3 ms·

As someone who doesn't really care about apps, if I wanted to move away from Android what phones and OSs are worth considering?

by kypro 1y ago

sfdlkj3jk342a 1y ago
GrapheneOS on a Pixel
- moffkalast 1y ago
  It's kind of ironic that you have to actually give Google money in order to not use Android. I'm still amazed that there's no Graphene support for any other device.
  - floxy 1y ago
    Graphene is still Android.
    - moffkalast 1y ago
      Truly the OS by and for people who are into excessive nitpicking. I suppose that's what you want for security.
      - floxy 1y ago
        How is that a nitpick? Seems like Graphene is for those who want to have finer-grained control of what Google tracks. You are still funding Google through a hardware purchase (Pixel phone). You are still using Android. And it seems to be a big selling point that you still have access to the (sandboxed) Play Store Apps and services.
  - velocity3230 1y ago
    They're in discussions with an OEM to produce their own device.
- la_fayette 1y ago
  Let's see what will the future of Graphene be, since Google is not publishing the device tree anymore for Pixel devices...
  - gruez 1y ago
    That's a non-issue for them: https://grapheneos.social/@GrapheneOS/115299586595207105 https://grapheneos.social/@GrapheneOS/115299586595207105
    - IlikeKitties 1y ago
      It's not a non-issue i'm sure it's quite annoying to deal with, they just work around it. I hope the deal with their unnamed OEM works out and we get a native GrapheneOS Device. I'd buy it day one.
  - Batman8675309 1y ago
    They are building their own device trees now.
- floxy 1y ago
  Does anyone have a rough estimate for how many installation of GrapheneOS there are?
ivanmontillam 1y ago
You don't really have a choice: it's either Android or Apple iOS.
- iamnothere 1y ago
  PostmarketOS, Mobian, and GrapheneOS all seem to be good choices. Or simply not carrying a phone as I often do.
yndoendo 1y ago
Don't know how the Google's actions with affect AOSP. There are few options depending on location / country with base band frequencies. Murena with e/OS/ [0], Purism with PureOS [1], Volla with Volla OS or Ubuntu Touch [2], and Furei Labs with FuriOS [3]. Those are the companies actually trying to sell a phone versus Pin64 selling a device to tinker with. Alternative is checking personally managed OSes like postmarketOS [4] and Ubuntu Touch [5]. [0] https://murena.com/ https://murena.com/ [1] https://puri.sm/ https://puri.sm/ [2] https://volla.online/en/ https://volla.online/en/ [3] https://furilabs.com/ https://furilabs.com/ [4] https://postmarketos.org/ https://postmarketos.org/ [5] https://www.ubuntu-touch.io/ https://www.ubuntu-touch.io/
- jolmg 1y ago
  PinePhone https://pine64.com/product/pinephone-beta-edition-with-convergence-package/ https://pine64.com/product/pinephone-beta-edition-with-conve... > versus Pin64 selling a device to tinker with. PinePhone Pro sure, but PinePhone works AFAIK. Similar specs as Purism's (though weaker cameras), and 4 times cheaper.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
mariusor 1y ago
I've been using Sailfish OS for quite some time, but I don't do all of my computing on the phone. There's quite a high friction for using any of the mainstream Android apps, so usually you have to find an alternative if possible.
- m4rtink 1y ago
  I also use Sailfish OS - its not perfect, but useable. :) And the way Android and iOS goes to shit, its current state might already be better than them soon. ;-) (Sailfish OS is improving over time, if a bit slowly. :) )
numpad0 1y ago
They all died. There were Linux phones until Android and there were some non-Android phones until Android 8 or so, such as Qt Extended, RIM BlackBerry OS, Palm webOS, Mozilla Firefox OS, and Microsoft Windows Phone, to name a few. They all died from numerous footgun wounds as well as pressures from competition. VoLTE was one of major contributors to the situation, by the way. Only iOS and Android supported voice call on 4G LTE for first 3-5 years, due to it being a huge pile of TBDs and transitional hacks. There were political fights in whether the LTE is to be 4G or it was to be 3.9999G and superseded quickly by a completely separate 4G standard. This meant that companies and consortium that maintained alternative OS could spend unrealistic amount of lobbying and engineering effort trying to get into it, risking investments needed for it, or give up and start procurement process for a white flag. All chose the latter, and we ended up with an iOS/Android duopoly with unprecedented totality.

As someone who doesn't really care about apps, if I wanted to move away from Android what phones and OSs are worth considering?

by kypro 1y ago

As someone who doesn't really care about apps, if I wanted to move away from Android what phones and OSs are worth considering?

sfdlkj3jk342a 1y ago

GrapheneOS on a Pixel

moffkalast 1y ago
It's kind of ironic that you have to actually give Google money in order to not use Android. I'm still amazed that there's no Graphene support for any other device.
- floxy 1y ago
  Graphene is still Android.
  - moffkalast 1y ago
    Truly the OS by and for people who are into excessive nitpicking. I suppose that's what you want for security.
    - floxy 1y ago
      How is that a nitpick? Seems like Graphene is for those who want to have finer-grained control of what Google tracks. You are still funding Google through a hardware purchase (Pixel phone). You are still using Android. And it seems to be a big selling point that you still have access to the (sandboxed) Play Store Apps and services.
- velocity3230 1y ago
  They're in discussions with an OEM to produce their own device.
la_fayette 1y ago
Let's see what will the future of Graphene be, since Google is not publishing the device tree anymore for Pixel devices...
- gruez 1y ago
  That's a non-issue for them: https://grapheneos.social/@GrapheneOS/115299586595207105 https://grapheneos.social/@GrapheneOS/115299586595207105
  - IlikeKitties 1y ago
    It's not a non-issue i'm sure it's quite annoying to deal with, they just work around it. I hope the deal with their unnamed OEM works out and we get a native GrapheneOS Device. I'd buy it day one.
- Batman8675309 1y ago
  They are building their own device trees now.
floxy 1y ago
Does anyone have a rough estimate for how many installation of GrapheneOS there are?

ivanmontillam 1y ago

You don't really have a choice: it's either Android or Apple iOS.

iamnothere 1y ago
PostmarketOS, Mobian, and GrapheneOS all seem to be good choices. Or simply not carrying a phone as I often do.

yndoendo 1y ago

Don't know how the Google's actions with affect AOSP. There are few options depending on location / country with base band frequencies. Murena with e/OS/ [0], Purism with PureOS [1], Volla with Volla OS or Ubuntu Touch [2], and Furei Labs with FuriOS [3]. Those are the companies actually trying to sell a phone versus Pin64 selling a device to tinker with. Alternative is checking personally managed OSes like postmarketOS [4] and Ubuntu Touch [5]. [0] https://murena.com/ https://murena.com/ [1] https://puri.sm/ https://puri.sm/ [2] https://volla.online/en/ https://volla.online/en/ [3] https://furilabs.com/ https://furilabs.com/ [4] https://postmarketos.org/ https://postmarketos.org/ [5] https://www.ubuntu-touch.io/ https://www.ubuntu-touch.io/

jolmg 1y ago
PinePhone https://pine64.com/product/pinephone-beta-edition-with-convergence-package/ https://pine64.com/product/pinephone-beta-edition-with-conve... > versus Pin64 selling a device to tinker with. PinePhone Pro sure, but PinePhone works AFAIK. Similar specs as Purism's (though weaker cameras), and 4 times cheaper.

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

mariusor 1y ago

I've been using Sailfish OS for quite some time, but I don't do all of my computing on the phone. There's quite a high friction for using any of the mainstream Android apps, so usually you have to find an alternative if possible.

m4rtink 1y ago
I also use Sailfish OS - its not perfect, but useable. :) And the way Android and iOS goes to shit, its current state might already be better than them soon. ;-) (Sailfish OS is improving over time, if a bit slowly. :) )

numpad0 1y ago

They all died. There were Linux phones until Android and there were some non-Android phones until Android 8 or so, such as Qt Extended, RIM BlackBerry OS, Palm webOS, Mozilla Firefox OS, and Microsoft Windows Phone, to name a few. They all died from numerous footgun wounds as well as pressures from competition. VoLTE was one of major contributors to the situation, by the way. Only iOS and Android supported voice call on 4G LTE for first 3-5 years, due to it being a huge pile of TBDs and transitional hacks. There were political fights in whether the LTE is to be 4G or it was to be 3.9999G and superseded quickly by a completely separate 4G standard. This meant that companies and consortium that maintained alternative OS could spend unrealistic amount of lobbying and engineering effort trying to get into it, risking investments needed for it, or give up and start procurement process for a white flag. All chose the latter, and we ended up with an iOS/Android duopoly with unprecedented totality.