One shouldn't need to change the OS on one's laptop or phone to get a private, ad free, not actively user hostile, expedience on one's own device.
It is essential that one can do these things - I have, and haven't looked back - but if it necessary, then there is a failure in regulation and enforcement.
@neil I agree, but the fact is that consumers have no real aternatives. That’s why, after 18 years of using iPhones, my next phone will be a Google Pixel, just so I can install Graphene OS instead of Google’s version of Android. I am absolutely fed up with Apple not allowing me to install the software I want to install on my iPhone and iPad and run the same ad-blockers I run on my desktop machines. The experience of using my expensive iPad and iPhone are so poor that I rarely use them.
@gcvsa Unfortunately, it is not clear if GrapheneOS will be an option for future Pixels / future versions of Android :(
Which is a shake, as I really like GrapheneOS!
@gcvsa @neil as I see it, GrapheneOS has a fatal flaw in that it only runs on Google Pixel phones. It only exists as long as Google allows it.
The same problem, although less severe, exists for all other Android variants also. Google makes Android, Google makes the decisions about what goes in future versions and so on.
A better option in my opinion is GNU-like #MobileLinux where the focus is to benefit the user, not Google et al. -- see @linmob and things like #pureos #mobian #postmarketos
@hund @eliasr @neil @linmob Before the iPhone, I had been using Palm phones, but despairing of a modern Palm phone buy the mid-2000s, I ended up switching to a Sony CLIE PEG-NX73V (PalmOS) with a Bluetooth (no WiFi, except with an adapter card), and an ultrathin Samsung SPH-m610 flip phone. In 2006, I got a Nokia 770 Internet Tablet, which ran Maemo Linux (Debian deriv). Intel was developing their Moblin Linux for netbooks, and then Nokia and Intel combined Maemo and Moblin to make MeeGo Linux.
@hund @eliasr @neil @linmob The release of the iPhone in 2007 torpedoed the market for mobile Linux, despite there being a healthy amount of development and even working commercial devices.
People also forget that when Google was originally developing Android, they weren’t even planning on touchscreen support, until the iPhone blew everything up.
@gcvsa I loved my LOOX T830, but my favourite of all was the Nokia N900. But I am very much enjoying postmarketOS on a OnePlus 6.
@eliasr @neil @linmob I agree that a truly open source OS would be best; however, we have to work with what hardware manufacturers give us, unless someone is going to create a truly open hardware reference platform that’s profitable for manufacturers to adopt. If I buy a Pixel 9a today, I can be reasonably sure that I will have a device that will work and run Graphene OS for the next 4 years.
I can tell you that I am absolutely not interested in buying an iPhone 16e, after 18 years of iPhones.
@eliasr @gcvsa @neil @linmob I would love to switch to proper Linux on my phone. I hope anything becomes remotely useful any time soon.