I will be switching to Graphene OS🇨🇦 full time to keep my access to f-droid.
I am running LineageOS with MicroG for now but I still feel im not degoogled enough lol. Relying on that horrendous company in anyway (even if it is to maintain and contribute to the AOSP) still makes me feel a bit sick. So I have a second phone (FP6) Running pmos thanks to @TheMightyCat@ani.social which im waiting for it to become stable enough to daily drive and then ill be satisfied.
I own, and love, my samsung Fold7, so afraid im kinda screwed.
I’m still on my Fold6. I got a Pixel Pro Fold to use Graphene and it was great for a while, but the device itself kinda fell apart, so I’m back on the Fold6.
A folding Linux phone would be really cool, and also $3000.
yea
I love my fold since i play OSRS for a couple hours a day, and can watch youtube on half the screen while still having a decent sized screen.
Its also great professionally, since i can call up blueprints and not have them postage stamp sized.
Never bought an Android and never will because I saw this exact shit coming
So with apple locking hard way before android, now what are you proudly signall-uh, running, with neither of them as options?
Continue to not own a mobile phone as I have done since the 80s
I’m assuming, then, though, that you do have a computer, in order to receive emails and such. Too much in society is attached to having other stuff: mailing address, email, phone number, two factor authentication, running privacy violating software on Windows, etc…
If you’ve been doing it since the 80s, have there been eras that have really challenged your desire or whatever to not have a mobile phone?
Do you think life would be much easier if you did have a mobile phone?
Why do you not have a mobile phone?
Do you think other or younger people should follow your lead?
I’m so curious about your story. I’ve thought about it many times, and as much as I think the technology is super cool and amazing, I also really wish it wasn’t all but legally required to participate in so many aspects of society. It makes me wonder where you’re from and where you live and if you’re American or not.
Kinda looking forward to the response on that
I’m assuming, then, though, that you do have a computer, in order to receive emails and such.
You assume correctly. My computer (which is not a laptop btw) is indispensable. I have a strong desire to keep my digital life all in one spot and a PC is my best option, since I also like to make software and play video games.
If you’ve been doing it since the 80s, have there been eras that have really challenged your desire or whatever to not have a mobile phone?
I have never once looked at a smartphone and thought “man, I wish I could do that.” I’ll admit, once in a while I do daydream about how easy they make it to send and receive money, but that’s about it. I don’t make or spend enough of it for it to be a huge concern.
Do you think life would be much easier if you did have a mobile phone?
Believe it or not, it has gotten slightly easier to live without a smartphone in recent years. Medical providers started providing online portals where you can do everything. In years past, they were pretty dogmatic about doing everything over the phone.
It helps a lot that I live in a very rural area full of boomers (in America, yes). People here still go to the bank in person, restaurants have paper menus, people still use paper atlases to get around, etc. So I haven’t run into any barriers to conducting life business without a phone.
Why do you not have a mobile phone?
They simply never interested me when they started becoming popular while I was in college. I grew up in a time when you left the house in the morning, and no one knew where you were or what you were doing until you told them when you got home in the evening. I like that, so I keep doing it.
Do you think other or younger people should follow your lead?
I think they should do it if they want to, and fight to keep it possible. And always remember: if someone tries to tell you you can’t do something without a phone, they’re just bluffing. Everything is negotiable.
Wow, thank you for taking the time to give such thoughtful answers.
I have one more slightly more complex question, though, since I run into it occasionally and absolutely abhor it: do you ever have to use a scan-only pay-to-park or anything like that? You said you live in a rural area that has paper/physical things, still - does that imply that you never encounter these digital-only things? Or that maybe you do and just choose not to engage with them? If you don’t, what would you do if you did?
For example, you go into town and the available parking at a restaurant is pay to park, and there is no physical meter, only a scannable code on the signs everywhere, telling you you scan it and pay with an account at a website or through their app.
A real parking garage I often really visit has a system that scans your license plate on entry. Then on exit, there is no booth anymore, but another camera that scans your plate at the exit. If you don’t have an account or haven’t paid, the bar blocking your way doesn’t lift. The system is designed to be interactionless, but only as long as you’ve made an account with a valid payment option on it.
do you ever have to use a scan-only pay-to-park or anything like that? You said you live in a rural area that has paper/physical things, still - does that imply that you never encounter these digital-only things? Or that maybe you do and just choose not to engage with them? If you don’t, what would you do if you did?
I have not encountered anything like that myself. And frankly, I stay as far away as I can from big cities because of reading stuff like this. That is pure cancer. If I ran into something like that with no alternative, I would definitely give somebody a piece of my mind over it. Maybe not everything is negotiable in the moment after all.
A wall parking garage I often really visit has a system that scans your license plate on entry. Then on exit, there is no booth anymore, but another camera that scans your plate at the exit. If you don’t have an account or haven’t paid, the bar blocking your way doesn’t lift. The system is designed to be interactionless, but only as long as you’ve made an account with a valid payment option on it.
This makes no sense to me. how are you even supposed to know this the first time you use it? So they just trap people inside with no recourse? That’s ‘calling the cops for false imprisonment’ territory.
I’m definitely hoping I die before bullshit like this catches up to me.
Hahaha there are a bunch of big colorful signs at the entrance, but yeah, you are correct, it is cancerous bullshit. That parking garage constantly has issues with lines of people getting stuck and having to wait.
It’s also a new system, as of maybe 2023, which was bad enough, being automated and only accepting card, before.
Another bad detail to ruin your day is that it’s at a hospital and is basically the only parking available.
Probably find something else to pursue that doesn’t require dystopian technology. I can’t imagine that I would just sit there and despair over it.
Tell us what you come up with? If apple and android are out, it’s gonna be sailfish or graphene on a thinning hw profile, right?
I’d rule out utopian tech as well. Maybe singing, dancing or tree climbing?
Just enable the bypass now in preparation. Only took at second Google search:
Google provides a built-in “escape hatch” in the settings, though it is intentionally designed with significant friction to prevent social engineering attacks. [1] (https://keepandroidopen.org/), [2] (https://www.gadgets360.com/apps/features/how-to-bypass-android-24-hour-delay-and-install-third-party-apps-on-your-phone-11243027)
Unlock Developer Mode: Open your device Settings, go to About Phone, and tap Build Number 7 times.
Enable Unverified Packages: Go to Settings > System > Developer Options and scroll until you find Allow Unverified Packages.
Verify Intentions: Flip the toggle, confirm that you are not being coerced by a third party, and enter your device PIN or password.
Reboot: Restart your smartphone.
Wait out the Delay: You must wait exactly 24 hours. Google enforces this mandatory cooling-off period.
Finalize: After 24 hours have passed, return to the Unverified Packages menu to select either a temporary (7 days) or indefinite installation window.
Fyi mine was under “apps from unverified developers” in developer options.
Graphene for my Pixel 7 Pro, I guess. I have like 20 F-Droid apps. Google can fuck themselves. The masses won’t even notice a difference, sadly.
Update
Okay, I’ve been doing research instead of just listening to the buzz on Lemmy. Nothing is meaningfully going to change. You are free to use Obtanium or F-Droid to install any app you want, and FOSS developers don’t have to do a thing.
There’s just a roadblock that’s going to be introduced. You have to go through a little wizard that asks you if someone is pressuring you to enable side-loading, and then even when you say “yes, I want to move forward and enable side-loading”, you have to wait 24 hours, one time, and never again. And that’s only to install new apps. It’s not going to affect any ones you already have installed.
https://developer.android.com/developer-verification/guides/faq#advanced-flow
The video linked in this FAQ was very clear and demos the process.
I can’t believe the Lemmyverse let me believe that F-Droid and Obtanium were effectively going away for normal Android users, and that I must install something like GrapheneOS. 😑
I still might! Google can suck my asshole, but reinstalling a phone OS is a big deal. Not that it’s hard or particularly error prone, but I have to reinstall everything, and set everything back up, because I’m not gonna buy a new phone to put Graphene on it, and then do the standard Android migration process. I would have to wipe my phone and redo everything. That’s a chore that I probably won’t do if nothing is meaningfully changing for me. I can deal with “the advanced flow”.
F-Droid and Obtanium are going away for normal android users.
It is deliberately difficult, and this whole thing is absolutely about Google making more money by tightening control of the ecosystem, not about security.
A nice summary from https://keepandroidopen.org/
Nine steps, 24-hour wait, buried in Developer Options, delivered through a proprietary service that Google can revoke whenever they want. That’s not sideloading. That’s a deterrence mechanism built to ensure almost nobody completes it. And since it runs through Play Services rather than the OS, Google can tighten or kill it silently
F-Droid and Obtanium are going away for normal android users.
Sure, and normal users haven’t even heard of them, so nothing’s lost.
It doesn’t sound like that website’s up to date.
this whole thing is absolutely about Google making more money.
F-Droid has like 4,000 apps on it. Let’s say all 4k are made by different developers. The $100 registration fee would net them $400,000. That’s a drop in their bucket. That’s like 1 second worth of their ad revenue. They would not cause this much of a community uproar for $400k. This is absolutely about preventing scam apps.
What’s really happening, I’m guessing, is Android gets a bad rap in other countries because of all the scams and people switch to iPhone. That does a lot more damage to their bottom line.
It’s also way too easy for some dumb 70 y/o congressperson or business executive to install spyware on their phone, and they are putting a speed bump in front of that.
I hate Google, but come on. They’re not trying to squeeze pennies out of open source developers. The fee is another speed bump to stop scammers from simply making another free developer account to spread they’re malware after they get banned.
It doesn’t sound like that website’s up to date.
That site is absolutely up to date.
Google absolutely aren’t trying to make money from developer registrations, that’s just removing administrative burden.
They’re trying to make money from closing the platform. Google have been gradually working over the last few years to close Android, and this is just another step. It definitely won’t be the last. They have made it much more difficult to get up to date source of AOSP security fixes. Commit history is squashed. Play Integrity API changes are a ruse to secure the platform, that just happens to lock apps out of GrapheneOS, the most secure Android variant.
Google realise that there is a real threat from an open Android platforms giving users a choice and that will eat their profit margins.
Believe whatever you want, but this is a quote from Google:
Sideloading is fundamental to Android, and it’s not going anywhere. Our new developer identity requirements are designed to protect users and developers from bad actors, not to limit choice.
And you really think Google are the pinnacle of honesty and you can take their word for everything?
They tried to block side loading, then relented after enormous pressure, and now are using corporate spin to make it sound like they care.
