Technology

I currently run GraphineOS. I will probably buy one more refurb phone that can run it until Android is dead. Then I am switching to a dumb phone for calls and SMS, and a mobile hotspot connected to a pocket sized cyberdeck. I can still run the apps I want and no longer need Android. With a 3d printer, 25 years of being an electrical and software engineer I can easily make a device that does what I actually want.

Is this practical for the average person? Of course not. But this whole problem is something the average person can fix. STOP BUYING SHIT FROM COMPANIES WHO SCREW YOU!!! Use your power as a consumer and stop giving them money. Make them feel the pain of doing anti-consumer actions. None of this stuff is a requirement for life. If they see a hit in sales, if everyone who makes apps pulls them from the app store, they will change. But it requires everyone to act, and we damn well know most of yall will do nothing but complain.

This problem is a foot gun where we are all buying the gun, loading it, handing it to someone while sticking our foot out and we want to blame them for the bloody hole. Stop it!

This was just inevitable for Google. Google is no longer an open source company. Hasn't been for maybe a decade or more. They abused the good spirit of open source for their corporate benefit and are ending that relationship on their terms. Get used to it Android users.

Anyone got any ideas on how to force another OS onto my phone? I'm fed up with it.

I have felt this way about my phone for a long time. This is probably good because it will probably create a viable alternative to the apple-android ecosystem. Maybe Graphene will support more phones and new privacy focused mobile-OS will pop up.

I got grapheneOS on my phone right now. Go fuck yourself, google.

I will also do my damn best to make sure my older Samsung S23 doesn't fall into that version. I have uses for that phone.

What happens to existing side loaded apps on my phone?

We must all keep pushing people to go against this and to build up Linux mobile alternatives: PostmarketOS, Ubuntu Touch, JollaOS, and semi by extension, GrapheneOS

People thinking this isn't a monopoly enforcement action in disguise are the same people who think banning Huawei was justified.

Google's one mistake was that they sold Motorolla to Lenovo, who ran it as low cost shovelware to make the mobile phone market in the US not look like a complete oligopoly. They kept their cost low by using complete stock Google ROMs while every other OEM exited the market.

Until recently when Lenovo properly built up their hardware lineup and started jumping ship to GrapheneOS the moment Google started clamping down.

-- sincerely Apple users.

We need go start talking about the year of the GNU/Linux phone

At the end of the day, all you can really do is to start treating your phone more like a phone and stop carrying it everywhere and using it for everything.

The convenience of it has made it way too easy for people to spy on you.

Your phone will be the same phone after September as it was beforehand.

On the long-term, I'd make some plans, get a small laptop, or even a linux phone, even as a second device to tether.

Yeah, this isn't going to get "better", this is going to get walked into a walled garden.

Get out or stay put, your call.