. Do better.
the OEM has to make and test these updates anyway. In virtually all cases they will then release these worldwide
I wouldn’t be so sure. There’s a vested interest in NOT shipping them outside the EU. It’s called planned obsolescence. Just looks at Macs and OCLP. It’s so easy to keep older Macs updated that it’s actually able to be done by some random developers in their free time (not to trivialize this effort, just to say that it would be extremely trivial for Apple as the developer of the OS and one of the most profitable companies in the world to do it). And yet Apple does not ship these updates to them. Why? Because they want you to buy new shit and they know not doing so will render them virtually useless in a short time.
I know it seems like I’m being mean in this comment
You are just being mean and extremely rude. It’s completely unnecessary and I’ve done absolutely nothing to deserve such language. You are actively making this community shittier.
You get 2 or maybe 3 years of updates and then the device is trash.
Yeah, I’ve noticed this as well…
… which is why I was surprised when I read that Nothing Phone 3 will get 5 years of updates + 2 years of security updates.
https://www.androidauthority.com/nothing-phone-3-software-updates-3568533/
Nothing’s Co-Founder and Head of Marketing, Akis Evangelidis, has confirmed that the upcoming Nothing Phone 3 will ship with a “5+7” software update promise. …likely means the phone will get five years of Android version updates and seven years of security patches…
Although, you can’t install GrapheneOS on Nothing phones… so, 🤷
With the new sustainability laws in EU they have to offer 5 years of updates from the sale of their last unit.
The Ecodesign Regulation lays out minimum requirements for mobile phones, cordless phones and tablets to be sold on the EU market to ensure
- greater resistance to drops, scratches, dust and water
- use of more durable batteries, capable of at least 800 charge cycles while retaining at least 80% of their initial capacity
- clear rules on disassembly and repair, requiring manufacturers to supply key spare parts within 5-10 working days, and for at least 7 years after the product model is no longer sold in the EU
- longer availability of operating system updates, at least 5 years from the date the last unit model is sold
- fair access for professional repairers to the software or firmware needed for repairs
clear rules on disassembly and repair, requiring manufacturers to supply key spare parts within 5-10 working days, and for at least 7 years after the product model is no longer sold in the EU
Wonder how if there is an equivalent that applies to eBike. Been waiting for my CowBoy belt since February now. Do not recommend. No more “designer” eBike now, I’ll only buy bikes with the most standard parts.
Yeah that’s great news. Esp. considering it’s an $800+ phone.
isnt graphene mostly pixels only.
it’s not “mostly”, it’s only available for several latest Pixel generations.
It’s not the “latest” Pixel generations, devices as old as the Pixel 4 receive extended support (although it’s obviously not recommended) and that’s mostly because Google does not support them. This will be greatly improved moving forward, since Google has promised much longer update cycles for new devices.
Besides Nothing Phone, you’ve got Fairphone (sustainable/repairable), Sony (great cameras), Asus (gaming focused), Nokia (budget-friendly), OnePlus (speed/value), and Xiaomi (if you can import) all working to varying degreees in the US market - tho carrier compatibility can be trickly so always check bands before buying.
Would Moto count? I’ve been rocking their basic-ass phones for years now. Way, way less bloatware than Samsung, etc. and only like $200 unlocked.
I think Moto is actually Lenovo now?
Yup. Motorola is Chinese Lenovo now sadly. Lenovo is absolute trash devices and support.
This is false. Lenovo has some of the highest marks for reliability, customer service, and upgradability; not to mention price.
I think Moto’s are a pretty good budget friendly phone. Sure their update policy is lacking, but the Moto G Power or Moto G Stylus phones come decently equipped. Plus you can still get expandable storage and headphone jacks.
Been using Moto since Z1 and would say that their phones are fine. $200 for a phone that lasts 4 years is a decent deal.
i have oneplus12r this my first non-pixel phone, you might want to visit the oneplus sub to look for other peoples experience. if you are looking for good deal on phones, online stores like swappa is a good start. i like the battery life of it. midsize cost, if your looking for budget , you can go motorola series, i did consider it at first.
Motorola is full of bloatware. Can not recommend.
The hardware is fine, though.
Daily driving the cmf with /e/OS from Murena for few months now, warmly recommended.
