myself, I am moving onto LineageOS, keeping a side phone google free. But I have my mind set on migrating to Ubuntu Touch. Completely outside Google’s territory.
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However, we are not meant to be collateral damage. In that sense, governments and corporations wouldn’t care if a lot of people died suddenly. However, it would reflect in economic numbers, since less people means less economic activity. We were promised that right of free speech, freedom of choice & Privacy because the US Constitution, and in conjunction UN Article 12.
I should add there may be potentially a good enough work around for Fairphone as there are legitimate third party resellers of Fairphones that do ship to other countries and regions like the US for example. One that comes to my mind is murena and while I did make a post earlier this month stating why people really shouldn’t trust them the fact of the matter is that the phones they ship out are legitimate and mostly untampered with other than the fact it will run /e/OS by default rather than whatever OG OS the device was originally running.
However I don’t have any reason to believe that someone couldn’t just reflash it to a preferred OS of their choosing after getting the phone provided they don’t like /e/OS.
@AverageGoogleHater It seems that Jolla’s Sailfish OS (to me) offers the most attractive option: Jolla C2 Community Phone – Jolla Shop A different OS, yet can also run Android apps if the user really wants. That said, they have their own suite of apps and can install Linux ones as well. Jolla will not ship to North America…but if someone can distribute them here, the market will probably open up. Fairphone looks great, but they only offer Android variants (albeit respecting the user more). I would prefer a wider ecosystem of user respecting OS’.
Sidenotes:
-Pine64 had phones that could run multiple OS’ including Ubuntu touch, but it took them ages before they even got a functioning camera app. While they advertised that you could connect a PinePhonePro to a monitor and keyboard and mouse to use as a computer, the phone functionality was lacking for a while.
-Firefox OS seemed promising, but was only offered in India. North Americans would have jumped at that idea. I would have.
-Nokia looked best poised to come up with a viable Linux phone…until Microsoft bought them and rammed their own WindowsOS phones (goodness help us) into the ground.
-Blackberry were great, albeit closedsource. They had a banker CEO who did not care for tech, just money. Tech companies need visionaries. That and the hubris of trying to please all consumers instead of sticking to their niche.
-Would LOVE an Ubuntu phone.
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I am in full agreement there!
I too have looked at the Jolla Phones and Sailfish OS and while not perfect I was definitely interested! It seems very promising.
Although sadly I am currently unaware of any distributers of it.
Really hoping that changes as I would personally really like to distance myself more from Android. I have been really good at distancing myself from Google but Mobile Operating Systems have always been something I have struggled to deal with in regards to that.
Also I would genuinely love an Ubuntu Phone as well.
Which slightly offtopic but I hope someday we can get more comprehensive and complete Degoogling guides. And I don’t mean Degoogling as just stripping services and telemetry I mean just completely trying to distance from the company as much as possible including software. Not that I need such a guide I am not implying that. I just think it’s cool to see more guides around stuff like that cause it really opens you up to other people’s perspectives and maybe you might just even learn something you didn’t know sometimes.
Get a raspberry pi, add a 7 inch touchscreen, 4g usb modem, usb microphone, speaker, usb power pack, put it all in a case. Dual Boot with linux and one of the open androids for the pi. (also MAME!)
Ok version 1.0 will be chunky/clunky, but it would be a starting point..
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@orac81 Oh, you mean like this? Mecha Comet - Modular Linux Handheld Computer powered by Open-Source Software
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ok thats nice. Really I mean just strip it all back to a system like the pi that is very well established and tested, with an open source community already, and keep that as a “baseline” reference design/system. Then figure out how to improve/evolve it. Worry less about trying to make an iphone replacement on day one, just make something that works, and can be readily built.
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Hmm, yeah, I think that’s what the Arceus AOS could’ve done, until someone brought up a possible linkage with Linux, which would be rather unique. Maybe the solution is to utilize Linux somehow, but even then, Age Verification will still be a problem, and Linux can’t stop that.
@ArceusI “I have to do a 911 call! Wait, my Linux calling device needs to be updated first, oops, I installed Gentoo as my OS…okay, ‘emerge -uDNa world’….
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Don’t really understand the joke, but whatever. We all really need to start focusing on stopping Age Verification laws before IDs get stolen and billions of dollars of damages are incurred because of it. We should also still find a way to truly stop Google from being aggressive on their demands, preventing them from demanding IDs for Developer Verification & Age Verification.
So, I was thinking, does removing sideloading put Google in breach of the (UK) Trade Descriptions Act? Goods sold in England must be “as described” and “fit for purpose”. I specifically brought an Android phone for the purpose of running my own software, which Apple does not allow. Does Fdroid have a legal team?
Also, if updates are switched off, will that stop this “upgrade” or is it forced anyway?
Will old sideloaded software stop working after the update?
If I sideload an app via ADB, will the continue to work when ADB is disconnected?
Any thoughts?
Any application that’s installed will work from the Android itself. Whether it is forcibly installed through ADB or not.
It’s time to fork Android
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A plenty of Android forks (LineageOS is the most popular) exist already and they won’t be affected by this developer verification nonsense.
Android forks have another issue: Google publishes source code with a 3-month delay.
The choice Google gives us: either you stay inside the locked down ecosystem with Google Play being the only source of applications; or switch to an Android fork, get the right to install whatever you want, but live with known security vulnerabilities.
IMHO the real solution is to ditch Android completely and switch to another, truly free OS, distributed under a copyleft license.
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Technically speaking GrapheneOS is a bit less affected by this right now afaik due to them working with a Actual OEM but it’s not free of issues either. As they spend considerable time and effort to make a second build for every device that contains the extra patches. However one of the biggest issues is that these patches will obviously not be open source at the time of release (though from what I’ve heard they will be build reproducible corresponding to the original source)
They have a pinned topic about it on their forum
Though they do give the users the choice whether they would rather the more frequent patches or stay fully Open Source with the latter option being the default with a strong recommendation to enable the former for obvious reason.
It’s not perfect as matter of fact I see it more like a bandaid solution but I suppose it’s better than nothing I guess.
But similar to your point this is still inherently a force of Google’s will cause like I said you basically have to use a not fully Open Source version of GrapheneOS to get the security preview updates.… Talk about a conflict of interest and the devs don’t like it at all either which is likely why they made the decision to give the user the choice in the matter.
Furthermore user harm aside this obviously harms independent developers who may not have the public presence and background to partner with a actual OEM.
This right here. No matter how open Android currently is it doesn’t change the fact most of it’s development comes from a evil company who couldn’t care less about the average user. Not to mention has much more time and resources than independent devs and small organizations.
It’s real easy to see how they still impose their will upon others through indirect means like how these security patch restrictions are a perfect example of that…
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THIS JUST IN: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFO-Xu5Qvso
Now VPNs are starting to dissolve because the UK is passing forced Age Verification on VPN networks! Now the UK could literally force everybody to give up their ID. However, there’s still TOR they must deal with, since currently that network wants nothing to do with Age Verification.
So now applications will need both Google’s Developer Verification & Personal Age Verification to be downloaded and accessed in the UK starting 2027. This is getting really serious guys!
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@namark @ArceusI calm, calm, calm.. peace needs to reign. 
On a non-peace arena: https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/1pll0cu/us_will_require_eu_citizens_to_give_all_biometric/ (https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2025-22461.pdf)
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That’s what I’m trying to say there: Governments are a new problem we have to circumvent, it isn’t just Google anymore.
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lol censored, can I get a ban as well? i’m not gonna get any less clever
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