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At the risk of stating the obvious: you can always set up an alt Google account without a phone number or credit card... Any purchases can be paid for with gif
by rmellow 5y ago
At the risk of stating the obvious: you can always set up an alt Google account without a phone number or credit card...
Any purchases can be paid for with gift cards.
- selfhoster11 5y agoOr not log into a Google account at all and use F-Droid/side load any applications you need.
- rmellow 5y agoIf only that were a practical solution. The open-source community doesn't have everything, sadly, and some of the best applications are only available in the Play Store, behind a pay wall. I like drawing and note-taking with my S-Pen enabled tablet. There's no good open-source alternative to Artflow or Nebo (both paid apps). Sure, you could pirate it... even with morality aside, I'd rather trust Google than random APKs acquired from the dark corners of the Internet. And with this setup, Google doesn't really have much information about my person, so I don't care if they have info on the device (assuming you take proper steps to keep the device anonymous).
- selfhoster11 5y agoIt is occasionally realistic, depending on your use case. The open source situation on Android is not nearly as lamentable these past couple of years compared to earlier. In the context of specialist paid software and hardware, it's of course less likely to be possible.