4 ms·

As they say, when there's a will - there's a way. The author clearly did not evaluate all of the alternatives, and simply jumped from one walled garden to anot

by chmln 8y ago

As they say, when there's a will - there's a way. The author clearly did not evaluate all of the alternatives, and simply jumped from one walled garden to another. Bloatware, adware, and battery life are cited as his reasons. But he could have rooted his phone in 5 minutes then deleted all the bloatware and google apps in an instant. Add microG and adaway on top, and you have a nice ad-free system with much better battery life. All he had to do was research.

griffoa 8y ago
I built Android phones for a living for many years and I could probably root a device very quickly and get it up and running just like in the old days, but I seriously cannot be bothered anymore. Only viable alternative for me right now is an Apple device. I wish there was an alternative that just worked out of the box - and I even work for Apple these days...
- chmln 8y ago
  All it takes is booting into fasboot and running `fastboot oem unlock`. If that's too much for some, I don't blame them for choosing Apple.
philjohn 8y ago
> All he had to do was research. And that's the problem. One platform offers, mostly, sane defaults with strong privacy guarantees and no bloatware, the other requires you to invest time and effort, first to research, then enact.
- chmln 8y ago
  > strong privacy guarantees This can change any day. And if you think that's impossible, look at Windows or Google Chrome. Most users just will happily trade privacy for convenience. > the other requires you to invest time and effort, first to research, then enact This is classic learning curve = bad. Rust is also harder than JavaScript, and Vim is harder than Notepad. What matters is whether its worth it. Some people don't see a problem with being at the whim of a megacorp and not having true ownership of their devices. That's normal. After all, Chrome and Windows have huge marketshare too. Putting all the eggs in Apple's basket is near-sighted at best.
  - philjohn 8y ago
    > This can change any day. It can, but seeing as Apple have staked the farm on running things locally and respecting privacy as a USP it's doubtful. I'll take "privacy protecting today, but maybe in the future I'll have to switch" over "I'm the product" any day of the week. And yes, a learning curve CAN be bad. There is so much conflicting information in this thread alone that shows shorting the wheat from the chaff is not easy, and at best people might buy into snake oil solutions, at worst be in a less secure state than they otherwise may have been before.

by chmln 8y ago

griffoa 8y ago

I built Android phones for a living for many years and I could probably root a device very quickly and get it up and running just like in the old days, but I seriously cannot be bothered anymore. Only viable alternative for me right now is an Apple device. I wish there was an alternative that just worked out of the box - and I even work for Apple these days...

chmln 8y ago
All it takes is booting into fasboot and running `fastboot oem unlock`. If that's too much for some, I don't blame them for choosing Apple.

philjohn 8y ago

> All he had to do was research. And that's the problem. One platform offers, mostly, sane defaults with strong privacy guarantees and no bloatware, the other requires you to invest time and effort, first to research, then enact.

chmln 8y ago
> strong privacy guarantees This can change any day. And if you think that's impossible, look at Windows or Google Chrome. Most users just will happily trade privacy for convenience. > the other requires you to invest time and effort, first to research, then enact This is classic learning curve = bad. Rust is also harder than JavaScript, and Vim is harder than Notepad. What matters is whether its worth it. Some people don't see a problem with being at the whim of a megacorp and not having true ownership of their devices. That's normal. After all, Chrome and Windows have huge marketshare too. Putting all the eggs in Apple's basket is near-sighted at best.
- philjohn 8y ago
  > This can change any day. It can, but seeing as Apple have staked the farm on running things locally and respecting privacy as a USP it's doubtful. I'll take "privacy protecting today, but maybe in the future I'll have to switch" over "I'm the product" any day of the week. And yes, a learning curve CAN be bad. There is so much conflicting information in this thread alone that shows shorting the wheat from the chaff is not easy, and at best people might buy into snake oil solutions, at worst be in a less secure state than they otherwise may have been before.