this post was submitted on 26 Aug 2025
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[–] dual_pyramid_reality@lemmings.world 19 points 15 hours ago (3 children)

Where are all the open source phone OSes? Where are the OS agnostic capable hardware phones? Technically some do exist, but I don't think they have any significant market share. Hope I'm wrong though.

[–] douglasg14b@lemmy.world 12 points 15 hours ago (2 children)

Essentially every browser that's not Firefox or Safari is reskinned Google chrome for a reason. Because it's insanely expensive to build and maintain browsers. Mobile operating systems aren't much different in this regard.

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[–] mlg@lemmy.world 28 points 17 hours ago (7 children)

I will pay hard cash money for some devs to bring postmarketos to quality hardware vendors.

I'm all for buying a pinephone, but man are we missing out on the full potential from some genuinely good OEM hardware stuff like razr flip.

Aside from google doing google things, android has been a bloated java pos toy OS for nearly a decade now. It completely wastes the full potential of superior hardware by running everything on a shitty JVM known as the ART that was designed for when devices had <512mb of RAM. A Nintendo 3DS can do better multi process tasking than modern android which regularly kills app threads for no reason other than to screw with you because you dared to switch to a different app for 5 seconds.

Android was supposed to be the big apple killer because of its closeness to a desktop OS with heavy emphasis on widespread features and functionality. Even technically speaking, rooting got you there if you wanted to run whatever straight on the linux environment or swap kernels.

Its nothing but a ripoff iOS clone now. Android 7/8 was probably the peak of development and usability, and even back then people were complaining it didn't have groundbreaking improvements like 6 or lollipop.

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[–] MITM0@lemmy.world 10 points 14 hours ago (6 children)

Ok this needs harsh pushback, because phones are affordable, computers are not. There needs to be a massive project dealing with making phones platform agnostic.

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[–] MisterD@lemmy.ca 41 points 19 hours ago (2 children)

FYI: Apple got sued for blocking other app stores. This would prevent f-droid from being installable

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[–] NotACIAPlant@lemmy.world 5 points 15 hours ago (2 children)

If you have the ability to, don't use a smartphone. You'll be better off and you don't have to care about stuff like this anymore.

[–] lmuel@sopuli.xyz 1 points 9 hours ago

I wish I had... Got me a VoLTE capable feature phone and tried but it's insanely difficult to get people to understand that you're only available on call or SMS now (+no MMS here) lol

[–] sefra1@lemmy.zip 3 points 13 hours ago

For real, when this thing rolls out, I'm going to stop updating and try to still use my foss apps for as long as they still work, once my phone eventually becomes useless I'm not going to spend 400 on an expensive phone just so I can run custom roms. I will have to just get used to not having a computer in my pocket all the time again.

[–] RacerX@lemmy.zip 26 points 23 hours ago (2 children)

I kinda miss my BlackBerry.

[–] Anti_Iridium@lemmy.world 4 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

Kinda? More like deeply.

Hands down the best experience I have had on a phone was my z10. Over 10 years later, and I still use BlackBerry's keyboard.

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[–] TommySoda@lemmy.world 336 points 1 day ago (34 children)

Google getting rid of all the things that made people want an android phone over an iPhone.

[–] Guidy@lemmy.world 3 points 10 hours ago

Yup my first thought was “Where is your God now?”

Google ditched “Don’t be evil” a long time ago.

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[–] ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net 35 points 1 day ago (7 children)

Did some research and here are your options:

  • use custom mod (the new restriction only applies to certified devices). You can use microG (/e/, iode, Lineage) or sandboxing (GrapheneOS) to run apps requiring Google services. Google will still try to kill it but my bet is it will still work for at least a couple of years
  • Ubuntu Touch - you can buy new devices with it, it can run android apps using waydroid but you will not be able to run any apps requiring google services. It can run native Linux apps. Native UT apps are build using QML. It has a completely new system API so it's closer to Android then native Linux. It's based on Halium which uses the kernel from Android
  • PostmarketOS - native Linux running native Linux apps. Can use waydroid. Few supported devices but everything works on PinePhone Pro and few others phones.
  • Droidian or similiar - Debian running on Halium. Kind of half way between PostmarketOS and Ubunut Touch. Native Linux but running on Android based kernel

Personally, I will stick with GrapheneOS for now (my Pixel still has at least 6 years of support). When I'm unable to run all the apps I need on it I will switch to two phones setup: stock Android for work/car apps, some Linux phone for everything else. When my Pixel dies I will switch to iPhone.

[–] pHr34kY@lemmy.world 27 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Google has already started killing GrapheneOS by removing device trees from AOSP releases. Android 16 works fine, but for how long?

I would imagine the first thing any custom ROM would do is bypass Google's app restrictions.

I wouldn't be surprised if in 3 years I would need to pass hardware attestation to install a calculator app from the Play store.

[–] ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net 4 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

I would imagine the first thing any custom ROM would do is bypass Google’s app restrictions.

Those restrictions don't apply to custom ROMs. Yes, it's clear Google is trying to kill custom ROMs but I think we still have couple of years. Linux phones are improving fast and I think in 5 years we will end up in the same spot we were with PCs 20 years ago: you will be able do most of daily driving on a Linux phones but some apps just won't be possible to run (Authenticator apps, banking apps, Whats App, Android Auto...). Dual booting will not be possible so most probably I will end up with two phones: daily driver and work/car phone.

[–] sommerset@thelemmy.club 4 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (1 children)

There are not going to be apps on Linux phones.
Definitely not banking apps.

Tbh situation looks dire as fuck.

[–] Tja@programming.dev 1 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

Use a bank with a good web interface...

[–] kalpol@lemmy.ca 1 points 8 hours ago

Some places are killing the web interface entirely and going app-only.

[–] sommerset@thelemmy.club 2 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

Sorry most people won't be choosing bank based on that

[–] Tja@programming.dev 1 points 9 hours ago

Well, most people use iOS or android, so we are talking about a very specific and dedicated bunch here.

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[–] tranquil_cassowary@sh.itjust.works 10 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

GrapheneOS still intends to support all the supported devices until EOL. The sideloading change doesn’t affect them. It won’t apply to GrapheneOS. It only applies to certified OSes and GrapheneOS is not certified because it doesn’t license Google Mobile Services. As per the rip out of the device trees for Pixels, that just makes Pixels like other phones. GrapheneOS has been able to expand it’s automation to build that device support themselves. For new devices, making the support will take longer than it did in the past though, but they will still support those Pixels, as long as they meet the hardware requirements and still allow third-party OS support with all security features intact. Besides that GrapheneOS is actively talking with a major Android OEM right now in order to help them reach the security requirements for a subset of their future devices. They are very optimistic about tha

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[–] Konstant@lemmy.world 76 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Wasn't Apple sued for not allowing sideloading?

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