- cross-posted to:
- privacy@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- privacy@lemmy.world
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I feel like this is the new normal cycle of every software company. Once they become a leader, it’s never enough. It replicates the rise of billionaires. Just as the billionaires being rich beyond anything they and all of their succeeding generations could ever spend is not enough, being the industry leader and producing an amazing product that people want is somehow not enough. It always turns to control and power.
I can’t wait for AI to become a living corporate trillionaire entity and fuck us all to the end of humanity.
I’m bothered that big companies, especially tech right now, no longer see their customers as people they need to please to stay in business, but instead as something they’ll inconvenience and squeeze as much as they can possibly get away with.
They all got to where they are making, at one point, amazing products. Now? Fuck making windows useful, we can throw ads and AI at you every place we can think of. Fuck all of the parts of Android that made it stand out, we tell you what to install. You don’t want all of your data scraped and sold? Fuck you, there’s 3 of us and we’re all doing it. In fact we’ll never stop finding new ways to harvest data.
Phones have basically stagnated entirely in the US. Sure you get moderately better chipsets, but what else? AI? I haven’t had a phone struggle with anything in… maybe 10 years. Instead features that people didn’t use enough just get removed.
I’m actively looking for a new phone that has 0 Google in it, and am looking ad de-Googling the rest of my life.
I remember being genuinely hyped about Gmail in 2008. Now, I don’t want them accessing any of my data.
I’m taking steps, slowly, as well. I’m getting off windows very soon, I’m working on getting off of various services these companies run one at a time. Depending on what really happens with Android and Google we’ll see.
I came here specifically to ask about alternatives to Android now that google is becoming too abusive in the relationship.
Custom Android ROMs based on AOSP, which is the open source parts of Android. I used to use LineageOS back in the day.
Before buying a phone, make sure that it has an unlockable bootloader and a custom ROM of a recent Android version. Note that some phones have multiple versions for different regions and some might not be unlockable, while others are. For example many Samsung international phones are unlockable, but none of the USA models are.
Note that many commercial apps like Netflix, Pokémon Go, bank apps, etc. will refuse to run if your bootloader is unlocked. It also permanently trips Samsung’s Knox.
Unfortunately, this seems to be something that might be changing in the future. Google isn’t going to be open source with android development anymore.
Not android or apple. I’ll go to a prepaid flip phone before I give apple a cent. They’re essentially the paragon of greed.
GrapheneOS works well. But only on pixel devices.
Ironic that you need a Google smartphone, isn’t it?
That’s unfortunately a dealbreaker for me. I have a free phone from some company I’ve never heard of and I don’t plan on buying a new one. Hopefully we will see more progress on mobile operating systems in the coming years.
Unfortunately, things are heading in the opposite direction. The number of phones you can install other os’s on is dwindling by the day. Even the phones designed solely for this purpose are failing to capture enough market to remain sustainable.
The OS’s are getting there by leaps and bounds, but you being able to install it on anything is the hard part.
Time to back to the analog world and short wave radios.
Lemmy would rock in Morse code
It would only be days before someone builds logic gates using Morse code somehow (who am I kidding, it probably already exists), and we recreate the entire thing again lol
As shitty as M$ is, it would have been nice to see Windows phone become moderately successful and be a third primary mobile os.
I’d prefer that firefox os had caught on and turned into a big player today
I disagree. That would’ve just been more garbage like with the xbox.
I’m playing gears on PS5 as we speak. Ha ha. What a shipwreck XBOX has become.
That’s great news. Exclusivity is not good for the consumer/gamer. Now you can play more games on your console.
As a platform holder is terrible, I have a series X and it’s a paperweight.
That’s would just be Windows 11 S Mobile Edition, but you do not get the option to upgrade to Windows 11 Home Mobile Edition as you would on a PC
Or maybe you do get an option, but its a subscription for $50 per quarter-year. 🫠
And 16GB storage (because everything is being saved to OneDrive anyway).
Not much different than Google. Keeping their mobile device storage low and then officially advising people to just store stuff on Google drive instead.
Thus driving people to pay for Google One.
I would have rather seen the development of BBOS10. It was so far ahead of its time.
That whole thing we do with swipe gestures to navigate the android interface? Yeah BBOS had that years ago.
I miss my Passport.
I still have my BlackBerry Passport.
I didn’t hate my Windows Phone when I had one.
I did, it fucking sucked
No way - it was a good phone at the time. I had a Lumia 640 and it worked like a charm. There was only a small range of apps, but the main features worked fine: mail, calendar, messaging, camera and route planner with a map. There were news readers, Acrobat. I did not miss much and if M$ sold it’s software better to other manufacturers than Nokia, I think it would have worked well and fitted between Apple and Google.
Are you kidding me? How am I supposed to live in this damn Orwellian society that is coming?
That’s just it. You’re not supposed to live. You’re supposed to be controlled.
🦉 862
Look up Microsoft in the early 90s and how we all got through it.
tbf, we all got through it by just going to other platforms. now there’s almost no other platforms to go to because big tech either pressures them until they fold, or sell to them and become part of their umbrella as some shill company or they remain independent but still use big tech software to run their backend, so your info ends up going to them anyway.
i think in the future, everyone will be forced into surveillance by default and those who don’t will have to either pay dearly for privacy or learn how to program their own security. checkout project gideon that’s already getting pitched to the united states government and other governments from israel. it’s literally that show “person of interest” plus
🦉 320
Pretty sure they’re talking about antitrust lol
The infuriating part of the Google enshittification process is that there is absolutely nothing the user can do about it.
Literally the only thing that motivates Google is profit. Controlling side-loaded apps will almost certainly boost their profits by a infinitesimal fraction of a percent, therefore it will be done. Even if consumer uproar causes Google to back down in the short term, they’ll simply implement this a few months later. Late-stage Capitalism sucks.
You can stop using all Google products. Now I understand their market share on the web means they’re going to continue to shape the web.
But make no mistake. There is something, however small, that you can do. De-Google.
I will help hand hold anyone who wants to build servers or services (to the best of my ability) to replace Google services with their own.
There are a lot of alternatives out there. What service or services are you stuck on?
For me, MitID in Denmark. 100% required for society and life here, requires Google Play Services now :(
I tried e/os on my Fairphone for a bit. I think I could make it all work okay enough besides that. I should write people at the government or something I guess?
Don’t use the app then? I have a key thing which works quite well. https://www.mitid.dk/en-gb/get-started-with-mitid/how-to-use-mitid/mitid-code-display/
TIL this exists. Super cool.
Hvad koster det?
Also, only officially browser for MitID is fucking Chrome. Always works with Firefox or libreWolf, though. However, I have contacted MitID two times about issues. They are always referring that I should look at the help page supported OS/browser blah blah. They don’t care about the part of the population that doesn’t use Chrome. Ironic that the same government now screams and shouts about how we have become too reliant on US big tech… Idiotic tech noob politicians.
I’ve never heard of that, so I looked it up. There definitely appear to be non-Google alternatives.
What? You can’t use an alternative app. It’s government issued identification and required for life here.
I (and as far as I can tell, all others) can’t get it to work outside of android
Got any advice on alternatives to Drive? I keep considering nextcloud, but people I know have said it’s a resource hog and finicky at best.
Syncthing
This is the answer unless you consider setting up a DIY home server fun, which often the kinds of people who recommend options for this kind of thing do… so just keep that context in mind here with recommendations.
Syncthing is a great solution and it is wayyyyy less a headache than any other DIY method I have done for replacing cloud/filesharing purposes.
just be sure to check if the deletions sync timeframe suits your case. in the new 2.0 deletions are not remembered forever
Syncthing is what Dropbox was, before Dropbox became just another cloud data provider.
You can stop using all Google products.
My public school – that my children are basically required by law to attend, remember – is badgering me to sign a consent form so they can have Chromebooks.
This fight is a lot fucking larger than mere individual boycotts!
And my kids school requires every parent to have a Google account to track progress and share information.
What happens if you refuse?
They kill you!
Uhh… how do we stop using Android? I mean, these recent attacks by Google seem like they’re going to break GrapheneOS and friends, no?
De-Google
The complaint is side loading is being restricted and the only long term alternative Apple. Google already began the process of shutting down Graphene by cutting drivers out of AOSP.
https://www.androidauthority.com/google-not-killing-aosp-3566882/
Hang on, as somebody who knows enough to be looking into switching to graphene, but not entirely enough to know what AOSP is, what exactly is happening?
Am I going to fuck myself over? If I do end up switching to a custom rom? Should I just wait on the Linux community to build something better?
All I want is a working device that isn’t selling all my shit to Mark Zuckerberg
If you get a device and install Graphine now, it should be fine. It’s your future device options that will probably not include an AOSP alternative os. Hopefully Linux will be an option then, but there might be a bit of a dark age in between.
G is restricting the factory images/source (I believe) that graphene uses to build their system, so they are having to work backwards, take more time, etc. It’s a shitty thing to do but afaik it’s not a blocker. I’m typing this on a gos pixel 8 pro right now.
Linux phones are still in their infancy, and are pretty shit if you need anything more than the ability to call and text (sms) on specific carriers (limitations applies to the USA, AUS, and a couple more I believe). I have a pinephone 1st gen and it’s… Cool for messing with, absolutely, but jesus christ it’s painful to actually attempt to use. I bought that 3y ago and not much has changed, from videos I’ve seen (my pinephone screen is lifting and failing so…). From a developer - like, bringing Linux to the phone platform - sure, grab one. As a user, unless you understand that you very likely will not daily this device (or any similar device) because shit just doesn’t work/isn’t ready and are OK with that… No, don’t. A few more years, maybe.
GrapheneOS is still moving ahead albeit slower, as you said. They are also working on a deal with a phone manufacturer to bring a more secure phone to market. I dunno whether it will just meet the same security levels of the Pixels and ship with stock Android, or if it will be a full GrapheneOS Phone. I’m hoping for the latter, but it will more likely be the former. Fingers crossed.
You can stop using all Google products.
That may be true for you, but other people face different realities. When Google implements the sideloading block it will eventually be pushed to everyone who doesn’t use a custom ROM.
also not everyone is saavy enough to use obscure services too.
Not everyone cares enough to avoid Google. Some of us that want to do so are related to them.
De-googling will break banking apps, since most baking apps rely on Play Integrity checks and bootloader status.
Then don’t use the apps? Do your banking through the browser.
What a pompous and clueless suggestion. Some modern internet banks are app-olny.
Good luck with your revolution where 10 people are able to participate.
Don’t use those banks then.
Yes, let me build my life around a fucking ROM lmao.
I don’t understand why you’d have to do that? I have literally zero Google interaction and I don’t have to custom build something. And I access my banks (plural) in browser only.
There are a couple of issues with that mentality, there are some countries in which money transitions almost entirely revolve around proprietary apps and services, Sweden for example (a decent article that talks about Sweden in particular). In my country, I can’t find any public information on which banks require apps and which don’t. The bank that I am currently using does have a website, but I have to login with a one-time password generated from an app. Also, going to a different bank assumes the same bank won’t do the same and exclusively require an app down the line.
I’ve actually never seen a bank that an app is the ONLY option. And two factor codes should be able to be generated by any number of (sometimes FOSS) apps.
The year of the Linux mobile is coming.
It’s nice, and good to see more of a push. However, I think kill switches for at least microphone and camera should be the new default. It’s absolutely ridiculous to walk around with an internet connected mic and a camera that looks at your face whenever you look at your phone. Personally, I’ll never carry a phone around anymore that doesn’t have mics and cameras desoldered or there’s a kill switch. For the back camera a cover with a slide is fine, but doesn’t really work with the front part.
I just put stickers on the selfie camera.
I would carry around a flip phone if my work didn’t require Passkeys generated exclusively from MS Authenticator.
IS THAT A FUCKING HEADPHONE JACK!?
Let’s go 🔥🔥🔥
Standards are low huh?
Well all the major brands are below that…
Sign me the fuck up!
The specs look quite decent, and it even has an SD card slot. I really would love to get away from android.
Neat! And a removable battery.
Debian too! Always liked me some Debian, super stable.
Fuck google
Easily the most disgusting company in the planet and it’s funny that their old motto/slogan was ”Don’t be evil”.
Sounds like you’re not familiar with Oracle…
One rich asshole called Larry Ellison…?
Are we already nostalgic for analog oligarchy?
We burned down the past we can burn down the future too.
When reading cyberpunk lore, quickhacks didn’t make any sense to me. Some programs that break cyberware because of backdoors, but why would people install cyberware with backdoors?
Now I look at the sad state of mobile market and, yeah ok, that makes sense.
That makes sense and all but where does the poison come from??
I mean the cyberware is a direct neural interface so presumably it must be able to manipulate and alter the levels and balance of your neurotransmitters. Im sure increasing aome to insane levels would have pretty toxic effects, like serotonin syndrome for example.
Some really vicious backdoor that contains dangerous substance in a hidden chamber? Not a far reach when we are talking about corporate backdoors normalized.
now it’s just a race for the giant conglomerates to make the worst decisions for consumers
Your computer no longer “computes”, its just a barebones terminal to access a “virtual pc” in the cloud.
Good news, you don’t need to pay $1000 for a good laptop, all you need is this $50 windows machine that only runs a client that streams a live feed from MS Headquarters
Bad news, its a subscription, stop paying and you lose all files.
Wait a minute did you type a “Eat The Rich” document, sorry can’t have that, violates ToS, deleted.
Fahrenheit 451 x 1984
894,784 degrees
Yep. There’s no such thing as competition any more.
Tech companies are just gas stations across the street from each other.
they just want to confirm a malicious actor didn’t develop it
So Newpipe, SmartTube, Nintendo emulators…
Clones of opensource apps bundled with ads that violates license is OK, but restricting everyone to build and test apps from source so it can test new features and report any issues is too risky for the user
okay well goodbye Google, then
what’s the alternative here?
Yeah that’s the issue, when it comes to mobile, anyway
!remindme 2 years
Does !remindme work on Lemmy?
Its about time an open standard happened for mobile OSes.
That’s what Android was and they keep trying to undo that any way they can
I disagree. Google has always been a thinly veiled Microsoft. A wolf in sheeps clothing. They embrace, extend, extinguish. It’s the same thing.
We need a new one that isn’t made by a for-profit company that only was good at the beginning to get total market saturation before flipping the enshittification switch to maximize those profits.
why do we need a new one? can’t android be salvaged? lots of things have been solved already in a way that makes a relatively good foundation.
All the non-Google entities that build stuff on Android need to start banding together instead of siloing themselves. If AOSP is being closed, they need to create a non-profit replacement for it.
I guess if Google closes down AOSP it would get forked, and the fork would probably be a separate thing from the current Android distributions. So that the landscape would continue to look a bit like today, except that AOSP would be an independent thing.
Then I guess it’s possible that Google would seek to make android apps incompatible, gradually making the whole thing kinda pointless. I can’t say I’m using Android for the great UX - I’m using it because it supports a few apps I continue to be forced to use. If I can’t use them on Android any more I’m switching to Ubuntu Touch or PostmarketOS in a heartbeat.
The fucked up part is nowadays third parties like banks or sometimes even governments make apps rely on Google services, so you can’t use an ungoogled phone for stuff you actually need for life…
We need open bootloader and drivers for phones to make any real progress on this. This is what’s holding back all initiatives.
and many phone manfacterers, issuers(non google, samsung, or IOs) IS CONSIDERING locking down thier phones.
the best outcome for the short term would be to forcibly take away android from google and give it to an independent foundation. as I heard antitrust proceedings in the usa were heading that way a few months ago
Such things are solvable with a bribe in the USA.
not with trump around.
And he’s very easily bribed which corporations have caught onto.
So basically remove Google integration from AOSP?
I mean taking away the development access to the project. what do you mean? google based captive portal checks and the similar hidden “gems”?
