Comment by Bjartr
4 years ago
The warning: "Don't buy Apple products, their locked down hardware and walled garden is going to be trouble"
People: Ignore warning, buy iPhone
You: "Don't buy Apple products" isn't an action.
4 years ago
The warning: "Don't buy Apple products, their locked down hardware and walled garden is going to be trouble"
People: Ignore warning, buy iPhone
You: "Don't buy Apple products" isn't an action.
The alternative is?
Google phone? This is not an alternative if you care about privacy.
The allegory presented sounds insane (growing your own food) but honestly if you're not rolling your own flashed ROM on a 'droid then your privacy is dead already;
I understand throwing all your eggs in one basket is a terrible idea but Apples walled garden and heavy sandboxing was at least somewhat protective.
One option is getting a Phone that has an unlocked bootloader so one can load their own ROM without Goople Play Services. I have a Pixel 3a with LineageOS, no Google Play. I'm pretty happy with it.
While the Pinephone isn't perfect yet, I would argue it will be able to replace Android/iOS in a few months.
> so one can load their own ROM without Goople Play Services
Yeah this is the mobile phone equivalent of growing your own vegetables.
I get it, I'm a techy, but until the day is here where rooted phones aren't treated like a special case: for most people if they buy a droid then it's actually significantly worse for their personal privacy than an Apple device.
I don't want that to be the case, but until the pine phone is here and starts being a reasonable alternative; that's how it is.
4 replies →
Indeed it is still possible to get a Pinephone, Librem 5, or an Android phone with an unlockable bootloader such as Fairphone (in Europe), Teracube, and lots of Samsung Galaxy phones and put LineageOS on it.
The issue is that "the masses" just "go with the flow" and act like if everybody else is jumping off a cliff then it's ok to jump off a cliff too, and it is these mobs that move the markets and determine which products and services become the most popular.
However, in relatively free countries it is still possible to live one's life on one's own terms and not be in the same herd with the sheeple. It is definitely possible to live life without an iPhone and to have an Android phone with F-Droid rather than the Google Play Store as one's primary phone.
Buying a different phone or even forgoing a feature phone entirely are both valid alternatives. Just because the alternatives are unappealing doesn't make "There are no alternatives" or "The warning wasn't actionable" into true statements.
Alternative is crowdfunding to create something like Pinephone, etc.
Like Teracube and Light Phone. For ppl in Europe I recommend Fairphone -- probably the best phone there is right now.
> Don't buy Apple products...
What is the follow-on? Which products should we buy then? Any phone other than Apple's? None?
Yes! Buying a different phone or even forgoing a feature phone are both valid alternatives. Just because the alternatives are unappealing doesn't mean "There are no alternatives" or "The warning wasn't actionable" into true statements.