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I use a Librem5 Linux phone. With the default PureOS operating system. Enjoy your freedom, break free from Google and Apple. Have a full Linux computer in you

by janvlug 5mo ago

I use a Librem5 Linux phone. With the default PureOS operating system. Enjoy your freedom, break free from Google and Apple. Have a full Linux computer in your pocket that you can also use for calling. See also the discussion on this post: https://mastodon.social/@janvlug/116504044251287290 https://mastodon.social/@janvlug/116504044251287290

echelon 5mo ago
> Enjoy your freedom, break free from Google and Apple. You can't escape it. Your friends and employers and banks use it. The state will soon mandate it for ID. It's the accepted worldwide compute platform, and you're being the nail that sticks out. Your usage is subject to breaking randomly, being unsupported, losing access or being banned by stepping outside the traffic lines, etc. They'll use attestation, certs and signing, proprietary APIs, and the scale and might of trillions of dollars to force this. The only way to "break free" and "enjoy your freedom" is via regulation and -- the better option -- trust busting. The EU and ASEAN are the best bets for regulation. Getting another Lina Khan that works faster next time is the next best bet for regulation, and possibly a superior outcome that could result in a breakup opening up mobile for true competition. Being weird in the 0.0001% will not last, nor does it help anyone else escape this monopolistic tyranny. We need the government to pave the way for dozens of Apple/Google competitors. Or to horizontally split these two companies into dozens of "Baby Bells" that are forced to fight one another.
- graemep 5mo ago
  I use a smartphone less than most people. Things I already could not do without a Google or Apple phone: Use some banking apps. In fact I cannot use one banking app I otherwise would because it will only work if you have no non-store apps installed at all. A regulatory requirement to prove my ID without using the mobile app would be a 20 min+ each way drive (plus walking, time doing it etc.) to another town. > The EU and ASEAN are the best bets for regulation. Did you read the recent HN stories about the EU's age verification app that will only work on attested phones? Lots of other governments (EU and non-EU) doping similar things. > We need the government to pave the way for dozens of Apple/Google competitors. Or to horizontally split these two companies into dozens of "Baby Bells" that are forced to fight one another. I have very little confidence that is likely. Politically governments are far more pro-big business and anti-competition than they have been in a long time. > Being weird in the 0.0001% will not last, nor does it help anyone else escape this monopolistic tyranny. Every single person who does not go along, is a a political and commercial argument not to remove alternatives. If I use a website and an app to bank or buy something, it pushes up the stats for the web app vs the mobile app.
  - echelon 5mo ago
    > EU's age verification app that will only work on attested phones? This is not a single unified front. Multiple battles are ongoing simultaneously. There are strong proponents of anti-monopoly and digital sovereignty in government, just as there are those that want to push for a surveillance state. Here are some recent and non-insignificant things that the EU and UK have required Google and Apple do: - Support "side loaded" apps (as Google works to remove the ability) - Standardize on USB-C - Force alternative payments platforms - Force Apple to stop requiring WebKit and WebKit runtimes They're just getting started! > I have very little confidence that is likely. I have a great deal of confidence that the world is ready for this. Every non-US nation wants to break the stranglehold US tech has on their countries. The EU, UK, and ASEAN have a tremendous amount of power here. We also have a huge reservoir of political support for breaking up tech monopolies inside the US. Lots of high profile politicians are ready to go to work on this, on both sides of the aisle. Moreover, you have every single other company on the planet that wants this duopoly fractured. Entire industries that salivate over this. It's just a matter of time and making sure we make these points articulate and loudly heard. This is far more effective than trying to hack your device and proclaim "year of linux on android 2030". That doesn't work. It's a miserable experience and doesn't help a single other person.
    - bigyabai 5mo ago
      > This is far more effective than trying to hack your device and proclaim "year of linux on android 2030". That doesn't work. It doesn't work for you. There are lots of people in this thread dailying a Linux device, it's a perfectly valid choice if you're not conjoined at the hip with mobile apps. Your assertion that it helps nobody is obviously dishonest projection. Now, PostmarketOS won't rescue the billions of apathetic people on the planet, but why should it? Those people will sabotage themselves over and over again for the sake of convenience. Even banning iPhones/Android in your country won't fix the issue, we saw that in China. Your only solution is to advocate for yourself, you can't rely on the greater hacker consciousness to instinctively protect your user experience.
- alnwlsn 5mo ago
  If a phone can make calls, send texts, read emails, and take pictures it already covers 98% of my use cases.
  - contubernio 5mo ago
    Banking basically has to be done via phone now.
    - ryandrake 5mo ago
      Maybe I am lucky in the USA, but every bank I’ve ever done business with can be accessed through a PC and web browser. If any of my banks should decide to remove that option, I just move over to one of the other thousands of banks in the USA.
      - SoftTalker 5mo ago
        That or you can simply go in to a branch office.
    - vitaflo 5mo ago
      Find a better bank I guess. I’ve never used my phone for banking of any kind ever.
      - azzentys 5mo ago
        Sadly, that's not a great answer where most banks are going towards the same direction. It's also convenient to use a phone for banking.
      - multjoy 5mo ago
        The only time I go into a bank is to deposit cash, and that is very rare. I have no idea why people think in-person banking is superior, it is a pain in the arse. That said, my bank predates all the fintechs by decades and was phone-first before smartphones.
      - contubernio 5mo ago
- Barbing 5mo ago
  Great comment >We need the government to Since they'll never, any marketers scrolling by: this is your time to scheme your way into the Linux phone promotion/sales game.
- stateofinquiry 5mo ago
  Yup. I have not tried using a non-GoogleAndroid or iOS smartphone, but what you describe perfectly reflects what I experienced when I went started to work for a large employer 16 y ago. I had been using Linux as my main OS on desktops and mobile computers for at least 15 y by then. Slowly the grind of hacking my system to access the VPN, check email on their Exchange server, open MS Word docs.. it all pushed me to MacOS from about 2015 - 2021. Eventually I could not abide by Apple's incompatible hold on my data, Gatekeeper (I really hate the concept that they must approve software I want to run on my own hardware) and the unrepairability of their machines.. so I am now on Win 11. Right now, considering the trade offs, I think this is the best choice. I see a lot of people extolling Linux lately, so maybe it is time to try going back. Back OT, smartphones were always less open than the general purpose computers of yore. And it looks like they are increasingly a requirement for participating in many societies. In general I don't find this a good thing, but have little faith that regulators will 'solve' is because they have their own pitfalls (recent examples from EU: age verification and chat control).
- logicchains 5mo ago
  >Your friends and employers and banks use it. The state will soon mandate it for ID. You just buy a separate, cheap Android/Google phone for all these things. Emphasis on buying the cheapest one possible, so Google and Apple aren't making much money off you.

by janvlug 5mo ago

echelon 5mo ago

> Enjoy your freedom, break free from Google and Apple. You can't escape it. Your friends and employers and banks use it. The state will soon mandate it for ID. It's the accepted worldwide compute platform, and you're being the nail that sticks out. Your usage is subject to breaking randomly, being unsupported, losing access or being banned by stepping outside the traffic lines, etc. They'll use attestation, certs and signing, proprietary APIs, and the scale and might of trillions of dollars to force this. The only way to "break free" and "enjoy your freedom" is via regulation and -- the better option -- trust busting. The EU and ASEAN are the best bets for regulation. Getting another Lina Khan that works faster next time is the next best bet for regulation, and possibly a superior outcome that could result in a breakup opening up mobile for true competition. Being weird in the 0.0001% will not last, nor does it help anyone else escape this monopolistic tyranny. We need the government to pave the way for dozens of Apple/Google competitors. Or to horizontally split these two companies into dozens of "Baby Bells" that are forced to fight one another.

graemep 5mo ago
I use a smartphone less than most people. Things I already could not do without a Google or Apple phone: Use some banking apps. In fact I cannot use one banking app I otherwise would because it will only work if you have no non-store apps installed at all. A regulatory requirement to prove my ID without using the mobile app would be a 20 min+ each way drive (plus walking, time doing it etc.) to another town. > The EU and ASEAN are the best bets for regulation. Did you read the recent HN stories about the EU's age verification app that will only work on attested phones? Lots of other governments (EU and non-EU) doping similar things. > We need the government to pave the way for dozens of Apple/Google competitors. Or to horizontally split these two companies into dozens of "Baby Bells" that are forced to fight one another. I have very little confidence that is likely. Politically governments are far more pro-big business and anti-competition than they have been in a long time. > Being weird in the 0.0001% will not last, nor does it help anyone else escape this monopolistic tyranny. Every single person who does not go along, is a a political and commercial argument not to remove alternatives. If I use a website and an app to bank or buy something, it pushes up the stats for the web app vs the mobile app.
- echelon 5mo ago
  > EU's age verification app that will only work on attested phones? This is not a single unified front. Multiple battles are ongoing simultaneously. There are strong proponents of anti-monopoly and digital sovereignty in government, just as there are those that want to push for a surveillance state. Here are some recent and non-insignificant things that the EU and UK have required Google and Apple do: - Support "side loaded" apps (as Google works to remove the ability) - Standardize on USB-C - Force alternative payments platforms - Force Apple to stop requiring WebKit and WebKit runtimes They're just getting started! > I have very little confidence that is likely. I have a great deal of confidence that the world is ready for this. Every non-US nation wants to break the stranglehold US tech has on their countries. The EU, UK, and ASEAN have a tremendous amount of power here. We also have a huge reservoir of political support for breaking up tech monopolies inside the US. Lots of high profile politicians are ready to go to work on this, on both sides of the aisle. Moreover, you have every single other company on the planet that wants this duopoly fractured. Entire industries that salivate over this. It's just a matter of time and making sure we make these points articulate and loudly heard. This is far more effective than trying to hack your device and proclaim "year of linux on android 2030". That doesn't work. It's a miserable experience and doesn't help a single other person.
  - bigyabai 5mo ago
    > This is far more effective than trying to hack your device and proclaim "year of linux on android 2030". That doesn't work. It doesn't work for you. There are lots of people in this thread dailying a Linux device, it's a perfectly valid choice if you're not conjoined at the hip with mobile apps. Your assertion that it helps nobody is obviously dishonest projection. Now, PostmarketOS won't rescue the billions of apathetic people on the planet, but why should it? Those people will sabotage themselves over and over again for the sake of convenience. Even banning iPhones/Android in your country won't fix the issue, we saw that in China. Your only solution is to advocate for yourself, you can't rely on the greater hacker consciousness to instinctively protect your user experience.
alnwlsn 5mo ago
If a phone can make calls, send texts, read emails, and take pictures it already covers 98% of my use cases.
- contubernio 5mo ago
  Banking basically has to be done via phone now.
  - ryandrake 5mo ago
    Maybe I am lucky in the USA, but every bank I’ve ever done business with can be accessed through a PC and web browser. If any of my banks should decide to remove that option, I just move over to one of the other thousands of banks in the USA.
    - SoftTalker 5mo ago
      That or you can simply go in to a branch office.
  - vitaflo 5mo ago
    Find a better bank I guess. I’ve never used my phone for banking of any kind ever.
    - azzentys 5mo ago
      Sadly, that's not a great answer where most banks are going towards the same direction. It's also convenient to use a phone for banking.
    - multjoy 5mo ago
      The only time I go into a bank is to deposit cash, and that is very rare. I have no idea why people think in-person banking is superior, it is a pain in the arse. That said, my bank predates all the fintechs by decades and was phone-first before smartphones.
    - contubernio 5mo ago
Barbing 5mo ago
Great comment >We need the government to Since they'll never, any marketers scrolling by: this is your time to scheme your way into the Linux phone promotion/sales game.
stateofinquiry 5mo ago
Yup. I have not tried using a non-GoogleAndroid or iOS smartphone, but what you describe perfectly reflects what I experienced when I went started to work for a large employer 16 y ago. I had been using Linux as my main OS on desktops and mobile computers for at least 15 y by then. Slowly the grind of hacking my system to access the VPN, check email on their Exchange server, open MS Word docs.. it all pushed me to MacOS from about 2015 - 2021. Eventually I could not abide by Apple's incompatible hold on my data, Gatekeeper (I really hate the concept that they must approve software I want to run on my own hardware) and the unrepairability of their machines.. so I am now on Win 11. Right now, considering the trade offs, I think this is the best choice. I see a lot of people extolling Linux lately, so maybe it is time to try going back. Back OT, smartphones were always less open than the general purpose computers of yore. And it looks like they are increasingly a requirement for participating in many societies. In general I don't find this a good thing, but have little faith that regulators will 'solve' is because they have their own pitfalls (recent examples from EU: age verification and chat control).
logicchains 5mo ago
>Your friends and employers and banks use it. The state will soon mandate it for ID. You just buy a separate, cheap Android/Google phone for all these things. Emphasis on buying the cheapest one possible, so Google and Apple aren't making much money off you.