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It is an improvement, because Google is one of the greatest privacy offenders. Almost any company except Facebook and the other tracking-people-for-money would

by blub 9y ago

It is an improvement, because Google is one of the greatest privacy offenders. Almost any company except Facebook and the other tracking-people-for-money would be better than them. Android is a hopeless cause. If the platform developer's goal is to get all information about you that it can, it's pointless to try software workarounds. And recommending software developed by Chinese companies for privacy purposes must be a joke.

FussyZeus 9y ago
This is what pushed me to iOS primarily. The simple fact is Google is incentivized directly to spy on you, and (increasingly) Apple is using the fact that they do not spy on you as a differentiator. They make their money on the hardware and via iTunes; they don't sell your data, and oftentimes don't even have access to your data by their own design. Apple doesn't have 100% of my trust but of the OEM phone makers out their right now, I think by a wide margin they're the most trustworthy.
- tannhaeuser 9y ago
  True, but OTOH iOS's closedness puts you in a weak position where if Apple changes their mind you can't do anything about it. It's annoying, too, because you need the horrific iTunes software and its cert infrastructure as a gateway to your phone. It's really paradoxical that a closed source O/S is a pro-privacy option vs. Linux-based Android of all things.
  - FussyZeus 9y ago
    Well they've made a first step to de-cluttering iTunes by moving iOS app management out of the thing, as well as a few other bits, so hopefully it will be less of a dumpster fire in the near future. As to the fact that you're at Apple's mercy, that's true, but I don't see how that's particularly different with Android and Google, the only difference being with Android you often don't get their latest software update. ;) And yes, definitely a paradox but I think the primary reason is that people tend to think of Android as being a Google product, when it isn't, Google just bought it. If you use pure Android on a rooted device you could probably secure it pretty effectively, except that software updates then become more complicated, plus the process of rooting a phone, while not as complex as jailbreaking an iOS device, is quite challenging and above what the vast, vast majority of users are willing to do.
Pigo 9y ago
>Android is a hopeless cause You've been living in some kind of echo chamber my brother, especially if you think Apple worries about encryption just because they want your privacy. It's only the ubiquitous mobile device OS on the planet. Do you ever want to do something fun with a raspberry pi?
cannonedhamster 9y ago
This was one of the reasons I was really sad to see Ubuntu discontinue their phone. It would be nice to have a phone option that could easily install multiple OSes. While Replicant exists it's nowhere near feature parity. I suppose one could use a custom ROM but there are very few phones that work flawlessly with them in my experience. What about options like the ONEPlus phones?
- gras 9y ago
  PostMarketOS is working on this issue! It's an Alpine Linux distro for phones with Wayland and its own UI kit.
  - morganvachon 9y ago
    Vouched for your comment; even though PostMarketOS is nowhere near ready for primetime, it is philosophically at least a step in the right direction.
    - gras 9y ago
      Thanks, must be one of the "go away" bots I keep encountering since my home IP got shitlisted for unclear reasons. I don't think it's ready for prime time either, but I think it might get to Arch-level usability for a reasonably large set of phones soon. Very promising for middling tinkerers and up IMO.
      - morganvachon 9y ago
        For a while I've thought about trolling eBay for a PostMarketOS compatible phone, just to keep up with development in a hands-on way. It's cheaper than investing in the Neo900 or the Pyra, though I'm passionate about both of those projects as well.
- striking 9y ago
  I've experienced success installing Ubuntu Mobile and Sailfish OS using MultiROM on the OnePlus One. It was neat. YMMV.

by blub 9y ago

FussyZeus 9y ago

This is what pushed me to iOS primarily. The simple fact is Google is incentivized directly to spy on you, and (increasingly) Apple is using the fact that they do not spy on you as a differentiator. They make their money on the hardware and via iTunes; they don't sell your data, and oftentimes don't even have access to your data by their own design. Apple doesn't have 100% of my trust but of the OEM phone makers out their right now, I think by a wide margin they're the most trustworthy.

tannhaeuser 9y ago
True, but OTOH iOS's closedness puts you in a weak position where if Apple changes their mind you can't do anything about it. It's annoying, too, because you need the horrific iTunes software and its cert infrastructure as a gateway to your phone. It's really paradoxical that a closed source O/S is a pro-privacy option vs. Linux-based Android of all things.
- FussyZeus 9y ago
  Well they've made a first step to de-cluttering iTunes by moving iOS app management out of the thing, as well as a few other bits, so hopefully it will be less of a dumpster fire in the near future. As to the fact that you're at Apple's mercy, that's true, but I don't see how that's particularly different with Android and Google, the only difference being with Android you often don't get their latest software update. ;) And yes, definitely a paradox but I think the primary reason is that people tend to think of Android as being a Google product, when it isn't, Google just bought it. If you use pure Android on a rooted device you could probably secure it pretty effectively, except that software updates then become more complicated, plus the process of rooting a phone, while not as complex as jailbreaking an iOS device, is quite challenging and above what the vast, vast majority of users are willing to do.

Pigo 9y ago

>Android is a hopeless cause You've been living in some kind of echo chamber my brother, especially if you think Apple worries about encryption just because they want your privacy. It's only the ubiquitous mobile device OS on the planet. Do you ever want to do something fun with a raspberry pi?

cannonedhamster 9y ago

This was one of the reasons I was really sad to see Ubuntu discontinue their phone. It would be nice to have a phone option that could easily install multiple OSes. While Replicant exists it's nowhere near feature parity. I suppose one could use a custom ROM but there are very few phones that work flawlessly with them in my experience. What about options like the ONEPlus phones?

gras 9y ago
PostMarketOS is working on this issue! It's an Alpine Linux distro for phones with Wayland and its own UI kit.
- morganvachon 9y ago
  Vouched for your comment; even though PostMarketOS is nowhere near ready for primetime, it is philosophically at least a step in the right direction.
  - gras 9y ago
    Thanks, must be one of the "go away" bots I keep encountering since my home IP got shitlisted for unclear reasons. I don't think it's ready for prime time either, but I think it might get to Arch-level usability for a reasonably large set of phones soon. Very promising for middling tinkerers and up IMO.
    - morganvachon 9y ago
      For a while I've thought about trolling eBay for a PostMarketOS compatible phone, just to keep up with development in a hands-on way. It's cheaper than investing in the Neo900 or the Pyra, though I'm passionate about both of those projects as well.
striking 9y ago
I've experienced success installing Ubuntu Mobile and Sailfish OS using MultiROM on the OnePlus One. It was neat. YMMV.