• tomenzgg@midwest.socialEnglish
    0·
    3 months ago

    I’m probably going to spam this around a bit, since most people don’t seem to know about it, but a reminder that FuriLabs has a (GNU+)Linux phone with decent spec.s and the ability to run Android app.s (from what I’ve heard) pretty decently: https://furilabs.com/

    Biggest drawback is it’s based on Halium. Usual growing pains of a new product/company apply but apparently the company is pretty responsive and their dev.s have worked with customers to get things like calling working with the carrier and bands of their country where it hasn’t worked before so improvements move pretty quickly.

    Collection of different experiences I’ve variously seen online over the last year or so:

    I don’t own one, myself, so I can’t give any personal experience but I’ve seen it around for a few years now but most people don’t seem to even know about it. Maybe there’s a reason for that? But none I’ve ever seen anyone say.

      • tomenzgg@midwest.socialEnglish
        0·
        3 months ago

        https://halium.org/ (not me insinuating you should’ve just searched for it; I just like to be thorough and give all possible information, even if unneeded)

        The very simplified explanation (as far as I understand things) is that it uses an Android kernel to run Linux on so that hardware issues are minimized (the biggest difficulty that Purism and the Pinephones have had and why they’ve been harangued in terms of what they can do is they’re trying to provide open hardware that can work with the pure Linux kernel).

        So the plus side is that things work with Android hardware – because you’re, ultimately, using the Android kernel – and you can (theoretically) open up the number of devices you can run on exceedingly.

        Downside is (I believe) you get Google/Android closed bits running and you’re tied to the development of whomever made that modified kernel. All the complaints about not getting kernel upgrades after a while (because you’re using a modified kernel, you can’t just pull the latest and greatest from upstream and use it) that people have with Android will still apply.

        Given the moves Google’s making, it’s not a deal breaker, for me, but I know it can be for some people so just wanted to give people the heads up.

  • waterSticksToMyBalls@lemmy.world
    0·
    3 months ago

    Don’t forget rock solid app gets an unexpected update 3 years later and now is jammed with ads and offers an ad free subscription at $14/week

    • Cid Vicious@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      0·
      3 months ago

      Yeah app purchases sure went to shit, didn’t they? Sorry turns out buying an app one time for a small fee isn’t good enough, we need you to buy it again every month.

        • LordCrom@lemmy.world
          0·
          3 months ago

          Dude fuck that noise.

          I bought a lifetime copy of hex edit like 30 years ago. 20 years later I needed something and the dude answered and sent me a new code.

          Fucking rock on hex edit brother!!!

    • officermike@lemmy.world
      0·
      3 months ago

      I’m glad I heard of Discord’s plan to add ads to their Android app beforehand so I had the chance to disable updates. It’s annoying that Android keeps reminding me there’s an update available, but it’s less annoying than ads.

      • slate@sh.itjust.works
        0·
        3 months ago

        Blocking basically all ads on your phone is trivially easy.

        1. Find “Private DNS” (or something similar) in your settings
        2. Set it to dns.adguard-dns.com

        And that’s really it. There are other ad-blocking dns providers out there, and they all use slightly different block lists. I like adguard because their blocklist is less aggressive than others I’ve tried, and I’d rather an ad or two get through than for something legitimate to stop working.

        You can also set it up as your dns provider in your router to block ads on your entire network. People tend to like to self-host adguard or pihole for that, but as long as you don’t care about a dashboard or manual dns entries, using a free dns is as easy as it gets and is very effective. I self-host as a hobby and I still just use adguard’s public dns.

        • Mika@sopuli.xyz
          0·
          3 months ago

          Also TrackerControl FOSS app that filters ads on your phone directly. Can enable/disable different stuff per-app. Must have no proxy/dns to work.

  • gointhefridge@lemmy.zip
    0·
    3 months ago

    This is why I moved to iPhone a few years ago. Every premium android was a legit knockoff of iPhone in every single way, down to the lack of a headphone jack and SD card slot. Why continue chasing these phones that aren’t even as good as the real thing?

    Android USED TO be better than iPhone, but Google is just gung-ho on enshitification. Apple, for the walled garden that it is, at least works well with its eco system. Android is so fragmented and complicated that it’s collapsing under its own weight.

  • otacon239@lemmy.world
    0·
    3 months ago

    😢 AOKP was king. I miss all the extra silly features they packed in. You could make it look almost nothing like Android by the time you were done.

    • waddle_dee@lemmy.world
      0·
      3 months ago

      YES! I was talking with someone recently about this ROM. I couldn’t remember what it was called, but I had decked out my phone on a fully wild unicorn theme based on it lmao.

  • bent@feddit.dk
    0·
    3 months ago

    Most relatable meme in a while, feels weird to feel so much nostalgia for an Operating system

    • mybuttnolie@sopuli.xyz
      0·
      3 months ago

      so apple fixed the battery life thing? i knew macbooks have insane battery life, but i thought iphones still couldn’t do 2 days which i think is the line between shitty and ok. anyway samsungs could never and still can’t do more than 2 days in my hands, but I’ve been amazed that my p8p with graphene can easily get 4 days (I’m a pretty light user).

  • UnfortunateShort@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    3 months ago

    I am very happy on GrapheneOS. Even in terms of flashing it was much nicer experience than what you had to go through back in the days

  • whimsy@lemmy.zipEnglish
    0·
    3 months ago

    It’s happening, I’m finally getting nostalgic from tech memes. The days on xda forums and IRC. Thankfully IRC is still alive. Xda seems to be dying to telegram and Google’s enshittification

      • 🧟‍♂️ Cadaver@lemmy.world
        0·
        3 months ago

        ROMS have (almost) always been incomplete works. They have always been sideprojects, by tech enthusiasts that wanted to learn. They just happen to share those projects to any who would be interested, with no warranty.

  • Mwa@thelemmy.clubEnglish
    0·
    3 months ago

    Low key it was fun flashing roms back in Late 2023 on a Xiaomi Phone.
    The only unfun part was unlocking the bootloader

  • Fabian@lemmy.zip
    0·
    3 months ago

    I just hate that so much. The openness was one of the two reasons why I got an android phone. The other one being the price.

    • pewpew@feddit.it
      0·
      3 months ago

      I’ve been looking to switch as well… But it’s hard to find a supported device. Dammit, I want Mobian so bad…

    • Korhaka@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      0·
      3 months ago

      Pinephone exists now, you can buy it today. It runs Linux.

      Calls/SMS do work although are not 100% so if you absolutely need these to be reliable you could get a brick phone for like £15 to cover that and then use the Pinephone as a pocket computer. I used it as my only phone for a couple of years and it was mostly fine, now it doesn’t have a SIM in it and its perfect as a pocket PC.

      • raspberriesareyummy@lemmy.world
        0·
        3 months ago

        Pinephone battery usage (with postmarketOS) is atrocious. I bought one and it’s been collecting dust in a drawer ever since the first 3-4 times the battery drained from 100 to 0 within 24 hours on stand-by. :( My fastest wasted 700ish EUR ever.

        • Korhaka@sopuli.xyzEnglish
          0·
          3 months ago

          How so much? Mine was about £200 after delivery and import taxes. Still my most expensive phone but the best computer I have ever put in my pocket.

          Shame that calls/SMS are not perfect, but I have since for a dumb phone for that so the SIM sits in that instead.

          • raspberriesareyummy@lemmy.world
            0·
            3 months ago

            it’s been 3 years or so but I may have bought a pinephone pro because the simple one was out of stock? Plus convergence package, plus shipping, plus outrageous money transfer fees - German banks are basically thieves when it comes to international transfers outside the EU.

          • Archer@lemmy.world
            0·
            3 months ago

            If you have to buy a dumb phone for your smartphone then you did not buy a smartphone, is my point

            • Korhaka@sopuli.xyzEnglish
              0·
              3 months ago

              If you can’t even install software on it then its not an overly smartphone.

    • xttweaponttx@sh.itjust.works
      0·
      3 months ago

      Saw someone else mention sailfish! There is also PostmarketOS I’ve recently seen footage of it running on a OnePlus phone and it looks way more stable than I’d expected!!

      Edit= apparently just 2 oneplus phones and sparse other phones are supported, and stability varies per device =/ you can check here to see if your phone’s supported!

      • rumba@lemmy.zipEnglish
        0·
        3 months ago

        Ubuntu touch is a thing, But the only platform it’s running properly on is halium, which is basically an Android core and bootloader that virtualizes the OS.

        It works, and it has pretty good battery life, but it’s not really Linux on the phone, they’re using Android drivers under the hood.

        The real Linux distributions that exist that are running on metal don’t have all the drivers worked out yet for modem and VOLTE, But those are close, i’m not worried about that, But I am worried about is the average of 6 hours of battery life on a 3500 mah battery. Android has battery life down to a science. Those apps just become snapshots and disappear into the background and restore like nothing happened when you need them again.

        I started diving into this one Android started showing their ass a couple of months ago. If you want to use hallium, You might be able to daily drive it if you don’t have high expectations, The guy I was following that tested it out so that helium / touch was so lockdown that he couldn’t even install unsanctioned apps from the terminal because the VM would brick itself.

        I can deal with not running most phone apps, But I really don’t feel like moving from one lockdown OS to another just for the hell of it. If Google pulls this s*** I will get out at the first available stop.

      • LordCrom@lemmy.world
        0·
        3 months ago

        I’ve been hearing about this for 10+ years now. I vaguely remember testing a prototype that could only load an os. That was it

  • Asidonhopo@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    3 months ago

    What’s the % of US users that use non-Apple non-Android smartphones, like <0.1% still right? I basically just use phone, SMS, browser and youtube on mine so possible I’ll switch over when its tried and tested enough. Some tech experience but not enough with phones, specifically to be confident.

    • AndiHutch@lemmy.zipEnglish
      0·
      3 months ago

      Not sure, but I’d bet it’s less than flipphones / dumbphones. For the average person, smartphone and android/apple are probably synonymous.