Comment by baggachipz

15 hours ago

> I've since moved to the apple ecosystem... Set and forget.

Careful, you'll get blasted for that in these parts. Until about 7 years ago, I had been an Android absolutist. Custom ROMs, launchers, you name it. I sneered at those Apple-loving simpletons. Then, after missing several important phone calls in a day due to the phone 'app' not working properly, I got fed up and got a Nexus 6, the official Google phone and the reference implementation for Android. The phone was big and ugly, but at least I was still using a "real" operating system.

Then, as I went through the app store looking for some needed apps, I realized that I couldn't find what I wanted. What I downloaded and installed turned out to be scams and hijacked the phone as ad-riddled malware. It slowly dawned on me: The Play Store is anarchistic, lawless hellscape.

I was too old for this shit. I went and got an iPhone and never looked back. I turn it on, it does things. I don't have to worry about it. Yes, the software quality isn't near perfect, and they seem to be gradually enshittifying their app store. But at least they make a token effort to keep things in a somewhat curated state.

It's night and day, far as I'm concerned. I've gotten to the point where I just want my things to work. I don't want to spend hours tweaking and troubleshooting. I realize I'm in a cult compound, but it's better than the Mad Max world outside.

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baggachipz

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celsoazevedo  8 hours ago

There's nothing wrong with iOS and iPhones. If that's what works best for you, then that's what you should use. With this said...

Most people use their Android phone like iPhone owners do. They use the default launcher, default settings, and things work. Like you, they turn it on and it does things. They'll install their apps for work, social media, etc, just like iOS users. Maybe they'll install a different browser so sync works or have adblocking, but that's it.

Unlocking bootloaders, custom ROMs, perhaps rooting, getting to the point where apps are hijacking your phone (wth?)... I'm not sure if you understand this, but that's very extreme. If you get blasted, it's because that's the equivalent to jailbreaking an iPhone, replacing the OS, and so on. Of course things are going to break.

iOS lets you do a lot of UI customization these days. Home screen(s), widgets, icons, lock screen, etc, some of which I can't do on my Android phone and may have to use a 3rd party launcher! Why don't you spend hours tweaking that stuff, like many do? Why doesn't it bother you that you can do it? Just a guess, but I think you've changed. You no longer care about this stuff and maybe you also don't have the same free time? That's fine, but also shows that the problem wasn't Android or iOS, but the old you that didn't always know when to stop.

On a side note, things have changed a lot in the past few years. These days you don't install a custom ROM if you want features... you get a phone from a brand like Samsung because their UI is packed with features that custom ROMs don't have. You also don't need them for updates when a new phone gives you 5-7 years of support. Most posts I see here about custom ROMs are about privacy and security, removing Google from their phones, stepping away from the cloud and subscriptions, etc. Don't assume that that the wild side of Android is still the same because it isn't, at least not to the extent. You may also want to drop the idea that using Android requires doing all you've mentioned, because almost no one does that. You were the 1% of the 1%.