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Comment by davidkellis

4 years ago

What are the best alternatives to iOS and Android? Is it reasonable to consider the hardware itself "safe", given that the software tracks and calls home about every single thing it does? What are the alternatives?

16 comments

davidkellis

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fapjacks  4 years ago

As mentioned in sibling comment, there are no alternative, but I use microG, which is an open source Google Play Services (the core vehicle of most of this fuckery) shim that allows you to use apps that require Google Play Services (like Uber or Tinder or whatever) without actually having to install any binary blobs from Google. The future is so stupid.

npteljes  4 years ago

There's /e/ OS for one. Debatable how far you get from the Google ecosystem, since it's an AOSP fork, but I think it's a fine middle ground of functionality and practical privacy.

FearlessNebula  4 years ago

The hardware itself is insecure in 99% of modern phones because the modem has its own tiny CPU with access to the main CPU and memory. I have no evidence that anyone does use this to collect your data, but somebody totally could. Desktop processors have something similar called the Intel Management Engine or AMD Ryzen has the PSP

niutech  4 years ago

Ubuntu Touch, Plasma Mobile, Sailfish OS, Nemo Mobile, postmarketOS. I use UT as my main smartphone OS and it does everything I need.

swebs  4 years ago

Manjaro Phosh edition on the Pinephone is pretty good these days. There's still a lot of work to be done, but it works just fine as a phone.

  • Mediterraneo10  4 years ago

    None of the distributions on the PinePhone work well for all the things that people use that little computer in their pocket (which is no longer just a phone) for. For maps, for instance, all of the PinePhone's choices are little more than lightweight tech demos compared to, say, OSMAnd on Android. There is no official Signal client, no powerful browser beyond the clunky Desktop-Firefox-for-Postmarket-OS hack, etc.

    It is unlikely that "all the work that would need to be done" to make the PinePhone as useful as an Android phone (even with pure libre software) will even get done. The problem is that the PinePhone is just too underpowered in CPU and RAM, comparable to devices from many years ago. Plus, the PinePhone dev community just doesn’t appear to be large and motivated enough to cover all the bases of e.g. battery optimization that the corporate mobile developers have done.

    • swebs  4 years ago

      Well it can make calls, transfer data over cellular networks, and access a web browser. For some people, that's all they need. For maps, I use Nextcloud Maps through Firefox. You can also use Google Maps that way or whatever OSM provider. It comes with a Telegram client and Matrix client.

      >no powerful browser beyond the clunky Desktop-Firefox-for-Postmarket-OS hack, etc.

      I don't really know what you mean by this. It's the exact same Firefox that's in desktop Linux. You can install all the add-ons and such. Do note that Manjaro is not PostmarketOS.

      The biggest problems are the weak CPU as you've mentioned, and the fact that the entire OS is in a very alpha (or even pre-alpha) state right now.

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